Natural and sexual selection and functional roles influence colouration but not the amount of variation in butterfly wing colour patterns.

Background: Trait variation is shaped by functional roles of traits and the strength and direction of selection acting on the traits. We hypothesized that in butterflies, sexually selected colouration is more variable owing to condition-dependent nature and directional selection on sexual ornaments, whereas naturally selected colouration may be less variable because of stabilising selection. We measured reflectance spectra, and extracted colour parameters, to compare the amount of variation in sexually versus naturally selected colour patches across wing surfaces and sexes of 20 butterfly species across 4 families (Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Lycaenidae).

Spin transport properties in a topological insulator sandwiched between two-dimensional magnetic layers.

Non-trivial band topology along with magnetism leads to different novel quantum phases. When time-reversal symmetry is broken in three-dimensional topological insulators (TIs) through, e.g.

A Strategy To Access Embedded Circuits in a Single-Molecule Bis-Terpyridine Breadboard Junction.

Predictive approaches and rules to connect and combine molecular circuit components are required to realize the potential of molecular electronics and develop miniaturized integrated circuits. To this end, we have recently demonstrated a bis(terpyridine)-based molecular breadboard with four conductance states formed by the superposition of five 2-5 ring circuits. Here, we develop a generic analytical/statistical model to describe break-junction data and use it to extract the conductance of the five embedded circuits in the bis-terpyridine-based molecular breadboard junction.

Tuning the electronic structure and SMSI by integrating trimetallic sites with defective ceria for the CO reduction reaction.

Heterogeneous catalysts have emerged as a potential key for closing the carbon cycle by converting carbon dioxide (CO) into value-added chemicals. In this work, we report a highly active and stable ceria (CeO)-based electronically tuned trimetallic catalyst for CO to CO conversion. A unique distribution of electron density between the defective ceria support and the trimetallic nanoparticles (of Ni, Cu, Zn) was established by creating the strong metal support interaction (SMSI) between them.

The shape of cleaved tethered membranes.

A remarkable property of flexible self-avoiding elastic surfaces (membranes) is that they remain flat at all temperatures, even in the absence of a bending rigidity or in the presence of active fluctuations. Here, we report numerical results of these surfaces wherein we alter their topology by systematically cleaving internal bonds. While it is known that a random removal of membrane bonds does not disrupt the overall extended shape of the membrane, we find that cleaving an elastic surface with longitudinal parallel cuts leads to its systematic collapse into a number of complex morphologies that can be controlled by altering the number and length of the inserted cuts.

Crafting tailored, well-defined block copolymers of cyclic esters with an organomagnesium initiator.

An organomagnesium complex containing an imino-phosphanamidinate ligand was found to be a competent catalyst for the ROP of -LA and ε-CL as well as their copolymerization sequential addition of monomers, resulting in the formation of PCL--PLA diblock copolymer. The polymers obtained were characterized by H, C, DOSY NMR, DSC, TGA, POM, and SEM.

Conformational diversity in class C GPCR positive allosteric modulation.

The metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlus) are class C G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) that form obligate dimers activated by the major excitatory neurotransmitter L-glutamate. The architecture of mGlu receptor comprises an extracellular Venus-Fly Trap domain (VFT) connected to the transmembrane domain (7TM) through a Cysteine-Rich Domain (CRD). The binding of L-glutamate in the VFTs and subsequent conformational change results in the signal being transmitted to the 7TM inducing G protein binding and activation.

STIPS algorithm enables tracking labyrinthine patterns and reveals distinct rhythmic dynamics of actin microridges.

Tracking and motion analyses of semi-flexible biopolymer networks from time-lapse microscopy images are important tools that enable quantitative measurements to unravel the dynamic and mechanical properties of biopolymers in living tissues, crucial for understanding their organization and function. Biopolymer networks are challenging to track due to continuous stochastic transitions, such as merges and splits, which cause local neighbourhood rearrangements over short time and length scales. To address this, we propose the STIPS algorithm (Spatio Temporal Information on Pixel Subsets) to track these events by creating pixel subsets that link trajectories across frames.

Tunneling barriers in an extended Marcus theory of electron transfer: Incorporating effects of the bridging medium.

The Marcus semi-classical and quantum theories of electron transfer (ET) have been extensively used to understand and predict tunneling ET reaction rates in the condensed phase. Previously, the traditional Marcus two-state model has been extended to a three-state model, which assumes a harmonic dependence of donor (D), bridge (B), and acceptor (A) free energies on the reaction (e.g.

BharatSim: An agent-based modelling framework for India.

BharatSim is an open-source agent-based modelling framework for the Indian population. It can simulate populations at multiple scales, from small communities to states. BharatSim uses a synthetic population created by applying statistical methods and machine learning algorithms to survey data from multiple sources, including the Census of India, the India Human Development Survey, the National Sample Survey, and the Gridded Population of the World.

Identification of ABHD6 as a lysophosphatidylserine lipase in the mammalian liver and kidneys.

