Macroevolutionary changes in gene expression response to an immune stimulus across the diversity of fishes.

Our understanding of the vertebrate immune system is dominated by a few model organisms such as mice. This use of a few model systems is reasonable if major features of the immune systems evolve slowly and are conserved across most vertebrates, but may be problematic if there is substantial macroevolutionary change in immune responses. Here, we present a test of the macroevolutionary stability, across 15 species of jawed fishes, of the transcriptomic response to a standardized immune challenge.

Does Motility-Restricting Fibrosis Influence Dispersal? An Experiment in Nature With Threespine Stickleback.

Dispersal can affect individual-level fitness and population-level ecological and evolutionary processes. Factors that affect dispersal could therefore have important eco-evolutionary implications. Here, we investigated the extent to which an inflammation and tissue repair response-peritoneal fibrosis-which is known to restrict movement, could influence dispersal by conducting a mark-recapture experiment in a lake in Alaska with threespine stickleback (.

Results of a pilot sequential multiple assignment randomized trial using counseling to augment a digital weight loss program.

Objective: Adaptive interventions may improve the potency and scalability of behavioral weight loss interventions, but the treatments-or treatment combinations-that should be offered are unknown. A two-stage pilot sequential multiple assignment randomized trial was used to test the timing and dose of human support added to a core digital weight loss program.

Methods: In stage 1, 99 adults with overweight/obesity were randomized at baseline to a kick-off with or without additional human support.

Motorizing the buckled blister for rotary actuation.

Snap-through bistability was widely exploited for rapid hopping in micro-electro-mechanical systems and soft robots. However, considerable energy input was required to trigger the transition between discrete buckling states blocked by potential wells. Here a dynamic buckling mechanism of a buckled blister constrained inside an outer ring is explored for eliciting rotary actuation via a localized change of curvature in the blister.

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factor Control Following Release From Carceral Facilities: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Incarceration is a social determinant of cardiovascular health but is rarely addressed in clinical settings or public health prevention efforts. People who have been incarcerated are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) at younger ages and have worse cardiovascular outcomes compared with the general population, even after controlling for traditional risk factors. This study aims to identify incarceration-specific factors that are associated with uncontrolled CVD risk factors to identify potential targets for prevention.

Do modern climatic niches distinguish extinct and extant plant genera in New Zealand?

Past climate changes have had large impacts on modern ecological patterns. Understanding if legacies are distinguishable in the climatic niches of extant and locally extinct taxa can provide insight into the importance of climate in extinction events. To better understand mid- to late-Cenozoic New Zealand plant extinctions, which are often attributed to Cenozoic climate cooling, we identify 13 con-familial extinct and extant New Zealand genus pairs, which have modern distributions in Australia.

Code sharing in ecology and evolution increases citation rates but remains uncommon.

Biologists increasingly rely on computer code to collect and analyze their data, reinforcing the importance of published code for transparency, reproducibility, training, and a basis for further work. Here, we conduct a literature review estimating temporal trends in code sharing in ecology and evolution publications since 2010, and test for an influence of code sharing on citation rate. We find that code is rarely published (only 6% of papers), with little improvement over time.

Destabilized host-parasite dynamics in newly founded populations.

When species disperse into previously unoccupied habitats, new populations encounter unfamiliar species interactions such as altered parasite loads. Theory predicts that newly founded populations should exhibit destabilized eco-evolutionary fluctuations in infection rates and immune traits. However, to understand founder effects biologists typically rely on retrospective studies of range expansions, missing early-generation infection dynamics.

Identifying Variation in Physical Health Behaviors and Depressive Symptoms among Religiosity Clusters of African American Adults in the United States.

Religiosity is an important factor in the lives of many African Americans, who suffer a greater health burden than their White counterparts. In this study, we examined associations between dimensions of religiosity with health behaviors and depressive symptoms in a sample of African American adults in the United States. Participants (N = 2086) completed five measures of religiosity (religious involvement, positive and negative religious coping, scriptural influence, belief in illness as punishment for sin) and measures of several health behaviors, cancer screening behaviors, and depressive symptoms.

Growth-defense trade-offs promote habitat isolation between recently-diverged species.

Trade-offs are crucial for species divergence and reproductive isolation. Trade-offs between investment in growth versus defense against herbivores are implicated in tropical forest diversity. Empirically exploring the role of growth-defense trade-offs in closely related species' reproductive isolation can clarify the eco-evolutionary dynamics through which growth-defense trade-offs contribute to diversity.

Designing eco-evolutionary experiments for restoration projects: Opportunities and constraints revealed during stickleback introductions.

Eco-evolutionary experiments are typically conducted in semi-unnatural controlled settings, such as mesocosms; yet inferences about how evolution and ecology interact in the real world would surely benefit from experiments in natural uncontrolled settings. Opportunities for such experiments are rare but do arise in the context of restoration ecology-where different "types" of a given species can be introduced into different "replicate" locations. Designing such experiments requires wrestling with consequential questions.

Conservation applications of niche modeling: Native and naturalized ferns may compete for limited Hawaiian dryland habitat.

Premise: Competition from naturalized species and habitat loss are common threats to native biodiversity and may act synergistically to increase competition for decreasing habitat availability. We use Hawaiian dryland ferns as a model for the interactions between land-use change and competition from naturalized species in determining habitat availability.

Methods: We used fine-resolution climatic variables and carefully curated occurrence data from herbaria and community science repositories to estimate the distributions of Hawaiian dryland ferns.

