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This cluster-randomized pre-post comparison study examined the effects of using Sesame Workshop's Little Children, Big Challenges: General Resilience (LCBC) digital media toolkit in preschool classrooms over a 12-week period. Participants included 157 preschool teachers and 766 preschool children from 159 preschool classrooms in 38 Head Start centers, 7 Military Child Development Centers, 2 community-based preschool agencies, and a public school district. Children's social-emotional skills, behaviors, and relationship qualities were measured using a combination of direct testing of children and teacher behavioral ratings. Hierarchical linear modeling accounted for classroom-level nested data and the results indicated that LCBC increased emotion vocabulary, attachment, initiative, self-control, emotion regulation, and adaptability. The LCBC intervention also significantly reduced teacher conflict, attention problems, and emotion control problems. Additionally, the teacher survey indicated that the intervention was appealing to teachers and students. Reasons for nonsignificant effects on teacher closeness, social problem solving, and social skills are discussed.

Road salt (NaCl) is the most common deicer used to melt snow and ice from roadways in cold climates, but its use results in runoff of sodium and chloride ions into sewers and into soil and freshwater ecosystems. Road salt causes harmful effects on wetland habitats, which host an abundance of macroinvertebrate species. Alternatives to road salt, such as beet juice, are commercially available, but their impact on invertebrates is less well studied. We examined the impact of road salt alternatives on four invertebrate species (Daphnia pulex, Eisenia fetida, Heterocypris sp., and Culicoides sp. larvae), some of which come from a naturally brackish area. Our expectation was that road salt alternatives (beet salt, molasses, pickle juice, and sand) would be less toxic to the animals than traditional road salt. This study comprised two experiments: the first exposed individuals of the four invertebrate species to road salt alternatives, and the second exposed the invertebrates to a range of road salt concentrations. Only individuals of D. pulex were negatively impacted by road salt. The other invertebrates were not significantly affected by any salt alternative, demonstrating interspecific differences in response to salt. Species found in naturally salty environments were more tolerant of both road salt and alternatives. This research shows species‐ and habitat‐specific responses to road salt alternatives, which has implications for municipalities looking to salt roads without negatively impacting freshwater ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic data show that many nominal species are composed of more than one biological species, and thus contain cryptic species in the broad sense (including overlooked species). When ignored, cryptic species generate confusion which, beyond biodiversity or vulnerability underestimation, blurs our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes and may impact the soundness of decisions in conservation or medicine. However, very few hypotheses have been tested about factors that predispose a taxon to contain cryptic or overlooked species. To fill this gap, we surveyed the literature on free‐living marine metazoans and built two data sets, one of 187,603 nominal species and another of 83 classes or phyla, to test several hypotheses, correcting for sequence data availability, taxon size and phylogenetic relatedness. We found a strong effect of scientific history: the probability of a taxon containing cryptic species was highest for the earliest described species and varied among time periods potentially consistently with an influence of prevailing scientific theories. The probability of cryptic species being present was also increased for species with large distribution ranges. They were more frequent in the north polar and south polar zones, contradicting previous predictions of more cryptic species in the tropics, and supporting the hypothesis that many cryptic species diverged recently. The number of cryptic species varied among classes, with an excess in hydrozoans and polychaetes, and a deficit in actinopterygians, for example, but precise class ranking was relatively sensitive to the statistical model used. For all models, biological traits, rather than phylum, appeared responsible for the variation among classes: there were fewer cryptic species than expected in classes with hard skeletons (perhaps because they provide good characters for taxonomy) and image‐forming vision (in which selection against heterospecific mating may enhance morphological divergence), and more in classes with internal fertilisation. We estimate that among marine free‐living metazoans, several thousand additional cryptic species complexes could be identified as more sequence data become available. The factors identified as important for marine animal cryptic species are likely important for other biomes and taxa and should aid many areas in biology that rely on accurate species identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global temperatures are rising across marine ecosystems in response to climate change. Marine and estuarine-dependent species including the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, may adapt to warming temperatures phenologically, by shifting the seasonal timing of biological events, such as reproduction. In Chesapeake Bay, average water temperatures have risen by an average 0.02°C per year since the 1980s. Extension of the blue crab spawning season, through earlier onset and later conclusion, may augment annual brood production and alter the efficacy of management strategies. The duration of the potential spawning season from 1985 to 2019 was assessed using degree days, and the observed spawning season from 1995 to 2019 was assessed using the occurrence of ovigerous crabs from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science Trawl Survey in the James River and in the mainstem of lower Chesapeake Bay. Spawning degree days (SDD) and reproductive degree days (RDD) were defined using minimum temperatures of 19°C and 12°C, respectively. The mean duration of the potential spawning season increased by 25% in SDD and 10% in RDD between 1985 and 2019 in the James River and lower Chesapeake Bay, respectively. This progressive expansion of the potential spawning season was not, however, reflected in the observed spawning season. Rather, the onset, conclusion, and duration of the observed spawning season were variable over the time series. The observed month of onset was driven by RDD in spring, whereby spawning began earlier during warmer springs. The spawning conclusion date was driven by the onset of spawning, rather than Fall temperature, such that the duration of the observed spawning season and, therefore, annual brood production did not change over time. In Chesapeake Bay, the spawning stock is protected by a sanctuary that is closed to fishing from mid-May to mid-September during the putative spawning season. An earlier start to the spawning season during warmer springs, as seen in recent years, is expected to reduce the efficacy of the spawning sanctuary and intensify exploitation of the spawning stock, without enhancing brood production, thereby reducing reproductive output of the blue crab population in Chesapeake Bay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. The protandrous marine snail Crepidula fornicata has been a theoretical and empirical model for studies of sex change for many decades. We investigated the social conditions under which sex [...]

