Publications by authors named "JA Myers"

Island biogeography theory provides key insights into biodiversity patterns across islands species-area relationships and conservation. However, classical island biogeography theory assumes that species are ecologically equivalent in terms of their dispersal ability. We evaluated the role of a key trait (hand-wing index, a proxy for dispersal ability in birds) in shaping species-area relationships of avifauna spanning 6706 species on 3894 islands.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Self-guided Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) has been shown to effectively reduce Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA) and heart rate, indicating lower physiological arousal in socially anxious individuals.
  • The study involved 72 participants with high social anxiety who were divided into two groups: one receiving VRET with biofeedback on heart rate and brain activity, and the other receiving VRET alone.
  • Results indicated that both groups experienced improvements in social anxiety, but the biofeedback group exhibited a more consistent reduction in physiological arousal and greater decreases in self-reported anxiety levels during sessions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Populations of forest trees exhibit large temporal fluctuations, but little is known about the synchrony of these fluctuations across space, including their sign, magnitude, causes and characteristic scales. These have important implications for metapopulation persistence and theoretical community ecology. Using data from permanent forest plots spanning local, regional and global spatial scales, we measured spatial synchrony in tree population growth rates over sub-decadal and decadal timescales and explored the relationship of synchrony to geographical distance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The role of a Flight Nurse is specialised; they must have both education and experience to fulfil the requirements of the role. Mastering these skills takes time, thus long-term retention is essential. When nurses experience their work as more fulfilling, they are more inclined to remain within a role for an extended period.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Word problem-solving (WPS) poses a significant challenge for many students, particularly those with mathematics difficulties (MD), hindering their overall mathematical development. To improve WPS proficiency, providing individualized and intensive interventions is critical. This umbrella review examined 11 medium- to high-quality meta-analyses to identify intervention and participant characteristics, informed by the Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity (TII) framework, that consistently moderate WPS outcomes for students with MD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Conspecific density dependence (CDD) in plant populations is widespread, most likely caused by local-scale biotic interactions, and has potentially important implications for biodiversity, community composition, and ecosystem processes. However, progress in this important area of ecology has been hindered by differing viewpoints on CDD across subfields in ecology, lack of synthesis across CDD-related frameworks, and misunderstandings about how empirical measurements of local CDD fit within the context of broader ecological theories on community assembly and diversity maintenance. Here, we propose a conceptual synthesis of local-scale CDD and its causes, including species-specific antagonistic and mutualistic interactions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Using CMGC inhibitors to affect RBM39 results in decreased protein levels and reduced ALL growth, especially in difficult-to-treat cases.
  • * The research shows that altering the interaction between RNA polymerase II and splicing factors due to kinase inhibition can promote the inclusion of the poison exon, revealing new avenues for effective treatment against relapsed B-ALL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genes encoding subunits of SWI/SNF (BAF) chromatin remodeling complexes are mutated in nearly 25% of cancers. To gain insight into the mechanisms by which SWI/SNF mutations drive cancer, we contributed ten rhabdoid tumor (RT) cell lines mutant for SWI/SNF subunit SMARCB1 to a genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 depletion screen performed across 896 cell lines. We identify PHF6 as specifically essential for RT cell survival and demonstrate that dependency on Phf6 extends to Smarcb1-deficient cancers in vivo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Internal hemipelvectomy is a surgery used to remove tumors from the pelvic area without losing a limb, but it can be tricky due to the complex areas involved.
  • The study looked at patients who had this surgery and how well they did afterward, focusing on issues like complications and recovery.
  • Researchers also reviewed other studies to gather more information on patient outcomes after this type of surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Understanding plant metabolites across the plant kingdom is challenging due to their vast diversity.
  • Researchers created the plantMASST reference database with data from 19,075 plant extracts, covering 246 botanical families, 1,469 genera, and 2,793 species.
  • This database enhances research on plant molecules, supporting drug discovery, biosynthesis, taxonomy, and ecology related to herbivore interactions.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

