Determining the relationship between the activity of a single nerve cell to that of an entire population is a fundamental question that bears on the basic neural computation paradigms. In this paper we apply an information theoretic approach to quantify the level of cooperative activity among cells in a behavioral context. It is possible to discriminate between synergetic activity of the cells ...

In this study we quantify effects of urban areas on the carbon cycle in Europe accounting for: (1) proportion of impervious land, (2) local urban climate, (3) urban CO2 concentrations, and (4) elevated atmospheric nitrogen deposition. We use a terrestrial ecosystem model to estimate biosphere-to-atmosphere carbon fluxes in response to these urban factors. It was found that fertilization effects...

A model of biological effects of ionizing particles, especially of protons and other ions, is proposed. The model is based on distinguishing the single-particle and collective effects of the underlying radiobiological mechanism. The probabilities of individual particles causing severe damage to DNA, their synergetic or saturation combinations, and the effect of the cellular repair system are ta...

Biogas production is becoming increasingly important in the environmental area because, besides treating wastewaters, it also generates energy. Co-digestion has become more and more powerful since it is possible, with the use of abundant and cheap substrates, to dilute the inhibitory effects of various other substrates, making the process of anaerobic digestion more efficient and stable. Biogas...

Acoustic cavitation which occurs at high intensities of ultrasound waves can be fatal for tumor cells. The existence of dissolved gases and also the presence of nanoparticles (NPs) in a liquid, irradiated by ultrasound, decrease the acoustic cavitation onset threshold and the resulting bubbles collapse. On the other hand, due to unique capabilities and optical properties of gold nanoparticles (...

The efficiency of hydrogen peroxide evolution reaction (H2O2ER) by photoanodic water oxidation is normally limited low yield and poor selectivity. In this work, the surfaces Mo doped BiVO4 are modified Co2+ PO43- ions (CPMB), which has been used as photoanode with improved H2O2 optimal rate CPMB ca. 0.23 µmol·min−1·cm−2, corresponding to 2.5 times pristine photoanode, faradaic for H2O2ER 26%. s...

Protein structures as provided by structural biology such as X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and NMR spectroscopy are key elements to understand the function of a protein on the molecular level. Nonetheless, they might be error-prone due to crystallization artifacts or, in particular in case of membrane-imbedded proteins, a mostly artificial environment. In this review, we will ...

We define co-solvability as an ability of a solution to solve a pair of fitness cases (tests). The fitness function based on this concept grants rewards to solutions depending on their performance on all pairs of tests, in a way analogous to implicit fitness sharing. We prove that cosolvability fitness function is synergetic by definition and imposes selection pressure which is qualitatively di...

Using a chemical vapor deposition method, we have synthesized vertically aligned BCN nanotubes (VA-BCNs) on a Ni-Fe-coated SiO(2)/Si substrate from a melamine diborate precursor. The effects of pyrolysis conditions on the morphology and thermal property of grown nanotubes, as well as the nanostructure and composition of an individual BCN nanotube, were systematically studied. It was found that ...