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Situated learning theory offers a theoretical modality for promoting a knowledge, skilled, and ethically adept future geoscience workforce. Features of situated learning pedagogies include field-based instruction and situating students within a community of practice. While there is an assumed value of such approaches, there is limited research exploring why and how these situated approaches are beneficial for students. Situated learning theory is an underutilised framework applied among geoscience education researchers, which emphasises legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. In this paper, our research objective was to systematically explore the ways scholars have applied situated learning theory in post-secondary geoscience curricula. To address our research objective, we utilised systematic literature review procedures, wherein we collected and synthesised ten articles extracted from several prominent sources that featured peer-reviewed scholarship for geoscience education research. To analyse articles, we developed a coding framework both deductively from the core tenants of situated learning theory and inductively based on how articles had applied the framework. Thematically, using the codes as a guide, we identified 3 themes highlighting trends in scholars' application of situated learning theory to undergraduate geoscience curricula, (1) instructional practices, (2) student outcomes, and (3) assessment techniques. Using the codes and themes, this study provides a framework to guide others who aspire to integrate situated learning theory into geoscience curricula.

Many organisms benefit from being pre-adapted to niches shaped by human activity, and have successfully invaded man-made habitats. One such species is the dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans, which has a wide distribution in buildings in temperate and boreal regions, where it decomposes coniferous construction wood. Comparative genomic analyses and growth experiments using this species and its wild relatives revealed that S. lacrymans evolved a very effective brown rot decay compared to its wild relatives, enabling an extremely rapid decay in buildings under suitable conditions. Adaptations in intracellular transport machineries promoting hyphal growth, and nutrient and water transport may explain why it is has become a successful invader of timber in houses. Further, we demonstrate that S. lacrymans has poor combative ability in our experimental setup, compared to other brown rot fungi. In sheltered indoor conditions, the dry rot fungus may have limited encounters with other wood decay fungi compared to its wild relatives. Overall, our analyses indicate that the dry rot fungus is an ecological specialist with poor combative ability against other fungi.

Molybdenum is used as plasma-facing material in tokamaks and as material for plasma optical diagnostics mirrors. Harsh conditions of neutron irradiation, exposure to hydrogen isotopes and helium ions, and high operating temperatures result in degradation of the molybdenum surface and ultimately limit their lifetime in a fusion power plant. In the current paper, intake and subsequent thermal release of deuterium from self-irradiated by high energy (1 MeV) ions molybdenum as a function of irradiation dose are investigated. Several characteristic temperature regions where deuterium release takes place are identified and attributed to trapping of deuterium in intrinsic and radiation-induced microstructure defects. This attribution is further validated by molecular dynamics modeling, which confirms that increase and saturation of vacancy concentration found in simulations follows increase and saturation of experimentally determined deuterium content. Deuterium inventory and vacancy content saturate at a damage level of around 0.2 dpa (displacement per atom), similar to recent modeling and experimental studies of iron and tungsten. Reflectivity measurements of irradiated molybdenum show that it is only slightly affected by damage up to 1 dpa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The anadromous Pacific Lamprey Entosphenus tridentatus is an ecologically and culturally important fish that has experienced declines in abundance and distribution throughout large portions of its range. However, the lack of fundamental biological information, such as age and growth, impedes management and conservation efforts. Methods: We used known‐age hatchery and wild Pacific Lamprey to evaluate the potential of statoliths (apatite concretions found within the auditory capsules) to provide estimates of individual size and age throughout ontogeny. Statolith size and growth were assessed with comparisons of morphometrics (area, perimeter, length, and width) in relation to fish length. Traditional band‐reading methods and random forest (RF) analysis were evaluated for their utility in estimating age. Result: We observed a strong, positive relationship between statolith size and fish length for larvae that were hatchery reared. However, there were no positive relationships between statolith size and fish length for any of the postmetamorphic life stages, which indicates that statolith growth slows dramatically or ceases after metamorphosis. Band‐reading methods of statoliths from known‐age lamprey (1‐ and 2‐ to 9‐year‐olds) resulted in accurate age estimates for 28% of the fish, and 57% of mean age estimates fell within 1 year of the true age. While we found that the statolith was not very useful for traditional age estimation techniques, its inclusion in morphometric‐based age classifications was promising. A RF model based on body length, collection river, and statolith area accurately assigned 76% of the larval and freshwater juveniles to their known age. Additionally, an RF model using only body length and river of origin correctly classified 70% of the known‐age samples. Conclusion: Multivariate approaches, including those that include lethal and nonlethal predictor variables, provide potential approaches to estimate age in larval and early juvenile Pacific Lamprey. Impact statementRobust age estimates for anadromous Pacific Lamprey can be generated using information on the size of their statoliths, which are apatite concretions analogous to otoliths, combined with body length and collection river. However, it appears that statoliths cease growing after metamorphosis, limiting age estimation to early life stages prior to ocean entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Founded by individuals pursuing higher education in the United States, the Marshallese community in Orange County today also represents family and national interests in access to business opportunities, employment, education, medical services, and other goals. This community has become an "official" Marshallese overseas community, site of the first Marshallese consulate in the mainland United States, and a link between overseas Marshallese and the home islands. Individuals and family units traverse networks of inter-linked households, high- lighting processes of Islanders' investments, including at least a short-term reversal of theoretically expected remittance flows. We explore the process of community formation, and compare rural and urban sites in the Marshall Islands to call attention to the community's place in a system of geographically dispersed locations within the global political economy.