Research Compliance Newsletter, Fall 2023

The spotlight of this newsletter is the revised research misconduct policy that was recently announced. We also share several important reminders and updates about new requirements highlighted in our last newsletter. We hope this will be a useful resource for you to refer to in the coming months

Research Compliance Newsletter, Spring 2022

Inaugural edition of the Research Compliance Newsletter designed to keep members of the University of Maine community up-to-date on research compliance issues such as standards, ethics, research security, and changes to federal regulations controlling mitigation of foreign influence on research within the United States

Thermoregulatory ability and mechanism do not differ consistently between neotropical and temperate butterflies

Climate change is a major threat to species worldwide, yet it remains uncertain whether tropical or temperate species are more vulnerable to changing temperatures. To further our understanding of this, we used a standardised field protocol to (1) study the buffering ability (ability to regulate body temperature relative to surrounding air temperature) of neotropical (Panama) and temperate (the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Austria) butterflies at the assemblage and family level, (2) determine if any differences in buffering ability were driven by morphological characteristics and (3) used ecologically relevant temperature measurements to investigate how butterflies use microclimates and behaviour to thermoregulate. We hypothesised that temperate butterflies would be better at buffering than neotropical butterflies as temperate species naturally experience a wider range of temperatures than their tropical counterparts. Contrary to our hypothesis, at the assemblage level, neotropical species (especially Nymphalidae) were better at buffering than temperate species, driven primarily by neotropical individuals cooling themselves more at higher air temperatures. Morphology was the main driver of differences in buffering ability between neotropical and temperate species as opposed to the thermal environment butterflies experienced. Temperate butterflies used postural thermoregulation to raise their body temperature more than neotropical butterflies, probably as an adaptation to temperate climates, but the selection of microclimates did not differ between regions. Our findings demonstrate that butterfly species have unique thermoregulatory strategies driven by behaviour and morphology, and that neotropical species are not likely to be more inherently vulnerable to warming than temperate species

Mother, Monster, Mrs, I:A critical evaluation of gendered naming strategies in English sentencing remarks of women who kill

In this article, we take a novel approach to analysing English sentencing remarks in cases of women who kill. We apply computational, quantitative, and qualitative methods from corpus linguistics to analyse recurrent patterns in a collection of English Crown Court sentencing remarks from 2012 to 2015, where a female defendant was convicted of a homicide offence. We detail the ways in which women who kill are referred to by judges in the sentencing remarks, providing frequency information on pronominal, nominative, and categorising naming strategies. In discussion of the various patterns of preference both across and within these categories (e.g. pronoun vs. nomination, title + surname vs. forename + surname), we remark upon the identities constructed through the references provided. In so doing, we: (1) quantify the extent to which members of the judiciary invoke patriarchal values and gender stereotypes within their sentencing remarks to construct female defendants, and (2) identify particular identities and narratives that emerge within sentencing remarks for women who kill. We find that judges refer to women who kill in a number of ways that systematically create dichotomous narratives of degraded victims or dehumanised monsters. We also identify marked absences in naming strategies, notably: physical identification normally associated with narrativization of women’s experiences; and the first person pronoun, reflecting omissions of women’s own voices and narratives of their lived experiences in the courtroom

Return to Everyday Activity in the Community and Home: a feasibility study for a lifestyle intervention to sit less, move more, and be strong

Background: Many interventions designed to meet physical activity guideline recommendations focus on a single component (e.g., walking), to the detriment of other elements of a healthy lifestyle, such as reducing prolonged sitting and doing balance and strength exercises (i.e., bundled multiple behaviors). Adopting these multiple health behaviors within daily life routines may facilitate uptake and support longer-term behavior change. We tested feasibility for a three-part lifestyle intervention to support older women to sit less, move more, and complete balance and strength exercises. Methods: We used a convergent parallel mixed-methods, single-arm study design to test feasibility for a 6-week lifestyle intervention: Return to Everyday Activities in the Community and Home (REACH). We collected information at baseline, 3 and 6 weeks (final), and 6 months (follow-up) using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and performance-based measures. We describe three key elements: (1) implementation factors such as recruitment, retention, program delivery, and adherence; (2) participants’ acceptability and experience with the program; and (3) health outcomes, including participants’ global mobility, activity, and perceptions of their physical activity identity, and habit strength for (i) physical activity, (ii) breaking up sitting time, and (iii) balance and strength exercises. Results: We were able to recruit enough participants in the allotted time to conduct one cycle of the REACH group-based program. There were 10 community-dwelling women, median (p25, p75) age 61 (57.5, 71) years, who completed the study. The program was feasible to deliver, with high attendance (mean 5/6 sessions) and positive overall ratings (8/10). Participants rated session content and length high, and educational materials as highly acceptable and understandable. Although participants were active walkers at baseline, few were breaking up prolonged sitting or participating in any balance and strength exercises. At final and follow-up assessments, participants reported developing habits for all three health behaviors, without diminishing physical activity. Conclusion: These results show acceptability of the program and its materials, and feasibility for bundling multiple health behaviors within the REACH program. It also provides confirmation to advance to testing feasibility of this three-part lifestyle intervention with older, less active, adults. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier, NCT02786394 ; May 18, 2016.Other UBCNon UBCReviewedFacult

