Dishion and Patterson's work on the unique role of fathers in the coercive family process showed that fathers' coercion explained twice the variance of mothers' in predicting children's antisocial behavior and how treatment and prevention of coercion and promotion of prosocial parenting can mitigate children's problem behaviors. Using these ideas, we employed a sample of 426 divorced or separated fathers randomly assigned to Fathering Through Change (FTC), an interactive online behavioral parent training program or to a waitlist control. Participating fathers had been separated or divorced within the past 24 months with children ages 4 to 12 years. We tested an intent to treat (ITT) mediation hypothesis positing that intervention-induced changes in child problem behaviors would be mediated by changes in fathers' coercive parenting. We also tested complier average causal effects (CACE) models to estimate intervention effects, accounting for compliers and noncompliers in the treatment group and would-be compliers in the controls. Mediation was supported. ITT analyses showed the FTC obtained a small direct effect on father-reported pre–post changes in child adjustment problems (d = .20), a medium effect on pre–post changes in fathers' coercive parenting (d = .61), and a moderate indirect effect to changes in child adjustment (d = .30). Larger effects were observed in CACE analyses.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the influence of lower limb loss (LL) on mental workload by assessing neurocognitive measures in individuals with unilateral transtibial (TT) versus those with transfemoral (TF) LL while dual-task walking under varying cognitive demand. Methods: Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded as participants performed a task of varying cognitive demand while being seated or walking (i.e., varying physical demand). Results: The findings revealed both groups of participants (TT LL vs. TF LL) exhibited a similar EEG theta synchrony response as either the cognitive or the physical demand increased. Also, while individuals with TT LL maintained similar performance on the cognitive task during seated and walking conditions, those with TF LL exhibited performance decrements (slower response times) on the cognitive task during the walking in comparison to the seated conditions. Furthermore, those with TF LL neither exhibited regional differences in EEG low-alpha power while walking, nor EEG high-alpha desynchrony as a function of cognitive task difficulty while walking. This lack of alpha modulation coincided with no elevation of theta/alpha ratio power as a function of cognitive task difficulty in the TF LL group. Conclusions: This work suggests that both groups share some common but also different neurocognitive features during dual-task walking. Although all participants were able to recruit neural mechanisms critical for the maintenance of cognitive-motor performance under elevated cognitive or physical demands, the observed differences indicate that walking with a prosthesis, while concurrently performing a cognitive task, imposes additional cognitive demand in individuals with more proximal levels of amputation.

The teeth of the marine mollusk Acanthopleura hirtosa are an excellent example of a complex, organic, matrix-mediated biomineral, with the fully mineralized teeth comprising layers of iron oxide and iron oxyhydroxide minerals around a calcium apatite core. To investigate the relationship between the various mineral layers and the organic matrix fibers on which they grew, sections have been prepared from specific features in the teeth at controlled orientations using focused ion beam processing. Compositional and microstructural details of heterophase interfaces, and the fate of the organic matrix fibers within the mineral layers, can then be analyzed by a range of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. Energy-filtered TEM highlights the interlocking nature of the various mineral phases, while high-angle annular dark-field scanning TEM imaging demonstrates that the organic matrix continues to exist in the fully mineralized teeth. These new insights into the structure of this complex biomaterial are an important step in understanding the relationship between its structural and physical properties and may help explain its high strength and crack-resistance behavior.

When it comes to mineral synthesis, there is a lot we can learn from nature. Although we can synthesize a range of materials in the laboratory, the experimental conditions are often constrained to particular ranges of temperature, pH, etc. Biological systems, on the other hand, seem to be able to produce individual minerals and complex composite mineral structures under a variety of conditions, many of which are far from those applied to create their synthetic counterparts. Understanding how nature does this could provide a means to produce novel biomimetic materials with potential applications in a diverse range of fields from medicine to materials engineering.

The cusp epithelium is a specialized branch of the superior epithelium that surrounds the developing teeth of chitons and is responsible for delivering the elements required for the formation of biominerals within the major lateral teeth. These biominerals are deposited within specific regions of the tooth in sequence, making it possible to conduct a row by row examination of cell development in the cusp epithelium as the teeth progress from the unmineralized to the mineralized state. Cusp epithelium from the chiton Acanthopleura hirtosa was prepared using conventional chemical and microwave assisted tissue processing, for observation by light microscopy, conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy filtered TEM. The onset of iron mineralization within the teeth, initiated at row 13, is associated with a number of dramatic changes in the ultrastructure of the apical cusp cell epithelium. Specifically, the presence of ferritin containing siderosomes, the position and number of mitochondria, and the structure of the cell microvilli are each linked to aspects of the mineralization process. These changes in tissue development are discussed in context with their influence over the physiological conditions within both the cells and extracellular compartment of the tooth at the onset of iron mineralization.

Eight species of polydorid polychaetes were found to inhabit mollusc shells from south-western Australian waters. Numerous individuals of Polydora uncinata were extracted for the first time from the shells of both land-based cultured abalone Haliotis laevigata and H. roei, as well as from natural subtidal H. roei and Chlamys australis. Shells of the oyster Saccostrea commercialis cultured in sea-based systems were infested by Boccardia knoxi which was first recorded in these waters. Polydora aura, Dipolydora giardi, D. armata, D. aciculata and Boccardia proboscidea were common among shells of various natural intertidal and subtidal molluscs. A small number of P. haswelli were extracted from their self-excavated burrows in shells of cultured oysters. Boccardia knoxi and D. aciculata were redescribed based on the newly collected materials. Polydora uncinata and B. knoxi exhibited similar larval development patterns (exolecithotrophy and adelphophagy), iteroparity and longer life span, suggesting a high reproductive potential. This study suggests that further monitoring of polydorid species is needed not only from the viewpoint of marine biology but also to survey the risk invasive species pose to commercially important molluscs in this region and worldwide.

In April 2000 a massive recruitment of the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides was observed in the Clyde Sea. At one location 700 cyprids 1−1 of this species were recorded. This is ∼3500 times more abundant than previously recorded, and resulted in metamorphosis of some cyprids whilst still in the plankton, as well as massive settlement, with recruits found on adults and in the splash zone. The maximum density recorded was 109 settlers cm−2. Over the next 60 d mortality averaged 85%, resulting in a mean density of 8.4 recruits cm−2 in June 2000. Recruitment varied spatially at the km and m scale (site, shore height) but there was no evidence that it was affected by the presence of adult conspecifics.