Working through the fog of a pandemic: Street-level policy entrepreneurship in times of crises.

Imposing significant challenges for both street-level implementation and policy (re)design, crises alter the environment for street-level policy entrepreneurship (SLPE), wherein street-level bureaucrats engage in policy formulation processes to secure future policy outcomes. Nevertheless, like street-level implementation in general, SLPE is studied during ordinary times but rarely during crises. Focusing on community-health workers in Brazil during the Covid-19 crisis uncovered a defensive motivation for SLPE, which aimed to legitimize community healthcare as an integral part of pandemic treatment, reforming the government's hitherto neglectful approach to community health services.

InterCarb: A Community Effort to Improve Interlaboratory Standardization of the Carbonate Clumped Isotope Thermometer Using Carbonate Standards.

Increased use and improved methodology of carbonate clumped isotope thermometry has greatly enhanced our ability to interrogate a suite of Earth-system processes. However, interlaboratory discrepancies in quantifying carbonate clumped isotope (Δ) measurements persist, and their specific sources remain unclear. To address interlaboratory differences, we first provide consensus values from the clumped isotope community for four carbonate standards relative to heated and equilibrated gases with 1,819 individual analyses from 10 laboratories.

PROTOCOL: What are the effects of different elements of media on radicalization outcomes? A systematic review.

Objectives: In this systematic review and meta analysis we will collate and synthesize the evidence on media-effects for radicalization, focusing on both cognitive and behavioral outcomes. The goal is to identify the relative magnitudes of the effects for different mediums, types of content, and elements of human-media relationships.

Methodology: Random-effects meta analysis will be used and the results will be rank-ordered according to the size of the pooled estimates for the different factors.

With or without you: The paradoxical role of identification in predicting joint and ingroup collective action in intergroup conflict.

While we have a rich understanding of the motivations of disadvantaged group members to act collectively with their group, especially the important role played by identification, we know less about the disadvantaged's motivations to engage in joint action with the advantaged. This research examines the role of identification in predicting joint and ingroup collective action in intergroup conflicts. Since joint action inherently diffuses the perception of "us versus them", we propose that identification predicts ingroup action, but not joint action.

Detecting the population dynamics of an autosomal sex ratio distorter transgene in malaria vector mosquitoes.

The development of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes and their subsequent field release offers innovative and cost-effective approaches to reduce mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria. A sex-distorting autosomal transgene has been developed recently in G3 mosquitoes, a laboratory strain of the malaria vector s.l.

Predicting the Downward and Surface Influence of the February 2018 and January 2019 Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events in Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Models.

Using the real-time predictions from 11 models, this study analyzes the prediction of the downward propagation and surface impact of the 2018 and 2019 sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs). These two SSWs differed both in their morphology types (2018: split; 2019: displacement followed by split) and magnitudes (the former being stronger). With a large sample size (>2,200) of multimodel ensemble forecasts, it is revealed that the strength of the SSW is more important than the vortex morphology in determining the magnitude of its downward impact, with strong SSWs more likely to propagate downward than weak SSWs.

Barotropic modes, baroclinic modes and equivalent depths in the atmosphere.

The equivalent depth of a rotating fluid layer determines the phase speed of all free (i.e. unforced) linear waves that propagate in it.

Managing uncertainty in movement knowledge for environmental decisions.

Species' movements affect their response to environmental change but movement knowledge is often highly uncertain. We now have well-established methods to integrate movement knowledge into conservation practice but still lack a framework to deal with uncertainty in movement knowledge for environmental decisions. We provide a framework that distinguishes two dimensions of species' movement that are heavily influenced by uncertainty: about movement and of movement to environmental decisions.

Lacosamide at therapeutic concentrations induces histone hyperacetylation in vitro.

Inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs) and subsequent hyperacetylation of histone proteins lead to altered gene expression associated with therapeutic drug effects, but also with teratogenicity. The only US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antiepileptic drug that has been consistently shown to induce histone hyperacetylation is valproic acid. More recently, lacosamide was reported to interfere with histone modifications, but histone hyperacetylation was not demonstrated.

Satellite Observations of Precipitating Marine Stratocumulus Show Greater Cloud Fraction for Decoupled Clouds in Comparison to Coupled Clouds.

This study examines the relationships between marine stratocumulus clouds (MSC) coupling state with the ocean surface, their precipitation rate and fractional cloud cover (CF). This was possible by developing a novel methodology for satellite retrieval of the clouds coupling state. Decks of overcast MSC were reported in previous studies to break up often as their precipitation rate increases significantly, thus reducing CF and cloud radiative effect substantially.

How to use (and not to use) movement-based indices for quantifying foraging behaviour.

Movement-based indices such as moves per minute (MPM) and proportion time moving (PTM) are common methodologies to quantify foraging behaviour. We explore fundamental drawbacks of these indices that question the ways scientists have been using them and propose new solutions.To do so, we combined analytical and simulation models with lizards foraging data at the individual and species levels.

Parental brain-derived neurotrophic factor genotype, child prosociality, and their interaction as predictors of parents' warmth.

Background: Parental warmth has been associated with various child behaviors, from effortful control to callous-unemotional traits. Factors that have been shown to affect parental warmth include heritability and child behavior. However, there is limited knowledge about which specific genes are involved, how they interact with child behavior, how they affect differential parenting, and how they affect fathers.

Stratospheric variability contributed to and sustained the recent hiatus in Eurasian winter warming.

The recent hiatus in global-mean surface temperature warming was characterized by a Eurasian winter cooling trend, and the cause(s) for this cooling is unclear. Here we show that the observed hiatus in Eurasian warming was associated with a recent trend toward weakened stratospheric polar vortices. Specifically, by calculating the change in Eurasian surface air temperature associated with a given vortex weakening, we demonstrate that the recent trend toward weakened polar vortices reduced the anticipated Eurasian warming due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.

Genome methylation patterns across castes and generations in a parasitoid wasp.

Environmental influences shape phenotypes within and across generations, often through DNA methylations that modify gene expression. Methylations were proposed to mediate caste and task allocation in some eusocial insects, but how an insect's environment affects DNA methylation in its offspring is yet unknown. We characterized parental effects on methylation profiles in the polyembryonic parasitoid wasp , as well as methylation patterns associated with its simple caste system.

Development of targeted therapy for a broad spectrum of solid tumors mediated by a double promoter plasmid expressing diphtheria toxin under the control of IGF2-P4 and IGF2-P3 regulatory sequences.

Background: The human IGF2-P4 and IGF2-P3 promoters are highly active in a variety of human cancers, while existing at a nearly undetectable level in the surrounding normal tissue. Thus, a double promoter DTA-expressing vector was created, carrying on a single construct two separate genes expressing the diphtheria toxin a-fragment (DTA), from two different regulatory sequences, selected from the cancer-specific promoters IGF2-P4 and IGF2-P3.

Methods: The therapeutic potential of the double promoter toxin vector P4-DTA-P3-DTA was tested in different cancer cells (pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer and HCC).