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Background: Regulatory aspects of transfusion medicine add complexity in blinded transfusion trials when considering various electronic record keeping software and blood administration processes. The aim of this study is to explore strategies when blinding transfusion components and products in paper and electronic medical records. Methods: Surveys were collected and interviews were conducted for 18 sites across various jurisdictions in North America to determine solutions applied in previous transfusion randomized control trials. Results: Sixteen responses were collected of which 11 had previously participated in a transfusion randomized control trial. Various solutions were reported which were specific to the laboratory information system (LIS) and electronic medical record (EMR) combinations although solutions could be grouped into four categories which included the creation of a study product code in the LIS, preventing the transmission of data from the LIS to the EMR, utilizing specialized stickers and labels to conceal product containers and documents in the paper records, and modified bedside procedures and documentation. Discussion: LIS and EMR combinations varied across sites, so it was not possible to determine combination‐specific solutions. The study was able to highlight solutions that may be emphasized in future iterations of LIS and EMR software as well as procedural changes that may minimize the risk of unblinding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submissions fell back slightly in 2023 to 474 manuscripts but remain above pre‐Covid levels. Despite the high number of submissions, there has been little change in the number of papers accepted for publication, with the acceptance rate in 2023 standing at 8%. The acceptance rate is considerably higher for papers originating from Europe and North America. Accepted papers are now routinely made available online as 'Early View'. The Journal's Impact Factor fell back slightly for 2022, but still compares favourably with other journals in the field of agricultural economics. Operational changes include revisions to the journal's webpage and authors' guidelines and a newly configured editorial team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wolf (Canis lupus) is arguably the most successful species at recolonizing its now human‐dominated former ranges in Europe and North America. Over the centuries while the wolf was absent, humans have transformed ecosystems to a large extent. In this paper, we highlight key aspects of these human‐modified ecosystems that include changes to (meso)carnivore communities, wolves themselves (genetics, behaviour), woody plant communities and the playing field for predator–prey interactions (landscape structure).We argue that the recognition of the novelty of human‐modified ecosystems logically leads to novel pathways of how wolves can influence ecosystem functioning. Thus far, the ecological impacts of wolves in human‐dominated systems have largely been predicted based on the documented effects they have on prey species or lower trophic levels in well‐preserved systems with low human impact. However, wolves in human‐modified ecosystems will engage in an array of novel interactions and potential novel trophic cascades that do not occur in more natural ecosystems with lower human impact.This should encourage us to re‐assess the questions we ask about wolf impacts in novel systems. A promising direction for future studies is exploring what novel interactions establish and under what conditions wolves can exert their ecosystem impacts (context dependence) in the human‐modified ecosystems wolves are recolonizing.Policy implications. Understanding these novel interactions and the context dependence of ecosystem impacts could guide us to act to improve conditions to enable wolves to exert their ecosystem impacts again. These novel interactions may be the true ecological and societal value of having wolves returning to human‐modified landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Computer‐based scaffolding has been intensively used to facilitate students' self‐regulated learning (SRL). However, most previous studies investigated how computer‐based scaffoldings affected the cognitive aspect of SRL, such as knowledge gains and understanding levels. In contrast, more evidence is needed to examine the effects of scaffolding on the metacognitive dimension and efficiency outcome of SRL. Objectives: This study aims to examine the role of computer‐based scaffolding in students' metacognitive monitoring and problem‐solving efficiency. Methods: Seventy‐two medical students completed two clinical reasoning tasks in BioWorld, an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) designed for promoting medical students' diagnostic expertise. During solving the tasks, students were asked to report their confidence judgements about proposed diagnoses. Computer trace data were used to identify task completion time (CT) and students' use of three scaffolding types, that is, conceptual, strategic, and metacognitive. Then we calculated students' metacognitive monitoring accuracy (i.e., calibration) and problem‐solving efficiency. Results and Conclusions: One‐sample t‐test demonstrated that students inaccurately monitored their learning processes and were overconfident in both tasks. Linear mixed‐effects models (LMMs) indicated that the intensive use of metacognitive scaffolding positively predicted students' metacognitive monitoring accuracy. Moreover, strategic scaffolding was negatively related to problem‐solving efficiency, whereas metacognitive scaffolding positively influenced problem‐solving efficiency. Takeaways: This study shows the importance of metacognitive scaffolding in improving the accuracy of metacognitive monitoring and problem‐solving efficiency. Findings from this study provide new insights for instructors and ITS developers to optimise the design of scaffoldings. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic?: Computer‐based scaffolding can facilitate students' knowledge gains and academic performance during self‐regulated learning (SRL).The effects of computer‐based scaffolding on the metacognitive dimension and efficiency outcome of SRL are still in a nascent phase. What this paper adds?: This paper explores how different types of computer‐based scaffolding affect students' metacognitive monitoring and problem‐solving efficiency.Metacognitive scaffolding improved the accuracy of medical students' confidence judgements.Metacognitive scaffolding promoted medical students' diagnostic problem‐solving efficiency.Strategic scaffolding had a negative effect on problem‐solving efficiency. Implications for practice: Instructors could provide more metacognitive scaffoldings to facilitate students' metacognitive monitoring accuracy.The designers of intelligent tutoring systems and instructors should consider the costs associated with using scaffoldings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although literature on energy cooperation highlights that cooperation is more successful at the regional level, it largely fails to understand and conceptualize energy cooperation as part of the wider phenomenon of regionalism. Energy cooperation tends to be analyzed through prisms of security and geopolitics, thus, downplaying other important regional integration processes. The present paper addresses this lacuna, defining energy regionalism and conceptualizing its various dimensions, logics, motivations, and interests. We apply a comparative perspective, examining two regions which exhibit extensive energy cooperation yet differ in several ways: North America and the European Energy Community. Our findings suggest various trajectories and models, and indicate that formal institutionalization is neither a necessary condition for nor a guarantee of strong energy regionalism. We discern that regional anchor is key in North American and European energy regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green's function approach is well‐established and widely used for modeling the surface mass loading displacements. Global mean Green's functions (MGFs) are commonly applied without considering local variations of the crustal structure. Derived from the modified layered Earth structure, the local Green's functions (LGFs) are theoretically beneficial to generate more accurate deformation, since they consider interior information of the local crust. This paper analyzed the differences among MGFs from Gutenberg–Bullen A model and two sets of LGFs derived from modified PREM Earth models consolidating with two crust models TEA12 and CRUST1.0, hereafter called PREMTEA and PREMCRU, respectively. Utilizing MGFs and two sets of LGFs, we modeled the corresponding 3D atmospheric loading displacements for 984 ITRF2014 stations and compared them with the ITRF2014 residuals. The results show that LGFs from PREMTEA and PREMCRU perform well in further promoting scatter reduction for ∼72%, ∼56%, and ∼85% of stations for the Up, East and North components, respectively. The improvements for the North components are significant (up to 3.6%). In particular, stations in the east coastal areas of North America and the west edge of Greenland exhibit further promoting scatter reduction for the East components (up to ∼2.5%), while those located in west coastline of North America show better performance for the North components. Nevertheless, there are significant anomalies in northern Europe for PREMCRU, the mutation margin of which should be carefully considered when using a resolution higher than 1°. In the area around station MORP (358.31°W, 55.21°N, sited at coastline of Britain), we suggest using PREMTEA model. Plain Language Summary: In any location worldwide, we employ a consistent set of numbers, known as load Green's functions that characterize the elastic properties of the Earth, to model the deformation caused by mass transfer on Earth's surface, which is referred to as surface mass loading effects. Most research and data products adopt same set of global mean Green's functions for any location on Earth, which neglects the differences in elastic properties of various regions of the Earth, leading to modeling errors to some extent. This study aims to optimize the modeling using local load Green's functions, with the objective of obtaining results that are more theoretically valuable. "Local" means that the Green's functions for each site are derived from an Earth model that takes into account the local crustal structure. The modeled atmospheric loading displacements exhibit enhanced alignment with GNSS position time series. This, in turn, further elucidates that deformations can be more attributed to atmospheric loading. Moreover, the model shows improved performance in the horizontal components when compared to the vertical components. Key Points: Local load Green's Functions enable a more precise modeling of loading displacements than global mean Green's FunctionsThe modeled atmospheric loading displacements based on Local Green's Functions can improve scatter reduction of GNSS position time seriesTwo sets of local load Green's