Rapid Physiological Plasticity in Response to Cold Acclimation for Nonnative Italian Wall Lizards () from New York.

AbstractThermal physiology helps us understand how ectotherms respond to novel environments and how they persist when introduced to new locations. Researchers generally measure thermal physiology traits immediately after animal collection or after a short acclimation period. Because many of these traits are plastic, the conclusions drawn from such research can vary depending on the duration of the acclimation period.

Adaptive function of duodichogamy: Why do chestnut trees have two pollen emission phases?

Premise: Intersexual mating facilitation in flowering plants has been largely underexplored. Duodichogamy is a rare flowering system in which individual plants flower in the sequence male-female-male. We studied the adaptive advantages of this flowering system using chestnuts (Castanea spp.

Citizen science needs a name change.

Amidst attention towards improving equality, inclusivity, and diversity, citizen science is woefully anachronistic in its name. There is a critical need for this field to distance itself from the exclusionary nature of the term 'citizen'. We provide reasoning for abandoning this term and an outline for adopting a new name.

Chemical data of contaminants in water and sediments from the Doce River four years after the mining dam collapse disaster.

Chemical datasets describing the occurrence of both inorganic and organic contaminants along the Doce River Basin (DRB) could provide a better understanding of the potential impacts of a major mining dam collapse disaster combined to additional chronic sources of contamination. This data article presents datasets of main contaminants detected in the water and sediments sampled four years after the mining dam collapse in the DRB. A summary table of data obtained in the literature is also provided to allow a comparison of the variation of chemicals before, right after in 2015/2016 and after the event (current data).

Examining youth participation in ongoing community and citizen science programs in 3 different out-of-school settings.

We investigated youth participation in three Community and Citizen Science (CCS) programs led by natural history museums in out-of-school settings. Using second generation Activity Theory, we looked at repeated participation over time, collecting and then qualitatively analyzing ethnographic fieldnote observations on focal youth participation and components of the activity systems. We found each program provided multiple and unique access points for youth to participate in environmental science.

Developing methods to study conformational changes in RNA crystals using a photocaged ligand.

Crystallographic observation of structural changes in real time requires that those changes be uniform both spatially and temporally. A primary challenge with time-resolved ligand-mixing diffraction experiments is asynchrony caused by variable factors, such as efficiency of mixing, rate of diffusion, crystal size, and subsequently, conformational heterogeneity. One method of minimizing such variability is use of a photolabile caged ligand, which can fully saturate the crystal environment (spatially), and whose photoactivation can rapidly (temporally) trigger the reaction in a controlled manner.

Anti-Fibrotic Potential of Tomentosenol A, a Constituent of Cerumen from the Australian Native Stingless Bee, .

Bioactivity-guided fractionation was used to isolate two compounds, tomentosenol A () and torellianone A (), from a cerumen extract from . The anti-fibrotic activity of these compounds was examined using human cultured neonatal foreskin fibroblasts (NFF) and immortalised keratinocytes (HaCaTs). Tomentosenol A (), inhibited NFF and HaCaT cell proliferation and prevented NFF and HaCaT scratch wound repopulation at 12.

Creatine riboside is a cancer cell-derived metabolite associated with arginine auxotrophy.

The metabolic dependencies of cancer cells have substantial potential to be exploited to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Creatine riboside (CR) is identified as a urinary metabolite associated with risk and prognosis in lung and liver cancer. However, the source of high CR levels in patients with cancer as well as their implications for the treatment of these aggressive cancers remain unclear.

INSTIs and NNRTIs Potently Inhibit HIV-1 Polypurine Tract Mutants in a Single Round Infection Assay.

Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) are a class of antiretroviral compounds that prevent the insertion of a DNA copy of the viral genome into the host genome by targeting the viral enzyme integrase (IN). Dolutegravir (DTG) is a leading INSTI that is given, usually in combination with nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), to treat HIV-1 infections. The emergence of resistance to DTG and other leading INSTIs is rare.

Plastic ingestion by freshwater turtles: a review and call to action.

Plastic pollution, and especially plastic ingestion by animals, is a serious global issue. This problem is well documented in marine systems, but it is relatively understudied in freshwater systems. For turtles, it is unknown how plastic ingestion compares between marine and non-marine species.

