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Autistic people often experience difficulties navigating face-to-face social interactions. Historically, the empirical literature has characterised these difficulties as cognitive 'deficits' in social information processing. However, the empirical basis for such claims is lacking, with most studies failing to capture the complexity of social interactions, often distilling them into singular communicative modalities (e.g. gaze-based communication) that are rarely used in isolation in daily interactions. The current study examined how gaze was used in concert with communicative hand gestures during joint attention interactions. We employed an immersive virtual reality paradigm, where autistic (n = 22) and non-autistic (n = 22) young people completed a collaborative task with a non-autistic confederate. Integrated eye-, head- and hand-motion-tracking enabled dyads to communicate naturally with each other while offering objective measures of attention and behaviour. Autistic people in our sample were similarly, if not more, effective in responding to hand-cued joint attention bids compared with non-autistic people. Moreover, both autistic and non-autistic people demonstrated an ability to adaptively use gaze information to aid coordination. Our findings suggest that the intersecting fields of autism and social neuroscience research may have overstated the role of eye gaze during coordinated social interactions. Autistic people have been said to have 'problems' with joint attention, that is, looking where someone else is looking. Past studies of joint attention have used tasks that require autistic people to continuously look at and respond to eye-gaze cues. But joint attention can also be done using other social cues, like pointing. This study looked at whether autistic and non-autistic young people use another person's eye gaze during joint attention in a task that did not require them to look at their partner's face. In the task, each participant worked together with their partner to find a computer-generated object in virtual reality. Sometimes the participant had to help guide their partner to the object, and other times, they followed their partner's lead. Participants were told to point to guide one another but were not told to use eye gaze. Both autistic and non-autistic participants often looked at their partner's face during joint attention interactions and were faster to respond to their partner's hand-pointing when the partner also looked at the object before pointing. This shows that autistic people can and do use information from another person's eyes, even when they don't have to. It is possible that, by not forcing autistic young people to look at their partner's face and eyes, they were better able to gather information from their partner's face when needed, without being overwhelmed. This shows how important it is to design tasks that provide autistic people with opportunities to show what they can do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Randomized clinical trials show a survival benefit associated with immuno-molecular therapy (IMT) use in metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer. This study investigated IMT use and survival in stage IVB cervical cancer patients in Commission on Cancer® (CoC)®-accredited facilities. Patients diagnosed with stage IVB cervical cancer in the National Cancer Database and treated with first-line therapy with chemotherapy alone or with radiotherapy ± IMT were studied. Adjusted risks of death were estimated in patients treated with ±IMT after applying a propensity score analysis to balance the clinical covariates. There were 3164 evaluable patients, including 31% who were treated with IMT. The use of IMT increased from 11% in 2013 to 46% in 2019. In propensity-score-balanced patients, the median survival was 5 months longer with vs. without IMT. The adjusted risk of death was 28% lower following treatment with vs. without IMT. IMT was associated with a consistent survival benefit in real-world patients in (CoC)®-accredited facilities with stage IVB cervical cancer. Purpose: To investigate IMT use and survival in real-world stage IVB cervical cancer patients outside randomized clinical trials. Methods: Patients diagnosed with stage IVB cervical cancer during 2013–2019 in the National Cancer Database and treated with chemotherapy (CT) ± external beam radiation (EBRT) ± intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT) ± IMT were studied. The adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for risk of death were estimated in patients treated with vs. without IMT after applying propensity score analysis to balance the clinical covariates. Results: There were 3164 evaluable patients, including 969 (31%) who were treated with IMT. The use of IMT increased from 11% in 2013 to 46% in 2019. Age, insurance, facility type, sites of distant metastasis, and type of first-line treatment were independently associated with using IMT. In propensity-score-balanced patients, the median survival was 18.6 vs. 13.1 months for with vs. without IMT (p < 0.001). The AHR was 0.72 (95% CI = 0.64–0.80) for adding IMT overall, 0.72 for IMT + CT, 0.66 for IMT + CT + EBRT, and 0.69 for IMT + CT + EBRT + ICBT. IMT-associated survival improvements were suggested in all subgroups by age, race/ethnicity, comorbidity score, facility type, tumor grade, tumor size, and site of metastasis. Conclusions: IMT was associated with a consistent survival benefit in real-world patients with stage IVB cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, excitement broke out around the potential for drones to generate aerial solutions to devilish pandemic problems. But despite the hype, pandemic drones largely failed to take to the sky and far from the scale initially imagined. This article pursues the failure of the pandemic drone to materialise, showing how it nevertheless functioned as a locus of experimentation for remote logics and processes. As such, we shift focus away from what the pandemic drone is to if and where it – or its logics – can be found. To learn from the pandemic drone, we turn to three trajectories of failure: failure as experiment, failure as imaginary and failure as glitch. With particular attention to specific case studies, we show how failure enables drone logics and processes to migrate across various socio-technical forms, sites and applications of automated decision-making responses to the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade ago, veganism was a fringe radical movement. It was also largely absent from the geographical discipline, despite