Cryptic variation fuels plant phenotypic change through hierarchical epistasis.

Cryptic genetic variants exert minimal or no phenotypic effects alone but have long been hypothesized to form a vast, hidden reservoir of genetic diversity that drives trait evolvability through epistatic interactions. This classical theory has been reinvigorated by pan-genome sequencing, which has revealed pervasive variation within gene families and regulatory networks, including extensive cis-regulatory changes, gene duplication, and divergence between paralogs. Nevertheless, empirical testing of cryptic variation's capacity to fuel phenotypic diversification has been hindered by intractable genetics, limited allelic diversity, and inadequate phenotypic resolution.

Combining and Decoupling Rigid and Soft Grippers to Enhance Robotic Manipulation.

For robot arms to perform everyday tasks in unstructured environments, these robots must be able to manipulate a diverse range of objects. Today's robots often grasp objects with either soft grippers or rigid end-effectors. However, purely rigid or purely soft grippers have fundamental limitations as follows: soft grippers struggle with irregular heavy objects, whereas rigid grippers often cannot grasp small numerous items.

Connecting the Dots: Sintering of Liquid Metal Particles for Soft and Stretchable Conductors.

This review focuses on the sintering of liquid metal particles (LMPs). Here, sintering means the partial merging or connecting of particles (or droplets) to form a network of percolated and, thus, conductive electrical pathways. LMPs are attractive materials because they can be suspended in a carrier fluid to create printable inks or distributed in an elastomer to create soft, stretchable composites.

Insights into interactions between taxanes and P-glycoprotein using biophysical and in silico methods.

Multidrug resistance mediated by P-glycoprotein (Pgp) is a significant obstacle to cancer chemotherapy. Taxane drugs, including paclitaxel, docetaxel, and cabazitaxel, are used to treat multiple types of cancer. All taxane drugs are Pgp substrates, but cabazitaxel is also a Pgp inhibitor, indicating potential differential interactions between Pgp and different taxanes.

Improving recruitment and retention of people with Parkinson's disease to clinical studies: A scoping review.

Background: Timely recruitment and effective retention of participants are challenging for clinical Parkinson's disease (PD) research studies. Not achieving this can affect delivery costs and bias results.

Objective: To identify successful recruitment and retention methodologies for clinical research studies in PD.