In many marine invertebrate species, larval development plays an important role in population connectivity and gene flow: species with direct benthic development generally show more genetic structure than those with planktonic development. We used nuclear markers (micro-satellites) to determine population genetic structure of the direct-developing snail Crepidula convexa (Gastropoda: Calyptraeidae) in seven populations with 15-85 individuals each within its native range of the northwest Atlantic and compared it to Crepidula fornicata, a congener with planktonic development. Our results are consistent with general expectations and previous work in these species with other markers: C. convexa had greater population structure and even at a regional scale shows significant isolation-by-distance, in contrast to C. fornicata. We also genotyped a single population of C. convexa introduced to the northeastern Pacific to investigate the prediction of reduced genetic diversity following introduction (founder effect). We did not find a reduction in genetic diversity, suggesting that this non-native population may be characterized by multiple introductions. This pattern is consistent with many other introduced populations of marine invertebrates, including C. fornicata., Introduction The spatial structure of genetic diversity can impact several ecological and evolutionary processes of a species, including its ability to adapt to local conditions. In most benthic marine invertebrates, [...]

Twitter has been adopted by physicians across most medical specialties; it allows for the wide dissemination of information and calls to action, brings new stakeholders into collations, promotes academic engagement, and fosters collaboration between academia and private practice. In this review of the literature, we briefly outline the state of advocacy in health care and summarize current Twitter-based advocacy efforts in the major specialties of health care, identifying both successful strategies as well as gaps in Twitter advocacy research. Relevant articles were obtained via PubMed and Google Scholar searches using the phrases "Twitter advocacy healthcare," "[specialty name] Twitter" and "[specialty name] Twitter advocacy." Several overarching themes were found to be widely utilized in specialty-specific discussions of Twitter advocacy efforts: organizing under a specific hashtag, fostering dialogue between stakeholders, and tweeting using personalized, action-oriented language. Fields such as pediatrics, heme/onc, ENT, and ophthalmology have most thoroughly embraced the desire to learn how to most effectively advocate on Twitter. Other fields such as OBGYN, cardiology, and surgery have less academic focus on online advocacy. Outside of advocacy efforts, the research and academic benefits of Twitter are well described in nearly every specialty. In conclusion, while clinicians are encouraged to advocate online, only broad strategies for online engagement are currently offered. Additional research into the details of how to successfully create an online profile and Twitter presence is needed to ensure all physicians are able to maximize their advocacy efforts, with clarification of the goals and objectives of this engagement also required., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Cahill et al.)

Theory predicts that genetic variation should be reduced at range margins, but empirical support is equivocal. Here, we used genotyping-by-sequencing technology to investigate genetic variation in central and marginal populations of two species in the marine gastropod genus Crepidula. These two species have different development and dispersal types and might therefore show different spatial patterns of genetic variation. Both allelic richness and the proportion of private alleles were highest in the most central populations of both species, and lower at the margin. The species with low dispersal, Crepidula convexa, showed high degrees of structure throughout the range that conform to the pattern found in previous studies using other molecular markers. The northernmost populations of the high-dispersing species, Crepidula fornicata, are distinct from more central populations, although this species has been previously observed to have little genetic structure over much of its range. Although genetic diversity was significantly lower at the range margin, the absolute reduction in diversity observed with these genomewide markers was slight, and it is not yet known whether there are functional consequences for the marginal populations., (© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Anthropogenic climate change is predicted to be a major cause of species extinctions in the next 100 years. But what will actually cause these extinctions? For example, will it be limited physiological tolerance to high temperatures, changing biotic interactions or other factors? Here, we systematically review the proximate causes of climate-change related extinctions and their empirical support. We find 136 case studies of climatic impacts that are potentially relevant to this topic. However, only seven identified proximate causes of demonstrated local extinctions due to anthropogenic climate change. Among these seven studies, the proximate causes vary widely. Surprisingly, none show a straightforward relationship between local extinction and limited tolerances to high temperature. Instead, many studies implicate species interactions as an important proximate cause, especially decreases in food availability. We find very similar patterns in studies showing decreases in abundance associated with climate change, and in those studies showing impacts of climatic oscillations. Collectively, these results highlight our disturbingly limited knowledge of this crucial issue but also support the idea that changing species interactions are an important cause of documented population declines and extinctions related to climate change. Finally, we briefly outline general research strategies for identifying these proximate causes in future studies.