a rich history of vegan scholarship being present in disciplines such as Sociology and Psychology. However, veganism has recently seen a surge in popularity, with more people than ever before becoming vegan for a mixture of animal welfare, environmental, and health‐based reasons. With this mainstreaming, veganism has become contentious and fiercely defended. As veganism has become a growing social and political force, geographers have started to take notice of this previously fringe movement, which is gaining economic, ecological, and cultural power as investment flows into 'plant‐based' products and new markets are emerging. In this commentary, we look at how veganism has recently been taken up in Geography via several distinct trends that all stake a claim in defining an emerging geographical sub‐discipline, vegan geographies. We note the importance of scholarly pluralism and attention to establishing geographical sub‐disciplines more broadly. In this commentary, we look at how veganism has recently been taken up in Geography via several distinct trends that all stake a claim in defining an emerging geographical sub‐discipline, vegan geographies. We note the importance of scholarly pluralism and attention to establishing geographical sub‐disciplines more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embryonic development is often considered shielded from the effects of natural selection, being selected primarily for reliable development. However, embryos sometimes represent virulent parasites, triggering a coevolutionary "arms race" with their host. We have examined embryonic adaptations to a parasitic lifestyle in the bitterling fish. Bitterlings are brood parasites that lay their eggs in the gill chamber of host mussels. Bitterling eggs and embryos have adaptations to resist being flushed out by the mussel. These include a pair of projections from the yolk sac that act as an anchor. Furthermore, bitterling eggs all adopt a head-down position in the mussel gills which further increases their chances of survival. To examine these adaptations in detail, we have studied development in the rosy bitterling (Rhodeus ocellatus) using molecular markers, X-ray tomography, and time-lapse imaging. We describe a suite of developmental adaptations to brood parasitism in this species. We show that the mechanism underlying these adaptions is a modified pattern of blastokinesis--a process unique, among fish, to bitterlings. Tissue movements during blastokinesis cause the embryo to do an extraordinary "front-flip" on the yolk. We suggest that this movement determines the spatial orientation of the other developmental adaptations to parasitism, ensuring that they are optimally positioned to help resist the ejection of the embryo from the mussel. Our study supports the notion that natural selection can drive the evolution of a suite of adaptations, both embryonic and extra-embryonic, via modifications in early development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During conversations people coordinate simultaneous channels of verbal and nonverbal information to hear and be heard. But the presence of background noise levels such as those found in cafes and restaurants can be a barrier to conversational success. Here, we used speech and motion-tracking to reveal the reciprocal processes people use to communicate in noisy environments. Conversations between twenty-two pairs of typical-hearing adults were elicited under different conditions of background noise, while standing or sitting around a table. With the onset of background noise, pairs rapidly adjusted their interpersonal distance and speech level, with the degree of initial change dependent on noise level and talker configuration. Following this transient phase, pairs settled into a sustaining phase in which reciprocal speech and movement-based coordination processes synergistically maintained effective communication, again with the magnitude of stability of these coordination processes covarying with noise level and talker configuration. Finally, as communication breakdowns increased at high noise levels, pairs exhibited resetting behaviors to help restore communication—decreasing interpersonal distance and/or increasing speech levels in response to communication breakdowns. Approximately 78 dB SPL defined a threshold where behavioral processes were no longer sufficient for maintaining effective conversation and communication breakdowns rapidly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the challenges of witnessing the Anthropocene, in the context of catastrophic planetary events. It discusses the dominance of aerial imagery in representing ecological catastrophes like climate change; witnessing in the Anthropocene extends beyond human perspectives; encompassing non-human sentience, material entities and poetic language; inclusive & ethical forms of testimony and role of poetics in forging connections across species in the context of environmental trauma.

Behavior intervention plans (BIPs) are intended to help educators systematically support students with behavioral problems at school. Previous research confirms that the effectiveness of a BIP depends on the degree to which the plan is technically adequate and implemented with integrity. What remains unclear from the literature is how professional experience and environmental variables impact technical adequacy, treatment integrity, and student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore these relationships using data collected from a survey of members' experiences with the BIP implementation team. The researchers collected BIPs from local school districts and then surveyed members of the implementation team regarding their professional qualifications, training, involvement in the BIP development process, treatment integrity, and perceived impact on student outcomes. Results from two multiple regression models predicting treatment integrity and student outcomes suggest that practitioners' perceptions of BIP quality significantly predicted treatment integrity. Additionally, training, BIP quality, and treatment integrity significantly predicted student outcomes. These findings suggest that practitioners' perceptions of BIP quality may play an important role in predicting treatment integrity but improving student outcomes requires technical adequacy and targeted professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a collaboration with Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children's Books, university students and primary school children were brought together through methods of intergenerational practice (IGP). Across