Prey depletion, interspecific competition, and the energetics of hunting in endangered African wild dogs, .

Large herbivores are in decline in much of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, and true apex carnivores like the lion () decline in parallel with their prey. As a consequence, competitively subordinate carnivores like the African wild dog () are simultaneously experiencing a costly reduction in resources and a beneficial reduction in dominant competitors. The net effect is not intuitively obvious, but wild dogs' density, survival, and reproduction are all low in areas that are strongly affected by prey depletion.

Alternative models of funding curiosity-driven research.

Funding of curiosity-driven science is the lifeblood of scientific and technological innovation. Various models of funding allocation became institutionalized in the 20th century, shaping the present landscape of research funding. There are numerous reasons for scientists to be dissatisfied with current funding schemes, including the imbalance between funding for curiosity-driven and mission-directed research, regional and country disparities, path-dependency of who gets funded, gender and race disparities, low inter-reviewer reliability, and the trade-off between the effort and time spent on writing or reviewing proposals and doing research.

Automating the practice of science: Opportunities, challenges, and implications.

Automation transformed various aspects of our human civilization, revolutionizing industries and streamlining processes. In the domain of scientific inquiry, automated approaches emerged as powerful tools, holding promise for accelerating discovery, enhancing reproducibility, and overcoming the traditional impediments to scientific progress. This article evaluates the scope of automation within scientific practice and assesses recent approaches.

Is Ockham's razor losing its edge? New perspectives on the principle of model parsimony.

The preference for simple explanations, known as the parsimony principle, has long guided the development of scientific theories, hypotheses, and models. Yet recent years have seen a number of successes in employing highly complex models for scientific inquiry (e.g.

The misalignment of incentives in academic publishing and implications for journal reform.

For most researchers, academic publishing serves two goals that are often misaligned-knowledge dissemination and establishing scientific credentials. While both goals can encourage research with significant depth and scope, the latter can also pressure scholars to maximize publication metrics. Commercial publishing companies have capitalized on the centrality of publishing to the scientific enterprises of knowledge dissemination and academic recognition to extract large profits from academia by leveraging unpaid services from reviewers, creating financial barriers to research dissemination, and imposing substantial fees for open access.

Discourse on measurement.

Measurement literacy is required for strong scientific reasoning, effective experimental design, conceptual and empirical validation of measurement quantities, and the intelligible interpretation of error in theory construction. This discourse examines how issues in measurement are posed and resolved and addresses potential misunderstandings. Examples drawn from across the sciences are used to show that measurement literacy promotes the goals of scientific discourse and provides the necessary foundation for carving out perspectives and carrying out interventions in science.

Emergence and evolution of heterocyte glycolipid biosynthesis enabled specialized nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria.

Heterocytes, specialized cells for nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria, are surrounded by heterocyte glycolipids (HGs), which contribute to protection of the nitrogenase enzyme from oxygen. Diverse HGs preserve in the sediment and have been widely used as evidence of past nitrogen fixation, and structural variation has been suggested to preserve taxonomic information and reflect paleoenvironmental conditions. Here, by comprehensive HG identification and screening of HG biosynthetic gene clusters throughout cyanobacteria, we reconstruct the convergent evolutionary history of HG structure, in which different clades produce the same HGs.

Highly Optimized CNS Penetrant Inhibitors of EGFR Exon20 Insertion Mutations.

Despite recent advances in the inhibition of EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor), there remains a clinical need for new EGFR Exon20 insertion (Ex20Ins) inhibitors that spare EGFR WT. Herein, we report the discovery and optimization of two chemical series leading to ether and biaryl as potent, selective, and brain-penetrant inhibitors of Ex20Ins mutants. Building on our earlier discovery of alkyne which allowed access to CNS property space for an Ex20Ins inhibitor, we utilized structure-based design to move to lower lipophilicity and lower CL compounds while maintaining a WT selectivity margin.

The development and implementation of an innovative community-based intervention to strengthen community capacity for HIV prevention and care among Canadians of African Caribbean and Black (ACB) women in Ontario: a research protocol.

African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) women are overrepresented among new HIV diagnoses due to social and structural factors. This study seeks to create, implement, and evaluate a community-based peer-led intervention to improve access to HIV prevention and care for ACB women in Canada. This multisite, five-year project, using community-based participatory research, implementation science and evaluation frameworks, will be implemented in five non-iterative phases.

Enhanced silk production and pupal weight in Bombyx mori through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated circadian Clock gene disruption.

The domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori, is crucial for global silk production, which is a significant economic activity supporting millions of livelihoods worldwide. Beyond traditional silk production, the growing demand for insect larvae in cosmetics, biomedical products, and animal feed underscores the need to enhance B. mori productivity.

In utero exposure to experimental maternal asthma alters fetal airway development in sheep.

The mechanisms linking maternal asthma (MA) exposure in utero and subsequent risk of asthma in childhood are not fully understood. Pathological airway remodelling, including reticular basement membrane thickening, has been reported in infants and children who go on to develop asthma later in childhood. This suggests altered airway development before birth as a mechanism underlying increased risk of asthma in children exposed in utero to MA.

The Effect of Dietary Propylene Glycol on the Fatty Acid Composition of Three Fat Depots in Male Akkaraman Lambs.

This study tested the effects of propylene glycol (PG) on the fatty acid composition of Akkaraman lambs in three different anatomical depot locations (ADLs). Twenty-four lambs were assigned to a randomized complete block design comprising three groups of 8 animals as follows: Con, 1.5%, body weight (BW) (PG1.

Enhanced Delta Band Neural Tracking of Degraded Fundamental Frequency Speech in Noisy Environments.

