Charting a new vision: lessons on from a network of biology educators.

The 2011 report outlined several recommendations for transforming undergraduate biology education, sparking multiple pedagogical reform efforts. Among these was the Promoting Active Learning and Mentoring (PALM) network, an NSF-funded program that provided mentorship and training to instructors on implementing active learning in the classroom. Here, we provide a perspective on how members of the biology education community in PALM view the recommendations of , drawing upon our experiences both as members of PALM and as leaders of an associated project funded by another NSF grant that hosted PALM alumni at various conferences.

The millipede family Striariidae Bollman, 1893. IX. The identity of Striaria californica Cook, 1899, and the new genus Bayaria for Striaria nana Loomis, 1936, with a key to genera and an annotated checklist of the Striariidae (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Striarioidea).

The identity of Striaria californica Cook, described in 1899 from a single female, is established on the basis of additional specimens collected by Cook in 1929 and determined to be that species by Loomis (1936) as well as specimens from the San Francisco Bay region, likely to be from near the original collection locality. We propose Amplaria californica (Cook, 1899) new combination. A new genus, Bayaria Shear & Marek n.

Optimizing alkaline hydrothermal treatment for biomimetic smart metallic orthopedic and dental implants.

Orthopedic and dental implant failure continues to be a significant concern due to localized bacterial infections. Previous studies have attempted to improve implant surfaces by modifying their texture and roughness or coating them with antibiotics to enhance antibacterial properties for implant longevity. However, these approaches have demonstrated limited effectiveness.

Malate dehydrogenase: a story of diverse evolutionary radiation.

Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) is a ubiquitous enzyme involved in cellular respiration across all domains of life. MDH's ubiquity allows it to act as an excellent model for considering the history of life and how the rise of aerobic respiration and eukaryogenesis influenced this evolutionary process. Here, we present the diversity of the MDH family of enzymes across bacteria, archaea, and eukarya, the relationship between MDH and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the formation of a protein superfamily, and the connections between MDH and endosymbiosis in the formation of mitochondria and chloroplasts.

Altruism, reciprocity, and probability: Examining relations through a discounting framework.

Probability and reciprocation have been implicated as key variables for understanding altruism and cooperation. Social discounting, which describes the decline in reward value as the recipient increases in social distance, has provided a framework through which to examine altruistic and cooperative choice. A previous study introduced reciprocal discounting as a way of studying perceived altruism from others (termed reciprocal altruism).

Lineagona, a new millipede genus (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Cleidogonidae) from Texas, USA, and Nuevo Len, Mxico.

Lineagona n. gen., is established for two species from either side of the Rio Grande River in Texas and Mxico.

Ownership psychology and group size.

Human group size seemingly has no limit, with many individuals living alongside thousands - even millions - of others. Non-human primate groups, on the other hand, cannot be sustained past a certain, relatively small size. I propose that Pascal Boyer's model of ownership psychology may offer an explanation for such a significant divergence.

Trace Amounts of Ranavirus Detected in Common Musk Turtles () at a Site Where the Pathogen Was Previously Common.

Ranaviruses are global multi-host pathogens that infect ectothermic vertebrates and cause mass mortality events in some species. In 2021-2022, we surveyed two species of aquatic turtles in a Virginia site where previous research found ranavirus in lizards () and turtles ( and ). We sampled tissues from 206 turtles and tested 249 samples (including recaptures) for ranavirus using qPCR.

Surface modification of Polyether-ether-ketone for enhanced cell response: a chemical etching approach.

Polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) is increasingly becoming popular in medicine because of its excellent mechanical strength, dimensional stability, and chemical resistance properties. However, PEEK being bioinert, has weak bone osseointegration properties, limiting its clinical applications. In this study, a porous PEEK structure was developed using a chemical etching method with 98 wt% sulfuric acids and three post-treatments were performed to improve bone cell adhesion and proliferation.

Huntingtin Plays a Role in the Physiological Response to Ethanol in Drosophila.

Background: Huntingtin (htt) protein is an essential regulator of nervous system function through its various neuroprotective and pro-survival functions, and loss of wild-type htt function is implicated in the etiology of Huntington's disease. While its pathological role is typically understood as a toxic gain-of-function, some neuronal phenotypes also result from htt loss. Therefore, it is important to understand possible roles for htt in other physiological circumstances.

Developing Science Literacy in Students and Society: Theory, Research, and Practice.

The subject of scientific literacy has never been more critical to the scientific community as well as society in general. As opportunities to spread misinformation increase with the rise of new technologies, it is critical for society to have at its disposal the means for ensuring that its citizens possess the basic scientific literacy necessary to make critical decisions on topics like climate change, biotechnology, and other science-based issues. As the Guest Editors of this themed issue of the , we present a wide array of techniques that the scientific community is using to promote scientific literacy in both academic and nonacademic settings.

