Dynamic skin behaviors in cephalopods.

The coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, and squid) are a group of soft-bodied mollusks that exhibit a wealth of complex behaviors, including dynamic camouflage, object mimicry, skin-based visual communication, and dynamic body patterns during sleep. Many of these behaviors are visually driven and engage the animals' color changing skin, a pixelated display that is directly controlled by neurons projecting from the brain. Thus, cephalopod skin provides a direct readout of neural activity in the brain.

Phased nanopore assembly with Shasta and modular graph phasing with GFAse.

Reference-free genome phasing is vital for understanding allele inheritance and the impact of single-molecule DNA variation on phenotypes. To achieve thorough phasing across homozygous or repetitive regions of the genome, long-read sequencing technologies are often used to perform phased de novo assembly. As a step toward reducing the cost and complexity of this type of analysis, we describe new methods for accurately phasing Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequence data with the Shasta genome assembler and a modular tool for extending phasing to the chromosome scale called GFAse.

Extravasation of Non-Cytotoxic Drugs in Older People.

To describe the risk factors of extravasation, its impact on the pharmacokinetics of non-cytotoxic drugs, and management of extravasation in older individuals. Extravasation occurs when vesicants leak from blood vessels into surrounding tissue causing severe injury such as tissue necrosis while infiltration is caused by leakage of an irritant that causes injury but does not lead to tissue necrosis. Extravasation occurs in approximately 0.

Neural control of cephalopod camouflage.

In Die Another Day, James Bond receives an Aston Martin that can render itself invisible by dynamically reproducing the surroundings on the car's "polymer skin". In what is widely regarded as the worst Bond movie ever, the invisible car scene is cited as the moment the plot plunges into the truly absurd. But what if nature had actually invented such a technology, and did so hundreds of millions of years ago? The coleoid cephalopods - octopus, cuttlefish and squid - are living examples of dynamic camouflage.

Molecular mechanisms controlling the biogenesis of the TGF-β signal Vg1.

The TGF-beta signals Vg1 (Dvr1/Gdf3) and Nodal form heterodimers to induce vertebrate mesendoderm. The Vg1 proprotein is a monomer retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is processed and secreted upon heterodimerization with Nodal, but the mechanisms underlying Vg1 biogenesis are largely elusive. Here, we clarify the mechanisms underlying Vg1 retention, processing, secretion, and signaling and introduce a Synthetic Processing (SynPro) system that enables the programmed cleavage of ER-resident and extracellular proteins.