Identifying predictors of translocation success in rare plant species.

The fundamental goal of a rare plant translocation is to create self-sustaining populations with the evolutionary resilience to persist in the long term. Yet, most plant translocation syntheses focus on a few factors influencing short-term benchmarks of success (e.g., survival and reproduction). Short-term benchmarks can be misleading when trying to infer future growth and viability because the factors that promote establishment may differ from those required for long-term persistence. We assembled a large (n = 275) and broadly representative data set of well-documented and monitored (7.9 years on average) at-risk plant translocations to identify the most important site attributes, management techniques, and species' traits for six life-cycle benchmarks and population metrics of translocation success. We used the random forest algorithm to quantify the relative importance of 29 predictor variables for each metric of success. Drivers of translocation outcomes varied across time frames and success metrics. Management techniques had the greatest relative influence on the attainment of life-cycle benchmarks and short-term population trends, whereas site attributes and species' traits were more important for population persistence and long-term trends. Specifically, large founder sizes increased the potential for reproduction and recruitment into the next generation, whereas declining habitat quality and the outplanting of species with low seed production led to increased extinction risks and a reduction in potential reproductive output in the long-term, respectively. We also detected novel interactions between some of the most important drivers, such as an increased probability of next-generation recruitment in species with greater seed production rates, but only when coupled with large founder sizes. Because most significant barriers to plant translocation success can be overcome by improving techniques or resolving site-level issues through early intervention and management, we suggest that by combining long-term monitoring with adaptive management, translocation programs can enhance the prospects of achieving long-term success.

Identificación de pronosticadores del éxito de reubicación en especies raras de plantas Resumen El objetivo fundamental de la reubicación de plantas raras es la creación de poblaciones autosuficientes con resiliencia evolutiva que persistan a la larga. De todas maneras, la mayoría de las síntesis de estas reubicaciones se enfocan en unos cuantos factores que influyen sobre los parámetros a corto plazo del éxito (supervivencia y reproducción). Los parámetros a corto plazo pueden ser engañosos si se intenta inferir el crecimiento y la viabilidad en el futuro ya que los factores que promueven el establecimiento pueden diferir de aquellos requeridos para la persistencia a largo plazo. Ensamblamos un conjunto grande de datos representativos en general (n = 275) de las reubicaciones de plantas en riesgo bien documentadas y monitoreadas (7.9 años en promedio) para identificar los atributos de sitio más importantes, las técnicas de manejo y los rasgos de las especies para seis parámetros de ciclos de vida y medidas poblacionales del éxito de reubicación. Usamos el algoritmo de bosque aleatorio para cuantificar la importancia relativa de las 29 variables de pronosticadores para cada medida del éxito. Los factores en los resultados de las reubicaciones variaron con los marcos temporales y las medidas de éxito. Las técnicas de manejo tuvieron la mayor influencia relativa sobre la obtención de parámetros de ciclos de vida y tendencias poblacionales a corto plazo, mientras que los atributos de sitio y los rasgos de la especie fueron más importantes para la persistencia poblacional y las tendencias a largo plazo. En específico, las grandes cantidades de fundadores incrementaron el potencial de reproducción y reclutamiento de la siguiente generación, mientras que la declinación de la calidad del hábitat incrementó el riesgo de extinción y el trasplante de especies con baja producción de semillas redujo el rendimiento del potencial reproductivo a la larga. También detectamos interacciones novedosas entre algunos de los factores más importantes, como el aumento en la probabilidad del reclutamiento en la siguiente generación en especies con tasas mayores de producción de semillas, pero sólo cuando se emparejó con grandes cantidades de fundadores. Ya que las barreras más significativas para el éxito de la reubicación de plantas pueden superarse al mejorar las técnicas o resolver los temas a nivel de sitio por medio de un manejo y una intervención temprana, sugerimos que con la combinación del monitoreo a largo plazo con el manejo adaptativo los programas de reubicación pueden aumentar el prospecto de lograr el éxito a largo plazo.

A pre-post interventional study to reduce time spent on clinical documentation by nurses and midwives.

