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Parenthood is usually viewed as happening within the institution of marriage. Single parenthood has a negative connotation and is typically associated with divorce, separation, or widowhood. However, independently planned parenthood, or single-parenthood-by-choice, is intrinsically different in that independently planned parents actively plan to pursue parenthood without a romantic partner, sexual partner, or other coparenting unit. This study examined attitudes toward independently planned parenthood and willingness to consider independently planned parenthood as a function of gender and sexual identity. Participants included 631 cisgender young adults (201 lesbian/gay, 430 heterosexual) living in the United States. Women had more positive attitudes toward independently planned parenthood than men, and lesbian and gay people had more positive attitudes toward independently planned parenthood than heterosexual people. Gay men were more willing to consider becoming parents independently than heterosexual men, but there were no significant differences between lesbian and heterosexual women. In all, independently planned parents are an underrecognized population within single parenthood. These parents challenge the patriarchal and heteronormative norms surrounding parenthood and may suffer social backlash and stigmatization because of their decision to pursue parenthood alone. However, this study finds that monosexual women and gay men may be more welcoming of this nontraditional family structure than heterosexual men. This research acts as a foundation to continue to explore issues of independently planned parenthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

National parks often serve as a cornerstone for a country's species and ecosystem conservation efforts. However, despite the protection these sites afford, climate change is expected to drive a substantial change in their bird assemblages. We used species distribution models to predict the change in environmental suitability (i.e., how well environmental conditions explain the presence of a species) of 49 Canadian national parks during summer and winter for 434 bird species under a 2°C warming scenario, anticipated to occur in Canada around the mid-21st century. We compared these to existing species distributions in the 2010s, and classified suitability projections for each species at each park as potential extirpation, worsening, stable, improving, or potential colonisation. Across all parks, and both seasons, 70% of the projections indicate change, including a 25% turnover in summer assemblages and 30% turnover in winter assemblages. The majority of parks are projected to have increases in species richness and functional traits in winter, compared to a mix of increases and decreases in both in summer. However, some changes are expected to vary by region, such as Arctic region parks being likely to experience the most potential colonisation, while some of the Mixedwood Plains and Atlantic Maritime region parks may experience the greatest turnover and potential extirpation in summer if management actions are not taken to mitigate some of these losses. Although uncertainty exists around the precise rate and impacts of climate change, our results indicate that conservation practices that assume stationarity of environmental conditions will become untenable. We propose general guidance to help managers adapt their conservation actions to consider the potentially substantive changes in bird assemblages that are projected, including managing for persistence and change., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Decisions about whether or not to become a parent are significant parts of normative human development. Many studies have shown that married different-sex couples are expected to become parents, and that many social pressures enforce this norm. For same-sex couples, however, much less is known about social norms surrounding parenthood within marriage. This study examined injunctive norms and descriptive norms for the pursuit of parenthood as a function of age, gender, and sexual orientation. Participants in an internet survey included 1020 (522 heterosexual, 498 lesbian/gay) cisgender people from across the United States Findings showed that norms, especially descriptive norms, for the pursuit of parenthood for heterosexual people were much stronger than those for lesbian women and gay men, and that norms for lesbian women were stronger than those for gay men. These differences were more pronounced for older, heterosexual, and male participants. However, lesbian and gay participants, especially gay men, reported that lesbian and gay people ought to become parents to the same extent as heterosexual people. Overall, the results indicated that, regardless of sexual orientation, adults report that lesbian and gay married people ought to become parents, but that they expect only a minority of these couples will pursue parenthood. This research provided a glimpse into how Americans are envisioning family formation among same-sex couples today., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Tate.)

