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Literature in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts is used for language development and intercultural understanding. However, the role of literature, specifically short stories (SSs), in shaping cultural representations of the U.S. in EFL teacher preparation programs (TPPs) remains unclear. This study examines how U.S. SSs in an English TPP in Argentina portray sociocultural and racial groups and challenge colonial worldviews. Through critical discourse analysis, 21 SSs were analysed. The findings revealed that the curriculum prioritizes white dominant groups. Although there are few stories featuring people of colour and less privileged white individuals, the overall selection of SSs collectively creates a limited and outdated portrayal of U.S. society. To avoid misinterpretations, it is essential to provide additional context and contemporary stories to accurately reflect the diverse cultural landscape of the U.S., thereby challenging dominant narratives.

Symmetry lies at the heart of two-dimensional (2D) bioelectronics, determining material properties at the fundamental level. Breaking the symmetry allows emergent functionalities and effects. However, symmetry modulation in 2D bioelectronics and the resultant applications have been largely overlooked. Here, we devise an oxidized architectural MXene, referred to as oxidized MXene (OXene), that couples orbit symmetric breaking with inverse symmetric breaking to entitle the optimized interfacial impedance and Schottky-induced piezoelectric effects. The resulting OXene validates applications ranging from microelectrode arrays, gait analysis, active transistor matrix, and wireless signaling transmission, which enables high-fidelity signal transmission and reconfigurable logic gates. Furthermore, OXene interfaces were investigated in both rodent and porcine myocardium, featuring high-quality and spatiotemporally resolved physiological recordings, while accurate differentiated predictions, enabled via various machine learning pipelines., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Mutualisms are mediated by adaptive traits of interacting organisms and play a central role in the ecology and evolution of species. Thousands of plant species possess tiny structures called "domatia" that house mites which protect plants from pests, yet these traits remain woefully understudied. Here, we release a worldwide database of species with mite domatia and provide an evaluation of the phylogenetic and geographic distribution of this mutualistic trait. With >2,500 additions based on digital herbarium scans and published reports, we increased the number of known species with domatia by 27% and, importantly, documented their absence in >4,000 species. We show that mite domatia likely evolved hundreds of times among flowering plants, occurring in an estimated ~10% of woody species representing over a quarter of all angiosperm families. Contrary to classic hypotheses about the evolutionary drivers of mutualism, we find that mite domatia evolved more frequently in temperate regions and in deciduous lineages; this pattern is concordant with a large-scale geographic transition from predominantly ant-based plant defense mutualisms in the tropics to mite-based defense mutualisms in temperate climates. Our data also reveal a pattern of evolutionary convergence in domatia morphology, with tuft-form domatia more likely to evolve in dry temperate habitats and pit domatia more likely to evolve in wet tropical environments. We have shown climate-associated drivers of mite domatia evolution, demonstrating their utility and power as an evolutionarily replicated system for the study of plant defense mutualisms., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Objectives: To observe medication cost trends for 5 common neurologic conditions., Methods: We quantified annual out-of-pocket (OOP) and total medication costs for patients seen by a neurologist with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson disease (PD), peripheral neuropathy (PN), and dementia/Alzheimer's disease in a commercial claims database cross-sectionally from 2012 to 2021., Results: We identified 186,144 patients with epilepsy, 54,676 with MS, 45,909 with PD, 169,127 with PN, and 60,861 with dementia/Alzheimer. OOP costs for MS medications increased each year, by 217% on average. Branded epilepsy medications had higher OOP costs than generics. Decreases ranging from 48% to 80% in annual OOP costs of duloxetine, pregabalin, rasagiline, rivastigmine, and memantine were observed in the years after generic introduction., Discussion: Preferentially selecting generic medications reduces OOP costs, other than for MS where costs continue to increase. Policy solutions, such as cost caps, are needed.

