Time-dependent trapping of pollinators driven by the alignment of floral phenology with insect circadian rhythms

published_or_final_versio

Lithium distribution across the membrane of motoneurons in the isolated frog spinal cord

Lithium sensitive microelectrodes were used to investigate the transmembrane distribution of lithium ions (Li+) in motoneurons of the isolated frog spinal cord. After addition of 5 mmol·l–1 LiCl to the bathing solution the extracellular diffusion of Li+ was measured. At a depth of 500 m, about 60 min elapsed before the extracellular Li+ concentration approached that of the bathing solution. Intracellular measurements revealed that Li+ started to enter the cells soon after reaching the motoneuron pool and after up to 120 min superfusion, an intra — to extracellular concentration ratio of about 0.7 was obtained. The resting membrane potential and height of antidromically evoked action potentials were not altered by 5 mmol·l–1 Li+

Early intervention for psychotic disorders: Real-life implementation in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is among the first few cities in Asia to have implemented early intervention for psychosis in 2001. Substantial changes in psychosis service have since taken place. We reviewed available outcome data in Hong Kong, with reference to the philosophy of early intervention in psychosis, discussing experience and lessons learned from the implementation process, and future opportunities and challenges. Data accumulated in the past decade provided evidence for the benefits and significance of early intervention programmes: patients under the care of early intervention service showed improved functioning, milder symptoms, and fewer hospitalizations and suicides. Early intervention is more cost-effective compared with standard care. Stigma and misconception remains an issue, and public awareness campaigns are underway. In recent years, a critical mass is being formed, and Hong Kong has witnessed the unfolding of public service extension, new projects and organizations, and increasing interest from the community. Several major platforms are in place for coherent efforts, including the public Early Assessment Service for Young people with psychosis (EASY) programme, the Psychosis Studies and Intervention (PSI) research unit, the independent Hong Kong Early Psychosis Intervention Society (EPISO), the Jockey Club Early Psychosis (JCEP) project, and the postgraduate Psychological Medicine (Psychosis Studies) programme. The first decade of early intervention work has been promising; consolidation and further development is needed on many fronts of research, service and education. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.postprin

Fractional quantum Hall effect in the absence of Landau levels

It has been well-known that topological phenomena with fractional excitations, i.e., the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) \cite{Tsui1982} will emerge when electrons move in Landau levels. In this letter, we report the discovery of the FQHE in the absence of Landau levels in an interacting fermion model. The non-interacting part of our Hamiltonian is the recently proposed topologically nontrivial flat band model on the checkerboard lattice \cite{sun}. In the presence of nearest-neighboring repulsion ($U$), we find that at 1/3 filling, the Fermi-liquid state is unstable towards FQHE. At 1/5 filling, however, a next-nearest-neighboring repulsion is needed for the occurrence of the 1/5 FQHE when $U$ is not too strong. We demonstrate the characteristic features of these novel states and determine the phase diagram correspondingly.Comment: 6 pages and 4 figure

Lattice Boltzmann simulations in microfluidics: probing the no-slip boundary condition in hydrophobic, rough, and surface nanobubble laden microchannels

In this contribution we review recent efforts on investigations of the effect of (apparent) boundary slip by utilizing lattice Boltzmann simulations. We demonstrate the applicability of the method to treat fundamental questions in microfluidics by investigating fluid flow in hydrophobic and rough microchannels as well as over surfaces covered by nano- or microscale gas bubbles.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Modeling recursive RNA interference.

An important application of the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway is its use as a small RNA-based regulatory system commonly exploited to suppress expression of target genes to test their function in vivo. In several published experiments, RNAi has been used to inactivate components of the RNAi pathway itself, a procedure termed recursive RNAi in this report. The theoretical basis of recursive RNAi is unclear since the procedure could potentially be self-defeating, and in practice the effectiveness of recursive RNAi in published experiments is highly variable. A mathematical model for recursive RNAi was developed and used to investigate the range of conditions under which the procedure should be effective. The model predicts that the effectiveness of recursive RNAi is strongly dependent on the efficacy of RNAi at knocking down target gene expression. This efficacy is known to vary highly between different cell types, and comparison of the model predictions to published experimental data suggests that variation in RNAi efficacy may be the main cause of discrepancies between published recursive RNAi experiments in different organisms. The model suggests potential ways to optimize the effectiveness of recursive RNAi both for screening of RNAi components as well as for improved temporal control of gene expression in switch off-switch on experiments