Functions, based on CRUST1.0 model and TEA12 model, are compared. We recommend TEA12 for European region [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is one of the most widespread and economically important conifer species in the world. Applications like genomic selection and association studies, which could help accelerate breeding cycles, are challenging in Scots pine because of its large and repetitive genome. For this reason, genotyping tools for conifer species, and in particular for Scots pine, are commonly based on transcribed regions of the genome. In this article, we present the Axiom Psyl50K array, the first single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping array for Scots pine based on whole‐genome resequencing, that represents both genic and intergenic regions. This array was designed following a two‐step procedure: first, 192 trees were sequenced, and a 430K SNP screening array was constructed. Then, 480 samples, including haploid megagametophytes, full‐sib family trios, breeding population, and range‐wide individuals from across Eurasia were genotyped with the screening array. The best 50K SNPs were selected based on quality, replicability, distribution across the draft genome assembly, balance between genic and intergenic regions, and genotype–environment and genotype–phenotype associations. Of the final 49 877 probes tiled in the array, 20 372 (40.84%) occur inside gene models, while the rest lie in intergenic regions. We also show that the Psyl50K array can yield enough high‐confidence SNPs for genetic studies in pine species from North America and Eurasia. This new genotyping tool will be a valuable resource for high‐throughput fundamental and applied research of Scots pine and other pine species. Significance Statement: In this paper, we present the first high‐throughput single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping array for a pine species developed from whole‐genome resequencing, and thus spanning genic as well as intergenic regions. This array was developed for Scots pine and successfully tested in six other pine species from North America and Eurasia, being useful for fundamental and applied studies in the fields of population genetics, evolution, genomic selection, and breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats frequently inhabit caves and other subterranean habitats and play a critical role in subterranean food webs. With escalating threats to subterranean ecosystems, identifying the most effective measures to protect subterranean‐roosting bats is critical. We conducted a meta‐analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management interventions for subterranean‐roosting bats. We used network analyses to determine to what extent interventions for bats overlap those used for other subterranean taxa. We conducted our analyses with data extracted from 345 papers recommending a total of 910 conservation interventions. Gating of roost entrances was applied to preserve bat populations in 21 studies, but its effectiveness was unclear. Habitat restoration and disturbance reduction positively affected bat populations and bat behavior, respectively, in ≤4 studies. Decontamination was assessed in 2 studies and positively affected bat populations, particularly in studies focused on reducing fungal spores associated with white‐nose syndrome in North America. Monitoring of bat populations as an effective conservation strategy was unclear and infrequently tested. Only 4% of bat studies simultaneously considered other subterranean organisms. However, effective interventions for bat conservation had similarities with all other organisms. If other subterranean organisms are considered when applying interventions to conserve bats, they might also benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), a symbol of western North America, experienced diverging population trajectories since the mid‐twentieth century, with northern populations showing signs of recovery while those in the arid Southwest have struggled to persist. We conducted a systematic literature review of papers published through August 2023 to understand 3 questions. What are the habitat conditions needed for pronghorn to persist? What management actions can be taken to foster higher quality habitat? Do these actions differ for populations in the arid Southwest compared to their northern counterparts? Although the fundamental habitat requirements for pronghorn persistence have remained constant since the early 2000s, it has become clear that precipitation is a key factor influencing pronghorn populations in the arid Southwest. The precise mechanisms by which precipitation influences pronghorn population dynamics are not yet clear, whether through the availability of free water, by affecting forage quality, or indirectly via predator‐prey dynamics. Although range‐wide forage enhancement may be impractical, providing additional free water sources could facilitate greater movement, enabling pronghorn to access more and higher quality forage and areas with lower predation risk. To clarify how pronghorn persisted for thousands of years in this harsh environment, we must gain a better understanding of their historical metapopulation and migratory behaviors in the arid Southwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an application of quantile generalized additive models (QGAMs) to study spatially compounding climate extremes, namely extremes that occur (near‐) simultaneously in geographically remote regions. We take as an example wintertime cold spells in North America and co‐occurring wet or windy extremes in Western Europe, which we collectively term Pan‐Atlantic compound extremes. QGAMS are largely novel in climate science applications and present a number of key advantages over conventional statistical models of weather extremes. Specifically, they remove the need for a direct identification and parametrization of the extremes themselves, since they model all quantiles of the distributions of interest. They thus make use of all information available, and not only of a small number of extreme values. Moreover, they do not require any a priori knowledge of the functional relationship between the predictors and the dependent variable. Here, we use QGAMs to both characterize the co‐occurrence statistics and investigate the role of possible dynamical drivers of the Pan‐Atlantic compound extremes. We find that cold spells in North America are a useful predictor of subsequent wet or windy extremes in Western Europe, and that QGAMs can predict those extremes more accurately than conventional peak‐over‐threshold models. Plain Language Summary: In this paper we propose a new data‐driven method to study climate extremes occurring simultaneously in multiple, possibly remote, locations. Such extremes can pose a greater threat to human societies than single, isolated extremes, as their effects may exacerbate each other and lead to correlated losses. The method we suggest requires fewer assumptions than conventional extreme value statistical techniques, and can help us to identify previously unknown relationships between the extremes themselves and their possible drivers. We exemplify its use by studying the co‐occurrence of periods of unusually cold weather in North America and subsequent uncommonly strong wind and abundant precipitation in Western Europe. We find that the new method has better predictive power for the European extremes than conventional statistical approaches. Furthermore, we confirm the results of previous studies suggesting an association between the wintertime extremes in North America and Western Europe. Key Points: Quantile general additive models (QGAMs) can model the relationship between compound climate extremes flexibly and robustlyNorth American cold spells show some predictive skill for wet or windy extremes in Western Europe, even when accounting for confoundersGiven relevant atmospheric predictors, QGAMs can predict these extremes more accurately than peak‐over‐threshold models in most regions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parents play a central role in the treatment of childhood stuttering. Addressing parental attitudes toward stuttering is helpful therapeutically. The extent to which differences in attitudes toward stuttering exist on the basis of sex, geographical region and parental status (e.g., parent of a stuttering child, parent of a nonstuttering child, nonparent) is unclear. Many studies investigating such factors have used the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering (POSHA–S) questionnaire. A large POSHA–S database has collected responses from over 20 000 people from 49 countries. Aims: The aim of this study was to use the POSHA‐S database to examine the extent to which the following variables influence attitudes toward stuttering: (a) parents' sex (mothers vs. fathers), (b) geographic region (Middle East vs. Europe and North America), (c) parents' children (stuttering vs. nonstuttering) and (d) parental status (parents versus nonparents). Methods & Procedures: Data used in this study were extracted from selected, relevant studies that administered the POSHA–S to respondents. The Overall Stuttering Scores were compared on the basis of sex and parent status (i.e., mothers and fathers; nonparent women and men) and were then compared within and across the two geographical areas. Group comparisons were performed using analysis of variance followed by independent t tests, and Cohen's d was calculated to determine effect sizes. Outcomes & Results: Statistically significant differences were observed upon the basis of geographical region. In general, male parents and nonparents tend to have more positive stuttering attitudes among the Middle Eastern samples while female parents and nonparents tend to show more positive attitudes in European and North American samples in the POSHA–S database. Effect sizes were small for all comparisons. Conclusions & Implications: The effect of geographic region and culture may predict sex‐based differences among mothers' and fathers' attitudes toward stuttering; however, the clinical significance is unclear. Additional research is needed to better understand how children who stutter are affected by their parents' attitudes toward stuttering. What this paper adds: What is already known on this subject: The research clearly indicates that attitudes toward stuttering vary according to geographical region. Less clear is whether mothers and fathers from geographically diverse backgrounds hold different attitudes toward stuttering and the extent to which parental status (being a parent, parent of a child who stutters or nonparent) affects attitudes toward stuttering. What this study adds: This study's findings confirm that geographical differences do influence attitudes toward stuttering. Male parents and nonparents tend to have equal or more positive attitudes toward stuttering in Middle Eastern samples, whereas non‐Middle Eastern female parents and nonparents tend to show hold more positive attitudes. What are the clinical implications of this work?: In addition to being culturally sensitive when working with parents of children who stutter, clinicians should also consider that mothers and fathers may have some differences in attitudes and behaviours toward their child's stuttering. These differences should be considered when designing treatment plans. It should also be noted that, despite statistical significance, the effect sizes in this study were low, suggesting that further research as well as close collaboration with parents of children who stutter is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Last Glacial Maximum (approximately 21 ka BP) the presence of large ice sheets over the Northern Hemisphere (NH) caused significant changes in the ocean–atmosphere interaction. Remarkable changes are noticed in NH both topography and atmospheric CO2 levels. This paper investigates the impact of the most recent paleotopography (ICE6G) in the Earth's climate and the oceanic carbonate system, based on a series of experiments conducted with the oceanic‐atmosphere‐vegetation‐ice‐carbon model, UVic ESCM. Results indicate enhanced cooling in northern North America in the ICE6G compared to the ICE4G simulation due to the lapse rate effect. The decrease of −24°C in the surface temperature in the ICE6G relative to the present day (PD) led to a modification of the atmospheric circulation in the Atlantic and North Pacific regions. Positive and negative anomalies vary widely for the E–P (evaporation–precipitation) flux pattern, but colder and drier atmosphere leads to a reduction in precipitation in the ICE6G experiment. Changes in wind stress between ICE6G and PD induce low temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. These features are related changes of Ekman's transport and evaporative cooling resulting in positive anomalies of SST. Thus, changes in sea surface temperature and salinity (SST, SSS), and E–P flux led to modifications in the oceanic carbonate system, resulting in an overall increase of total alkalinity and a reduction in the concentrations of total carbon dioxide (TCO2) in the ICE6G with respect to the PD values. This is a consequence of the low concentration of glacial CO2 and increment in CO23− concentrations. The total alkalinity (TA) and TCO2 do not show a similar response to the SST and SSS, in the sense that larger departures from the PD are found in the Pacific equatorial region, which are affected by changes in water dilution as a result of precipitation and evaporation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Despite considerable interest in robotic surgery, successful incorporation of robotics into transplant programs has been challenging. Lack of a dedicated OR team with expertise in both robotics and transplant is felt to be a major barrier. This paper assesses the impact of a dedicated robotic transplant team (DART) on program growth and fellowship training at one of the largest robotic transplant programs in North America. Methods: This is a single center, retrospective review of all robotic operations performed on the transplant surgery service from October 2017 to October 2022. DART was incorporated in February 2020 and included transplant first assists (RFAs), scrub technologists and circulating nurses who received robotic training. Robotic experience before and after DART was compared to assess its impact on program growth and training. Results: Four hundred and two robotic cases were performed by five transplant surgeons: 63 pre‐DART and 339 post‐DART. 40% of cases were transplant‐related and 59.5%, HPB. There was a significant increase in case volume (2.5–10.6 cases/month, p <.0001) and complexity (36.5% vs. 70.3% high complexity cases, p <.0001) post‐DART. RFA case coverage increased from 17% to 95%, and participation of transplant fellows as primary surgeons increased from 17% to 95% post‐DART period (both p <.05). Conversion rates (9.5% vs. 4.1%) and room turn‐around‐times (TAT) (58.4 vs. 40.3 min) were lower post‐DART (p <.05). There were no emergent conversions, conversions in transplant patients, or robot‐related complications in either group. Conclusion: OR teams with expertise in robotics and transplant surgery can accelerate growth of robotic transplant programs while maintaining patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical students use a variety of self‐regulated learning (SRL) strategies in different medical reasoning (MR) processes to solve patient cases of varying complexity. However, the interplay between SRL and MR processes is still unclear. Objectives: This study investigates how self‐regulated learning (SRL) and medical reasoning (MR) occurred concurrently in medical students while completing a diagnostic task in an intelligent tutoring system. This study aims to provide new insights into performance differences between high‐ and low‐achieving students in tasks of varying complexity. Methods: Thirty‐one medical students (67.6% female) from a large North American university were tasked with solving two virtual patient cases in an intelligent tutoring system, BioWorld. BioWorld was designed for medical students to practice clinical reasoning skills deliberately. We collected students' think‐aloud protocols, based on which we coded their use of SRL behaviours and medical reasoning activities. We analysed the co‐occurrences of SRL behaviours and medical reasoning activities using the epistemic network analysis (ENA) method. Results: The SRL behaviour self‐reflection and MR activity lines of reasoning co‐occurred more frequently in a difficult task than in an easy task. In both tasks, high performers demonstrated more co‐occurrences of self‐reflection and lines of reasoning than low performers. Moreover, the MR activity conceptual operations co‐occurred more frequently with the SRL activities of monitoring and evaluation among high performers compared to low performers in an easy task. Implications: The co‐occurrences of SRL behaviours and MR processes account for students' performance differences. The design of computer‐based learning environments for clinical reasoning should promote the acquisition of both SRL and medical reasoning abilities. Moreover, medical educators should consider task complexity when scaffolding. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Self‐regulated learning (SRL) and medical reasoning skills are both crucial for diagnosing patients.Medical students can practice clinical reasoning with computer simulations. What this paper adds: Students solved virtual patients of varying complexity in an intelligent tutoring systemWe examined the co‐occurrences of SRL behaviours and medical reasoning process.Epistemic network analysis was used to analyse the interplay of SRL and medical reasoning.High performers show more co‐occurrences of reflection and higher‐order reasoning. Implications for practice and/or policy: Task complexity has impact on students' learning and reasoning co‐occurrences.Intelligent tutoring systems should foster regulation and reasoning acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine if non-native plant species are homogenizing species composition among widely dispersed plant communities. Twenty localities in North America. Species lists among localities were compared to measure the influence of non-native species richness at each locality on the Jaccard Index (JI) of similarity between localities. After removing the effects of distance, because shared native species decreased with distance, three (nonexclusive) lines of evidence indicate that non-native species promote homogenization. First, pairs of sites with a high combined total of non-native species tend to have higher similarity than those with a low total of non-natives. Second, for a given distance, more non-native than native species tended to be shared among localities. Third, whereas most of the site comparisons with high total non-native richness have a non-native/native JI ratio greater than 1 (often much greater), only half of the comparisons with low total non-native richness have a ratio greater than one. These findings provide quantitative support for the widely held, but rarely tested, notion that non-native species tend to homogenize biological communities because they are more commonly shared among communities. Such testing is important as non-native species could theoretically have no impact or even reduce homogenization among communities, if non-native colonizers consist of different species pools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local-regional (LR) species diversity plots were conceived to assess the contribution of regional and local processes in shaping the patterns of biological diversity, but have been used also to explore the scaling of diversity in terms of its alpha, beta, and gamma components. Here we explore the idea that patterns in the geographical ranges of species over a continent can determine the shape of small region to large region (SRLR) plots, which are equivalent to LR plots when comparing the diversity of sites at two regional scales. To test that idea, we analysed the diversity patterns at two regional scales for the mammals of North America, defined as the mainland from Alaska and Canada to Panama. We developed a theoretical model relating average range size of species over a large-scale region with its average regional point species diversity (RPD). Then, we generated a null model of expected SRLR plots based on theoretical predictions. Species diversities at two scales were modelled using linear and saturation functions for Type I and Type II SRLR relationships, respectively. We applied the models to the case of North American mammals by examining the regional diversity and the RPD for 21 large-scale quadrats (with area equal to 160,000 km2), arranged along a latitudinal gradient. Our model showed that continental and large-scale regional patterns of distribution of species can generate both types of SRLR relationship, and that these patterns can be reflected in LR plots without invoking any kind of local processes. We found that North American nonvolant mammals follow a Type I SRLR relationship, whereas bats follow a Type II pattern. This difference was linked to patterns in which species of the two mammalian groups distribute in geographical space. Traditional LR plots and the new SRLR plots are useful tools in exploring the scaling of species diversity and in showing the relationship between distribution and diversity. Their usefulness in comparing the relative role of local and regional processes is, however, very limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To quantify the latitudinal gradient in species richness in the New World Triatominae and to explore the species-energy and area hypotheses as possible causes. The gradient was studied for North and South America, between 43° N and 32° S. A database was constructed containing the geographical distribution of the 118 New World Triatominae species based on data extracted from several published sources. Species richness was recorded as the number of species present within 5° latitudinal bands. We used univariate and multivariate models to analyse the relationship between area within each latitudinal belt, land surface temperature, and potential evapotranspiration as explanatory variables, and species richness. All variables were georeferenced and data were extracted using a GIS. Species richness of Triatominae increases significantly from the poles towards the Equator, peaking over the 5°−10 ° S latitudinal band. It increases according to a linear model, both north and south of the Equator, although a quadratic model fits better to southern hemisphere data. Richness correlates with habitable geographical area, when it is analysed through a nonlinear multiple regression factoring out latitude, only in the southern hemisphere. Regarding the species-energy hypothesis, a multiple regression analysis controlling the effect of latitude shows a significant relationship between temperature and species richness. This effect is more pronounced in the southern hemisphere. Species richness shows a strong longitudinal trend south of the Equator (increasing to the east), but not north of the Equator. This differential pattern is reflected in significant interactions between longitude and both latitude and temperature in models of the species richness of the New World Triatominae. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a latitudinal gradient in species richness has been shown and analysed for obligate haematophagous organisms, and it shows that the species–energy hypothesis can account for this phenomenon. This relationship is stronger in the southern hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the relative contributions of current vs. historical factors in explaining broad-scale diversity gradients using a combination of contemporary factors and a quantitative estimate of the temporal accessibility of areas for recolonization created by glacial retreat following the most recent Ice Age. The part of the Nearctic region of North America that was covered by ice sheets during the glacial maximum 20 000 BP. We used range maps to estimate the species richness of mammals and terrestrial birds in 48 400 km2 cells. Current conditions in each cell were quantified using seven climatic and topographical variables. Historical conditions were estimated using the number of years before present when an area became exposed as the ice sheets retreated during the post-Pleistocene climate warming. We attempted to tease apart contemporary and historical effects using multiple regression, partial regression and spatial autocorrelation analysis. A measure of current energy inputs, potential evapotranspiration, explained 76–82% of the variance in species richness, but time since deglaciation explained an additional 8–13% of the variance, primarily due to effects operating at large spatial scales. Because of spatial covariation between the historical climates influencing the melting of the ice sheet and current climates, it was not possible to partition their effects fully, but of the independent effects that could be identified, current climate explained two to seven times more variance in richness patterns than age. Factors acting in the present appear to have the strongest influence on the diversity gradient, but an historical signal persisting at least 13 000 years is still detectable. This has implications for modelling changes in diversity patterns in response to future global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful narratives circulate about Black youths in North America. Deficit narratives portray them, their culture, and their communities as problems, narratives about policing encourage their control and punishment, color‐evasive narratives ignore how race shapes their experiences, and essentialist narratives erase their distinct and often intersectional experiences by presenting them as monolithic. Community psychology and allied fields do not escape these trends, which in turn infuse practice, research, and teaching involving Black youths. The present paper highlights four principles that community psychology and allied fields can adopt to support Black youths in resisting these negative and narrow narratives. They are: (1) emphasizing Black youths' and Black communities' strengths, (2) supporting their agency, (3) adopting culturally relevant practices, and (4) developing critical consciousness through reflections on and deconstruction of these narratives. We hope that the reflections shared in this paper will expand the perspectives infused by researchers and practitioners in community psychology, social work, urban studies, and allied fields who work with Black youths. Highlights: Black youths are depicted with harmful deficit, policing, color‐evasive, and essentialist narrativesThese narratives infuse practice, research, and teaching involving Black youthsSupporting Black youths in resisting these negative and narrow narratives requires intentionEmphasizing Black youths'/Black communities' strengths and supporting their agency are essentialAdopting culturally relevant practices and developing critical consciousness are also essential [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we obtained the first leading mode and principal component 1 (PC1) of North Pacific sea surface temperature (SST). The PC1‐related SST anomalies, located relatively north/south, are referred to as North/South PC1 events. Model outputs, observations, reanalysis datasets and sensitivity experiments show that during the North PC1 events, an enhanced Aleutian low occurs and is located relatively north, favoring anomalous southerlies over western North America. The anomalous southerlies induce a strong warming anomaly over North America via warm advection of the anomalous southerlies and temperature advection of the climatological westerlies over North America. However, the Aleutian low anomaly and corresponding southerly anomaly associated with South PC1 events shift southward, favoring weakened effects of South PC1 events on atmospheric circulations and surface temperatures over North America. The meridional position of PC1 events deserves to be considered in the studies of the PC1 and its related climate changes. Plain Language Summary: Understanding of surface temperature variations is important since it largely affects human and society. This paper categorizes the North Pacific sea surface temperature anomaly events, which are associated with the first leading mode of North Pacific sea surface temperature, into North and South events according to their meridional positions. Using model outputs, observations, reanalysis datasets and sensitivity experiments, we found that the surface temperature anomalies over North America during the North events are quite different from those during the South events. During the North events, an enhanced Aleutian low occurs over high‐latitude North Pacific. The enhanced Aleutian low tends to induce anomalous southerlies over western North America. The anomalous southerlies favor warming anomalies over North America via the warm advection of anomalous southerlies and temperature advection of climatological westerly. However, the Aleutian low anomaly and meridional wind anomaly during the South events shift southward, leading to weakened effects of the South events on atmospheric circulations and surface temperatures over North America. Key Points: North American warming anomaly occurs during North Pacific sea surface temperature anomaly events located northThe warming anomaly is related to an enhanced Aleutian low anomaly located north and climatological westerlyDuring the events located south, North American surface temperature responses are weak due to a southward‐shift Aleutian low anomaly [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research involving international research communities has been advocated in the field of behavior analysis (Dymond et al., 2000; Martin et al., 2016). The purpose of the present study was to report the status of behavioral research in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, in terms of number of publications, types of research, and frequency of collaboration with international researchers. Fifteen behavioral journals were selected from the list by Cooper et al. (2020). These were searched by hand to find publications conducted in or authored by researchers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan dating from each journal's inception to December 2021. The earliest publication we found appeared in 1980 in The Psychological Record. Over the following four decades (1980–1989; 1990–1999; 2000–2009; 2010–2021), the number of publications per decade increased dramatically and continues in recent years to rise. Publications include research reports, review papers, and conceptual articles, with the majority being basic research reports published in Behavioral Processes. Approximately half the publications involve collaboration with international researchers, mostly in North America. Implications for behavioral research, practice, and policy in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The taxonomy, distribution, uses and cultural requirements of the North American paper birch, Betula papyrifera Marshall (Betulaceae), are discussed; an illustration is provided, together with a full description. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased mobility of people around the globe has facilitated transferring species to new environments, where some have found suitable conditions and even become invasive. False indigo‐bush (Amorpha fruticosa L.) is a plant native to North America but has intentionally or unintentionally spread over the Northern Hemisphere, where it often becomes invasive. The plant is especially easily dispersed within the watersheds of large rivers, where seasonal flooding is regular. Seeds and other propagules are buoyant, and when the water recedes, new plants emerge, forming dense thickets where only a few other species can co‐exist. In order to sustain native biodiversity, spread control is needed. However, mechanical control and eradication measures currently in use are labor demanding and costly, while application of herbicides is limited. On the other hand, the plant possesses a number of beneficial properties, such as phytochemical applications (medical and insecticidal effects), biocoenotic uses (honey plant, ornamental features), and ecosystem services (soil stabilization, provision of food for animals, and fiber and biomass for industry, e.g., nanocellulose). For the reasons above mentioned, the plant is considered quite controversial, and the paper discusses both aspects: potential detrimental effects when introduced to new habitats and its beneficial uses for human society. In addition, the paper presents alternative measures of spreading control (e.g., grazing) and argues that exploiting it for beneficial purposes might help spread control, thus covering the expenses of controlling its distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition of the lower continental crust, as well as its formation, growth, and evolution, remains a fundamental subject to be understood. In this study, we carry out a comparative and integrative analysis of seismic tomographic models, teleseismic receiver function results, and Airy isostasy in order to investigate the properties of the lower continental crust in eastern North America. We extract the depths for Vs of 4.0 km/s, 4.2 km/s, and 4.5 km/s from three selected tomographic models and calculate the differences between the Vs depth contours and the Moho depth defined by receiver functions. We then calculate the Airy isostatic Moho depth and its misfit with the receiver‐function‐defined Moho. Our analysis reveals three key features: (a) the deepening of the Vs depth contours and the strong negative Airy misfit within the U.S. Grenville Province; (b) a seismically faster‐than‐average and compositionally denser‐than‐average lowermost crust in the eastern North American Craton and the Grenville Province; and (c) the thickest, seismically fastest, and densest lowermost crust beneath the southern Grenville Front, the southern Grenville‐Appalachian boundary, and the U.S.‐Canada national border. We suggest that the lower crust of the craton and the Grenville Province has densified through garnet‐forming metamorphic reactions during and after orogenesis, contributing to the widely distributed fast‐velocity layer. The lower crust beneath the tectonic boundaries could have experienced more extensive garnet growth during orogenesis and emplacement of mafic magma. This study provides new constraints on the seismic and compositional properties of the lower crust in eastern North America. Plain Language Summary: The continental crust provides important clues about the formation and evolution of the Earth. However, the dominant composition of the lower part of the continental crust remains enigmatic, especially in the regions where the seismic velocities are significantly faster than the global average. In this paper, we investigate the properties of the lower continental crust in eastern North America by comparatively analyzing two types of data sets: (a) the variations of seismic velocity within the crust and (b) the variations of the crustal thickness. Our comparative and quantitative analysis reveals that the lower crust of the eastern North American Craton and the Grenville Province is seismically faster and compositionally denser than the global average. The thickest, seismically fastest, and compositionally densest lower crust is roughly along the orogenic fronts and the U.S.‐Canada national border. We suggest that garnet growth within the lower crust is a viable mechanism for forming the widely distributed fast‐velocity layer in eastern North America. The lower crust may have been further densified through extensive garnet growth and emplacement of mafic magma at a regional scale. Key Points: A high‐velocity lower continental crust distributes widely in eastern North AmericaThe seismically fastest and densest lower crust is roughly along the orogenic frontsThe lower crust densifies through the metamorphic growth of dense minerals [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of international and collaborative publication trends in prominent behavior‐analytic journals has been a topic of interest for behavioral researchers. This paper focuses on publication trends from 1997 through 2020 in three prominent journals: Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB), Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), and Perspectives on Behavior Science (PBS). The variable of interest was the percentage of articles published per geographical category—Australasia/East Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, and Africa. The results showed that 79, 96, and 87% of the published articles in JEAB, JABA, and PBS, respectively, were conducted by researchers with a North American affiliation. Furthermore, 12, 4, and 4% of the articles in JEAB, JABA, and PBS, respectively, were coauthored by at least two researchers from different geographical categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most groundwater modelers avoid using static heads measured from active production wells because they can introduce a bias into model calibration. However, in the deep confined Cambrian‐Ordovician Sandstone Aquifer System in the Central Midcontinent of North America, dedicated observation wells are sparse and remote from areas of most concentrated pumping. As a result, in areas where drawdown is the greatest and modeling is most needed, only static heads from production wells are available for calibration. This paper evaluates two leading sources of discrepancies in using production well data, spatial and temporal structural error (S.E.). A simple Theis solution is used to evaluate the potential magnitude of spatial S.E. when calibrating a regional MODFLOW model with coarse cell resolution. Despite theoretical analyses indicating that spatial S.E. could be significant, statistical analysis of the model results suggests that temporal S.E. is dominant. Long (ranging over decades) or frequent (monthly) head datasets are key in understanding temporal S.E., to better capture water‐level variability. In this study, the range in static head observations impacted estimates of the remaining time a well could extract water from the aquifer by 0.1 to 16.0 years. This uncertainty in future water supply is highly relevant to stakeholders and must be assessed in hydrographs depicting risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research demonstrates that relationships are key when working to support young people affected by sexual violence. Within these relationships, young people show a preference for non‐judgemental, flexible, consistent and informal support. Peer support – defined here as support provided by those with similar experiences – is however an uncharted area for assisting young people affected by sexual violence. This paper draws on interviews with 25 respondents with knowledge and experience of setting up, supervising and/or participating in peer support initiatives for young people impacted by different forms of sexual violence in Europe and North America. The article highlights how one form of peer support, peer or 'survivor' mentoring, can provide emotional and social support; create space for 'normality'; and give choices to young people. It outlines three unique dimensions to the support provided by peers more generally: relatability, credibility and translatability. The discussion reflects on what this might mean for traditional support provided by professionals. It also draws attention to the significance of recognising both the variety of experience and identity of young survivors of sexual trauma and the impact this may have on promoting relatability within relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cocaine use is a public health concern in many countries worldwide, particularly in the Americas and Oceania. Overdose deaths involving stimulants, such as cocaine, have been increasing markedly in North America, especially with concurrent opioid involvement. To date, no pharmacological treatment is available to treat stimulant (including cocaine) use disorders. Prescription psychostimulants (PPs) could be useful to treat cocaine use disorder (CUD) as they share the pharmacological effects with cocaine, as evidenced by a recent meta‐analysis that assessed 38 randomized clinical trials (RCTs). PPs were found to promote sustained abstinence and reduce drug use in patients with CUD. The aim of this paper is to provide a narrative review of the clinical pharmacology of PPs and comment on the current stage of evidence supporting PPs to treat CUD. We also propose a model of care that integrates PPs with evidence‐based psychosocial interventions (such as cognitive‐behavioural therapy [CBT] and contingency management [CM]), a harm reduction approach and case management with social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because ungulates are important contributors to ecosystem function, understanding the "ecology of fear" could be important to the conservation of ecosystems. Although studying ungulate ecology of fear is common, knowledge from ungulate systems is highly contested among ecologists. Here, we review the available literature on the ecology of fear in ungulates to generalize our current knowledge and how we can leverage it for conservation. Four general focus areas emerged from the 275 papers included in our literature search (and some papers were included in multiple categories): behavioral responses to predation risk (79%), physiological responses to predation risk (15%), trophic cascades resulting from ungulate responses to predation risk (20%), and manipulation of predation risk (1%). Of papers focused on behavior, 75% were about movement and habitat selection. Studies were biased toward North America (53%), tended to be focused on elk (Cervus canadensis; 29%), and were dominated by gray wolves (40%) or humans (39%) as predators of interest. Emerging literature suggests that we can utilize predation risk for conservation with top‐down (i.e., increasing predation risk) and bottom‐up (i.e., manipulating landscape characteristics to increase risk or risk perception) approaches. It is less clear whether fear‐related changes in physiology have population‐level fitness consequences or cascading effects, which could be fruitful avenues for future research. Conflicting evidence of trait‐mediated trophic cascades might be improved with better replication across systems and accounting for confounding effects of ungulate density. Improving our understanding of mechanisms modulating the nature of trophic cascades likely is most important to ensure desirable conservation outcomes. We recommend future work embrace the complexity of natural systems by attempting to link together the focal areas of study identified herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite-based augmentation systems ensure the accuracy and integrity of aircraft position estimates derived from radio signals broadcast by the Global Navigation Satellite System. The United States' Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) protects users of the Global Positioning System from threats generated by ionospheric disturbances. The means by which WAAS mitigates these threats depends upon their magnitude. This paper addresses: a) how WAAS monitors the level of ionospheric perturbation over North America; b) how various availability and integrity concerns have influenced the implementation of WAAS's extreme and moderate ionospheric storm detectors; c) how the algorithms governing these implementations have evolved since WAAS's commissioning in 2003; and d) how the largest ionospheric storms of the past two solar cycles can be ranked according to their impact on WAAS. A subsequent companion paper will address the evolution of the WAAS methodology for protecting users from the adverse influence of more moderate ionospheric disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forests of British North America were integral to Britain's maritime empire. Many of these timbers exist today as wooden beams and flooring at historical dockyards and garrisons such as the Royal Naval Dockyard of Bermuda. In this paper, we investigate what timbers from this Dockyard can tell us about interconnections and empire‐building throughout the North Atlantic region. To do this we drew from approaches of critical physical geography, historical geography, and dendroprovenancing by using timber as a way to interrogate collaboratively the changes in—and connections across—socio‐ecological landscapes. We examined HM Customs records between 1825 and 1850 to determine the flow of timbers to Bermuda. We then sampled timbers from buildings constructed between 1825 and 1853 and analyzed them using isotopic and dendrochronological techniques to establish the probable location of origin of the timber samples. HM Customs records showed that prior to the 1840s, timbers primarily came from British North America, whereas post‐1840 timbers primarily came from the southeastern United States, with some still coming from Europe and British North America. To establish whether timber use by the Royal Navy and Royal Engineers matched the pattern in the customs documents, we looked to the dendrochronological records. Dendrochronologic evidence showed that military construction followed the same pattern, with buildings constructed pre‐1840 using material from British North America and buildings constructed post‐1840 using timbers sourced from the southeastern United States. Finally, using this information we explore some of the connections between regions, in terms of resource use, and the implications of those uses—for example, that the British Admiralty continued to benefit from the practices of slavery through the use of products produced from enslaved labour in other parts of the North Atlantic well after emancipation. Key Messages: We establish a conceptual and methodological framework for how to integrate critical physical geography with historical geography and dendrochronology.Although some timbers suggest a possible origin in British North America, many buildings contained timbers with origins in North Carolina and Georgia.This indicates that even post‐abolition, the British Empire was still benefitting from the labour of enslaved peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric inversions provide estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes between the surface and atmosphere based on atmospheric CO2 concentration observations. The number of CO2 observations is projected to increase severalfold in the next decades from expanding in situ networks and next‐generation CO2‐observing satellites, providing both an opportunity and a challenge for inversions. This study introduces the TRACE Regional Atmosphere–Carbon Ensemble (TRACE) system, which employ an ensemble‐based simultaneous state and parameter estimation (ESSPE) approach to enable the assimilation of large volumes of observations for constraining CO2 flux parameters. TRACE uses an online full‐physics mesoscale atmospheric model and assimilates observations serially in a coupled atmosphere–carbon ensemble Kalman filter. The data assimilation system was tested in a series of observing system simulation experiments using in situ observations for a regional domain over North America in summer. Under ideal conditions with known prior flux parameter error covariances, TRACE reduced the error in domain‐integrated monthly CO2 fluxes by about 97% relative to the prior flux errors. In a more realistic scenario with unknown prior flux error statistics, the corresponding relative error reductions ranged from 80.6% to 88.5% depending on the specification of prior flux parameter error correlations. For regionally integrated fluxes on a spatial scale of 106 km2, the sum of absolute errors was reduced by 34.5%–50.9% relative to the prior flux errors. Moreover, TRACE produced posterior uncertainty estimates that were consistent with the true errors. These initial experiments show that the ESSPE approach in TRACE provides a promising method for advancing CO2 inversion techniques. Plain Language Summary: To gain a better understanding of the main drivers behind atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) variations and trends, it is essential to accurately quantify CO2 exchanges—also known as fluxes—between the atmosphere and other components of the Earth system. It is generally not possible to directly measure surface CO2 fluxes at regional scales; however, fluxes can be inferred from a network of atmospheric CO2 concentration observations combined with atmospheric modeling and inversion methods, which seek to find the most likely fluxes given prior knowledge and observational evidence. This paper presents a new regional inversion framework called TRACE Regional Atmosphere–Carbon Ensemble (TRACE) for deriving CO2 fluxes at high resolution in space and time. One of the major innovations in TRACE is the ensemble‐based dual state and parameter estimation approach, which makes it computationally feasible to ingest large volumes of observations into the system. A series of experiments were carried out in a domain over North America to test the new framework in a controlled setting. In the experiments, we used synthetic tower observations of atmospheric CO2 concentrations to constrain parameters controlling terrestrial biogenic and oceanic CO2 fluxes. The results show that TRACE is capable of accurately estimating both the magnitude and spatial pattern of regional CO2 fluxes. Key Points: An ensemble‐based simultaneous state and parameter estimation approach is introduced for regional CO2 flux inversionsThe new dual‐state TRACE Regional Atmosphere–Carbon Ensemble (TRACE) framework provides a flexible platform for conducting coupled atmosphere–carbon data assimilationControlled experiments show that TRACE is effective at constraining regional CO2 fluxes using in situ CO2 concentration observations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategy of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration identifies three pathways for action for overcoming six global barriers thought to hamper upscaling. We evaluated 6,023 peer‐reviewed and gray literature papers published over the last two decades to map the information landscape underlying the barriers and associated pathways for action across world regions, terrestrial ecosystem types, restorative interventions and their outcomes. Overall, the literature addressed more the financial and legislative barriers than the technical and research‐related ones, supporting the view that social, economic and political factors hamper scaling up ecosystem restoration. Latin America, Africa, and North America were the most prominent regions in the literature, yet differed in the number of publications addressing each barrier. An overwhelming number of publications focused on forests (78%), while grasslands (6%), drylands (3%), and mangroves (2%) received less attention. Across the three pathways for action, the action lines on (1) promoting long‐term ecosystem restoration actions and monitoring and (2) education on restoration were the most underrepresented in the literature. In general, restorative interventions assessed rendered positive outcomes except those of a political, legislative or financial nature which reported negative or inconclusive outcomes. Our indicative assessment reveals critical information gaps on barriers, pathways, and types of restorative interventions across world regions, particularly related to specific social issues such as education for ecosystem restoration. Finally, we call for refining "strength of evidence" assessment frameworks that can systematically appraise, synthesize and integrate information on traditional and practitioner knowledge as two essential components for improving decision‐making in ecosystem restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on industrial ecology in North America. Issues on the relationship of industrial ecology, ideology and culture; Illustration of issues on paper technology; Factors that need to be integrated in industrial ecology assessment.

Basidiocarps of Inonotus obliquus at the margin of a sterile conk were observed on the stem of a living paper birch tree ( Betula papyrifera) in North America. The basidiocarps were small in size and similar in shape to basidiocarps formed on potato-dextrose agar medium. This is the first report of basidiocarp formation on the stem of a healthy looking birch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a composite absolute paleointensity record for Holocene paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) from central North America. Twelve full‐vector (inclination, declination, paleointensity) PSV records were assessed in order to build the composite record. Nine of the paleointensity records come from sediment paleomagnetic studies and are considered relative in intensity. Three of the paleointensity records come from absolute paleointensity measurements of archeological materials and lava flows. This paper develops a new method to normalize the sediment relative paleointensity records to the absolute intensity records. The final composite paleointensity record describes intensity variability over a region of Central North America delineated by 35°–48.6°N and 240.4–291.4°E (∼14° × 50°). This composite record shows a distinctive long‐duration (∼104 year) oscillation and a series of millennial‐scale intensity oscillations that are consistent over our study region. Plain Language Summary: This study develops a composite record of geomagnetic field intensity for the central North America for the last 8,000 years. This record is important for considering the total geomagnetic field variability I this region and its dynamo source(s). Key Points: We develop a new composite absolute paleointensity record for Holocene Central North AmericaWe develop a new renormalization technique to combine absolute paleointensity records and sediment relative paleointensity recordsThe final composite absolute paleointensity record has a distinctive long‐term trend and millennial‐scale variability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Imprisonment impacts on lives beyond the prisoner's. In particular, family and intimate relationships are affected. Only some countries permit private conjugal visits in prison between a prisoner and community living partner. Aims: Our aim was to find evidence from published international literature on the safety, benefits or harms of such visits. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted using broad search terms, including words like 'private' and 'family', to maximise search sensitivity but strict criteria for inclusion – of visits unobserved by prison staff and away from other prisoners. All included papers were quality assessed. Two of us independently extracted data from included papers, according to a prepared checklist. Meta‐analysis was considered. Results: Seventeen papers were identified from 12 independent studies, all but three of them from North America. The only study of health benefits found a positive association with maintaining sexual relationships. The three before‐and‐after study of partnership qualities suggested benefit, but conjugal visiting was within a wider family‐support programme. Studies with in‐prison behaviour as a possible outcome suggest small, if any, association, although one US‐wide study found significantly fewer in‐prison sexual assaults in states allowing conjugal visiting than those not. Other studies were of prisoner, staff or partner attitudes. There is little evidence of adverse effects, although two qualitative studies raise concerns about the visiting partner's sense of institutionalisation or coercion. Conclusions: The balance of evidence about conjugal visiting is positive, but there is little of it. As stable family relationships have, elsewhere, been associated with desistance from crime, the contribution of conjugal visiting to these should be better researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys is an invasive agricultural pest in North America and Europe, and also a dwelling nuisance in autumn, due to the overwintering adults aggregating inside buildings. The repellent potential of ginger, clove, vetiver and turmeric essential oils (EOs) was tested on H. halys adults of three different physiological‐behavioural phases: exiting overwintering (EXOV), active during summer (SUMM) and entering overwintering (ENOV). In a two‐choice apparatus, fresh food was used as an attractant in both sides, together with three males when testing ENOV individuals. A filter paper with different concentrations of the EOs was the treatment side, and a filter paper with ethanol acted as control. The position of the individually tested bugs was recorded after 1, 6 and 24 hr. All tested EOs were repellent at concentrations higher than 3%, independent of sex or length of exposure. Turmeric and clove were the most repellent EOs, whereas ginger and vetiver showed on average a medium‐to‐low repellency. Significant differences emerged among the physiological‐behavioural phases, with SUMM individuals showing a greater repellency to many of the tested concentrations, and EXOV individuals being overall the least susceptible to these substances. The response to vetiver oil was ambiguous, as at 25%, it elicited both a strong repellency in SUMM and a strong attraction in EXOV. Turmeric and clove EOs are promising candidates in integrated pest management strategies to reduce attacks by H. halys to susceptible crops especially during summer, as well as to prevent the entrance of overwintering bugs in buildings in autumn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we ask whether we should we re‐examine the future of upland gamebird management and greater federal oversight and partnerships in the twenty‐first century. Management for waterfowl in North America has been successful because of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) and the subsequent 1986 North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). Although the MBTA included most migratory and non‐migratory species, upland gamebirds, including the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; bobwhite), were excluded and retained under state control. Although many waterfowl populations have been increasing, bobwhite populations have declined precipitously during much of the period. Excluding non‐migratory gamebirds from the MBTA meant that the multistate coordinating efforts that made the MBTA successful for increasing the management of waterfowl have not been applied. The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) has made a strong effort to unite states within the bobwhite range but does not have the federal anchoring and financial support that were given to states by the MBTA and NAWMP and currently integrate adaptive harvest, habitat management, and financial partnerships to acquire and manage wetlands that support waterfowl production. The NBCI Coordinated Implementation Program (CIP) is designed to serve the function of developing and monitoring habitat for bobwhites but is entirely voluntary and dependent entirely on state and non‐governmental organization (NGO) funds, lacking federal grants and Federal Duck Stamp funds. To catch up with the successes of waterfowl, we discuss the implications of increasing coordination, partnerships, and funding mechanisms between the federal government, state governments, and NGOs to provide common landscape‐level population monitoring and modeling, adaptive harvest regulations, habitat management goals, and a national upland gamebird stamp. © 2021 The Wildlife Society. : This paper explores whether upland gamebirds should have increased federal coordination, like migratory gamebirds, to assure better conservation in the twenty‐first century. The authors discuss the implications of increasing coordination, partnerships, and funding mechanisms between the federal government, state governments, and non‐governmental organizations to provide common landscape‐level population monitoring and modeling, adaptive harvest regulations, habitat management goals, and a national upland gamebird stamp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Americanization has been described as one of the major sociocultural processes of language change currently affecting varieties of English worldwide; it is generally linked to the post‐World War II rise of the United States to global superpower status in political, military, economic, and cultural terms. Owing to their immediate geographical proximity, the Bahamas always had closer demographic, cultural, and institutional links with the North American mainland than other British colonies. The present paper applies the notion of epicentral influence, in the sense of a regionally dominant model influencing developments in neighboring areas, to Bahamian‐American linguistic relations and attempts to disentangle global from epicentral American influence. It considers not just standard Bahamian English but also Bahamian Creole, all levels of language, diachronic and synchronic data, and corpus findings as well as attitudinal studies and discusses the theoretical and methodological implications of the Bahamian data for the epicentre idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anesthesiology is a medical specialty well known for its work in patient safety, allowing the field to show a dramatic decrease in perioperative morbidity and mortality in both adults and children since the 1950s. Currently, anesthesia‐related mortality is close to zero in healthy children, with deaths occurring primarily in children ASA physical status ≥4. Survival during anesthesia today represents the expectation and standard of care, rather than a marker of quality. Several programs and organizations have created measures to assess safety in pediatric anesthesia—yet none are universally accepted as safety metrics or bundled to evaluate specific aspects of care. In addition, collection of this nonstandardized data in individual centers requires a significant investment of resources and personnel limiting access to only large, "resource‐rich" institutions. In this perspective paper, we provide an overview of the efforts made to enhance quality of care across medical specialties with a specific emphasis on pediatric anesthesiology. We discuss the need for standardization of metrics to establish targets and benchmarks for the delivery of high‐quality care to children and adolescents mainly in North America. The time has come to move beyond mortality and establish universally accepted minimum outcome standards in pediatric anesthesia. We believe this will ultimately improve confidence in the quality of pediatric anesthesia care offered to children, no matter where they are receiving that care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric motors are highly customizable products that have to meticulously comply with the client's needs, commercial and legal requirements of each market. In this context, the configure‐to‐order (CTO) approach allows the user to define the product configuration at the time of the order and the supplier to develop a product that meets the customer's needs. This paper presents an object‐oriented knowledge‐based system (OOKBS) that integrates rule‐ and case‐based reasoning to verify the compliance of a variant‐rich and complex product—electric motors—in a multinational‐level company. The system adopts a modular structure to evaluate distinct compliance aspects, such as technical constraints and commercial requirements, and to improve the compliance assessment based on the designs of motors previously sold. The work targeted a product line with significant market share in North America, and is the result of a collaboration among the following teams: product compliance, international sales, engineering systems, and product engineering. In total, the system development involved nine experts from these areas. This study has the originality of presenting a product configuration system (PCS) that integrates rule‐based and case‐based approaches to verify the compliance of a modular product. The results indicate a reduction of 73% of internal technical queries within the prototype scope. Moreover, the system usability tests highlight the completeness of outcomes, quick access to information, and easy integration of automatic product compliance verification into the company's design flow. Furthermore, we discussed how the system was effectively implemented in a design routine based on both concurrent engineering and CTO scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of evidence for large‐scale glacial landscapes on Mars has led to the belief that ancient glaciations had to be frozen to the ground. Here we propose that the fingerprints of Martian wet‐based glaciation should be the remnants of the ice sheet drainage system instead of landforms generally associated with terrestrial ice sheets. We use the terrestrial glacial hydrology framework to interrogate how the Martian surface gravity affects glacial hydrology, ice sliding, and glacial erosion. Taking as reference the ancient southern circumpolar ice sheet that deposited the Dorsa Argentea formation, we compare the theoretical behavior of identical ice sheets on Mars and Earth and show that, whereas on Earth glacial drainage is predominantly inefficient, enhancing ice sliding and erosion, on Mars the lower gravity favors the formation of efficient subglacial drainage. The apparent lack of large‐scale glacial fingerprints on Mars, such as drumlins or lineations, is to be expected. Plain Language Summary: Water accumulates under ice masses, including glaciers and ice sheets, lubricating the base of the ice and accelerating ice motion. On Earth, this glacial motion has produced scoured landscapes in northern Europe and North America. Mars lacks such large‐scale glacial erosion even in areas with other signs of widespread glaciation. This paper uses the existing framework describing the physical interactions of water and ice, and how they affect ice motion, to show that a lack of landforms recording glacial erosion is expected even if glaciation were widespread on Mars. Key Points: Glacial hydrology feedback dynamics can explain the lack of glacial sliding on the Martian geological recordSubglacial water drainage develops faster, and is more resilient under lower Martian gravityThe fingerprints of Martian wet‐based glaciation are predicted to be channels and eskers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares surface signatures of the zonally symmetric and asymmetric modes of stratospheric variability, which describe the strength of the polar vortex and a planetary wave‐1 pattern, respectively. Unlike