Enabling 3D electrical stimulation of adipose-derived decellularized extracellular matrix and reduced graphene oxide scaffolds using graphene electrodes.

Notwithstanding the demonstrated benefits of electrical stimulation in enhancing tissue functionality, existing state-of-the-art electrostimulation systems often depend on invasive electrodes or planar designs. This work exploits the versatility of graphene to fabricate biocompatible electrodes for the three-dimensional electrical stimulation of neural stem cells. A conductive green graphene-based ink was formulated and screen-printed as the bottom and top electrodes in a bottom-less standard culture well plate.

Enhancing Wildlife Trade Monitoring in the European Union-No Need to Reinvent the Wheel.

Biodiversity loss is mainly driven by changes in land use and overexploitation, with the commercial trade of wildlife being a smaller but still important contributor to resource depletion and species decline. The trade-including live animals, plants, fungi, and derived products-is a major economic sector valued at US$145-220 billion annually. The European Union (EU) is a key market, importing wildlife products worth approximately €100 billion.

Spatial Modelling of Aerial Survey Data Reveals an Important European Storm-Petrel Hotspot and Its Underlying Drivers Within the North-East Atlantic.

Determining the distribution and population size of marine species is crucial for conservation and management. However, for many species, the abundance and at sea distribution are poorly known because of their large geographic ranges, high mobility and cryptic breeding habits. This is especially true for small pelagic seabirds such as the European storm-petrel.

Efficient Ternary Organic Photovoltaic Films for Fast Exciton Separation to Generate Free Radicals for Wastewater Treatment.

Given the effectiveness of organic pollutants photodegradation and the excellent photovoltaic nature of organic solar cells (OSCs), this work first innovatively integrated the cross-fields of OSCs and environmental photocatalysis. Using knowledge of OSC morphology, an insertion strategy involved adding a suitable quantity of guest acceptor (Y6-O) to the PM6 donor polymer and BTP-2F-ThCl host small molecule acceptor system. Y6-O leads to tighter π-π packing, reduced domain size, and improved domain purity, resulting in favorable morphology for charge generation and transfer in devices and an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 17.

Artificial intelligence-based rapid brain volumetry substantially improves differential diagnosis in dementia.

Introduction: This study evaluates the clinical value of a deep learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) system that performs rapid brain volumetry with automatic lobe segmentation and age- and sex-adjusted percentile comparisons.

Methods: Fifty-five patients-17 with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 18 with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and 20 healthy controls-underwent cranial magnetic resonance imaging scans. Two board-certified neuroradiologists (BCNR), two board-certified radiologists (BCR), and three radiology residents (RR) assessed the scans twice: first without AI support and then with AI assistance.

Aβ oligomers peak in early stages of Alzheimer's disease preceding tau pathology.

Introduction: Soluble amyloid beta (Aβ) oligomers have been suggested as initiating Aβ related neuropathologic change in Alzheimer's disease (AD) but their quantitative distribution and chronological sequence within the AD continuum remain unclear.

Methods: A total of 526 participants in early clinical stages of AD and controls from a longitudinal cohort were neurobiologically classified for amyloid and tau pathology applying the AT(N) system. Aβ and tau oligomers in the quantified cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured using surface-based fluorescence intensity distribution analysis (sFIDA) technology.

Association of latent factors of neuroinflammation with Alzheimer's disease pathology and longitudinal cognitive decline.

Introduction: We investigated the association of inflammatory mechanisms with markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology and rates of cognitive decline in the AD spectrum.

Methods: We studied 296 cases from the Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE) cohort, and an extension cohort of 276 cases of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study. Using Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis, we constructed latent factors for synaptic integrity, microglia, cerebrovascular endothelial function, cytokine/chemokine, and complement components of the inflammatory response using a set of inflammatory markers in cerebrospinal fluid.

Chronotype and Time of Day Effects on a Famous Face Recognition Task with Dynamic Stimuli.

Chronotype and Time of Day (ToD) can modulate several aspects of cognitive performance. However, there is limited evidence about the effect of these variables on face recognition performance, so the aim of the present study is to investigate this influence. For this, 274 participants (82.

Harbor porpoise losing its edge: Genetic time series suggests a rapid population decline in Iberian waters over the last 30 years.

Impact of climate change is expected to be especially noticeable at the edges of a species' distribution, where they meet suboptimal habitat conditions. In Mauritania and Iberia, two genetically differentiated populations of harbor porpoises () form an ecotype adapted to local upwelling conditions and distinct from other ecotypes further north on the NE Atlantic continental shelf and in the Black Sea. By analyzing the evolution of mitochondrial genetic variation in the Iberian population between two temporal cohorts (1990-2002 vs.

Envisaging a global infrastructure to exploit the potential of digitised collections.

Tens of millions of images from biological collections have become available online over the last two decades. In parallel, there has been a dramatic increase in the capabilities of image analysis technologies, especially those involving machine learning and computer vision. While image analysis has become mainstream in consumer applications, it is still used only on an artisanal basis in the biological collections community, largely because the image corpora are dispersed.

Body size-dependent effects on the distribution patterns of phoretic mite species assemblages on (Olivier, 1790).

Phoretic mites attach to different body parts of the red palm weevil (RPW), (Olivier, 1790), to disperse. However, the question of how the patterns of attachment sites are formed remains intriguing. Here, we examined RPW-associated phoretic mites in four districts in Northern Portugal (macrohabitat), and investigated the patterns of mite distribution on six body parts of RPW (microhabitat).

Fabrication and biological evaluation of three-dimensional (3D) Mg substituted bi-phasic calcium phosphate porous scaffolds for hard tissue engineering.

