Symbiont type and photophysiology of Acropora loripes and Platygyra daedalea under future scenarios of rising ocean temperatures and pCO2

Coral cover is declining at an alarming rate, and it is estimated that 60% of reefs worldwide may be lost by 2030. Elevated seawater temperatures and ocean acidification are contributing to an increase in the frequency and severity of bleaching events. These events disrupt the symbiosis between corals and their photosynthetic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp). Relatively little is known about the ability of corals to acclimatize to changing environmental conditions or whether the rate of climate change is too fast for corals to keep up, limiting the accuracy of future predictions for reef resilience. However, the ability of some coral species to acclimatize to elevated seawater temperatures has been linked to Symbiodinium composition and the flexibility of these associations. This study compares Symbiodinium communities and the rates of photosynthesis of two coral species, Acropora loripes and Platygyra daedalea, under three conditions of water temperature and pCO2: ambient, predicted levels for 2050, and predicted levels for 2100. Pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) fluorometry, which measures chlorophyll fluorescence, was used as an indicator of photosynthetic rate. Photosynthetic rates of A. loripes and P. daedalea differed significantly, and PAM yields were reduced in the 2050 and 2100 treatments, suggesting a stress response. The majority of genotypes of both coral species hosted clade C-type Symbiodinium suggesting that sub-type differences or host physiology may be involved in species-specific differences in photophysiology. Sequencing-based methods for Symbiodinium typing would help distinguish these possibilities and increase understanding of the influence of Symbiodinium type on photosynthetic rates of corals under changing environmental conditions

How to (actually) save time while working remotely

The pandemic has given many of us the opportunity to ditch the commute and work from home long-term, offering huge potential time savings. But to truly reap the benefits of remote work during the current crisis and beyond, we need to think proactively about how we restructure our workday in this new normal. The authors suggest six concrete, research-backed actions you can take today to create clearer work-life boundaries and optimize how you spend your time

Financing Project ECHO: Options for State Medicaid Programs

Project ECHO, a unique model for expanding access to specialty health care services, can bolster state Medicaid program efforts to improve care in underserved areas. With a handful of states using Medicaid funds to support Project ECHO, more states are interested in pursuing ECHO models to enhance services for at-risk populations.This brief outlines an array of financing options, including approaches currently in use as well as new options, and highlights how four states — California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon — leveraged Medicaid support for ECHO. It outlines design considerations for specific delivery system environments as well as broad considerations for long-term sustainability of Project ECHO approaches. The brief was developed by the Center for Health Care Strategies as part of the Project ECHO Medicaid Learning Collaborative, a multi-state learning collaborative to promote long-term Medicaid policy and financing strategies for Project ECHO in states across the country

“Am I not human?”: Reasserting humanness in response to group-based dehumanization

Research on group dehumanization has focused largely on the perpetrators of dehumanization or on its negative emotional and cognitive effects on targets. We theorized that people would also reassert their humanness in response to dehumanizing portrayals of their group. Experiment 1 showed that Black individuals responded to a dehumanizing representation of their racial group by emphasizing their experience of more complex, uniquely human emotions versus emotions more associated with other animals. Experiment 2 and a supplemental experiment showed that Black, but not White, individuals responded to group-based dehumanization by depicting more complex self-portrayals. Taken together, these studies begin to illustrate that targets of group-based dehumanization are not simply passive victims but respond actively, resisting negative representations of their group by reasserting their humanness

Working-Together Normative Appeals: Normative appeals motivate people to contribute to collective action problems more when they invite people to work together toward a common goal

A common method to promote behavior change, particularly in contexts related to collective action, is to reference a social norm and ask people to comply with it. We argue that such appeals will be more effective when they couch the norm as an invitation to work with others toward a common goal. In six experiments, we found that working-together normative appeals, which invited people to “join in” and “do it together,” increased interest in (Experiments 1, 4, and 5) and actual charitable giving (Experiment 2); reduced paper-towel use in public restrooms (Experiment 3); and increased interest in reducing personal carbon emissions (Experiment 6). By contrast, normative-information appeals, which included the same normative information but no reference to working together, did not affect interest or behavior. Mediation analyses suggest that working-together normative appeals were more effective because they fostered a feeling in participants that they were working together with others, which increased motivation, while inducing less social pressure, which undermined effectiveness. Results show how the very collective nature of collective action problems can be leveraged to promote personal behavior change and help solve societal problems

Harnessing the placebo effect: Exploring the influence of physician characteristics on placebo response