consecutive academic years, the project has seen 136 students embark on an exploration of geographies of gender and generation with 120 primary school children. By utilising creative learning in teaching the project addresses threshold concepts in understanding, in this case, IGP (methods of intentional age integration). The purpose of this paper is to analyse the promotion of IGP through emergent critical reflections. These reflections are situated within academic debate on the use of IGP in children's and young people's geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civilian victims of aerial warfare too often go uncounted and unrecognised by the belligerents. Myriad images and video of attacks against Syrian civilians did little to end their suffering, for example. The UK-based not-for-profit Airwars has had tangible impact on civilian harm disclosures and reparations because they have been able to shape such representations in a form that will be recognised by those with the power to enact change. Building on established theories of media witnessing and their extension to what Gray calls 'data witnessing', we argue that Airwars reveals the operative role of framing in open-source investigation and the forms of it witnessing it produces. Through interviews with key team members and detailed analysis of Airwars published methodology and other materials, this article shows how open-source investigations broadens the frame for witnessing civilian harm and in doing so generates relational, multi-scalar accounts of state violence that remain open to contestation and confirmation. In doing so, Airwars claims an epistemic authority via its distinctive framing of emergent practices of witnessing that depend upon the assembling of roles, standards, spatialities and techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the utility of supervised machine learning (SML) and explainable artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for modeling and understanding human decision-making during multiagent task performance. Long short-term memory (LSTM) networks were trained to predict the target selection decisions of expert and novice players completing a multiagent herding task. The results revealed that the trained LSTM models could not only accurately predict the target selection decisions of expert and novice players but that these predictions could be made at timescales that preceded a player's conscious intent. Importantly, the models were also expertise specific, in that models trained to predict the target selection decisions of experts could not accurately predict the target selection decisions of novices (and vice versa). To understand what differentiated expert and novice target selection decisions, we employed the explainable-AI technique, SHapley Additive explanation (SHAP), to identify what informational features (variables) most influenced modelpredictions. The SHAP analysis revealed that experts were more reliant on information about target direction of heading and the location of coherders (i.e., other players) compared to novices. The implications and assumptions underlying the use of SML and explainable-AI techniques for investigating and understanding human decision-making are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing root zone moisture is critical to both the health and performance of sand‐based golf course putting greens. Ensuring adequate water for root uptake while preserving firm, dry surfaces is an ever‐present challenge. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is an accepted technology for obtaining objective, nondestructive measurements of volumetric water content (VWC). However, portable TDR meters have limited ability to describe VWC near the surface, the region that ultimately defines putting green quality. The objective of this research was to expand the measurement capabilities of an existing TDR meter to estimate VWC in the uppermost 1.2 and 2.5 cm of sand‐based putting greens. Spacer‐blocks were constructed to effectively reduce the measurement depth of the Field Scout TDR300 (Spectrum Technologies Inc.). Samples from creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) and ultradwarf bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. × C. transvaalensis Burtt Davy] putting greens were removed, saturated, and dried for various intervals so that measurements with the modified TDR300 could be correlated to gravimetrically determined ground‐truth VWC. At both 1.2 and 2.5 cm, highly significant (p <.0001) quadratic prediction models were produced, with R2 values of 0.93 and 0.96, respectively. The use of spacer‐blocks expanded the capabilities of the TDR300, providing additional VWC data near the surface, thus creating a more comprehensive depiction of putting green moisture. The methods developed in this research have implications beyond turfgrass and may provide valuable information for studying seedling germination, disease development, or other situations where shallow, non‐destructive VWC measurements are beneficial. Core ideas: Measurement capabilities of portable time domain reflectometry (TDR) meters can be expanded by using spacer‐blocks.Modified TDR meters can estimate volumetric water content (VWC) at new, shallower depths of 1.2 and 2.5 cm.Quadratic prediction models provide good estimates of VWC across a range of conditions.Linear models tend to overestimate VWC at the lower end of observed values.Surface VWC measurements have potential use beyond golf course putting greens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK supports a quarter of Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata, so a recent halving of numbers has impacted the global population. Low breeding success is a frequently cited cause of decline. We considered breeding success in relation to predator indices and habitat measures within 18 moorland-farmland blocks across several UK regions. Each block comprised one site where gamekeepers lethally controlled predators on moors managed for red grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica (grouse moor) and another on similar habitat where predators were not controlled (non-grouse moor). More wader species occurred on grouse moors, which supported twice the density of waders as non-grouse moors. Curlew productivity was fourfold higher on grouse moors (1.05 fledglings pair-1) than non-grouse moors (0.27). Hatching and fledging success was negatively linked to a combined index of corvids and fox, which were three- to fourfold fewer on grouse moors but were unrelated to 11 habitats and two livestock grazing variables. Similar patterns were observed in three