Tiny but mighty? Overview of a decade of research on nectar bacteria.

An emerging focus of research at the intersection of botany, zoology, and microbiology is the study of floral nectar as a microbial habitat, referred to as the nectar microbiome, which can alter plant-pollinator interactions. Studies on these microbial communities have primarily focused on yeasts, and it was only about a decade ago that bacteria began to be studied as widespread inhabitants of floral nectar. This review aims to give an overview of the current knowledge on nectar bacteria, with emphasis on evolutionary origin, dispersal mode, effects on nectar chemistry and plant-animal interactions, community assembly, agricultural applications, and their use as model systems in ecological research.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pregnancy, Birth Experiences, and Mental Health: Voices from Women in Puerto Rico.

Objectives: The specific aims of the project are: (1) Examine the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy experiences and outcomes; (2) Examine the mental health impact of COVID-19 in pregnant women and mothers of children 12 months or younger; (3) Identify risk and protective factors among this population in Puerto Rico.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the Puerto Rico Team for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) Superfund Program, which is composed of pregnant women and mothers from the northern karst region of Puerto Rico. The research had a mixed methods approach with a quantitative survey (n = 184) and qualitative interviews (n = 10); data collection was done in virtual mode.

On the compatibility of the Madrid-2019 force field for electrolytes with the TIP4P/Ice water model.

The Madrid-2019 force field was recently developed to perform simulations of electrolytes in water. The model was specifically parameterized for TIP4P/2005 water and uses scaled charges for the ions. In this work, we test the compatibility of the Madrid-2019 force field with another water model: TIP4P/Ice.

Predictions of the interfacial free energy along the coexistence line from single-state calculations.

The calculation of the interfacial free energy between two thermodynamic phases is crucial across various fields, including materials science, chemistry, and condensed matter physics. In this study, we apply an existing thermodynamic approach, the Gibbs-Cahn integration method, to determine the interfacial free energy under different coexistence conditions, relying on data from a single-state calculation at specified pressure and temperature. This approach developed by Laird et al.

Strong Correlation Between Double-Strand DNA Breaks and Total Sperm DNA Fragmentation in the Human Ejaculate.

Background: Double- and single-strand DNA breaks (DSBs and SSBs, respectively) in spermatozoa, which emerge from intrinsic and extrinsic degenerative processes, are likely related to the underlying male pathology.

Aim: To determine whether the incidence of DSBs in the human ejaculate is a consistent predictor of whole sperm DNA fragmentation (W-SDF = SSBs + DSBs).

Methods: A correlation between the proportion of spermatozoa that showed whole W-SDF and those displaying only DSBs in DNA.