Transient Crossing of Phantom divide line wΛ=−1w_{\Lambda}=-1 under Gauss-Bonnet interaction

Smooth double crossing of the phantom barrier $w_{\Lambda} = -1$ has been found possible in cosmological model with Gauss-Bonnet-scalar interaction, in the presence of background cold dark matter. Such crossing has been observed to be a sufficiently late time phenomena and independent of the sign of Gauss-Bonnet-scalar interaction. The luminosity distance versus redshift curve shows a perfect fit with the $\Lambda CDM$ model up to $z=3.5$.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first global synthesis of vertical habitat use by elasmobranchs from data obtained by deployment of 989 biotelemetry tags on 38 elasmobranch species. Elasmobranchs displayed high intra- and interspecific variability in vertical movement patterns. Substantial vertical overlap was observed for many epipelagic elasmobranchs, indicating an increased likelihood to display spatial overlap, biologically interact, and share similar risk to anthropogenic threats that vary on a vertical gradient. We highlight the critical next steps toward incorporating vertical movement into global management and monitoring strategies for elasmobranchs, emphasizing the need to address geographic and taxonomic biases in deployments and to concurrently consider both horizontal and vertical movements

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Influx of nitrogen-rich material from the outer Solar System indicated by iron nitride in Ryugu samples

Large amounts of nitrogen compounds, such as ammonium salts, may be stored in icy bodies and comets, but the transport of these nitrogen-bearing solids into the near-Earth region is not well understood. Here, we report the discovery of iron nitride on magnetite grains from the surface of the near-Earth C-type carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu, suggesting inorganic nitrogen fixation. Micrometeoroid impacts and solar wind irradiation may have caused the selective loss of volatile species from major iron-bearing minerals to form the metallic iron. Iron nitride is a product of nitridation of the iron metal by impacts of micrometeoroids that have higher nitrogen contents than the CI chondrites. The impactors are probably primitive materials with origins in the nitrogen-rich reservoirs in the outer Solar System. Our observation implies that the amount of nitrogen available for planetary formation and prebiotic reactions in the inner Solar System is greater than previously recognized

Multivariate morphometrics of the Indian honeybee in the northwest Himalayan region

Multivariate statistical analyses of 55 morphometric characters were made for collections of Apis cerana from 20 localities in the Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir states of the northwest Himalayas. Two distinct biometric groups were observed after discriminant function analysis and cluster analysis. The groups were associated with differences in the climates of the Himachal and Kashmir regions. Previous observations were confirmed that some characters were associated with altitude and rainfall such that bees were larger and darker at higher altitudes and lower rainfall. The phenetic clustering of samples within each region corresponded in general to physiography. Principal component analysis indicated minimal contributions of general size components to overall covariation in each of the regions

Morphometric identification of Africanized and European honey bees using large reference populations

New discriminant analysis procedures have been presented to identify Africanized and European honey bees. These procedures are founded on data from 2 103 samples of honey bees collected from colonies at several locations in the western hemisphere and Kangaroo Island, Australia. Various univariate and multivariate analyses have been used to select the morphological characteristics and the groups of characteristics to be used in the analysis. The multivariate discriminant analysis correctly identified 565 (95.6%) of the 591 Africanized colonies and correctly identified all of the 1 512 European colonies