Non-native species have the potential to detrimentally affect native species through resource competition, disease transmission, and other forms of antagonism. The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is one such species that has been widely introduced beyond its native range for hundreds of years. There are strong concerns in the United States, and other countries, about the strain that high-density, managed honey bee populations could pose to already imperiled wild bee communities. While there is some experimental evidence of honey bees competing with wild bees for resources, few studies have connected landscape-scale honey bee apiary density with down-stream consequences for wild bee communities. Here, using a dataset from Maryland, US and joint species distribution models, we provide the largest scale, most phylogenetically resolved assessment of non-native honey bee density effects on wild bee abundance to date. As beekeeping in Maryland primarily consists of urban beekeeping, we also assessed the relative impact of developed land on wild bee communities. Six of the 33 wild bee genera we assessed showed a high probability (> 90 %) of a negative association with apiary density and/or developed land. These bees were primarily late-season, specialist genera (several long-horned genera represented) or small, ground nesting, season-long foragers (including several sweat bee genera). Conversely, developed land was associated with an increase in relative abundance for some genera including invasive Anthidium and other urban garden-associated genera. We discuss several avenues to ameliorate potentially detrimental effects of beekeeping and urbanization on the most imperiled wild bee groups. We additionally offer methodological insights based on sampling efficiency of different methods (hand netting, pan trapping, vane trapping), highlighting large variation in effect sizes across genera. The magnitude of sampling effect was very high, relative to the observed ecological effects, demonstrating the importance of integrated sampling, particularly for multi-species or community level assessments., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Gabriela Quinlan reports financial support was provided by National Science Foundation. Christina Grozinger reports financial support was provided by National Institute of Food and Agriculture. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Native proteomics measures endogenous proteoforms and protein complexes under a near physiological condition using native mass spectrometry (nMS) coupled with liquid-phase separations. Native proteomics should provide the most accurate bird's-eye view of proteome dynamics within cells, which is fundamental for understanding almost all biological processes. nMS has been widely employed to characterize well-purified protein complexes. However, there are only very few trials of utilizing nMS to measure proteoforms and protein complexes in a complex sample (i.e., a whole cell lysate). Here, we pioneer the native proteomics measurement of large proteoforms or protein complexes up to 400 kDa from a complex proteome via online coupling of native capillary zone electrophoresis (nCZE) to an ultra-high mass range (UHMR) Orbitrap mass spectrometer. The nCZE-MS technique enabled the measurement of a 115-kDa standard protein complex while consuming only about 0.1 ng of protein material. nCZE-MS analysis of an E.coli cell lysate detected 72 proteoforms or protein complexes in a mass range of 30-400 kDa in a single run while consuming only 50-ng protein material. The mass distribution of detected proteoforms or protein complexes agreed well with that from mass photometry measurement. This work represents a technical breakthrough in native proteomics for measuring complex proteomes., (© 2024 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Early imitation challenges for children with autism are thought to contribute to broader delays in their social communication development. As such, imitation is an important intervention target for young children with and showing early signs of autism, and efforts are underway to disseminate evidence-based imitation interventions into community settings. To our knowledge, there are currently no established imitation assessments that have been validated for use in virtual contexts. This study was designed to examine the reliability and validity of two caregiver-implemented imitation measures delivered with support from a remote virtual assessor. Study participants (177 caregiver-child dyads) were enrolled in a large, multisite study that is examining the effectiveness of a caregiver-implemented intervention delivered through the Part C early intervention (EI) system across four states. Results indicate that the assessments can be administered remotely with strong fidelity, internal reliability, predictive validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity, and sensitivity to change. Stability over time was adequate. These findings suggest that imitation skills can be measured effectively using a remote caregiver-implemented assessment, which provides greater opportunity for virtual clinical trials targeting social communication in young children. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial protocol was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05114538)., (© 2024 The Author(s). Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objectives: Extubation failure (EF) in PICU patients is reintubation within 48, 72, or 96 hours of planned extubation (EF48, EF72, and EF96, respectively). Standardized sedation protocols, extubation readiness testing, and noninvasive respiratory support are used to improve efficient liberation from mechanical ventilation (MV). We therefore aimed to review EF rates, time to failure, and the use of noninvasive respiratory support after extubation, 2017-2021., Design: Retrospective analysis of patients admitted to PICUs contributing to the Virtual Pediatric Systems (VPS, LLC) database, 2017-2021., Setting: One hundred thirty-six participating PICUs., Patients: All patients admitted to participating PICUs between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2021, who had MV and met inclusion criteria for planned extubation., Interventions: None., Measurements and Main Results: There were 111,229 planned extubations with 5,143 reintubations within 48 hours. The EF48, EF72, and EF96 rates were 4.6%, 5.3%, and 5.8%, respectively. Higher rates of EF were associated with age younger than 6 months, underlying genetic conditions, medical comorbidities, or cardiac surgery. Failed extubation was also associated with higher Pediatric Risk of Mortality III scores, longer duration of MV, and longer PICU and hospital lengths of stay. From 2017 to 2021, there was an increase in the use of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy after extubation from 16.6% to 20.2%., Conclusions: In the VPS 2017-2021 dataset, we have found that the overall EF rates (EF48-EF96) have improved over this 5-year period. We are not able to assess the clinical benefit of this change, but it is evident that over the same period, there has been a concomitant increase in the use of postextubation noninvasive respiratory support. Further work is needed to look at the interaction of these effects in contemporary PICU practice., Competing Interests: Drs. Soto-Campos, Palumbo, and Rice received funding from Virtual Pediatric Systems, LLC. Drs. Soto-Campos and Palumbo disclosed work for hire. The remaining authors have disclosed that they do not have any potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies.)