This work reports on the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) magnesium substituted bi-phasic calcium phosphate (Mg-BCP) scaffolds by gel-casting, their structural and physico-chemical characterization, and on the assessment of their and performances. The crystalline phase assemblage, chemical functional groups and porous morphology features of the scaffolds were evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), respectively. The sintered scaffolds revealed an interconnected porosity with pore sizes ranging from 4.

Evaluating Uncertainty and Modes of Variability for Antarctic Atmospheric Rivers.

Antarctic atmospheric rivers (ARs) are driven by their synoptic environments and lead to profound and varying impacts along the coastlines and over the continent. The definition and detection of ARs over Antarctica accounts for large uncertainty in AR metrics, and consequently, impacts quantification. We find that Antarctic-specific detection tools consistently capture the AR footprint inland over ice sheets, whereas most global detection tools do not.

Effects of pair migratory behavior on breeding phenology and success in a partially migratory shorebird population.

In migratory systems, variation in individual phenology can arise through differences in individual migratory behaviors, and this may be particularly apparent in partial migrant systems, where migrant and resident individuals are present within the same population. Links between breeding phenology and migratory behavior or success are generally investigated at the individual level. However, for breeding phenology in particular, the migratory behaviors of each member of the pair may need to be considered simultaneously, as breeding phenology will likely be constrained by timing of the pair member that arrives last, and carryover effects on breeding success may vary depending on whether pair members share the same migratory behavior or not.

Increases in Future AR Count and Size: Overview of the ARTMIP Tier 2 CMIP5/6 Experiment.

The Atmospheric River (AR) Tracking Method Intercomparison Project (ARTMIP) is a community effort to systematically assess how the uncertainties from AR detectors (ARDTs) impact our scientific understanding of ARs. This study describes the ARTMIP Tier 2 experimental design and initial results using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) Phases 5 and 6 multi-model ensembles. We show that AR statistics from a given ARDT in CMIP5/6 historical simulations compare remarkably well with the MERRA-2 reanalysis.

Investigation of the structural, electrical, and dielectric properties of LaSmSrMn Cr O for electrical application.

In the present research, polycrystalline samples of LaSmSrMn Cr O are prepared using the self-combustion method. Then, we have studied their crystalline structure, and dielectric and electrical properties. The X-ray diffraction study shows that all the samples exhibit a single phase with orthorhombic structure (space group ).

Predicting disease progression in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Introduction: The behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease. Reliable predictors of disease progression have not been sufficiently identified. We investigated multivariate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) biomarker profiles for their predictive value of individual decline.

Large-scale evolution of body temperatures in land vertebrates.

Body temperature is a crucial variable in animals that affects nearly every aspect of their lives. Here we analyze for the first time largescale patterns in the evolution of body temperatures across terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: including amphibians, mammals, birds and other reptiles). Despite the traditional view that endotherms (birds and mammals) have higher body temperatures than ectotherms, we find they are not significantly different.

Following Darwin's footsteps: Evaluating the impact of an activity designed for elementary school students to link historically important evolution key concepts on their understanding of natural selection.

While several researchers have suggested that evolution should be explored from the initial years of schooling, little information is available on effective resources to enhance elementary school students' level of understanding of evolution by natural selection (LUENS). For the present study, we designed, implemented, and evaluated an educational activity planned for fourth graders (9 to 10 years old) to explore concepts and conceptual fields that were historically important for the discovery of natural selection. Observation field notes and students' productions were used to analyze how the students explored the proposed activity.

An exploratory study on the emergency remote education experience of higher education students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic situation has pushed many higher education institutions into a fast-paced, and mostly unstructured, emergency remote education process. In such an unprecedented context, it is important to understand how technology is mediating the educational process and how teachers and students are experiencing the change brought by the pandemic. This research aims to understand how the learning was mediated by technology during the early stages of the pandemic and how students and teachers experienced this sudden change.

Identification of scavenger receptors and thrombospondin-type-1 repeat proteins potentially relevant for plastid recognition in Sacoglossa.

Functional kleptoplasty is a photosymbiotic relationship, in which photosynthetically active chloroplasts serve as an intracellular symbiont for a heterotrophic host. Among Metazoa, functional kleptoplasty is only found in marine sea slugs belonging to the Sacoglossa and recently described in Rhabdocoela worms. Although functional kleptoplasty has been intensively studied in Sacoglossa, the fundamentals of the specific recognition of the chloroplasts and their subsequent incorporation are unknown.

Replicated anthropogenic hybridisations reveal parallel patterns of admixture in marine mussels.

Human-mediated transport creates secondary contacts between genetically differentiated lineages, bringing new opportunities for gene exchange. When similar introductions occur in different places, they provide informally replicated experiments for studying hybridisation. We here examined 4,279 mussels, sampled in Europe and genotyped with 77 ancestry-informative markers.

High Eu concentration quenching in YTaO solid solution for orange-reddish emission in photonics.

We report the synthesis of a YTaO solid solution containing a high Eu concentration (from 7 up to 50 mol%) and investigate how Eu influences the YTaO crystallization process. To this end, we evaluate the YTaO structural features and photoluminescence properties after Eu introduction into the YTaO lattice. The higher the Eu ion concentration, the more stable the crystallization process of the YTaO phase seems to be.

To switch or not to switch - a machine learning approach for ferroelectricity.

With the advent of increasingly elaborate experimental techniques in physics, chemistry and materials sciences, measured data are becoming bigger and more complex. The observables are typically a function of several stimuli resulting in multidimensional data sets spanning a range of experimental parameters. As an example, a common approach to study ferroelectric switching is to observe effects of applied electric field, but switching can also be enacted by pressure and is influenced by strain fields, material composition, temperature, time, Moreover, the parameters are usually interdependent, so that their decoupling toward univariate measurements or analysis may not be straightforward.