Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

The invasive brown widow spider is less often parasitized by egg sac parasitoids than native widow species

Abstract The brown widow spider ( Latrodectus geometricus , Theridiidae) is invasive globally. Of the 35 known widow spider species, the brown widow is the only one that has spread nearly worldwide, and its range continues to expand. Despite the species’ widespread success, it re...

Regional signaling controls stem cell-mediated regeneration in an invertebrate chordate

Many tissues harbor quiescent stem cells that activate after injury, yet how local signals regulate this transition is not well understood. The solitary ascidian Ciona robusta provides a unique model, as bottom body fragments regenerate while upper fragments fail to do so. By com...

Two distinct excitability types delineate the partition between normal brain function, engram encoding, and the two phases of hyperexcitability/epileptic susceptibility

Abstract The conventional conceptualization of neuronal excitability as a unitary phenomenon obscures critical distinctions between synaptic and ephaptic mechanisms of neural activation. In the present investigation, we separate excitability into two independent parameters synapt...

Beyond Value: On the Role of Symmetry in Demand for Information

We study demand for symmetric and asymmetric information sources in the laboratory. Although participants respond to incentives and instrumental considerations, they exhibit a systematic bias towards symmetric sources. These patterns persist among individuals with higher cognitiv...

Tunable Morphologies of Dried Colloidal Deposits in Graphene Oxide-Laden Aqueous Sessile Droplets Mediated by Mesophase Characteristics

Abstract We experimentally report tunability in the colloidal deposit morphologies of Graphene Oxide (GO) from desiccating sessile droplets, governed by characteristic mesophases driven by spontaneous self-assembly in aqueous media. Observations revealed mesophase-directed regime...

Algebraic functions with infinitely many values in a number field

We provide several characterizations of algebraic curves X : F ( x , y ) = 0 defined over ℚ ¯ that satisfy the following property: there exist a number field k and an infinite set S ⊂ k such that, for every y ∈ S , the roots of the polynomial F ( x , y ) belong to k .

Metabolic changes following relief of upper airway obstruction promote rebound weight gain in mice

The mechanisms driving weight gain after removal of upper airway obstruction and restoration of normal respiration remain unclear. We examined how increased respiratory loading alters energy balance, body weight, and metabolism in mice during and after airway obstruction (AO). In...

A Transparent Method for Medicolegal Decision-Making: The FAIR Framework for Individualized Attribution in Occupational Disease

OBJECTIVE: To present and evaluate Factor Attribution for Integrated Risk (FAIR), a framework for proportional attribution of excess disease risk in occupational medicine. FAIR aligns epidemiologic evidence with medicolegal thresholds (>50%, ≥20%) and distinguishes population-lev...

Parrotfish demonstrate little behavioural shift during marine heatwaves

The world is experiencing notable increases in the duration, intensity and frequency of marine heatwaves (MHWs). Documented effects of MHWs on fishes encompass various population- and community-level impacts, ranging from localized mass mortalities to transient or semi-permanent...

Seasonal stratification regulates carbon allocation between particulate and dissolved pathways in the Gulf of Aqaba

Abstract. Water column stratification exerts fundamental control on microbial carbon cycling in oligotrophic areas of the ocean, yet its impact on the partitioning and fate of newly fixed carbon remains insufficiently resolved. Here, we investigated carbon fluxes in the Northern...

The value of a prophage-borne defense system in phage–phage competition

Temperate phages that incorporate into their bacterial hosts’ genomes often encode defense systems that protect their hosts from superinfection by unrelated phages. Yet the evolutionary value of such defenses to the phage remains unclear. We present a minimal theoretical framewor...

Pulmonary exacerbations in primary ciliary dyskinesia

Abstract Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare inherited disorder of motile ciliary dysfunction characterized by impaired mucociliary clearance, chronic sino-pulmonary disease, and progressive bronchiectasis. Pulmonary exacerbations (PEx) are a major contributor to morbidity...

Radon-induced backgrounds in the NEXT-100 experiment

A bstract The NEXT-100 detector at the LSC aims at the first competitive search for the 0 νββ decay using a high-pressure 136 Xe electroluminescent time projection chamber. The first low-background run of NEXT-100 at 3.95 bar has been devoted to the measurement of the radon-induc...

From Rapid Progression to Long-Lasting Complete Response: A Wide Range of Ripretinib Activity for Metastatic GIST—A Real-World Cohort

Background: Ripretinib, a switch-control kinase inhibitor approved for advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), inhibits primary and secondary KIT and PDGFRA mutations. Real-world data from Western and Middle Eastern populations remain limited. We report outcomes from a mo...

Metabolic switching between inorganic and organic phosphorus sustains microbial activity in an ultraoligotrophic ocean

Abstract Phosphorus scarcity constrains microbial activity in parts of the oligotrophic ocean, yet the extent to which dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) supports microbial P demand remains unresolved. Here, we quantified the concentrations, turnover times, and uptake kinetics of...

Structural identification of the RY12 domain of RyR1 as an ADP sensor and the target of the malignant hyperthermia therapeutic dantrolene

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a life-threatening pharmacogenetic condition triggered by volatile anesthetics, which activate pathogenic RyR1 mutants. The small molecule therapeutic dantrolene has long been used to treat MH. However, the binding site and mechanism of dantrolene r...

IgG4-related endobronchial lung disease and HIV: a case report and review of the literature

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a systemic inflammatory disorder which typically presents as multiorgan infiltration by polyclonal IgG4-positive plasma cells and responds well to immunosuppression such as systemic corticosteroids. The co-occurrence of IgG4-RD among...

Building Trust After Zero Trust: A Longitudinal Empirical Study of Organizational Trust Dynamics in Telecommunications Infrastructure

Telecommunications infrastructures are increasingly cloud-native, multi-vendor, and mission-critical environments, integrating 5G core networks, virtualized network functions, and software-defined infrastructure that expand the operational attack surface and make robust security...

Gestational diabetes in multifetal versus singleton pregnancies: A multicenter cohort study

Abstract Introduction Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with increased neonatal morbidity in singleton pregnancies, but evidence in multifetal pregnancies is limited. Current diagnostic thresholds are largely extrapolated from singleton data; It remains unclear wh...

Connections: A Smarter Way to Target Influencers

Jacob Goldenberg, Andreas Lanz, Florian Stahl, and Daniel Shapira show that managers and creators who build ties with nearby, low-status influencers outperform those who cultivate high-status influencers. This efficient means of expanding audiences uses the existing dynamics of s...