A Culture of Fire: Identifying Community Risk Perceptions Surrounding Prescribed Burning in the Flint Hills, Kansas

In the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas, there is a long tradition of spring prescribed burns. However, air quality concerns in downwind communities have sparked conversation regarding the environmental and social impacts of these burns. This study aimed to identify the risk perceptions associated with prescribed burns using two theoretical frameworks: the social amplification of risk framework and the protective action decision model. In April 2022, we conducted 18 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Flint Hills community members from different social stations. Participants identified several benefits of prescribed burns: cattle production gains, invasive species management, prairie ecological health maintenance, and wildfire prevention. Some participants viewed prescribed burning as a protective response. However, risk perceptions differed between rural and urban participants: rural community members were primarily concerned with prescribed fires that went out of control, while those in downwind cities were primarily concerned with smoke exposure. Participants sometimes used protective actions to mitigate their risks, but also explained the complexities of changing burn practices that are integral to the local culture, economies, and greater society. Additionally, formal communication of health and safety risks from prescribed burns is not uniform across Kansas counties. We therefore recommend systematic county and statewide communication of burn practices and protective behaviors. Understanding community perceptions of the risks and effects of prescribed burns, and any protective actions taken, can inform how professional communicators approach burning in similar agricultural and ranching communities

Dissipative electro-elastic network model of protein electrostatics

We propose a dissipative electro-elastic network model (DENM) to describe the dynamics and statistics of electrostatic fluctuations at active sites of proteins. The model combines the harmonic network of residue beads with overdamped dynamics of the normal modes of the network characterized by two friction coefficients. The electrostatic component is introduced to the model through atomic charges of the protein force field. The overall effect of the electrostatic fluctuations of the network is recorded through the frequency-dependent response functions of the electrostatic potential and electric field at the active site. We also consider the dynamics of displacements of individual residues in the network and the dynamics of distances between pairs of residues. The model is tested against loss spectra of residue displacements and the electrostatic potential and electric field at the heme's iron from all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of three hydrated globular proteins

Childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): socio-economic inequalities in symptoms, impact, diagnosis and medication

Background Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are at greater risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related symptoms, being diagnosed with ADHD, and being prescribed ADHD medications. We aimed to examine how inequalities manifest across the ‘patient journey’, from perceptions of impacts of ADHD symptoms on daily life, to the propensity to seek and receive a diagnosis and treatment. Methods We investigated four ‘stages’: (1) symptoms, (2) caregiver perception of impact, (3) diagnosis and (4) medication, in two data sets: UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS, analytic n ~ 9,000), with relevant (parent-reported) information on all four stages (until 14 years); and a population-wide ‘administrative cohort’, which includes symptoms (child health checks) and prescriptions (dispensing records), born in Scotland, 2010–2012 (analytic n ~ 100,000), until ~6 years. We described inequalities according to maternal occupational status, with percentages and relative indices of inequality (RII). Results The prevalence of ADHD symptoms and medication receipt was considerably higher in the least compared to the most advantaged children in the administrative cohort (RIIs of 5.9 [5.5–6.4] and 8.1 [4.2–15.6]) and the MCS (3.08 [2.68–3.55], 3.75 [2.21–6.36]). MCS analyses highlighted complexities between these two stages, however, those from least advantaged backgrounds, with ADHD symptoms, were the least likely to perceive impacts on daily life (15.7% vs. average 19.5%) and to progress from diagnosis to medication (44.1% vs. average 72.5%). Conclusions Despite large inequalities in ADHD symptoms and medication, parents from the least advantaged backgrounds were less likely to report impacts of ADHD symptoms on daily life, and their children were less likely to have received medication postdiagnosis, highlighting how patient journeys differed according to socioeconomic circumstances

High nutrient-use efficiency during early seedling growth in diverse Grevillea species (Proteaceae)

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the rich floristic diversity in regions characterised by nutrient-impoverished soils; however, none of these hypotheses have been able to explain the rapid diversification over a relatively short evolutionary time period of Grevillea, an Australian plant genus with 452 recognised species/subspecies and only 11 million years of evolutionary history. Here, we hypothesise that the apparent evolutionary success of Grevillea might have been triggered by the highly efficient use of key nutrients. The nutrient content in the seeds and nutrient-use efficiency during early seedling growth of 12 species of Grevillea were compared with those of 24 species of Hakea, a closely related genus. Compared with Hakea, the Grevillea species achieved similar growth rates (root and shoot length) during the early stages of seedling growth but contained only approximately half of the seed nutrient content. We conclude that the high nutrient-use efficiency observed in Grevillea might have provided a selective advantage in nutrient-poor ecosystems during evolution and that this property likely contributed to the evolutionary success in Grevillea

Behavioral states may be associated with distinct spatial patterns in electrocorticogram