Background: Subacute and chronic subdural hematomas are common and frequently recur after surgical evacuation. The effect of adjunctive middle meningeal artery embolization on the risk of reoperation remains unclear., Methods: In a prospective, multicenter, interventional, adaptive-design trial, we randomly assigned patients with symptomatic subacute or chronic subdural hematoma with an indication for surgical evacuation to undergo middle meningeal artery embolization plus surgery (treatment group) or surgery alone (control group). The primary end point was hematoma recurrence or progression that led to repeat surgery within 90 days after the index treatment. The clinical secondary end point was deterioration of neurologic function at 90 days, which was assessed with the modified Rankin scale in a noninferiority analysis (margin for risk difference, 15 percentage points)., Results: A total of 197 patients were randomly assigned to the treatment group and 203 to the control group. Surgery occurred before randomization in 136 of 400 patients (34.0%). Hematoma recurrence or progression leading to repeat surgery occurred in 8 patients (4.1%) in the treatment group, as compared with 23 patients (11.3%) in the control group (relative risk, 0.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.11 to 0.80; P = 0.008). Functional deterioration occurred in 11.9% of the patients in the treatment group and in 9.8% of those in the control group (risk difference, 2.1 percentage points; 95% CI, -4.8 to 8.9). Mortality at 90 days was 5.1% in the treatment group and 3.0% in the control group. By 30 days, serious adverse events related to the embolization procedure had occurred in 4 patients (2.0%) in the treatment group, including disabling stroke in 2 patients; no additional events had occurred by 180 days., Conclusions: Among patients with symptomatic subacute or chronic subdural hematoma with an indication for surgical evacuation, middle meningeal artery embolization plus surgery was associated with a lower risk of hematoma recurrence or progression leading to reoperation than surgery alone. Further study is needed to evaluate the safety of middle meningeal artery embolization in the management of subdural hematoma. (Funded by Medtronic; EMBOLISE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04402632.)., (Copyright © 2024 Massachusetts Medical Society.)

Objective: To prospectively assess the effect of endometriosis and uterine fibroids on the long term risk of premature mortality (younger than 70 years)., Design: Prospective cohort study SETTING: The Nurses' Health Study II, United States (1989-2019)., Participants: 110 091 women aged 25-42 years in 1989 without a history of hysterectomy before endometriosis or fibroids diagnosis, cardiovascular diseases, or cancer., Main Outcome Measures: Hazard ratios (estimated by Cox proportional hazards models) for total and cause specific premature mortality according to laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis or ultrasound or hysterectomy confirmed uterine fibroids reported in biennial questionnaires., Results: 4356 premature deaths were recorded during 2 994 354 person years of follow-up (27.2 years per person), including 1459 from cancer, 304 from cardiovascular diseases, and 90 from respiratory diseases. The crude incidence of all cause premature mortality for women with and without laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis was 2.01 and 1.40 per 1000 person years, respectively. In age adjusted models, laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.19 (95% confidence interval 1.09 to 1.30) for premature death; these models were strengthened after also adjusting for potential confounders including behavioral factors (1.31, 1.20 to 1.44). Cause specific mortality analyses showed that the association was largely driven by mortality from senility and ill-defined diseases (1.80, 1.19 to 2.73), non-malignant respiratory diseases (1.95, 1.11 to 3.41), diseases of the nervous system and sense organs (2.50, 1.40 to 4.44), and malignant neoplasm of gynecological organs (2.76, 1.79 to 4.26). Ultrasound or hysterectomy confirmed uterine fibroids were not associated with all cause premature mortality (1.03, 0.95 to 1.11), but were associated with a greater risk of mortality from malignant neoplasm of gynecological organs (2.32, 1.59 to 3.40) in cause specific mortality analyses. The risk of mortality caused by cardiovascular and respiratory diseases varied according to joint categories of endometriosis and uterine fibroids, with an increased risk of all cause premature mortality among women reporting both endometriosis and uterine fibroids., Conclusion: Women with a history of endometriosis and uterine fibroids might have an increased long term risk of premature mortality extending beyond their reproductive lifespan. These conditions were also associated with an increased risk of death due to gynecological cancers. Endometriosis was associated with a greater risk of non-cancer mortality. These findings highlight the importance for primary care providers to consider these gynecological disorders in their assessment of women's health., Competing Interests: Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ and have declared: support from National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Institutes of Health for the submitted work. No financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Veterinarians' approaches to the management of avian pain have been poorly documented despite the rising number of pet birds seen in clinical settings., Methods: An online survey was advertised nationwide to recruit Brazilian veterinarians who had treated traumatic and surgical conditions in birds within the previous year. The survey comprised 25 closed or semi-closed questions divided into four sections (demographics, routinely performed medical procedures and pain recognition, drug choices for analgesia and challenges to pain treatment, and attitudes towards pain relief in birds). Survey results are expressed as a percentage of responses and a chi-squared test was used to compare proportions., Results: A total of 370 completed surveys were received. Approximately 72% of respondents worked exclusively in wild/exotic animal practice. Parrots and related species were the most commonly seen birds. The most frequently reported painful conditions were fractures (88.4%), feather plucking (73.0%) and limb amputation (65.1%). Although pain was diagnosed behaviourally by 97.6% of the respondents, 83.5% believed that the presence of an observer inhibited avian pain expression. NSAIDs and opioids, most commonly meloxicam and tramadol, were always provided perioperatively by 66.4% and 42.1% of respondents, respectively. Although nearly all respondents (95.4%) agreed that analgesics improve the quality of recovery after surgery, 80.3% stated that acute pain in birds is frequently undiagnosed in the clinical setting., Limitations: Selection bias could have overestimated the attitudes concerning avian pain in relation to the wider veterinary population., Conclusion: Practising veterinarians in Brazil revealed a positive attitude towards avian pain management. However, the lack of validated pain assessment methods makes avian pain relief highly challenging., (© 2024 British Veterinary Association.)

