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Several crucial reasons exist to identify whether an adult has had reading disorder (RD) and to predict a child’s likelihood of developing RD, which is known to be primarily genetically transmitted. The Adult Reading History Questionnaire (ARHQ) is among the most commonly used self-reported questionnaires. High ARHQ scores indicate an increased likelihood that an adult had RD as a child, and that their children may develop RD. This study focused on whether using a subset of ARHQ items (ARHQ-brief) could be equally effective and efficient in assessing adults’ reading history. We used a machine learning approach, lasso (known as L1 regularization), and identified 6 of 23 items that resulted in the ARHQ-brief. Data from 97 adults and 47 children were included. With the ARHQ-brief, we report a threshold of 0.323 as suitable to identify past likelihood of RD in adults with a sensitivity of 72.4% and a specificity of 81.5%. Comparison of predictive performances between ARHQ-brief and the full ARHQ showed that ARHQ-brief explained an additional 10-35.2% of the variance in adult and child reading. Further, we validated ARHQ-brief’s superior ability to predict reading ability using an independent sample of 28 children. We close by discussing limitations and future directions.

Social service providers play a vital role in the developmental outcomes of underprivileged youth as they transition into adulthood. Educators, mental health professionals, juvenile justice officers, and child welfare caseworkers often have first-hand knowledge of the trials uniquely faced by these vulnerable youth and are charged with mitigating harmful risks, such as mental health challenges, child abuse, drug use, and sex trafficking. Yet, less is known about whether or how social service providers assess and mitigate the online risk experiences of youth under their care. Therefore, as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program, we conducted interviews with 37 social service providers (SSPs) who work with underprivileged youth to determine what (if any) online risks are most concerning to them given their role in youth protection, how they assess or become aware of these online risk experiences, and whether they see value in the possibility of using artificial intelligence (AI) as a potential solution for online risk detection. Overall, online sexual risks (e.g., sexual grooming and abuse) and cyberbullying were the most salient concern across all social service domains, especially when these experiences crossed the boundary between the digital and the physical worlds. Yet, SSPs had to rely heavily on youth self-reports to know whether and when online risks occurred, which required building a trusting relationship with youth; otherwise, SSPs became aware only after a formal investigation had been launched. Therefore, most SSPs found value in the potential for using AI as an early detection system and to monitor youth, but they were concerned that such a solution would not be feasible due to a lack of resources to adequately respond to online incidences, access to the necessary digital trace data (e.g., social media), context, and concerns about violating the trust relationships they built with youth. Thus, such automated risk detection systems should be designed and deployed with caution, as their implementation could cause youth to mistrust adults, thereby limiting the receipt of necessary guidance and support. We add to the bodies of research on adolescent online safety and the benefits and challenges of leveraging algorithmic systems in the public sector.

Over the past decade, many national park units in the United States broke visitation records. Arches National Park (UT, USA) is no exception. Between 2011 and 2021, visitation increased 74%. As part of considering management options to address the issues from sustained and concentrated visitation, Arches implemented a pilot timed entry system from 3 April to 3 October 2022. This article compares visitor perceptions, characteristics, and support for management actions before and during the pilot timed entry system using data from visitor intercept surveys. Findings suggest visitors experience quality improved across the park and on hiking trails during the pilot timed entry system. Visitor characteristics were extremely similar, and there were no differences in local residency, group size, vehicle occupancy, race, ethnicity, first time visitation, education level, or household income. Visitors were more likely to plan for the trip further in advance and were less likely to re-enter the park during the pilot timed entry system. Lastly, visitors demonstrated more support for timed entry and lower levels of support for expanding parking, site specific reservations, and temporary closures during the pilot timed entry system. These results reflect unique insights for managers considering managed access systems like timed entry to sustainably manage visitor use in parks and protected areas.

Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) remains a significant cause of disability despite treatment with therapeutic hypothermia (TH). Many survive with more subtle deficits that affect daily functioning and school performance. We have previously shown an early indication of hippocampal changes in infants with HIE despite TH. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hippocampal volume via MRI and memory function at 5 years of age. A cohort of children followed from birth returned for a 5-year follow-up (n = 10 HIE treated with TH, n = 8 healthy controls). The children underwent brain MRI and neurodevelopmental testing to assess their brain volume, general development, and memory function. Children with HIE had smaller hippocampal volumes than the controls despite no differences in the total brain volume (p = 0.02). Children with HIE generally scored within the average range on developmental testing. Though there was no difference in the memory scores between these groups, there was a positive within-group correlation between the hippocampal volume and memory scores in children with HIE (sentence recall r = 0.66, p = 0.038). There was no relationship between newborn memory function and 5-year hippocampal size. Children with HIE treated with TH experienced significant and lasting changes to the hippocampus despite improvements in survival and severe disability. Future studies should target diminishing injury to the hippocampus to improve overall outcomes.

