Coding-Sequence Evolution Does Not Explain Divergence in Petal Anthocyanin Pigmentation Between Mimulus luteus Var luteus and M. l. variegatus.

Biologists have long been interested in understanding genetic constraints on the evolution of development. For example, noncoding changes in a gene might be favored over coding changes if they are less constrained by pleiotropic effects. Here, we evaluate the importance of coding-sequence changes to the recent evolution of a novel anthocyanin pigmentation trait in the monkeyflower genus Mimulus.

Universality of Dynamical Symmetries in Chaotic Maps.

Identifying signs of regularity and uncovering dynamical symmetries in complex and chaotic systems is crucial both for practical applications and for enhancing our understanding of complex dynamics. Recent approaches have quantified temporal correlations in time series, revealing hidden, approximate dynamical symmetries that provide insight into the systems under study. In this paper, we explore universality patterns in the dynamics of chaotic maps using combinations of complexity quantifiers.

Toward a Typology of the Client: A Latent Class Analysis Approach to the Consumption of Sex Work in the United States.

Previous research on male clients of sex workers has emphasized the diversity of purchasing behaviors; however, we know little about how to organize or categorize this diversity quantitatively. I employed latent class analysis with survey data from cisgender male clients of primarily cisgender female sex workers in the United States to organize client consumption patterns by the type of venue used to contact sex workers and the frequency of using each venue. I found that patterns of consumption emerged around the frequency and context in which sex work is negotiated, generating six distinct patterns of buying: generalists, internet-only buyers, brothel-only buyers, experimenters, routinized buyers, and opportunists.

AuxSynBio: synthetic biology tools to understand and engineer auxin.

The plant hormone auxin is a crucial coordinator of nearly all plant growth and development processes. Because of its centrality to plant physiology and the modular nature of the signaling pathway, auxin has played a critical role at the forefront of plant synthetic biology. This review will highlight how auxin is both a subject and an object of synthetic biology.

Snake species assemblages across habitat types in four departments of the Republic of Congo, with emphasis on medically-relevant venomous species.

Snakebite is a neglected public health crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a particular lack of data (on snakes and snakebite) from the central African region. This study was conducted in the departments of Likouala, Sangha, Cuvette-Ouest and Kouilou, in the Republic of Congo.

The Attentional Boost Effect in Older Adults: Examining the Vulnerable Boost Hypothesis.

Introduction: The Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) occurs whenever participants recognize stimuli paired earlier with to-be-responded targets better than stimuli earlier paired with to-be-ignored distractors or presented on their own (baseline). Previous studies showed that the ABE does not occur in older adults when the encoding time is too short (500 ms/word) or when encoding is incidental, likely due to aging-related reductions in cognitive resources or limitations of processing speed.

Method: In the present study, younger and older adults encoded words presented for 1000 ms under intentional instructions.

Manganese exposure from spring and well waters in the Shenandoah Valley: interplay of aquifer lithology, soil composition, and redox conditions.

Manganese (Mn) is of particular concern in groundwater, as low-level chronic exposure to aqueous Mn concentrations in drinking water can result in a variety of health and neurodevelopmental effects. Much of the global population relies on drinking water sourced from karst aquifers. Thus, we seek to assess the relative risk of Mn contamination in karst by investigating the Shenandoah Valley, VA region, as it is underlain by both karst and non-karst aquifers and much of the population relies on water wells and spring water.

Quantifying Disparities in Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Levels in Drinking Water from Overburdened Communities in New Jersey, 2019-2021.

Background: Policymakers have become increasingly concerned regarding the widespread exposure and toxicity of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). While concerns exist about unequal distribution of PFAS contamination in drinking water, research is lacking.

Objectives: We assess the scope of PFAS contamination in drinking water in New Jersey (NJ), the first US state to develop regulatory levels for PFAS in drinking water.

Long-term disgust habituation with limited generalisation in care home workers.

Countless workers handle bodily effluvia and body envelope violations every working day, and consequentially face deeply unpleasant levels of disgust. Understanding if and how they adapt can help inform policies to improve worker satisfaction and reduce staff turnover. So far, limited evidence exist that self-reported disgust is reduced (or lower to begin with) among those employed in high-disgust environments.

Macrocyclic Oxindole Peptide Epoxyketones-A Comparative Study of Macrocyclic Inhibitors of the 20S Proteasome.

Peptide macrocycles have recently gained attention as protease inhibitors due to their metabolic stability and specificity. However, the development of peptide macrocycles with improved binding potency has so far been challenging. Here we present macrocyclic peptides derived from the clinically applied proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib with an oxindole group that mimics the natural product TMC-95A.

Response to Food Restriction, but Not Social Information Use, Varies Seasonally in Captive Cardueline Finches.

Temperate winters can impose severe conditions on songbirds that threaten survival, including shorter days and often lower temperatures and food availability. One well-studied mechanism by which songbirds cope with such conditions is seasonal acclimatization of thermal metabolic traits, with strong evidence for both preparative and responsive changes in thermogenic capacity (i.e.

