Article
Ecology
Maximilien A. C. Cuny, Diana la Forgia, Gaylord A. Desurmont, Carlos Bustos-Segura, Gaetan Glauser, Betty Benrey
Summary: Herbivorous insects alter the quality of plants as a food source, affecting other organisms interacting with the same plant. This study discovered that seed herbivores can have negative effects on plant growth and defense, but these effects can be mitigated by parasitoids. The study also highlights the positive effects of parasitoids on plant performance and fitness.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Carolina Rojas Ramirez, Rayan Murtada, Jinshan Gao, Brandon T. Ruotolo
Summary: Native top-down proteomics enables identification of proteoforms and characterization of cellular protein complexes. However, the efficiency of tandem MS-based fragmentation for such targets is low. This study optimizes the use of free-radical-initiated peptide sequencing (FRIPS) for native top-down sequencing experiments, resulting in significant improvements in sequence coverage for protein complexes.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
S. C. Low, V. Vouloutsi, P. F. M. J. Verschure
Summary: This study investigates the comparison between inhibitory and excitatory mechanisms of top-down attention, finding evidence that these mechanisms complement each other in informing decision-making.
COGNITIVE SYSTEMS RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Sven P. Tobias-Hunefeldt, Jess Wenley, Federico Baltar, Sergio E. Morales
Summary: The study revealed that bottom-up selection plays a crucial role in the early stages of microbial community assembly, while top-down predation becomes increasingly important over time. Wooden substrates promote heterotrophic growth, whereas inert substrates select for autotrophs, as they lack degradable material. Late communities are primarily under top-down control, with large predators pruning heterotrophs and leading to increased understanding of ecological processes guiding community assembly.
Article
Physics, Applied
Gemma Martin, Lluis Lopez-Conesa, Daniel del Pozo, Quim Portillo, George Doundoulakis, Alexandros Georgakilas, Sonia Estrade, Francesca Peiro
Summary: This study compared different strategies to reduce the background defect density of GaN nanowires, through two different wet etching methods and rapid thermal annealing at 750°C, as well as explored the influence of SiNx coating. The results showed that annealing treatment can significantly reduce defect density, especially on NW surfaces coated with SiNx.
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Limnology
Aurelie Garnier, Orjan Ostman, Jenny Ask, Olivia Bell, Martin Berggren, Mayra P. D. Rulli, Hani Younes, Magnus Huss
Summary: Coastal eutrophication caused by excessive anthropogenic nutrient input is a global threat, particularly in estuaries and semi-enclosed waterbodies. Additionally, coastal waters can become darker due to increased input of colored compounds. However, the effects of darkening on coastal food webs in response to eutrophication are unknown. A study using mesocosm experiments found that darkening and nutrient enrichment led to higher algal biomass, but fish had no cascading effect on algae. This highlights the additional challenge that coastal darkening poses for the recovery of coastal waters from eutrophication.
LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Ruslan Zhuravchak, Raquel Alonso Pedrero, Pedro Crespo del Granado, Natasa Nord, Helge Brattebo
Summary: Achieving energy and environmental targets for nations and municipalities heavily relies on the existing built stock, and spatial awareness of urban energy use is crucial for prioritizing effective solutions in new construction plans. However, large-scale building energy mapping faces challenges such as building heterogeneity and lack of detailed information, requiring a parsimonious probabilistic modeling approach to handle uncertainties while maintaining rational complexities and data needs.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2021)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Xin Ge Zhang, Ya Lun Sun, Bingcheng Zhu, Junjia Wang, Tianxiang Zhao, Wei Xiang Jiang, Zhixiang Huang, Zaichen Zhang, Tie Jun Cui
Summary: Photon-electron interactions are crucial for various applications including energy conversion, signal processing, and quantum science. However, current demonstrations mainly focus on fiber and on-chip applications, neglecting the study in wave space. In this study, a concept of optoelectronic metasurface is introduced, enabling efficient optical-microwave interactions in free space. The optoelectronic metasurface is achieved through hybrid integration of microwave resonant meta-structures with a photoresponsive material.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Chun-Yi Chou, Chi-Lin Mo, Chih-Piao Chuu, Ting-Yun Wang, Chin-Chao Huang, Cheng-Hung Hou, Chun-Ho Chuang, Yu-Sen Jiang, Jing-Jong Shyue, Miin-Jang Chen
Summary: This study proposes an innovative concept of atomic layer nucleation engineering (ALNE) and surface recovery (SR) techniques to achieve area-selective atomic layer deposition (AS-ALD) of Al2O3 between metal (W) and dielectric (SiO2) without the use of inhibitors. The ALNE treatment selectively removes weakly adsorbed precursors on the metal surface, while the SR process eliminates the oxidized layer caused by exposure to oxidants during the ALD process. With these techniques, AS-ALD with nearly 100% selectivity and a significant difference in Al2O3 thickness between SiO2 and W surfaces is achieved, even on patterned substrates with feature sizes as small as 10 nm.
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Xiong Yang, Daquan Liu, Jianbo Li, Ruonan Min, Huijun Kang, Linwei Li, Zongning Chen, Enyu Guo, Tongmin Wang
Summary: The top-down method was used to fabricate TiNi1+xSn half-Heusler alloy, which effectively improved the thermoelectric performance of the material by solving multiple issues, leading to a significant enhancement in the dimensionless figure of merit (ZT).
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Melanie Thierry, Nicholas A. Pardikes, Miguel G. Ximenez-Embun, Gregoire Proudhom, Jan Hrcek
Summary: Changes in the structure and species composition of ecological networks can modify species interactions and community functioning. This study examines the influence of network structure and species identities on consumer-resource interactions using a host-parasitoid system. The results suggest that multiple parasitoid species can enhance host suppression, but the effects of network structure on parasitoid performance are species specific.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Mauricio Seguel, Sarah A. Budischak, Anna E. Jolles, Vanessa O. Ezenwa
Summary: Host phenotypes can change in response to parasite infection and these changes can impact parasite interactions. In this study, the authors tracked changes in host immune and morphological phenotypes during co-infection of African buffalo with helminths and coccidia. They found that the clearance of different helminth species induced specific immune responses and affected coccidia shedding. Higher coccidia shedding had negative effects on host fitness. These findings highlight the complexity of parasite interactions and the importance of studying host phenotypes in understanding these interactions.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Yanan Liu, Xudong Zhao, Jilong Bian, Guohua Wang
Summary: Over the last decades, molecular signatures have been extensively studied in cancer research, but most reported biomarkers have weak predictive ability for patient survival risks. Univariate analysis in regression analysis is generally considered ineffective, and the involvement of human classification methods and post-surgery therapy further complicates survival analysis. To address these issues, we propose a solid feature selection method combining top-down and bottom-up strategies, which has been validated through analysis of glioblastoma data and independent testing.
COMPUTERS IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Gunnar Blohm, Douglas O. Cheyne, Douglas Crawford, J. Douglas Crawford
Summary: To generate a hand-specific reach plan, the brain integrates hand-specific signals with the desired movement strategy. Through studying left versus right hand pointing in the same task, multiple cortical areas were found to exhibit hand specificity in beta band power, with four areas showing robust activation before movement onset. These areas interacted significantly with the instructed motor plan but not with bottom-up target signals.
JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Dana Vaknin, Guy Amit, Amir Bashan
Summary: Recent technological advances, such as single-cell RNA sequencing, have enabled the measurement of gene expression profiles at the single-cell level. These profiles show significant variability, which can be attributed to differences in biological activity and technical measurement errors. Analyzing biological variability can provide insights into gene regulation, but distinguishing it from technical variability is a challenge.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)