Feline hyperthyroidism (FHT) is a debilitating disease affecting > 10% of elderly cats. It is generally characterised by chronic elevation of thyroid hormone in the absence of circulating TSH. Understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of FHT is currently limited. However, FHT shares clinical and histopathological similarities with human toxic multinodular goitre, which has been associated with activating mutations in TSH receptor (TSHR) and G s α encoding genes. Using RNA-seq transcriptomic analysis of thyroid tissue from hyperthyroid and euthyroid cats, we identified differentially expressed genes and dysregulated pathways in FHT, many of which are downstream of TSHR. In addition, we detected missense variants in thyroid RNA-seq reads that alter the structure of both TSHR and G s α. All FHT-associated mutations were absent in germline sequence from paired blood samples. Only a small number of hyperthyroid cats demonstrated TSHR variation, however all thyroids from advanced cases of FHT carried at least one missense variant affecting G s α. The activating nature of the acquired G s α mutations was demonstrated by increased cAMP production in vitro. These data indicate that constitutive activation of signalling downstream of TSHR is central to the TSH-independent production of thyroid hormone in FHT, offering a novel therapeutic target pathway in this common disease., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in regulation of gene expression and phenotype. A variety of approaches have been utilized to develop gene-regulatory networks (GRNs) to predict the regulatory targets for each TF, such as yeast-one-hybrid (Y1H) screens and gene co-expression network (GCN) analysis. Here we identified potential TF targets and used a reverse genetics approach to test the predictions of several GRNs in maize. Loss-of-function mutant alleles were isolated for 22 maize TFs. These mutants did not exhibit obvious morphological phenotypes. However, transcriptomic profiling identified differentially expressed genes in each of the mutant genotypes, and targeted metabolic profiling indicated variable phenolic accumulation in some mutants. An analysis of expression levels for predicted target genes based on Y1H screens identified a small subset of predicted targets that exhibit altered expression levels. The analysis of predicted targets from GCN-based methods found significant enrichments for prediction sets of some TFs, but most predicted targets did not exhibit altered expression. This could result from false-positive GCN predictions, a TF with a secondary regulatory role resulting in minor effects on gene regulation, or redundant gene regulation by other TFs. Collectively, these findings suggest that loss-of-function for single uncharacterized TFs might have limited phenotypic impacts but can reveal subsets of GRN predicted targets with altered expression., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Genetics Society of America.)