AIM: To evaluate the impact of a co-designed intervention to reduce time spent on clinical documentation and increase time for direct patient care. DESIGN: A pre- and post-test interventional study with multi-method evaluation, reported according to the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomised Evaluations Designs guidelines. METHODS: An intervention to decrease the burden of documentation was co-designed and implemented. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected via time and motion studies and the Burden of Documentation for Nurses and Midwives (BurDoNsaM) survey. Documentation audits were conducted to assess intervention fidelity. RESULTS: Twenty-six shifts were observed (13 pre-intervention, 13 post-intervention). Although the coronavirus pandemic contributed to decreases in staffing levels by 38% (from 118 to 73 staff), the number of task episodes completed increased post-intervention, across all shift patterns. Documentation took less time to complete post-intervention when assessing time per episode. A mean increase of 201 episodes was observed on morning shifts, 78 on evening shifts and 309 on night shifts. There were small increases for time spent on direct patient care compared to pre-intervention but there was less time per episode. Results from the BurDoNsaM survey indicated that participants felt documentation took less time post-intervention. Documentation audits found completion improved as staff gained familiarity, but deteriorated when staffing levels were reduced. CONCLUSION: The intervention was able to reduce time spent completing documentation, increasing the time available for direct patient care. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE: Completing clinical documentation is part of the daily work of nurses and midwives. Clinical documentation needs to accurately capture key information in a concise and streamlined manner to avoid unnecessary burdens and release time for direct patient care. IMPACT: This study tested a co-designed intervention to address the burden of clinical documentation for nurses and midwives, The intervention reduced time spent on clinical documentation and increased time for direct patient care, This study could be replicated to reduce the burden of clinical documentation in other settings and benefit clinicians and patients by releasing more time for direct patient care. REPORTING METHOD: The study is reported using the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomised Evaluations Designs (TREND) guidelines. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The research project and intervention evaluated in this study were co-designed through a clinician-researcher collaboration. A research team that consisted of clinically based nurses and midwives and nurse scientists was formed to address the burden of clinical documentation. As the end-users of clinical documentation, the clinically based nurse and midwife co-investigators were involved in the design, conduct, interpretation of the data, and preparation of the manuscript.

Dexamphetamine widens temporal and spatial binding windows in healthy participants.

BACKGROUND: The pathophysiology of psychosis is complex, but a better understanding of stimulus binding windows (BWs) could help to improve our knowledge base. Previous studies have shown that dopamine release is associated with psychosis and widened BWs. We can probe BW mechanisms using drugs of specific interest to psychosis. Therefore, we were interested in understanding how manipulation of the dopamine or catecholamine systems affect psychosis and BWs. We aimed to investigate the effect of dexamphetamine, as a dopamine-releasing stimulant, on the BWs in a unimodal illusion: the tactile funneling illusion (TFI). METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, counterbalanced placebo-controlled crossover study to investigate funnelling and errors of localization. We administered dexamphetamine (0.45 mg/kg) to 46 participants. We manipulated 5 spatial (5-1 cm) and 3 temporal (0, 500 and 750 ms) conditions in the TFI. RESULTS: We found that dexamphetamine increased funnelling illusion (p = 0.009) and increased the error of localization in a delay-dependent manner (p = 0.03). We also found that dexamphetamine significantly increased the error of localization at 500 ms temporal separation and 4 cm spatial separation (p interaction = 0.009; p 500ms|4cm v. baseline = 0.01). LIMITATIONS: Although amphetamine-induced models of psychosis are a useful approach to understanding the physiology of psychosis related to dopamine hyperactivity, dexamphetamine is equally effective at releasing noradrenaline and dopamine, and, therefore, we were unable to tease apart the effects of the 2 systems on BWs in our study. CONCLUSION: We found that dexamphetamine increases illusory perception on the unimodal TFI in healthy participants, which suggests that dopamine or other catecholamines have a role in increasing tactile spatial and temporal BWs.

Dexamphetamine influences funneling illusion based on psychometric score.

