Amphipods are recognised as an important component of freshwater ecosystems and are frequently used as an ecotoxicological test species. Despite this double interest, there is still a lack of information concerning toxic impacts on ecologically relevant behaviours. The present study investigated the influence of cadmium (Cd), a non-essential heavy metal, on both antipredator behaviours and anti...

Aggregation is commonly thought to improve animals' security. Within aquatic ecosystems, group-living prey can learn about immediate threats using cues perceived directly from predators, or from collective behaviours, for example, by reacting to the escape behaviours of companions. Combining cues from different modalities may improve the accuracy of prey antipredatory decisions. In this study, ...

The range of applications of wireless sensor networks is so wide that it tends to invade our every day life. In the future, a sensor network will survey our health, our home, the roads we follow, the office or the industry we work in or even the aircrafts we use, in an attempt to enhance our safety. However, the wireless sensor networks themselves are prone to security attacks. The list of secu...

Pattern formation in self-organised biological aggregation is a phenomenon that has been studied intensively over the past twenty years. In general, the studies on pattern formation focus mainly on identifying the biological mechanisms that generate these patterns. However, identifying the mathematical mechanisms behind these patterns is equally important, since it can offer information on the ...

Using a multidisciplinary approach, the present study complements ethological behaviour measurements with basic theoretical concepts, methods, and approaches of the personality psychological trait paradigm. Its adoptability and usefulness for animal studies is tested exemplarily on a sample of 20 zoo-housed great apes (five of each species), bonobos (Pan paniscus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ...

A major problem in the formulation of therapeutic proteins is the irreversible protein aggregation. Recombinant human interferon alpha2b (rhIFN2b) has poor stability and undergoes physical degradation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of solution conditions on the heat-induced aggregation of rhIFNα2b. The protein was incubated for 1 h at 40°C–70°C and for up to 240 h at 50C...

A major problem in the formulation of therapeutic proteins is the irreversible protein aggregation. Recombinant human interferon alpha2b (rhIFN2b) has poor stability and undergoes physical degradation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of solution conditions on the heat-induced aggregation of rhIFNα2b. The protein was incubated for 1 h at 40°C–70°C and for up to 240 h at 50C...

Infection heterogeneity is one of the most fundamental patterns in disease ecology, yet surprisingly few studies have experimentally explored its underlying drivers. Here, we used large-scale field assessments to evaluate the degree of parasite aggregation within amphibian host populations followed by a novel experimental approach to assess the potential influence of host size, behaviour and im...

in this paper, aggregation behaviors of aqueous solutions of short chain hydrophilic ionic liquids (ils), 1 – allyl - 3 - methylimidazolium chloride ([amim]cl), 1 - ethyl - 3 - methylimidazolium chloride ([emim]cl), 1 - butyl - 3 - methylimidazolium chloride ([bmim]cl), 1 - butyl - 3 - methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([bmim]bf4) were investigated using conductivity and laser light scatterin...