University of Crete

About: University of Crete is a education organization based out in Rethymno, Greece. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 8681 authors who have published 21684 publications receiving 709078 citations. The organization is also known as: Panepistimio Kritis.

Highly evolvable malaria vectors: The genomes of 16 Anopheles mosquitoes

Abstract: Variation in vectorial capacity for human malaria among Anopheles mosquito species is determined by many factors, including behavior, immunity, and life history To investigate the genomic basis of vectorial capacity and explore new avenues for vector control, we sequenced the genomes of 16 anopheline mosquito species from diverse locations spanning ~100 million years of evolution Comparative analyses show faster rates of gene gain and loss, elevated gene shuffling on the X chromosome, and more intron losses, relative to Drosophila Some determinants of vectorial capacity, such as chemosensory genes, do not show elevated turnover but instead diversify through protein-sequence changes This dynamism of anopheline genes and genomes may contribute to their flexible capacity to take advantage of new ecological niches, including adapting to humans as primary hosts

Formation of atmospheric particles from organic acids produced by forests

Abstract: Aerosol formation in the atmosphere is an important process to understand, in that such particles may act as the cloud condensation nuclei responsible for the ‘cloud–climate’ effect1, and could locally be hazardous to health. The number-concentration of total atmospheric aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei is largely contributed by organic aerosols1. Much of the organic aerosol is formed from atmospheric gas-to-particle conversion, and the common and widespread non-methane hydrocarbons emitted by vegetation have been investigated as possible precursors2. But strong evidence for a quantitative link between biogenic hydrocarbon emission and organic aerosol formation has so far been lacking. Here we present measurements of gaseous and particulate atmospheric species from a forested area to show that some hydrocarbons (for example, terpenes) emitted by vegetation are photo-oxidized to organic acids (for example, pinonic acids), which condense to form organic aerosols. Thus the forests, through their production of large quantities of organic aerosols, could be of considerable significance both for climate (through cloud-condensation-nuclei formation) and for heterogeneous atmospheric chemical processes.

Regulation of dopaminergic transmission and cocaine reward by the Clock gene

Abstract: Although there are clear interactions between circadian rhythms and drug addiction, mechanisms for such interactions remain unknown. Here we establish a role for the Clock gene in regulating the brain's reward circuit. Mice lacking a functional Clock gene display an increase in cocaine reward and in the excitability of dopamine neurons in the midbrain ventral tegmental area, a key brain reward region. These phenotypes are associated with increased expression and phosphorylation of tyrosine hydroxylase (the rate-limiting enzyme in dopamine synthesis), as well as changes in several genes known to regulate dopamine activity in the ventral tegmental area. These findings demonstrate the involvement of a circadian-associated gene, Clock, in regulating dopamine function and cocaine reward.

The Axisymmetric Pulsar Magnetosphere

Abstract: We present, for the first time, the structure of the axisymmetric force-free magnetosphere of an aligned rotating magnetic dipole, in the case in which there exists a sufficiently large charge density (whose origin we do not question) to satisfy the ideal MHD condition, E B=0, everywhere. The unique distribution of electric current along the open magnetic field lines that is required for the solution to be continuous and smooth is obtained numerically. With the geometry of the field lines thus determined, we compute the dynamics of the associated MHD wind. The main result is that the relativistic outflow contained in the magnetosphere is not accelerated to the extremely relativistic energies required for the flow to generate gamma rays. We expect that our solution will be useful as the starting point for detailed studies of pulsar magnetospheres under more general conditions, namely, when the force-free and/or the ideal MHD condition, E B=0, are not valid in the entire magnetosphere. Based on our solution, we consider that the most likely positions of such an occurrence are the polar cap, the crossings of the zero space charge surface by open field lines, and the return current boundary, but not the light cylinder.