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Despite host-fungal symbiotic interactions being ubiquitous in all ecosystems, understanding how symbiosis has shaped the ecology and evolution of fungal spores that are involved in dispersal and colonization of their hosts has been ignored in life-history studies. We assembled a spore morphology database covering over 26,000 species of free-living to symbiotic fungi of plants, insects and humans and found more than eight orders of variation in spore size. Evolutionary transitions in symbiotic status correlated with shifts in spore size, but the strength of this effect varied widely among phyla. Symbiotic status explained more variation than climatic variables in the current distribution of spore sizes of plant-associated fungi at a global scale while the dispersal potential of their spores is more restricted compared to free-living fungi. Our work advances life-history theory by highlighting how the interaction between symbiosis and offspring morphology shapes the reproductive and dispersal strategies among living forms. Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Grant/Award Number: Feodor-Lynen Fellowship; Australian Research Council, Grant/Award Number: DP190103714 and FT0100590; Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Grant/Award Number: 01LC1501A; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grant/Award Number: HE6183; Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst; Division of Environmental Biology, Grant/Award Number: 1623040 and 1655759; Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Grant/Award Number: 21-17749S; H2020 European Research Council, Grant/Award Number: 647038 and 694368; Universities Australia.

Leaf size varies within and between species, and previous work has linked this variation to the environment and evolutionary history separately. However, many previous studies fail to interlink both factors and are often data limited. To address this, our study developed a new workflow using machine learning to automate the extraction of leaf traits (leaf area, largest in-circle area and leaf curvature) from herbarium collections of Australian eucalypts (Eucalyptus, Angophora and Corymbia). Our dataset included 136,599 measurements, expanding existing data on this taxon’s leaf area by roughly 50-fold. With this dataset, we were able to confirm global positive relationships between leaf area and mean annual temperature and precipitation. Furthermore, we linked this trait-climate relationship to phylogeny, revealing large variation at the within-species level, potentially due to gene flow suppressing local adaptation. At deeper phylogenetic levels, the relationship strengthens and the slope converges towards the overall eucalypt slope, suggesting that the effect of gene flow relaxes just above the species level. The strengthening of trait-climate correlations just beyond the intraspecific level may represent a widespread phenomenon across various traits and taxa. Future studies may unveil these relationships with the larger sample sizes of new trait datasets generated through machine learning.

Cigarette smoke (CS) is a prominent cause of morbidity and death and poses a serious challenge to the current healthcare system worldwide. Its multifaceted roles have led to cardiovascular, respiratory, immunological, and neoplastic diseases.CS influences both innate and adaptive immunity and regulates immune responses by exacerbating pathogenic immunological responses and/or suppressing defense immunity. There is substantial evidence pointing toward a critical role of CS in vascular immunopathology, but a comprehensive and up-to-date review is lacking.This review aims to synthesize novel conceptual advances on the immunomodulatory action of CS with a focus on the cardiovascular system from the following perspectives: (1) the signaling of danger-associated molecular pattern (DAMPs) receptors contributes to CS modulation of inflammation and immunity; (2) CS reprograms immunometabolism and trained immunity-related metabolic pathways in innate immune cells and T cells, which can be sensed by the cytoplasmic (cytosolic and non-nuclear organelles) reactive oxygen species (ROS) system in vascular cells; (3) how nuclear ROS drive CS-promoted DNA damage and cell death pathways, thereby amplifying inflammation and immune responses; and (4) CS induces endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction and vascular inflammation to promote cardiovascular diseases.Despite significant progress in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms linking CS to immunity. Further investigations are warranted to elucidate novel mechanisms responsible for CS-mediated immunopathology of cardiovascular diseases; in particular, the research in redox regulation of immune functions of ECs and their fate affected by CS is still in its infancy.