of four other wader species. These behaviour-based findings were validated by observations on actual nests and broods. Grouse moors appear to act as source populations, thereby slowing the current rapid decline. To halt declines and promote curlew recovery in the UK uplands, we recommend that predator control on grouse moors is maintained and longer term land use policies are developed to render landscapes less friendly to currently high levels of generalist predators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For people subject to drone war in Gaza, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, the violence and trauma inflicted by remotely piloted aerial systems such as the MQ-9 Reaper takes place at a remove from the sensors, networks, algorithms and interfaces that launch Hellfire and other missiles from the air. Brutal death and wounding bely the precision rhetoric, technocratic discourses and technoscientific imaginaries that shroud drone warfare in popular and political debate over its merits. Much has been said about the traumas of drone operators, but less about the traumas produced by drone warfare in those individuals and communities subject to it. In this short article, I pursue the question of how those traumas on the ground are bound up with the media-technological entities, processes and affects that compose the military drone apparatus: sensors, networks, algorithms, interfaces, atmospheres and missiles. My core contention is that the trauma of drone warfare is characterised by the violent mediation of drone systems, which produce an intensive relation between the not-yet of traumatic violence having commenced before it is felt and the already-too-late of that experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Automated techniques have driven new approaches to visualising and acting upon planetary crises, such as Microsoft's Planetary Computer and Amazon's partnership with the start-up Overstory (formerly 20tree.ai). However, "planetary" machine envisioning, together with its critical theorisation, tends toward scalar equivalence and the assumption of interoperability across media, infrastructure, and optics. The "planetary" becomes a mode for and platform of seeing Earth and beyond in which AI vision systems conjoin seamlessly with a predictive imaging of the planet and have the effect of becoming mutually dependent and self-reinforcing. In this article, we argue for a more pluralistic and nonhuman set of Earth images and imaginings. We argue that such modes of imaging are multiscalar and are indebted to what Paul Edwards calls "data friction." Here materialities of both media and Earth impede the seamless movement and exchange of data involved in machine vision; and disjunctive syntheses are instead constantly being generated. We examine eccentric modes of configuring the planetary via the artwork of Tega Brain, who deploys disjunctive and nonscalable relations of climate and environment in her use of data and AI imaging techniques. In spite of considerable financial, cognitive, and affective investment to entangle Earth with machine vision, we propose instead that imaging and imagining the planetary is a radically incomplete project. Drawing on Indigenous approaches to AI development via Country Centered Design and the process philosophy of William James and others, we propose that planetary "vision" operates within a pluralistic universe of seeing, in which ongoing and radical incompleteness is core to its imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ciliated cell markers expressed in epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) are associated with improved survival. We examined the distribution of cells expressing ciliated cell markers in various EOC histologies and stages. Immunohistochemistry and/or multiplex immunofluorescence were used to determine the expression of FOXJ1 and/or CAPS (ciliated cell markers) in tissue microarrays including 4 normal fallopian tubes, 6 normal endometria, 16 cystadenomas, 25 borderline tumors, 21 low-grade carcinomas, and 118 high-grade carcinomas (HGSOC) (46 serous, 29 endometrioid, 30 clear cell, 13 mucinous). CAPS+ cells were observed in normal fallopian tubes and endometria and in ~85% of serous benign and borderline tumors and low-grade carcinomas but only in <40% of HGSOC. mRNA data from an independent cohort showed higher FOXJ1 and CAPS expression in serous borderline tumors and low-grade carcinomas compared to HGSOC. In HGSOC, ciliated cell-positive markers were observed in 52% primary tumors compared to 26% of patient-matched synchronous metastases, and 24% metachronous metastases (p = 0.009). mRNA data from an independent HGSOC cohort showed lower levels of CAPS in metastases than in primary tumors (p = 0.03). Overall, the study revealed that ciliated cells were less common in mucinous EOC, the percentage of ciliated cell marker-positive cases decreased with increasing grade, and the percentage of ciliated cells decreased in HGSOC metastases compared to patient-matched primary tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Weight percentiles are generally reported without any indication of error. This variation can lead a fetus being mistakenly classified erroneously as having intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) or macrosomia. The goal of this study was to compare estimated weight percentiles with the actual observed weight percentile for each gestational age in a large cohort of fetuses being scanned in our institution. Methods: After IRB approval the radiology information system data base was retrospectively searched for all obstetrical US reports obtained during the late second and third trimesters from July 1, 2014, until July 1, 2020. Demographic information, fetal weight, and weight percentile information were obtained from these reports. Quantile‐quantile plots were created for all gestational ages and all ethnicities. Results: Our study included 6259 ultrasounds in 4060 patients. Mean maternal age of the total group was 31.68 years (ranging 15–53 years). When all subjects were considered, the median values in our QQ plots approximated the line of identity. However, there was considerable variation for a given estimate, implying that estimated fetal weight percentiles are only very rough predictors of the actual percentile. Conclusion: Estimated fetal weight percentiles are only very rough predictors of the actual percentile. We therefore suggest that estimates of the weight percentile should be reported along with an estimate of the expected variation. Recognition of variations in weight percentile should be considered in the