Categorization – assimilating objects to psychological equivalence classes – is a crucial cognitive capacity that has always enhanced vertebrate fitness. This chapter reviews from a primate perspective the state of knowledge in comparative categorization’s subdomains: prototypes, exemplars, rules, and abstractions. Primate studies have made a profound contribution to the prototype-exemplar debate – essentially resolving it. They have illuminated the evolutionary emergence of a cognitive capacity for category rules, illuminating also the emergence of humans’ explicit-declarative cognition. In this area, primates appear as a pivotal transitional form. In the literature on abstract concepts (e.g., Same-Different), primate studies highlight the differences in cognitive capacities across vertebrate lines. The review will demonstrate the crucial role of a fitness/ecological perspective in understanding categorization as an adaptive, information-processing capability. It will raise important questions about the similarity structure of natural (and unnatural) kinds and categories. It will show strong continuities between human and animal cognition, but important discontinuities as well. In all the subdomains, the primates have been extraordinary behavioral ambassadors to the broader field of categorization.

Dysfunction of the endocrine glands can occur at any point in the life cycle. Although many endocrine diseases will present with classic signs and symptoms, atypical presentation of hormonal dysregulation can make diagnosis in the elderly particularly challenging. Normal physiologic changes associated with aging, as well as medical comorbidities and medications, may all cloud the identification of endocrine dysfunction in this complicated population. As such, the diagnosis of endocrinopathies in the elderly population requires a careful medical history, detailed physical exam, rational biochemical workup, and, if necessary, directed imaging. The management of endocrine disorders can be equally complex. Many endocrine disorders are treated with medications that may complicate an already-lengthy list, causing unwanted side effects or even drug–drug interactions. If therapy includes possible surgical referral, careful assessment of the risk–benefit ratio and candidacy of the elderly patient is imperative. Endocrine guidelines have been designed to assist the clinician with accurate diagnosis and therapeutic decision-making; however, guidelines cannot supplant the need for patient-centered care in this vulnerable population in whom disorders of the endocrine glands fail to adhere to “textbook” scenarios.

Undergraduate research experiences have been identified as a high-impact practice in higher education.Within the physics community, research experiences were cited as a critical educational experience for undergraduate students by many thriving physics programs. Furthermore, the discipline has, for many years, supported undergraduate research experiences by advocating for and funding such programs as well as providing opportunities for undergraduate students to present their research at professional conferences and in peer-reviewed professional journals. In this chapter, the authors briefly highlight the benefits of research experiences to undergraduate physics students along with some of the known or community-accepted best practices for engaging undergraduate students in research. The authors also discuss the challenges faced by the community surrounding equity and our ability to engage all students in this meaningful professional and educational experience. While challenges exist, there are opportunities for the physics community to successfully address them through hard work, creativity, and innovation.

Chapter 4 discusses restoration of the natural functions of degraded landforms and landforms that provide a limited number of shore protection or recreational values. The case is made to make beach/dune systems more dynamic to allow nature to undergo exchanges of sediment, nutrients, and biota; follow cycles of accretion, erosion, growth, and decay; and retain diversity, complexity, and the ability to deliver ecosystem services. Actions include reestablishing physical habitat characteristics (e.g., overwash areas and slacks), removing invasive species, and reinitiating cycles of growth and decay by reducing vegetation cover or destabilizing surfaces to favor reworking by waves and winds. Many of these actions are most appropriate for landscapes that are usually found within natural preserves and consistent with the regulations governing their management. Issues associated with removing wrack (beach cast), driving on the beach, restoring mined sites, and stabilizing dune fields that are overly mobile are also addressed in this chapter. Restoration actions in intensively developed areas where beach and dune evolution are under severe spatial constraints are addressed in subsequent chapters.

Chapter 3 discusses the ways foredunes can be built by human actions in locations where they have been eliminated. Alternative strategies for foredune development are reviewed including (1) using beach nourishment to provide a beach with sediment sizes that can be reworked by waves and winds; (2) constructing dunes by using earth-moving equipment to place fill sediment derived from external source areas, such as offshore borrow areas, navigation channels, or inland deposits; (3) using in-situ beach sand using earth-moving equipment (termed grading or scraping); (4) deploying sand-trapping fences; (5) planting vegetation; and (6) using a combination or multiple of these strategies. Time and space are critical to the evolution of landforms and vegetation gradients on developed coasts, and choice of techniques for dune building are evaluated under these constraints. The case is made that once newly built foredunes achieve their protective function, they should be allowed to evolve as naturally functioning environments to the extent allowable.

Chapter 8 identifies the rationale and components of an integrated, locally based program for increasing the number, size, and cumulative benefits of natural environments in developed municipalities. Elements include (1) getting stakeholders to accept natural landforms and habitats as appropriate elements in a developed coastal landscape; (2) identifying environmental indicators and target reference conditions for new restoration sites using characteristics of nearby natural enclaves; (3) establishing demonstration sites to evaluate the positive and negative effects of return to a more dynamic system; (4) developing guidelines and protocols for restoring and managing landforms and habitats; and (5) developing education programs to establish an appreciation for naturally functioning landscape components. Suggestions are also made for managing litter and wrack, grading landforms, controlling vehicles on the beach, managing access paths across dunes, reducing structures on beaches and dunes, using vegetation for landscaping private lots, establishing programs for monitoring and adaptive management, and developing compatible legislation.