Neuroendocrine profiles associated with discrete behavioural variation in Symphodus ocellatus, a species with male alternative reproductive tactics.

The molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic plasticity are not well understood. Identifying mechanisms underlying alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) in species for which the behavioural and fitness consequences of this variation are well characterized provides an opportunity to integrate evolutionary and mechanistic understanding of the maintenance of variation within populations. In the ocellated wrasse Symphodus ocellatus, the behavioural phenotypes of three distinct male morphs (sneakers, satellites and nesting males), which arise from a single genome, have been thoroughly characterized.

Combinatorial Strategies for Synthesis and Characterization of Alloy Microstructures over Large Compositional Ranges.

The exploration of new alloys with desirable properties has been a long-standing challenge in materials science because of the complex relationship between composition and microstructure. In this Research Article, we demonstrate a combinatorial strategy for the exploration of composition dependence of microstructure. This strategy is comprised of alloy library synthesis followed by high-throughput microstructure characterization.

Ovarian fluid allows directional cryptic female choice despite external fertilization.

In species with internal fertilization, females can favour certain males over others, not only before mating but also within the female's reproductive tract after mating. Here, we ask whether such directional post-mating (that is, cryptic) female mate choice can also occur in species with external fertilization. Using an in vitro sperm competition experiment, we demonstrate that female ovarian fluid (ovarian fluid) changes the outcome of sperm competition by decreasing the importance of sperm number thereby increasing the relative importance of sperm velocity.

Using Schools of Nursing to Help Fill the Gap.

The shortage of school nurses, school nurses covering multiple buildings, and the expanded role of the school nurse has called for innovative ideas to meet the growing health care needs of youth. Partnering with local schools of nursing may be a welcomed strategy. This brief article will share the benefits of hosting student nurses as well as identify ways to begin these partnerships.

Ocean acidification affects fish spawning but not paternity at CO2 seeps.

Fish exhibit impaired sensory function and altered behaviour at levels of ocean acidification expected to occur owing to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions during this century. We provide the first evidence of the effects of ocean acidification on reproductive behaviour of fish in the wild. Satellite and sneaker male ocellated wrasse (Symphodus ocellatus) compete to fertilize eggs guarded by dominant nesting males.

Enhancing Student Nurse Learning through Participation in a Community-Based Educational Program for Children and Families.

Health disparities, especially among minorities, persist; obesity is a national concern; and the combined effect can be significant for families and populations. In an effort to address obesity at an early age, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN), developed the Muevete USA™ project. Muevete USA™ (from the Spanish verb for "to move") features five lesson plans on healthy lifestyles for children and their families.

Characterization and Comparison of Injuries Caused by Accidental and Non-accidental Blunt Force Trauma in Dogs and Cats.

Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) are often difficult to distinguish from non-accidental injury (NAI). This retrospective case-control study compared animals with known MVA trauma against those with known NAI. Medical records of 426 dogs and cats treated after MVA and 50 after NAI were evaluated.

Human choices between variable and fixed rewards in hypothetical variable-delay and double-reward discounting procedures.

Prior research has shown that nonhumans show an extreme preference for variable- over fixed-delays to reinforcement. This well-established preference for variability occurs because a reinforcer's strength or "value" decreases according to a curvilinear function as its delay increases. The purpose of the present experiments was to investigate whether this preference for variability occurs with human participants making hypothetical choices.

Combinatorial development of antibacterial Zr-Cu-Al-Ag thin film metallic glasses.

Metallic alloys are normally composed of multiple constituent elements in order to achieve integration of a plurality of properties required in technological applications. However, conventional alloy development paradigm, by sequential trial-and-error approach, requires completely unrelated strategies to optimize compositions out of a vast phase space, making alloy development time consuming and labor intensive. Here, we challenge the conventional paradigm by proposing a combinatorial strategy that enables parallel screening of a multitude of alloys.

Organizing lesbian/queer bathhouse events: Emerging forms of sexual experience.

Discussions of public sexual spaces in the social science literature have, until recently, been dominated by analyses of men's use of these spaces for erotic expression. In the late 1990s, feminist collectives began to explore the emancipatory potentials these spaces can have for lesbian sexualities. After a police raid on one such event called the "Pussy Palace," scholars in diverse disciplines began to explore how these events have both opened up and restricted erotic possibilities for lesbians, queer women, and trans* attendees.

Transgenerational Transmission of the Effect of Gestational Ethanol Exposure on Ethanol Use-Related Behavior.

Background: Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) enhances the risk for alcoholism by increasing the propensity to consume alcohol and altering neurophysiological response to alcohol challenge. Trans-generationally transmittable genetic alterations have been implicated in these behavioral changes. To date, transgenerational transmission of PAE-induced behavioral responses to alcohol has never been experimentally investigated.

Age-related effects of chronic restraint stress on ethanol drinking, ethanol-induced sedation, and on basal and stress-induced anxiety response.

Adolescents are sensitive to the anxiolytic effect of ethanol, and evidence suggests that they may be more sensitive to stress than adults. Relatively little is known, however, about age-related differences in stress modulation of ethanol drinking or stress modulation of ethanol-induced sedation and hypnosis. We observed that chronic restraint stress transiently exacerbated free-choice ethanol drinking in adolescent, but not in adult, rats.

Beyond either/or: Reading trans* lesbian identities.

