Oceanography promotes self-recruitment in a planktonic larval disperser

The application of high-resolution genetic data has revealed that oceanographic connectivity in marine species with planktonic larvae can be surprisingly limited, even in the absence of major barriers to dispersal. Australia's southern coast represents a particularly interesting system for studying planktonic larval dispersal, as the hydrodynamic regime of the wide continental shelf has potential to facilitate onshore retention of larvae. We used a seascape genetics approach (the joint analysis of genetic data and oceanographic connectivity simulations) to assess population genetic structure and self-recruitment in a broadcast-spawning marine gastropod that exists as a single meta-population throughout its temperate Australian range. Levels of self-recruitment were surprisingly high, and oceanographic connectivity simulations indicated that this was a result of low-velocity nearshore currents promoting the retention of planktonic larvae in the vicinity of natal sites. Even though the model applied here is comparatively simple and assumes that the dispersal of planktonic larvae is passive, we find that oceanography alone is sufficient to explain the high levels of genetic structure and self-recruitment. Our study contributes to growing evidence that sophisticated larval behaviour is not a prerequisite for larval retention in the nearshore region in planktonic-developing species

Reversing the paradigm: Motivational fluidity predicts lower student engagement

There is a need to enhance understanding of the dynamic process of student engagement in Higher Education (Shernoff, 2013) using methods that embrace intra- and inter-individual change and processes and a theoretical framework that offers a dynamic, intra- and interindividual approach to interpret motivation, affect, and behavior. This study used reversal theory (Apter, 2018) to investigate university students’ engagement and affect in relation to metamotivational state reversals during three large-group 50-minute lectures. 172 participants reported their affect at the start of the lecture and affect, engagement, and metamotivational state at three randomly chosen timepoints throughout each of three lectures early, mid, and late semester. Where differences occurred, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement were higher and affect more positive/less negative in non-reversers than reversers, with one exception: agentic engagement was higher in reversers than non-reversers during the final week (p < .05). Across all three weeks the majority of students reported no reversals (72.478.7%) and were mostly in the telic, conformist and autic-sympathy or autic-mastery states. Thus psychodiversity, based on our context-specific operationalisation, was observed but not widely demonstrated, and overall, did not appear to be beneficial. Curiously, the only benefit was in relation to an interactive form of engagement. Our findings suggest that most students matched their metamotivational states to the demands of the environment (see Apter, 2018). Further inquiry is needed into psychodiversity and into a key aspect of reversal theory that needs attention: understanding how people control, or can be taught to control, their reversals (Apter, 2013)

The population genetic structure of the urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii in New Zealand with links to Australia

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021Publishe

Using virtual experiences of older age: exploring pedagogical and psychological experiences of students

Fostering intergenerational empathy is vital for creating an age-friendly society and an important aim for Sport and Exercise Science (SES) degree programmes given that graduates are increasingly entering the healthcare workforce supporting older adults (British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences; BASES, 2018). Interventions to challenge negative stereotypes of ageing, generate empathy for older adults, and help University students gain experience of ‘being’ an older person have demonstrated mixed success (e.g., Prior & Sargent-Cox, 2014). Recent studies indicate the promise of virtual reality in this context but do not present conclusive evidence for this effect (e.g., Banakou, Kishore, & Slater, 2018). Thus this study explored SES students’ responses to virtual experiences of being an older person in a workshop. Participants completed the “Become Victor” module of the FrailtySIM© application, based on real life experience of an older person in their home, and, a University-developed immersive experience of being an older person in a social situation. Fifty-two students completed questionnaires about their experience of “Become Victor” and 15 students were interviewed (12 in 2 focus groups, 3 individually) about their experiences of both simulations. Data indicated that “Become Victor” offered students insight into being an older person that was “eye-opening” and realistic but frustrating and stressful. The social situation effectively simulated the isolation felt by some older people to an extent, but needed to be more interactive. Students felt that the simulations were important for contextualising previously delivered lecture material on older adults. Future workshop iterations will integrate lecture and virtual experiences using opportunities for student reflection on their experiences

Stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis of Post-AGB Stars

I discuss recent new models of post-Asymptotic Giant Branch stellar evolution. These models aim to clarify the evolutionary origin and status of a variety of hydrogen-deficient post-AGB stars such as central stars of planetary nebulae of Wolf-Rayet spectral type, PG1159 stars or Sakurai's object. Starting with AGB models with overshoot such stars can evolve through one of four distinct channels. Each of these channels has typical abundance patterns depending on the relative timing of the departure from the AGB and the occurrence of the last thermal pulse. I discuss the responsible mechanisms and observational counterparts.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, conference paper, workshop "Post-AGB objects (proto-planetary nebulae) as a phase of stellar evolution", Jul 5-7, 2000, Torun, Poland, to appear in Ap&S

Enterococcus faecalis Endocarditis Severity in Rabbits Is Reduced by IgG Fabs Interfering with Aggregation Substance

Background: Enterococcus faecalis is a significant cause of infective endocarditis, an infection of the heart endothelium leading to vegetation formation (microbes, fibrin, platelets, and host cells attached to underlying endothelial tissue). Our previous research determined that enterococcal aggregation substance (AS) is an important virulence factor in causation of endocarditis, although endocarditis may occur in the absence of AS production. Production of AS by E. faecalis causes the organism to form aggregates through AS binding to enterococcal binding substance. In this study, we assessed the ability of IgGs and IgG Fabs against AS to provide protection against AS + E. faecalis endocarditis. Methodology/Principal Findings: When challenged with AS + E. faecalis, 10 rabbits actively immunized against AS + E. faecalis developed more significant vegetations than 9 animals immunized against AS 2 E. faecalis, and 9/10 succumbed compared to 2/9 (p,0.005), suggesting enhanced aggregation by IgG contributes significantly to disease. IgG antibodies against AS also enhanced enterococcal aggregation as tested in vitro. In contrast, Fab fragments of IgG from rabbits immunized against purified AS, when passively administered to rabbits (6/group) immediately before challenge with AS + E. faecalis, reduced total vegetation (endocarditis lesion) microbial counts (7.9610 6 versus 2.0610 5, p = 0.02) and size (40 mg versus 10, p = 0.05). In vitro, the Fabs prevented enterococcal aggregation. Conclusions/Significance: The data confirm the role of AS in infective endocarditis formation and suggest that use of Fab

The Relationships of Personality and Cognitive Styles with Self-Reported Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety

Many studies have reported concurrent relationships between depressive symptoms and various personality, cognitive, and personality-cognitive vulnerabilities, but the degree of overlap among these vulnerabilities is unclear. Moreover, whereas most investigations of these vulnerabilities have focused on depression, their possible relationships with anxiety have not been adequately examined. The present study included 550 high school juniors and examined the cross-sectional relationships among neuroticism, negative inferential style, dysfunctional attitudes, sociotropy, and autonomy, with a wide range of anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as the incremental validity of these different putative vulnerabilities when examined simultaneously. Correlational analyses revealed that all five vulnerabilities were significantly related to symptoms of both anxiety and depression. Whereas neuroticism accounted for significant unique variance in all symptom outcomes, individual cognitive and personality-cognitive vulnerabilities accounted for small and only sometimes statistically significant variance across outcomes. Importantly, however, for most outcomes the majority of symptom variance was accounted for by shared aspects of the vulnerabilities rather than unique aspects. Implications of these results for understanding cognitive and personality-cognitive vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety are discussed

Über eine Klasse polynomialer Scharen selbstadjungierter Operatoren im Hilbertraum

HEK293A cells expressing either mouse MOG (mMOG) or rat MOG (rMOG) C terminally tagged with EGFP. (DOCX 2792 kb