Ecosystems, communities, and species: Understanding mammalian response to ancient carbon cycle perturbations

Abrupt perturbations of the global carbon cycle during the early Eocene are associated with rapid global warming events. Recent studies have observed mammal dwarfing during the most severe of these ancient global warming events (or “hyperthermals”), known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 mya). Chapter I of this dissertation establishes a stratigraphic framework around two subsequent and smaller-magnitude warming events known as ETM2 and H2 (~53.7 mya and ~53.6 mya, respectively), which have recently been documented in the strata of the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming. Such a stratigraphic framework is crucial for placing fossil localities into stratigraphic context, which can then aid in the interpretation of mammalian response to these warming events. Chapter II shows that a decrease in mammal body size accompanies the ETM2 warming event. Body size decreases are evident in three of the four taxonomic groups analyzed in this study, but they are most clearly observed in early equids (horses). During ETM2, the most extensively-sampled lineage of equids decreased in size by ~14%, as opposed to ~30% during the larger PETM. Thus, decrease in body size appears to be a common response for some early mammals during past global warming events, and the extent of dwarfing is related to the magnitude of the event. Chapter III further investigates the observed early equid body size response to hyperthermal warming. The African Duiker (Philantomba) is used as a modern analog to investigate the relationship between body size and latitude, and to estimate early equid geographic range shift. Duikers were found to follow Bergmann’s rule, with a statistically significant positive correlation between body size and latitude. If early equids shared the body size-latitude relationship to the same extent that Duikers do today, they would require only a 10 degree and 4 degree latitudinal range shift to explain their apparent body size decrease across PETM and ETM2 stratigraphic records, respectively. Community structure changes are a typical response to environmental stressors. Chapter IV attempts to better understand this relationship in the context of extreme climate change. Fossil genera co-occurrence patterns are investigated through both the PETM and ETM2 hyperthermal events. The main body of both events is associated with an increase in the number of significant pairs of taxa, with segregated pairs found to be more common. Such patterns reflect dynamic changes within these early Eocene communities in response to warming climate, and can serve as models for better understanding the impacts of modern-day warming on mammals and ecosystems

CAREGIVING TEAMS AND TODDLERS STUDY: TWO SINGLE-CASE CHANGING CRITERION DESIGNS TO EXAMINE THE EFFECTS OF A TWO PARENT-MEDIATED INTERVENTION FOR FAMILIES WITH TODDLERS AT RISK OR WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

ABSTRACT Abigail Michelle Carroll: Caregiving Teams and Toddler Study: Two Single-Case Changing Criterion Designs to Examine the Effects of a Two Parent-mediated Intervention for Families with Toddlers at Risk or with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Under the direction of Nancy Bagatell) This study examined the use of a family occupation-centered coaching intervention to support two parents’ implementation of evidence-based social interaction strategies in their home with their toddler with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study was an exploration of applied intervention research in occupational science using the transaction meta-theoretical perspective. Two-single case changing criterion designs (CCDs) within one family with a toddler with ASD were used to study the social interaction processes of a family and to determine the effect of the intervention on parent-child interactions. The research design embedded narrative reasoning and decision-making time points into the procedures to support social validity through caregiver choice of preferred activity, strategies, and criterion. The intervention yielded a 55.26% improvement in the quality of social interactions for the family, 69.27% for the mother, 64.07% for the father, and 30.69% for the child. The magnitude of effect of the study, standard mean difference, was 5.18 for the mother, 4.94 for the father, and 7.17 for the parents as group. The findings demonstrated that a two-caregiver approach to intervention offered benefits for five reasons: intervention enacted with social support helped reduce stress and facilitated skill acquisition, multiple skilled social models supported positive affect sharing, routine family practice increased dosage and generalization, and toddler exposure to more predictable quality interactions, less variability, through the parent’s participation together. Given that ASD is viewed as a disorder of prediction, toddler participation in predictable quality interactions can support practice of sustained habituation and engagement as well as lead to expansion of social skills. Theoretical and clinical reflections are provided for evidence of theory in practice and in support of the translation of occupation-centered and contextualized intervention research in the field of occupational science. The study findings inform the feasibility and social validity of a two-caregiver approach and may have implications for early intervention research, service delivery, and policy.Doctor of Philosoph