Lysophosphatidylserine (lyso-PS) is a potent hormone-like signaling lysophospholipid, which regulates many facets of mammalian biology and dysregulation in its metabolism is associated with several human neurological and autoimmune diseases. Despite the physiological importance and causal relation with human pathophysiology, little is known about the metabolism of lyso-PS in tissues other than the nervous and immune systems. To address this problem, here, we attempted to identify one (or more) lipase(s) capable of degrading lyso-PS in different mammalian tissues.

Dioxygen reductase heterogeneity is crucial for robust aerobic growth physiology of .

The development of a system to leverage molecular oxygen for energy-efficient pathways required several molecular adaptations. The enzymatic reduction of dioxygen to water is one such prominent evolutionary molecular trait. Microbes evolved several enzymes capable of reducing dioxygen and, interestingly, retained multiples of them in their genomes.

Molecular aspects of cytoprotection by Optineurin during stress and disease.

Optineurin/OPTN is an adapter protein that plays a crucial role in mediating many cellular functions, including autophagy, vesicle trafficking, and various signalling pathways. Mutations of OPTN are linked with neurodegenerative disorders, glaucoma, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Recent work has shown that OPTN provides cytoprotection from many types of stress, including oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, protein homeostasis stress, tumour necrosis factor α, and microbial infection.

Engineering ultra-strong electron-phonon coupling and nonclassical electron transport in crystalline gold with nanoscale interfaces.

Electrical resistivity in good metals, particularly noble metals such as gold (Au), silver (Ag), or copper, increases linearly with temperature (T) for T > Θ, where Θ is the Debye temperature. This is because the coupling (λ) between the electrons and the lattice vibrations, or phonons, in these metals is weak, with λ ~ 0.1-0.

Structural analysis of genetic variants of the human tumor suppressor Palb2 coiled-coil domain.

The tumor suppressor PALB2 is a key player in the Homologous Recombination (HR) pathway, functionally connecting BRCA proteins at the DNA damage site. PALB2 forms homodimers via its coiled-coil domain, and during HR, it forms a heterodimeric complex with BRCA1 using the same domain. However, the structural details of the human PALB2 coiled-coil domain are unknown.

Probing Spatial Proximities Between Protons of Collagen Protein in Native Bone Using 2D H Multiple Quantum Experiments Under Fast MAS NMR.

In solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy, fast magic angle spinning (MAS) is a potent technique that efficiently reduces line broadening and makes it possible to probe structural details of biological systems in high resolution. However, its utilization in studying complex heterogeneous biomaterials such as bone in their native state has been limited. The present study has demonstrated the feasibility of acquiring two-dimensional (2D) H-H correlation spectra for native bone using multiple-quantum/single-quantum correlation experiments (MQ/SQ) at fast MAS (70 kHz).

Telomere length sensitive regulation of interleukin receptor 1 type 1 (IL1R1) by the shelterin protein TRF2 modulates immune signalling in the tumour microenvironment.

Telomeres are crucial for cancer progression. Immune signalling in the tumour microenvironment has been shown to be very important in cancer prognosis. However, the mechanisms by which telomeres might affect tumour immune response remain poorly understood.

Generalized Hydrodynamic Description of the Page Curve-like Dynamics of a Freely Expanding Fermionic Gas.

We consider an analytically tractable model that exhibits the main features of the Page curve characterizing the evolution of entanglement entropy during evaporation of a black hole. Our model is a gas of noninteracting fermions on a lattice that is released from a box into the vacuum. More precisely, our Hamiltonian is a tight-binding model with a defect at the junction between the filled box and the vacuum.

Exciton-Polaron in a Quasi-One-Dimensional Chain of Hexyl-Diammonium-BiI Octahedra.

Lower-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials promise to revolutionize the optoelectronics industry due to the tremendous possibilities of exotic control on excitonic properties driven via quantum confinement. Flexible organic cations acting as spacers and stabilizers enhance electron-phonon couplings, further amplifying the potential for modular light-matter interactions in these materials. Herein we unravel the nature of excitons in a quasi-1D chain of corner-sharing bismuth iodide octahedra with an intrinsic quantum well structure stabilized by a hexyl-diammonium cation.

A combined NMR and deep neural network approach for enhancing the spectral resolution of aromatic side chains in proteins.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is an important technique for deriving the dynamics and interactions of macromolecules; however, characterizations of aromatic residues in proteins still pose a challenge. Here, we present a deep neural network (DNN), which transforms NMR spectra recorded on simple uniformly C-labeled samples to yield high-quality H-C correlation maps of aromatic side chains. Key to the success of the DNN is the design of NMR experiments that produce data with unique features to aid the DNN produce high-resolution spectra.

Motor Function of the Two-Component EEA1-Rab5 Revealed by dcFCCS.

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) enables the measurement of fluctuations at fast timescales (typically few nanoseconds) and with high spatial resolution (tens of nanometers). This single-molecule measurement has been used to characterize single-molecule transport and flexibility of polymers and biomolecules such as DNA and RNA. Here, we apply this technique as dual-color fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (dcFCCS) to identify the motor function of the tethering protein EEA1 and the small GTPase Rab5 by probing the flexibility changes through end-monomer fluctuations.