2,501 research outputs found
Bats Use Magnetite to Detect the Earth's Magnetic Field
While the role of magnetic cues for compass orientation has been confirmed in numerous animals, the mechanism of detection is still debated. Two hypotheses have been proposed, one based on a light dependent mechanism, apparently used by birds and another based on a “compass organelle” containing the iron oxide particles magnetite (Fe3O4). Bats have recently been shown to use magnetic cues for compass orientation but the method by which they detect the Earth's magnetic field remains unknown. Here we use the classic “Kalmijn-Blakemore” pulse re-magnetization experiment, whereby the polarity of cellular magnetite is reversed. The results demonstrate that the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus uses single domain magnetite to detect the Earths magnetic field and the response indicates a polarity based receptor. Polarity detection is a prerequisite for the use of magnetite as a compass and suggests that big brown bats use magnetite to detect the magnetic field as a compass. Our results indicate the possibility that sensory cells in bats contain freely rotating magnetite particles, which appears not to be the case in birds. It is crucial that the ultrastructure of the magnetite containing magnetoreceptors is described for our understanding of magnetoreception in animals
The Influence of pH on Zinc Lability and Toxicity to a Tropical Freshwater Microalga.
Increased focus on the development and application of bioavailability-based metal water quality guideline values requires increased understanding of the influence of water chemistry on metal bioavailability and toxicity. Development of empirical models, such as multiple linear regression models, requires the assessment of the influence of individual water quality parameters as toxicity-modifying factors. The present study investigated the effect of pH on the lability and toxicity of zinc (Zn) to a tropical green microalga (Chlorella sp.). Zinc speciation and lability were explored using the Windermere Humic Aqueous Model (WHAM7), ultrafiltration, and diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT). Zinc toxicity increased significantly with increasing pH from 6.7 to 8.3, with 50% growth inhibition effect concentrations decreasing from 185 to 53 µg l-1 across the pH range. Linear relationships between DGT-labile Zn and dissolved Zn did not vary across the tested pH range, nor did the linear relationship between dissolved (<0.45 µm) and ultrafiltered (<3 kDa) Zn. Our findings show that Zn toxicity to this freshwater alga is altered as a function of pH across environmentally realistic pH ranges and that these toxicity changes could not be explained by Zn speciation and lability as measured by DGT and WHAM7. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:2836-2845. © 2021 SETAC
Atom--Molecule Coherence in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Coherent coupling between atoms and molecules in a Bose-Einstein condensate
(BEC) has been observed. Oscillations between atomic and molecular states were
excited by sudden changes in the magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance and
persisted for many periods of the oscillation. The oscillation frequency was
measured over a large range of magnetic fields and is in excellent quantitative
agreement with the energy difference between the colliding atom threshold
energy and the energy of the bound molecular state. This agreement indicates
that we have created a quantum superposition of atoms and diatomic molecules,
which are chemically different species.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Protecting an Ecosystem Service: Approaches to Understanding and Mitigating Threats to Wild Insect Pollinators
Carbon and climate system coupling on timescales from the Precambrian to the Anthropocene
Author Posting. © Annual Reviews, 2007. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Annual Reviews for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Annual Review of Environment and Resources 32 (2007): 31-66, doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.32.041706.124700.The global carbon and climate systems are closely intertwined, with
biogeochemical processes responding to and driving climate variations. Over a range of
geological and historical time-scales, warmer climate conditions are associated with
higher atmospheric levels of CO2, an important climate-modulating greenhouse gas. The
atmospheric CO2-temperature relationship reflects two dynamics, the planet’s climate
sensitivity to a perturbation in atmospheric CO2 and the stability of non-atmospheric
carbon reservoirs to evolving climate. Both exhibit non-linear behavior, and coupled
carbon-climate interactions have the potential to introduce both stabilizing and
destabilizing feedback loops into the Earth System. Here we bring together evidence
from a wide range of geological, observational, experimental and modeling studies on the
dominant interactions between the carbon cycle and climate. The review is organized by
time-scale, spanning interannual to centennial climate variability, Holocene millennial
variations and Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles, and million year and longer
variations over the Precambrian and Phanerozoic. Our focus is on characterizing and,
where possible quantifying, the emergent behavior internal to the coupled carbon-climate
system as well as the responses of the system to external forcing from tectonics, orbital
dynamics, catastrophic events, and anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions. While there are
many unresolved uncertainties and complexity in the carbon cycle, one emergent
property is clear across time scales: while CO2 can increase in the atmosphere quickly,
returning to lower levels through natural processes is much slower, so the consequences
of the human perturbation will far outlive the emissions that caused them.S. Doney acknowledges support from the NSF Geosciences Carbon and Water program
(NSF ATM-0628582) and the WHOI W. Van Alan Clark Sr. Chair. D. Schimel
acknowledges support from the NSF Biocomplexity in the Environment program (NSF
EAR-0321918)
Super-resolving phase measurements with a multi-photon entangled state
Using a linear optical elements and post-selection, we construct an entangled
polarization state of three photons in the same spatial mode. This state is
analogous to a ``photon-number path entangled state'' and can be used for
super-resolving interferometry. Measuring a birefringent phase shift, we
demonstrate two- and three-fold improvements in phase resolution.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Multi-membership gene regulation in pathway based microarray analysis
This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Gene expression analysis has been intensively researched for more than a decade. Recently, there has been elevated interest in the integration of microarray data analysis with other types of biological knowledge in a holistic analytical approach. We propose a methodology that can be facilitated for pathway based microarray data analysis, based on the observation that a substantial proportion of genes present in biochemical pathway databases are members of a number of distinct pathways. Our methodology aims towards establishing the state of individual pathways, by identifying those truly affected by the experimental conditions based on the behaviour of such genes. For that purpose it considers all the pathways in which a gene participates and the general census of gene expression per pathway. Results: We utilise hill climbing, simulated annealing and a genetic algorithm to analyse the consistency of the produced results, through the application of fuzzy adjusted rand indexes and hamming distance. All algorithms produce highly consistent genes to pathways allocations, revealing the contribution of genes to pathway functionality, in agreement with current pathway state visualisation techniques, with the simulated annealing search proving slightly superior in terms of efficiency. Conclusions: We show that the expression values of genes, which are members of a number of biochemical pathways or modules, are the net effect of the contribution of each gene to these biochemical processes. We show that by manipulating the pathway and module contribution of such genes to follow underlying trends we can interpret microarray results centred on the behaviour of these genes.The work was sponsored by the studentship scheme of the School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel Universit
International Union of Immunological Societies: 2017 Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases Committee Report on Inborn Errors of Immunity
Beginning in 1970, a committee was constituted under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) to catalog primary immunodeficiencies. Twenty years later, the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) took the remit of this committee. The current report details the categorization and listing of 354 (as of February 2017) inborn errors of immunity. The growth and increasing complexity of the field have been impressive, encompassing an increasing variety of conditions, and the classification described here will serve as a critical reference for immunologists and researchers worldwide
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