greater clinical context, and could potentially prevent misdiagnosis of growth restriction and macrosomia as well as the subsequent overutilization of resources, unnecessary interventions, and maternal stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the challenges associated with virtually mediated communication, remote collaboration is a defining characteristic of online multiplayer gaming communities. Inspired by the teamwork exhibited by players in first-person shooter games, this study investigated the verbal and behavioral coordination of four-player teams playing a cooperative online video game. The game, Desert Herding, involved teams consisting of three ground players and one drone operator tasked to locate, corral, and contain evasive robot agents scattered across a large desert environment. Ground players could move throughout the environment, while the drone operator's role was akin to that of a "spectator" with a bird's-eye view, with access to veridical information of the locations of teammates and the to-be-corralled agents. Categorical recurrence quantification analysis (catRQA) was used to measure the communication dynamics of teams as they completed the task. Demands on coordination were manipulated by varying the ground players' ability to observe the environment with the use of game "fog." Results show that catRQA was sensitive to changes to task visibility, with reductions in task visibility reorganizing how participants conversed during the game to maintain team situation awareness. The results are discussed in the context of future work that can address how team coordination can be augmented with the inclusion of artificial agents, as synthetic teammates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 10‐yr, four‐phase collaborative effort among three universities was conducted to develop new hybrid zoysiagrasses (Zoysia spp. Willd.) with improved turf quality, winter hardiness, and pest resistance in comparison to commercial zoysiagrass cultivars, especially 'Meyer' (Z. japonica Steud.). In Phase 1, breeding efforts produced 2,858 new progeny that were evaluated for 2 yr across three sites. In Phase 2, only 60 (2%) of 2,858 progeny were selected for advancement to 10 replicated multiyear field trials (Phase 3). Phase 3 revealed 10 promising progeny (assigned DALZ numbers) that required further intensive field and laboratory testing in Phase 4. Phase 4 revealed differences in establishment rate, and DALZ 1701, 1702, 1707, and 1810 had moderate‐to‐good turf performance across seven sites, whereas DALZ 1808 had similar or slightly lower performance. Meyer consistently performed poorly, and 'Innovation', a recently released hybrid cultivar, had poor‐to‐moderate performance in comparison to the experimental genotypes, which illustrates the improvements achieved in zoysiagrass breeding in the last 10 yr. Freeze tolerance (LT50, lethal temperature killing 50% of the plants) ranged from −9.8 °C (Diamond) to −14.1 °C (DALZ 1812) with a mean of −12.5 °C. Evidence of large patch [Rhizoctonia solani Kühn, anastomosis Group (AG) 2‐2 LP] in the top 10 DALZ genotypes was 15 to 40% lower than Meyer on several dates. Results indicate that there are multiple genotypes for potential release in the future with improved turf color, winter hardiness, freeze tolerance, large patch resistance, and finer leaf texture suitable for USDA plant hardiness zones ranging between 5b and 8a. Core Ideas: Multidisciplinary, systematic breeding efforts effectively improve zoysiagrass.Intra‐ and interspecific hybridization introgressed superior turf traits.Multiple options exist for potential zoysiagrass release for a variety of climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning-based approaches to markerless 3D pose estimation are being adopted by researchers in psychology and neuroscience at an unprecedented rate. Yet many of these tools remain unvalidated. Here, we report on the validation of one increasingly popular tool (DeepLabCut) against simultaneous measurements obtained from a reference measurement system (Fastrak) with well-known performance characteristics. Our results confirm close (mm range) agreement between the two, indicating that under specific circumstances deep learning-based approaches can match more traditional motion tracking methods. Although more work needs to be done to determine their specific performance characteristics and limitations, this study should help build confidence within the research community using these new tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People working as a team can achieve more than when working alone due to a team's ability to parallelize the completion of tasks. In collaborative search tasks, this necessitates the formation of effective division of labor strategies to minimize redundancies in search. For such strategies to be developed, team members need to perceive the task's relevant components and how they evolve over time, as well as an understanding of what others will do so that they can structure their own behavior to contribute to the team's goal. This study explored whether the capacity for team members to coordinate effectively can be related to how participants structure their search behaviors in an online multiplayer collaborative search task. Our results demonstrated that the structure of search behavior, quantified using detrended fluctuation analysis, was sensitive to contextual factors that limit a participant's ability to gather information. Further, increases in the persistence of movement fluctuations during search behavior were found as teams developed more effective coordinative strategies and were associated with better task performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convergence is the phenomenon whereby similar phenotypes evolve independently in different lineages. One example is resistance to toxins in animals. Toxins have evolved many times throughout the tree of life. They disrupt molecular and physiological pathways in target species, thereby incapacitating prey or deterring a predator. In response, molecular resistance has evolved in many species exposed to toxins to counteract their harmful effects. Here, we review current knowledge on the convergence of toxin resistance using examples from a wide range of toxin families. We explore the evolutionary processes and molecular adaptations driving toxin resistance. However, resistance adaptations may carry a fitness cost if they disrupt the normal physiology of the resistant animal. Therefore, there is a trade‐off between maintaining a functional molecular target and reducing toxin susceptibility. There are