OBJECTIVES: Our team previously showed that like the experience of the rubber hand illusion (RHI) in people with schizophrenia and their offspring¸ dexamphetamine administration to healthy volunteers increases the stimulus binding windows (BWs) in RHI. It is not clear if similar expansions of BWs are present for unimodal illusions. Studies have also shown that subjective or objective effects of amphetamine would be linked to between-person variations in personality measures. Therefore, we aimed to examine the effect of dexamphetamine (DEX), a dopamine-releasing stimulant, on illusory perception using unimodal sensory stimuli (Tactile Funneling Illusion [TFI]) across both temporal and spatial variables. We further examined the relationship between changes in psychometric scores and changes in illusion perception induced by dexamphetamine. METHODS: Healthy subjects (N = 20) participated in a randomized, double-blind, counter-balanced, placebo-controlled, cross-over study. The effects of dexamphetamine (0.45 mg/kg, PO, q.d.) on funneling and error of spatial localization (EL) were examined using TFI. Psychotomimetic effects were assessed using a battery of psychological measures. RESULTS: Dexamphetamine did not significantly increased the funneling illusion (p = 0.88) or EL (p = 0.5), relative to placebo. However, the degree of change in psychometric scores following dexamphetamine positively correlated with changes in funneling (ρ = 0.48, p = 0.03, n = 20), mainly at 0 ms delay condition (ρ = 0.6, p = 0.004, n = 20). CONCLUSION: Unlike multimodal illusions, alteration of BWs does not occur for unimodal illusions after administration of a dopamine-releasing agent. However, our findings indicate that moderate release of dopamine, through its psychotomimetic effect, indirectly influences unimodal illusion.

All or nothing belief updating in patients with schizophrenia reduces precision and flexibility of beliefs.

Schizophrenia is characterized by abnormal perceptions and beliefs, but the computational mechanisms through which these abnormalities emerge remain unclear. One prominent hypothesis asserts that such abnormalities result from overly precise representations of prior knowledge, which in turn lead beliefs to become insensitive to feedback. In contrast, another prominent hypothesis asserts that such abnormalities result from a tendency to interpret prediction errors as indicating meaningful change, leading to the assignment of aberrant salience to noisy or misleading information. Here we examine behaviour of patients and control subjects in a behavioural paradigm capable of adjudicating between these competing hypotheses and characterizing belief updates directly on individual trials. We show that patients are more prone to completely ignoring new information and perseverating on previous responses, but when they do update, tend to do so completely. This updating strategy limits the integration of information over time, reducing both the flexibility and precision of beliefs and provides a potential explanation for how patients could simultaneously show over-sensitivity and under-sensitivity to feedback in different paradigms.

The role of genus and life span in predicting seed and vegetative trait variation and correlation in Lathyrus, Phaseolus, and Vicia.

PREMISE: Annual and perennial life history transitions are abundant among angiosperms, and understanding the phenotypic variation underlying life span shifts is a key endeavor of plant evolutionary biology. Comparative analyses of trait variation and correlation networks among annual and perennial plants is increasingly important as new herbaceous perennial crops are being developed for edible seed. However, it remains unclear how seed to vegetative growth trait relationships correlate with life span. METHODS: To assess the relative roles of genus and life span in predicting phenotypic variation and trait correlations, we measured seed size and shape, germination proportion, and early-life-stage plant height and leaf growth over 3 mo in 29 annual and perennial, herbaceous congeneric species from three legume genera (Lathyrus, Phaseolus, and Vicia). RESULTS: Genus was the strongest predictor of seed size and shape variation, and life span consistently predicted plant height and leaf number at single time points. Correlation networks revealed that annual species had significant associations between seed traits and vegetative traits, whereas perennials had no significant seed-vegetative associations. Each genus also differed in the extent of integration between seed and vegetative traits, as well as within-vegetative-trait correlation patterns. CONCLUSIONS: Genus and life span were important for predicting aspects of early-life-stage phenotypic variation and trait relationships. Differences in phenotypic correlation may indicate that selection on seed size traits will impact vegetative growth differently depending on life span, which has important implications for nascent perennial breeding programs.