It is debated whether primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS) and progressive agrammatic aphasia (PAA) belong to the same clinical spectrum traditionally termed nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) or exist as two completely distinct syndromic entities with specific pathologic/prognostic correlates. We analyzed speech, language, and disease severity features in a comprehensive cohort of patients with a progressive motor speech impairment and/or agrammatism to ascertain any evidence of the existence of naturally occurring, non-overlapping syndromic entities (e.g., PPAOS and PAA) in our data. We also assessed if data-driven latent clinical dimensions with etiologic/prognostic value could be identified. We included 98 participants with progressive motor speech impairment and/or agrammatism, with 43 having an autopsy-confirmed neuropathological diagnosis. Speech pathologists assessed motor speech features indicative of dysarthria and apraxia of speech (AOS). Quantitative expressive/receptive agrammatism measures were obtained and compared with healthy controls. Baseline and longitudinal disease severity was evaluated using the Clinical Dementia Rating sum-of-boxes (CDR-SB). We investigated the data’s clustering tendency to form robust symptom clusters and employed principal component analysis to extract data-driven latent clinical dimensions (LCD). The longitudinal CDR-SB change was estimated utilizing linear mixed-effects models. Of the participants included in this study, 91 conformed to previously reported clinical profiles (69 with AOS and agrammatism, 18 PPAOS, and 4 PAA). The remaining seven participants were characterized by nonfluent speech and dysarthria without apraxia of speech or agrammatism. No baseline clinical features differentiated between FTLD neuropathological subgroups. Critically, the Hopkins statistic dismissed the presence of non-overlapping syndromic clusters in the entire sample (.45 with values near 0.5 indicating random data). Three data-driven components accounted for 71% of the variance ([i] severity-agrammatism, [ii] prominent AOS, and [iii] prominent dysarthria). The component typified by prominent dysarthria was more specific to patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (4/5 [80%] participants with autopsy in this group had PSP), while the severity-agrammatism component predicted a faster CDR-SB increase. Higher dysarthria severity, reduced words per minute, and expressive and receptive agrammatism severity at baseline independently predicted accelerated disease progression (as measured by the CDR-SB score). Our findings indicate that PPAOS and PAA, rather than exist as completely distinct syndromic entities, constitute a clinical continuum strongly predictive of underlying Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD, 66% 4R tauopathy, 16% Pick’s disease, 9.3% FTLD TDP type A, and 12% other pathologies). While highlighting the graded distinctions (rather than sharp boundaries) that characterize the nfvPPA spectrum may be useful for establishing early clinical rehabilitation strategies, novel clinical and biological markers are needed to improve clinical-pathological correlations.

The competition-colonization trade-off is a well-studied coexistence mechanism for metacommunities. In this setting, it is believed that coexistence of all species requires their traits to satisfy restrictive conditions limiting their similarity. To investigate whether diverse metacommunities can assemble in a competition-colonization trade-off model, we study their assembly from a probabilistic perspective. From a pool of species with parameters (traits) sampled at random, we compute the probability that any number of species coexist and characterize the set of species that emerges through assembly. Remarkably, almost exactly half of the species in a large pool typically coexist, with no saturation as the size of the pool grows, and with little dependence on the underlying distribution of traits. Through a mix of analytical results and simulations, we show that this unlimited niche packing emerges as assembly actively moves communities toward overdispersed configurations in niche space. Our findings also apply to a realistic assembly scenario where species invade one-at-a-time from a fixed regional pool. When diversity arises de novo in the metacommunity, richness still grows without bound, but more slowly. Together, our results suggest that the competition-colonization trade-off can support the robust emergence of diverse communities, even when coexistence of the full species pool is exceedingly unlikely.

BackgroundRisk factors associated with sporadic non-amnestic and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease remain underexamined. We investigated a large, clinically heterogeneous Alzheimer’s disease cohort for frequencies of established Alzheimer’s disease risk factors (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus,APOE-ɛ4 frequency, and years of education), alongside a suite of novel factors with historical theoretical association (non-right-handedness, learning disability, seizures, and autoimmune disease).MethodsIn this case-control study, we screened the demographic and health histories of 750 consecutive early-onset and 750 late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients from the University of California San Francisco Memory and Aging Center for the prevalence of conventional risk and novel Alzheimer’s disease factors and compared these results with 8,859 Alzheimer’s disease individuals from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, and Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville.ResultsEarly-onset Alzheimer’s disease was associated with significantly lower frequencies of established risk factors (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, allpAPOE-ɛ4,p=0.03) and significantly higher frequencies of novel factors (non-right-handedness, learning disability, active seizure, allpp=0.002, and autoimmune disease,p=0.007). Logistic regressions predicting EOAD vs. LOAD controlling for sex, education,APOE-ɛ4 status, typical, and novel risk factors, produced findings consistent with the above. Principal component analysis loaded novel factors into two components, non-right-handedness and learning disability versus seizure and autoimmune disease, and the combination of factors from both components resulted in an exponential decrease in age at onset from any single factor alone.APOE-ɛ4 provided no additional contribution to age at onset decreases within the non-amnestic Alzheimer’s disease cohort but shifted the age of onset 3 years earlier within amnestic presentations (p=0.013).ConclusionsWe identified non-right-handedness, learning disability, seizures, and autoimmune disease as novel factors that affect both the age at onset and phenotypical targeting of Alzheimer’s disease. Together these results support a new theoretical framework of neurodegenerative disease susceptibility and that through the collection of detailed developmental and health history, neurodegenerative disease risk in some may be highly predictable, offering new opportunities towards early detection, monitoring, therapeutic intervention, and ultimately disease prevention.

