Recent ucsb_postprints items

Relating the perceived useful field of view to visual search in 2D Images and 3D volumetric images

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract3D volumetric images are prevalent in industries ranging from radiology and oncology to airport luggage screenings. With 3D medical images, however, radiologists are visually overburdened by the vast amount of image data requiring inspection. Radiologists and trained (nonradiologist) observers often underexplore 3D images with eye movements—producing misses of small targets undetectable in the visual periphery. We investigate why observers underexplore 3D images by quantifying their perceived exploration of the search area and relating it to the extent of their search on trials where they report “target absent.” Six trained observers participated in two eye-tracking experiments to evaluate whether the area covered by the Useful Field of View (UFOV) influences the underexploration of the 3D images. Experiment 1 estimated empirical and perceived target-specific UFOVs per observer. We tested the observer’s detectability of a small and large target embedded in 1/f noise as...

FEELING IT Language, Race, and Affect in Latinx Youth Learning AFTER AFFECTS

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

FEELING IT Language, Race, and Affect in Latinx Youth Learning AFTER AFFECTS

Historical Communities: Cities, Erudition, and National Identity in Early Modern France

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical Communities: Cities, Erudition, and National Identity in Early Modern France

The Reformed terreur panique of 1562: debating miracles and memory in seventeenth-century Le Mans

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract In Le Mans in July 1562, the Protestant troops who had been occupying the town left abruptly, and the Catholic population soon developed the tradition that the Huguenots’ panic was due to a miracle performed by the town’s patron saint, St. Scholastique. In 1667, Claude Blondeau, a Catholic lawyer, disputed this local memory of the First War of Religion and ignited a published dispute over the nature of historical evidence and the status of Church tradition. Blondeau by no means supported the Reformed takeover of his city, but he also intensely criticized the Catholic retributory violence that followed. The argument over the miracle of St. Scholastique demonstrates that disagreements concerning the memory and meaning of the Wars of Religion endured in French towns into Louis XIV’s reign and had implications for religious toleration and political order at a time when the stipulations of the Edict of Nantes were subject to erosion.

Advancing social justice and democracy through participatory research

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Situating this special issue on “Participatory Approaches in Researching Multilingualism:Democratisation and Social Impact” in the current global moment, this commentary discusses the intellectual and political stakes of participatory research in anti-intellectual, undemocratic times. The discussion draws on insights from the introductory essay and the contributors' research articles to explore the various ways that the authors answer the question: What does it mean to participate in research? Answers offered by the papers raise issues of researcher and participant positionality; participation as a matter of degree; the dialogic and discovery-based nature of participatory research; and the temporalities of participation. The commentary then considers two challenges facing scholars doing participatory research: inequity in the research relationship and institutional inequities that devalue such work. The essay concludes by enumerating some of the ideals of participatory research...

Corrigendum to: Community-Centered Collaboration in Applied Linguistics

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Corrigendum to: Community-Centered Collaboration in Applied Linguistics

Styles and stereotypes

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The article examines how two Laotian American teenage girls in a multiracial California high school take divergent pathways through two contrasting stereotypes of Southeast Asian Americans: The model–minority nerd and the dangerous gangster. The two girls, both first-generation immigrants, each draw on contrasting linguistic and youth-cultural practices to align themselves to some degree with one of these stereotypes while distancing themselves from the other. The absence of an ethnically marked variety of Asian American English does not prevent the construction of Asian American identities; instead, speakers make use of locally available linguistic resources in their everyday speech practices, including African American Vernacular English and youth slang, to produce linguistic and cultural styles that position them partly inside and partly outside of the school’s binary black/white racial ideology. The article argues that linguistic resources need not be distinctive either between...

Learning through community-centered collaborative linguistics research at a Minority-Serving Institution

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract In light of the growing number of undergraduates from racially minoritized backgrounds at newly emergent Minority-Serving Institutions and other colleges and universities, linguists have a special responsibility to engage such students, particularly through projects that connect to students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This article describes undergraduates’ learning experiences in a research collective committed to community-centered collaborative work to advance sociolinguistic justice for the Mexican Indigenous diasporic community in California. The discussion centers the voices of undergraduate team members to demonstrate the benefits of students’ learning with respect to the research process, linguistics as a discipline, and understanding of self, family, and community.

János Imre Heltai & Eszter Tarsoly (eds.), Translanguaging for equal opportunities: Speaking Romani at school. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2023. Pp. 321. eBook Open Access, Hb. €115.

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

János Imre Heltai & Eszter Tarsoly (eds.), Translanguaging for equal opportunities: Speaking Romani at school. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2023. Pp. 321. eBook Open Access, Hb. €115.

Making Latinidad Audible

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Numerous U.S. television series featuring Latinx characters and Spanish-English bilingualism have gained national prominence in the past two decades. In these shows, portrayals of bilingualism range from overtly racist humor to more nuanced representations targeting a Latinx audience. In order to identify trends in these representations over time, the present study analyzes Spanish-language dialogue across six Latinx-themed comedies or comedy-dramas released between 2002 and 2020. The analysis demonstrates that while television representations of Latinx bilingual practices have become more sophisticated and realistic, some practices remain inaudible or inaccurate. As television has become more inclusive of Latinx language and culture, these gaps result in a linguistically amplified yet oversimplified televised representation of Latinidad that does not entirely break free of problematic raciolinguistic ideologies.

