Clark's nutcracker forest community visitation: Whitebark pine maintains a keystone seed disperser.

Clark's nutcrackers () are obligate seed dispersers for whitebark pine (), but they frequently use other conifer seed resources because of annual variability in cone production or geographic variation in whitebark pine availability. Whitebark pine is declining from several threats including white pine blister rust, leading to potential population declines in the nutcracker and the pine. We hypothesize that where there are few additional seed resources, whitebark pine becomes the key and limiting resource supporting nutcracker populations.

Red-shifted activity-based sensors for ethylene direct conjugation of fluorophore to metal-carbene.

A number of Activity-Based Sensors (ABS) for relatively unreactive small molecules, such as ethylene, necessitates a transition metal for reaction under ambient conditions. Olefin metathesis has emerged as one of the primary strategies to achieve ethylene detection, and other transition metals are used for similarly challenging-to-detect analytes. However, limited studies exist investigating how fluorophore-metal attachment impacts photophysical properties of such ABS.

The role of anxiety and gender in anticipation and avoidance of naturalistic anxiety-provoking experiences during adolescence: An ecological momentary assessment study.

Objective: Anxiety symptoms often increase in late childhood/early adolescence, particularly among girls. However, few studies examine anxiety-relevant gender differences during anticipation and avoidance of naturalistic experiences during adolescence. The current study uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine associations among clinical anxiety, gender, anticipation, and attempted avoidance of person-specific anxiety-provoking experiences in youth ages 8-18.

Decoupling of sexual signals and their underlying morphology facilitates rapid phenotypic diversification.

How novel phenotypes evolve is challenging to imagine because traits are often underlain by numerous integrated phenotypic components, and changes to any one form can disrupt the function of the entire module. Yet novel phenotypes do emerge, and research on adaptive phenotypic evolution suggests that complex traits can diverge while either maintaining existing form-function relationships or through innovations that alter form-function relationships. How these alternate routes contribute to sexual signal evolution is poorly understood, despite the role of sexual signals in generating biodiversity.

Intergenerational programming during the pandemic: Transformation during (constantly) changing times.

Intergenerational programs have long been employed to reduce ageism and optimize youth and older adult development. Most involve in-person meetings, which COVID-19 arrested. ​​Needs for safety and social contact were amplified during COVID-19, leading to modified programming that engaged generations remotely rather than eliminating it.

BDNF mediates improvement in cognitive performance after computerized cognitive training in healthy older adults.

Introduction: The often-cited mechanism linking brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) to cognitive health has received limited experimental study. There is evidence that cognitive training, physical exercise, and mindfulness meditation may improve cognition. Here, we investigated whether improvements in cognition after these three types of structured interventions are facilitated by increases in BDNF.

Behavioral responses of a parasitoid fly to rapidly evolving host signals.

Animals eavesdrop on signals and cues generated by prey, predators, hosts, parasites, competing species, and conspecifics, and the conspicuousness of sexual signals makes them particularly susceptible. Yet, when sexual signals evolve, most attention is paid to impacts on intended receivers (potential mates) rather than fitness consequences for eavesdroppers. Using the rapidly evolving interaction between the Pacific field cricket, , and the parasitoid fly, , we asked how parasitoids initially respond to novel changes in host signals.

Reclaiming the mission of academic medicine: An examination of institutional responses to (anti)racism.

Purpose: The utility of institutional statements is said to provide clarity and reinforcement of an institution's goal. Unfortunately, it can also be argued that these statements are in clear misalignment between the words described and the environments that faculty, students, trainees, and staff of color face. The purpose of this study was to analyze academic medicine institutional statements that responded to 2020 racial tensions following the murders of George Floyd, among others, and the subsequent nationwide protests against police brutality.

Understanding and predicting the spatio-temporal spread of COVID-19 via integrating diffusive graph embedding and compartmental models.

In order to find useful intervention strategies for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), it is vital to understand how the disease spreads. In this study, we address the modeling of COVID-19 spread across space and time, which facilitates understanding of the pandemic. We propose a hybrid data-driven learning approach to capture the mobility-related spreading mechanism of infectious diseases, utilizing multi-sourced mobility and attributed data.

Streetlights positively affect the presence of an invasive grass species.

Anthropogenic disturbances associated with urban ecosystems can create favorable conditions for populations of some invasive plant species. Light pollution is one of these disturbances, but how it affects the growth and establishment of invasive plant populations is unknown. Cheatgrass () is a problematic invasive species where it has displaced native grassland communities in the United States, but to our knowledge, there have been no studies of the ecological factors that affect cheatgrass presence in urban ecosystems.

Sustainable generation of patient-led resources in a learning health system.

Background: Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) are an emerging mechanism to integrate patient and family voices into healthcare. One such PFAC is the Patient Advisory Council (PAC) of the ImproveCareNow (ICN) network, a learning health system dedicated to advancing the care of individuals with pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Using quality improvement techniques and co-production, the PAC has made great strides in developing novel patient-led resources.