Reports an error in "Harnessing the placebo effect: Exploring the influence of physician characteristics on placebo response" by Lauren C. Howe, J. Parker Goyer and Alia J. Crum (Health Psychology, 2017[Nov], Vol 36[11], 1074-1082). In the original article, changes were needed to clarify the timeframe over which allergic reactions were measured after the skin prick test (SPT) and the administration of the placebo cream, which was erroneously misrepresented in some cases being “0 to 6 minutes after cream application” when it should have stated “3 to 9 minutes after cream application.” Corrections have been made to reflect this in the “Analytic Strategy for Physiological Results” section and in Figures 2 and 3 and the Figure Notes that accompany them. An additional supplemental figure (Figure S7) has also been added to the supplemental material available online to further clarify the timing of measurements, both in terms of time post-SPT and time post-cream application. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2017-10534-001). Objective: Research on placebo/nocebo effects suggests that expectations can influence treatment outcomes, but placebo/nocebo effects are not always evident. This research demonstrates that a provider’s social behavior moderates the effect of expectations on physiological outcomes. Methods: After inducing an allergic reaction in participants through a histamine skin prick test, a health care provider administered a cream with no active ingredients and set either positive expectations (cream will reduce reaction) or negative expectations (cream will increase reaction). The provider demonstrated either high or low warmth, or either high or low competence. Results: The impact of expectations on allergic response was enhanced when the provider acted both warmer and more competent and negated when the provider acted colder and less competent. Conclusion: This study suggests that placebo effects should be construed not as a nuisance variable with mysterious impact but instead as a psychological phenomenon that can be understood and harnessed to improve treatment outcomes

Direct evidende of sex and a hypothesis about meiosis in Symbiodiniaceae

Dinoflagellates in the family Symbiodiniaceae are obligate endosymbionts of diverse marine invertebrates, including corals, and impact the capacity of their hosts to respond to climate change-driven ocean warming. Understanding the conditions under which increased genetic variation in Symbiodiniaceae arises via sexual recombination can support efforts to evolve thermal tolerance in these symbionts and ultimately mitigate coral bleaching, the breakdown of the coral-Symbiodiniaceae partnership under stress. However, direct observations of meiosis in Symbiodiniaceae have not been reported, despite various lines of indirect evidence that it occurs. We present the first cytological evidence of sex in Symbiodiniaceae based on nuclear DNA content and morphology using Image Flow Cytometry, Cell Sorting and Confocal Microscopy. We show the Symbiodiniaceae species, Cladocopium latusorum, undergoes gamete conjugation, zygote formation, and meiosis within a dominant reef-building coral in situ. On average, sex was detected in 1.5% of the cells analyzed (N = 10,000–40,000 cells observed per sample in a total of 20 samples obtained from 3 Pocillopora colonies). We hypothesize that meiosis follows a two-step process described in other dinoflagellates, in which diploid zygotes form dyads during meiosis I, and triads and tetrads as final products of meiosis II. This study sets the stage for investigating environmental triggers of Symbiodiniaceae sexuality and can accelerate the assisted evolution of a key coral symbiont in order to combat reef degradation

Cultivating a Team Mindset about Productivity with a Nudge: A Field Study in Hybrid Development Teams

While there has been significant study of both individuals and teams of knowledge workers, research has focused largely on one or the other, with less focus on the interaction between the two. In this paper, we explore the tensions between the individual and their team, focusing on the choices an individual makes towards their own productivity versus their team's productivity. We developed a technology probe with a team nudge that fosters recurring reflection and prompts individuals to consider how their team helps them to be productive. We examined its impact through a longitudinal field study with 48 participants. We chose to undertake this study with software development teams as they are examples of knowledge workers who collaborate on a shared set of tasks with specific goals. Our exploration took place with hybrid development teams, which have increasingly become the norm. Our analysis of a total of 8338 hourly self-reports and 1389 daily diary entries found that the team nudge increased participants' productivity ratings and team awareness, led to participants spending more time on their own tasks, reshaped their perceptions of themselves and their team, yet, in general, did not increase team cohesion or affect well-being

Expressing dual concern in criticism for wrongdoing: The persuasive power of criticizing with care

To call attention to and motivate action on ethical issues in business or society, messengers often criticize groups for wrongdoing and ask these groups to change their behavior. When criticizing target groups, messengers frequently identify and express concern about harm caused to a victim group, and in the process address a target group by criticizing them for causing this harm and imploring them to change. However, we find that when messengers criticize a target group for causing harm to a victim group in this way—expressing singular concern for the victim group—members of the target group infer, often incorrectly, that the messenger views the target group as less moral and unworthy of concern. This inferred lack of moral concern reduces criticism acceptance and prompts backlash from the target group. To address this problem, we introduce dual concern messaging—messages that simultaneously communicate that a target group causes harm to a victim group and express concern for the target group. A series of several experiments demonstrate that dual concern messages reduce inferences that a critical messenger lacks moral concern for the criticized target group, increase the persuasiveness of the criticism among members of the target group, and reduce backlash from consumers against a corporate messenger. When pursuing justice for victims of a target group, dual concern messages that communicate concern for the victim group as well as the target group are more effective in fostering openness toward criticism, rather than defensiveness, in a target group, thus setting the stage for change

An Exploratory Study of Productivity Perceptions in Software Teams

Software development is a collaborative process requiring a careful balance of focused individual effort and team coordination. Though questions of individual productivity have been widely examined in past literature, less is known about the interplay between developers' perceptions of their own productivity as opposed to their team’s. In this paper, we present an analysis of 624 daily surveys and 2899 self-reports from 25 individuals across five software teams in North America and Europe, collected over the course of three months. We found that developers tend to operate in fluid team constructs, which impacts team awareness and complicates gauging team productivity. We also found that perceived individual productivity most strongly predicted perceived team productivity, even more than the amount of team interactions, unplanned work, and time spent in meetings. Future research should explore how fluid team structures impact individual and organizational productivity