Is nursing and midwifery clinical documentation a burden? An empirical study of perception versus reality.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To measure time spent on clinical documentation and nurses and midwives' perceptions of this aspect of their role. BACKGROUND: Nurses and midwives rely on accurate documentation when planning care. However, documenting and communicating care can be onerous, time-consuming and at times duplicated or redundant. While documentation provides a record and means of communicating care, it should not detract from the delivery of care. DESIGN: An observational time and motion study and survey design reported using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines. METHODS: The study was conducted with Western Australian nurses and midwives working in a private not-for-profit hospital from July-October 2019. An observational study was undertaken to measure the practice of documentation on each shift. Participants' perceptions of clinical documentation were measured using a self-report survey. RESULTS: A total of 120 hr of observation were undertaken. Total observed time spent on documentation was 28.1% on morning shifts, 22.7% on afternoon shifts and 20.9% on night duty. The mean self-reported time for clinical documentation was 50.4% on morning shifts, 40.7% on afternoon shifts and 37.9% on night duty. Issues with duplication and unnecessary paperwork were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Although participants tended to overestimate time spent on documentation, it still consumed a significant proportion of time. Frustrations with paperwork may amplify nurses' negative perceptions of documentation. Clinical documentation needs to be reviewed, revised and reduced to release time back to direct patient care and reduce clinician dissatisfaction. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Clinical documentation is required in all areas of clinical practice and forms an important legal record. Understanding the demands of clinical documentation can assist in reviewing and improving documentation to release time back to direct patient care.

Genetic monitoring to assess the success of restoring rare plant populations with mixed gene pools.

Increasing genetic diversity and maintaining evolutionary processes are primary goals of conservation translocations, which involve the intentional movement of an at-risk species to establish new populations or augment existing populations, with the ultimate goal of reversing declines. Much debate has focused on how to select source material for plant translocations, with early approaches focusing primarily on maintaining the genetic uniqueness of populations. However, recent strategies often advocate mixing population sources during translocation to increase genetic diversity and re-establish connectivity. Yet, despite hundreds of translocations programmes with at-risk plant species presently underway (e.g. Silcock et al., 2019), few studies have conducted thorough assessments of the effects of mixing population sources on both the genetic diversity and fitness of translocated populations. The study by Van Rossum et al. (2020) in this issue of Molecular Ecology uses detailed assessments of genetic parameters and fitness to understand the outcomes of mixing two genetically differentiated source populations in translocations of the rare, self-incompatible perennial herb, Arnica montana, whose populations are declining at low elevations in Western Europe. They examine genetic changes throughout the translocation process (source populations to F1 offspring) and demonstrate the maintenance of high genetic diversity in successive generations for all three translocations. Translocated populations exhibited high contemporary pollen flow, substantial admixture between source populations and low inbreeding in F1 offspring. Importantly, they found no evidence of outbreeding depression in F1 offspring. This work shows that genetically mixing source populations can result in optimal genetic outcomes in translocations of declining plant species and exemplifies how multigenerational genetic monitoring and fitness assessments can be used to evaluate the success of experimental translocations.

Development and content validation of the Burden of Documentation for Nurses and Midwives (BurDoNsaM) survey.

AIM: To develop a validated tool to measure nursing and midwifery documentation burden. BACKGROUND: While an important record of care, documentation can be burdensome for nurses and midwives and may remove them from direct patient care, resulting in decreased job satisfaction, associated with decreased patient satisfaction. The amount of documentation is increasing at a time where staff rationalisation results in decreasing numbers of clinicians at the bedside. No instrument is available to measure staff perceptions of the burden of clinical documentation. DESIGN: Survey development, followed by rwo rounds of content validation (April and May 2019). METHODS: Based on the literature a 28 item survey, with items in 6 subscales, representing key areas of documentation burden was developed. Item (I-CVI), subscale (S-CVI/Ave by subscale) and overall content validity indexes (S-CVI/Ave) were calculated following two review rounds by an expert panel of clinical and academic nurses and midwives. RESULTS: Level of agreement for the first iteration of the survey was low, with many items failing to reach the critical I-CVI threshold of 0.78. No subscale reached a S-CVI/Ave above 0.8 and the overall scale only achieved a S-CVI/Ave score of 0.67. Thirteen items were removed, seven were edited and five new items added, based on the expert panel feedback, substantially improving the content validity. All individual items achieved an I-CVI ≥0.78, the S-CVI/Ave was above 0.85 for all subscales and the total S-CVI/Ave was 0.94. CONCLUSION: The Burden of Documentation for Nurses and Midwives (BurDoNsaM) survey can be considered as content valid, according to the content validity analysis by an expert panel. IMPACT: The BurDoNsaM survey may be used by nurse leaders and researchers to measure the burden of documentation, providing the opportunity to review practice and implement strategies to decrease documentation burden, potentially improving patient satisfaction with the care received.