Making Latinidad Audible The Changing Linguistic Representation of Bilingualism on Latinx-Themed Television Shows

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Making Latinidad Audible The Changing Linguistic Representation of Bilingualism on Latinx-Themed Television Shows

Quantitative X‐ray scattering and reflectivity measurements of polymer thin films with 2D detectors

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract We describe a fully open‐sourced Python package to process raw X‐ray scattering data using a GANESHA SAXSLAB facility, and review in this manuscript the connection of X‐ray scattering theories with the open‐sourced package. This package affords researchers more flexibility in analyzing and visualizing X‐ray scattering and reflectivity data from what is now a commonplace facility at many universities and research laboratories engaged in polymer research. We briefly review the applications of X‐ray scattering and diffraction, followed by the scattering theories. A pedagogical introduction to processing X‐ray scattering data is provided using the modules in the Python package. We compare conventions to visualize and interpret transmission and grazing‐incidence scattering data using self‐assembled lamellar morphology of bottlebrush copolymers as an example, then describe how area detectors measure specular and off‐specular reflectivity. Examples of in‐house reflectivity and...

Photodegradation Increases Solubility of Grass Litter Carbon

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract Solar radiation is an important factor influencing dryland decomposition. Research suggests that, in the presence of water, previously irradiated plant litter experiences greater microbial decay than litter which was not exposed to radiation. The mechanism of this photopriming of microbial decomposition is unclear. We tested the hypothesis that solar radiation would (a) increase dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from litter subsequently extracted with water, and (b) produce DOC that stimulates more microbial activity than unexposed litter. Samples of dried senesced grass litter from three species, Bromus diandrus , Avena fatua , and Hordeum murinum , were exposed to radiation in indoor and outdoor experiments. Treated litter was soaked in water and the extract was analyzed to determine the DOC concentration and bioavailability. Radiation exposure produced more DOC in both experiments (40% greater outdoors and 21% greater indoors with visible radiation compared to blocked;...

Photodegradation influences litter decomposition rate in a humid tropical ecosystem, Brazil

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Solar radiation in general and UV radiation in particular have been recognized to stimulate plant litter decomposition through photochemical mineralization of organic molecules such as lignin and through facilitation of microbial decomposition in dryland ecosystems. However, little is known about how photodegradation may influence decomposition in other ecosystems not subject to moisture limitations and under what conditions photodegradation may be favored. Decomposition in humid tropical ecosystems is a complex process, and it can be influenced by a number of environmental factors that are distinct from arid and semi-arid ecosystems. To assess the mechanisms underlying photodegradation by ultraviolet B (UV-B) radiation in a humid tropical ecosystem, we designed a 300-day field experiment in a tropical site in Brazil with high levels of annual precipitation, compared to arid ecosystems, and exposed litter to three levels of radiation (full sun, UV-B removed, and shade) combined...

Learning to Engage Multilingual Learners in Opportunities for Rich Language: An Investigation of Preservice Secondary Science and Mathematics Teachers

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We investigated how preservice secondary science and mathematics teachers (PSTs) understood and reported enacting equitable core teaching practices to engage multilingual learners in ambitious content and opportunities for rich language learning. We defined these multilingual core practices as including: (a) cultivating a safe classroom community, (b) engaging students in opportunities for rich language, (c) implementing cognitively demanding work, (d) drawing on students’ funds of knowledge, and (e) attending to disciplinary language demands and supports. PSTs learned about these five multilingual core practices in relation to four instructional language routines (e.g., Co-Craft Questions & Problems, Stronger & Clearer), intentionally scaffolded opportunities to engage students in content and language learning, in an integrated science and mathematics methods course. We qualitatively analyzed PSTs’ individual interviews and written assignments, including their planning...

Interfacial Inversion of Stealth Surfactants

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Amphiphilic macromolecular surfactants segregate to liquid-liquid interfaces, thereby reducing the interfacial tension and free energy. We investigated "stealth surfactants" in the form of core-shell bottlebrush polymers comprised of pH-responsive diblock copolymer side chains forming a hydrophilic core and a hydrophobic shell, enabling solubility in oil. At liquid-liquid interfaces, these polymers undergo a structural "inversion", with hydrophilic blocks segregating into the aqueous phase and hydrophobic blocks residing in the oil phase. The reconfiguration kinetics and surfactant properties are influenced by multiple factors, including the molecular weights of the backbone and side chain components, the hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic balance of the side chains, and the pH of the aqueous phase. An observed nonmonotonic dependence of interfacial tension with time is attributed to a progressive structural inversion, where the projected area of the macromolecule onto the interface decreases....

Beyond the bilingualism myth: toward culturally sustaining autism interventions for multilingual families

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Despite robust evidence that bilingualism does not hinder language development in autistic children, service providers continue advising multilingual families to adopt English as their home language. This research-to-practice gap severs intergenerational cultural transmission and compromises parent-child communication. This perspective paper examines how historical misconceptions linking bilingualism with cognitive deficits became embedded in autism intervention practices. We analyze how intersecting ideologies of ableism and racism co-construct deficit-lens perspectives, and how policies rooted in White Mainstream English hegemony, organizational barriers, and assimilationist paradigms undermine multilingual families’ linguistic practices. Research shows autistic children successfully acquire multiple languages, and heritage language maintenance is essential for ethnic identity, family relationships, and well-being. Yet the systematic exclusion of non-English speakers from intervention...