Where Architecture and Art meet

With increased interests in solving complex problems through interdisciplinary research—how best can museums use this approach to address critical social issues? In order to answer this question, an interdisciplinary group of curators, artists and students worked together at the Smithsonian Institution to create an experimental teaching environment to rethink the disciplinary boundaries around the study of the human body. Our aim was to use a range of anthropological, art and science collections and readings to undertake the issues of race, gender, genetics, and disability, and the historic inequities resulting from colonialism. We discuss this endeavor, including the public program we developed—the Face Cast Lab—as well as lessons learned about who affects change through this type of museum-based teaching.

Accumulation of Pathological Tau Species and Memory Loss in a Conditional Model of Tauopathy

Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer\u27s disease and other tauopathies, but recent studies in a conditional mouse model of tauopathy (rTg4510) have suggested that NFT formation can be dissociated from memory loss and neurodegeneration. This suggests that NFTs are not the major neurotoxic tau species, at least during the early stages of pathogenesis. To identify other neurotoxic tau protein species, we performed biochemical analyses on brain tissues from the rTg4510 mouse model and then correlated the levels of these tau proteins with memory loss. We describe the identification and characterization of two forms of tau multimers (140 and 170 kDa), whose molecular weight suggests an oligomeric aggregate, that accumulate early in the pathogenic cascade in this mouse model. Similar tau multimers were detected in a second mouse model of tauopathy (JNPL3) and in tissue from patients with Alzheimer\u27s disease and FTDP-17 (frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17). Moreover, levels of the tau multimers correlated consistently with memory loss at various ages in the rTg4510 mouse model. Our findings suggest that accumulation of early-stage aggregated tau species, before the formation of NFT, is associated with the development of functional deficits during the pathogenic progression of tauopathy

Relative sea-level change in South Florida during the past ~5000 years

A paucity of detailed relative sea-level (RSL) reconstructions from low latitudes hinders efforts to understand the global, regional, and local processes that cause RSL change. We reconstruct RSL change during the past ~5 ka using cores of mangrove peat at two sites (Snipe Key and Swan Key) in the Florida Keys. Remote sensing and field surveys established the relationship between peat-forming mangroves and tidal elevation in South Florida. Core chronologies are developed from age-depth models applied to 72 radiocarbon dates (39 mangrove wood macrofossils and 33 fine-fraction bulk peat). RSL rose 3.7 m at Snipe Key and 5.0 m at Swan Key in the past 5 ka, with both sites recording the fastest century-scale rate of RSL rise since ~1900 CE (~2.1 mm/a). We demonstrate that it is feasible to produce near-continuous reconstructions of RSL from mangrove peat in regions with a microtidal regime and accommodation space created by millennial-scale RSL rise. Decomposition of RSL trends from a network of reconstructions across South Florida using a spatio-temporal model suggests that Snipe Key was representative of regional RSL trends, but Swan Key was influenced by an additional local-scale process acting over at least the past five millennia. Geotechnical analysis of modern and buried mangrove peat indicates that sediment compaction is not the local-scale process responsible for the exaggerated RSL rise at Swan Key. The substantial difference in RSL between two nearby sites highlights the critical need for within-region replication of RSL reconstructions to avoid misattribution of sea-level trends, which could also have implications for geophysical modeling studies using RSL data for model tuning and validation.Ministry of Education (MOE)National Research Foundation (NRF)Submitted/Accepted versionAuthors were supported by National Science Foundation Awards (OCE-1702587, OCE-1831450, and OCE-2002437 to Kopp and Ashe; OCE-2002431, OCE-1458921, OCE-1831382, and OCE-1942563 to Kemp; OCE-1458903 to Engelhart). RPM is supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s State Wildlife Grants Program (#F13AF00982). BPH is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund MOE2019-T3-1-004 and MOE-T2EP50120-0007, the National Research Foundation Singapore, the Singapore Ministry of Education under the Research Centers of Excellence Initiative

Research data supporting "Tropical butterflies use thermal buffering and thermal tolerance as alternative strategies to cope with temperature change".