Research has established that sexual minority young adults generally report fewer desires and fewer expectations for parenthood than do their heterosexual peers. Little is known, however, about other desires and expectations. Is parenthood the only domain in which lesbian and gay individuals report fewer desires and expectations than their heterosexual peers? Or do lower aspirations among lesbian and gay adults about parenthood also occur in other domains, such as marriage and work? In this study, we explored a variety of desires and expectations for the future among lesbian, gay, and heterosexual young adults. Participants for this internet survey were recruited via social media, and included 368 childless cisgender young adults (211 lesbian or gay and 157 heterosexual) living in the United States. There were three main findings. First, while lesbian/gay individuals were less likely than heterosexual participants to express desire for parenthood, desires in the other future domains did not vary across sexual orientation. Lesbian/gay participants were as likely as heterosexual individuals to desire marriage, friendships, and community connections, as well as career and economic success. Results for expectations were, however, very different. Lesbian/gay participants were less likely than heterosexual individuals to expect that they would marry, become parents, feel connected to a community, achieve meaningful careers, live in their ideal housing, or that they would attain financial stability. Thus, although desires were largely unrelated to sexual orientation, many expectations were strongly linked to it. Lesbian and gay individuals were also far more likely than their heterosexual peers to desire future goals that they did not expect to achieve. Overall, for lesbian/gay young adults, low parenthood aspirations were part of a general pattern of low expectations (though not reduced desires) across a number of life domains., (Copyright © 2019 Tate and Patterson.)

Disparities in the intention to parent have been found for lesbian and gay individuals compared with heterosexual individuals, but little is known about what social contexts predict these differences. Qualities of family relationships, friendships, and romantic relationships may all play a role, but these have not been studied as a function of sexual orientation. Using a large national sample of adults in the United States, this study explored intentions for parenthood, ideal family size, and predictors of parenting intentions as a function of gender and sexual orientation. Results showed that fewer lesbian and gay than heterosexual individuals intended to become parents. In addition, among those who intended parenthood, lesbian and gay individuals reported smaller intended family sizes than did their heterosexual peers. Sociocontextual and demographic variables predicted parenting intentions similarly among all participants, regardless of sexual orientation. However, dissimilarities in the levels of these predictors explained some of the disparity in parenting intentions between lesbian/gay and heterosexual participants. Much remains to be learned about the role of sexual orientation in family formation processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Little is known about the experiences of lesbian and bisexual women with infants or children or about their views on trade-offs required by parenthood. In this study, we examined how reactions to experiences with infants/children, perceived trade-offs of parenthood, and self-reported nurturance vary as a function of women's sexual orientation. Two hundred cisgender childless women (53 lesbian, 57 plurisexual, 90 heterosexual) from the United States, recruited via social media, participated in this study. Results showed that lesbian women reported more negative attitudes toward infants/children and parenthood than did heterosexual women. Self-reported nurturance did not differ as a function of sexual orientation. Overall, lesbian women reported that they had less favorable experiences with infants and/or children and that they anticipated more social and economic costs involved with parenthood than did heterosexual women. Lesbian women also reported lower aspirations for parenthood than heterosexual women, and this was largely accounted for by differences in perceptions of the trade-offs involved with parenthood. Plurisexual women did not differ from lesbian or heterosexual women on any outcome. These results contribute to our understanding of why lesbian women are, on average, less likely than heterosexual women to aspire to parenthood.

Pathogens can cause serious declines in host species, and knowing where pathogens associated with host declines occur facilitates understanding host-pathogen ecology. Suspected drivers of global amphibian declines include infectious diseases, with 2 pathogens in particular, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and ranaviruses, causing concern. We explored the host range and geographic distribution of Bd and ranaviruses in the Taiga Plains ecoregion of the Northwest Territories, Canada, in 2007 and 2008. Both pathogens were detected, greatly extending their known geographic distributions. Ranaviruses were widespread geographically, but found only in wood frogs. In contrast, Bd was found at a single site, but was detected in all 3 species of amphibians in the survey area (wood frogs, boreal chorus frogs, western toads). The presence of Bd in the Northwest Territories is not congruent with predicted distributions based on niche models, even though findings from other studies at northern latitudes are consistent with those same models. Unexpectedly, we also found evidence that swabs routinely used to collect samples for Bd screening detected fewer infections than toe clips. Our use and handling of the swabs was consistent with other studies, and the cause of the apparent lack of integrity of swabs is unknown. The ranaviruses detected in our study were confirmed to be Frog Virus 3 by sequence analysis of a diagnostic 500 bp region of the major capsid protein gene. It is unknown whether Bd or ranaviruses are recent arrivals to the Canadian north. However, the genetic analyses required to answer that question can inform larger debates about the origin of Bd in North America as well as the potential effects of climate change and industrial development on the distributions of these important amphibian pathogens.

