The Scarr–Rowe effect is a gene × environment interaction, which is characterized by a negative association between exposure to low socioeconomic status (SES) environments and the additive heritability of cognitive ability. Utilizing a polygenic score for educational attainment (EA3), it was found that the two-way interaction between EA3 and parental educational attainment (EA; used as a proxy for parental SES) was a significant positive predictor of participants’ composite cognitive ability (IQ) score (β = .018, SE = .008, p = .028) after controlling hierarchically for the direct effects of (population-stratification-controlled) EA3, parental EA, and 20 distinct interaction terms (10 involving the interactions between the principal components [PCs] and EA3, and 10 involving the interaction between the PCs and parental EA). The presence of this interaction is consistent with the Scarr–Rowe effect, as the expressivity of EA3 on cognitive ability increases with increasing parental EA. No statistically significant sex differences in the effect magnitudes were found, although the effect was significantly present in the female but not male sample.

Individuals with intellectual disabilities face discrimination on a daily basis. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the systemic ableism that is embedded within American culture, particularly through healthcare bias and discrimination. In turn, this creates further marginalization during diagnosis, triage, and treatment of the novel coronavirus. Multiple states have filed complaints against state triage protocols that suggest an abled life is more worthy than a life with a disability. Although many of these protocols have been updated and replaced, generalized triage statements fail to address healthcare bias that is embedded within the American system. In addition to the existing solutions, proposed solutions to addressing healthcare bias include integrating social workers into the emergency management process and the overall disaster management field. To combat bias and ableism across the healthcare system, a social justice perspective which highlights discrimination, inequalities, and inequities in overall individual care must be adopted.

In April 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released its recovery plan for the jaguar Panthera onca after several decades of discussion, litigation and controversy about the status of the species in the USA. The USFWS estimated that potential habitat, south of the Interstate-10 highway in Arizona and New Mexico, had a carrying capacity of c. six jaguars, and so focused its recovery programme on areas south of the USA–Mexico border. Here we present a systematic review of the modelling and assessment efforts over the last 25 years, with a focus on areas north of Interstate-10 in Arizona and New Mexico, outside the recovery unit considered by the USFWS. Despite differences in data inputs, methods, and analytical extent, the nine previous studies found support for potential suitable jaguar habitat in the central mountain ranges of Arizona and New Mexico. Applying slightly modified versions of the USFWS model and recalculating an Arizona-focused model over both states provided additional confirmation. Extending the area of consideration also substantially raised the carrying capacity of habitats in Arizona and New Mexico, from six to 90 or 151 adult jaguars, using the modified USFWS models. This review demonstrates the crucial ways in which choosing the extent of analysis influences the conclusions of a conservation plan. More importantly, it opens a new opportunity for jaguar conservation in North America that could help address threats from habitat losses, climate change and border infrastructure.

The last 85,000 years were characterized by high climate and environmental variability on the Yucatán Peninsula. Heinrich stadials are examples of abrupt climate transitions that involved shifts in regional temperatures and moisture availability. Thus, they serve as natural experiments to evaluate the contrasting responses of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. We used ostracodes and pollen preserved in a 75.9-m-long sediment core (PI-6, ~85 ka) recovered from Lake Petén Itzá, Guatemala, to assess the magnitude and velocity of community responses. Ostracodes are sensitive to changes in water temperature and conductivity. Vegetation responds to shifts in temperature and the ratio of evaporation to precipitation. Ostracodes display larger and more rapid community changes than does vegetation. Heinrich Stadial 5-1 (HS5-1) was cold and dry and is associated with lower ostracode and vegetation species richness and diversity. In contrast, the slightly warmer and dry conditions during HS6 and HS5a are reflected in higher ostracode species richness and diversity. Our paleoecological study revealed the greatest ecological turnover for ostracodes occurred from 62.5 to 51.0 ka; for pollen, it was at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Future studies should use various climate and environmental indicators from lake and marine sediment records to further explore late glacial paleoclimate causes and effects in the northern neotropics.