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Factors associated with chronic kidney disease of non-traditional causes among children in Guatemala.

Objective: To identify factors associated with chronic kidney disease of non-traditional causes among children in Guatemala.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted. The study population was all pediatric patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease active in FUNDANIER's pediatric nephrology unit ( = 156).

Women and the weight of a pandemic: A survey of four Western US states early in the Coronavirus outbreak.

In the initial months of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, people struggled to adjust to the new normal. The burden of managing changes to home and work life seemed to fall disproportionately to women due to the nature of women's employment and gendered societal pressures. We surveyed residents of four western states in the first months of the outbreak to compare the experiences of women and men during this time.

Open access in the age of a pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of transparency, open, and timely access to information. Open Access (OA) has the potential to increase the exposure and use of not only published research but also authoritative and reliable information. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) impacted the work of journalists, scientists, and doctors while ordinary citizens are seeking trusted information sources and the truth about the new virus.

Directions for Research on Climate and Conflict.

The potential links between climate and conflict are well studied, yet disagreement about the specific mechanisms and their significance for societies persists. Here, we build on assessment of the relationship between climate and organized armed conflict to define crosscutting priorities for future directions of research. They include (1) deepening insight into climate-conflict linkages and conditions under which they manifest, (2) ambitiously integrating research designs, (3) systematically exploring future risks and response options, responsive to ongoing decision-making, and (4) evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to manage climate-conflict links.

Modeling interactions between brain function, diet adherence behaviors, and weight loss success.

Introduction: Obesity is linked to altered activation in reward and control brain circuitry; however, the associated brain activity related to successful or unsuccessful weight loss (WL) is unclear.

Methods: Adults with obesity (N = 75) completed a baseline functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan before entering a WL intervention (ie,3-month diet and physical activity [PA] program). We conducted an exploratory analysis to identify the contributions of baseline brain activation, adherence behavior patterns, and the associated connections to WL at the conclusion of a 3-month WL intervention.

Phenotypic divergence among threespine stickleback that differ in nuptial coloration.

By studying systems in their earliest stages of differentiation, we can learn about the evolutionary forces acting within and among populations and how those forces could contribute to reproductive isolation. Such an understanding would help us to better discern and predict how selection leads to the maintenance of multiple morphs within a species, rather than speciation. The postglacial adaptive radiation of the threespine stickleback () is one of the best-studied cases of evolutionary diversification and rapid, repeated speciation.

Small fish, large river: Surprisingly minimal genetic structure in a dispersal-limited, habitat specialist fish.

Genetic connectivity is expected to be lower in species with limited dispersal ability and a high degree of habitat specialization (intrinsic factors). Also, gene flow is predicted to be limited by habitat conditions such as physical barriers and geographic distance (extrinsic factors). We investigated the effects of distance, intervening pools, and rapids on gene flow in a species, the Tuxedo Darter (), a habitat specialist that is presumed to be dispersal-limited.

Video Review of Baseline Performance on Global Ratings in a Double-Blind Placebo Surgery Trial.

Background: A randomized controlled double-blind sham surgery trial was conducted to determine the effectiveness of implantation of human embryonic dopamine neurons into the putamen of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). The present analyses determined whether patients viewing a video of them performing motor activities off medications at baseline would affect self-ratings 12 months later on the Global Rating Scale (GRS).

Objectives: To examine changes in GRS scores pre- and post-video review for the total sample; to examine differences in scores between actual implant and sham groups, as well as perceived groups pre- and post-video review; to examine differences among four subgroups of patients based on actual and perceived treatment (i.

A new species and range extensions for three other species of pebblesnails (Lithoglyphidae, ) from the upper Klamath basin, California-Oregon.

This is the fifth in a recent series of papers on the poorly known western North American pebblesnail genus (Caenogastropoda, Lithoglyphidae). Herein we clarify the taxonomic status of the currently undescribed pebblesnail fauna in the upper Klamath River drainage (UKL) based on morphologic evidence, and mitochondrial DNA sequence data from 58 UKL collection localities. We describe one new species () from eight UKL localities which is differentiated by mtDNA sequences and unique penial morphology, and document range extensions to the UKL for three species from closely proximal drainages (, , ).

The relationship between male sexual signals, cognitive performance, and mating success in stickleback fish.

Cognitive ability varies dramatically among individuals, yet the manner in which this variation correlates with reproduction has rarely been investigated. Here, we ask (1) do male sexual signals reflect their cognitive ability, and (2) is cognitive ability associated with male mating success? Specifically, we presented threespine sticklebacks () with a detour-reaching task to assess initial inhibitory control. Fish that performed better were those who solved the detour-reaching task, solved it faster, and required fewer attempts to solve.