When in contact with biological fluids, nanoparticles dynamically absorb biomolecules like proteins and lipids onto their surface, forming a “corona”. This biocorona is a dynamic and complex structure that determines how host cells respond to nanoparticles. Despite the common use of mouse models in pre-clinical and toxicological experiments, the impact of corona formed in mouse serum on the biophy

Increasing evidence suggests that pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is underpinned not only by fear but by feelings of incompleteness and disgust, but it is currently unclear whether emotion-involvement in OCD symptoms is associated with treatment response in youth with OCD. The present study investigates whether treatment outcome for youth with OCD was predicted by the degree to which

Myoglobin is a heme-protein in the muscle of vertebrates with important functions in the oxygenation of tissues and as a regulator in nitric oxide signaling. Myoglobin from many species is also an important nutritional source of bioavailable iron. In this study, we have successfully produced human myoglobin in the leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana by transient expression using a viral vector deliver

The study of insular systems has a long history in ecology and biogeography. Island plants often differ remarkably from their noninsular counterparts, constituting excellent models for exploring eco-evolutionary processes. Trait-based approaches can help to answer important questions in island biogeography, yet plant trait patterns on islands remain understudied. We discuss three key hypotheses li

Greater pollination intensity can enhance maternal plant fitness by increasing seed set and seed quality as a result of more intense pollen competition or enhanced genetic sampling. We tested experimentally these effects by varying the pollen load from a single pollen donor on stigmas of female flowers of Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae) and measuring the effects on seed number and seed mass.

Pollinator-mediated reproductive interactions among co-flowering plant species are prime examples of how species interactions may affect fitness and community assembly. Despite considerable interest in these issues, statistical methods for assessing signal of reproductive interactions in observational data on co-flowering species are currently lacking. We propose a flexible method for quantifying

Questions: How do mat thickness, physical structure and allelopathic properties of terricolous mat-forming lichens affect recruitment of vascular plants in dwarf-shrub and lichen heath vegetation?. Location: The mountains of Dovrefjell, central Norway. Methods: In autumn, seeds of ten vascular plant species were collected and sown in a common garden experiment with mats of six lichen species and b

Seed dormancy is considered to be an adaptive strategy in seasonal and/or unpredictable environments because it prevents germination during climatically favorable periods that are too short for seedling establishment. Tropical dry forests are seasonal environments where seed dormancy may play an important role in plant resilience and resistance to changing precipitation patterns. We studied the ge

Premise of the Study: Turnover in biotic communities across heterogeneous landscapes is expected to lead to variation in interactions among plants, their mutualists, and their antagonists. Across a fragmented landscape in northern Costa Rica, populations of the euphorb vine Dalechampia scandens vary widely in mating systems and associated blossom traits. Previous work suggested that populations ar

In the event of a community turnover, population decline, or complete disappearance of pollinators, animal-pollinated plants may respond by adapting to novel pollinators or by changing their mating system. The ability of populations to adapt is determined by their ability to respond to novel selection pressures, i.e. their evolvability. In the short term, evolvability is determined by standing gen

In polyandrous species, fathers benefit from attracting greater maternal investment toward their offspring at the expense of the offspring of other males, while mothers should usually allocate resources equally among offspring. This conflict can lead to an evolutionary arms race between the sexes, manifested through antagonistic genes whose expression in offspring depends upon the parent of origin

Predicting the structure and dynamics of communities is difficult. Approaches linking functional traits to niche boundaries, species co-occurrence and demography are promising, but have so far had limited success. We hypothesized that predictability in community ecology could be improved by incorporating more accurate measures of fine-scale environmental heterogeneity and the context-dependent fun

Metal-halide perovskites have been shown to be remarkable and promising optoelectronic materials. However, despite ongoing research from multiple perspectives, some fundamental questions regarding their optoelectronic properties remain controversial. One reason is the high-variance of data collected from, often unstable, polycrystalline thin films. Here we use ordered arrays of stable, single-crys

In the face of climate change, populations have two survival options − they can remain in situ and tolerate the new climatic conditions (“stay”), or they can move to track their climatic niches (“go”). For sessile and small-stature organisms like alpine plants, staying requires broad climatic tolerances, realized niche shifts due to changing biotic interactions, acclimation through plasticity, or

PurposeThis paper estimates tax evasion and its impact on progressivity, redistribution and the measurement of inequality, using microdata from the Spanish income tax for 2001-04.MethodologyThe approach follows Feldman and Slemrod (2007) by exploiting the relation of charitable donations with the composition of income, but introduces two methodological innovations which could be useful for further

Clinical evaluation of intracardiac shunts in children is not straightforward. Echocardiography can only diagnose the presence of a shunt but does not estimate the shunt ratio. This can be a critical factor that influences treatment options. In this single-center, prospective, observational, method-comparison study, we validate the ability of a novel monitoring device COstatus to estimate the intr

Increasing impacts from disasters and climate hazards have prompted international efforts to promote the development of national disaster risk reduction and resilience (DRRR) strategies intended to reduce mortality and other losses. The development of such strategies is the subject of target E of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030). Furthermore, an increasing understanding

Most crime scene DNA evidence is retrieved using cotton swabs. Since the late 90’s, the double-swab technique has been favoured by many practitioners throughout the world. However, the superiority of double-swabbing over applying single wet swabs has not been broadly verified. Here we set out to evaluate the need for the second dry swab for various surfaces, aiming at mimicking the range of surfac

This work aims to investigate the breakup dynamics of the gas-liquid interface during bubble formation in a microchannel flow-focusing device. An interface tracking method is developed to capture the profiles of the gaseous thread evolution. The results show that the pinch-off period can be further divided into a liquid squeezing stage and a free pinch-off stage in both the radial and axial direct

Recent speleological surveys of meltwater drainage systems in cold and polythermal glaciers have documented dynamic englacial and in some cases subglacial conduits formed by the ‘cut-and- closure’ mechanism. Investigations of the spatial distribution of such conduits often require a combination of different methods. Here, we studied the englacial drainage system in the cold gla- cier Longyearbreen