PFAS Contamination in Europe: Generating Knowledge and Mapping Known and Likely Contamination with "Expert-Reviewed" Journalism.

While the extent of environmental contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has mobilized considerable efforts around the globe in recent years, publicly available data on PFAS in Europe were very limited. In an unprecedented experiment of "expert-reviewed journalism" involving 29 journalists and seven scientific advisers, a cross-border collaborative project, the "Forever Pollution Project" (FPP), drew on both scientific methods and investigative journalism techniques such as open-source intelligence (OSINT) and freedom of information (FOI) requests to map contamination across Europe, making public data that previously had existed as "unseen science". The FPP identified 22,934 known contamination sites, including 20 PFAS manufacturing facilities, and 21,426 "presumptive contamination sites", including 13,745 sites presumably contaminated with fluorinated aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) discharge, 2911 industrial facilities, and 4752 sites related to PFAS-containing waste.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Exposure Risks in US Carceral Facilities, 2022.

To assess the US incarcerated population's risk of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). We assessed how many of the 6118 US carceral facilities were located in the same hydrologic unit code watershed boundaries as known or likely locations of PFAS contamination. We conducted geospatial analyses on data aggregated from Environmental Protection Agency databases and a PFAS site tracker in 2022 to model the hydrologically feasible known and presumptive PFAS contamination sites for nearly 2 million incarcerated people.

Long-term health outcomes associated with hydration status.

Body water balance is determined by fundamental homeostatic mechanisms that maintain stable volume, osmolality and the composition of extracellular and intracellular fluids. Water balance is maintained by multiple mechanisms that continuously match water losses through urine, the skin, the gastrointestinal tract and respiration with water gains achieved through drinking, eating and metabolic water production. Hydration status is determined by the state of the water balance.

The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africa's major land uses.

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species' population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate 'intactness scores': the remaining proportion of an 'intact' reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region's major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.

Uterine Uptake of Estrogen and Progestogen-Based Radiotracers in Rhesus Macaques with Endometriosis.

Purpose: Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent disorder of menstruating primates where tissues similar to the inner lining of the uterus exist "ectopically" outside of the uterus. The ectopic endometrium, like the endometrium within the uterus, expresses estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) and undergoes hormone-dependent cell proliferation and bleeding each menstrual cycle. The goal of this study was to conduct abdominopelvic positron emission tomography (PET) scans with computed tomography (CT) imaging of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) using radiotracers that target ER and PR [16α-[F]fluoroestradiol (FES) and 12-[F]fluoro-furanyl-nor-progesterone (FFNP)] in individuals with and without endometriosis.

Chatbot responses suggest that hypothetical biology questions are harder than realistic ones.

The biology education literature includes compelling assertions that unfamiliar problems are especially useful for revealing students' true understanding of biology. However, there is only limited evidence that such novel problems have different cognitive requirements than more familiar problems. Here, we sought additional evidence by using chatbots based on large language models as models of biology students.

A Multigenerational Turing Model Reproduces Transgressive Petal Spot Phenotypes in Hybrid Mimulus.

The origin of phenotypic novelty is a perennial question of genetics and evolution. To date, few studies of biological pattern formation specifically address multi-generational aspects of inheritance and phenotypic novelty. For quantitative traits influenced by many segregating alleles, offspring phenotypes are often intermediate to parental values.

Making the case for prophylactic use of betaine to promote brain health in young (15-24 year old) athletes at risk for concussion.

Betaine supplementation in the context of human nutrition, athletic performance, and clinical therapy demonstrate that the osmolyte and methyl donor, betaine, is cytoprotective and beneficial to human health. These studies also demonstrate that betaine supplementation in healthy humans is straight-forward with no reported adverse effects. Here, we explore betaine uptake in the central nervous system (CNS) and contribute to evidence that betaine may be uniquely protective to the brain.

Probiotics Modulate Host Immune Response and Interact with the Gut Microbiota: Shaping Their Composition and Mediating Antibiotic Resistance.

The consortium of microbes inhabiting the human body, together with their encoded genes and secreted metabolites, is referred to as the "human microbiome." Several studies have established a link between the composition of the microbiome and its impact on human health. This impact spans local gastrointestinal inflammation to systemic autoimmune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Autism.

Uterine uptake of estrogen and progestogen-based radiotracers in rhesus macaques with endometriosis.

Purpose: Few investigations have examined the uptake of radiotracers that target the prominent sex-steroid receptors in the uterus across the menstrual cycle and with disease state. We aimed to determine if uptake of the radiotracers that target estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PR) differ with the presence of endometriosis and/or across the menstrual cycle. We performed PET and computed tomography (CT) imaging procedures on rhesus macaques () using 16α-[18F]fluoroestradiol (FES) and 21-[18F]fluoro-furanyl-nor-progesterone (FFNP) in individuals with and without endometriosis in the proliferative and secretory phases of the menstrual cycle.