Immune transcriptomic profile in adult female pigs: dominance status has more influence than environmental enrichment.

Background: Assessing farm animals' welfare is crucial, yet practical physiological tools are still lacking. In this study, we tested whether the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) transcriptome shows variations in association with sows' welfare. To do this, we compared animals whose welfare states were assumed to differ due to their lives in more or less enriched environments and to their different dominance statuses.

Brain endothelial permeability, transport, and flow assessed over 10 orders of magnitude using the in situ brain perfusion technique.

Background: Cerebral blood flow normally places a limit on the magnitude of brain vascular permeability (P) that can be measured in vivo. At normal cerebral blood flow, this limit falls at the lower end of lipophilicity for most FDA-approved CNS drugs. In this study, we report on two methods that can be used to overcome this limitation and measure brain vascular permeability values that are up to ~1000 times higher using the in situ brain perfusion technique.

Urea-based mutualistic transfer of nitrogen in biological soil crusts.

Foundational to establishment and recovery of biocrusts is a mutualistic exchange of carbon for nitrogen between pioneer cyanobacteria, including the widespread Microcoleus vaginatus, and heterotrophic diazotrophs in its "cyanosphere". In other such mutualisms, nitrogen is transferred as amino acids or ammonium, preventing losses through specialized structures, cell apposition or intracellularity. Yet, in the biocrust symbiosis relative proximity achieved through chemotaxis optimizes the exchange.