To determine if behavioral states are associated with unique spatial electrocorticographic (ECoG) patterns, we obtained recordings with a microgrid electrode array applied to the cortical surface of a human subject. The array was constructed with the intent of extracting maximal spatial information by optimizing interelectrode distances. A 34-year-old patient with intractable epilepsy underwent intracranial ECoG monitoring after standard methods failed to reveal localization of seizures. During the 8-day period of invasive recording, in addition to standard clinical electrodes a square 1 × 1 cm microgrid array with 64 electrodes (1.25 mm separation) was placed on the right inferior temporal gyrus. Careful review of video recordings identified four extended naturalistic behaviors: reading, conversing on the telephone, looking at photographs, and face-to-face interactions. ECoG activity recorded with the microgrid that corresponded to these behaviors was collected and ECoG spatial patterns were analyzed. During periods of ECoG selected for analysis, no electrographic seizures or epileptiform patterns were present. Moments of maximal spatial variance are shown to cluster by behavior. Comparisons between conditions using a permutation test reveal significantly different spatial patterns for each behavior. We conclude that ECoG recordings obtained on the cortical surface with optimal high spatial frequency resolution reveal distinct local spatial patterns that reflect different behavioral states, and we predict that similar patterns will be found in many if not most cortical areas on which a microgrid is placed

Mitochondrial translocation of oxidized cofilin induces caspase-independent necrotic-like programmed cell death of T cells

Oxidative stress leads to T-cell hyporesponsiveness or death. The actin-binding protein cofilin is oxidized during oxidative stress, which provokes a stiff actin cytoskeleton and T-cell hyporesponsiveness. Here, we show that long-term oxidative stress leads to translocation of cofilin into the mitochondria and necrotic-like programmed cell death (PCD) in human T cells. Notably, cofilin mutants that functionally mimic oxidation by a single mutation at oxidation-sensitive cysteins (Cys-39 or Cys-80) predominately localize within the mitochondria. The expression of these mutants alone ultimately leads to necrotic-like PCD in T cells. Accordingly, cofilin knockdown partially protects T cells from the fatal effects of long-term oxidative stress. Thus, we introduce the oxidation and mitochondrial localization of cofilin as the checkpoint for necrotic-like PCD upon oxidative stress as it occurs, for example, in tumor environments

Walking with light and the discontinuous experience of urban change

The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2020 The Authors. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers). This paper is concerned with the affective power of light, darkness, and illumination and their role in exposing and obscuring processes of rapid urban change. Little academic attention has focused on how lighting informs multiple, overlapping, and intersecting urban temporalities and mediates our experience of an ever-changing city. This paper foregrounds a walk through the illuminated city at night as an epistemic opportunity to develop an embodied account of material and temporal change in ways that disrupt the aesthetic organisation of the sensible world at night. By detailing the discontinuous experience of walking through differently lit spaces, the paper develops novel ways of conceptualising the experience of urban change that unsettle common understandings of subjectivity, temporality, and the city. The paper draws on a single night's walk from Canning Town to Canary Wharf in east London – an area that has recently undergone rapid change, including the erection of enclaves of high-rise development. By accentuating the shared experiences of walking with light, we reveal the affective capacities of light and dark to conceal and expose wider material, embodied, and temporal urban changes but also how we might challenge the organisation of the nocturnal field of the sensible

Response of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Leaf Surface Defenses to Exogenous Methyl Jasmonate

Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower, produces a complex array of secondary compounds that are secreted into glandular trichomes, specialized structures found on leaf surfaces and anther appendages of flowers. The primary components of these trichome secretions are sesquiterpene lactones (STL), a diverse class of compounds produced abundantly by the plant family Compositae and believed to contribute to plant defense against herbivory. We treated wild and cultivated H. annuus accessions with exogenous methyl jasmonate, a plant hormone that mediates plant defense against insect herbivores and certain classes of fungal pathogens. The wild sunflower produced a higher density of glandular trichomes on its leaves than the cultivar. Comparison of the profiles of glandular trichome extracts obtained by liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) showed that wild and cultivated H. annuus were qualitatively similar in surface chemistry, although differing in the relative size and proportion of various compounds detected. Despite observing consistent transcriptional responses to methyl jasmonate treatment, we detected no significant effect on glandular trichome density or LC-MS profile in cultivated or wild sunflower, with wild sunflower exhibiting a declining trend in overall STL production and foliar glandular trichome density of jasmonate-treated plants. These results suggest that glandular trichomes and associated compounds may act as constitutive defenses or require greater levels of stimulus for induction than the observed transcriptional responses to exogenous jasmonate. Reduced defense investment in domesticated lines is consistent with predicted tradeoffs caused by selection for increased yield; future research will focus on the development of genetic resources to explicitly test the ecological roles of glandular trichomes and associated effects on plant growth and fitness