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Background: The confused taxonomic classification of Crucigenia is mainly inferred through morphological evidence and few nuclear genes and chloroplast genomic fragments. The phylogenetic status of C. quadrata, as the type species of Crucigenia, remains considerably controversial. Additionally, there are currently no reports on the chloroplast genome of Crucigenia. Results: In this study, we utilize molecular phylogenetics and comparative genomics to show that C. quadrata belongs to Chlorophyceae rather than Trebouxiophyceae. The Bayesian and maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic trees support a monophyletic group of C. quadrata and Scenedesmaceae (Chlorophyceae) species. Our study presents the first complete chloroplast genome of C. quadrata, which is 197,184 bp in length and has a GC content of 31%. It has a typical quadripartite structure, and the chloroplast genome codons exhibit usage bias. Nucleotide diversity analysis highlights six genes (ccsA, psbF, chlN, cemA, rps3, rps18) as hotspots for genetic variation. Coding gene sequence divergence analyses indicate that four genes (cemA, clpP, psaA, rps3) are subject to positive selection. Conclusions: The determination of the phylogenetic status and the comparative chloroplast genomic analyses of C. quadrata will not only be useful in enhancing our understanding of the intricacy of Crucigenia taxonomy but also provide the important basis for studying the evolution of the incertae sedis taxa within Trebouxiophyceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health and substance use challenges are highly correlated in youth and have been speculated to be associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Literature has also suggested that mental health challenges in youth have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the longitudinal relationship between mental health challenges in youth and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is not well established. Objective: We examined the relationship between mental health, substance use and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Youth ages 14 to 29-years participated in a longitudinal survey study. Participants provided sociodemographic, mental health, and substance use data, as well as qualitative and quantitative information on their vaccine perspectives every two months between February 2021 to August 2021, and on February 2022. Generalized estimating equation logistic regression models were used to analyze the effect of mental health and substance use on vaccine hesitancy over time. Qualitative content area analyses were used to identify trends in vaccine attitudes. Results: Mental health challenges and substance use frequency were associated with vaccine hesitancy, and significantly increased the odds of vaccine hesitancy over time. Additionally, mental health challenges were associated with decreases in vaccine hesitancy (OR: 0.80 (95% CI 0.66, 0.97)) when vaccines first began to emerge, but increases in vaccine hesitancy (OR: 1.72 (95% CI 1.32, 2.26)) one year later. Participants reported perceptions regarding vaccine safety and efficacy were the primary determinants influencing hesitant, uncertain, and acceptant vaccine attitudes. Additionally, changes in vaccine attitudes over time for some participants, were associated with changes in mental health. Conclusions: Increases in mental health challenges and substance use were associated with increases in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in youth over the COVID-19 pandemic. Health policy agencies should be aware of the potential impact of mental health challenges and substance use in youth, when developing vaccine policy and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can scientists best inform the public and change attitudes? Does the message or the messenger matter more? We test the effect of scientific expert messengers and messages in a preregistered, nationally representative survey experiment in the United States. Consistent with our hypotheses, scientists can move public attitudes in areas where knowledge is based on a non-ideological misperception to a greater extent than the same science-based message from another source. Although we focus on political science as a field and Congressional term limits in the United States as a topic area, our findings have broader implications for science communication with policymaking relevance given the persistence of misperceptions among the public across all natural and social science research fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between vaccine mandates and public sentiment toward vaccines and health officials on Twitter. I analyzed 6.6 million vaccine-related tweets from July 2021 to February 2022 in the United States. Leveraging a large language model, BERT, I identified tweets discussing vaccine mandates even when lacking explicit keywords. Compared to non-mandate tweets, those mentioning mandates exhibit greater negativity, anger, and freedom-related language. Furthermore, increased state-level discussion of mandates correlates with rising levels of negativity and anger toward both vaccines and public health officials. Finally, greater disparity in vaccination progress across counties within a state is associated with increased anger in tweets directed toward both., (© 2025. The Author(s).)