Publications by authors named "Cantarero A"

Harsh early environmental conditions can exert delayed, long-lasting effects on phenotypes, including reproductive traits such as sexual signals. Indeed, adverse early conditions can accelerate development, increasing oxidative stress that may, in turn, impact adult sexual signals. Among signals, colorations produced by red ketocarotenoids seem to depend on mitochondrial functioning.

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In many vertebrates, dietary yellow carotenoids are enzymatically transformed into 4C-ketocarotenoid pigments, leading to conspicuous red colourations. These colourations may evolve as signals of individual quality under sexual selection. To evolve as signals, they must transmit reliable information benefiting both the receiver and the signaler.

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Converting waste heat from solar radiation and industrial processes into useable electricity remains a challenge due to limitations of traditional thermoelectrics. Ionic thermoelectric (i-TE) materials offer a compelling alternative to traditional thermoelectrics due to their excellent ionic thermopower, low thermal conductivity, and abundant material options. This review categorizes i-TE materials into thermally diffusive and thermogalvanic types, with an emphasis on the former due to its superior thermopower.

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Sexual differences in pathogen prevalence in wildlife often arise from varying susceptibility influenced by factors such as sex hormones and exposure to pathogens. In the case of vector-borne pathogens, host selection by insect vectors determines the exposure of hosts to infections, largely affecting the transmission of these infectious diseases. We identify the blood-feeding patterns of insect vectors in Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) nestlings in a 3-year study.

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The development of wearable thermoelectric generators (wTEG) represents a promising strategy to replace batteries and supercapacitors required to supply electrical energy for portable electronic devices. However, the main drawback of wTEGs is that the thermal gradient between the skin and the ambient is minimal, reducing the power output produced by the generator. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the thermal management of wTEG in order to increase its efficiency.

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In this study, we have improved the power factor of conductive polymer nanocomposites by combining layer-by-layer assembly with electrochemical deposition to produce flexible thermoelectric materials based on PEDOT/carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-films. To produce films based on CNTs and PEDOT, a dual approach has been employed: (i) the layer-by-layer method has been utilized for constructing the CNTs layer and (ii) electrochemical polymerization has been used in the synthesis of the conducting polymer. Moreover, the thermoelectric properties were optimized by controlling the experimental conditions including the number of deposition cycles and electropolymerizing time.

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Parasites are known to be a key driving force in mate choice and are important for the expression and evolution of ornaments and behavioral traits being used. However, there is little experimental evidence on how the parasite's burden of the choosing individual is integrated into the mate-choice process and how it affects decision-making, especially in relation to parasite infestation of potential mates. Thus, the aim of our study was to determine whether female house sparrows adjust their mate preference according to their own as well as the parasite load of prospective partners.

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Theoretical models indicate that the evolution of biparental care depends on how parents behaviourally negotiate their level of care in response to those of their partner and whether sexes and individuals consistently vary in their response (compensatory response). While the compensatory response has been widely investigated empirically, its repeatability has rarely been assessed. In this study, we used a reaction norm approach to investigate the repeatability of the compensatory offspring provisioning of a parent after temporary removal of its partner in the pied flycatcher () across different breeding seasons and partners.

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Magnetic 2D materials hold promise to change the miniaturization paradigm of unidirectional photonic components. However, the integration of these materials in devices hinges on the accurate determination of the optical properties down to the monolayer limit, which is still missing. By using hyperspectral wide-field imaging at room temperature, we reveal a nonmonotonic thickness dependence of the complex optical dielectric function in the archetypal magnetic 2D material CrI_{3} extending across different length scales: onsetting at the mesoscale, peaking at the nanoscale, and decreasing again down to the single layer.

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Background: The animal signaling theory posits that conspicuous colorations exhibited by many animals have evolved as reliable signals of individual quality. Red carotenoid-based ornaments may depend on enzymatic transformations (oxidation) of dietary yellow carotenoids, which could occur in the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM). Thus, carotenoid ketolation and cell respiration could share the same biochemical pathways.

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Oscine birds preferentially respond to certain sounds over others from an early age, which focuses subsequent learning onto sexually relevant songs. Songs vary both across species and, due to cultural evolution, among populations of the same species. As a result, early song responses are expected to be shaped by selection both to avoid the fitness costs of cross-species learning and to promote learning of population-typical songs.

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In many vertebrates, the enzymatic oxidation of dietary yellow carotenoids generates red keto-carotenoids giving color to ornaments. The oxidase CYP2J19 is here a key effector. Its purported intracellular location suggests a shared biochemical pathway between trait expression and cell functioning.