While animal model studies have extensively defined the mechanisms controlling cell diversity in the developing mammalian lung, there exists a significant knowledge gap with regards to late-stage human lung development. The NHLBI Molecular Atlas of Lung Development Program (LungMAP) seeks to fill this gap by creating a structural, cellular and molecular atlas of the human and mouse lung. Transcriptomic profiling at the single-cell level created a cellular atlas of newborn human lungs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Oncogenes can be targeted with small molecules, but the loss of tumor suppressor genes like SMARCB1 poses unique challenges in cancer treatment.
  • Cancer Dependency Map Project utilized CRISPR screening with SMARCB1-mutant cell lines, revealing that DCAF5 is critical for these cancer cells' survival.
  • DCAF5 helps regulate SWI/SNF complexes and its depletion allows for the reaccumulation of these complexes, potentially reversing the cancer state, suggesting that targeting similar quality-control factors could offer new therapeutic options.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Patterns of species diversity have been associated with changes in climate across latitude and elevation. However, the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying these relationships are still actively debated. Here, we present a complementary view of the well-known tropical niche conservatism (TNC) hypothesis, termed the multiple zones of origin (MZO) hypothesis, to explore mechanisms underlying latitudinal and elevational gradients of phylogenetic diversity in tree communities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

One mechanism proposed to explain high species diversity in tropical systems is strong negative conspecific density dependence (CDD), which reduces recruitment of juveniles in proximity to conspecific adult plants. Although evidence shows that plant-specific soil pathogens can drive negative CDD, trees also form key mutualisms with mycorrhizal fungi, which may counteract these effects. Across 43 large-scale forest plots worldwide, we tested whether ectomycorrhizal tree species exhibit weaker negative CDD than arbuscular mycorrhizal tree species.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The operating room (OR) produces a lot of greenhouse gases, and it's important to understand what staff think about reducing waste there.
  • Researchers interviewed various medical staff to find out what makes it hard or easy to cut down on OR waste.
  • They discovered issues like needing more resources and keeping everything sterile, but also found that having strong leadership and awareness about waste can help make things better.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Masting is when trees produce a lot of seeds at different times, which helps them survive by confusing animals that eat seeds.
  • However, this can be bad for the animals that help trees spread their seeds because they rely on a steady food supply.
  • Researchers found that some trees avoid masting to keep their disperser animals happy, especially in different climates and depending on how much nutrients they need to grow.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aims: We conducted a systematic literature review to understand the evidence supporting treatment decisions for cholestatic pruritus associated with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).

Methods: Studies that enrolled ≥ 75% participants with PBC or PSC and reported ≥ 1 endpoint(s) related to efficacy, safety, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) or other patient-reported outcomes were included. Bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and the Quality of Cohort studies tool for non-RCTs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) sustain lifelong hematopoiesis. Mutations of pre-mRNA splicing machinery, especially splicing factor 3b, subunit 1 (SF3B1), are early lesions found in malignancies arising from HSPC dysfunction. However, why splicing factor deficits contribute to HSPC defects remains incompletely understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

While adult bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and their extrinsic regulation is well studied, little is known about the composition, function, and extrinsic regulation of the first HSPCs to enter the BM during development. Here, we functionally interrogate murine BM HSPCs from E15.5 through P0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

While anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) is known as an established and safe procedure for treatment of degenerative disc disease, albeit rare, the development of postoperative intra-abdominal or retroperitoneal collection of lymph warrants timely diagnosis and management. This study presents the case of a 62-year-old male who underwent L4-L5 and L5-S1 ALIF and developed a persistent left-sided fluid collection, resulting in a symptomatic retroperitoneal lymphocele confirmed by computed tomography (CT). After percutaneous drainage by interventional radiology (IR), output remained high at 1 liter (L) per day, necessitating sclerotherapy with doxycycline and ethanol.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Activating KRAS mutations and functional loss of members of the SWI/SNF complex, including ARID1A, are found together in the primary liver tumor cholangiocarcinoma (CC). How these mutations cooperate to promote CC has not been established. Using murine models of hepatocyte and biliary-specific lineage tracing, we show that Kras and Arid1a mutations drive the formation of CC and tumor precursors from the biliary compartment, which are accelerated by liver inflammation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We introduce the FunAndes database, a compilation of functional trait data for the Andean flora spanning six countries. FunAndes contains data on 24 traits across 2,694 taxa, for a total of 105,466 entries. The database features plant-morphological attributes including growth form, and leaf, stem, and wood traits measured at the species or individual level, together with geographic metadata (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy targeting T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) faces limitations such as antigen selection and limited T-cell persistence. CD7 is an attractive antigen for targeting T-ALL, but overlapping expression on healthy T cells leads to fratricide of CD7-CAR T cells, requiring additional genetic modification. We took advantage of naturally occurring CD7- T cells to generate CD7-CAR (CD7-CARCD7-) T cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF