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This study explored whether high autistic traits, high attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) traits and their interaction were associated with quality of life (QoL) in a sample of 556 of young-adult twins (Mean age 22 years 5 months, 52% Female). Four participant groups were created: high autistic traits, high ADHD traits, high autistic/ADHD traits, and low ADHD/autistic traits. High autistic traits were associated with lower QoL across domains (physical, psychological, social, and environmental). High ADHD traits associated with lower physical, psychological, and environmental QoL. The interaction of autistic and ADHD traits was not significant in any domain. While mental health difficulties were associated with lower QoL, after accounting for mental health, most relationships between autistic traits, ADHD traits and QoL remained.

In this article, the three authors (two learners of Italian at the A2 level, and one Italian instructor) review six diverse resources for self-directed learning of Italian. These resources are: two online courses (Busuu and EdX), a podcast, a Netflix extension, a book, and an AI tool. The article suggests how such resources can be used by learners of Italian outside the classroom as part of an autonomous learning plan.

Welcome to this special issue of SiSAL Journal, dedicated to exploring the current landscape of self-access and self-directed language learning in Europe. In this collection of articles, we look at various aspects of language learner support across the continent, highlighting innovative practices and emerging trends. The idea for the special issue was prompted by a one-year sabbatical based in Italy from April 2023 to March 2024 for two of the editors who are usually based in Japan (David McLoughlin, Jo Mynard). We were researching language learning beyond the classroom and systems for supporting language learners, and we were hoping to learn about current research and practice by editing this issue. We were fortunate to meet Elena Borsetto, a well-connected, multilingual and expert language specialist early in our time in Italy and we decided that the three of us would make a good team to compile this special issue.

Plants and arthropods are primary drivers of terrestrial ecosystem function. Trace fossils of plant–arthropod interactions (PAIs) provide a unique window into assessing terrestrial ecosystem states through geological time and evaluating changes in herbivorous arthropod feeding guilds in the wake of global biotic crises. The end-Permian event (EPE; c. 252 Ma) resulted in the loss of keystone plant species from humid tropical and high-latitude ecosystems and the extinction of several major insect groups. The subsequent Early to Middle Triassic evinced diminished terrestrial productivity, punctuated by a series of second-order biotic crises that hindered recovery. Here, we survey records of Gondwanan Early to Middle Triassic floral assemblages for evidence of PAIs as an indication of ecosystem recovery following the EPE. We compiled a comprehensive dataset of fossil plant taxa and PAIs for lower Mesozoic strata of Gondwana, revealing an increase in specific and generic floral diversity from the Early to Middle Triassic. We noted a lack of PAIs reported from many localities with abundant fossil leaves, which might be interpreted to be a consequence of a post-EPE delay in the recovery of arthropod feeding guilds compared to the flora. However, by comparing floral assemblages between regions of Gondwana, our results also partly attribute the absence of PAIs to the relative paucity of palaeoichnological and palaeobotanical studies of this interval. To test for potential under-reporting of PAIs in the Triassic, we present a case study of the well-described Australian Middle Triassic Benolong Flora. In contrast to existing Australian Early to Middle Triassic PAI reports on only three plant specimens, this systematic investigation revealed 44 PAI traces comparable to published examples, hosted by 40 fossil plant fragments (7.77% of fragments assessed; N = 591). Margin-feeding traces constituted the dominant Functional Feeding Group (FFG) identified (23 examples: 3.72% of fragments assessed). Our review highlights several Early and Middle Triassic Gondwanan plant fossil-rich successions and existing collections that require further examination. We predict that investigations of these assemblages will greatly elucidate the relationships between rapidly changing environments during the Early and Middle Triassic and their effects on the plant and arthropod communities in the Southern Hemisphere.

Oral chemotherapy is commonly prescribed, and by using decision aids (DAs), clinicians can facilitate shared decision-making (SDM) to align treatment choices with patient goals and values. Although products exist commercially, little evidence informs the development of DAs targeting the unique challenges of oral chemotherapy. To address this gap in the literature, our objective was to review DAs developed for oral anticoagulation, DA use in oncology, and patient preference surveys to guide the development of DAs for oral chemotherapy. We focused on reviewing SDM, patient preferences, and specifically the development, efficacy, and patient experience of DAs in oral anticoagulation and oncologic conditions, ultimately including conclusions and data from 30 peer-reviewed publications in our viewpoint paper. We found that effective DAs in oral anticoagulation improved knowledge, lowered decisional conflict, increased adherence, and covered a broad range of SDM elements; however, limited information on patient experience was a common shortcoming. In oncology, DAs increased knowledge and aligned decisions with the values of the patients. Ineffective oncology DAs provided general, unclear, or overly optimistic information, while providing “too much” information was not shown to do harm. Patients preferred DAs that included pros and cons, side effects, questions to ask, and expected quality of life changes. In developing DAs for oral chemotherapy, patients should be included in the development process, and DA content should be specifically tailored to patient preferences. Providing DAs ahead of appointments proved more effective than during, and additional considerations included addressing barriers to efficacy. There is a need for evidence-based DAs to facilitate SDM for patients considering oral chemotherapy. Developers should use data from studies in oral anticoagulation, oncology, and preference surveys to optimize SDM.

Plants and insects are two of the more diverse and abundant organisms in terrestrial ecosystems. The fossil record of plant-insect interactions offers crucial insights into the coevolutionary dynamics between these groups, shedding light on the intricate relationships that have shaped terrestrial ecosystems. The study of fossil interactions is especially relevant in mid-Cretaceous ecosystems, a time of dramatic changes in the composition of floras and, consequently, in plant-insect relationships. Here, we describe the first suite of plant-insect interactions from the mid-Cretaceous of Mexico. We studied 554 plant fossils from the El Chango Lagerstätte (Cintalapa Formation, Chiapas, Mexico), including vegetative (leaves) and reproductive structures (fruits and seeds). The flora was dominated by gymnosperms (89.3%) followed by angiosperms (10.7%); other groups, such as pteridophytes and bryophytes, were absent. In total, 5.4% of the plant specimens hosted some damage. Angiosperms (all broad-leafed forms), despite being much less common than gymnosperms, expressed more evidence of damage by herbivores (35.6% of specimens damaged). In contrast, the narrow-leafed gymnosperms, the dominant group in the flora, hosted a much lower proportion of herbivory damage (1.8% of specimens damaged). The diversity of damage types (DTs) was relatively low: 14 DTs were identified, corresponding to seven FFGs, including margin feeding, hole feeding, surface feeding, piercing and sucking, oviposition, galling, and mining. Comparison with the other mid-Cretaceous plant-insect assemblages reveals a similar richness of DTs for angiosperms but a lower richness and diversity of DTs on gymnosperms from El Chango. These results indicate preferential herbivory on angiosperms (rather than on the available gymnosperms in the assemblage) by terrestrial arthropods during a period of major changes in the structure of terrestrial ecosystems. However, it is challenging to resolve whether this apparent preference is because insects particularly targeted angiosperms or if the herbivores simply targeted broad leaves in general, since most of the available gymnosperms from El Chango are scale-leafed forms.

The province of New Brunswick is growing its population through immigration and retention strategies of newcomers to grow and stabilize its economy. Many communities, traditionally unaccustomed to such growth, are now experiencing a rapid shift in their ethnocultural populations. This report is based on a case study research conducted in three rural New Brunswick schools in three closely connected communities. Each school is confronting their own issues with the shift in their student demographics, but all share common strengths and challenges. The researchers identified four main intersecting themes, each connected to a sub-theme. They found that: (1) newcomer students are striving hard to learn and live in an English culture; (2) newcomer students are working to belong in their school through finding Canadian-born friends and allies; (3) educators and newcomer students are mindful that deficit thinking hinders language and verbal communication; and (4) stereotypical perceptions about new immigrants taking jobs away from New Brunswickers are pervasive and consistent in the schools and communities that were studied. As more newcomers arrive in the province, the researchers advocate that educators and school leaders need more knowledge and support for working with newcomer students and families. Further, deeper conversations about stereotyping and racism will need to occur to effectively eradicate the negative perceptions about immigrants and immigration in the province.

While the modern photographer and filmmaker relies upon cranes and planes--products of modern technology-- for the purpose of gaining a more comprehensive and larger-than-life perspective, monastic thinkers have relied on spiritual and rhetorical strategies to create and authenticate similarly broad and objective frames of vision. Such strategies play a crucial role in the construction of the monastic sinscapes against which monks demonstrate their virtue.Saint Antony of Egypt, for instance, attributed the veracity of the prophecies of some pagan seers to the ability of the demons who informed such seers to travel at such great speed that they could relate what had just happened to those they informed much quicker than the news would travel to everyone else. The ability to see such demons at work, in turn, verified Antony’s holiness and access to divine knowledge. John Cassian similarly demonstrated the sanctity and discernment of a certain monk by confirming that the report of another monk’s fall, which this saintly monk happened to overhear demons discussing, had indeed occurred on the very night it was being discussed. Again, the monk’s ability to see demons at work attested to the monk’s understanding of the world at large, which resulted from his freedom from the entanglements that blinded others. Cassian, by telling many such stories, in turn, appears to be omniscient in his knowledge of the goings on in both the furthest reaches of the desert and the deepest reaches of the soul. The popular medieval didactic poem, The Pilgrimage of Human Life, on the other hand, posits that the soul cannot see clearly no matter how hard it tries as long as it is trapped in the fleshly body and overwhelmed by that body’s impulses and desires. In this fourteenth-century work, the soul only experiences clear vision for the very brief time that grace frees it from its body to alleviate its despair at its own ability to embrace virtue and avoid vice.This paper brings the modern bird’s-eye view represented by Edward Burtynsky’s depictions of the apocalyptic sublime through his large-scale aerial photos and films of environmental destruction into dialogue with monastic attempts to see beyond the limits of the situated body and the devastating sinscapes such attempts reveal. I argue that a productive tension arises when the criticisms leveled at Burtynsky for the way his bird’s eye view collapses into the background the people who live and work among the environmental disasters he frames are read in dialogue with the people and systems collapsed into monastic sinscapes. This tension allows us to ask what understanding of individuals, nature, and human environments may be gained from interviewing the inhabitants and constructs of the sincapes produced by monastic strategies for authenticating virtue and vision.

Abstract Background The current standard of care in the neoadjuvant setting for high-risk HER2-positive (HER2 +) breast cancer is to combine systemic chemotherapy with dual HER2 blockade, trastuzumab and pertuzumab. Targeted therapies have significantly improved outcomes for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. To improve treatment-associated toxicity, chemotherapy-sparing approaches are currently being investigated. Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) is an HER2-directed antibody–drug-conjugate (ADC) with promising results in the metastatic setting for HER2-positive breast cancer. The SHAMROCK study investigates neoadjuvant T-DXd in early stage HER2-positive breast cancer, using pathological complete response (pCR) rate as the primary endpoint. Methods This is a phase II open-label, single arm, adaptive multi-centre trial of T-DXd in the neoadjuvant setting in stage 2–3 HER2-positive breast cancer. Eligible patients will receive 5.4 mg/kg of T-DXd intravenously every 3 weeks for up to 6 cycles. A repeat biopsy will performed after 2 cycles for the RNA disruption index (RDI) score assessment. According to their likelihood of pCR, as determined by the RDI score, patients will either undergo 4 or 6 cycles of T-DXd prior to imaging. Patients with imaging complete response (iCR) after either 4 or 6 cycles will proceed to surgery. Patients who do not achieve iCR will either undergo further systemic therapy or proceed to surgery. Discussion The SHAMROCK study is a chemotherapy-sparing approach to curative intent treatment, investigating neoadjuvant T-DXd. We hypothesise that neoadjuvant T-DXd will have a high pCR rate and be associated low toxicity in early stage HER2-positive breast cancer. Trial registration EudraCT Number: 2022–002485-32; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05710666; Cancer Trials Ireland study number: CTRIAL-IE 22–01.

Synchronous neural oscillations within the beta frequency range are observed across the parkinsonian basal ganglia network, including within the subthalamic nucleus (STN) - globus pallidus (GPe) subcircuit. The emergence of pathological synchrony in Parkinson’s disease is often attributed to changes in neural properties or connection strength, and less often to the network topology, i.e. the structural arrangement of connections between neurons. This study investigates the relationship between network structure and neural synchrony in a model of the STN-GPe circuit comprised of conductance-based spiking neurons. Changes in net synaptic input were controlled for through a synaptic scaling rule, which facilitated separation of the effects of network structure from net synaptic input. Five topologies were examined as structures for the STN-GPe circuit: Watts-Strogatz, preferential attachment, spatial, stochastic block, k-regular random. Beta band synchrony generally increased as the number of connections increased, however the exact relationship was topology specific. Varying the wiring pattern while maintaining a constant number of connections caused network synchrony to be enhanced or suppressed, demonstrating the ability of purely structural changes to alter synchrony. This relationship was well-captured by the algebraic connectivity of the network, the second smallest eigenvalue of the network’s Laplacian matrix. The structure-synchrony relationship was further investigated in a network model designed to emulate the action selection role of the STN-GPe circuit. It was found that increasing the number of connections and/or the overlap of action selection channels could lead to a rapid transition to synchrony, which was also predicted by the algebraic connectivity.

Abstract Background Cardiac repair and remodeling following myocardial infarction (MI) is a multifactorial process involving pro-reparative inflammation, angiogenesis and fibrosis. Noninvasive imaging using a radiotracer targeting these processes could be used to elucidate cardiac wound healing mechanisms. The alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (ɑ7nAChR) stimulates pro-reparative macrophage activity and angiogenesis, making it a potential imaging biomarker in this context. We investigated this by assessing in vitro cellular expression of ɑ7nAChR, and by using a tritiated version of the PET radiotracer [18F]NS14490 in tissue autoradiography studies. Results ɑ7nAChR expression in human monocyte-derived macrophages and vascular cells showed the highest relative expression was within macrophages, but only endothelial cells exhibited a proliferation and hypoxia-driven increase in expression. Using a mouse model of inflammatory angiogenesis following sponge implantation, specific binding of [3H]NS14490 increased from 3.6 ± 0.2 µCi/g at day 3 post-implantation to 4.9 ± 0.2 µCi/g at day 7 (n = 4, P