Aim: The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) is a flagship species for global freshwater ecosystems. As one of the most widely distributed Palearctic mammals, the otter used to inhabit most provinces in China. However, after decades of relentless hunting and habitat degradation, the Sanjiangyuan Region is now one of last strongholds for this species in China. Currently, there still remains an enormous kn

Background and purpose: Radiation therapy treatment planning is a manual, time-consuming task that might be accelerated using machine learning algorithms. In this study, we aimed to evaluate if a triplet-based deep learning model can predict volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) dose distributions for prostate cancer patients. Materials and methods: A modified U-Net was trained on triplets, a co

In the last years, the use of pluripotent stem cells in studies of human biology has grown exponentially. These cells represent an infinite source for differentiation into several human cell types facilitating the investigation on biological processes, functionality of cells, or diseases mechanisms in relevant human models. In the neurobiology field, pluripotent stem cells have been extensively us

A common library, TMDlib2, for Transverse-Momentum-Dependent distributions (TMDs) and unintegrated parton distributions (uPDFs) is described, which allows for easy access of commonly used TMDs and uPDFs, providing a three-dimensional (3D) picture of the partonic structure of hadrons. The tool TMDplotter allows for web-based plotting of distributions implemented in TMDlib2, together with collinear

Human overexploitation of natural resources has placed conservation and management as one of the most pressing challenges in modern societies, especially in regards to highly vulnerable marine ecosystems. In this context, cryptic species are particularly challenging to conserve because they are hard to distinguish based on morphology alone, and thus it is often unclear how many species coexist in

Retinitis Pigmentosa represents a group of genetic disorders that cause progressive vision loss via degeneration of pho8toreceptors, but there is in principle no treatment available. For any therapy development, a deeper comprehension of the dis9ease-leading mechanism(s) at the molecular level is needed. Here we focused on the cGMP-PKG system, which has been suggested10 to be a driver in several m

Laser-driven proton acceleration is a growing field of interest in the high-power laser community. One of the big challenges related to the most routinely used laser-driven ion acceleration mechanism, Target-Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA), is to enhance the laser-to-proton energy transfer such as to maximize the proton kinetic energy and number. A way to achieve this is using nanostructured tar

Structured solid targets are widely investigated to increase the energy absorption of high-power laser pulses so as to achieve efficient ion acceleration. Here we report the first experimental study of the maximum energy of proton beams accelerated from sub-micrometric foils perforated with holes of nanometric size. By showing the lack of energy enhancement in comparison to standard flat foils, ou

In this post we share a methodological reflection about the possibility to evaluate possible drivers of environmental conflict by using remote sensing. If we define nature as green resources, for instance, it is possible to assess how vulnerable peace might be, against environmental changes occurring on the ground by using satellite data. Satellite data can then be used, in combination with fieldw

Viral triggers at the intestinal mucosa can have multiple global effects on intestinal integrity, causing elevated intestinal barrier strength and relative protection from subsequent inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) induction in various models. As viruses can interfere with the intestinal immune system both directly and indirectly through commensal bacteria, cause-effect relationships are difficul