Highly Sensitive Plasmonic Refractive Index Sensor Using Doped Silicon: an Alternative to MIM Structures

Plasmonics - Metal–Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures possess a number of shortcomings which include optical loss, tenability, nanofabrication challenges, chemical instability, incompatible...     

Alary polymorphism in the small brown planthopper Laodelphax striatellus (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

Environmental and genetic factors which influence alary polymorphism in Laodelphax striatellus (Fallén) were studied. It has been found that alary polymorphism in L. striatellus is determined by quality and quantity of food, and crowding. There is also a clear genetic basis for polymorphism.

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Zusammenfassung In dieser Studie werden einige Umweltfaktoren und genetische Faktoren untersucht, welche den Flügelpolymorphismus bei Laodelphax striatellus (Fallén) beeinflussen. Es wurde festgestellt, dass verschiedene Umweltfaktoren wie Qualität und Quantität des Futters und Crowding bestimmend wirken. Es besteht auch eine klare genetische Basis für Polymorphismus.

     

Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood

The value of different mate choices may depend on the local pathogen ecology and on personal infection susceptibility: when there is a high risk of infection, choosing a healthy or immunocompetent mate may be particularly important. Frequency of childhood illness may act as a cue of the ecological and immunological factors relevant to mate preferences. Consistent with this proposal, we found that childhood illness – and frequency of diarrhea in particular – was positively correlated with preferences for exaggerated sex-typical characteristics in opposite-sex, but not same-sex, faces. Moreover, this relationship was stronger among individuals with poorer current health. These data suggest that childhood illness may play a role in calibrating adult mate preferences and have implications for theories of disease-avoidance psychology, life-history strategy and cross-cultural differences in mate preferences.