Information synergy in the anticipatory dynamics of a retina.

Anticipation is the phenomenon in which the response of a system is predictive of the stimulation. The encoding of stochastic light intensity (x) into spikes is investigated in an experiment with retinas from bullfrogs to understand the mechanism of anticipation of a retina. Partial information decomposition of the mutual information between the spike rates and the joint state {x,x[over ̇]} is found to be consistent with the encoding by the linear combination of x and x[over ̇] where x[over ̇] is the rate of change of x.

Toxic effect of three imidazole ionic liquids on two terrestrial plants.

To determine the toxic effect of three imidazole ionic liquids (IILs) in terrestrial monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants, three IILs (1-butyl-3-methylimidazole tetrafluoroborate, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazole hexafluorophosphate, and butyl-3-methylimidazolium bi-[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide) were investigated using rice and capsicum as target toxicity models. In hydroponic experiments, increasing the concentration of the IILs led to a decrease in the seed germination rate, a decrease in the reduced stem and root lengths, and an increase in the inhibition rate of the stem and root lengths; in addition, as the concentration increased, the reducing sugar content of rice and capsicum seedling leaves and roots first increased and then decreased, while permeability of the cell membranes of the stems and roots of the two plants also gradually increased. In terms of the effects on these indices in rice, the ranking of these three IIL anions was [TF2N]- > [PF6]- > [BF4]-; in terms of the effects on capsicum, the sequence was [BF4]- > [TF2N]- > [PF6]-.

Volumetric Compression Induces Intracellular Crowding to Control Intestinal Organoid Growth via Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling.

Enormous amounts of essential intracellular events are crowdedly packed inside picoliter-sized cellular space. However, the significance of the physical properties of cells remains underappreciated because of a lack of evidence of how they affect cellular functionalities. Here, we show that volumetric compression regulates the growth of intestinal organoids by modifying intracellular crowding and elevating Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

Hippo kinases maintain polarity during directional cell migration in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Precise positioning of cells is crucial for metazoan development. Despite immense progress in the elucidation of the attractive cues of cell migration, the repulsive mechanisms that prevent the formation of secondary leading edges remain less investigated. Here, we demonstrate that Caenorhabditis elegans Hippo kinases promote cell migration along the anterior-posterior body axis via the inhibition of dorsal-ventral (DV) migration.

[The diagnostic value of dipyridamole (201)Tl-SPECT myocardial imaging and exercise myocardial (99)Tc(m)-MIBI-SPECT imaging on detecting cardiac syndrome X].

Objective: To compare the value of dipyridamole (201)Tl Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial imaging and exercise myocardial (99)Tc(m)-MIBI SPECT imaging on diagnosing cardiac syndrome X.

Methods: Sixty-three patients with known cardiac syndrome X were divided into dipyridamole (201)Tl SPECT myocardial imaging group (group 1, n = 35) and exercise myocardial (99)Tc(m)-MIBI-SPECT imaging group (group 2, n = 28) and the diagnostic accuracy rates were compared.

Results: Thirty-one out of 35 cardiac syndrome X patients showed reverse redistribution in group 1 and the diagnostic accuracy rate was 89%.