Emergence of novel visual artistic skills has been described in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly in the frontotemporal dementia - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FTD-ALS) spectrum, but associated clinical and genetic features and the underlying neural mechanisms have not been systematically examined. We aimed to address these gaps.We performed comprehensive chart review of all 734 participants in the University of California San Francisco FTD Program Project Grant who had a clinical syndrome within the FTD-ALS spectrum. This review allowed us to ascertain subjects meeting current FTD-ALS clinical research criteria who had: (1) an emergence of novel visual artistic skills or (2) a change in the style of visual art produced or (3) a significant increase in quantity of visual art produced. Clinical data, imaging studies, and genetic information were collected and analyzed.Among the 734 patients screened, 45 were excluded due to lack of available research notes. We identified a change in visual artistic creativity in 17/689 patients (prevalence 2.5%). Mean age of FTD symptom onset was 57.4 (±10.4), and the visual artistic creativity (VAC) change was reported an average of 0.7 years (±10.1) prior to FTD symptom onset. Of the 17 patients with VAC, 8 exhibited no prior interest in art, 2 were professional visual artists who experienced a change in artistic style, and 7 reported some prior interest in art but a substantial change of style or quantity. Artistic output was diverse however bright colors and non-human subjects were prominent. VAC occurred in patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (8), behavioral variant FTD (3), nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (2), progressive supranuclear palsy - Richardson's syndrome (2), corticobasal syndrome (1), and ALS (1). None carried a common pathogenic variant in a FTD gene.Change in VAC is an uncommon but early positive symptom that occurs in patients across the FTD-ALS clinical spectrum but appears most common in patients with anterior temporal lobe degeneration. We are pursuing the neural mechanisms of VAC through structural and functional neuroimaging studies.

Pollination is a vital ecosystem service for both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Most flowering plants-including many staples in the human diet such as fruits, vegetables and nuts- require animals for pollination. The majority is done by over 20,000 species of bees, some of which are managed commercially to provide these services. The global industry of pollination is valued at US $153 billion annually and is increasing in demand to meet the needs of a growing human population [1]. However, both managed and wild bees, especially the ecologically and economically important bumble bees (Bombus spp.), are suffering alarming declines worldwide, presenting serious implications for food security and biodiversity. Despite numerous pleas by farmers and scientists for improved management and monitoring methods [2], [3], precision techniques for these essential pollinators are still lacking.

Naming of nouns and verbs can be selectively impaired in neurological disorders, but the specificity of the neural and cognitive correlates of such dissociation remains unclear. Functional imaging and stroke research sought to identify cortical regions selectively recruited for nouns versus verbs, yet findings are inconsistent. The present study investigated this issue in neurodegenerative diseases known to selectively affect different brain networks, thus providing new critical evidence of network specificity. We examined naming performances on nouns and verbs in 146 patients with different neurodegenerative syndromes (Primary Progressive Aphasia - PPA, Alzheimer's disease - AD, and behavioral variant Frontotemporal Dementia - FTD) and 30 healthy adults. We then correlated naming scores with MRI-derived cortical thickness values as well as with performances in semantic and syntactic tasks, across all subjects. Results indicated that patients with the semantic variant PPA named significantly fewer nouns than verbs. Instead, nonfluent/agrammatic PPA patients named fewer verbs than nouns. Across all subjects, performance on nouns (adjusted for verbs) specifically correlated with cortical atrophy in left anterior temporal regions, and performance on verbs (adjusted for nouns) with atrophy in left inferior and middle frontal, inferior parietal and posterior temporal regions. Furthermore, lower lexical-semantic abilities correlated with deficits in naming both nouns and verbs, while lower syntactic abilities only correlated with naming verbs. Our results show that different neural and cognitive mechanisms underlie naming of specific grammatical categories in neurodegenerative diseases. Importantly, our findings showed that verb processing depends on a widespread perisylvian networks, suggesting that some regions might be involved in processing different types of action knowledge. These findings have important implications for early differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders.

Diagnostic criteria for dyslexia describe specific reading difficulties, and single-deficit models, including the phonological deficit theory, have prevailed. Children seeking diagnosis, however, do not always show phonological deficits, and may present with strengths and challenges beyond reading. Through extensive neurological, neuropsychological, and academic evaluation, we describe four children with visuospatial, socio-emotional, and attention impairments and spared phonology, alongside long-standing reading difficulties. Diffusion tensor imaging revealed white matter alterations in inferior longitudinal, uncinate, and superior longitudinal fasciculi versus neurotypical children. Findings emphasize that difficulties may extend beyond reading in dyslexia and underscore the value of deep phenotyping in learning disabilities.

