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Enhancing post-harvest sustainability in temperate crops through smart IoT-integrated indirect solar dryer
Numerical analysis of ski suits surface roughness effects on aerodynamics during the in-run phase of ski jumping
The association of caffeine consumption with positive affect but not with negative affect changes across the day
Abstract Caffeine is well known for its stimulant effects on the central nervous system, leading to enhanced cognitive performance and changes in affective states. While these effects have been extensively studied in controlled laboratory settings, caffeine’s influence on affect in everyday life remains comparatively underexplored. This study aims to bridge this gap by examining the associations between momentary caffeine consumption and affective states in naturalistic settings, while also accounting for potential moderators such as time of the day, individual differences, and contextual factors. Employing an experience sampling methodology (ESM), we analyzed data from 115 participants aged 18–25 in Study 1 and 121 participants aged 18–29 in Study 2. Study 1 lasted 14 days yielding 8335 completed surveys and Study 2 lasted 28 days yielding 19,960 completed surveys. Our findings indicate that caffeine intake was associated with subsequent increases in positive affect, while associations with decreases in negative affect were less consistent. The association between caffeine consumption and positive affect was strongest within the first 2.5 h after awakening (i.e., in the morning). Tiredness and social context moderated this association. Overall, the findings of this ESM study suggest that caffeine may play an important role in modulating affective states in everyday life.
Cross-cultural analysis of eye-movement patterns in visual scene perception: a comparison of seven cultural samples
The modeling of the interaction of pulsed 5G/6G signals and the fine structure of human skin
Successes and failures of using the intestine as a pedicled oesophageal substitute of corrosive burns
STRESS, an automated geometrical characterization of deformable particles for in vivo measurements of cell and tissue mechanical stresses
Abstract From cellular mechanotransduction to the formation of embryonic tissues and organs, mechanics has been shown to play an important role in the control of cell behavior and embryonic development. Most of our existing knowledge of how mechanics affects cell behavior comes from in vitro studies, mainly because measuring cell and tissue mechanics in 3D multicellular systems, and especially in vivo, remains challenging. Oil microdroplet sensors, and more recently gel microbeads, use surface deformations to directly quantify mechanical stresses within developing tissues, in vivo and in situ, as well as in 3D in vitro systems like organoids or multicellular spheroids. However, an automated analysis software able to quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of stresses and their characteristics from particle deformations is lacking. Here we develop STRESS (Surface Topography Reconstruction for Evaluation of Spatiotemporal Stresses), an analysis software to quantify the geometry of deformable particles of spherical topology, such as microdroplets or gel microbeads, that enables the automatic quantification of the temporal evolution of stresses in the system and the spatiotemporal features of stress inhomogeneities in the tissue. As a test case, we apply these new code to measure the temporal evolution of mechanical stresses using oil microdroplets in developing zebrafish tissues. Starting from a 3D timelapse of a droplet, the software automatically calculates the statistics of local anisotropic stresses, decouples the deformation modes associated with tissue- and cell-scale stresses, obtains their spatial features on the droplet surface and analyzes their spatiotemporal variations using spatial and temporal stress autocorrelations. We provide fully automated software in Matlab/Python and also in Napari (napari-STRESS), which allows the visualization of mechanical stresses on the droplet surface together with the microscopy images of the biological systems. The automated nature of the analysis will help users obtain quantitative information about mechanical stresses in a wide range of 3D multicellular systems, from developing embryos or tissue explants to organoids.
Smaller plants in warmer water could have implications for future Kelp forests
Abstract Global warming is driving contraction of species’ ranges through migration and mortality at their warm edge. However, for most species more subtle, sub-lethal changes in performance will be a more ubiquitous response to the Anthropocene. It has been suggested that reduction in body size will be a universal response to warming for cold-water species. Here we tested this hypothesis for two dominant kelp species in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. We tested if populations from cool and warm environments would be morphologically distinct, with warm-water populations displaying structural features indicative of sub-optimal conditions (smaller sizes). We found empirical evidence consistent with size reduction of kelp stipes, blades, and biomass of associated epiphytes from cool to warm water in both hemispheres. These changes are ecologically significant because they affect how kelps engineer their local environment, the three-dimensional habitat they create, and the associated communities they support. Reduced size of cold-water habitat forming species such as kelps may be a sublethal effect of warming that could have widespread but previously overlooked effects on the structure of ecosystems and the services that they provide.
Study on optimization of surrounding rock support in the predriven roadway during final mining of an extra thick coal seam
Predicting potato plant vigor from the seed tuber properties
Probabilistic human health risk assessment from groundwater fluoride contamination in Main Ethiopia Rift
Gender differences in the association between adverse childhood experiences and early onset psoriasis
Anatomical and histological analysis of an undescribed cervical skin fold structure in spotted turtles (Clemmys gutatta)
Rapid and sustainable deep testosterone reduction predicts effective androgen deprivation therapy for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer
P-Rex2 suppresses glucose uptake into liver and skeletal muscle through different adaptor functions
Abstract P-Rex2 is a Rac guanine-nucleotide factor (Rac-GEF) that controls glucose homeostasis. This role is thought to be mediated through its adaptor function inhibiting Pten rather than through its Rac-GEF activity, but this remains to be demonstrated. To examine this question, we have investigated the roles of P-Rex2 in glucose homeostasis using Prex2 –/– and catalytically-inactive Prex2 GD mice. We show that P-Rex2 is required for insulin sensitivity but limits glucose clearance, suppressing glucose uptake into liver and skeletal muscle independently of its catalytic activity. In hepatocytes, P-Rex2 suppresses Glut2 cell surface levels, mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial ATP production. We identify the orphan GPCR Gpr21 as a P-Rex2 target and propose that P-Rex2 limits hepatic glucose clearance by controlling Gpr21 trafficking. In skeletal muscle cells, P-Rex2 suppresses glucose uptake through a separate adaptor function, independently of Gpr21. Additionally, P-Rex2 suppresses insulin secretion by pancreatic islets and plasma insulin levels. Finally, P-Rex2 plays distinct Rac-GEF activity dependent and independent roles in PIP3 production in liver and skeletal muscle, respectively. Together, our study identifies complex roles of P-Rex2 in glucose homeostasis, mediated through largely GEF-activity independent mechanisms which include the GPCR Gpr21 in hepatocytes and but are not obviously linked to the regulation of Pten.