Competitive Salt Precipitation/Dissolution During Free-Water Reduction in Water-in-Salt Electrolyte.

Water-in-salt electrolytes based on highly concentrated bis(trifluoromethyl)sulfonimide (TFSI) promise aqueous electrolytes with stabilities nearing 3 V. However, especially with an electrode approaching the cathodic (reductive) stability, cycling stability is insufficient. While stability critically relies on a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), the mechanism behind the cathodic stability limit remains unclear.

Intermolecular forces and correlations mediated by a phonon bath.

Inspired by the possibility to experimentally manipulate and enhance chemical reactivity in helium nanodroplets, we investigate the effective interaction and the resulting correlations between two diatomic molecules immersed in a bath of bosons. By analogy with the bipolaron, we introduce the biangulon quasiparticle describing two rotating molecules that align with respect to each other due to the effective attractive interaction mediated by the excitations of the bath. We study this system in different parameter regimes and apply several theoretical approaches to describe its properties.

Social immunity modulates competition between coinfecting pathogens.

Coinfections with multiple pathogens can result in complex within-host dynamics affecting virulence and transmission. While multiple infections are intensively studied in solitary hosts, it is so far unresolved how social host interactions interfere with pathogen competition, and if this depends on coinfection diversity. We studied how the collective disease defences of ants - their social immunity - influence pathogen competition in coinfections of same or different fungal pathogen species.

Poisson-Delaunay Mosaics of Order .

The order- Voronoi tessellation of a locally finite set decomposes into convex domains whose points have the same nearest neighbors in . Assuming is a stationary Poisson point process, we give explicit formulas for the expected number and total area of faces of a given dimension per unit volume of space. We also develop a relaxed version of discrete Morse theory and generalize by counting only faces, for which the nearest points in are within a given distance threshold.

Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Paired Phase in Coupled XY Models.

We study the effect of a linear tunneling coupling between two-dimensional systems, each separately exhibiting the topological Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition. In the uncoupled limit, there are two phases: one where the one-body correlation functions are algebraically decaying and the other with exponential decay. When the linear coupling is turned on, a third BKT-paired phase emerges, in which one-body correlations are exponentially decaying, while two-body correlation functions exhibit power-law decay.

Pathogens and disease defense of invasive ants.

Ant invasions are often harmful to native species communities. Their pathogens and host disease defense mechanisms may be one component of their devastating success. First, they can introduce harmful diseases to their competitors in the introduced range, to which they themselves are tolerant.

Social immunity in insects.

When animals become sick, infected cells and an armada of activated immune cells attempt to eliminate the pathogen from the body. Once infectious particles have breached the body's physical barriers of the skin or gut lining, an initially local response quickly escalates into a systemic response, attracting mobile immune cells to the site of infection. These cells complement the initial, unspecific defense with a more specialized, targeted response.

Quantum Groups as Hidden Symmetries of Quantum Impurities.

We present an approach to interacting quantum many-body systems based on the notion of quantum groups, also known as q-deformed Lie algebras. In particular, we show that, if the symmetry of a free quantum particle corresponds to a Lie group G, in the presence of a many-body environment this particle can be described by a deformed group, G_{q}. Crucially, the single deformation parameter, q, contains all the information about the many-particle interactions in the system.

Parvalbumin interneurons obey unique connectivity rules and establish a powerful lateral-inhibition microcircuit in dentate gyrus.

Parvalbumin-positive (PV) GABAergic interneurons in hippocampal microcircuits are thought to play a key role in several higher network functions, such as feedforward and feedback inhibition, network oscillations, and pattern separation. Fast lateral inhibition mediated by GABAergic interneurons may implement a winner-takes-all mechanism in the hippocampal input layer. However, it is not clear whether the functional connectivity rules of granule cells (GCs) and interneurons in the dentate gyrus are consistent with such a mechanism.

Diagrammatic Monte Carlo Approach to Angular Momentum in Quantum Many-Particle Systems.

We introduce a diagrammatic Monte Carlo approach to angular momentum properties of quantum many-particle systems possessing a macroscopic number of degrees of freedom. The treatment is based on a diagrammatic expansion that merges the usual Feynman diagrams with the angular momentum diagrams known from atomic and nuclear structure theory, thereby incorporating the non-Abelian algebra inherent to quantum rotations. Our approach is applicable at arbitrary coupling, is free of systematic errors and of finite-size effects, and naturally provides access to the impurity Green function.

Protection against the lethal side effects of social immunity in ants.

Many animals use antimicrobials to prevent or cure disease [1,2]. For example, some animals will ingest plants with medicinal properties, both prophylactically to prevent infection and therapeutically to self-medicate when sick. Antimicrobial substances are also used as topical disinfectants, to prevent infection, protect offspring and to sanitise their surroundings [1,2].

Negative selection in tumor genome evolution acts on essential cellular functions and the immunopeptidome.

Background: Natural selection shapes cancer genomes. Previous studies used signatures of positive selection to identify genes driving malignant transformation. However, the contribution of negative selection against somatic mutations that affect essential tumor functions or specific domains remains a controversial topic.