Synergy between the clavanins as a weapon against multidrug-resistant .

Finding new antibiotics that can act synergistically with each other offers many benefits such as lower dosages used for each drug, improved pathogen clearance, and ability to act against multi-drug resistant strains. In this study, six peptides isolated from the tunicate were evaluated for their synergistic interaction using the checkerboard assay and the time kill kinetics assay. Using two different tests, we report synergy between clavanin D and clavaspirin in both tests and synergy between clavanin A and B only in the checkerboard test when used against the multidrug resistant 0136.

Disturbance theory for ecosystem ecologists: A primer.

Understanding what regulates ecosystem functional responses to disturbance is essential in this era of global change. However, many pioneering and still influential disturbance-related theorie proposed by ecosystem ecologists were developed prior to rapid global change, and before tools and metrics were available to test them. In light of new knowledge and conceptual advances across biological disciplines, we present four disturbance ecology concepts that are particularly relevant to ecosystem ecologists new to the field: (a) the directionality of ecosystem functional response to disturbance; (b) functional thresholds; (c) disturbance-succession interactions; and (d) diversity-functional stability relationships.

Four new species of Fallén (Hemiptera, Miridae) from the Davis Mountains in Texas and further documentation of known species of Jeff Davis County.

A recent survey of the entomofauna of the Davis Mountains in the state of Texas has revealed four new species in the genus Fallén (Miridae, Mirinae, Mirini): and found on Liebmann, and and found attracted to lights. Descriptions, habitus, and genitalic images for the new species are included herein. Further, habitus and genitalic photographs of known species from the county are included to aid in identification.

Independently evolved pollution resistance in four killifish populations is largely explained by few variants of large effect.

The genetic architecture of phenotypic traits can affect the mode and tempo of trait evolution. Human-altered environments can impose strong natural selection, where successful evolutionary adaptation requires swift and large phenotypic shifts. In these scenarios, theory predicts that adaptation is due to a few adaptive variants of large effect, but empirical studies that have revealed the genetic architecture of rapidly evolved phenotypes are rare, especially for populations inhabiting polluted environments.

Correlating structural changes in thermoresponsive hydrogels to the optical response of embedded plasmonic nanoparticles.

Stimuli-responsive microgels, composed of small beads with soft, deformable polymer networks swollen through a combination of synthetic control over the polymer and its interaction with water, form a versatile platform for development of multifunctional and biocompatible sensors. The interfacial structural variation of such materials at a nanometer length scale is essential to their function, but not yet fully comprehended. Here, we take advantage of the plasmonic response of a gold nanorod embedded in a thermoresponsive microgel (AuNR@PNIPMAm) to monitor structural changes in the hydrogel directly near the nanorod surface.

Leveraging seasonality and timing to optimize pediatric weight management interventions: Novel directions for future research.

National estimates suggest that more than 35% of American children, ages 2-19 years, are overweight or obese, which increases their risk for weight-related comorbidities including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease risk factors, depression, and anxiety. While obesity prevention is most cost-effective, for youth with existing obesity, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends ≥26 h of comprehensive lifestyle intervention over 6-12 months. This include standard behavioral therapy, dietary counseling, and an emphasis on physical activity.

Anti-Arrhenius behavior of electron transfer reactions in molecular dimers.

Rates of chemical reactions typically accelerate as the temperature rises, following the Arrhenius law. However, electron transfer reactions may exhibit weak temperature dependence or counterintuitive behavior, known as anti-Arrhenius behavior, wherein reaction rates decrease as temperature increases. Solvent reorganization energy and torsion-induced changes in electronic couplings could contribute to this unusual behavior, but how each contributes to the overall temperature dependence is unclear.

Contra assertions, feedback improves word recognition: How feedback and lateral inhibition sharpen signals over noise.

Whether top-down feedback modulates perception has deep implications for cognitive theories. Debate has been vigorous in the domain of spoken word recognition, where competing computational models and agreement on at least one diagnostic experimental paradigm suggest that the debate may eventually be resolvable. Norris and Cutler (2021) revisit arguments against lexical feedback in spoken word recognition models.

Admixture mapping and selection scans identify genomic regions associated with stomatal patterning and disease resistance in hybrid poplars.

Variation in fitness components can be linked in some cases to variation in key traits. Metric traits that lie at the intersection of development, defense, and ecological interactions may be expected to experience environmental selection, informing our understanding of evolutionary and ecological processes. Here, we use quantitative genetic and population genomic methods to investigate disease dynamics in hybrid and non-hybrid populations.

Why surface hydrophobicity promotes CO electroreduction: a case study of hydrophobic polymer -heterocyclic carbenes.

We report the use of polymer -heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) to control the microenvironment surrounding metal nanocatalysts, thereby enhancing their catalytic performance in CO electroreduction. Three polymer NHC ligands were designed with different hydrophobicity: hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-NHC), hydrophobic polystyrene (PS-NHC), and amphiphilic block copolymer (BCP) (PEO--PS-NHC). All three polymer NHCs exhibited enhanced reactivity of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) during CO electroreduction by suppressing proton reduction.

Athletic Trainers' Psychosocial Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Research Study.

Context: Despite the many challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, athletic programs have sought ways to persevere and deliver sport programming. This process has strained the psychosocial health of all sport stakeholders but especially those entrusted with promoting the health of participants and enforcing safety protocols. Athletic trainers (ATs) have been a major influence in striving to achieve these goals by expanding their typical roles to lead in promoting the safe delivery of sport programs.