Synchronous RNA conformational changes trigger ordered phase transitions in crystals.

Time-resolved studies of biomacromolecular crystals have been limited to systems involving only minute conformational changes within the same lattice. Ligand-induced changes greater than several angstroms, however, are likely to result in solid-solid phase transitions, which require a detailed understanding of the mechanistic interplay between conformational and lattice transitions. Here we report the synchronous behavior of the adenine riboswitch aptamer RNA in crystal during ligand-triggered isothermal phase transitions.

The power of community science to quantify ecological interactions in cities.

Studying animals in urban environments is especially challenging because much of the area is private property not easily accessible to professional scientists. In addition, collecting data on animals that are cryptic, secretive, or rare is also challenging due to the time and resources needed to amass an adequate dataset. Here, we show that community science can be a powerful tool to overcome these challenges.

Natural history collections are critical resources for contemporary and future studies of urban evolution.

Urban environments are among the fastest changing habitats on the planet, and this change has evolutionary implications for the organisms inhabiting them. Herein, we demonstrate that natural history collections are critical resources for urban evolution studies. The specimens housed in these collections provide great potential for diverse types of urban evolution research, and strategic deposition of specimens and other materials from contemporary studies will determine the resources and research questions available to future urban evolutionary biologists.

Structure-Activity Relationships of Pyrazolo[1,5-]pyrimidin-7(4)-ones as Antitubercular Agents.

Pyrazolo[1,5-]pyrimidin-7(4)-one was identified through high-throughput whole-cell screening as a potential antituberculosis lead. The core of this scaffold has been identified several times previously and has been associated with various modes of action against (). We explored this scaffold through the synthesis of a focused library of analogues and identified key features of the pharmacophore while achieving substantial improvements in antitubercular activity.

Metal Bioaccumulation by the Neotropical Clam Anomalocardia flexuosa to Estimate the Quality of Estuarine Sediments.

This investigation evaluated the bioaccumulation potential of the tropical estuarine bivalve Anomalocardia flexuosa for trace metals. To this aim, chemical and sedimentological analyses and bioaccumulation tests were performed. The sediments were mainly composed by fine-sands and mud, with variable levels of organic matter and CaCO.

Urban invaders are not bold risk-takers: a study of 3 invasive lizards in Southern California.

Biological invasions threaten biodiversity worldwide, and therefore, understanding the traits of successful invaders could mitigate their spread. Many commonly invasive species do well in disturbed habitats, such as urban environments, and their abilities to effectively respond to disturbances could contribute to their invasiveness. Yet, there are noninvasive species that also do well in disturbed habitats.

Improved detection and precise relative quantification of the urinary cancer metabolite biomarkers - Creatine riboside, creatinine riboside, creatine and creatinine by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS: Application to the NCI-Maryland cohort population controls and lung cancer cases.

Creatine riboside (CR) is a novel metabolite of cancer metabolism. It is a urinary diagnostic biomarker of lung and liver cancer risk and prognosis. The level of CR is highly positive correlated in tumor and urine indicating that it is derived from human lung and liver cancers.

What can we learn from wildlife sightings during the COVID-19 global shutdown?

During the worldwide shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many reports emerged of urban wildlife sightings. While these images garnered public interest and declarations of wildlife reclaiming cities, it is unclear whether wildlife truly reoccupied urban areas or whether there were simply increased detections of urban wildlife during this time. Here, we detail key questions and needs for monitoring wildlife during the COVID-19 shutdown and then link these with future needs and actions with the intent of improving conservation within urban ecosystems.

Downsizing for downtown: Limb lengths, toe lengths, and scale counts decrease with urbanization in western fence lizards ().

Urbanization induced habitat loss and alteration causes significant challenges for the survival of many species. Identifying how species respond to urbanization can yield insights for the conservation of wildlife, but research on reptiles has been narrowly-focused. We compared morphology among four populations of western fence lizards () to determine whether a common native species affected by urbanization exhibits morphological differences consistent with habitat use.

Structure-based non-nucleoside inhibitor design: Developing inhibitors that are effective against resistant mutants.

Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) inhibit reverse transcription and block the replication of HIV-1. Currently, NNRTIs are usually used as part of a three-drug combination given to patients as antiretroviral therapy. These combinations involve other classes of anti-HIV-1 drugs, commonly nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs).