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In early Alzheimer's disease (AD) spatial navigation is impaired; however, the precise cause of this impairment is unclear. Recent evidence suggests that getting lost is one of the first impairments to emerge in AD. It is possible that getting lost represents a failure to use distal cues to get oriented in space. Therefore, we set out to look for impaired use of distal cues for spatial orientation in a mouse model of amyloidosis (3xTg-AD). To do this, we trained mice to shuttle to the end of a track and back to an enclosed start box to receive a water reward. Then, mice were trained to stop in an unmarked reward zone to receive a brain stimulation reward. The time required to remain in the zone for a reward was increased across training, and the track was positioned in a random start location for each trial. We found that 6-month female, but not 3-month female, 6-month male, or 12-month male, 3xTg-AD mice were impaired. 6-month male and female mice had only intracellular pathology and male mice had less pathology, particularly in the dorsal hippocampus. Thus, AD may cause spatial disorientation as a result of impaired use of landmarks.

Headwater streams are reliant on riparian tree leaf litterfall to fuel brown food webs. Terrestrial agents like herbivores and contaminants can alter plant growth, litter production, litter quality, and the timing of litterfall into streams, influencing aspects of the brown food web. At Mount St. Helens (USA), early successional streams are developing willow (Salix sitchensis) riparian zones. The willows are attacked by stem-boring herbivores, altering litter quality and the timing of litterfall. Within a established experimental plots, willows (male and female plants) were protected from herbivores using insecticides and provided with experimental additions of nitrogen. This enabled us to test the interacting influences of herbivores, nitrogen deposition, and willow sex on leaf litter quality, aquatic litter decomposition, and microbial and invertebrate detritivores. We found weak litter quality effects (higher N and lower C:N) for the herbivore treatment, but no effect of nitrogen deposition. Although litter decomposition rates were not strongly affected by litter treatments, detritivore communities were altered by all treatments. Nitrogen deposition resulted in decreased bacterial richness and decreased fungal diversity in-stream. Aquatic macroinvertebrate communities were influenced by the interacting effects of herbivory and nitrogen addition, with abundances highest in herbivore litter with the greatest N addition. Shredders showed the highest abundance in male, herbivore-attacked litter. The establishment of riparian willows along early successional streams and their interacting effects with herbivores and nitrogen deposition may be influencing detritivore community assembly at Mount St. Helens. More broadly, global changes like increased wet and dry N deposition and expanded ranges of key herbivores might influence tree litter decomposition in many ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An elderly may with eccrine porocarcinoma of the ear is presented. This rare tumor in an unusual location has the potential for metastasis and local recurrence.

Our co-authored piece contributes to Black and Indigenous solidarity juxtaposed to our nuanced and convergent lived experiences as racialized people. Lauren and I (Nate)co-explore how our racialized identities and stories may complexify Black-and-Indigenous-led movements. We say "racialized" to acknowledge white supremacists' racecraft to subjugate Black and Indigenous people. Lauren, an Indigenous educator activist, and I, a Black scholar activist, both with white maternal lineage, connected after storying about our journeys to, through, and beyond the teaching profession. Black and Indigenous educators have centered theories of we are not free until we are all free. Our knowledge contributions further complexify freedom-for-all by offering Black and Indigenous knowledge on nuanced ancestry within the U.S. racialization project. Conversational data stemmed from an educator activist collective project where Lauren and I had many conversations about our similar and unique journeys toward our justice orientation. Our conversations yielded many Black and Indigenous solidarity learnings. These co-learnings included: building solidarity through weaving our unique stories, extending nuanced understandings of racialized experiences, and co-regulation in societal spaces not made for us. We conclude with implications in continuing to build solidarity in social science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have embarked on Federally-funded project to collaborate in the design, development and delivery of a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in engineering. The collaboration investigates new ways to bring together the strengths and discipline expertise of each institution to the students of both universities, utilising blended teaching and learning approaches. The collaboration brings much change--at the organisational level in the blending of programs, at the staff level in their approaches to teaching and at the students' level in their approaches and engagement with cross-institutional blended learning. This paper focuses on how change management principles were used to guide a systematic approach to engaging students into the learning culture associated with the Engineering Hubs and Spokes Project's theme--"Advanced Collaboration for Excellence". (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)