relatively few solutions that satisfy this trade‐off. As a result, we see a small set of molecular adaptations appearing repeatedly in diverse animal lineages, a phenomenon that is consistent with models of deterministic evolution. Convergence may also explain what has been called 'autoresistance'. This is often thought to have evolved for self‐protection, but we argue instead that it may be a consequence of poisonous animals feeding on toxic prey. Toxin resistance provides a unique and compelling model system for studying the interplay between trophic interactions, selection pressures and the molecular mechanisms underlying evolutionary novelties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bitterlings are carp‐like teleost fish (Cypriniformes: Acheilanathidae) known for their specialized brood parasitic lifestyle. Bitterling embryos, in fact, develop inside the gill chamber of their freshwater mussel hosts. However, little is known about how their parasitic lifestyle affects brain development in comparison to nonparasitic species. Here, we document the development of the brain of the rosy bitterling, Rhodeus ocellatus, at four embryonic stages of 165, 185, 210, 235 hours postfertilization (hpf) using micro‐computed tomography (microCT). Focusing on developmental regionalization and brain ventricular organization, we relate the development of the brain divisions to those described for zebrafish using the prosomeric model as a reference paradigm. Segmentation and three‐dimensional visualization of the ventricular system allowed us to identify changes in the longitudinal brain axis as a result of cephalic flexure during development. The results show that during early embryonic and larval development, histological differentiation, tissue boundaries, periventricular proliferation zones, and ventricular spaces are all detectable by microCT. The results of this study visualized with differential CT profiles are broadly consistent with comparable histological studies, and with the genoarchitecture of teleosts like the zebrafish. Compared to the zebrafish, our study identifies distinct developmental heterochronies in the rosy bitterling, such as a precocious development of the inferior lobe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A concealable stigmatised identity (CSI) is any identity that can be hidden but, if revealed, can be potentially socially devaluing (e.g., sexual minority). Those living with a CSI have opportunities to disclose their identities to friends and family members or within professional contexts. According to the disclosure processes model, people adopt either approach-oriented or avoidance-oriented goals when self disclosing. The current study sought to identify how antecedent goals and relationship context are embodied in the dynamics of unintentional behaviours during disclosure. Participants simulated a disclosure event to both close other and professional other targets and were primed with either approach or avoidance-motivations. Postural activity and language were analysed using detrended fluctuation analysis and recurrence quantification analysis. Results revealed that the movement dynamics of participants who were motivated by approach goals exhibited more complex and flexible behaviour compared to those who were motivated by avoidance goals. In addition, there was more recurrent word use towards close others compared to professional others. These results support the supposition of the disclosure processes model that approach-avoidance motivation impacts behaviour and sheds light on the functional differences between relationship contexts on a CSI disclosure experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeowners with automated sprinkler systems water lawns frequently and may be unaware of the volume of water applied in their irrigation programs. Rain sensors (RS) and soil moisture sensors (SMS) may reduce watering by permitting scheduled irrigation to occur relative to recent rainfall or current soil moisture status and are available as add‐on technologies for residential sprinkler systems. As RS and SMS may positively impact irrigation scheduling, incorporating them into existing sprinkler systems may reduce water use and provide a return on investment (ROI), without compromising turfgrass quality. The objectives of this research were to determine the water savings of add‐on RS and SMS, estimate their ROI, and evaluate their impact on bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] lawn quality over three summers in Northwest Arkansas. An irrigation schedule without a sensor (control) was programmed to apply 0.5 inches of water twice a week for 17 wk. Water usage and turfgrass quality under the control were compared with two RS and two SMS, following the same program. During the 3‐yr study, RS and SMS reduced annual water use by an average of 22.1 and 66.2%, respectively. All treatments exhibited similar turfgrass quality and remained above the minimum level of acceptable quality. Under these experimental conditions, the average ROI for RS and SMS was estimated to be $87 and $200, respectively, within the first year of installation. Regional best management practices for watering bermudagrass lawns should include the incorporation of RS and SMS to reduce irrigation, maintain turfgrass quality, and save money. Core Ideas: Irrigation sensors may reduce water use without compromising turfgrass quality.When properly calibrated, soil moisture sensors can reduce water use by 66%.Rain sensors can reduce water use by 22% in a humid transition‐zone environment.Irrigation sensors may provide a return on investment of up to $200 within 1 yr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swiss‐born embryologist Wilhelm His, Sr. (1831–1904) was the first scientist to study embryos using paraffin histology, serial sectioning and three‐dimensional modelling. With these techniques, His made many important discoveries in vertebrate embryology and developmental neurobiology, earning him two Nobel Prize nominations. He also developed several theories of mechanical and evolutionary developmental biology. His argued that adult form is determined by the differential growth of developmental primordia. Furthermore, he suggested that changes in the growth parameters of those primordia are responsible for generating new phenotypes during evolution. His developed these theories in his book 'Our Bodily Form' (Unsere Körperform). Here, we review His's work with special emphasis on its potential importance to the disciplines of evolutionary developmental biology (evo‐devo) and mechanobiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A convergence of four genealogies reveals drone power. Environmentality describes the contradictory uses of drones in conservation. Humanitarianism articulates how control is enacted and challenged in human crises. Securitization examines drones in surveillance and counter-surveillance. Militarization, the use of drones in war, explains domination from above and resistance from below. While theories of governmentality dominate, an emergent materialism within drone studies emphasizes the diffusion of power and agency. A synthesis of drone governmentality and drone materialism exposes four flightways or elemental trajectories. The drone is an existential technology – a tool for enlivenment and senescence. As such, drone power migrates between biopolitics and resistance. In doing so, drone performativity generates assemblages of human and nonhuman actants entangled at material-discursive and onto-epistemological levels. Entrapment designates the consequences of increasing dependency on technologies in sociotechnical systems of life and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on witnessing and testimony in the broader context of late modernity's profound changes in the natural world and in human–nonhuman relations. Topics include recognizing plants, objects, or animals as endowed with capacity for bearing witness to history; and re-framing the topography of witnessing as a space of sharing, co-belonging, reciprocity, and messy affects and entanglements.

Kynren is an outdoor spectacular pageantry performance which tells a tale of England, drawing on myth and history, to make several claims about Englishness and Britishness. It does so in the political wake, first, of constitutional crises in the UK centred around Brexit; and second, of debates around heritage, empire, race and nation which have been driven by responses to the Black Lives Matter movement. These themselves are manifestations of broader, global trends in which populist movements have attempted to reassert state-legitimacy through nationalism, heritage and culture. This paper explores, how Kynren affectively presents and discursively performs a narrative which puts place and landscape, and specifically the place and landscape of the peripheral region of County Durham in which it is located, at the heart of nation. We argue that the ways in which this narrative is authenticated performatively through the spectacular affective atmosphere of Kynren show how and which nationalist narratives resonate most readily in popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a simple yet effective set of local control rules to make a small group of "herder agents" collect and contain in a desired region a large ensemble of non-cooperative, non-flocking stochastic "target agents" in the plane. We investigate the robustness of the proposed strategies to variations of the number of target agents and the strength of the repulsive force they feel when in proximity of the herders. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is confirmed in both simulations in ROS and experiments on real robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to understand how 9th grade honors and general education language arts students made course enrollment decisions through the lens of the Expectancy-Value (E-V) theory. A survey was administered to 9th grade students (N = 118) attending a public high school with the overall mean score indicating fairly high reading motivation. A point biserial correlation analysis was conducted next to determine any significant correlations between course selection and the E-V expectancies for success and task values. Attainment was the only task value reporting a positive and statistically significant correlation. Six students with either high, medium, or low reading motivation were interviewed from which four themes emerged: expectancy for success and reader identity, utility and usefulness of reading in the future, cost and enjoyment associated with reading, and attainment and course enrollment decisions. Implications and recommendations for educators and researchers are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associations between trauma and media theory are longstanding, going back at least to Walter Benjamin's observations on technology and modernity, which were themselves informed by Freud's 1920 speculations on war trauma following WWI. A century later, and in the wake of numerous conflicts, catastrophes, and far-reaching technological transformations—and of course the COVID pandemic—it is time to reconsider the relation between trauma and media, digital platforms in particular. While some significant scholarship has noted the intersections of modern media technologies such as photography, film, radio, television, and recently digital and algorithmic media, with the conception and experience of trauma, a more systematic theoretical consideration of the relation between media and trauma remains to be developed. And with the intensifying reliance on new and old media in these pandemic times the question of these relations is increasingly urgent. Moving beyond conceptions of media as representing or inducing trauma, this special section of Crosscurrents explores how (digital) media and trauma shape one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The explosive radiation and diversification of the advanced snakes (superfamily Colubroidea) was associated with changes in all aspects of the shared venom system. Morphological changes included the partitioning of the mixed ancestral glands into two discrete glands devoted for production of venom or mucous respectively, as well as changes in the location, size and structural elements of the venom-delivering teeth. Evidence also exists for homology among venom gland toxins expressed across the advanced snakes. However, despite the evolutionary novelty of snake venoms, in-depth toxin molecular evolutionary history reconstructions have been mostly limited to those types present in only two front-fanged snake families, Elapidae and Viperidae. To have a broader understanding of toxins shared among extant snakes, here we first sequenced the transcriptomes of eight taxonomically diverse rear-fanged species and four key viperid species and analysed major toxin types shared across the advanced snakes. Results: Transcriptomes were constructed for the following families and species: Colubridae - Helicops leopardinus, Heterodon nasicus, Rhabdophis subminiatus; Homalopsidae – Homalopsis buccata; Lamprophiidae - Malpolon monspessulanus, Psammophis schokari, Psammophis subtaeniatus, Rhamphiophis oxyrhynchus; and Viperidae – Bitis atropos, Pseudocerastes