Drought drives selection for earlier flowering, while pollinators drive selection for larger flowers in annual .

Drought-induced changes in floral traits can disrupt plant-pollinator interactions, influencing pollination and reproductive success. These phenotypic changes likely also affect natural selection on floral traits, yet phenotypic selection studies manipulating drought remain rare. We studied how drought impacts selection to understand the potential evolutionary consequences of drought on floral traits.

Methodological Approaches to Comparative Trend Analyses: The Case of Adolescent Toothbrushing.

Objectives: Research questions about how and why health trends differ between populations require decisions about data analytic procedure. The objective was to document and compare the information returned from stratified, fixed effect and random effect approaches to data modelling for two prototypical descriptive research questions about comparative trends in toothbrushing.

Methods: Data included five cycles of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2006 to 2022, which provided a sample of 980192 11- to 15- year olds from 35 countries.

Spatial-Temporal Variation of Grain Magnesium, Calcium and Their Response to Phosphorus Nutrition in Sweet Corn.

Sweet corn ( L. ) is gaining global popularity as a staple crop and a vegetable due to its high nutritional value. However, information on grain magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) status and their response to phosphorus (P) fertilization in sweet corn is still insufficient.

Use of reference markers in the speech of people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Evidence from two referential communication tasks manipulating common ground with the interaction partner.

Introduction: People with schizophrenia spectrum disorders present with language dysfunctions, yet we know little about their use of reference markers (indefinite markers, definite markers, pronouns or names), a fundamental aspect of efficient speech production.

Methods: Twenty-five (25) participants with a recent-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SZ) and 25 healthy controls (HC) completed two referential communication tasks. The tasks involved presenting to an interaction partner a series of movie characters (character identification task) and movie scenes composed of six images (narration task).

Effectiveness of three machine learning models for prediction of daily streamflow and uncertainty assessment.

This study evaluates three Machine Learning (ML) models-Temporal Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (TKAN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Temporal Convolutional Networks (TCN)-focusing on their capabilities to improve prediction accuracy and efficiency in streamflow forecasting. We adopt a data-centric approach, utilizing large, validated datasets to train the models, and apply SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to enhance the interpretability and reliability of the ML models. The results show that TKAN outperforms LSTM but slightly lags behind TCN in streamflow forecasting.

"Weight and See": Initial Weight Gain After Starting Antiretroviral Therapy Is Not Associated With Antiretroviral Regimen Type and Does Not Predict Subsequent Weight Trajectory.

In a Canadian cohort with HIV, 61% gained weight, 26% lost weight, and 12% remained stable in the first year of antiretroviral therapy. Weight gain was not associated with regimen type and slowed in years 2 to 3, with 44%, 34%, and 23% experiencing increasing, decreasing, and stable trajectories. Although 23% had significant weight gain year 1, many subsequently lost weight despite continuing antiretroviral therapy.

The diversity of Acarosporaceae (Acarosporales, Lecanoromycetes) in California.

, , , and are described from California. is described from California and New Mexico. is reported new for California.

Spirituality-Based Intervention in Hypertension: EFfects on Blood PrEssure and EndotheliaL Function-FEEL Trial Results.

Background: Emerging evidence suggests that spirituality improves patient outcomes, however, this has undergone only limited evaluation in randomized trials. Hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide.

Objectives: To evaluate whether a spirituality-based intervention, compared to a control group, can reduce blood pressure (BP) and improve endothelial function after 12 weeks in patients with mild or moderate hypertension (HTN).

Relative age effects in ice hockey extends to coaching.

Date of birth influences the chances of success in sports. Compared to players born just before a cutoff date for marking the admissibility in a category (age groups), players born soon after are overrepresented. However, it is not yet known whether the effect of date of birth in sports applies beyond the players' active participation in the game.

The relationship between psychological abuse, athlete satisfaction, eating disorder and self-harm indicators in elite athletes.

Introduction: Psychological abuse continues to be the most frequently reported type of maltreatment among athletes leading to negative mental health such as low mood and self-esteem, increased anxiety, self-harm, and eating disorders. Preliminary evidence suggests athlete satisfaction can influence the perceived outcomes associated with psychological abuse. Despite its negative impacts on athletes, psychological abuse continues to be justified as a tool to enhance athletic performance.

Development of a Prandtl-Ishlinskii hysteresis model for a large capacity magnetorheological fluid damper.

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid (MRF) dampers, serving as fail-safe semi-active devices, exhibit nonlinear hysteresis characteristics, emphasizing the necessity for accurate modeling to formulate effective control strategies in smart systems. This paper introduces a novel stop operator-based Prandtl-Ishlinskii (PI) model, featuring a reduced parameter set (seven), designed to estimate the nonlinear hysteresis properties of a large-scale bypass MRF damper with variable stiffness capabilities under varying applied current. With only seven parameters, the model realizes current, displacement, and rate dependencies.

Contagious acquisition of antimicrobial resistance is critical for explaining emergence in western Canadian feedlots-insights from an agent-based modelling tool.

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing threat to the efficacy of antimicrobials in humans and animals, including those used to control bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in high-risk calves entering western Canadian feedlots. Successful mitigation strategies require an improved understanding of the epidemiology of AMR. Specifically, the relative contributions of antimicrobial use (AMU) and contagious transmission to AMR emergence in animal populations are unknown.