Photoresponsive Metallo‐Supramolecular Systems Constructed From a Bidentate Ligand

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Metallosupramolecular polymers (MSPs) are stimuli-responsive materials whose properties can be tailored through the choice of ligand and metal salt. Their dynamic behavior is governed by the reversibility of the metal-ligand (ML) complexes and the ability to shift the equilibrium between assembled and disassembled states, enabling functions such as recyclability, healability, and adaptability. While heat is a simple and efficient stimulus, it makes temporal and spatial control difficult to achieve. To address this, we developed MSP systems composed of copolymers bearing 6-(1'-methylbenzimidazolyl)pyridine (MBP) ligands in varying concentrations, metal salts, and the photoacid generator (PAG) 2-(4-methoxystyryl)-4,6-bis(trichloromethyl)-1,3,5-triazine (MBTT). The MBP groups coordinate Fe(OTf)₂ or Fe(OTf)₃ to form dynamic ML cross-links. The resulting networks produce robust organogels when imbibed with chlorobenzene. MBTT renders the systems optically responsive,...

Mitonuclear dynamics in unisexual vertebrates

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sex and mitochondria are inextricably linked in the eukaryotic tree of life, a confounding situation given the uniparental inheritance of mitochondria and the biparental inheritance that sexual reproduction entails. Unisexual vertebrate lineages, which arise via hybridization and asexually pass on their genetic material to clonal descendants, provide a unique opportunity to study mitochondrial evolution without potentially confounding effects of sex. Hybridity and clonality set unisexual vertebrates apart from other vertebrates and establish a distinct genetic environment that shapes their evolution, especially dynamics between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. Here, we provide a perspective on the mitonuclear genomic interactions experienced by unisexual vertebrates and the implications of these interactions on mitochondrial function and integration into organismal performance and fitness. Building upon the hypothesis that sexual reproduction arose to maintain coadaptation between...

The complexity of funding rare disease research: an IRDiRC assessment of the landscape

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The complexity of the funding landscape for rare diseases (RD) research is due to many factors. Each type of funder has strategic goals guiding its investments. The International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) convened RD experts to explore contributing factors and investment principles in RD funding. This report includes the Task Force’s findings. Similar to IRDiRC’s previous work on motivating factors for company investments in RD research, the current Task Force found that return on investment (ROI) was a guiding principle. However, within the broader RD funding landscape, the definition of ROI varied between types of funders. While they shared funding requirements (e.g., scientific quality, health economics), funders employed both major investment and venture-type instruments, demonstrating the ongoing need for flexibility in supporting RD funding. These observations warrant further analysis of the interactions and partnerships among all actors of RD research and...

Uncovering seeding trials: examining non-scientific purposes in clinical trials

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Uncovering seeding trials: examining non-scientific purposes in clinical trials

The New Headworks Odor Control Biotrickling Filter Project: Performance Data and Operations and Maintenance Challenges at Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in the City of Los Angeles, California

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The New Headworks Odor Control Biotrickling Filter Project: Performance Data and Operations and Maintenance Challenges at Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in the City of Los Angeles, California

The New Primary Clarifier Tanks Cover Replacement and Refurbishment of Primary Treatment Chemical Scrubbers to Mitigate Foul Air at Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in the City of Los Angeles, California

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

LA Sanitation & Environment (LASAN) operates Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant (HWRP) in the City of Los Angeles (City) with an average dry-weather capacity of 450 million gallons per day (MGD) and has been operating since 1892. LASAN core mission has championed the protection of public health and the environment. Separately from the primary and secondary water treatment, HWRP is currently planning an advanced water purification system with the goal to produce 100% recycled water called Pure Water Los Angeles (PWLA) Program ($4.8B). The new primary treatment tanks cover replacement are improvements at HWRP which was completed in June 2024 ($14.5M). In addition, the refurbishment of primary treatment chemical scrubbers was completed in September 2023 ($4.0M). These projects are designed to contain and treat foul air stream [hydrogen sulfide (H2S)] from the primary treatment system. Primary battery (27 tanks) have new aluminum cover installation and include launders, scum troughs,...

Implementation of 21st Century Cures Act Expanded Access Policies Requirements

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded access pathway allows patients with life‐threatening or serious conditions to access investigational drugs outside of trials, under certain conditions. The 21st Century Cures Act (“Cures Act”) requires certain drug companies to publicly disclose their expanded access policies. We characterized the proportion of applicable US biopharmaceutical companies, with an oncology related drug, implementing Cures Act requirements for expanded access policies and whether available policies contain the information described in the Act. We found about one‐third of applicable biopharmaceutical companies (32%, 140/423) implemented the Cures Act requirement to have a public expanded access policy. Less than one‐third of public policies contained all described information (31%, 44/140). Larger companies and those with at least one drug receiving an FDA expedited designation (59% vs. 21%; P < 0.001), or at least one FDA‐approved drug...