a weak polar vortex followed by negative Arctic Oscillation–like anomalies, strong stratospheric wave activity features a polar vortex displacement with a deep planetary wave‐1 structure, resulting in positive North Atlantic Oscillation–like North American cooling in about 10 days. Moreover, the linkage between the stratosphere and surface is examined in two reanalyzes and four models of different configurations, which show more robust North American cooling following the displacement of the polar vortex due to strong stratospheric wave activity than the zonally symmetric weakening of the polar vortex. This suggests strong stratospheric wave activity acts as a better predictor for cold spells in the northern U.S. and Canada compared with a weak polar vortex. Plain Language Summary: A weak polar vortex in the winter stratosphere is likely associated with cold spells at the surface, yet there are large uncertainties in predicting surface cold events based on stratospheric signals. This study introduces a new method to separate stratospheric variability into the leading modes of zonally symmetric and asymmetric circulations. The zonally symmetric mode describes the strength of the polar vortex. A weak polar vortex is followed by cooling over northern Eurasia and midlatitude North America. In contrast, the zonally asymmetric mode characterizes a displacement of the polar vortex or a planetary wave‐1 pattern, with the positive phase featuring a high anomaly over North America and a low anomaly over Eurasia. This stratospheric wave pattern extends down to the surface, resulting in North American cooling and Eurasian warming in about 10 days. While both stratospheric modes are associated with surface cooling over North America, the linkage is more robust for the displacement than the zonally symmetric weakening of the polar vortex, based on analyses of several reanalyzes and models. This indicates that strong stratospheric wave activity serves as a better predictor for cold air outbreaks in the northern U.S. and Canada than the commonly used weak polar vortex events. Key Points: Distinct North American cooling signatures follow zonally symmetric and asymmetric modes of the stratosphereStrong stratospheric wave activity precedes positive North Atlantic Oscillation like North American coolingThe linkage between the stratospheric wave activity and the surface is robust in reanalyzes and models [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temporal dynamics of biotic communities have been widely examined by ecologists. However, systematic reviews on how habitat features, sampling and data evaluation influence temporal patterns are rather sporadic. Here, we reviewed 307 peer‐reviewed scientific articles to characterize the methods and the approaches, as well as to identify the knowledge gaps in the assessment of the temporal dynamics of freshwater fish assemblages with special regard to their stability patterns. The number of publications increased exponentially over decades. We revealed a highly uneven distribution of the studies among continents and ecosystems with a dominant number of papers derived from North America and Europe, and from lotic systems, especially. We also found large variability among studies even within similar habitat types in the examined spatial and temporal scales, sampling methods used, examined assemblage attributes, potential stressors and data analyses. Several knowledge gaps, such as the limited number of large‐scale studies, the insufficient knowledge on the long‐term dynamics of early life history stages and on trait‐based assemblage organization, were highlighted. For enabling meaningful comparisons of fish assemblage dynamics in space and time, further developments in standardization procedures are needed across sampling and data evaluation possibilities. Publicly accessible long‐term data sets with more details on sampling and environmental parameters would also be critically important to determine the effect of a variety of factors on the stability vs. variability of fish assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical context of current environmental conditions offers vital guidance to North American fisheries professionals as they strive to develop effective management plans and policies. Through this retrospective we highlight the remarkable historic fisheries resources and reasons for establishing public fisheries agencies and the American Fisheries Society (AFS). Through a review of primary historical documents and literature for North America, this paper identifies factors contributing to the founding of AFS and public fish commissions; shows how selected resource issues evolved; and documents how and why selected fisheries and aquatic habitat policies changed in response to those issues. Overexploitation, landscape‐scale habitat alterations, mining, and dams were the causative agents for emergence of fisheries agencies and AFS, and these factors remain relevant today. Beginning in the 1960s, after 100 years of policy inaction, North Americans grew tired of degraded waters and fisheries and forced policy changes that have directly and indirectly affected the fisheries we manage today. The historical events and resulting corrective legislation are taken for granted by those unaware that AFS has actively participated in developing policies to address these environmental harms. Further, AFS continues to play a vital role in identifying key issues, providing conduits for information to cope with impairments, and advocating for policies to conserve intact habitats and improve degraded systems. The struggles documented in this paper offer crucial lessons as we continue to be challenged by legacy resource issues and face emerging environmental stressors, such as climate change, as well as regression in long‐standing environmental protection policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in dental implant therapy have strengthened our understanding of the management of the implant-soft tissue interface, with site-specific implications ranging from marginal tissue management and esthetics to immediate placement and restoration, and extend to patient-level implications of systemic conditions. The advancements in implant therapy have placed an increased emphasis on patient-centered outcomes. In this paper, the following conclusions can be drawn: improvements in both esthetics and long-term maintenance have been guided by the study of the marginal peri-implant tissues leading to innovations in implant design along the implant-abutment interface. Patient expectations for simple and realistic time intervals for treatment have promoted the use of immediate implant placement and restoration. The expansion of implant therapy offers implant options for patients with medical conditions, with one in particular, diabetes mellitus a focus of this paper. Studies on patients with diabetes are supporting the development of evidence-based treatment considerations with broader application and greater benefits for the use of implant therapy across a larger patient population. This paper is not intended to offer a comprehensive review, but offers a representative review of some of the many contributions of USA and North American clinicians to the global scientific dialogue that has guided the development of dental implant therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inborn errors of immunity (IEIs) are a group of conditions affecting immune system development and function. Due to their clinical heterogeneity and lack of provider awareness, patients suffer from long diagnostic delays that increase morbidity and mortality. Next‐generation sequencing facilitates earlier diagnosis and treatment of IEIs, but too often patients are unable to see the benefit of this technology due to gaps in providers' knowledge regarding which patients to test and barriers to accessing sequencing. Methods: Here, we provide detailed clinical phenotyping and describe the impact of genetic sequencing on a cohort of 43 patients with monogenic IEIs seen in a tertiary care center from 2014 to 2019. Data were abstracted from a chart review, and a panel of clinical immunologists were consulted on the impact of genetic sequencing on their patients. Results: We found that our patients had significant diagnostic delays, averaging 3.3 years; had diverse manifestations of immune system dysfunction; and had demonstrated highly complex medical needs, with on average 7.9 subspecialties involved in their care and 4.9 hospitalizations prior to definitive treatment. Our results also demonstrate the benefits of genetic testing, as it provided the majority of our patients with a diagnosis, and positively impacted their treatment, follow‐up, and prognosis. Conclusion: This paper expands the paucity of literature on genetically confirmed IEIs in North America and supports the expansion of access to genetic testing for patients with clinical features suggesting IEI, such as those presented in our cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the forms and contents of contemporary nationalism in Europe and North America, what used to be called the 'West'. This nationalism responds in opposite and sometimes contradictory ways to a neoliberal order of globalization, welfare‐state retreat and a heightened sense of insecurity. I distinguish between populist and statist forms of contemporary nationalism, and within the statist between a compensatory and a constitutive logic of linking it with neoliberalism. Under the constitutive logic, nationalism may adopt certain features of the neoliberal order itself, which yields a 'neoliberal nationalism'. Nonethnic yet exclusive of those who are not contributing, this is a new entry in the nations and nationalism lexicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands provide significant ecosystem services yet are ranked among some of the most imperiled habitats. To maximize prioritization of these habitats a better understanding of the full range of ecosystem functions is needed, starting with an examination of how coastal wetlands have been portrayed in restoration literature to date. This study consists of a literature review and the use of automated topic analyses aimed at (1) summarizing the current research related to coastal wetland restoration, (2) identifying the key fields of research, and (3) identifying research efforts connecting restoration and climate adaptation strategies (e.g. blue carbon). Of the 702 papers sourced for this analysis, most studies were conducted in North America and Europe. An increase in articles considering wetland restoration was found from 1985 to October 2020, with 40% of the research published just in the last triennia (2018–2020). Topic division highlights the emergence of studies related to management under climate change (e.g. sea level rise, adaptive management) and to carbon sequestration as separate fields of research from classical ecological studies. This reveals the need to ensure that classical ecological research is not neglected by work relating to climate strategies, which depend upon an accurate understanding of ecological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]