Deciphering the emission dynamics of colloidal PbS quantum dots: a spectroscopic exploration under diverse environmental and experimental conditions.

This study employs a combination of spectroscopic techniques, including absorption, photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved PL kinetics, and transient absorption measurements, to elucidate the dynamics of excited states of oleic acid (OA)-capped colloidal PbS quantum dots (QDs) in toluene with a mean size of approximately 3 nm. PL decay profiles were properly treated employing either fitting or fitting-free models to extract average decay lifetimes and lifetime distributions. Our findings highlight the profound impact of factors such as particle concentration, size, surface treatment, and the surrounding environment on the optical properties of PbS QDs.

Monoaminergic Systems in Flight-Induced Potentiation of Phonotactic Behavior in Female Crickets .

We have recently shown that experience of flight remarkably enhanced subsequent terrestrial phonotaxis in females in response to the male calling song. Here, we elucidated the possible roles of octopamine and serotonin in the enhancing effect of flying on phonotactic behavior. Octopamine is known to be released into the hemolymph during flight in insects; however, the octopamine receptor antagonist epinastine did not abolish the effects of flight in our study.

Mapping the Auditory Space of Female Mosquitoes in 3D.

The task of directional hearing faces most animals that possess ears. They approach this task in different ways, but a common trait is the use of binaural cues to find the direction to the source of sound. In insects, the task is further complicated by their small size and, hence, minute temporal and level differences between two ears.

Intense Locomotion Enhances Oviposition in the Freshwater Mollusc : Cellular and Molecular Correlates.

Intense species-specific locomotion changes the behavioural and cognitive states of various vertebrates and invertebrates. However, whether and how reproductive behaviour is affected by previous increased motor activity remains largely unknown. We addressed this question using a model organism, the pond snail .

Compression OCT-elastography combined with speckle-contrast analysis as an approach to the morphological assessment of breast cancer tissue.

Currently, optical biopsy technologies are being developed for rapid and label-free visualization of biological tissue with micrometer-level resolution. They can play an important role in breast-conserving surgery guidance, detection of residual cancer cells, and targeted histological analysis. For solving these problems, compression optical coherence elastography (C-OCE) demonstrated impressive results based on differences in the elasticity of different tissue constituents.