Causes and Consequences of Cytonuclear Incompatibility in Hybrids of Flowering Plants

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hybridization and polyploidization combine divergent nuclear genomes with maternally inherited organelles, often disrupting cytonuclear coadaptation critical for respiration and photosynthesis. This review examines the mechanisms, outcomes, and evolutionary significance of cytonuclear incompatibility in plants. We focus on how divergence in nuclear-encoded, organelle-targeted proteins and organelle genomes leads to mismatched interactions in protein import, folding, and assembly of multi-subunit enzyme complexes. The evidence highlights taxon- and complex-specific responses that mitigate incompatibilities, including the biased retention and expression of maternal alleles, gene conversions, and regulatory adjustments. We highlight how cytonuclear compatibility in hybrid lineages entails responses at multiple levels of regulation, including methylation/chromatin accessibility, gene expression, alternative splicing, translation rates, organelle import, protein-folding and assembly,...

Media mastery and digital devices: sensitizing framework for understanding student experiences of connectivity and control

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction: This article summarizes the concept of media mastery as a sensitizing framework for understanding several paradoxes of digital media use. It then applies the framework to understand ways in which university students attempt to manage their digital devices. Materials and methods: The paper first provides an overview of the development of the concept. Then, based on focus group data from Norway 2015-2016 and relevant literature reviews, we explore how students attempted to navigate tensions and paradoxes involving connectivity (tensions between relationships and expectations) and control (tensions between dependency and awareness). Results: Many participants expressed frustration with social media and their own ability to control media use and distractions, questioning whether they should consider themselves dependent or addicted to their devices. They also discussed self-regulation strategies, such as controlling or limiting their digital media consumption, by becoming...

Open-source modular field-programmable gate array system for two-photon mesoscope enabling multiarea, multidepth neural activity recording and lifetime imaging

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Significance: Large field-of-view (FOV) two-photon microscopy enables simultaneous recording across multiple brain regions, but larger FOVs lengthen raster scans and limit temporal resolution. A modular, open-source solution that increases imaging speed and adds fluorescence-lifetime capability on standard systems would broaden access to mesoscale neural measurements. Aim: We aimed to develop and validate an open-source, modular field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based acquisition platform and a circular delay-path (CDP) module that together enable multiarea, multidepth mesoscale two-photon imaging and large-FOV two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (2p-FLIM) using an 80 MHz laser. Approach: We built an FPGA system that digitizes photomultiplier signals at and integrated it with a CDP module for a Diesel2p mesoscope. The CDP temporally multiplexes excitation for four focal planes; the FPGA demultiplexes and reconstructs images. Lifetime imaging was implemented on the...

Cocaine disrupts hidden states in the brain.

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Cocaine use disrupts the encoding of abstract states in the orbitofrontal cortex.

Identification of archaeological macrobotanical geophytes from the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia: studying the early long-lived focus on tubers in early Andean agriculture

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture initiated fundamental changes in the way people interacted with plant communities both in the loci of domestication and beyond. The South American Andes is one domestication center that provided some of the world’s most important foods. The domestication processes of underground storage organs (USOs) such as Solanum, Oxalis, Ullucus, Tropaeolum and Lepidium began across the high plains of the Andes, yet our knowledge of the timing of domestication and the commitment to agriculture lags compared to other regions. Decades of research on the Taraco Peninsula in the southern Lake Titicaca basin have amassed a systematic set of archaeological information that pertains to the periods that saw climatic change during the shift to more sedentary, agricultural lifeways. While we have known that this is a locus of tuber domestication through ethnographic, microbotanical and genetic data, scholars and archaeologists have been unable...

The Grounds of Political Legitimacy, by Fabienne Peter

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Grounds of Political Legitimacy, by Fabienne Peter

Social Media and Mass Empowerment: Towards a Theory of Digital Legitimacy

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Social Media and Mass Empowerment: Towards a Theory of Digital Legitimacy

Picolinate-based acyclic ligand for rare earth element extraction and separation

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The rare earth elements (REEs) play an important role in many modern technologies, particularly those relevant to clean energy. Despite their increasing importance, obtaining them in elementally pure forms suitable for downstream applications is challenging due to their similar chemical properties. This problem has impeded efforts to efficiently and selectively extract them from end-of-life materials and electronic waste. Here, we report a cost-efficient acyclic picolinate-based chelator H₄aapa. The REE stability constants (log K _ML) of this chelator were measured via pH potentiometric and UV-Visible spectrophotometric titrations, revealing it to preferably bind light over heavy REEs like many recently reported 18-membered macrocycles. Its REE complexes were characterized by X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy, demonstrating that this chelator can attain different conformations. The unique properties of aapa were subsequently used to...

Airway injury induces alveolar epithelial responses mediated by macrophages

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Airway injury activates local progenitors and stimulates cell-cell interactions to restore homeostasis, but it is unknown how distal niches are impacted. We utilized mouse models of airway-specific epithelial injury to examine secondary tissue-wide alveolar and immune responses. Single-cell transcriptomics and in vivo validation of mouse models of airway-specific epithelial injury revealed transient, tissue-wide proliferation of alveolar type 2 (AT2) progenitor cells after club cell-specific injury or ablation. Myeloid cells exhibited altered gene expression after club cell loss and were detectable in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. The AT2 cell proliferative response was reliant on alveolar macrophages (AMs) exhibiting an injury-induced gene expression program. Overall, these results demonstrate that acute airway damage can trigger myeloid-mediated lung alveolar responses that may contribute to disease susceptibility or dysfunction.