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is underreported in craniofacial trauma patients, and the long-term morbidity of TBI associated with craniofacial trauma is poorly defined. Current literature is limited in scope to TBI identification in the immediate posttrauma time frame., Methods: A retrospective, cohort analysis of adult facial fracture patients presenting from February 2022 to February 2023 was performed. Data were collected for demographics, mechanism of injury, fracture pattern, Glasgow Coma Score, admission status, operative intervention, and concomitant injuries. Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire surveys were given for evaluation of TBI symptoms at most recent follow-up. Statistical significance was accepted when the P value was less than 0.05., Results: Of 232 facial fracture patients, 82 (35%) completed the Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire. The mean age was 49.8 years, and mean follow-up time was 11.6 months (range, 2-22 mo). The rate of all patients with TBI symptoms at follow-up was 32.9%. Mechanism of injury, presence of multiple fractures, Glasgow Coma Score less than 15, concomitant injuries, and admission status were not significant predictors of TBI. Fractures requiring operative intervention had higher rates of TBI compared with nonoperative fractures (47.1% versus 22.9%, P = 0.02). Operative intervention was the only significant predictor of TBI symptoms at the time of follow-up (odds ratio: 6.268; 95% confidence interval: 1.322-29.744; P = 0.021) by multivariable logistic regression., Conclusions: Craniofacial trauma is associated with persistent TBI symptoms. Surgeons treating this trauma population should screen for TBI to facilitate disease identification and specialty referral., Competing Interests: The authors have no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons.)

Analytic reproducibility is important for scientific credibility in ecology, but the extent to which scientific literature meets this criterion is not well understood. We surveyed 497 papers published in 2018-2022 in 9 ecology-related journals. We focused on papers that used hierarchical models to estimate species distribution and abundance. We determined if papers achieved two components of analytic reproducibility: (1) availability of data and code, and (2) code functionality. We found that 28% of papers made data and code available, and 7% of papers provided code that ran without errors. Our findings indicate that analytic reproducibility remains the exception rather than the rule in ecology literature. We recommend authors (1) test code in a separate clean environment; (2) simplify code structure; (3) minimize software packages used; and (4) minimize code run time. We suggest journals (1) validate authors' provided open data statements and URLs; (2) recommend that code and data be shared in a separate repository rather than as appendices; and (3) elevate the status of code and data during review. We suggest these guidelines can aid the ecology community by improving the scientific reproducibility and credibility of ecological research., (© 2024 The Author(s). Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.)

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a complex psychiatric disorder presenting challenges for characterization. The current study aimed to identify and evaluate disease-responsive essential genes (DREGs) to enhance the molecular characterization of SCZ. RNA-sequencing data from PsychENCODE (536 SCZ patients, 832 controls) and peripheral blood transcriptome data from 144 recruited subjects (59 SCZ patients, 6 non-SCZ psychiatric patients, 79 controls) are analyzed. Shared differential expression genes are obtained using three algorithms. Support vector machine (SVM)-based recursive feature elimination is employed to identify DREGs. The biological relevance of these DREGs is examined through protein-protein interaction network, pathway enrichment, polygenic scoring, and brain tissue expression. Key DREGs are validated in SCZ animal models. A DREGs-based machine-learning model for SCZ characterization is developed and its performance is assessed using multiple datasets. The analysis identified 184 DREGs forming an interconnected network involved in synaptic plasticity, inflammation, neuronal development, and neurotransmission. DREGs exhibited distinct expression in SCZ-related brain regions and animal models. Their genetic contributions are comparable to genome-wide polygenic risk scores. The DREG-based SVM model demonstrated high performance (AUC 85% for SCZ characterization, 79% for specificity). These findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying SCZ and emphasize the potential of DREGs in improving SCZ characterization., (© 2024 The Author(s). Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Here, we present the complete genome sequence of Sporosarcina pasteurii type strain DSM33, a model organism for microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation. This genome consists of a single 3.3-Mb chromosome and is an improvement upon draft S. pasteurii genome sequences currently available in public databases.

Chronic wounds, defined by their prolonged healing process, significantly impair patient quality of life and impose a hefty financial burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Sex/gender-specific mechanisms regulate inflammation and infection, angiogenesis, matrix synthesis, and cell recruitment contribute to cutaneous wound healing, but remain largely understudied. This review is aimed to spotlight the innovative realm of bioengineering and nanomedicine, which is at the helm of revolutionizing complex chronic wound care. It underscores the significance of integrating patient sex into the development and (pre)clinical testing of these avant-garde treatment modalities, in order to enhance healing prospects for both women and men. Moreover, we explore the representation of both sexes in clinical trials of bioengineered and nanomedicine products. Finally, we examine the primary reasons for the historical neglect in translating sex-specific wound healing research into clinical practice and propose strategic solutions. By tackling these issues, the article advocates for advanced treatment frameworks that could significantly improve healing outcomes for individuals of all sexes, thereby optimizing both efficacy and inclusivity in chronic wound management., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Association of Dermatologists.)