Effects of life history and reproduction on recruitment time lags in reintroductions of rare plants.

Reintroductions are important components of conservation and recovery programs for rare plant species, but their long-term success rates are poorly understood. Previous reviews of plant reintroductions focused on short-term (e.g., ≤3 years) survival and flowering of founder individuals rather than on benchmarks of intergenerational persistence, such as seedling recruitment. However, short-term metrics may obscure outcomes because the unique demographic properties of reintroductions, including small size and unstable stage structure, could create lags in population growth. We used time-to-event analysis on a database of unusually well-monitored and long-term (4-28 years) reintroductions of 27 rare plant species to test whether life-history traits and population characteristics of reintroductions create time-lagged responses in seedling recruitment (i.e., recruitment time lags [RTLs]), an important benchmark of success and indicator of persistence in reintroduced populations. Recruitment time lags were highly variable among reintroductions, ranging from <1 to 17 years after installation. Recruitment patterns matched predictions from life-history theory with short-lived species (fast species) exhibiting consistently shorter and less variable RTLs than long-lived species (slow species). Long RTLs occurred in long-lived herbs, especially in grasslands, whereas short RTLs occurred in short-lived subtropical woody plants and annual herbs. Across plant life histories, as reproductive adult abundance increased, RTLs decreased. Highly variable RTLs were observed in species with multiple reintroduction events, suggesting local processes are just as important as life-history strategy in determining reintroduction outcomes. Time lags in restoration outcomes highlight the need to scale success benchmarks in reintroduction monitoring programs with plant life-history strategies and the unique demographic properties of restored populations. Drawing conclusions on the long-term success of plant reintroduction programs is premature given that demographic processes in species with slow life-histories take decades to unfold.

Efectos de la Historia de Vida y la Reproducción sobre las Demoras en el Tiempo de Reclutamiento en la Reintroducción de Plantas Raras Resumen Las reintroducciones son componentes importantes de los programas de conservación y recuperación de especies raras de plantas, pero las tasas de éxito a largo plazo cuentan con muy poco entendimiento. Las revisiones previas de las reintroducciones de plantas se han enfocado en la supervivencia a corto plazo (p. ej.: ≤ 3 años) y en el florecimiento de individuos fundadores en lugar de enfocarse en puntos de referencia para la persistencia inter-generacional, como el reclutamiento de plántulas. Sin embargo, las medidas a corto plazo pueden ocultar los resultados ya que las propiedades demográficas únicas de las reintroducciones, incluyendo el menor tamaño y la estructura inestable de estadio, podrían crear demoras en el crecimiento poblacional. Usamos un análisis de tiempo-para-evento en una base de datos de reintroducciones inusualmente bien monitoreadas y de largo plazo (4-28 años) de 27 especies raras de plantas para probar si los atributos de la historia de vida y las características poblacionales de la reintroducción crean respuestas con demoras temporales en el reclutamiento de plántulas (es decir, demoras temporales en el reclutamiento), un punto de referencia importante para el éxito y un indicador de la persistencia en poblaciones reintroducidas. Las demoras temporales de reclutamiento (RTLs, en inglés) fueron muy variables entre las reintroducciones, abarcando desde <1 hasta 17 años después de la instalación. Los patrones de reclutamiento se acoplaron a las predicciones de la teoría de historias de vida, donde las especies de vida corta (especies rápidas) exhibieron RTLs consistentemente más cortas y menos variables que las especies de vida larga (especies lentas). Las RTLs largas ocurrieron en hierbas de vida larga, especialmente en los pastizales, mientras que las RTLs cortas ocurrieron en plantas leñosas subtropicales de vida corta y en hierbas anuales. En todas las historias de vida de las plantas, conforme incrementó la abundancia de adultos reproductivos, las RTLs disminuyeron. Se observaron RTLs altamente variables en las especies con eventos de reintroducción múltiples, lo que sugiere que los procesos locales son igual de importantes que la estrategia de historia de vida para determinar los resultados de las reintroducciones. Las demoras temporales en los resultados de restauración resaltan la necesidad de poner a escala los puntos de referencia de éxito en los programas de monitoreo de reintroducciones que tengan estrategias de historia de vida de las plantas y las propiedades demográficas únicas de las poblaciones restauradas. La obtención de conclusiones sobre el éxito a largo plazo de los programas de reintroducción de plantas es algo prematuro ya que los procesos demográficos de especies con historias de vida lentas tardan décadas en desarrollarse.

The effects of dexamphetamine on the resting-state electroencephalogram and functional connectivity.

The catecholamines-dopamine and noradrenaline-play important roles in directing and guiding behavior. Disorders of these systems, particularly within the dopamine system, are associated with several severe and chronically disabling psychiatric and neurological disorders. We used the recently published group independent components analysis (ICA) procedure outlined by Chen et al. (2013) to present the first pharmaco-EEG ICA analysis of the resting-state EEG in healthy participants administered 0.45 mg/kg dexamphetamine. Twenty-eight healthy participants between 18 and 41 were recruited. Bayesian nested-domain models that explicitly account for spatial and functional relationships were used to contrast placebo and dexamphetamine on component spectral power and several connectivity metrics. Dexamphetamine led to reductions across delta, theta, and alpha spectral power bands that were predominantly localized to Frontal and Central regions. Beta 1 and beta 2 power were reduced by dexamphetamine at Frontal ICs, while beta 2 and gamma power was enhanced by dexamphetamine in posterior regions, including the parietal, occipital-temporal, and occipital regions. Power-power coupling under dexamphetamine was similar for both states, resembling the eyes open condition under placebo. However, orthogonalized measures of power coupling and phase coupling did not show the same effect of dexamphetamine as power-power coupling. We discuss the alterations of low- and high-frequency EEG power in response to dexamphetamine within the context of disorders of dopamine regulation, in particular schizophrenia, as well as in the context of a recently hypothesized association between low-frequency power and aspects of anhedonia. Hum Brain Mapp 37:570-588, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D is associated with reduced verbal episodic memory in healthy, middle-aged and older adults.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence supporting an association of higher serum vitamin D concentration with better cognitive performance in older individuals. However, to date, consideration of the putative association between vitamin D and cognition has been based principally on studies investigating clinical participant samples manifesting vitamin D deficiency, particularly in older people. Moreover, relationships between vitamin D and cognition are typically not considered in the context of counter-regulatory calcium-modulating hormones or calcium homeostasis. OBJECTIVE: Serum vitamin D/bioactive (ionised) calcium/parathyroid hormone homeostasis was considered in the context of cognitive performance in healthy, middle-aged and older individuals. DESIGN: A cross-sectional sample of 179 participants between the ages of 47-84 years was recruited for this study (114 females, 65 males). Participants provided fasting blood samples for analysis of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, ionised calcium (iCa) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) and completed cognitive measures of verbal episodic learning and memory. RESULTS: Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were negatively associated (with and without covariates of age, gender, depression and NART scores, iCa, and PTH) with measures of verbal episodic learning and memory, in particular with trial 5 of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and long-delay free recall on the RAVLT. CONCLUSION: Overall, the findings from this study suggest an association between higher vitamin D status and poorer performance on verbal episodic memory in middle-aged and older individuals with normal vitamin D-calcium-PTH homeostasis. Despite requiring replication in other participant samples, this is a potentially important finding as it indicates that it may not be beneficial from a cognitive perspective to provide vitamin D supplements in individuals with already adequate vitamin D status.

Neuropsychological performance is positively associated with plasma albumin in healthy adults.

BACKGROUND: Albumin serves a range of physiological functions that are vital to overall brain and cognitive health. Indeed, associations between cognitive performance and albumin have been demonstrated in individuals with chronic liver or kidney disease and in patients with a high urinary excretion of albumin. However, an association of plasma albumin with cognitive performance has not been reported in otherwise healthy participants with clinically acceptable plasma albumin concentrations. METHOD: This study utilized a wide-ranging neuropsychological test battery to investigate the relationship between cognitive performance and plasma albumin homeostasis in 222 healthy participants (143 females) between the ages of 43 and 84 years (mean 65 years). RESULTS: Albumin both with and without the covariates of age, sex and acute-phase proteins was positively associated with enhanced performance on a range of neuropsychological domains including perceptual speed, Stroop and verbal ability. Albumin manifested generally positive but less robust associations with secondary and primary memory. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that there is a positive association between albumin and cognitive performance in physiologically healthy participants free of chronic renal or liver disease.