The millipede family Striariidae Bollman, 1893. VIII. Three new genera and four new species of minute millipedes from Oregon and Washington, USA(Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Striarioidea).

We describe three new genera and four new species of small, litter-dwelling millipedes from the states of Oregon and Washington, USA: Miniaria ramifera, n. gen., n.

A new species of from southern California (Siphonophorida, Siphonorhinidae).

The millipede fauna inhabiting deep soil are poorly known. They are small and threadlike, slow moving, lacking pigmentation, and rarely encountered due to their obscure underground way of life. One family, the Siphonorhinidae, encompasses four genera and 12 species in a fragmentary distribution in California, southern Africa, Madagascar, the Malay Archipelago, and Indo-Burma.

Role of ephaptic coupling in discordant alternans domain sizes and action potential propagation in the heart.

Discordant alternans, the spatially out-of-phase alternation of the durations of propagating action potentials in the heart, has been linked to the onset of fibrillation, a major cardiac rhythm disorder. The sizes of the regions, or domains, within which these alternations are synchronized are critical in this link. However, computer models employing standard gap junction-based coupling between cells have been unable to reproduce simultaneously the small domain sizes and rapid action potential propagation speeds seen in experiments.

Ephaptic Coupling as a Resolution to the Paradox of Action Potential Wave Speed and Discordant Alternans Spatial Scales in the Heart.

Previous computer simulations have suggested that existing models of action potential wave propagation in the heart are not consistent with observed wave propagation behavior. Specifically, computer models cannot simultaneously reproduce the rapid wave speeds and small spatial scales of discordant alternans patterns measured experimentally in the same simulation. The discrepancy is important, because discordant alternans can be a key precursor to the development of abnormal and dangerous rapid rhythms in the heart.

The millipede family Striariidae Bollman, 1893. VI. Six new genera and thirteen new species from western North America (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Striarioidea).

The following new genera and species of Striariidae are described from the states of California, Oregon and Washington: Nototrisaria ornata n. gen., n.

The millipede family Striariidae Bollman, 1893. VII. Petra sierwaldae, n. gen., n. sp., a minute millipede from Idaho, USA (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Striariidae).

Petra sierwaldae, n. gen., n.

Cetacean tongue mobility and function: A comparative review.

Cetaceans are atypical mammals whose tongues often depart from the typical (basal) mammalian condition in structure, mobility, and function. Their tongues are dynamic, innovative multipurpose tools that include the world's largest muscular structures. These changes reflect the evolutionary history of cetaceans' secondary adaptation to a fully aquatic environment.

"A Widely Applicable Model": Teaching Sarah Manguso's The Two Kinds of Decay Across Institutions.

Many of those teaching at the intersection of medicine and the humanities are siloed within institutional spaces. This essay recounts the teaching of Sarah Manguso's The Two Kinds of Decay to students across different academic contexts and considers what we can learn when we put classrooms in conversation with each other. This essay argues for the value of texts like Manguso's, which explicitly hold the narrating subject and form of illness narrative up for critical examination.

Genetic dysregulation of immunologic and oncogenic signaling pathways associated with tumor-intrinsic immune resistance: a molecular basis for combination targeted therapy-immunotherapy for cancer.

Since the turn of the century, advances in targeted therapy and immunotherapy have revolutionized the treatment of cancer. Although these approaches have far outperformed traditional therapies in various clinical settings, both remain plagued by mechanisms of innate and acquired resistance that limit therapeutic efficacy in many patients. With a focus on tumor-intrinsic resistance to immunotherapy, this review highlights our current understanding of the immunologic and oncogenic pathways whose genetic dysregulation in cancer cells enables immune escape.

Myriapods.

Paul Marek and William Shear introduce the arthropod sub-phylum myriapoda, which includes centipedes, millipedes and other multi-legged animals.

The secret life of baby turtles: A novel system to predict hatchling emergence, detect infertile nests, and remotely monitor sea turtle nest events.

Current understanding of sea turtle nesting, hatching, and emergence events has been largely limited to observable events on the surface of the sand, though recent approaches using audio or visual equipment have allowed scientists to better understand some underground nest phenomena. We used a technology-based approach to define motion-related Caretta caretta hatching and emergence nest events. We describe a novel low-cost, accelerometer-based system called TurtleSense that can detect movement and temperature within sea turtle nests remotely.

A Bioinformatic Approach to Enhance Undergraduate Student Understanding of the Cancer-Immunity Cycle.

Recent advances in tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy have generated significant interest in the field of immuno-oncology. With the promise of these advances comes an increasing need to train the next generation of scientists who will support ongoing basic and clinical research efforts in this field. At this time, however, there remains a documented underrepresentation of tumor immunology as a core content area in many undergraduate science curricula.