Modulation of cell differentiation and growth underlies the shift from bud protection to light capture in cauline leaves.

Plant organs have evolved into diverse shapes for specialized functions despite emerging as simple protrusions at the shoot apex. Cauline leaves serve as photosynthetic organs and protective structures for emerging floral buds. However, the growth patterns underlying this dual function remain unknown.

Two orthogonal differentiation gradients locally coordinate fruit morphogenesis.

Morphogenesis requires the coordination of cellular behaviors along developmental axes. In plants, gradients of growth and differentiation are typically established along a single longitudinal primordium axis to control global organ shape. Yet, it remains unclear how these gradients are locally adjusted to regulate the formation of complex organs that consist of diverse tissue types.

Training People to Think in Opposites Facilitates the Falsification Process in Wason's Rule Discovery Task.

With reference to Wason's 2-4-6 rule discovery task, this study investigated the effects of a simple training session that prompted participants to "think in opposites". The results showed a significant improvement in performance under the training condition when compared to the control condition, both in terms of the proportion of participants who discovered the correct rule and how quickly it was discovered. An analysis of whether or not participant submitted test triples formed of descending numbers showed that fewer participants under the control condition considered ascending/descending to represent a critical dimension and, in any case, this occurred later (that is, after more test triples) than in the training condition.

Does Thinking in Opposites in Order to Think Differently Improve Creativity?

In this paper, we focus on the link between thinking in opposites and creativity. Thinking in opposites requires an intuitive, productive strategy, which may enhance creativity. Given the importance of creativity for the well-being of individuals and society, finding new ways to enhance it represents a valuable goal in both professional and personal contexts.

Opposites in Reasoning Processes: Do We Use Them More Than We Think, but Less Than We Could?

Our aim in this paper is to contribute toward acknowledging the general role of opposites as an organizing principle in the human mind. We support this claim in relation to human reasoning by collecting evidence from various studies which shows that "thinking in opposites" is not only involved in formal logical thinking, but can also be applied in both deductive and inductive reasoning, as well as in problem solving. We also describe the results of a series of studies which, although they have been developed within a number of different theoretical frameworks based on various methodologies, all demonstrate that giving hints or training reasoners to think in terms of opposites improves their performance in tasks in which spontaneous thinking may lead to classic biases and impasses.

Observations of the missing baryons in the warm-hot intergalactic medium.

It has been known for decades that the observed number of baryons in the local Universe falls about 30-40 per cent short of the total number of baryons predicted by Big Bang nucleosynthesis, as inferred from density fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background and seen during the first 2-3 billion years of the Universe in the so-called 'Lyman α forest' (a dense series of intervening H I Lyman α absorption lines in the optical spectra of background quasars). A theoretical solution to this paradox locates the missing baryons in the hot and tenuous filamentary gas between galaxies, known as the warm-hot intergalactic medium. However, it is difficult to detect them there because the largest by far constituent of this gas-hydrogen-is mostly ionized and therefore almost invisible in far-ultraviolet spectra with typical signal-to-noise ratios.

Pleasures of the Mind: What Makes Jokes and Insight Problems Enjoyable.

In this paper, a parallel analysis of the enjoyment derived from humor and insight problem solving is presented with reference to a "general" Theory of the Pleasures of the Mind (TPM) (Kubovy, 1999) rather than to "local" theories regarding what makes humor and insight problem solving enjoyable. The similarity of these two cognitive activities has already been discussed in previous literature in terms of the cognitive mechanisms which underpin getting a joke or having an insight experience in a problem solving task. The paper explores whether we can learn something new about the similarities and differences between humor and problem solving by means of an investigation of what makes them pleasurable.

Can Contraries Prompt Intuition in Insight Problem Solving?

This paper aims to test whether the use of contraries can facilitate spatial problem solving. Specifically, we examined whether a training session which included explicit guidance on thinking in contraries would improve problem solving abilities. In our study, the participants in the experimental condition were exposed to a brief training session before being presented with seven visuo-spatial problems to solve.

Particle Dark Matter Searches Outside the Local Group.

If dark matter (DM) is composed by particles which are nongravitationally coupled to ordinary matter, their annihilations or decays in cosmic structures can result in detectable radiation. We show that the most powerful technique to detect a particle DM signal outside the Local Group is to study the angular cross-correlation of nongravitational signals with low-redshift gravitational probes. This method allows us to enhance the signal to noise from the regions of the Universe where the DM-induced emission is preferentially generated.

Growth Rate of Cosmological Perturbations at z∼0.1 from a New Observational Test.

Spatial variations in the distribution of galaxy luminosities, estimated from redshifts as distance proxies, are correlated with the peculiar velocity field. Comparing these variations with the peculiar velocities inferred from galaxy redshift surveys is a powerful test of gravity and dark-energy theories on cosmological scales. Using ∼2×10(5) galaxies from the SDSS Data Release 7, we perform this test in the framework of gravitational instability to estimate the normalized growth rate of density perturbations fσ8=0.

Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite.

Euclid is a European Space Agency medium-class mission selected for launch in 2019 within the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. The main goal of Euclid is to understand the origin of the accelerated expansion of the universe. Euclid will explore the expansion history of the universe and the evolution of cosmic structures by measuring shapes and red-shifts of galaxies as well as the distribution of clusters of galaxies over a large fraction of the sky.

A test of the nature of cosmic acceleration using galaxy redshift distortions.

Observations of distant supernovae indicate that the Universe is now in a phase of accelerated expansion the physical cause of which is a mystery. Formally, this requires the inclusion of a term acting as a negative pressure in the equations of cosmic expansion, accounting for about 75 per cent of the total energy density in the Universe. The simplest option for this 'dark energy' corresponds to a 'cosmological constant', perhaps related to the quantum vacuum energy.

Difficulty of detecting minihalos via gamma rays from dark matter annihilation.

Analytical calculations and recent numerical experiments have shown that a sizable amount of the mass of our Galaxy is in a form of clumpy, virialized substructures that, according to Diemand et al., can be as light as 10(-6)M(.).

[Traumatic internuclear ophthalmoplegia].

The authors report a case of traumatic internuclear ophthalmoplegia and discuss its pathophysiologic mechanism. Internuclear ophthalmoplegia due to head trauma is uncommon, though it may be more common than reported since signs and symptoms typically resolve over weeks to months, and in multiple trauma patients other serious injuries overshadow disturbances of eye movements. A lesion involving medial longitudinal fasciculus was found by magnetic resonance imaging in the early post-traumatic period; this lesion was not seen when routine X-ray computed tomography was performed at the time of injury, confirming that magnetic resonance scanning is definitely superior to computed tomography for evaluating internuclear ophthalmoplegia.