Long-term Nutrient Fertilization Increased Soil Carbon Storage in California Grasslands

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Elevated nutrient deposition often increases primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems and thus has the potential to increase the flux of carbon (C) into soils. An important step toward greater understanding of nutrient effects on C storage involves assessing effects on different fractions of the soil C pool across a range of soil types. We quantified the combined effects of 8 years of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and micronutrient fertilization on the C storage in bulk soil and in density fractions at four grassland sites in California. When averaged across sites, fertilization increased soil light fraction C by 64% relative to the control in the 0–10 cm depth. The increase in light fraction C likely resulted from the fertilization-induced increase in plant C input to soil, as aboveground net primary productivity also consistently increased with fertilization across sites. Effects of fertilization on heavy fraction C were highly site specific, having...

Regenerative therapeutics for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common lung diseases worldwide, characterized by an accelerated loss of lung function. A key problem underlying COPD is increased tissue destruction in combination with defective lung tissue repair. As current therapies do not modify the progression of the disease, new therapies aimed at restoring lung tissue repair in COPD need to be developed. In an attempt to address this major unmet need, there has been a surge in both preclinical and clinical studies, aiming to identify key mechanisms underpinning defective lung repair and the ability to inhibit or even reverse this defect. This includes small molecules such as retinoids, as well as advanced therapy medicinal products such as cell therapies or therapies with cell-derived products such as extracellular vesicles, or secreted proteins. The results of these endeavors have been variable with failures as well as successful proof-of-concepts. In this review, we provide...

Size-Adaptive Macrocyclic Coordination of 203Pb, 207Bi, and 133Ba by py-Macrodipa and py2‑Macrodipa

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The coordination chemistry of large metal ions presents fundamental challenges arising from differences in ionic radius, charge, and electronic structure, particularly for heavy p-block and alkaline-earth metals. Herein, we report an experimental and computational investigation of the size-adaptive macrocyclic chelators py-macrodipa and py₂-macrodipa with Pb²⁺, Bi³⁺, and Ba²⁺, with Ba²⁺ employed as a nonradioactive surrogate for Ra²⁺. Potentiometric and spectrophotometric measurements reveal strong aqueous complexation across all three metals, with stability constants of log K = 14.01(1) and 14.37(4) for Pb²⁺, 16.74(2) and 17.36(3) for Bi³⁺, and 7.85(3) and 8.01(5) for Ba²⁺ with py-macrodipa and py₂-macrodipa, respectively. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction, NMR spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations demonstrate the pronounced conformational flexibility...

Evaluating the impact of extreme climate events on crop yields under future climate scenarios

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Climate change and associated extreme climate events, such as drought, heavy precipitation, and heatwaves, present challenges to crop yields and global food security. However, the critical thresholds of associated dominant extreme events remain unclear, and so does the manner in which these events may influence future agricultural risks. This work develops a novel, data-driven, framework for assessing climate-induced crop yield risks and for evaluating the role of extreme climate events on the yields of major crops. The evaluation is made using an explainable LightGBM prediction model based on historical yield and climate data. The model elucidates key climate events driving yield variability and identifies their critical thresholds at which they negatively impact crop yield. Non-climatic factors are controlled to isolate climate-driven yield variability. This paper's framework is applied to evaluate the role that extreme climatic events might have on crop yields at the district...

Adapting Akaike information criterion to multiple circular regression

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Circular data analysis has attracted much interest in various disciplines, as can be seen from a multitude of papers, as well as books such as Mardia and Jupp (2000) and Jammalamadaka and SenGupta (2001). In this article, we focus on the issue of selecting optimal regressors in a multiple circular regression problem, using ideas similar to the Akaike information criterion (AIC) that is widely used in the context of linear regression, and develop pertinent variations of it. A “Circular Akaike Information Criterion” (CAIC) and a robust version of it, which we call the “Robust Circular Akaike Information Criterion (RCAIC)” are proposed here and used to select the optimal regressors in multiple circular regression contexts. The robustness study also examines the finite-sample breakdown point and the influence function for the CAIC criterion. The performance of the proposed criteria is evaluated, first using extensive simulation studies, and then applied to a real dataset in a medical...

Identification of archaeological macrobotanical geophytes from the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia: studying the early long-lived focus on tubers in early Andean agriculture

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Identification of archaeological macrobotanical geophytes from the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia: studying the early long-lived focus on tubers in early Andean agriculture

Ancestral Remembrance and Food Consumption at La Chiripa in Ancient Arenal, Costa Rica

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ancestral Remembrance and Food Consumption at La Chiripa in Ancient Arenal, Costa Rica

Targeted Tick-Borne Disease Recognition: Assessing Risk for Improved Public Health.

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) pose a rapidly growing threat to public health. The incidence of TBDs is on the rise, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the risk factors beyond demographic considerations. This brief report combines a preliminary review of the literature with geographical case mapping to identify the various factors influencing TBD risk. The report highlights the vulnerability of outdoor workers, the importance of outdoor activities, and the role of education in adopting preventive behaviors. Pet ownership and interactions with animals are also associated with an increased risk. The state of Illinois is used as a case study for this report, revealing regional variations in TBD incidence, and linking them to agricultural practices, forested areas, and park accessibility. These findings inform recommendations for targeted prevention strategies, emphasizing the need for detailed geographical data to enhance public health efforts in curbing TBD incidence and risk.

Understanding Habitats and Environmental Conditions of White-Tailed Deer Population Density and Public Health Data to Aid in Assessing Human Tick-Borne Disease Risk.