The Collaborative Federal Depository Program: Managing Federal Depository Library Program Collections in the Southeast

The Collaborative Federal Depository Program (CFDP) is an endeavor by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) and Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) libraries in the Southeast to create collaborative “Centers of Excellence” (COE) collections of tangible U.S. Government information. The CFDP was created to provide workable solutions to address the increasing cost of managing, preserving, and providing access to large collections of federal government publications in the Southeast. From its beginning, the program sought to not only relieve collection management pressures among Regional and Selective depository libraries but to provide a model for future development of innovative shared collections and services, improving preservation, intellectual control, and access for legacy FDLP collections nation-wide

The Collaborative Federal Depository Program: Managing Federal Depository Library Program Collections in the Southeast

The Collaborative Federal Depository Program (CFDP) is an endeavor by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) and Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) libraries in the Southeast to create collaborative “Centers of Excellence” (COE) collections of tangible U.S. Government information. The CFDP was created to provide workable solutions to address the increasing cost of managing, preserving, and providing access to large collections of federal government publications in the Southeast. From its beginning, the program sought to not only relieve collection management pressures among Regional and Selective depository libraries but to provide a model for future development of innovative shared collections and services, improving preservation, intellectual control, and access for legacy FDLP collections nation-wide

Flexible and Mindful Self-Tracking: Design Implications from Paper Bullet Journals

Digital self-tracking technologies offer many potential benefits over self-tracking with paper notebooks. However, they are often too rigid to support people’s practical and emotional needs in everyday settings. To inform the design of more flexible self-tracking tools, we examine bullet journaling: an analogue and customisable approach for logging and reflecting on everyday life. Analysing a corpus of paper bullet journal photos and related conversations on Instagram, we found that individuals extended and adapted bullet journaling systems to their changing practical and emotional needs through: (1) creating and combining personally meaningful visualisations of different types of trackers, such as habit, mood, and symptom trackers; (2) engaging in mindful reflective thinking through design practices and self-reflective strategies; and (3) posting photos of paper journals online to become part of a selftracking culture of sharing and learning. We outline two interrelated design directions for flexible and mindful selftracking: digitally extending analogue self-tracking and supporting digital self-tracking as a mindful design practice

North: Volume Two

North Volume Two reflects our belief in photography as a relevant tool for exploring our ever-changing world. Whether in Preston, Liverpool, Berlin or Guangzhou the image-makers create a conversation with contemporary life as they endeavour to make their surroundings legible. In this second edition we continue North in the streets and spaces of the city. From contested sites of demolition, to new imaginaries formulated in the studio and in domestic, digital and social space, the volume is testament to how the urban endures as one of photography’s perennial objects of study. Like the first edition, We aim to highlight our commitment to everyday life as a meaningful arena for research and cultural production

Rich pictures for stakeholder dialogue:A polyphonic picture book

We describe the design and use of a ‘polyphonic picture book’ for engaging stakeholders and research participants with findings from an interdisciplinary project investigating how UK citizens create and manage online identities at three significant life transitions. The project delivered socio-cultural and technical findings to inform policy-making and service innovation for enhancing digital literacy in online self-representation. The picture book presented findings through multi-perspectival, fictional scenarios about experiences of life transition. We describe our use of the book with our stakeholders in five workshop settings and our evaluation of the visual format for fostering stakeholder dialogue around the findings and their transferability. This paper contributes methodological insights about using visual storytelling to scaffold interpretative, dialogical contexts of research engagement

A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial of \u3cem\u3eN\u3c/em\u3e-Acetylcysteine for Cannabis Use Disorder in Adults