Data is in two parts, firstly field recordings of the body temperature of 54 species of tropical butterflies and ambient air conditions. Secondly, a subset of these species (24 species) used in upper thermal maxima experiments in the lab. Methods: Butterflies were sampled from multiple habitats in Panama from February 2020 to March 2022, across both wet and dry seasons. Data were collected in multiple locations: Gamboa (lowland managed urban green spaces) [9°6'59.13"N, 79°41'47.41"W] (elevation = 28 m), “Pipeline road” in Soberanía National Park (secondary semi-deciduous lowland tropical wet forest) [9° 7'39.04"N, 79°42'17.80"W] (elevation = 92 m), Campana in the Capira District (pre-montane wet encroaching scrub and secondary forest) [8°40’54.97”N, 79°55’25.08”W] (elevation = 327 m), Sajalices in the Chame District (lowland tropical wet encroaching scrub and secondary forest) [8°40’53.55”N, 79°51’57.90”W] (elevation = 150 m), El Valle (lowland tropical wet encroaching scrub) [8°37’04.7”N, 80°0656.5”W] (elevation = 674 m), Mount Totumas (lower mountain rainforest and management agroforestry) [8°52’58.6”N, 82°41’01.3”W] (elevation = 1877 m), and San Lorenzo National Park (secondary lowland tropical wet forest) [9°14’49.2”N, 79°58’44.2”W] (elevation = 185 m). This range of sites allowed the collection of a wide variety of species across a range of air temperatures (minimum = 17.4°C, mean = 28.5°C, maximum = 39.7°C). Butterflies were identified to species level using identification guides and with the help of a local expert (ACZ). The only exception was Calephelis spp., which due to their complex taxonomy, were identified only to the genus level and treated as a single species during analyses. Thermal buffering ability Surveys were undertaken in all weather conditions except rain, between 07:30 and 16:00 hours, and we attempted to capture any butterflies seen. Butterflies were caught in hand nets without chasing (to avoid raising butterfly body temperature). Immediately after capture, butterfly body temperature was recorded using a thermocouple with a handheld indicator (Tecpel Thermometer 305B, Tecpel Co. Ltd., Taiwan), by gently pressing the probe through the net against the butterfly’s thorax, without handling or touching the butterfly. Body temperature was recorded within 10 seconds of capture, followed by air temperature, taken with the thermocouple held at waist height in the shade. We then identified individual butterflies to species, and recorded wing length (with callipers, from the joint in the thorax to the tip of the forewing), and wing colour (ranked from: 1, almost white; 2, yellow-green; 3, orange; 4; orange-brown or blue; 5, brown; to 6, almost black; as established by Bladon et al. 2020). In species with multiple colours, colour values were averaged (for example, an equally black and white butterfly species would have the values for black (6) and white (1) averaged (giving 3.5)). Butterflies were marked and retained in a small cage until the end of the survey (up to a maximum of 6 hours, in shade with access to water and sugar solution) to prevent re-recording the same individuals, before being released. Thermal tolerance From January to March 2022, a subset of butterflies, captured to record their thermal buffering ability, were used for thermal tolerance experiments. Species (n = 24) were chosen based on high abundance. The selected individuals were retained in glassine envelopes with moistened cotton and kept outdoors in the shade at ambient temperature before measurement of thermal tolerance (within six hours of capture). To measure critical thermal maximum (CTmax), butterflies were placed individually into six glass jars with moistened filter paper (to prevent dehydration) in a water bath (Huber CC-K20 with Pilot ONE, Huber Kältemaschinenbau AG, Germany) at 28°C for five minutes to acclimatise. This starting temperature was chosen as it was the average ambient air temperature recorded during capture across all butterflies. A thermocouple with a hand-held indicator (Tecpel Thermometer 305B, Tecpel Co. Ltd., Taiwan) was placed into a control jar to monitor and record in-jar temperatures. After acclimatisation, the water bath was set to ramp up temperature steadily, at a rate of 0.5°C/min to a maximum of 70°C. By maintaining high humidity throughout the experiment and ramping temperature at an ecologically relevant rate (Terblanche et al. 2007), we aimed to simulate features of climate change in the tropics, for example a high temperature weather event, where temperature increases and humidity remains high. During the