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The extent of tick-borne diseases (TBDs) in the United States is largely unknown and underreported. Equitable diagnostic and treatment options may vary by geographic location. Triangulating multi-modal data sources informed by a One Health approach provides robust proxies for human TBD risk. Using data from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources collected from hunters during the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) hunting season and other sources, we employ a mixed-methods approach based on thematic mapping and mixed effects modelling to determine if deer population density aligns with official disease data at the county level from (1) positive canine serological reports for, anaplasmosis, and Lyme Disease (LD); (2) positive human cases of ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, LD, and Spotted Fever rickettsioses; and (3) tick infectivity. We propose the need for multimodal data analysis using a variety of potential proxies to better estimate disease risk and inform public...

Trees, shrubs, and forests at Joya de Ceren, a Late Classic Mesoamerican village

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Trees, shrubs, and forests at Joya de Ceren, a Late Classic Mesoamerican village

Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Ceren, El Salvador

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Late Classic Maya village of Joya de Cerén’s extraordinary preservation by the Loma Caldera eruption circa 660 CE allows for a unique opportunity to study ancient Mesoamerican landscape management and agricultural practices. Various fruit trees, annual and root crops, fiber producers and other useful plants were cultivatedwithin the village center, creating productive house-lot gardens. Extensive agricultural outfields of maize, manioc, squash, common beans, and numerous weedy species also have been documented through intensivepaleoethnobotanical recovery methods and demonstrate the practice of multi-cropped or polyculture farming during Prehispanic times. The assorted array of economically useful species reveals the diversity of foodstuffs readily accessible to the inhabitants on a daily basis that were not simply the annual crops planted within theoutfields. The long history of paleoethnobotanical research at this exceptionally preserved site provides theopportunity to not...

Disentangling cation effects on ion mobility and structure in ionic liquid electrolytes

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ionic liquids (ILs) are low-temperature molten salts, where ion transport is primarily governed by ion–ion interactions. Yet, the impact of organic IL cations on critical electrolyte properties such as ion dissociation and overall transport behavior in lithium-salt-doped ILs remains poorly understood. Moreover, despite their critical role in designing IL-based electrolytes for energy storage applications, ion–ion interactions and ion-specific transport under an applied electrical potential are seldom quantified, largely due to the unique experimental and computational challenges involved. Herein, we compare transport properties obtained using 1H, 7Li, and 19F pulsed-field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electrophoretic NMR (eNMR) with those measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and eNMR confirm the presence of negatively charged [Li(TFSI)n](1−n) aggregates that migrate towards the positive electrode,...

Impact of Diglyme Cosolvent on Low-Temperature Microstructural Lithium Growth

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Impact of Diglyme Cosolvent on Low-Temperature Microstructural Lithium Growth

Correction to “Stacking Faults Assist Lithium-Ion Conduction in a Halide-Based Superionic Conductor”

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Correction to “Stacking Faults Assist Lithium-Ion Conduction in a Halide-Based Superionic Conductor”

Before the Bouillon Affair: The Counts of Auvergne and Genealogical Debate in Early Modern France

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When in 1695 the cardinal of Bouillon invited Étienne Baluze, Dom Jean Mabillon, and Dom Thierry Ruinart to examine and authenticate newly discovered charters from the abbey of Saint- Julien de Brioude that purported to demonstrate the descent of the House of La Tour d’Auvergne from the tenth-century counts of Auvergne and dukes of Aquitaine, his request touched off an intense debate connecting erudition and political factionalism at the court of Louis XIV. While this “Bouillon affair” is relatively well known, its prehistory is not: the questions at stake had been stud- ied and debated previously, particularly by a group of erudite genealogists of the early seventeenth century. This chapter demonstrates how scholars such as André Duchesne, Jean Besly, Jean Savaron, and Christofle Justel interacted in letters and in print, thereby helping to formulate the complicated history of medieval Auvergne. At every stage, their conclusions were guided not only by the noble interests they...

Maternal Loss of Ube3a Impairs Experience-Driven Dendritic Spine Maintenance in the Developing Visual Cortex.

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Unlabelled

Dendritic spines are a morphological feature of the majority of excitatory synapses in the mammalian neocortex and are motile structures with shapes and lifetimes that change throughout development. Proper cortical development and function, including cortical contributions to learning and memory formation, require appropriate experience-dependent dendritic spine remodeling. Dendritic spine abnormalities have been reported for many neurodevelopmental disorders, including Angelman syndrome (AS), which is caused by the loss of the maternally inherited UBE3A allele (encoding ubiquitin protein ligase E3A). Prior studies revealed that UBE3A protein loss leads to reductions in dendritic spine density and diminished excitatory synaptic transmission. However, the decrease in spine density could come from either a reduction in spine formation or an increase in spine elimination. Here, we used acute and longitudinal in vivo two-photon microscopy to investigate developmental...

Assessing land use change trajectories following food insecurity shocks in 25 low- and middle-income countries

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Food insecurity is a perennial problem in much of the developing world, with gains against hunger backsliding in recent years and climate change predicted to accelerate this trend. Food insecurity is highly disruptive to rural livelihoods and can lead to dramatic shifts in food production strategies and resultant land use. However, studies to date have yet to outline the overarching patterns of land use change that can result from food insecurity. We elucidate the impact of food insecurity events between 2013 and 2020 in 25 low- and middle-income countries on resulting land use change and demographics. Using propensity score matching, we create a counterfactual and assess changes in forest cover, crop cover, population and nighttime luminosity between regions that experience food insecurity and comparable food-secure regions. Land use change theory, specifically the classical trajectories of agricultural intensification, land rent theory, and regime shifts help to explain observed...