Focal anterior temporal lobe degeneration often preferentially affects the left or right hemisphere. While patients with left-predominant anterior temporal lobe atrophy show severe anomia and verbal semantic deficits and meet criteria for semantic variant primary progressive aphasia and semantic dementia, patients with early right anterior temporal lobe atrophy are more difficult to diagnose as their symptoms are less well understood. Focal right anterior temporal lobe atrophy is associated with prominent emotional and behavioural changes, and patients often meet, or go on to meet, criteria for behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. Uncertainty around early symptoms and absence of an overarching clinico-anatomical framework continue to hinder proper diagnosis and care of patients with right anterior temporal lobe disease. Here, we examine a large, well-characterized, longitudinal cohort of patients with right anterior temporal lobe-predominant degeneration and propose new criteria and nosology. We identified individuals from our database with a clinical diagnosis of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia or semantic variant primary progressive aphasia and a structural MRI (n = 478). On the basis of neuroimaging criteria, we defined three patient groups: right anterior temporal lobe-predominant atrophy with relative sparing of the frontal lobes (n = 46), frontal-predominant atrophy with relative sparing of the right anterior temporal lobe (n = 79) and left-predominant anterior temporal lobe-predominant atrophy with relative sparing of the frontal lobes (n = 75). We compared the clinical, neuropsychological, genetic and pathological profiles of these groups. In the right anterior temporal lobe-predominant group, the earliest symptoms were loss of empathy (27%), person-specific semantic impairment (23%) and complex compulsions and rigid thought process (18%). On testing, this group exhibited greater impairments in Emotional Theory of Mind, recognition of famous people (from names and faces) and facial affect naming (despite preserved face perception) than the frontal- and left-predominant anterior temporal lobe-predominant groups. The clinical symptoms in the first 3 years of the disease alone were highly sensitive (81%) and specific (84%) differentiating right anterior temporal lobe-predominant from frontal-predominant groups. Frontotemporal lobar degeneration-transactive response DNA binding protein (84%) was the most common pathology of the right anterior temporal lobe-predominant group. Right anterior temporal lobe-predominant degeneration is characterized by early loss of empathy and person-specific knowledge, deficits that are caused by progressive decline in semantic memory for concepts of socioemotional relevance. Guided by our results, we outline new diagnostic criteria and propose the name, ‘semantic behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia’, which highlights the underlying cognitive mechanism and the predominant symptomatology. These diagnostic criteria will facilitate early identification and care of patients with early, focal right anterior temporal lobe degeneration as well as in vivo prediction of frontotemporal lobar degeneration-transactive response DNA binding protein pathology.

Short-time Fourier transforms with short segment lengths are typically used to analyze single ion charge detection mass spectrometry (CDMS) data either to overcome effects of frequency shifts that may occur during the trapping period or to more precisely determine the time at which an ion changes mass or charge, or enters an unstable orbit. The short segment lengths can lead to scalloping loss unless a large number of zero-fills are used, making computational time a significant factor in real-time analysis of data. Apodization specific fitting leads to a 9-fold reduction in computation time compared to zero-filling to a similar extent of accuracy. This makes possible real-time data analysis using a standard desktop computer. Rectangular apodization leads to higher resolution than the more commonly used Gaussian or Hann apodization and makes it possible to separate ions with similar frequencies, a significant advantage for experiments in which the masses of many individual ions are measured simultaneously. Equally important is a20% increase in S/N obtained with rectangular apodization compared to Gaussian or Hann, which directly translates to a corresponding improvement in accuracy of both charge measurements and ion energy measurements that rely on the amplitudes of the fundamental and harmonic frequencies. Combined with computing the fast Fourier transform in a lower-level language, this fitting procedure eliminates computational barriers and should enable real-time processing of CDMS data on a laptop computer.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate outcomes of tibial tuberosity avulsion fractures (TTAF) in dogs with implants left in situ past skeletal maturity and to compare clinical outcomes with published outcomes in dogs whose implants were removed 4 to 6 weeks postoperatively. ANIMALS 47 client-owned dogs. PROCEDURES In this retrospective study, 47 dogs had surgery to correct a TTAF before 10 months of age and had the implants left in situ past skeletal maturity. Of these, 42 were followed for a median of 36 months postoperatively. Short- and long-term complications were recorded and compared with historically published data in which the implants were removed within 6 weeks of surgery. RESULTS 14% (6/42) of our population experienced minor long-term complications (stiffness and lameness), 6% (3/47) experienced major short-term complications (repair failure), and 14% (6/24) experienced major long-term complications (implant removal). There was no difference in long-term outcomes when compared with results of historical reports in which implants were removed 4 to 6 weeks postoperatively. Client satisfaction was high, with 93% (38/41) grading outcomes as excellent and 95% (39/41) stating they would have surgery performed again in retrospect. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Immature dogs with surgically repaired TTAFs have favorable long-term outcomes when the implants were left in situ past skeletal maturity. Dogs with TTAF repairs may not need implant removal unless it becomes clinically necessary. Avoiding a second procedure will decrease patient morbidity, recovery time, and cost.

Postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, yet the associated early coagulopathy is not well defined.We hypothesize that women who develop postpartum hemorrhage have a distinct derangement of thrombin generation and coagulation factors as compared to postpartum women without postpartum hemorrhage.This prospective study of pregnant patients with postpartum hemorrhage was completed at a single urban hospital. Blood was drawn upon postpartum hemorrhage diagnosis and 2 and 4 hours later. Assays included thrombelastography, whole blood thrombin generation, coagulation factor activity, tissue factor levels and activity, and tissue factor pathway inhibitor levels, which were compared to patients without postpartum hemorrhage.Eighty-one patients were included. Of those, 66 had postpartum hemorrhage, and 15 served as controls. Compared to patients without postpartum hemorrhage, postpartum hemorrhage patients had lower fibrinogen (411.0 versus 469 mg/dL, p=0.02), increased tissue plasminogen activator resistance (fibrinolysis 30 minutes after maximal clot strength [LY30] 4.2% versus 8.7%, p=0.02), decreased peak thrombin (40.7 versus 150.2 nM, p=0.01), and decreased maximal rate of thrombin generation (2.8 versus 60.1 nM/min, p=0.02). Patients with postpartum hemorrhage also had decreased tissue factor levels (267.1 versus 444.3 pg/mL, p=0.02) and increased tissue factor pathway inhibitor levels (0.8 versus 0.6 U/mL, p=0.04), with decreased tissue factor pathway inhibitor ratios (299 versus 624, p=0.01) compared to patients without postpartum hemorrhage.PPH is not merely an issue of uterine tone and mechanical bleeding, but rather is associated with distinct coagulopathy, characterized by decreased fibrinogen, clot breakdown resistance, and markedly low thrombin generation. This pathology appears to be driven by low tissue factor and high tissue factor pathway inhibitor levels.

Instrumental resolution of Fourier transform-charge detection mass spectrometry instruments with electrostatic ion trap detection of individual ions depends on the precision with which ion energy is determined. Energy can be selected using ion optic filters or from harmonic amplitude ratios (HARs) that provide Fellgett's advantage and eliminate the necessity of ion transmission loss to improve resolution. Unlike the ion energy-filtering method, the resolution of the HAR method increases with charge (improved

Neuroimmune dysfunction is a cardinal feature of neurodegenerative diseases. But how immune dysregulation in the brain and peripheral organs contribute to neurodegeneration remains unclear. Here, we discuss the recent advances highlighting neuroimmune dysfunction as a key disease-driving factor in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). We provide an overview of the clinical observations supporting a high prevalence of autoimmune diseases in FTD patients with mutations in GRN or C9orf72. We then focus on a myriad of evidence from human genetic studies, mouse models, invitro assays, and multi-omics platform, which indicate that haploinsufficiency in GRN and C9orf72 promotes neuroimmune dysfunction and contributes to neurodegeneration and premature death. These compelling data provide key insights to disease mechanisms, biomarker discovery, and therapeutic interventions for FTD (120 words).

A large body of ecological theory explains the coexistence of multiple species in variable environments. While spatial variation is often treated as an intrinsic feature of a landscape, it may be shaped and even generated by the resident community. All species modify their local environment to some extent, driving changes that can feed back to affect the composition and coexistence of the community, potentially over timescales very different from population dynamics. We introduce a simple, nested modeling framework that describes species coexistence in heterogeneous environments, as well as the evolution of this heterogeneity over time due to feedbacks from the biotic community. We derive analytical conditions for the coexistence of any number of species in environments with intrinsic heterogeneity or feedbacks, and identify essential differences between these scenarios. Our model is naturally simplified in the limit of very fast or very slow environmental feedbacks, allowing us to treat these two scenarios – which bookend the full range of dynamics – in detail. Among other results, we demonstrate how dispersal and environmental specialization interact to shape realized patterns of habitat association. We also show that environmental feedbacks can tune landscape conditions to promote stable coexistence, although feedbacks can give rise to complex dynamics such as limit cycles, priority effects, and episodic dynamics, as well. Our flexible modeling framework helps explain how and when each of these behaviors arise, and offers a generic mathematical platform for exploring the interplay between species and landscape diversity.

