This paper reports a new Early Cretaceous flora discovered recently near the village of Estercuel (Teruel province, northeastern Spain). The plant bearing beds belong to the uppermost part of the Early Cretaceous succession, at the top of the fluvial deposits of the Utrillas Formation. The site has yielded a diverse assemblage of plant compressions including lycopods and ferns, various gymnosperms

Singlet fission is the spin-allowed conversion of a spin-singlet exciton into a pair of spin-triplet excitons residing on neighbouring molecules. To rationalize this phenomenon, a multiexcitonic spin-zero triplet-pair state has been hypothesized as an intermediate in singlet fission. However, the nature of the intermediate states and the underlying mechanism of ultrafast fission have not been eluc

In alternate partial root-zone irrigation (APRI) a significant amount of irrigation water can be saved without considerable yield reduction. In this paper, Hydrus-2D/3D was used to investigate the impact of geometric design of alternate partial root-zone subsurface drip irrigation (APRSDI) with brackish water for growing tomato on soil moisture and salinity distribution. Three inter-plant emitter

The purpose of this work is to study the deformation of elastic cantilevers due to hydrodynamic forces by coupled fluid-structure interaction simulations. The cantilever is placed in a rectangular duct and the Reynolds number based on bulk velocity and cantilever diameter is 400. Reduced velocities in the range pi/4 to 2 pi are studied, which covers both un-synchronised motion and the initial bran

Rarely does the death of animals cause conflict between governments. However, the killing of some animals, such as seals, wolves, and other exotic wildlife, can cause heated conflict over whether the act of killing is itself justifiable.This paper provides an overview of a recent disagreement along these lines – between the EU and Sweden over the management of wolves. It juxtaposes the recent poli

Understanding the degree of genetic population differentiation is important in conservation genetics for inferring gene flow between populations and for identifying small and isolated threatened populations. We evaluated the genetic variation within and between three populations of the rock firefinch (Lagonosticta sanguinodorsalis), a range restricted firefinch endemic to Nigeria and Cameroon. The

Malignant melanoma (MM) patients are being treated with an increasing number of personalized medicine (PM) drugs, several of which are small molecule drugs developed to treat patients with specific disease genotypes and phenotypes. In particular, the clinical application of protein kinase inhibitors (PKI) has been highly effective for certain subsets of MM patients. Vemurafenib, a PKI targeting BR

In this paper we describe and summarize the main achievements of the European Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions project (EUCAARI). EUCAARI started on 1 January 2007 and ended on 31 December 2010 leaving a rich legacy including: (a) a comprehensive database with a year of observations of the physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosol particles over Europe, (b) comprehensi

low bone mineral density measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry is associated with increased mortality. The relationship between other skeletal phenotypes and mortality is unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between quantitative heel ultrasound parameters and mortality in a cohort of European men.

Classical fitting-attitude analyses understand value in terms of its being fitting, or more generally, there being a reason to favour the bearer of value. Recently such analyses have been interpreted as referring to two reason-notions rather than to only one. The idea is that the properties of the object provide reason not only for a certain kind of favouring(s) vis-à-vis the object, but the very

Aims/hypothesis High-energy breakfast and reduced-energy dinner (Bdiet) significantly reduces postprandial glycaemia in obese non-diabetic individuals. Our objective was to test whether this meal schedule reduces postprandial hyperglycaemia (PPHG) in patients with type 2 diabetes by enhancing incretin and insulin levels when compared with high-energy dinner and reduced-energy breakfast (Ddiet). Me

For the aging populations of Europe, many emerging health problems in addition to myocardial infarction and stroke are associated with hypertension. Recently, the role of hypertension in the risk of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia has been highlighted, and there are studies to show that control of hypertension may slow this process. Furthermore, as many elderly individuals will also dev

The recently described oomycete pathogen Phytophthora pisi causes root rot on pea and faba bean, while the closely related Phytophthora sojae is the causal agent of soybean root and stem rot. Differences in the pathogenicity factor repertoires that enable the two species to have distinct host specificity towards pea and soybean, were studied using tandem mass spectrometry in a global proteome stud

Semiconductor nanowires are great candidates for building novel electronic devices. Considering the cost of fabricating such devices, substrate reuse and gold consumption are the main concerns. Here we report on implementation of high throughput gold electrodeposition for selective deposition of metal seed particles in arrays defined by lithography for nanowire synthesis. By use of this method, a

Traditional approaches for understanding environmental governance - such as environmental policy analysis or natural resources management - do not adequately address the gamut of human-natural system interactions within the context of the complex biogeophysical cycles and processes of the planet. This is perhaps more so in the African regional context where the complex relationships between modern

A decade ahead of their time, von Schantz et al. united sexual selection and free radical biology by identifying causal links between deep-rooted physiological processes that dictate resistance to toxic waste from oxidative metabolism (reactive oxygen species, ROS), and phenotypic traits, such as ornaments. Ten years later, these ideas have still only been tested with indirect estimates of free ra

In this communication, we analyse the passage of oxygen and carbon dioxide over the respiratory membrane. The lung surfactant membrane at the alveolar interface can have a very special arrangement, which affects the diffusional transport. We present a theoretical model for the diffusion of small molecules in membranes with a complex structure, and we specifically compare a membrane composed of a t