Landscapes-a lens for assessing sustainability.

Context: There are urgent calls to transition society to more sustainable trajectories, at scales ranging from local to global. Landscape sustainability (LS), or the capacity for landscapes to provide equitable access to ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing for both current and future generations, provides an operational approach to monitor these transitions. However, the complexity of landscapes complicates how and what to consider when assessing LS.

Small Nucleolar RNAs and the Brain: Growing Evidence Supporting Their Role in Psychiatric Disorders.

Noncoding RNAs comprise most of the transcriptome and represent an emerging area of research. Among them, small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) have emerged as a promising target because they have been associated with the development and evolution of several diseases, including psychiatric disorders. snoRNAs are expressed in the brain, with some showing brain-specific expression that indicates specific roles in brain development, function, and dysfunction.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for the Treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a debilitating chronic pain condition characterized by sensory, motor, and autonomic dysfunction with a world-wide prevalence of 26.2 per 100,000 people per year and is 3 to 4 times more prevalent in females. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has shown to be beneficial for pain relief in neuropathic pain and initial evidence in CRPS is promising, but studies are limited.

Imputation for Lipidomics and Metabolomics (ImpLiMet): a web-based application for optimization and method selection for missing data imputation.

Motivation: Missing values are prevalent in high-throughput measurements due to various experimental or analytical reasons. Imputation, the process of replacing missing values in a dataset with estimated values, plays an important role in multivariate and machine learning analyses. The three missingness patterns, including missing completely at random, missing at random, and missing not at random, describe unique dependencies between the missing and observed data.

Outcomes of Combined Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion and Transcatheter Mitral Edge-to-Edge Repair: The WATCH-TEER Study.

Background: Up to 50% of patients undergoing mitral transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (MTEER) have an indication for left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO). However, prospective evaluation of this strategy is lacking.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to prospectively evaluate the outcomes of combined LAAO and MTEER.

Targeted distribution of nicotine patches by mail to rural regions of Canada: Predictors of patch use.

Introduction: Rural regions generally report higher smoking rates than urban centers, which increases the risk of tobacco related harms and consequences, and makes promoting smoking cessation in these areas a priority. Mass distribution of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) by postal mail has been found to increase the odds of successful cessation attempts. Understanding factors that contribute to the use of NRT could help maximize this intervention's effectiveness.

Medicalisation, depoliticisation and reproductive stratification: lessons from Canada's Muskoka Initiative.

Based on critical discourse analysis of Canada's Muskoka Initiative (2010-15), this article outlines how medicalisation contributes to the depoliticisation and technocratisation of global maternal health, while reinforcing patterns of reproductive stratification. By constructing maternal health as a problem of managing medicalised risk, the Muskoka Initiative was able to position family planning as a risk-minimising practice that can improve health by averting pregnancy among populations deemed high risk. Interpreting this construction through the lenses of reproductive justice and biopolitics, I argue that this construction contributes to reproductive stratification and exemplifies how medicalised discourses have replaced overt discourses of population control within development policy, while continuing to discourage reproduction among racialised women in the Global South.

Is the Future of Materials Amorphous? Challenges and Opportunities in Simulations of Amorphous Materials.

Amorphous solids form an enormous and underutilized class of materials. In order to drive the discovery of new useful amorphous materials further we need to achieve a closer convergence between computational and experimental methods. In this review, we highlight some of the important gaps between computational simulations and experiments, discuss popular state-of-the-art computational techniques such as the Activation Relaxation Technique (ARTn) and Reverse Monte Carlo (RMC), and introduce more recent advances: machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) and generative machine learning for simulations of amorphous matter (e.

The Incidence of Malignant and High-Risk Pathology Findings in Postreduction Mammaplasty Patients.

Reduction mammaplasty is often performed to alleviate symptoms of macromastia or for symmetry after a lumpectomy in the contra-lateral breast. Abnormal pathology including breast cancer can be incidentally found in reduction mammaplasty specimens, but there is no consensus on risk factors or detection rates. This study aimed to elucidate the incidence of malignant and high-risk pathology findings in patients undergoing breast reduction in a Canadian context.

deficiency disrupts the centrosome-check point in the brain and causes primary microcephaly.

Microcephaly affects 1 in 2,500 babies per year. Primary microcephaly results from aberrant neurogenesis leading to a small brain at birth. This is due to altered patterns of proliferation and/or early differentiation of neurons.

Visual Outcomes and Quality of Vision After Bilateral Implantation of a Hydrophobic Acrylic Trifocal Intraocular Lens.

Purpose: To evaluate visual outcomes and quality of vision following bilateral implantation of a hydrophobic acrylic intraocular lens (IOL) in eyes targeted for emmetropia.

Methods: This was a prospective, single arm study. Subjects were bilaterally implanted with the Clareon PanOptix IOL and evaluated at 1 and 3 months postoperatively.

SERS profiling of blood serum filtrate components from patients with type II diabetes using 100 kDa filtration devices.

Blood carries some of the most valuable biomarkers for disease screening as it interacts with various tissues and organs in the body. Human blood serum is a reservoir of high molecular weight fraction (HMWF) and low molecular weight fraction (LMWF) proteins. The LMWF proteins are considered disease marker proteins and are often suppressed by HMWF proteins during analysis.