IMPORTANCEThe neurological substrates of visual creativity are unknown. We demonstrate the role of dorsomedial visual cortex in emergence of visual artistic creativity (VAC) in the setting of dementia. Our findings illuminate neural substrates of human creativity and suggest that hyperactivation of specific brain areas may manifest as enhanced cognitive or behavioral capacities.OBJECTIVETo determine the anatomical and physiological underpinnings of VAC in dementia.DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSAs part of a prospective, longitudinal cohort study focused on frontotemporal dementia (FTD), 734 patients met research criteria for an FTD spectrum disorder between 2002 and 2019. Of these, seventeen showed emergence of visual artistic creativity (VAC-FTD). Two control groups (n = 51 each) were matched to VAC-FTD based on demographic and clinical parameters: (1) Not Visually Artistic FTD (NVA-FTD) and (2) Healthy Controls (HC).MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESClinical, neuropsychological, genetic and neuroimaging data were analyzed to characterize VAC-FTD and compare VAC-FTD to control groups.RESULTSEmergence of VAC occurred around the time of onset of symptoms, and was disproportionately seen in patients with temporal lobe predominant degeneration (n = 8/17). Atrophy network mapping identified a dorsomedial occipital region whose activity inversely correlated, in healthy brains, with activity in the patient-specific atrophy patterns in VAC-FTD (n = 17/17) and NVA-FTD (n = 45/51). Structural covariance analysis revealed that volume of this dorsal occipital region was strongly correlated, in VAC-FTD, but not in NVA-FTD or HC, with a volume in the primary motor cortex corresponding to the right hand representation. One patient, who underwent fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography before and after VAC onset, showed increasing glucose metabolism in the dorsal occipital region over the interval when creativity emerged.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEFTD lesion-induced intensification of dorsal visual association cortex structure and function predisposes to emergence of VAC in certain environmental or genetic conditions. Paradoxical gains of function are early manifestations of neurodegenerative disease, and this study delineates a specific brain region associated with the emergence of VAC.

Dynamic natural processes govern snow distribution in mountainous environments throughout the world. Interactions between these different processes create spatially variable patterns of snow depth across a landscape. Variations in accumulation and redistribution occur at a variety of spatial scales, which are well established for moderate mountain terrain. However, spatial patterns of snow depth variability in steep, complex mountain terrain have not been fully explored due to insufficient spatial resolutions of snow depth measurement. Recent advances in uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) and structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry provide an opportunity to map spatially continuous snow depths at high resolutions in these environments. Using UASs and SfM photogrammetry, we produced 11 snow depth maps at a steep couloir site in the Bridger Range of Montana, USA, during the 2019–2020 winter. We quantified the spatial scales of snow depth variability in this complex mountain terrain at a variety of resolutions over 2 orders of magnitude (0.02 to 20 m) and time steps (4 to 58 d) using variogram analysis in a high-performance computing environment. We found that spatial resolutions greater than 0.5 m do not capture the complete patterns of snow depth spatial variability within complex mountain terrain and that snow depths are autocorrelated within horizontal distances of 15 m at our study site. The results of this research have the potential to reduce uncertainty currently associated with snowpack and snow water resource analysis by documenting and quantifying snow depth variability and snowpack evolution on relatively inaccessible slopes in complex terrain at high spatial and temporal resolutions.

Domesticates are an excellent model for understanding biological consequences of rapid climate change. Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) was domesticated from a tropical grass yet is widespread across temperate regions today. We investigate the biological basis of temperate adaptation in diverse structured nested association mapping (NAM) populations from China, Europe (Dent and Flint) and the United States as well as in the Ames inbred diversity panel, using days to flowering as a proxy. Using cross-population prediction, where high prediction accuracy derives from overall genomic relatedness, shared genetic architecture, and sufficient diversity in the training population, we identify patterns in predictive ability across the five populations. To identify the source of temperate adapted alleles in these populations, we predict top associated genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified loci in a Random Forest Classifier using independent temperate–tropical North American populations based on lines selected from Hapmap3 as predictors. We find that North American populations are well predicted (AUC equals 0.89 and 0.85 for Ames and USNAM, respectively), European populations somewhat well predicted (AUC equals 0.59 and 0.67 for the Dent and Flint panels, respectively) and that the Chinese population is not predicted well at all (AUC is 0.47), suggesting an independent adaptation process for early flowering in China. Multiple adaptations for the complex trait days to flowering in maize provide hope for similar natural systems under climate change.

Wildlife value orientations (WVOs) are used to address human–wildlife conflicts by developing value-framed messaging. However, little is known about whether WVOs (i.e., mutualism, domination) are useful in distance-related wildlife safety communication strategies. This study explores the predictive ability of mutualism and domination value orientations on study participants’ levels of agreement with distance-related safety messages. Distance-related wildlife safety messages were crafted to appeal to the four WVO typologies (i.e., traditionalist, mutualist, pluralist, and distanced). Undergraduate students were asked to rate their levels of agreement with a series of distance-related messages. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to create domination and mutualism dimension scores. Multiple regressions predicted levels of agreement with each of the messages from domination and mutualism. Study results indicated that in this sample of undergraduate student participants, only mutualism values predicted distance-related wildlife safety message agreement. This information can be used to help frame communications about distance-related wildlife issues.

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year, undergraduate institution that educates and trains its students (cadets) to become future leaders in the US Army officer corps. The Department of Foreign Languages (DFL) at West Point plays an integral role in developing cadets’ cultural and linguistic competencies in preparation for potential overseas deployments while serving in the Army. DFL offers cadets the opportunity to major in eight different foreign languages. Among these are Spanish and Portuguese, two robust second language (L2) programs whose current annual enrollments are 487 and 393 cadets, respectively (out of a total population of 4,000 cadets). Besides language instruction for general proficiency, the Spanish and Portuguese curricula also offer embedded training modules, independent courses, and immersion programs centered on how to negotiate specific military tasks within the target languages. These L2 touchpoints fall under the umbrella of Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) and are designed to prepare our cadets for future interactions with foreign militaries and cultures in a variety of global regions, including Latin America, Europe, and Africa. This essay details West Point’s Spanish and Portuguese LSP models, focusing on their phased, cumulative design and overall effectiveness as specialty curricula within DFL.