When an explosive burns, gaseous products are formed as a result. The interaction of the burning solid and gas is not well understood. More specifically, the process of the gaseous product heating the explosive is yet to be explored in detail. The present work sets out to fill some of that gap using mathematical modelling: this aims to track the temperature profile in the explosive. The work begins by modelling single-step reactions using a simple Arrhenius model. The model is then extended to include three-step reaction. An alternative asymptotic approach is also employed. There is close agreement between results from the full reaction-diffusion problem and the asymptotic problem.

This SHEA white paper identifies knowledge gaps and challenges in healthcare epidemiology research related to COVID-19 with a focus on core principles of healthcare epidemiology. These gaps, revealed during the worst phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, are described in 10 sections: epidemiology, outbreak investigation, surveillance, isolation precaution practices, personal protective equipment (PPE), environmental contamination and disinfection, drug and supply shortages, antimicrobial stewardship, healthcare personnel (HCP) occupational safety, and return to work policies. Each section highlights three critical healthcare epidemiology research questions with detailed description provided in supplemental materials. This research agenda calls for translational studies from laboratory-based basic science research to well-designed, large-scale studies and health outcomes research. Research gaps and challenges related to nursing homes and social disparities are included. Collaborations across various disciplines, expertise and across diverse geographic locations will be critical.

Gas-fluidized beds of flexible fibres, which have been rarely studied before, are investigated in this work using the coupled approach of the discrete element method and computational fluid dynamics. In the present numerical method, gas–fibre interaction is modelled by calculating the interaction force for each constituent element in the fibre, and the composition of the interaction forces on the constituent elements generates a resultant hydrodynamic force and a resultant hydrodynamic torque on the fibre. Pressure drops and fibre orientation results from the present simulations with various fibre aspect ratios are in good agreement with previous experimental and simulation results. Some novel results are obtained for the effects of fibre flexibility. Larger hydrodynamic forces on fibres (before the bed is fluidized) and smaller minimum fluidization velocities (MFVs) are observed for more flexible fibre beds due to the smaller porosities, while smaller hydrodynamic forces are obtained for the more flexible fibres when the beds are fluidized with significant fibre motion. By scaling the superficial gas velocity using the MFVs, the data of pressure drop can collapse onto the Ergun correlation for stiff fibres of various aspect ratios; however, the pressure drop curves deviate from the Ergun correlation for very flexible fibres, due to the significant fibre bed expansion before the MFV is reached. The fibre aspect ratio and flexibility both have an impact on the solids mixing rate, and it is found that the solids mixing rates are essentially determined by the ratio of the superficial gas velocity to MFV.

For more than a decade, U.S. courts have struggled to develop a common law immunity regime to govern suits brought against foreign government officials, and they are now divided on a number of issues, including the extent to which they should defer to the executive branch and whether to recognize a jus cogens exception. This Editorial Comment considers a more conceptual division in the courts, between an “effect-of-judgment” approach that would confer immunity only when the judgment that the plaintiff is seeking would be directly enforceable against the foreign state, and a broader “nature-of-act” approach that would confer immunity whenever the plaintiff's case is challenging conduct carried out on behalf of the state. The Comment argues in favor of the nature-of-act approach and explains why analogies in this context to domestic civil rights litigation are misplaced.

Numerous studies and meta-analyses have now confirmed that personality traits tend to correlate such that a general factor of personality (GFP) emerges. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing debate about what these correlations, and therefore the GFP, represents. One interpretation is that the GFP reflects a substantive factor that indicates general social effectiveness or emotional intelligence. Another interpretation is that the GFP merely is an artifact based on measurement or response bias. In the present paper, we elaborate on a selection of topics that are central to the debate about this construct. Specifically, we discuss (a) the GFP in relation to more specific personality dimensions (e.g., Big Five, facets), (b) the validity of the GFP and under what circumstances it seems to ‘disappear’, and (c) the theoretical and practical relevance of the general factor. Overall, the review should provide insight into the nature of the GFP and whether or not it represents a meaningful factor that can contribute to a better understanding of personality.