experiment, water bath internal temperatures (recorded using the water bath internal thermometer) and actual in-jar temperatures (recorded using the thermocouple) were recorded every five minutes to ensure the set ramping rate was achieved. To prevent inter-run differences affecting results, no more than three individuals of a single species were placed into a single run. The temperature at which each butterfly lost motor control (“knockdown”, assessed as the temperature at which the butterfly fell down and, after being poked, did not right itself) and time to knockdown were recorded (Huey, Crill, Kingsolver, & Weber, 1992). Ambient laboratory temperatures during the experiments ranged from 23-25°C. Before being placed in the water bath, wing length (measured with callipers) (Ribeiro et al. 2012) and condition (on a scale of 1-5, following Bladon et al. 2020, where 1 is perfect, 2 is scale loss but no physical damage to wings, 3 is heavy scale loss and/or light damage to wing edges, 4 is damage to multiple (but not all) wings, and 5 is significant damage on all wings) of each butterfly was recorded again. Only butterflies of conditions 1-3 were used (assessed beforehand) to prevent senescence or poor condition affecting the results. Exposure duration (including starting temperature and rate of temperature change) is known to influence critical thermal limits recorded (Terblanche et al. 2007). As the butterflies were wild-caught, temperature variation experienced throughout the life cycle, and therefore their thermal history, may have influenced our results (Kellermann et al. 2017). However, as all individuals were randomly caught in the same season of the same year for this experiment, this effect is likely to be minimal. Descriptions of columns in datasets: New_buffering_4 Family: family the butterfly species belongs to Genus_sp: Species name in the format "Genus species" Air.temp: Air temperature recorded at waist height in shade in the location the butterfly was first encountered Body.temp: Body temperature of the butterfly (recorded from the thorax within 10 seconds of capture) Size_mm: Individual wing lengths of each butterfly, recorded with callipers in mm Colour: Colour is on a scale (following the same protocol as Bladon et al 2020) from 1 (white) to 6 (black). Target_sp_only Date: data of experiment Round.num: unique number (integer starting from 1) for each experimental run in the water bath Jar: number from 1-5 representing the individual jar butterflies occupied within the waterbath Family: family that butterfly species belongs to Species: species name in the format "Genus_species" Sex: M (male) or F (female) Condition: condition of the butterfly, ranging from 1 (perfect condition) to 3 (minor damage) Time.start: Time the experiment was started at Set.end: The temperature the ramping program recorded as the final temperature the butterfly was knocked down at Int.end: The internal thermometer reading from the water bath as to the temperature the butterfly was knocked down at Act.end: The actual temperature (recorded using a thermocouple within a control jar in every waterbath run) the butterfly was knocked down at Time.end: the time it took from the Time.start in minutes and seconds for the butterfly be knocked down Recovery: Whether or not the butterfly recovered from the experiment after 1 hour at room temperature after knockdown (A = alive, D = dead) Wing.length: individual wing lengths in cm (recorded with callipers) A_1: A column of only 1's, required for the coding Buffering: The buffering ability (species-specific) of the butterfly species Colour: The colour value of the species, ranging from 1 (white) to 6 (black). See Bladon et al 2020 for further information on this scale. Waterbath_temps Round: Round number (same as above) Time: Time ranging from the start of the experiment (0) to 80 minutes later, at 5 minute intervals Set temperature: the temperature the water bath was set to at that time Internal.temp: The temperature recording from the internal thermometer of the water bath at that time Act.temp: The actual temperature within the jars (recorded using a thermocouple) at each timeThe research was funded by The Czech Science Foundation (GAČR 19-15645Y to GPAL and 20-31295S to YB), ERC Starting Grant BABE 805189 to BLH and KS, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute short-term fellowship to BLH, Cambridge Conservation Initiative/Evolution Education Trust (CCI/EET) to EAJ, and NERC Highlight topic GLiTRS project NE/V007173/1 to AJB. YB and GPAL were supported by the Sistema Nacional de Investigación, SENACYT, Panama