Pitch variation of the fundamental frequency (F0) is critical to speech understanding, especially in noisy environments. Degrading the F0 contour reduces behaviorally measured speech intelligibility, posing greater challenges for tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese where the F0 pattern determines semantic meaning. However, neural tracking of Mandarin speech with degraded F0 information in noisy environments remains unclear.

Stress regulatory hormones and cancer: the contribution of epinephrine and cancer therapeutic value of beta blockers.

The word "cancer" evokes myriad emotions, ranging from fear and despair to hope and determination. Cancer is aptly defined as a complex and multifaceted group of diseases that has unapologetically led to the loss of countless lives and affected innumerable families across the globe. The battle with cancer is not only a physical battle, but also an emotional, as well as a psychological skirmish for patients and for their loved ones.

Melatonin improves the lead tolerance in Plantago ovata by modulating ROS homeostasis, phytohormone status and expression of stress-responsive genes.

Melatonin increases Pb tolerance in P. ovata seedlings via the regulation of growth and stress-related phytohormones, ROS scavenging and genes responsible for melatonin synthesis, metal chelation, and stress defense. Lead (Pb) is a highly toxic heavy metal that accumulates in plants through soil and air contamination and impairs its plant growth and development.

The effect of exercise on GDF-15 levels in individuals with prediabetes: A randomized controlled trial.

Aims: Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) is an inflammatory cytokine that increases in prediabetes and is known for its anorexigenic effects. This study aims to evaluate the effects of a 12-week exercise program on GDF-15 in individuals with prediabetes.

Materials And Methods: In this multicenter, parallel-group, randomized-controlled trial, 64 patients aged 18-60 diagnosed with prediabetes were randomized in a 1:1 ratio into the exercise group (E) and the control group (C).

Investigating the threat to Sitka spruce from Ips typographus: discrimination and colonization of Britain's principal commercial conifer by a damaging forest pest.

Background: Ips typographus (L.), the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytinae), has devastated European Norway spruce (Picea abies) forests in recent years. For the first time, I.

Ameliorating salt stress in tomato by a top-down approach of acclimatizing the rhizosphere microbiome.

Soil salinization adversely impacts plant and soil health. While amendment with chemicals is not sustainable, the application of bioinoculants suffers from competition with indigenous microbes. Hence, microbiome-based rhizosphere engineering, focussing on acclimatization of rhizosphere microbiome under selection pressure to facilitate plant growth, exhibits promise.

Evaluating the Impact of a Safe Exercise Training on Clinician Knowledge and Self-Efficacy in Managing Dysfunctional Exercise in an Eating Disorder Treatment Setting.

Introduction: Dysfunctional exercise (DEX) is common among individuals with an eating disorder (ED) and poses significant challenges to treatment and recovery. While safe and nutritionally supported physical activity can enhance treatment outcomes without hindering weight restoration, clinicians often hesitate to address DEX with their patients. This mixed-method study aimed to evaluate the impact of a Safe Exercise at Every Stage (SEES) informed training on clinician knowledge and self-efficacy in managing DEX during ED treatment.

Ultrastructure of Olkasia polycarbonata (Euglenozoa, Euglenida) demonstrates cytoskeletal innovations associated with the feeding and flagellar apparatuses.

Euglenids are flagellates with diverse modes of nutrition, including the photosynthetic Euglenophyceae, which acquired plastids via secondary endosymbiosis with green algae, and a diverse assemblage of predators of bacteria and other microeukaryotes. Most heterotrophic euglenids have never been cultivated, so their morphology remains poorly characterized and limited to only a few studies. "Ploeotids" are a paraphyletic group representing much of the diversity of heterotrophic euglenids and are characterized by their feeding apparatus and a rigid pellicle of 10-12 longitudinally arranged strips.

Apical Surgery and Resurgery After Recurrent Failure in Traumatised Immature Teeth: Reflections on Management Based on Two Case Reports.

This study reports two cases of traumatised non-vital immature teeth (IT). Both underwent surgical and nonsurgical treatments after healing failure. In the first case, both maxillary central incisors underwent revascularization as the first treatment option.

Pain in very preterm infants-prevalence, causes, assessment, and treatment. A nationwide cohort study.

Studies on pain in preterm infants have usually been confined to observations of painful procedures, and information from extremely preterm infants is limited. Using registry data from a Swedish nationwide cohort, this study explored the epidemiology of pain in very preterm infants, its causes, assessments, and treatment strategies. We included liveborn infants <32 weeks' gestational age (GA) discharged between January 2020 and June 2024.

Cumulative Dispensing of Oral Corticosteroids Over 12 Months in People with COPD.

Purpose: Oral corticosteroids (OCS) are recommended for the treatment of exacerbations in people with COPD; however, high cumulative lifetime doses (≥1000mg prednisolone-equivalent) are associated with adverse health effects. This issue is well defined in asthma but is less well understood in COPD. The aim of this study was to examine cumulative OCS dispensed to people with COPD over 12 months.

Associations between degree of food processing and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a multicentre prospective cohort analysis in 9 European countries.

Background: Ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption has been linked with higher risk of mortality. This multi-centre study investigated associations between food intake by degree of processing, using the Nova classification, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: This study analyzed data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

Effect of nutrient-rich quinoa fraction composite wheat flour on product development.

To study the characteristics of bread by incorporating nutrient-rich quinoa flour as a new source for product development. Wheat flour was replaced by fractionated quinoa flour in different variations from 0%QF to 20%QF: 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% WQF blends, respectively. Physicochemical studies resulted in higher protein and fiber content for the higher blend.