Cisnormative Language and Erasure of Trans* and Genderqueer Student Representation in Biology Education Research.

Trans* and genderqueer student retention and liberation is integral for equity in undergraduate education. While STEM leadership calls for data-supported systemic change, the erasure and othering of trans* and genderqueer identities in STEM research perpetuates cisnormative narratives. We sought to characterize how sex and gender data are collected, analyzed, and described in biology education research.

Ecological filtering shapes the impacts of agricultural deforestation on biodiversity.

The biodiversity impacts of agricultural deforestation vary widely across regions. Previous efforts to explain this variation have focused exclusively on the landscape features and management regimes of agricultural systems, neglecting the potentially critical role of ecological filtering in shaping deforestation tolerance of extant species assemblages at large geographical scales via selection for functional traits. Here we provide a large-scale test of this role using a global database of species abundance ratios between matched agricultural and native forest sites that comprises 71 avian assemblages reported in 44 primary studies, and a companion database of 10 functional traits for all 2,647 species involved.

The Feasibility and Data Quality for a Listening Comprehension Task in an Unmoderated Remote Study With Children.

Purpose: The purpose of this research note was to examine the sample representation, feasibility and completion, and data quality when using an unmoderated remote study (i.e., conducted without direct contact with a researcher) for a listening comprehension task with 4- to 11-year-old children.

Cone photoreceptors transfer damaged mitochondria to Müller glia.

Mitochondria are vital organelles that require sophisticated homeostatic mechanisms for maintenance. Intercellular transfer of damaged mitochondria is a recently identified strategy broadly used to improve cellular health and viability. Here, we investigate mitochondrial homeostasis in the vertebrate cone photoreceptor, the specialized neuron that initiates our daytime and color vision.

Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU) deficiency reveals an alternate path for Ca uptake in photoreceptor mitochondria.

Rods and cones use intracellular Ca to regulate many functions, including phototransduction and neurotransmission. The Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU) complex is thought to be the primary pathway for Ca entry into mitochondria in eukaryotes. We investigate the hypothesis that mitochondrial Ca uptake via MCU influences phototransduction and energy metabolism in photoreceptors using a mcu zebrafish and a rod photoreceptor-specific Mcu mouse.

Estimating retention benchmarks for salvage logging to protect biodiversity.

Forests are increasingly affected by natural disturbances. Subsequent salvage logging, a widespread management practice conducted predominantly to recover economic capital, produces further disturbance and impacts biodiversity worldwide. Hence, naturally disturbed forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, with consequences for their associated biodiversity.

Increasing Ca in photoreceptor mitochondria alters metabolites, accelerates photoresponse recovery, and reveals adaptations to mitochondrial stress.

Photoreceptors are specialized neurons that rely on Ca to regulate phototransduction and neurotransmission. Photoreceptor dysfunction and degeneration occur when intracellular Ca homeostasis is disrupted. Ca homeostasis is maintained partly by mitochondrial Ca uptake through the mitochondrial Ca uniporter (MCU), which can influence cytosolic Ca signals, stimulate energy production, and trigger apoptosis.

Impacts of salvage logging on biodiversity: a meta-analysis.

Logging to "salvage" economic returns from forests affected by natural disturbances has become increasingly prevalent globally. Despite potential negative effects on biodiversity, salvage logging is often conducted, even in areas otherwise excluded from logging and reserved for nature conservation, inter alia because strategic priorities for post-disturbance management are widely lacking.A review of the existing literature revealed that most studies investigating the effects of salvage logging on biodiversity have been conducted less than 5 years following natural disturbances, and focused on non-saproxylic organisms.

Should scientists be required to use a model-based solution to adjust for possible distance-based detectability bias?

The most popular method used to gain an understanding of population trends or of differences in bird abundance among land condition categories is to use information derived from point counts. Unfortunately, various factors can affect one's ability to detect birds, and those factors need to be controlled or accounted for so that any difference in one's index among time periods or locations is an accurate reflection of differences in bird abundance and not differences in detectability. Avian ecologists could use appropriately sized fixed-area surveys to minimize the chance that they might be deceived by distance-based detectability bias, but the current method of choice is to use a modeling approach that allows one to account for distance-based bias by modeling the effects of distance on detectability or occupancy.

Structure of the magnetosome-associated actin-like MamK filament at subnanometer resolution.

Magnetotactic bacteria possess cellular compartments called magnetosomes that sense magnetic fields. Alignment of magnetosomes in the bacterial cell is necessary for their function, and this is achieved through anchoring of magnetosomes to filaments composed of the protein MamK. MamK is an actin homolog that polymerizes upon ATP binding.

Spatial, temporal, and density-dependent components of habitat quality for a desert owl.