In many parks and protected areas around the globe, reducing human-caused sounds is a critical component to providing quality visitor experiences. However, very little research examines the effect ...

ObjectiveTo assess whether Alzheimer disease (AD) clinical presentation and APOE4 relate to the burden and topography of β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau pathologies using in vivo PET imaging.MethodsWe studied 119 Aβ-positive symptomatic patients aged 48–95 years, including 29 patients with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) and 21 with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). Pittsburgh compound B (PiB)–Aβ and flortaucipir (tau)–PET standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) images were created. General linear models assessed relationships between demographic/clinical variables (phenotype, age), APOE4, and PET (including global cortical and voxelwise SUVR values) while controlling for disease severity using the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes.ResultsPiB-PET binding showed a widespread cortical distribution with subtle differences across phenotypes and was unrelated to demographic/clinical variables or APOE4. Flortaucipir-PET was commonly elevated in temporoparietal regions, but showed marked phenotype-associated differences, with higher binding observed in occipito-parietal areas for PCA, in left temporal and inferior frontal for lvPPA, and in medial temporal areas for other AD. Cortical flortaucipir-PET binding was higher in younger patients across phenotypes (r = −0.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.72, −0.50), especially in parietal and dorsal prefrontal cortices. The presence of APOE4 was associated with a focal medial temporal flortaucipir-SUVR increase, controlling for all other variables (entorhinal: + 0.310 SUVR, 95% CI 0.091, 0.530).ConclusionsClinical phenotypes are associated with differential patterns of tau but not amyloid pathology. Older age and APOE4 are not only risk factors for AD but also seem to affect disease expression by promoting a more medial temporal lobe–predominant pattern of tau pathology.

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) are considered a key mechanism generating frequency-dependent dynamics in plant communities. Negative feedbacks, in particular, are often invoked to explain coexistence and the maintenance of diversity in species-rich communities. However, the primary modelling framework used to study PSFs considers only two plant species, and we lack clear theoretical expectations for how these complex interactions play out in communities with natural levels of diversity. Here, we extend this canonical model of PSFs to include an arbitrary number of plant species and analyse the dynamics. Surprisingly, we find that coexistence of more than two species is virtually impossible, suggesting that alternative theoretical frameworks are needed to describe feedbacks observed in diverse natural communities. Drawing on our analysis, we discuss future directions for PSF models and implications for experimental study of PSF-mediated coexistence in the field.

Burgeoning urbanization, development and human activities have led to reduced opportunities for nature experience in quiet acoustic environments. Increasing noise affects both humans and wildlife alike. We experimentally altered human‐caused sound levels in a paired study using informational signs that encouraged quiet behaviours in week‐on, week‐off blocks on the trail system of Muir Woods National Monument, California, USA to test if the soundscape influences both wildlife and human experiences. Using continuous measurements from acoustic recording units (n = 13) spatially distributed within the park, we found signs significantly lowered sound levels by approximately 1.2 decibels (A‐weighted), thereby increasing listening area by 24% and bird availability by approximately 5.8% for every 1 decibel decrease. Visitor‐intercept surveys (n = 537) revealed that our mitigation increased the number of birds perceived by visitors, rankings of soundscape pleasantness, and importantly, preferences for soundscape management. By lowering human‐caused sound levels, we created an acoustic environment equivalent to a ~21% reduction in visitors. The positive feedback cycle we describe may lead to increased conservation support in a time when the extinction of nature experience looms. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Introduction The effect of bilingualism on age at onset has yet to be examined within different clinical variants of Alzheimer's disease. Methods We reviewed the research charts of 287 well-characterized participants with either amnestic Alzheimer's dementia or logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) and identified bilingual speakers based on regular use of two or more languages and/or ability to communicate with native speakers in two or more languages. We evaluated whether bilingual speakers demonstrated a delay in age of symptom onset relative to monolingual speakers while controlling for other variables known to influence cognitive reserve. Results A 5-year delay in age at symptom onset was observed for bilingual relative to monolingual speakers with lvPPA. This delay in onset was not observed in the amnestic Alzheimer's dementia cohort. Discussion Bilingualism may serve as a unique cognitive reserve variable in lvPPA, but not in amnestic Alzheimer's dementia.