Animals, such as termites, have largely been overlooked as global-scale drivers of biogeochemical cycles1,2, despite site-specific findings3,4. Deadwood turnover, an important component of the carbon cycle, is driven by multiple decay agents. Studies have focused on temperate systems5,6, where microbes dominate decay7. Microbial decay is sensitive to temperature, typically doubling per 10°C increase (decay effective Q10 = ~2)8–10. Termites are important decayers in tropical systems3,11–13 and differ from microbes in their population dynamics, dispersal, and substrate discovery14–16, meaning their climate sensitivities also differ. Using a network of 133 sites spanning 6 continents, we report the first global field-based quantification of temperature and precipitation sensitivities for termites and microbes, providing novel understandings of their response to changing climates. Temperature sensitivity of microbial decay was within previous estimates. Termite discovery and consumption were both much more sensitive to temperature (decay effective Q10 = 6.53), leading to striking differences in deadwood turnover in areas with and without termites. Termite impacts were greatest in tropical seasonal forests and savannas and subtropical deserts. With tropicalization17 (i.e., warming shifts to a tropical climate), the termite contribution to global wood decay will increase as more of the earth’s surface becomes accessible to termites. Acknowledgements. For materials, field, and lab assistance, we thank the Australian Landscape Trust Team, Juan Martínez de Aragón, Eric Roy, Hugh Wilson, Kylie Brice, Bethanie Coleman, Brendan Delroy, Coline Deveautour, Suzanne Donn, Generci Assis Neves, Ricardo Marques Barreiros, Ricardo Marques Barreiros, Generci Assis Neves from Resineves Agroflorestal company, Alfred Lochner, Pousada Vale do Céu, Humberto Robles, María M. Rivera, and Grant Kirker. Steve Allison and Tom Crowther provided comments on the manuscript and Abbey Yatsko helped with figure and manuscript formatting. Funding for this work was provided by US National Science Foundation (DEB-1655759, 2149151, 1713502, 1713435, 1647502, 1546686, 1831952), George Washington University, USDA Forest Service, Centre College Faculty Development Funds, Australia Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), Royal Society-FCDO Africa Capacity Building Initiative, New Phytologist Foundation, Fondecyt grant:1160329, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brasil (CAPES), Department of Ecology and Conservation of the Federal University of Lavras, CNPq, FAPEMIG, Australian Academy of Science 2017 Thomas Davies Research Grant, Australian Research Council (DP160103765), UK National Environment Research Council (NE/L000016/1), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (NERC - FAPESP)19/07773-1, Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (ERTDF; JPMEERF15S11420) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA) of Japan, COLCIENCIAS (No. FP44842-046-2017), Spanish Government (grant PID2019-110521GB-I00), Catalan Government (grant SGR 2017-1005), Fundación Ramón Areces (grant ELEMENTAL-CLIMATE), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT) PICT 2019- 2472, National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation, Scientific and Technological Research Project 2018-01561 (PICT 2018- 01561), iDiv German Research Foundation (DFG– FZT 118, 202548816), European Research Council (ERC), European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 677232).

Aim: Our objective was to quantify urban tolerance for North American birds across the full annual cycle. We tested (1) whether intra-annual variability of urban tolerance differed between migrants and residents and (2) whether intra-annual variability of urban tolerance was phylogenetically conserved. We then assessed how the relationship between ecological and life history traits and urban tolerance differed both across the year and between migrants and residents. Location: North America. Taxon: Birds. Methods: We integrated a large citizen science dataset of observations for 237 bird species, remotely-sensed VIIRS night-time lights data, and trait data on each species. We estimate, for each species and each month of the year, a continuous measure of urban tolerance (i.e. the median of their distribution of observations across an urbanization gradient). We then use phylogenetic linear models to assess the relationship between this measure of urban tolerance and various life history and ecological traits. Results: There was a distinct drop in the overall urban tolerance scores corresponding with the breeding period; this pattern was more pronounced for migrants compared to residents. Migrants also had greater intra-annual variability than resident species. We also found that the strength of the relationships between ecological and life history traits and urban tolerance was highly seasonal for most traits considered, and some divergent patterns were noted between migrants and residents. Main conclusions: The urban tolerance of birds greatly changed throughout the annual cycle, with different patterns for migrants and residents. Compared to residents, migrants showed more intra-annual variability of urban tolerance with a drop in the average urban tolerance score during the breeding season. Together, our results suggest that urban tolerance is a function of both species and season, and they highlight the importance of considering the dynamic nature of birds’ use of urban ecosystems throughout the full annual cycle.