Previous research has explored the affiliation and distancing strategies employed in published memoirs of gender transition. In this article, we are particularly interested in elucidating the ways in which individuals construct identities and characterize their sexualities, and how sociohistorical constraints might influence what is expressed with respect to this in personal narratives of transition. Using the memoirs of Lili Elbe (Hoyer, 1933) and Joy Ladin (2013) as conceptual brackets, this article investigates the complex relationship between the development and articulation of trans* identities and lesbian sexualities within the context of published memoirs of gender transition.

"How Should I Be?" A Photovoice Exploration Into Body Image Messaging for Young Women Across Ethnicities and Cultures.

Photovoice, a community-based participatory research method that allows participants to inform research questions in an intimate way, has proven successful with youth. A diverse group of teenage girls living in New York City were asked to take photographs and reflect on what messages they received and from whom, how these messages translate across cultures and ethnicities, and how these messages are internalized and acted on. The group selected specific photographs to discuss together and themes emerged to answer the research questions; themes were reinforced by journal responses and agreed on by the group at the concluding session.

Knowledge and Perceptions of College Students Regarding the Physician Assistant Profession.

Purpose: Physician assistants (PAs) are nationally certified and state-licensed medical professionals who practice medicine on healthcare teams with physicians and other providers. Despite the increasing popularity and utility of the profession, knowledge of the role of PAs remains scarce among many segments of the population. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and perceptions of the PA profession among undergraduate college students, as well as what factors are associated with better knowledge and perception of the profession.

Designing a broad-spectrum integrative approach for cancer prevention and treatment.

Targeted therapies and the consequent adoption of "personalized" oncology have achieved notable successes in some cancers; however, significant problems remain with this approach. Many targeted therapies are highly toxic, costs are extremely high, and most patients experience relapse after a few disease-free months. Relapses arise from genetic heterogeneity in tumors, which harbor therapy-resistant immortalized cells that have adopted alternate and compensatory pathways (i.

Advancing School and Community Engagement Now for Disease Prevention (ASCEND).

Purpose: To compare two intensity levels (standard vs. enhanced) of a nutrition and physical activity intervention vs. a control (usual programs) on nutrition knowledge, body mass index, fitness, academic performance, behavior, and medication use among elementary school students.

Snacking, Satiety, and Weight: A Randomized, Controlled Trial.

Purpose: To compare the effects of nut-based snack bars (NBSB) vs. prepackaged 200-kcal portions of typical conventional snack foods, when consumed over a 12-week period by a group of overweight adults.

Design: Randomized, single-blind parallel design with two treatment groups.

On the origins of autism: The Quantitative Threshold Exposure hypothesis.

The Quantitative Threshold Exposure (QTE) hypothesis is a multifactorial threshold model that accounts for the cumulative effects of risk factor exposure in both the causation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its dramatic increase over the past 30 years. The QTE hypothesis proposes that ASD is triggered by the cumulative effects of high-level exposure to endogenous and environmental factors that act as antigens to impair normal immune system (IS) and associated central nervous system (CNS) functions during critical developmental stages. The quantitative threshold parameters that comprise a cumulative risk for the development of ASD are identified by the assessment of documented epidemiological factors that, in sum, determine the likelihood that ASD will occur as a result of their effects on critically integrated IS and CNS pathways active during prenatal, neo-natal and early childhood brain maturation.

Perception of Speech Sounds in School-Aged Children with Speech Sound Disorders.

Children with speech sound disorders may perceive speech differently than children with typical speech development. The nature of these speech differences is reviewed with an emphasis on assessing phoneme-specific perception for speech sounds that are produced in error. Category goodness judgment, or the ability to judge accurate and inaccurate tokens of speech sounds, plays an important role in phonological development.

Very-Brief, Web-Based Interventions for Reducing Alcohol Use and Related Problems among College Students: A Review.

Very-brief, web-based alcohol interventions have great potential due to their convenience, ease of dissemination, and college students' stated preference for this intervention modality. To address the efficacy of these interventions, we conducted a review of the literature to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Fifteen published reports were included.

Queer Youth in Family Therapy.

Trends in popular belief about same-sex relationships have undergone noteworthy change in the United States over the last decade. Yet this change has been marked by stark polarizations and has occurred at varying rates depending upon regional, community, racial, religious, and individual family context. For queer youth and their families, this cultural transformation has broadened opportunities and created a new set of risks and vulnerabilities.

Risk Behaviors Among Suburban Women who Use Methamphetamine: Social Harms and Social Solutions.

We propose that female methamphetamine users who live in suburbia experience risks for disease transmission stemming from their social environment that remain under the radar of public health surveillance networks. The data analyzed in this paper were collected from 2007 to 2011 and were drawn from two sequential studies on methamphetamine use. The studies were conducted in the suburbs of a southeastern United States metropolis.

How Portuguese and American teachers plan for literacy instruction.

This study explored American and Portuguese elementary teachers' preferences in planning for literacy instruction using the Language Arts Activity Grid (LAAG; Cunningham, Zibulsky, Stanovich, & Stanovich, 2009), on which teachers described their preferred instructional activities for a hypothetical 2-h language arts block. Portuguese teachers (N = 186) completed Portuguese versions of a background questionnaire and LAAG electronically, in Survey Monkey; American teachers (N = 102) completed identical English measures using paper and pencil. Results showed that teachers in both groups usually addressed comprehension and reading fluency on their LAAGs and that they also allocated the most time to these two areas.