Phospholipids are important to cellular function and are a vital structural component of the plasma membrane and organelle membranes. These membranes isolate the cell from its environment, allow regulation of the internal concentrations of ions and small molecules, and host diverse types of membrane proteins. It remains extremely challenging to identify specific membrane protein-lipid interactions and their relative strengths. Native mass spectrometry, an intrinsically gas-phase method, has recently been demonstrated as a promising tool for identifying endogenous protein-lipid interactions. However, to what extent the identified interactions reflect solution- versus gas-phase binding strengths is not known. Here, the “Extended” Kinetic Method and ab initio computations at three different levels of theory are used to experimentally and theoretically determine intrinsic gas-phase basicities (GB, −ΔG for deprotonation of the protonated base) and proton affinities (PA, −ΔH for deprotonation of the protonated base) of six lipids representing common phospholipid types. Gas-phase acidities (ΔG and ΔH for deprotonation) of neutral phospholipids are also evaluated computationally and ranked experimentally. Intriguingly, it is found that two of these phospholipids, sphingomyelin and phosphatidylcholine, have the highest GB of any small, monomeric biomolecules measured to date and are more basic than arginine. Phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine are found to be similar in GB to basic amino acids lysine and histidine, and phosphatidic acid and phosphatidylglycerol are the least basic of the six lipid types studied, though still more basic than alanine. Kinetic Method experiments and theory show that the gas-phase acidities of these phospholipids are high, but less extreme than their GB values, with phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylglycerol being the most acidic. These results indicate that sphingomyelin and phosphatidylcholine lipids can act as charge-reducing agents when dissociated from native membrane protein-lipid complexes in the gas phase and provide a straightforward model to explain the results of several recent native mass spectrometry studies of protein-lipid complexes.

Fungal pretreatment of Populus trichocarpa wood genetically modified to reduce lignin and alter lignin chemistry is investigated for its effectiveness as an alternative to common pretreatment methods. The goal of this work is to improve biomass utilization for biofuel and biochemical applications by increasing sugar release. Sugar release after enzymatic hydrolysis was measured after various biomass pretreatments (including wood-rot fungus, hot water, and dilute acid). In the wildtype, and in constructs downregulated in PAL, 4CL, and C3H, the fungal pretreatment resulted in substantial improvements in sugar yields, up to 2.4-fold increase in glucose yield and 6-fold increase in xylose yield after enzymatic hydrolysis compared to the unpretreated control. However, the effects of fungal pretreatment were inconsistent, and in genetic lines down-regulated in 4CL, CCoAOMT, CAld5H, and C3H, fungal pretreatment yielded similar or decreased sugar release after enzymatic hydrolysis.

The challenge of managing protected areas to purvey benefits through visitor experiences has been a major subject of research within the fields of recreation and leisure. Driver and others have adv...

As protected land systems grow and develop in countries across the world, sustainability concerns arise alongside this growth. Specifically, increasing visitation to the US National Park System has resulted in new managerial concerns, one being the large amounts of waste produced by these visitors and how this waste is being disposed of. In response to this growing issue, a partnership between industry, non-profits, and the National Park Service, called the Zero Landfill Initiative (ZLI), is working to reduce waste sent to landfills from US national park sites by having visitors sort their waste and recyclable material for proper disposal. To evaluate the efficacy of this outreach campaign and further develop knowledge on factors influencing waste sorting behavior, this study aimed to use a novel observational approach to learn about visitor waste disposal in three US national parks. Results showed that individuals who meaningfully engaged with signage, did not appear confused, and who had children in their group were more likely to dispose of waste properly. The future research and managerial implications of these findings are then discussed to encourage proper waste disposal and sorting in these US national parks as well as in more generalized contexts.

For over 50 years, government fishery agencies have recognized the need to transition excess fishing capacity in coastal waters to aquaculture. For the most part, investment strategies to move wild capture and harvest efforts into aquaculture have failed since the technology and capital expense for entry, such as large fish pens, was not conducive for acceptance. In contrast, low trophic level aquaculture of shellfish and seaweeds is suitable as an addition to the livelihoods of seasonal fishing communities and to those displaced by fishery closures, especially if vessels and gear can be designed around existing fishing infrastructures, thus allowing fishers to maintain engagement with their primary fishery, while augmenting income via aquaculture. In this study, an inexpensive, lightweight, and highly mobile gear for kelp seaweed farming was developed and tested over a 3-year period in southern Maine, USA. The system was different from existing kelp farming operations used in nearshore waters that use low-scope mooring lines, and heavy, deadweight anchors. Instead, a highly mobile, easy to deploy system using lightweight gear was designed for exposed conditions. The entire system fit into fish tote boxes and was loadable onto a standard pickup truck. The seaweed system had small but efficient horizontal drag embedment anchors connected to a chain catenary and pretensioned with simple subsurface flotation. The system was able to be deployed and removed in less than 4 h by a crew of three using a 10 m vessel and produced a harvest of 12.7 kg/m over an 8-month fall-winter growth period. The target group for this seaweed research and development effort were coastal fishing communities who move seasonally into non-fishing occupations in service industries, such as construction, retail, etc. An economic assessment suggests farmers would realize an 8% return on investment after3 years and $13.50/h greater income as compared to a non-farming off season job at minimum wage. This low-cost seaweed farming system for fall-winter operations fits well into a “livelihood” strategy for fishing families who must work multiple jobs in the offseason when their main fishery is unavailable.