Predicting habitat suitability of the critically endangered Be'er Sheva fringe-fingered lizard.

Anthropogenic changes, such as land use, are the main drivers causing climate change and biodiversity loss, with hundreds of thousands of species lacking sufficient habitats for their populations to persist and likely to go extinct within decades. Endemic species are more susceptible to habitat changes and are at the forefront of the biodiversity crisis. We used species distribution models to generate a relative habitat suitability map and identified the habitat requirements of the critically endangered and endemic Be'er Sheva fringe-fingered lizard ().

Four component Ugi reaction based small-molecule probes for integrated phenotypic screening.

Quorum-sensing (QS) is a cell density-dependent signaling pathway regulated by gene expression for intra- and interspecies communication. We have targeted QS activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic human pathogen that causes disease in immunocompromised patients, with a set of probes containing a variety of functional groups, including photoreactive (diazirine) and affinity (alkyne) moieties, that were synthesized using a four-component Ugi reaction (Ugi-4CR).

The potential moderating role of living in a conflict area on the link between classroom psychosocial stressors, perceived stress and change in anxiety symptoms in Israeli school children.

Background: Perceived stress associated with relational victimization from peers and conflictual relations with the teacher have been linked with the development of anxiety symptoms in children. Living in conditions of ongoing stress from the broader environment has also been related to anxiety symptoms in children. In this study, we examined (a) the indirect effect between classroom psychosocial stressors (i.

Socioeconomic status influences participation in cancer prehabilitation and preparation for surgical recovery: A pooled retrospective analysis using a validated area-level socioeconomic status metric.

Background: Prehabilitation employs exercise, nutrition, and psychological interventions to optimize physiological status in preparation for surgery. First, we described the extent to which material deprivation index score (MDIS) influenced prehabilitation participation. Second, we evaluated the extent to which prehabilitation influenced recovery as compared to control.

Research trends analysis of chronic hepatitis C versus nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A literature review text-mining analysis of publications.

Background: Hepatits C virus (HCV) rates have lowered due to direct-acting antiviral treatment. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)/nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is rising with no available therapy. We employed text-mining to analyze trends in HCV and NAFLD research from the past two decades.

Spinterface chirality-induced spin selectivity effect in bio-molecules.

The chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect, namely the dependence of current through a chiral molecule on spin of the electron, was discovered over two decades ago, and has been suggested for various spin- and chirality-related applications. Yet, quite surprisingly, its physical origin remains elusive, and no theoretical description can quantitatively describe it. Here, we propose a theory for the CISS effect in bio-molecular junctions, based on the interplay between spin-orbit coupling in the electrodes, molecular chirality and spin-transfer torque across the electrode-molecule interface.

Solvent composition regulates the Se : Sb ratio in antimony selenide nanowires deposited from thiol-amine solvent mixtures.

Antimony selenide (SbSe), a VVI semiconductor with an intriguing crystal structure, has demonstrated improved power conversion and solar-to-hydrogen efficiencies in recent years. Depositing antimony selenide nanowires (NWs) from a solution such as a thiol : amine "alkahest" ink is a low-cost and facile route to deposit high surface area photocathodes. However, little is known about the correlations between the solvent composition and the crystallites' structure and optoelectronic properties, which are crucial for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical applications.

Machine learning to predict in-hospital mortality among patients with severe obesity: Proof of concept study.

Objectives: Hospitalized patients with severe obesity require adapted hospital management. The aim of this study was to evaluate a machine learning model to predict in-hospital mortality among this population.

Methods: Data of unselected consecutive emergency department admissions of hospitalized patients with severe obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m) was analyzed.

Prosocial nudges and visual indicators increase social distancing, but authoritative nudges do not.

Social distancing reduces the transmission of COVID-19 and other airborne diseases. To test different ways to increase social distancing, we conducted a field experiment at a major US airport using a system that presented color-coded visual indicators on crowdedness. We complemented those visual indicators with nudges commonly used to increase COVID-19-preventive behaviors.

Short-chain reactive probes as tools to unravel the quorum sensing regulon.

In recent years, the world has seen a troubling increase in antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens. In order to provide alternative strategies to combat bacterial infections, it is crucial deepen our understanding into the mechanisms that pathogens use to thrive in complex environments. Most bacteria use sophisticated chemical communication systems to sense their population density and coordinate gene expression in a collective manner, a process that is termed "quorum sensing" (QS).

COVID-19, Globalization, De-globalization and the Slime Mold's Lessons For Us All.

The world is struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic on a backdrop of conflicting globalization and de-globalization forces. A study of biology reveals that nature has been contending with such general issues for billions of years and has come up with broad strategies for their resolution. Copy and paste!

Inconsistent allocations of harms versus benefits may exacerbate environmental inequality.

We report five studies that examine preferences for the allocation of environmental harms and benefits. In all studies, participants were presented with scenarios in which an existing environmental inequality between two otherwise similar communities could either be decreased or increased through various allocation decisions. Our results demonstrate that despite well-established preferences toward equal outcomes, people express weaker preferences for options that increase equality when considering the allocation of environmental harms (e.

Nanoscale membranes that chemically isolate and electronically wire up the abiotic/biotic interface.

By electrochemically coupling microbial and abiotic catalysts, bioelectrochemical systems such as microbial electrolysis cells and microbial electrosynthesis systems synthesize energy-rich chemicals from energy-poor precursors with unmatched efficiency. However, to circumvent chemical incompatibilities between the microbial cells and inorganic materials that result in toxicity, corrosion, fouling, and efficiency-degrading cross-reactions between oxidation and reduction environments, bioelectrochemical systems physically separate the microbial and inorganic catalysts by macroscopic distances, thus introducing ohmic losses, rendering these systems impractical at scale. Here we electrochemically couple an inorganic catalyst, a SnO anode, with a microbial catalyst, Shewanella oneidensis, via a 2-nm-thick silica membrane containing -CN and -NO functionalized p-oligo(phenylene vinylene) molecular wires.

Learning to push and learning to move: the adaptive control of contact forces.

To be successful at manipulating objects one needs to apply simultaneously well controlled movements and contact forces. We present a computational theory of how the brain may successfully generate a vast spectrum of interactive behaviors by combining two independent processes. One process is competent to control movements in free space and the other is competent to control contact forces against rigid constraints.

The evolution of obligate sex: the roles of sexual selection and recombination.

The evolution of sex is one of the greatest mysteries in evolutionary biology. An even greater mystery is the evolution of obligate sex, particularly when competing with facultative sex and not with complete asexuality. Here, we develop a stochastic simulation of an obligate allele invading a facultative population, where males are subject to sexual selection.

AI-2 of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans inhibits Candida albicans biofilm formation.

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, a Gram-negative bacterium, and Candida albicans, a polymorphic fungus, are both commensals of the oral cavity but both are opportunistic pathogens that can cause oral diseases. A. actinomycetemcomitans produces a quorum-sensing molecule called autoinducer-2 (AI-2), synthesized by LuxS, that plays an important role in expression of virulence factors, in intra- but also in interspecies communication.

I-symmetry, the highest chiral point group, and the icosahedral structure of virus particles.

Small molecules exhibiting I-symmetry, the member of highest order amongst the five chiral point groups, have yet to be made. However, many virus particles such as the human adenovirus exhibit icosahedral symmetry. The handedness of the subunits being exchanged or permutated by symmetry operations in these supramolecular structures remain invariant since their protein constituents contain L-amino acids.