Spatial variation in resources is a fundamental driver of habitat quality but the realized value of resources at any point in space may depend on the effects of conspecifics and stochastic factors, such as weather, which vary through time. We evaluated the relative and combined effects of habitat resources, weather, and conspecifics on habitat quality for ferruginous pygmy-owls (Glaucidium brasilianum) in the Sonoran Desert of northwest Mexico by monitoring reproductive output and conspecific abundance over 10 years in and around 107 territory patches. Variation in reproductive output was much greater across space than time, and although habitat resources explained a much greater proportion of that variation (0.

Examining historical and current mixed-severity fire regimes in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America.

There is widespread concern that fire exclusion has led to an unprecedented threat of uncharacteristically severe fires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws) and mixed-conifer forests of western North America.

Positive relationships between association strength and phenotypic similarity characterize the assembly of mixed-species bird flocks worldwide.

Competition theory predicts that local communities should consist of species that are more dissimilar than expected by chance. We find a strikingly different pattern in a multicontinent data set (55 presence-absence matrices from 24 locations) on the composition of mixed-species bird flocks, which are important subunits of local bird communities the world over. By using null models and randomization tests followed by meta-analysis, we find the association strengths of species in flocks to be strongly related to similarity in body size and foraging behavior and higher for congeneric compared with noncongeneric species pairs.

Predicting species distributions from samples collected along roadsides.

Predictive models of species distributions are typically developed with data collected along roads. Roadside sampling may provide a biased (nonrandom) sample; however, it is currently unknown whether roadside sampling limits the accuracy of predictions generated by species distribution models. We tested whether roadside sampling affects the accuracy of predictions generated by species distribution models by using a prospective sampling strategy designed specifically to address this issue.

The ecological importance of severe wildfires: some like it hot.

Many scientists and forest land managers concur that past fire suppression, grazing, and timber harvesting practices have created unnatural and unhealthy conditions in the dry, ponderosa pine forests of the western United States. Specifically, such forests are said to carry higher fuel loads and experience fires that are more severe than those that occurred historically. It remains unclear, however, how far these generalizations can be extrapolated in time and space, and how well they apply to the more mesic ponderosa pine systems and to other forest systems within the western United States.

Is the effect of forest structure on bird diversity modified by forest productivity?

Currently, the most common strategy when managing forests for biodiversity at the landscape scale is to maintain structural complexity within stands and provide a variety of seral stages across landscapes. Advances in ecological theory reveal that biodiversity at continental scales is strongly influenced by available energy (i.e.

Toward meaningful snag-management guidelines for postfire salvage logging in North American conifer forests.

The bird species in western North America that are most restricted to, and therefore most dependent on, severely burned conifer forests during the first years following afire event depend heavily on the abundant standing snags for perch sites, nest sites, and food resources. Thus, it is critical to develop and apply appropriate snag-management guidelines to implement postfire timber harvest operations in the same locations. Unfortunately, existing guidelines designed for green-tree forests cannot be applied to postfire salvage sales because the snag needs of snag-dependent species in burned forests are not at all similar to the snag needs of snag-dependent species in green-tree forests.

A framework for understanding ecological traps and an evaluation of existing evidence.

When an animal settles preferentially in a habitat within which it does poorly relative to other available habitats, it is said to have been caught in an "ecological trap." Although the theoretical possibility that animals may be so trapped is widely recognized, the absence of a clear mechanistic understanding of what constitutes a trap means that much of the literature cited as support for the idea may be weak, at best. Here, we develop a conceptual model to explain how an ecological trap might work, outline the specific criteria that are necessary for demonstrating the existence of an ecological trap, and provide tools for researchers to use in detecting ecological traps.

Composition of Bird Communities Following Stand-Replacement Fires in Northern Rocky Mountain (U.S.A.) Conifer Forests.

During the two breeding seasons immediately following the numerous and widespread fires of 1988, I estimated bird community composition in each of 34 burned-forest sites in western Montana and northern Wyoming. I detected an average of 45 species per site and a total of 87 species in the sites combined. A comppilation of these data with bird-count data from more than 200 additional studies conducted across 15 major vegetation cover types in the northern Rocky Mountain region showed that 15 bird species are generally more abundant in early post-fire communities than in any other major cover type occurring in the northern Rockies.

Cerebellar infarct: late complication of the Fontan procedure?

Cardiac disease is present in approximately 30% of children with stroke. Other case reports have documented stroke in patients who have previously undergone the Fontan procedure for correction of tricuspid atresia. Most of these strokes have occurred in the immediate postoperative period.

Primary hypothyroidism with pituitary hyperplasia and basal ganglia calcifications.

Pituitary enlargement as a result of hypothyroidism is a well recognized entity with several reports over the last decade. Hypothyroidism is only rarely recognized as a cause of basal ganglia calcifications, despite several large computer tomography (CT) studies. We present a case of primary hypothyroidism in which both pituitary hyperplasia and basal ganglia calcifications were observed in a young female who presented with hyperprolactinemia.