Background: In Escherichia coli, pH regulates genes for amino-acid and sugar catabolism, electron transport, oxidative stress, periplasmic and envelope proteins. Many pH-dependent genes are co-regulated by anaerobiosis, but the overall intersection of pH stress and oxygen limitation has not been investigated., Results: The pH dependence of gene expression was analyzed in oxygen-limited cultures of E. coli K-12 strain W3110. E. coli K-12 strain W3110 was cultured in closed tubes containing LBK broth buffered at pH 5.7, pH 7.0, and pH 8.5. Affymetrix array hybridization revealed pH-dependent expression of 1,384 genes and 610 intergenic regions. A core group of 251 genes showed pH responses similar to those in a previous study of cultures grown with aeration. The highly acid-induced gene yagU was shown to be required for extreme-acid resistance (survival at pH 2). Acid also up-regulated fimbriae (fimAC), periplasmic chaperones (hdeAB), cyclopropane fatty acid synthase (cfa), and the "constitutive" Na+/H+ antiporter (nhaB). Base up-regulated core genes for maltodextrin transport (lamB, mal), ATP synthase (atp), and DNA repair (recA, mutL). Other genes showed opposite pH responses with or without aeration, for example ETS components (cyo,nuo, sdh) and hydrogenases (hya, hyb, hyc, hyf, hyp). A hypF strain lacking all hydrogenase activity showed loss of extreme-acid resistance. Under oxygen limitation only, acid down-regulated ribosome synthesis (rpl,rpm, rps). Acid up-regulated the catabolism of sugar derivatives whose fermentation minimized acid production (gnd, gnt, srl), and also a cluster of 13 genes in the gadA region. Acid up-regulated drug transporters (mdtEF, mdtL), but down-regulated penicillin-binding proteins (dacACD, mreBC). Intergenic regions containing regulatory sRNAs were up-regulated by acid (ryeA, csrB, gadY, rybC)., Conclusion: pH regulates a core set of genes independently of oxygen, including yagU, fimbriae, periplasmic chaperones, and nhaB. Under oxygen limitation, however, pH regulation is reversed for genes encoding electron transport components and hydrogenases. Extreme-acid resistance requires yagU and hydrogenase production. Ribosome synthesis is down-regulated at low pH under oxygen limitation, possibly due to the restricted energy yield of catabolism. Under oxygen limitation, pH regulates metabolism and transport so as to maximize alternative catabolic options while minimizing acidification or alkalinization of the cytoplasm.

Background: Polyamines such as spermine and spermidine are required for growth of Escherichia coli; they interact with nucleic acids, and they bind to ribosomes. Polyamines block porins and decrease membrane permeability, activities that may protect cells in acid. At high concentrations, however, polyamines impair growth. They impair growth more severely at high pH, probably due to their increased uptake as membrane-permeant weak bases. The role of pH is critical in understanding polyamine stress., Results: The effect of polyamines was tested on survival of Escherichia coli K-12 W3110 in extreme acid or base (pH conditions outside the growth range). At pH 2, 10 mM spermine increased survival by 2-fold, and putrescine increased survival by 30%. At pH 9.8, however, E. coli survival was decreased 100-fold by 10 mM spermine, putrescine, cadaverine, or spermidine. At pH 8.5, spermine decreased the growth rate substantially, whereas little effect was seen at pH 5.5. Spermidine required ten-fold higher concentrations to impair growth. On proteomic 2-D gels, spermine and spermidine caused differential expression of 31 different proteins. During log-phase growth at pH 7.0, 1 mM spermine induced eight proteins, including PykF, GlpK, SerS, DeaD, OmpC and OmpF. Proteins repressed included acetate-inducible enzymes (YfiD, Pta, Lpd) as well as RapA (HepA), and FabB. At pH 8.5, spermine induced additional proteins: TnaA, OmpA, YrdA and NanA (YhcJ) and also repressed 17 proteins. Four of the proteins that spermine induced (GlpK, OmpA, OmpF, TnaA) and five that were repressed (Lpd, Pta, SucB, TpiA, YfiD) show similar induction or repression, respectively, in base compared to acid. Most of these base stress proteins were also regulated by spermidine, but only at ten-fold higher concentration (10 mM) at high pH (pH 8.5)., Conclusion: Polyamines increase survival in extreme acid, but decrease E. coli survival in extreme base. Growth inhibition by spermine and spermidine requires neutral or higher pH. At or above pH 7, spermine and spermidine regulate specific proteins, many of which are known to be regulated by base stress. High pH amplifies polyamine stress; and naturally occurring polyamines may play an important role in base stress.