Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy in thin films at reflecting substrates as a means to study nanoscale structure and dynamics at soft-matter interfaces

Structure and dynamics at soft-matter interfaces play an important role in nature and technical applications. Optical single-molecule investigations are non-invasive and capable to reveal heterogeneities at the nanoscale. In this work we develop an autocorrelation function (ACF) approach to retrieve tracer diffusion parameters obtained from fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) experiments in thin liquid films at reflecting substrates. This approach then is used to investigate structure and dynamics in 100 nm thick 8CB liquid crystal films on silicon wafers with five different oxide thicknesses. We find a different extension of the structural reorientation of 8CB at the solid-liquid interface for thin and for thick oxide. For the thin oxides, the perylenediimide tracer diffusion dynamics in general agrees with the hydrodynamic modeling using no-slip boundary conditions with only a small deviation close to the substrate, while a considerably stronger decrease of the interfacial tracer diffusion is found for the thick oxides.Comment: 8 figure

Achieving the state of research pertaining to GIS applications for cultural heritage by a systematic literature review

During the last decade, we have witnessed an increased interest in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), including the so-called “Historical GIS”, 3D GIS heritage and its subcategory of “SDI for cultural heritage”. Specific literature reviews, gathering and analysing the scientific production for Culture Heritage and GIS based research questions, are currently lacking. Therefore, the overall goal of this article is to provide an objective summary of the current state -of-the-art concerning how GIS has been used and what methods and analysis have been applied in the field of cultural heritage. In this sense, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of the literature on the application of GIS in cultural heritage is carried out. To do so, the WOS and Scopus databases were considered. The results show that the dominant application of GIS is in the realisation of inventory and cataloguing of archaeological and architectural heritage. As a result of the quantitative analysis, we also verify the principal sources in which most studies have been published, highlighting the "ISPRS Archives" with 14 publications, the "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" with 9, and "Proceedings of Digital Heritage" with 6 publications. These data show that the sources that most publis h mainly belong to the field of IT and Computer Science. In addition, the SLR shows that in the last three years there has been a greater tendency to use GIS to solve more specific problems of heritage through its use in conjunction with other tools such as BIM and photogrammetrySpain’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness HAR2016–78113-R HAR2016–76371-

Long-lasting, kin-directed female interactions in a spatially structured wild boar social network

We thank W. Jędrzejewski for his support and logistical help in trapping wild boar. We are grateful to R. Kozak, A. Waszkiewicz and many students and volunteers for their help with fieldwork as well as to A. N. Bunevich, T. Borowik and local hunters for providing genetic samples. Genetic analyses were performed in the laboratory of the Department of Science for Nature and Environmental Resources, University of Sassari, Italy, with the help of L. Iacolina and D. Biosa. We are grateful to K. O’Mahony who revised English and to A. Widdig, K. Langergraber and one anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on the earlier version of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Comparative Analysis of V-Akt Murine Thymoma Viral Oncogene Homolog 3 (AKT3) Gene between Cow and Buffalo Reveals Substantial Differences for Mastitis

AKT3 gene is a constituent of the serine/threonine protein kinase family and plays a crucial role in synthesis of milk fats and cholesterol by regulating activity of the sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP). AKT3 is highly conserved in mammals and its expression levels during the lactation periods of cattle are markedly increased. AKT3 is highly expressed in the intestine followed by mammary gland and it is also expressed in immune cells. It is involved in the TLR pathways as effectively as proinflammatory cytokines. The aims of this study were to investigate the sequences differences between buffalo and cow. Our results showed that there were substantial differences between buffalo and cow in some exons and noteworthy differences of the gene size in different regions. We also identified the important consensus sequence motifs, variation in 2000 upstream of ATG, substantial difference in the “3′UTR” region, and miRNA association in the buffalo sequences compared with the cow. In addition, genetic analyses, such as gene structure, phylogenetic tree, position of different motifs, and functional domains, were performed to establish their correlation with other species. This may indicate that a buffalo breed has potential resistance to disease, environment changes, and airborne microorganisms and some good production and reproductive traits