Free-ranging squirrels perform stable, above-branch landings by balancing using leg force and nonprehensile foot torque.

For gap-crossing agility, arboreal animals require the ability to stabilize dynamic landings on branches. Despite lacking a prehensile grip, squirrels achieve stable landings using a palmar grasp. We investigated the landing dynamics of free-ranging fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) to uncover strategies for stable, above-branch landings.

Artificial intelligence for modelling infectious disease epidemics.

Infectious disease threats to individual and public health are numerous, varied and frequently unexpected. Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies, which are already supporting human decision making in economics, medicine and social science, have the potential to transform the scope and power of infectious disease epidemiology. Here we consider the application to infectious disease modelling of AI systems that combine machine learning, computational statistics, information retrieval and data science.

Integrating social responsibility and diversity, equity, and inclusion into the graduate chemistry curriculum.

Science's broader impacts and the historic social, political, and geographic implications of these impacts are rarely discussed in graduate STEM curricula. A new required "Scientific Responsibility and Citizenship" course for first year chemistry graduate students was developed and taught at UC Berkeley. The course examined a series of case studies in which basic chemistry research led to societal impacts and discussed the diversity and equity of the research process and resulting consequences.

Phototransposition of Indazoles to Benzimidazoles: Tautomer-Dependent Reactivity, Wavelength Dependence, and Continuous Flow Studies.

Herein, we report a detailed investigation of the photomediated transformation of indazoles to benzimidazoles through a nitrogen-carbon transposition. This phototransposition is known to occur in low yield when 1H-indazoles are subjected to high-energy UVC irradiation. The 2H-tautomer of indazole absorbs light more strongly than the 1H-tautomer at longer wavelengths.

A randomized controlled trial of the Transdiagnostic Intervention for Sleep and Circadian dysfunction implemented via facilitation and delivered by community mental health providers: Improving the "fit" of psychological treatments by adapting to context.

Background: To determine if the use of theory, data and end-user perspectives to guide an adaptation of the Transdiagnostic Intervention for Sleep and Circadian Dysfunction (TranS-C) yields better outcomes and improves the "fit" of TranS-C to community mental health centers (CMHCs), relative to the standard version.

Methods: Ten counties in California were cluster-randomized by county to Adapted or Standard TranS-C. Within each county, adults who exhibited sleep and circadian dysfunction and serious mental illness (SMI) were randomized to immediate TranS-C or Usual Care followed by Delayed Treatment with TranS-C (UC-DT).

Continuous Flow Photoelectrochemical Reactor with Gas Permeable Photocathode: Enhanced Photocurrent and Partial Current Density for CO Reduction.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO reduction using a photocathode is an attractive method for making valuable chemical products due to its simplicity and lower overpotential requirements. However, previous PEC processes have often been diffusion-limited leading to low production rates of the CO reduction reaction, due to inefficient gas diffusion through the liquid electrolyte to the catalyst surface, particularly at high current densities. In this study, a gas-permeable photocathode in a continuous flow PEC reactor is incorporated, which facilitates the direct supply of CO gas to the photocathode-electrolyte interface, unlike dark reaction-based flow reactors.

Breast cancer screening needs assessment in 19 Northern California counties: geography, poverty, and racial/ethnic identity composition.

Purpose: To describe the area-level rate of breast cancers, the percentage of early-stage diagnoses (stage I-IIa), and associations between area-level measures of poverty, racial/ethnic composition, primary care shortage, and urban/rural/frontier status for the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCDCCC) catchment area.

Methods: Using data from the SEER Cancer Registry of Greater California (2014-2018) and the California Department of Health Care Access and Information Medical Service Study Area, we conducted an ecological study in the UCDCCC catchment area to identify geographies that need screening interventions and their demographic characteristics.

Results: The higher the percentage of the population identifying as Hispanic/Latino/Latinx, and the higher the percentage of the population below the 100% poverty level, the lower the odds of being diagnosed at an early-stage (OR = 0.

Impact of New York City's 4-year multi-component natural experiment to improve elementary school physical education on student cardiorespiratory fitness.

Background: School physical education is an important population-level health intervention for improving youth fitness. This study estimated the impact of New York City's PE Works program - which included providing PE teachers, training for classroom teachers, and administrative/ teacher support for PE - on student cardiorespiratory fitness as measured by the FitnessGram's 15-meter PACER test for aerobic capacity.

Methods: This longitudinal study (2014/15-2018/19) includes 581 elementary schools (n = 315,999 4th /5th -grade students; 84% non-white; 74% who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a proxy for socioeconomic status).

Effects of fine particulate matter from wildfire and non-wildfire sources on emergency-department visits in people who were housed and unhoused in San Diego County (CA, USA) during 2012-20: a time-stratified case-crossover study.

Background: Being unhoused can increase vulnerability to adverse health effects due to air pollution. We aimed to quantify changes in emergency-department visits during and after exposure to wildfire-specific and non-wildfire particulate matter 2·5 μm or less in diameter (PM) in San Diego County (CA, USA) in people who were both unhoused and housed.

Methods: For this time-stratified case-crossover study, we used data on exposure to wildfire-specific PM in California and individual-level data for people admitted to the emergency departments of two hospitals (UC San Diego Health emergency departments at La Jolla and Hillcrest, San Diego) in San Diego County between July 1, 2012, and Dec 31, 2020.