Background—Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is a prevalent and impairing condition, and established psychosocial treatments convey limited efficacy. In light of recent findings supporting the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for CUD in adolescents, the objective of this trial was to evaluate its efficacy in adults. Methods—In a 12-week double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial, treatment-seeking adults ages 18–50 with CUD (N=302), enrolled across six National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network-affiliated clinical sites, were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to a 12-week course of NAC 1200 mg (n=153) or placebo (n=149) twice daily. All participants received contingency management (CM) and medical management. The primary efficacy measure was the odds of negative urine cannabinoid tests during treatment, compared between NAC and placebo participants. Results—There was not statistically significant evidence that the NAC and placebo groups differed in cannabis abstinence (odds ratio = 1.00, 95% confidence interval 0.63 – 1.59; p=0.984). Overall, 22.3% of urine cannabinoid tests in the NAC group were negative, compared with 22.4% in the placebo group. Many participants were medication non-adherent; exploratory analysis within medication-adherent subgroups revealed no significant differential abstinence outcomes by treatment group. Conclusions—In contrast with prior findings in adolescents, there is no evidence that NAC 1200 mg twice daily plus CM is differentially efficacious for CUD in adults when compared to placebo plus CM. This discrepant finding between adolescents and adults with CUD may have been influenced by differences in development, cannabis use profiles, responses to embedded behavioral treatment, medication adherence, and other factors

Safety, tolerability, viral kinetics, and immune correlates of protection in healthy, seropositive UK adults inoculated with SARS-CoV-2: a single-centre, open-label, phase 1 controlled human infection study

Background: A SARS-CoV-2 controlled human infection model (CHIM) has been successfully established in seronegative individuals using a dose of 1×101 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) pre-alpha SARS-CoV-2 virus. Given the increasing prevalence of seropositivity to SARS-CoV-2, a CHIM that could be used for vaccine development will need to induce infection in those with pre-existing immunity. Our aim was to find a dose of pre-alpha SARS-CoV-2 virus that induced infection in previously infected individuals. Methods: Healthy, UK volunteers aged 18–30 years, with proven (quantitative RT-PCR or lateral flow antigen test) previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (with or without vaccination) were inoculated intranasally in a stepwise dose escalation CHIM with either 1×101, 1×102, 1×10³, 1×104, or 1×105 TCID50 SARS-CoV-2/human/GBR/484861/2020, the same virus used in the seronegative CHIM. Post-inoculation, volunteers were quarantined in functionally negative pressure rooms (Oxford, UK) for 14 days and until 12-hourly combined oropharyngeal–nasal swabs were negative for viable virus by focus-forming assay. Outpatient follow-up continued for 12 months post-enrolment, with additional visits for those who developed community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection. The primary objective was to identify a safe, well tolerated dose that induced infection (defined as two consecutive SARS-CoV-2 positive PCRs starting 24 h after inoculation) in 50% of seropositive volunteers. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04864548); enrolment and follow-up to 12 months post-enrolment are complete. Findings: Recruitment commenced on May 6, 2021, with the last volunteer enrolled into the dose escalation cohort on Nov 24, 2022. 36 volunteers were enrolled, with four to eight volunteers inoculated in each dosing group from 1×101 to 1×105 TCID50 SARS-CoV-2. All volunteers have completed quarantine, with follow-up to 12 months complete. Despite dose escalation to 1×105 TCID50, we were unable to induce sustained infection in any volunteers. Five (14%) of 36 volunteers were considered to have transient infection, based on the kinetic of their PCR-positive swabs. Transiently infected volunteers had significantly lower baseline mucosal and systemic SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody titres and significantly lower peripheral IFNγ responses against a CD8+ T-cell SARS-CoV-2 peptide pool than uninfected volunteers. 14 (39%) of 36 volunteers subsequently developed breakthrough infection with the omicron variant after discharge from quarantine. Most adverse events reported by volunteers in quarantine were mild, with fatigue (16 [44%]) and stuffy nose (16 [44%]) being the most common. There were no serious adverse events. Interpretation: Our study demonstrates potent protective immunity induced by homologous vaccination and homologous or heterologous previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. The community breakthrough infections seen with the omicron variant supports the use of newer variants to establish a model with sufficient rate of infection for use in vaccine and therapeutic development. Funding: Wellcome Trust and Department for Health and Social Care