Complementary Tuning of Na and K Channel Gating Underlies Fast and Energy-Efficient Action Potentials in GABAergic Interneuron Axons.

Fast-spiking, parvalbumin-expressing GABAergic interneurons (PV-BCs) express a complex machinery of rapid signaling mechanisms, including specialized voltage-gated ion channels to generate brief action potentials (APs). However, short APs are associated with overlapping Na and K fluxes and are therefore energetically expensive. How the potentially vicious combination of high AP frequency and inefficient spike generation can be reconciled with limited energy supply is presently unclear.

Effect of a magnetic field on molecule-solvent angular momentum transfer.

Recently it was shown that a molecule rotating in a quantum solvent can be described in terms of the "angulon" quasiparticle [M. Lemeshko, Phys. Rev.

Crosstalk in concurrent repeated games impedes direct reciprocity and requires stronger levels of forgiveness.

Direct reciprocity is a mechanism for cooperation among humans. Many of our daily interactions are repeated. We interact repeatedly with our family, friends, colleagues, members of the local and even global community.

Destructive disinfection of infected brood prevents systemic disease spread in ant colonies.

In social groups, infections have the potential to spread rapidly and cause disease outbreaks. Here, we show that in a social insect, the ant , the negative consequences of fungal infections () can be mitigated by employing an efficient multicomponent behaviour, termed destructive disinfection, which prevents further spread of the disease through the colony. Ants specifically target infected pupae during the pathogen's non-contagious incubation period, utilising chemical 'sickness cues' emitted by pupae.

Emergence of Non-Abelian Magnetic Monopoles in a Quantum Impurity Problem.

Recently, it was shown that molecules rotating in superfluid helium can be described in terms of the angulon quasiparticles [Phys. Rev. Lett.

Individual- and ejaculate-specific sperm traits in ant males.

Sperm cells are the most morphologically diverse cells across animal taxa. Within species, sperm and ejaculate traits have been suggested to vary with the male's competitive environment, e.g.

Triple Function of Synaptotagmin 7 Ensures Efficiency of High-Frequency Transmission at Central GABAergic Synapses.

Synaptotagmin 7 (Syt7) is thought to be a Ca sensor that mediates asynchronous transmitter release and facilitation at synapses. However, Syt7 is strongly expressed in fast-spiking, parvalbumin-expressing GABAergic interneurons, and the output synapses of these neurons produce only minimal asynchronous release and show depression rather than facilitation. To resolve this apparent contradiction, we examined the effects of genetic elimination of Syt7 on synaptic transmission at the GABAergic basket cell (BC)-Purkinje cell (PC) synapse in cerebellum.

Co-founding ant queens prevent disease by performing prophylactic undertaking behaviour.

Background: Social insects form densely crowded societies in environments with high pathogen loads, but have evolved collective defences that mitigate the impact of disease. However, colony-founding queens lack this protection and suffer high rates of mortality. The impact of pathogens may be exacerbated in species where queens found colonies together, as healthy individuals may contract pathogens from infectious co-founders.

Distance-dependent inhibition facilitates focality of gamma oscillations in the dentate gyrus.

Gamma oscillations (30-150 Hz) in neuronal networks are associated with the processing and recall of information. We measured local field potentials in the dentate gyrus of freely moving mice and found that gamma activity occurs in bursts, which are highly heterogeneous in their spatial extensions, ranging from focal to global coherent events. Synaptic communication among perisomatic-inhibitory interneurons (PIIs) is thought to play an important role in the generation of hippocampal gamma patterns.

Social Immunity: Emergence and Evolution of Colony-Level Disease Protection.

Social insect colonies have evolved many collectively performed adaptations that reduce the impact of infectious disease and that are expected to maximize their fitness. This colony-level protection is termed social immunity, and it enhances the health and survival of the colony. In this review, we address how social immunity emerges from its mechanistic components to produce colony-level disease avoidance, resistance, and tolerance.

Deconstructing Superorganisms and Societies to Address Big Questions in Biology.

Social insect societies are long-standing models for understanding social behaviour and evolution. Unlike other advanced biological societies (such as the multicellular body), the component parts of social insect societies can be easily deconstructed and manipulated. Recent methodological and theoretical innovations have exploited this trait to address an expanded range of biological questions.

Ant queens increase their reproductive efforts after pathogen infection.

Infections with potentially lethal pathogens may negatively affect an individual's lifespan and decrease its reproductive value. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that individuals faced with a reduced survival should invest more into reproduction instead of maintenance and growth. Several studies suggest that individuals are indeed able to estimate their body condition and to increase their reproductive effort with approaching death, while other studies gave ambiguous results.

Strongly aligned molecules inside helium droplets in the near-adiabatic regime.

Iodine (I) molecules embedded in He nanodroplets are aligned by a 160 ps long laser pulse. The highest degree of alignment, occurring at the peak of the pulse and quantified by ⟨cos𝜃⟩, is measured as a function of the laser intensity. The results are well described by ⟨cos𝜃⟩ calculated for a gas of isolated molecules each with an effective rotational constant of 0.