Racial Residential Segregation and Mental Health During Pregnancy.

Importance: Research suggests the social, physical, and socioeconomic contexts of residing in segregated neighborhoods may negatively affect mental health.

Objective: To assess the association between racial residential segregation and prenatal mental health among Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White individuals.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC), an integrated health care delivery system.

Centering Amah Mutsun voices in the analysis of a culturally important, fire-managed coastal grassland.

Indigenous communities throughout California, USA, are increasingly advocating for and practicing cultural fire stewardship, leading to a host of social, cultural, and ecological benefits. Simultaneously, state agencies are recognizing the importance of controlled burning and cultural fire as a means of reducing the risk of severe wildfire while benefiting fire-adapted ecosystems. However, much of the current research on the impacts of controlled burning ignores the cultural importance of these ecosystems, and risks further marginalizing Indigenous knowledge systems.

Early-life tobacco exposure is causally implicated in aberrant RAG-mediated recombination in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children, yet few environmental risk factors have been identified. We previously found an association between early-life tobacco smoke exposure and frequency of somatic deletions of 8 leukemia driver genes among childhood ALL patients in the California Childhood Leukemia Study. To expand analysis genome-wide and examine potential mechanisms, we conducted tumor whole-genome sequencing in 35 ALL patients, including 18 with high prenatal tobacco exposure and 17 with low exposure as determined by established epigenetic biomarkers.

Torques within and outside the human spindle balance twist at anaphase.

At each cell division, nanometer-scale motors and microtubules give rise to the micron-scale spindle. Many mitotic motors step helically around microtubules in vitro, and most are predicted to twist the spindle in a left-handed direction. However, the human spindle exhibits only slight global twist, raising the question of how these molecular torques are balanced.

Beclin-mediated Autophagy Drives Dorsal Longitudinal Flight Muscle Histolysis in the Variable Field Cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps.

Flight muscle histolysis is a widespread strategy used by insects to break down functional flight muscle and modulate the energetic costs associated with flight muscle use and maintenance. The variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, undergoes histolysis during their transition between dispersal flight and reproduction. Despite the importance of histolysis on insect reproduction and fitness, the molecular mechanisms driving this flight muscle breakdown are not well understood.

Torques within and outside the human spindle balance twist at anaphase.

At each cell division, nanometer-scale motors and microtubules give rise to the micron-scale spindle. Many mitotic motors step helically around microtubules in vitro, and most are predicted to twist the spindle in a left-handed direction. However, the human spindle exhibits only slight global twist, raising the question of how these molecular torques are balanced.

Gait Event Detection and Travel Distance Using Waist-Worn Accelerometers across a Range of Speeds: Automated Approach.

Estimation of temporospatial clinical features of gait (CFs), such as step count and length, step duration, step frequency, gait speed, and distance traveled, is an important component of community-based mobility evaluation using wearable accelerometers. However, accurate unsupervised computerized measurement of CFs of individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) who have progressive loss of ambulatory mobility is difficult due to differences in patterns and magnitudes of acceleration across their range of attainable gait velocities. This paper proposes a novel calibration method.

Gait Characterization in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Using a Single-Sensor Accelerometer: Classical Machine Learning and Deep Learning Approaches.

Differences in gait patterns of children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and typically developing (TD) peers are visible to the eye, but quantifications of those differences outside of the gait laboratory have been elusive. In this work, we measured vertical, mediolateral, and anteroposterior acceleration using a waist-worn iPhone accelerometer during ambulation across a typical range of velocities. Fifteen TD and fifteen DMD children from 3 to 16 years of age underwent eight walking/running activities, including five 25 m walk/run speed-calibration tests at a slow walk to running speeds (SC-L1 to SC-L5), a 6-min walk test (6MWT), a 100 m fast walk/jog/run (100MRW), and a free walk (FW).

The Science of Precision Prevention: Research Opportunities and Clinical Applications to Reduce Cardiovascular Health Disparities.

Precision prevention embraces personalized prevention but includes broader factors such as social determinants of health to improve cardiovascular health. The quality, quantity, precision, and diversity of data relatable to individuals and communities continue to expand. New analytical methods can be applied to these data to create tools to attribute risk, which may allow a better understanding of cardiovascular health disparities.

Arbuscular mycorrhiza convey significant plant carbon to a diverse hyphosphere microbial food web and mineral-associated organic matter.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) transport substantial plant carbon (C) that serves as a substrate for soil organisms, a precursor of soil organic matter (SOM), and a driver of soil microbial dynamics. Using two-chamber microcosms where an air gap isolated AMF from roots, we CO-labeled Avena barbata for 6 wk and measured the C Rhizophagus intraradices transferred to SOM and hyphosphere microorganisms. NanoSIMS imaging revealed hyphae and roots had similar C enrichment.

A Palaeogene stem crotaphytid () and the phylogenetic affinities of early fossil pleurodontan iguanians.

Pleurodonta is an ancient, diverse clade of iguanian lizard distributed primarily in the Western Hemisphere. Although the clade is a frequent subject of systematic research, phylogenetic resolution among the major pleurodontan clades is elusive. That uncertainty has complicated the interpretations of many fossil pleurodontans.