The Zn2+ transporter ZIP7 enhances endoplasmic-reticulum-associated protein degradation and prevents neurodegeneration in Drosophila

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Proteotoxic stress drives numerous degenerative diseases. Cells initially adapt to misfolded proteins by activating the unfolded protein response (UPR), including endoplasmic-reticulum-associated protein degradation (ERAD). However, persistent stress triggers apoptosis. Enhancing ERAD is a promising therapeutic approach for protein misfolding diseases. The ER-localized Zn²⁺ transporter ZIP7 is conserved from plants to humans and required for intestinal self-renewal, Notch signaling, cell motility, and survival. However, a unifying mechanism underlying these diverse phenotypes was unknown. In studying Drosophila border cell migration, we discovered that ZIP7-mediated Zn²⁺ transport enhances the obligatory deubiquitination of proteins by the Rpn11 Zn²⁺ metalloproteinase in the proteasome lid. In human cells, ZIP7 and Zn²⁺ are limiting for deubiquitination. In a Drosophila model of neurodegeneration caused by misfolded rhodopsin (Rh1),...

Enantioselective Alkylation of Fused Bicyclic Pyridines Enabled by Chiral Lithium Amides as Traceless Auxiliaries

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pyridines and nitrogen containing heterocycles comprise a large portion of pharmaceutical compounds and have many practical applications. Herein, we describe a straightforward, enantioselective method for direct alkylation of fused bicyclic pyridines, using chiral lithium amides as traceless auxiliaries. This method is tolerant of a variety of activated electrophiles which can allow for further functionalization.

Mechanisms of DNA methyltransferase 3A1-mediated DNA methylation of nucleosomes

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DNA methyltransferase 3A1 (DNMT3A1) plays a crucial role in establishing DNA methylation patterns that regulate gene expression and drive cellular differentiation. In this study, we investigated the biochemical mechanisms underlying DNMT3A1's interactions with nucleosomes, the fundamental units of chromatin. Using radiochemical activity assays, along with fluorescence anisotropy and AlphaLISA binding assays, we demonstrated that DNMT3A1 has multivalent interactions with nucleosomes, binding linker DNA and nucleosome cores. Nanopore-based 5mC sequencing revealed that DNMT3A1 interactions with the nucleosome stimulate methylation of linker DNA up to 24 bp away from the nucleosome core. Additionally, our results indicate that DNMT3A1 binding is restricted to a single nucleosome, suggesting that its activity is not allosterically regulated by unattached nucleosomes. Together, these findings provide new mechanistic insights into how DNMT3A1 engages nucleosomes.

Modeling the Risk Reduction Benefit of Forest Management Using a Case Study in the Lake Tahoe Basin

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Across the United States, wildfire severity and frequency are increasing, placing many properties at risk of harm or destruction. We quantify and compare how different forest management strategies designed to increase forest resilience and health reduce the number of properties at risk from wildfire, focusing on the Lake Tahoe Basin of California and Nevada. We combine landscape change simulations (including climate change, wildfire, and management effects) with scenarios of current and plausible fuel treatment activities and parcel-scale fire risk analysis. Results suggest that more aggressive fuel treatment activities that treat more area on the landscape, whether through mechanical and hand thinning or prescribed fire, dramatically lower the fire probability in the region and lead to a corresponding lower risk of property loss. We estimate that relative to recent practices of focusing management in the wildland–urban interface, more active forest management can reduce property...

Forest product market conditions mediate the scale and benefits of sustainable forest management in the Tahoe-Central Sierra Region

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Forest product market conditions mediate the scale and benefits of sustainable forest management in the Tahoe-Central Sierra Region

Extracting the future: Lithium in an era of energy transition

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Extracting the future: Lithium in an era of energy transition

Using payment for ecosystem services to meet national reforestation commitments: impacts of 20+ years of forestry incentives in Guatemala

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

International environmental initiatives, such as the Bonn Challenge and the UN Decade on Restoration, have prompted countries to put the management and restoration of forest landscapes at the center of their land use and climate policies. To support these goals, many governments are promoting forest landscape restoration and management through financial forestry incentives, a form of payment for ecosystem services. Since 1996, Guatemala has implemented a series of forestry incentives that promote active forest landscape restoration and management on private and communal lands. These programs have been widely hailed as a success with nearly 600 000 ha enrolled since 1998. However, there has been no systematic assessment of the effectiveness of these programs on preserving and restoring Guatemalan forests. This study evaluates the impacts of over 16 000 individual PES projects funded through two incentive programs using a synthetic control counterfactual. Overall, a program for...

Is glacier science undone, or just enough for a just transition? Reflections from Andean Mines

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Undone science refers to missing areas of scientific knowledge needed for decision-making or public policy. Though the term has become ubiquitous in STS research, it is hard to distinguish undone science from other possibilities like uncertainty, secrecy, or even unknowability. This paper advances a framework for distinguishing undone science from these other scenarios and applies it to the case of glacier management in Chile. Drawing on observations of glaciology science and regulatory documents, the authors compare how glacier science informed decisions on two Environmental Impact Assessments about new mines, nearly 20 years apart: Pascua Lama and Los Bronces, approved respectively in 2006 and 2023. The comparison shows a shift in Chilean glacier management, from a classic case of “undone science,” defined as that needed by specific mobilized or marginalized groups to advance their cause, to one of scientific controversy. In this second moment, contests over uncertainty or what...