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Thermoelectric (TE) materials can have a strong benefit to harvest thermal energy if they can be applied to large areas without losing their performance over time. One way of achieving large-area films is through hybrid materials, where a blend of TE materials with polymers can be applied as coating. Here, we present the development of all solution-processed TE ink and hybrid films with varying contents of TE SbTe and BiTe nanomaterials, along with their characterization.

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The optical properties of the bulk ZrSiS nodal-line semimetal are theoretically studied within a many-body formalism. The bands are similar to those calculated within the density functional theory, except near the -point; in particular, no significant differences are found around the Fermi energy. On the other hand, the solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation reveals significant excitonic activity, mostly as dark excitons which appear in a wide energy range.

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Telomere length and shortening rate are increasingly being used as biomarkers for long-term costs in ecological and evolutionary studies because of their relationships with survival and fitness. Both early-life conditions and growth, and later-life stressors can create variation in telomere shortening rate. Studies on between-population telomere length and dynamics are scarce, despite the expectation that populations exposed to varying environmental constraints would present divergent telomere length patterns.

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Multimode interference (MMI) devices are key components in modern integrated photonic circuits. Here, we present acoustically tuned optical switches on an (Al,Ga)As platform that enable robust, compact and fast response systems improving on recently demonstrated technology. The device consists of a 2 × 2 MMI device fine-tuned in its center region by a focused surface acoustic wave (SAW) beam working in the low GHz range.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The SPI-Birds Network and Database was established to connect researchers and data on long-term studies of individually marked birds, currently housing data on nearly 1.5 million birds across 80 populations.
  • * SPI-Birds promotes data sharing, prevents data loss, and enhances collaboration through community-developed standards and a decentralized approach that allows research groups to maintain control over their data.
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Ornaments can evolve to reveal individual quality when their production/maintenance costs make them reliable as 'signals' or if their expression level is intrinsically linked to condition by some unfalsifiable mechanism (indices). The latter has been mostly associated with traits constrained by body size. In red ketocarotenoid-based colorations, that link could, instead, be established with cell respiration at the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM).

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Article Synopsis
  • Energy harvesting from residual heat offers a promising solution for powering wearable devices through thermoelectric textiles.
  • The textiles were created by coating fabrics with multiple-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), significantly enhancing electrical conductivity.
  • The prototype thermoelectric modules, particularly those using acrylic fabrics, achieved an output power of 0.9 μW under a 31 K temperature difference, demonstrating practical potential for energy generation.
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The mechanisms involved in the production of red carotenoid-based ornaments of vertebrates are still poorly understood. These colorations often depend on enzymatic transformations (ketolation) of dietary yellow carotenoids, which could occur in the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM). Thus, carotenoid ketolation and cell respiration could share biochemical pathways, favoring the evolution of ketocarotenoid-based ornaments as reliable indices of individual quality under sexual selection.

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We experimentally demonstrate the dynamical tuning of the acoustic field in a surface acoustic wave (SAW) cavity defined by a periodic arrangement of metal stripes on LiNbO substrate. Applying a dc voltage to the ends of the metal grid results in a temperature rise due to resistive heating that changes the frequency response of the device up to 0.3%, which can be used to control the acoustic transmission through the structure.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sexual selection drives the development of eye-catching animal traits that indicate the individual's fitness, but there's limited evidence of how these traits correlate with actual fitness measures like lifespan and reproduction.
  • In an experiment with male red-legged partridges, researchers found that the brightness of carotenoid-based ornaments, like bill and eye ring color, predicted both longevity and reproductive success.
  • However, manipulating testosterone levels affected these traits, making them unreliable indicators of fitness, highlighting the importance of stable steroid metabolism in the evolution of these sexual signals.
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There is no consensus yet on the reasons why females engage in extra-pair copulations (EPCs). In some species, females have been shown to accrue some indirect benefits, but these effects are not consistent across species and studies. The sexual conflict hypothesis posits that extra-pair paternity (EPP) is the result of strong selection for male pursuit of EPC without real benefits for females.

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Improvements in the spatial resolution of synchrotron-based X-ray probes have reached the nano-scale and they, nowadays, constitute a powerful platform for the study of semiconductor nanostructures and nanodevices that provides high sensitivity without destroying the material. Three complementary hard X-ray synchrotron techniques at the nanoscale have been applied to the study of individual nanowires (NWs) containing non-polar GaN/InGaN multi-quantum-wells. The trace elemental sensitivity of X-ray fluorescence allows one to determine the In concentration of the quantum wells and their inhomogeneities along the NW.

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