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Plant acyl-CoA-binding proteins (ACBPs) function in plant development and stress responses, with some ACBPs interacting with protein partners. This study tested the interaction between two Class II GmACBPs (Glycine max ACBPs) and seven kinases, using yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC). The results revealed that both GmACBP3.1 and GmACBP4.1 interact with two soybean kinases, a mitogen-activated protein kinase MPK2, and a serine/threonine-protein kinase SAPK2, highlighting the significance of the ankyrin-repeat (ANK) domain in facilitating protein–protein interactions. Moreover, an in vitro kinase assay and subsequent Phos-tag SDS-PAGE determined that GmMPK2 and GmSAPK2 possess the ability to phosphorylate Class II GmACBPs. Additionally, the kinase-specific phosphosites for Class II GmACBPs were predicted using databases. The HDOCK server was also utilized to predict the binding models of Class II GmACBPs with these two kinases, and the results indicated that the affected residues were located in the ANK region of Class II GmACBPs in both docking models, aligning with the findings of the Y2H and BiFC experiments. This is the first report describing the interaction between Class II GmACBPs and kinases, suggesting that Class II GmACBPs have potential as phospho-proteins that impact signaling pathways.

Isotopically dimethyl labeling was applied in a quantitative post-translational modification (PTM) proteomic study of phosphoproteomic changes in the drought responses of two contrasting soybean cultivars. A total of 9457 phosphopeptides were identified subsequently, corresponding to 4571 phosphoprotein groups and 3889 leading phosphoproteins, which contained nine kinase families consisting of 279 kinases. These phosphoproteins contained a total of 8087 phosphosites, 6106 of which were newly identified and constituted 54% of the current soybean phosphosite repository. These phosphosites were converted into the highly conserved kinase docking sites by bioinformatics analysis, which predicted six kinase families that matched with those newly found nine kinase families. The overly post-translationally modified proteins (OPP) occupies 2.1% of these leading phosphoproteins. Most of these OPPs are photoreceptors, mRNA-, histone-, and phospholipid-binding proteins, as well as protein kinase/phosphatases. The subgroup population distribution of phosphoproteins over the number of phosphosites of phosphoproteins follows the exponential decay law, Y = 4.13e−0.098X − 0.04. Out of 218 significantly regulated unique phosphopeptide groups, 188 phosphoproteins were regulated by the drought-tolerant cultivar under the water loss condition. These significantly regulated phosphoproteins (SRP) are mainly enriched in the biological functions of water transport and deprivation, methionine metabolic processes, photosynthesis/light reaction, and response to cadmium ion, osmotic stress, and ABA response. Seventeen and 15 SRPs are protein kinases/phosphatases and transcription factors, respectively. Bioinformatics analysis again revealed that three members of the calcium dependent protein kinase family (CAMK family), GmSRK2I, GmCIPK25, and GmAKINβ1 kinases, constitute a phosphor-relay-mediated signal transduction network, regulating ion channel activities and many nuclear events in this drought-tolerant cultivar, which presumably contributes to the development of the soybean drought tolerance under water deprivation process.

A cruise ship is a concentrate of technologies aimed at providing passengers with the best leisure experience. As tourism in the cruise sector increases, ship owners turned their attention towards novel Internet of things solutions able, from one hand, to provide passengers with personalized and comfortable new services and, from the other hand, to enable energy saving behaviors and a smart management of the vessel equipment. This paper introduces the E-Cabin system, a software architecture that leverages sensor networks and reasoning techniques and allows a customized cabin indoor comfort. The E-Cabin architecture is scalable and easily extendible; sensor networks can be added or removed, rules can be added to/changed in the reasoner software, and new services can be supported based on the analysis of the collected data, without altering the system architecture. The system also allows the ship manager to monitor each cabin status though a simple and intuitive dashboard, thus providing useful insights enabling a smart scheduling of maintenance activities, energy saving, and security issues detection. This work delves into the E-Cabin’s system architecture and provides some usability tests to measure the dashboard’s efficacy.

Alveolar ridge preservation (ARP) reduces dimensional changes following tooth extraction. We evaluated the changes in alveolar ridge dimensions after ARP using bone substitutes and collagen membranes. Objectives included the tomographic evaluation of sites prior to extraction and six months after ARP and the assessment of the extent ARP preserved the ridge and reduced the need for additional augmentation at the time of implant placement. A total of 12 participants who underwent ARP in the Postgraduate Periodontics Clinic (Faculty of Dentistry) were included. Cone beam computed tomography images were used to retrospectively assess 17 sites prior to and six months after dental extraction. Alveolar ridge changes were recorded and analysed using reproducible reference points. The alveolar ridge height was measured at buccal and palatal/lingual aspects, whilst width was measured at crestal level, 2 mm, 4 mm and 6 mm below the crest. Statistically significant changes were found in alveolar ridge width at all four heights, with mean reduction differences ranging from 1.16 mm to 2.84 mm. Likewise, significant changes in the palatal/lingual alveolar ridge height (1.28 mm) were observed. However, changes of 0.79 mm in buccal alveolar ridge height were not significant ( p = 0.077). Although ARP reduced dimensional changes following a tooth extraction, some degree of alveolar ridge collapse could not be avoided. The amount of resorption on the buccal aspect of the ridge was less compared to the palatal/lingual after ARP. This indicated that the use of bone substitutes and collagen membranes was effective in reducing changes in the buccal alveolar ridge height.