urarachnoides, Tropidolaeumus subannulatus, Vipera transcaucasiana. These sequences were combined with those from available databases of other species in order to facilitate a robust reconstruction of the molecular evolutionary history of the key toxin classes present in the venom of the last common ancestor of the advanced snakes, and thus present across the full diversity of colubroid snake venoms. In addition to differential rates of evolution in toxin classes between the snake lineages, these analyses revealed multiple instances of previously unknown instances of structural and functional convergences. Structural convergences included: the evolution of new cysteines to form heteromeric complexes, such as within kunitz peptides (the beta-bungarotoxin trait evolving on at least two occasions) and within SVMP enzymes (the P-IIId trait evolving on at least three occasions); and the C-terminal tail evolving on two separate occasions within the C-type natriuretic peptides, to create structural and functional analogues of the ANP/BNP tailed condition. Also shown was that the de novo evolution of new post-translationally liberated toxin families within the natriuretic peptide gene propeptide region occurred on at least five occasions, with novel functions ranging from induction of hypotension to post-synaptic neurotoxicity. Functional convergences included the following: multiple occasions of SVMP neofunctionalised in procoagulant venoms into activators of the clotting factors prothrombin and Factor X; multiple instances in procoagulant venoms where kunitz peptides were neofunctionalised into inhibitors of the clot destroying enzyme plasmin, thereby prolonging the half-life of the clots formed by the clotting activating enzymatic toxins; and multiple occasions of kunitz peptides neofunctionalised into neurotoxins acting on presynaptic targets, including twice just within Bungarus venoms. Conclusions: We found novel convergences in both structural and functional evolution of snake toxins. These results provide a detailed roadmap for future work to elucidate predator–prey evolutionary arms races, ascertain differential clinical pathologies, as well as documenting rich biodiscovery resources for lead compounds in the drug design and discovery pipeline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Recess has been shown to increase total daily energy expenditure, which may favorably impact body mass index by decreasing adiposity. This study examines associations between recess participation and adiposity. METHODS: The study sample included male (N = 1434) and female (N = 1409) children 5 to 11 years of age participating in the 2013‐2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Overweight and obesity were defined using age‐ and sex‐specific percentiles. Recess participation interview questions were answered via proxy response. RESULTS: Compared to a referent group participating in recess 5 days/week for >30 minutes/day and independent of demographic and behavioral factors, analysis revealed significantly greater odds of obesity in females reporting no recess participation (odds ratio 1.80; 95% confidence interval, 1.03‐3.15, p =.03). Furthermore, minority females were consistently found to possess greater odds of overweight and obesity independent of recess participation time. Only Mexican American boys were found to have greater odds of obesity independent of participation recess time. CONCLUSIONS: In a large nationally representative sample of US children, reporting no recess was associated with significantly greater odds of obesity in females. Minority females were also more likely to be overweight and obese and Mexican American boys are more likely to be obese independent of recess participation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular genetic data have recently been incorporated in attempts to reconstruct the ecology of the ancestral snake, though this has been limited by a paucity of data for one of the two main extant snake taxa, the highly fossorial Scolecophidia. Here we present and analyze vision genes from the first eye-transcriptomic and genome-wide data for Scolecophidia, for Anilios bicolor , and A. bituberculatus , respectively. We also present immunohistochemistry data for retinal anatomy and visual opsin-gene expression in Anilios. Analyzed in the context of 19 lepidosaurian genomes and 12 eye transcriptomes, the new genome-wide and transcriptomic data provide evidence for a much more reduced visual system in Anilios than in non-scolecophidian (=alethinophidian) snakes and in lizards. In Anilios , there is no evidence of the presence of 7 of the 12 genes associated with alethinophidian photopic (cone) phototransduction. This indicates extensive gene loss and many of these candidate gene losses occur also in highly fossorial mammals with reduced vision. Although recent phylogenetic studies have found evidence for scolecophidian paraphyly, the loss in Anilios of visual genes that are present in alethinophidians implies that the ancestral snake had a better-developed visual system than is known for any extant scolecophidian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scorpion venoms are mixtures of proteins, peptides and small molecular compounds with high specificity for ion channels and are therefore considered to be promising candidates in the venoms-to-drugs pipeline. Transcriptomes are important tools for studying the composition and expression of scorpion venom. Unfortunately, studying the venom gland transcriptome traditionally requires sacrificing the animal and therefore is always a single snapshot in time. This paper describes a new way of generating a scorpion venom gland transcriptome without sacrificing the animal, thereby allowing the study of the transcriptome at various time points within a single individual. By comparing these venom-derived transcriptomes to the traditional whole-telson transcriptomes we show that the relative expression levels of the major toxin classes are similar. We further performed a multi-day extraction using our proposed method to show the possibility of doing a multiple time point transcriptome analysis. This allows for the study of patterns of toxin gene activation over time a single individual, and allows assessment of the effects of diet, season and other factors that are known or likely to influence intraindividual venom composition. We discuss the gland characteristics that may allow this method to be successful in scorpions and provide a review of other venomous taxa to which this method may potentially be successfully applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]