Zebra finches demonstrate selective affiliation between juvenile offspring and parents, which, like affiliation between pair partners, is characterized by proximity, vocal communication and contact behaviors. This experiment tested the hypothesis that the nonapeptide arginine vasotocin (AVT, avian homologue of vasopressin) and nonapeptide receptors play a role prior to fledging in the developme...

Semitransparent organic solar cells based on sequentially processed heterojunction (SHJ) structure show a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.5% and an average visible transmittance (AVT) 25.4%, outperforming the BHJ counterpart (PCE = 11.8%, AVT 22.9%).

Blue tits (Cyanistes coeruleus) are songbirds, used as model animals in numerous studies covering a wide field of research. Nevertheless, the distribution of neuropeptides in the brain of this avian species remains largely unknown. Here we present some of the first results on distribution of Vasotocine (AVT) and Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in the brain of males and females of this songb...

Acclimation of the European lesser-spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula to reduced environmental salinity [85-70% seawater (SW)] induced a significant diuresis in addition to a significant decrease in plasma osmolality in vivo. The threshold for this diuresis was determined to be 85% SW. Therefore, S. canicula acclimated to 85% SW was selected for further study as a diuretic model in the devel...

a ritonavir (RTV)-boosted form is now common. However, randomized data comparing boosted with unboosted PI strategies are scarce. Methods: This randomized, open-label trial compared indinavir (IDV) 800 mg three times daily with IDV/RTV 800/100 mg twice daily, both given with zidovudine (AZT)/lamivudine (3TC) twice daily in individuals with at least 3 months previous AZT experience. The primary ...

Co py Objective: In patients with a chronic asymptomatic HIV-1 infection and >200 CD4 T-cells/μl, the optimal timing of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) initiation is unclear. It involves a trade-off between a potentially reduced risk of mortality, when started earlier in the course of infection, and an earlier exposure to pill burden and potential toxicities. We investigated patien...

In tetrapods, arginine vasopressin and its counterpart, arginine vasotocin (AVT), are involved in renal water conservation through vascular V1a-type and tubular V2-type receptors, and only the former has thus far been cloned in fish. We successfully cloned the V1a-type and V2-type AVT receptor from the kidney of the African lungfish, Protopterus annectens, and the deduced amino acid sequences e...

Visibly transparent luminescent solar concentrators (TLSC) can optimize both power production and visible transparency by selectively harvesting the invisible portion of spectrum. Since primary applications TLSCs include building envelopes, greenhouses, automobiles, signage, mobile electronics, maintaining aesthetics functionalities is as important achieving high conversion efficiencies (PCEs) ...

In an interspecific cooperative context, individuals must be prepared to tolerate close interactive proximity to other species but also need to be able to respond to relevant social stimuli in the most appropriate manner. The neuropeptides vasopressin and oxytocin and their non-mammalian homologues have been implicated in the evolution of sociality and in the regulation of social behaviour acro...

Male cricket frogs, Acris crepitans communicate to males and females using advertisement calls, which are arranged into call groups. Calls at the middle and end, but not beginning of the call group, are modified in response to male-male aggressive interactions. We found in this field study of male cricket frogs in natural breeding choruses that the peptide hormone arginine vasotocin (AVT) not o...