Correlative three-dimensional X-ray histology (3D-XRH) as a tool for quantifying mammalian placental structure.

Mammalian placentas exhibit unparalleled structural diversity, despite sharing a common ancestor and principal functions. The bulk of structural studies in placental research has used two-dimensional (2D) histology sectioning, allowing significant advances in our understanding of mammalian placental structure. However, 2D histology sectioning may be limited if it does not provide accurate information of three-dimensional (3D) tissue architecture.

The politics of COVID-19: Differences between U.S. red and blue states in COVID-19 regulations and deaths.

The study investigated infection variables and control strategies in 2020 and 2021 and their influence on COVID-19 deaths in the United States, with a particular focus on comparing red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states. The analysis reviewed cumulative COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 by year, state political affiliation, and a priori latent factor groupings of mitigation strategies (lockdown days in 2020, mask mandate days, vaccination rates), social demographic variables (ethnicity, poverty rate), and biological variables (median age, obesity). Analyses first identified possible relationships between all assessed variables using K-means clustering for red, blue, and purple states.

Assessing the Welfare of Captive Group-Housed Cockroaches, .

The welfare of invertebrates under human care is of growing concern, particularly with the increasing interest in insect farming as an environmentally sustainable means of producing food. Additionally, individual welfare monitoring systems can be time-consuming and impractical for larger groups, particularly when individual animals are difficult to identify. It is, therefore, imperative to develop a validated system for monitoring terrestrial invertebrate welfare at a group level.

Welfare Assessment of Invertebrates: Adapting the Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (AWAG) for Zoo Decapods and Cephalopods.

Consumer demand for invertebrates is on the rise as their numbers in the wild dwindle. However, with the growing conservation efforts of modern zoos and aquariums, and evidence from over 300 studies showing that invertebrates are capable of sentience, public interest, and moral concern for welfare of invertebrates have increased. The challenge for zoos and aquariums is in developing an objective and repeatable method for evaluating welfare that can be applied to invertebrates in zoological collections.