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The Eurasian beaver has returned to Britain, presenting fundamental challenges and opportunities for all involved. Beavers will inevitably expand throughout British freshwater systems and provide significant benefits. Unofficial releases have presented challenges in terms of sourcing and genetics, health status and disease risks, the risk of introducing the non-native North American beaver species, and the lack of engagement with communities and resulting conflict. Agreed approaches require development using multi-stakeholder approaches to recognise and promote benefits whilst sensitively managing beavers’ impacts on people’s livelihoods.
Experiences of child abuse and neglect are risk factors for youth suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Accordingly, suicide risk may emerge as a developmental process that is heavily influenced by the rearing environment. We argue that a developmental, theoretical framework is needed to guide future research on child maltreatment and youth (i.e., adolescent and emerging adult) suicide, and to subsequently inform suicide prevention efforts. We propose a developmental model that integrates principles of developmental psychopathology and current theories of suicide to explain the association between child maltreatment and youth suicide risk. This model bears significant implications for future research on child maltreatment and youth suicide risk, and for suicide prevention efforts that target youth with child maltreatment experiences.
Only a limited number of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) respond to a first course of antidepressant medication (ADM). We investigated the feasibility of creating a baseline model to determine which of these would be among patients beginning ADM treatment in the US Veterans Health Administration (VHA).
Methods
A 2018–2020 national sample of n = 660 VHA patients receiving ADM treatment for MDD completed an extensive baseline self-report assessment near the beginning of treatment and a 3-month self-report follow-up assessment. Using baseline self-report data along with administrative and geospatial data, an ensemble machine learning method was used to develop a model for 3-month treatment response defined by the Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomatology Self-Report and a modified Sheehan Disability Scale. The model was developed in a 70% training sample and tested in the remaining 30% test sample.
Results
In total, 35.7% of patients responded to treatment. The prediction model had an area under the ROC curve (s.e.) of 0.66 (0.04) in the test sample. A strong gradient in probability (s.e.) of treatment response was found across three subsamples of the test sample using training sample thresholds for high [45.6% (5.5)], intermediate [34.5% (7.6)], and low [11.1% (4.9)] probabilities of response. Baseline symptom severity, comorbidity, treatment characteristics (expectations, history, and aspects of current treatment), and protective/resilience factors were the most important predictors.
Conclusions
Although these results are promising, parallel models to predict response to alternative treatments based on data collected before initiating treatment would be needed for such models to help guide treatment selection.
Fewer than half of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) respond to psychotherapy. Pre-emptively informing patients of their likelihood of responding could be useful as part of a patient-centered treatment decision-support plan.
Methods
This prospective observational study examined a national sample of 807 patients beginning psychotherapy for MDD at the Veterans Health Administration. Patients completed a self-report survey at baseline and 3-months follow-up (data collected 2018–2020). We developed a machine learning (ML) model to predict psychotherapy response at 3 months using baseline survey, administrative, and geospatial variables in a 70% training sample. Model performance was then evaluated in the 30% test sample.
Results
32.0% of patients responded to treatment after 3 months. The best ML model had an AUC (SE) of 0.652 (0.038) in the test sample. Among the one-third of patients ranked by the model as most likely to respond, 50.0% in the test sample responded to psychotherapy. In comparison, among the remaining two-thirds of patients, <25% responded to psychotherapy. The model selected 43 predictors, of which nearly all were self-report variables.
Conclusions
Patients with MDD could pre-emptively be informed of their likelihood of responding to psychotherapy using a prediction tool based on self-report data. This tool could meaningfully help patients and providers in shared decision-making, although parallel information about the likelihood of responding to alternative treatments would be needed to inform decision-making across multiple treatments.
Nicolaides–Baraitser syndrome is a rare, neuro-developmental disorder caused by heterozygous pathogenic variants in the SMARCA2 gene, involved with chromatin regulation. Cardinal features include intellectual disability, short stature, microcephaly, triangular facies, sparse hair, brachydactyly, prominent interphalangeal joints and seizures. Genetic testing demonstrated a loss within SMARCA2 at 9p24.3 inclusive of basepairs 2094861_2141830 (hg19) in our patient. This case highlights a child with Nicolaides–Baraiter syndrome, a SMARCA2 gene deletion and a novel association of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.
Glaciers in the Southern Patagonia Icefield (SPI) have been shrinking in recent decades, but due to a lack of field observations, understanding of the drivers of ablation is limited. We present a distributed surface energy balance model, forced with meteorological observations from a west–east transect located in the north of the SPI. Between October 2015 and June 2016, humid and warm on-glacier conditions prevailed on the western side compared to dry and cold conditions on the eastern side. Controls of ablation differ along the transect, although at glacier-wide scale sensible heat (mean of 72 W m−2 to the west and 51 W m−2 to the east) and net shortwave radiation (mean of 54 W m−2 to the west and 52 W m−2 to the east) provided the main energy sources. Net longwave radiation was an energy sink, while latent heat was the most spatially variable flux, being an energy sink in the east (−4 W m−2) and a source in the west (20 W m−2). Ablation was high, but at comparable elevations, it was greater to the west. These results provide new insights into the spatial variability of energy-balance fluxes and their control over the ablation of Patagonian glaciers.
