Biological kingdoms conceal innumerous undiscovered in vivo models for assessing the biomedical potential of nanoparticles. Here, we report on a floral in vivo model that tests for biocompatibility, bioactivity, antimicrobial potency, and biological barrier penetrability of nanoparticles. The model makes use of the plucked flowers of Tecoma alata, a.k.a. Orange Jubilee, from the Bignoniaceae trumpet vine family. Two types of calcium phosphate (CP) nanoparticles, hydroxyapatite (HAp) and amorphous CP (ACP), were dispersed in deionized vase water, and their effects on the flower senescence were measured. The corolla margin diameter, the corolla tilting degree, and live vs. dead ratio were the parameters that defined the senescence metrics. Both HAp and ACP delayed the senescence of T. alata flowers in a concentration-dependent manner and in inverse proportionality with the pH. The effect was primarily attributed to the bacteriostatic activity of the nanoparticles against Gram-negative microorganisms whose growth blocks the xylem and prevents the water uptake, but also to the adsorption of flower degradation products that serve as bacterial food and signal the programmed cell death. The possibility that CP nanoparticles get deposited along the xylem lumen and take on the calcium-regulating role analogous to that of intracellular calcium oxalate crystals was discussed, too. Both HAp and ACP nanoparticles were uptaken by the flowers and primarily deposited in the calyxes, with the transport of HAp, but not ACP, to the petals being considerable, coinciding with the greater effect of HAp on the longevity at lower concentrations and reiterating that the effect is particulate and not ionic in nature. The observed effects were confirmed on another Tecoma species, Tecoma stans, a.k.a. Yellow Trumpetbush. Simple, economic, and high-throughput models enabling high statistical confidence levels, such as the floral in vivo model proposed here, can be valuable alternatives to their complex, expensive, and statistically challenging animal model analogues.
The drives of inter-individual relationships within avian social groups are largely unexplored and relatively poorly understood, including how social landscapes affect the decisions of individuals within these groups. On a modest level, this study undertakes to expand this knowledge with an ornithological observation of temporary groupings among multiple aquatic species in response to the pairing of birdwatchers. More ambitiously, the study presumes the analogy between the social response of an avian community and the subliminal response of the human psyche to spatial stimuli. The number of bird pairs forming in flocks, coverts and rafts was consistently higher when the birds interacted with children teamed up in pairs than when solitary children interacted with the birds. Inadvertent social cues consequential to the extended duration of the focus, vigilance stimulation and subliminal messages affecting the neurological pathways in the brain and the social dynamics pertaining to proxemics are discussed as potential causes of this effect. Lastly, the structure of the paper mimics the lifetime of inventive ideas, which originate from a chaos of amorphous thought, then crystallize into a clarity of logical concepts open to elaboration, and eventually disperse into a similar semantic clutter as that from which they were born.
Watching children at play is favorite pastime for many elderlies. However, the growing safety concerns have prompted parents to become increasingly resistant to the idea of having strangers watch their children in parks and playgrounds. This creates an intergenerational gap in communication with potentially detrimental consequences for all social groups. Oral interviews were conducted and written surveys distributed that validated the hesitance of seniors, especially in the United States, to spend time at children’s playgrounds despite their finding the vicinity of children stimulating. Behavioral observations were conducted at playgrounds to quantify the positive and negative effects of supervisors’ ages on children’s play and thus indirectly assess whether there can be mutual benefits of making the presence of older people at playgrounds, which is customary in many countries, more culturally acceptable. Observations focused on the behavior of a pair of siblings showed that there is an increased probability of both conflicts and joyful expressions when the children were in the presence of a middle-aged person than when they were watched over by the elderlies. This has suggested that freer expressions stimulated in the presence of parent-like figures simultaneously induce the undesired and the desired behavioral patterns in the form of propensities for conflict and propensities for expressions of joy, respectively. This has confirmed that the observational stance has a critical effect on the observational outcome and that the age of the watchers has an effect on the behavior of children at play, with the age correlating directly with the calmness of the play, but also with a lower degree of exhilaration.
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