Competition is a key biotic factor that often structures natural communities. Many attempts to disentangle how competition shapes natural communities have relied on experiments on simplified systems or through simple mathematical models. But these simplified approaches are limited in their ability to represent the complexity seen in more natural settings. Here, we considered the competitive pairwise dynamics between four saprotrophic fungal species. We tested whether the contextual environment changed these dynamics, repeating competitive experiments in a simple agar media and a more ecologically realistic wood block setting. We found that the competitive outcomes on agar media differed from those within the wood blocks. While superior competitors were identified across all pairwise interactions on agar, within the wood blocks, two of six interactions resulted in deadlock, where neither competitor could breach territory of the other, and one interaction resulted in a reversed competitive outcome. These results suggest that the complexity within natural substrates can alter the strength of interspecific interactions and may contribute to coexistence and the resulting high diversity of fungi often observed within wood.

Knowledge of right ventricular (RV) structure and function has historically lagged behind that of the left ventricle (LV). However, advancements in invasive and non-invasive evaluations, combined with epidemiological analyses, have advanced the current understanding of RV (patho)physiology across the spectrum of health and disease, and reinforce the centrality of the RV in contributing to clinical outcomes. In the healthy heart, ventricular-arterial coupling is preserved during rest and in response to increased myocardial demand (eg, exercise) due to substantial RV contractile reserve. However, prolonged exposure to increased myocardial demand, such as endurance exercise, may precipitate RV dysfunction, suggesting that unlike the LV, the RV is unable to sustain high levels of contractility for extended periods of time. Emerging data increasingly indicate that both LV and RV function contribute to clinical heart failure. Reductions in quality-of-life, functional capacity and overall clinical outcomes are worsened among patients with heart failure when there is evidence of RV dysfunction. In addition, the RV is adversely impacted by pulmonary vascular disease, and among affected patients, overall RV function differs based on mechanisms of the underlying pulmonary hypertension, which may result from variations in sarcomere function within RV cardiomyocytes.

Virtue ethics in the West received its first extensive elaboration and defense in ancient Greek philosophy. Requiring the cultivation of true character, both of the ethical and intellectual kind, virtue ethics emphasizes developing character traits such as courage, honesty, and practical wisdom over deploying abstract theoretical principles as a way of contributing to individual happiness and social harmony. With rapid changes in social structures and technologies, ancient and medieval virtues may seem quaint and irrelevant today. Is virtue ethics suitable only for the sort of premodern societies in which great virtue ethicists like Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas lived or does the theory have something essential to contribute to pressing contemporary debates?. This paper argues the situational form of virtue ethics: Some essential virtues are applicable in most times and societies, including our own, but they necessarily are expressed in a variety of ways in different circumstances. I then briefly explore contemporary versions of the virtues that would help us navigate a world of rapidly evolving technology that threatens to undermine environmental and social sustainability. These virtues, suitably updated, are as badly needed today as they were thousands of years ago.

Understanding species-specific relationships with their environment is essential for ecology, biogeography, and conservation biology. Moreover, understanding how these relationships change with spatial scale is critical to mitigating potential threats to biodiversity. But methods which measure inter-specific variation in responses to environmental parameters, generalizable across multiple spatial scales, are lacking. We used broad-scale citizen science data, over a continental scale, integrated with remotely-sensed products, to produce a measure of response to urbanization for a given species at a continental-scale. We then compared these responses to modelled responses to urbanization at a local-scale, based on systematic sampling within a series of small cities. For 49 species which had sufficient data for modelling, we found a significant relationship (R2 = 0.51) between continental-scale urbanness and local-scale urbanness. Our results suggest that continental-scale responses are representative of small-scale responses to urbanization. We also found that relatively few citizen science observations (~250) are necessary for reliable estimates of continental-scale urban scores to predict local-scale response to urbanization. Our method of producing species-specific urban scores is robust and can be generalized to other taxa and other environmental variables with relative ease.