Social-ecological drought and smallholder vulnerability in the Central American Dry Corridor

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Impacts from droughts are of heightened concern in smallholder-dominated areas globally, with climate change projected to drive increasing frequency and severity of droughts in the coming decades. Zacapa Department, Guatemala, has seen dramatic effects of El Niño-driven seasonal drought on smallholder agricultural systems, with reports of up to 80% crop losses in recent years. We assess vulnerability and drought impacts in these systems by integrating an ethnographic analysis of smallholders’ experiences of climate change in two adjacent communities in Zacapa with remotely sensed data on plant greenness anomaly and water deficit. Although recent droughts were not historically anomalous, we found increases in growing-season water deficit, which were particularly impactful to livelihoods and vegetation health. Farmers perceive recent droughts as more frequent and harmful than historic events and provide proximate and religious explanations for these changes, such as attributing...

Calibrated deference: Children's evaluations of responses to disagreement across knowledge gaps

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Declaring that you are right or wrong is not merely a factual matter, but often a deeply social decision about when to own up to the limits of your knowledge and when to stick to your guns. How do children evaluate others' decisions to either admit they might be wrong, or double down? Do children always feel that it is better to modestly defer to others? Across 5 studies (total N = 1289), children ages 4-12 evaluated cases of disagreement where a target character either deferred to their corrector by admitting a lack of knowledge or stuck to their initial claim. In some cases, children reported that it was better for the target to defer after being corrected by someone (either a teacher or peer) who likely had better knowledge (Studies 1 and 2). But, children also believed that deferring isn't always the best thing to do; they judged that it was better to stick to one's initial answer after a disagreement with an inexpert peer (Study 3) or a teacher without relevant...

Impact of absorption due to zero-field splitting on loss in dielectrics: A case study in sapphire

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The coherence times of superconducting qubits are limited by loss mechanisms, whose microscopic origins have remained elusive. We propose a mechanism caused by transitions between zero-field-split states of paramagnetic impurities or defects. We derive the absorption cross section for a magnetic dipole transition and apply it to calculate the bulk loss tangent. For Cr, Fe, and V impurities in sapphire, we find loss tangents at 4.5 GHz in the range of 10−9–10−8, comparable to the loss measured in experiments. This value suggests that magnetic loss may be a limiting factor in the coherence times of superconducting qubits.

Optical properties of vacancies in aluminum oxide (α-Al2O3) from first principles

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We employ first-principles calculations based on hybrid density functional theory to investigate the structural and optical properties of the oxygen vacancy and aluminum vacancy in , the most stable (corundum) phase of alumina. Our calculations facilitate the identification of experimental excitation and luminescence spectra with specific electronic transitions at the vacancy sites. The absorption line shape for excitation of an electron at to the conduction-band minimum (CBM) is in excellent agreement with the 6.1 eV band detected by optical absorption spectroscopy, and we find that the 5.9 eV absorption band is generated by an internal electron transition at . We confirm that the slowly decaying 3.0 eV emission band of the center is due to a triplet-singlet transition at . Our calculations also reveal that the 4.8 eV/5.4 eV absorption and 3.8 eV emission bands assigned to the center are generated by internal transitions at . The line shape...

Resonant states and nuclear dynamics in solid-state systems: The case of silicon-hydrogen bond dissociation

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bond breaking in the presence of highly energetic carriers is central to many important phenomena in physics and chemistry, including radiation damage, hot-carrier degradation, activation of dopant-hydrogen complexes in semiconductors, and photocatalysis. Describing these processes from first principles has remained an elusive goal. Here we introduce a comprehensive theoretical framework for the dissociation process, emphasizing the need for a nonadiabatic approach. We develop the methodology and benchmark the results for the case of silicon-hydrogen bond dissocation, a primary process for hot-carrier degradation. Passivation of Si dangling bonds by hydrogen is vital in all Si devices because it eliminates electrically active mid-gap states; understanding the mechanism for dissociation of these bonds is therefore crucial for device technology. While the need for a nonadiabatic approach has been previously recognized, explicitly obtaining diabatic states for solid-state systems...

Will Nontoxic High‐Performance Perovskite Photovoltaics Ever Be Possible?

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lead‐based halide perovskite solar cells represent a significant advancement in photovoltaic technology, achieving certified power conversion efficiencies of over 27%. However, the toxicity of lead poses a major barrier to widespread commercialization. The demand for environmentally safe alternatives has driven extensive research into Pb‐free perovskites. Current efforts include replacing Pb with Sn or Ge; forming double perovskites in which Pb is substituted by a monovalent–trivalent cation pair; and developing chalcogenide perovskites where the B site ( ABX 3 ) adopts tetravalent cations (rather than Pb) to balance the charge. This concept examines the recent progress in developing Pb‐free alternatives, revealing fundamental performance bottlenecks, inherent material limitations, and persistent development challenges. Through a comparative assessment of material properties and device performance limitations, this work highlights the underlying dilemma between environmental...

Abundant empirical evidence of multilevel selection revealed by a bibliometric review