The remnant phase of a radio galaxy begins when the jets launched from an active galactic nucleus are switched off. To study the fraction of radio galaxies in a remnant phase, we take advantage of a $8.31$ deg$^2$ subregion of the GAMA 23 field which comprises of surveys covering the frequency range 0.1–9 GHz. We present a sample of 104 radio galaxies compiled from observations conducted by the Murchison Widefield Array (216 MHz), the Australia Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (887 MHz), and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (5.5 GHz). We adopt an ‘absent radio core’ criterion to identify 10 radio galaxies showing no evidence for an active nucleus. We classify these as new candidate remnant radio galaxies. Seven of these objects still display compact emitting regions within the lobes at 5.5 GHz; at this frequency the emission is short-lived, implying a recent jet switch off. On the other hand, only three show evidence of aged lobe plasma by the presence of an ultra-steep-spectrum ($\alpha<-1.2$) and a diffuse, low surface brightness radio morphology. The predominant fraction of young remnants is consistent with a rapid fading during the remnant phase. Within our sample of radio galaxies, our observations constrain the remnant fraction to $4\%\lesssim f_{\mathrm{rem}} \lesssim 10\%$; the lower limit comes from the limiting case in which all remnant candidates with hotspots are simply active radio galaxies with faint, undetected radio cores. Finally, we model the synchrotron spectrum arising from a hotspot to show they can persist for 5–10 Myr at 5.5 GHz after the jets switch of—radio emission arising from such hotspots can therefore be expected in an appreciable fraction of genuine remnants.
Quaternary processes and environmental changes are often difficult to assess in remote subantarctic islands due to high surface erosion rates and overprinting of sedimentary products in locations that can be a challenge to access. We present a set of high-resolution, multichannel seismic lines and complementary multibeam bathymetry collected off the eastern (leeward) side of the subantarctic Auckland Islands, about 465 km south of New Zealand's South Island. These data constrain the erosive and depositional history of the island group, and they reveal an extensive system of sediment-filled valleys that extend offshore to depths that exceed glacial low-stand sea level. Although shallow, marine, U-shaped valleys and moraines are imaged, the rugged offshore geomorphology of the paleovalley floors and the stratigraphy of infill sediments suggests that the valley floors were shaped by submarine fluvial erosion, and subsequently filled by lacustrine, fjord, and fluvial sedimentary processes.
I accept Schubnel & Nel's (2019) opinion that Protohierodula belongs to the clade Artimantodea, that it cannot be reliably assigned to the family Manteidae and should be regarded as family incertae sedis.
The fossil cockroaches (Blattodea), praying mantises (Mantodea) and earwigs (Demaptera) are described from the Insect Limestone (Priabonian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Three new species of cockroach are described in the family Ectobiidae – Phyllodromica protosardea sp. nov., Balta protosimilis sp. nov. and Malaccina? wightensis sp. nov. – and a further nine indeterminate species are presented (based on ten specimens). The only known specimen of praying mantis is described as Protohierodula crabbi gen. et sp. nov. in the family Manteidae, which constitutes the first record of Mantodea from the UK. The only known specimen of earwig is an incomplete juvenile belonging to the superfamily Forficuloidea.
Extensive areas of tropical forests have been, and continue to be, disturbed as a result of selective timber extraction. Although such anthropogenic disturbance typically results in the loss of biodiversity, many species persist, and their conservation in production landscapes could be enhanced by a greater understanding of how biodiversity responds to forest management practices. We conducted intensive camera-trap surveys of eight protected forest areas in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and developed estimates of Sunda clouded leopard Neofelis diardi population density from spatially explicit capture–recapture analyses of detection data to investigate how the species’ abundance varies across the landscape and in response to anthropogenic disturbance. Estimates of population density from six forest areas were 1.39–3.10 individuals per 100 km2. Our study provides the first evidence that the population density of the Sunda clouded leopard is negatively affected by hunting pressure and forest fragmentation, and that among selectively logged forests, time since logging is positively associated with abundance. We argue that these negative anthropogenic impacts could be mitigated with improved logging practices, such as reducing the access of poachers by effective gating and destruction of road access points, and by the deployment of anti-poaching patrols. By calculating a weighted mean population density estimate from estimates developed here and from the literature, and by extrapolating this value to an estimate of current available habitat, we estimate there are 754 (95% posterior interval 325–1,337) Sunda clouded leopards in Sabah.
A series of experiments was carried out on oat to test the efficacies of fluazifop and glyphosate against water-stressed plants, plants grown in low and high nitrogen (N), and plants treated with gibberellic acid (GA). In the laboratory, plants maintained at wilting point for 5 days before and 9 days after spraying with fluazifop (0.5 kg ae/ha) appeared healthy 32 days after herbicide application, while plants supplied with water throughout the experiment were completely chlorotic/necrotic and had main stem detachment from within the leaf sheaths. In the field, plants maintained unirrigated until 14 days after spraying with fluazifop (0.25 kg/ha) or glyphosate (0.18 kg ae/ha) showed greater tolerance of the herbicides than plants irrigated regularly. Under well-watered conditions in the laboratory and field, fluazifop (0.25 kg/ha) and glyphosate (0.18 kg/ha) were less toxic at low N than high N. Increased fluazifop activity at high N was associated with increased transport of herbicide to apical meristems. Addition of 200 μg GA into the leaf sheaths 2 days prior to spraying with fluazifop or glyphosate increased the efficacy of both herbicides at low N.
A diverse millipede (diplopod) fauna has been recovered from the earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian) Ballagan Formation of the Scottish Borders, discovered by the late Stan Wood. The material is generally fragmentary; however, six different taxa are present based on seven specimens. Only one displays enough characters for formal description and is named Woodesmus sheari Ross, Edgecombe & Clark gen. & sp. nov. The absence of paranota justifies the erection of Woodesmidae fam. nov. within the Archipolypoda. The diverse fauna supports the theory that an apparent lack of terrestrial animal fossils from ‘Romer's Gap' was due to a lack of collecting and suitable deposits, rather than to low oxygen levels as previously suggested.