A bird's nest and a beaver's dam are mostly non-improvised tools whose creation and use are not so much expressions of general problem-solving and learning abilities as of specific adaptive behavioral patterns. This chapter examines various forms of cognitive augmentation that are on the horizon so that we can appreciate how odd and even freakish many of these developments may seem—computer chips plugged into the brains of cyborgs to improve their memory or computational power. The chapter argues that, appearances to the contrary, these forms of augmentation, if used properly, are not ruptures from human nature but instead are the fruition of that nature. It expects more such pedagogical controversies in the future, and with the same results: Eventually educators will accept that tools of intelligence augmentation have a place in the curriculum—indeed, that the curriculum should instruct students how to use these tools properly.

Increased uptake of oxLDL by macrophage is proposed to be an atheroprotective mechanism to reduce plaque formation. It has been proposed that macrophage phenotype may be causative or at least associated with plaque severity. Several macrophage phenotypes have been classified, and M2 macrophage are considered to be anti-inflammatory and reparative. Interleukin-19 is a purported anti-inflammatory, Th2 interleukin, and we previously found that addition of rIL-19 could significantly reduce atherosclerosis in susceptible mice. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that administration of exogenous IL-19 could attenuate progression of pre-formed atherosclerotic plaque, and to identify potential molecular mechanisms. LDLR-/- mice were fed high-fat diet for 12 weeks, then administered rIL-19 (10ng/g/day) or PBS for an additional 8 weeks while still consuming HFD. En face analysis demonstrated that IL-19 could halt, but not reverse existing plaque. M2 macrophage marker expression was significantly increased in aorta and spleen from IL-19 treated mice, in IL-19-treated bone marrow derived macrophage (BMDM) and primary human macrophage. IL-19 significantly decreased expression of inflammatory cytokines TNFa, IL-12p40, MCP-1 and IL-1b mRNA in BMDM. Addition of IL-19 to BMDM significantly increased oxLDL uptake as well as expression of lipid uptake receptors CD36, SRA-1, and SRB-1 in primary human macrophage. IL-19 increased expression and activation of PPARg. Knock down of PPARg significantly decreased IL-19 mediated expression of both lipid uptake receptors and uptake of oxLDL. Collectively, these data show that IL-19 can halt progression of established plaque by at least two mechanisms; M2 macrophage polarization, and increasing expression of lipid scavenger receptors and cholesterol uptake in a PPARg-dependent mechanism, suggesting therapeutic potential for this interleukin.

Phenomenology and logical positivism both subscribed to an empirical-verifiability criterion of mental or linguistic meaning. The acceptance of this criterion confronted them with the same problem: how to understand the Other as a subject with his own experience, if the existence and nature of the Other's experiences cannot be verified. Husserl tackled this problem in the Cartesian Meditations, but he could not reconcile the verifiability criterion with understanding the Other's feelings and sensations. Carnap's solution was to embrace behaviorism and eliminate the idea of private sensations, but behaviorism has well-known difficulties. Heidegger broke this impasse by suggesting that each person's being included being-with, an innate capacity for understanding the Other. To be human is to be "hardwired" to make sense of the Other without having to verify the Other's private sensations. I suggest that being-with emerged from an evolutionary imperative for conspecific animals to recognize each other and to coordinate their activities. Wittgenstein also rejected the verifiability criterion. He theorized that the meaning of a term is its usage and that terms about private sensations were meaningful because they have functions in our language-games. For example, "I'm in pain," like a cry of pain, functions to get the attention of others and motivate others to help. Wittgenstein's theory shows how Dasein's being-with includes "primitive" adaptive behavior such as cries, smiles, and threatening or playful gesture. As Dasein is acculturated, these behaviors are partially superseded by functionally equivalent linguistic expressions.