Lack of reliable evidence for a distinctive ε4-related cognitive phenotype that is independent from clinical diagnostic status: findings from the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study.

Individuals who carry the apolipoprotein E ε4 polymorphism have an increased risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease. However, because possession of the ε4 allele confers an increased risk for the diagnosis of dementia, it has proven problematic in older individuals to dissociate the influence of ε4 on cognitive capacity per se as distinct from its influence on clinical diagnostic status. We report a statistical approach that attempts to partial out the influence of diagnostic group membership (Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, healthy control) from the influence of apolipoprotein ε4 genetic status on cognitive functioning. The cognitive phenotype hypothesis predicts that ε4-positive individuals will show cognitive deficits (relative to matched ε4-negative individuals) independent of the development of Alzheimer's disease. By contrast, the prodromal/preclinical Alzheimer's disease hypothesis proposes that the effect of apolipoprotein E status on cognitive performance is a function of the increased risk of dementia in individuals with the ε4 allele. We evaluated these hypotheses in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle cohort (n = 1112). We first determined whether previously reported findings concerning ε4 status and age-related neuropsychological performance could be explained by the inadvertent recruitment of people with mild cognitive impairment into the healthy control group. We then tested each diagnostic group in isolation to identify any neuropsychological patterns that may be attributed to the ε4 allele. Finally, as interactions between the ε4 allele and age have previously been reported in cognitive functioning within healthy elderly populations, we attempted to determine whether the inclusion of mild cognitively impaired individuals in the sample may drive this relationship. An extensive battery of standardized, well-validated neuropsychological tasks was administered to a final sample of 764 healthy control subjects, 131 individuals with mild cognitive impairment and 168 individuals with Alzheimer's disease. The effect of the ε4 allele on cognitive performance was assessed using a statistical mediation analysis and supplemented with Bayesian methods to address a number of the limitations associated with Fisherian/Neyman-Pearsonian significance testing. Our findings support the prodromal/preclinical Alzheimer's disease hypothesis and do not support the concept of a distinctive ε4-related cognitive phenotype.

Diterpenes from the endangered goldenrod Solidago shortii.

Species extinction is tantamount to loss of chemical diversity, and so it is important to seize all opportunities to study species on the brink of extinction. Such studies are often hampered by the limited material available, but that obstacle is surmountable through collaboration with botanical gardens and advances in instrumentation. The goldenrod Solidago shortii is one example of an endangered species native to the United States. From S. shortii, one known diterpene (1), two new diterpenes (2 and 3), and three new hydrolysis products (4-6) are described. This work was made possible through collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden and with the use of highly sensitive microcryoprobe NMR technology for structure elucidation and VCD spectroscopy for the determination of absolute configuration.

Tactile cues are more intrinsically linked to motor timing than visual cues in visual-tactile sensorimotor synchronization.

Many tasks require precise synchronization with external sensory stimuli, such as driving a car. This study investigates whether combined visual-tactile information provides additional benefits to movement synchrony over separate visual and tactile stimuli and explores the relationship with the temporal binding window for multisensory integration. In Experiment 1, participants completed a sensorimotor synchronization task to examine movement variability and a simultaneity judgment task to measure the temporal binding window. Results showed similar synchronization variability between visual-tactile and tactile-only stimuli, but significantly lower than visual only. In Experiment 2, participants completed a visual-tactile sensorimotor synchronization task with cross-modal stimuli presented inside (stimulus onset asynchrony 80 ms) and outside (stimulus-onset asynchrony 400 ms) the temporal binding window to examine temporal accuracy of movement execution. Participants synchronized their movement with the first stimulus in the cross-modal pair, either the visual or tactile stimulus. Results showed significantly greater temporal accuracy when only one stimulus was presented inside the window and the second stimulus was outside the window than when both stimuli were presented inside the window, with movement execution being more accurate when attending to the tactile stimulus. Overall, these findings indicate there may be a modality-specific benefit to sensorimotor synchronization performance, such that tactile cues are weighted more strongly than visual information as tactile information is more intrinsically linked to motor timing than visual information. Further, our findings indicate that the visual-tactile temporal binding window is related to the temporal accuracy of movement execution.

Advancing the science and practice of rare plant conservation with the Center for Plant Conservation Reintroduction Database.

Premise: Reintroductions or translocations are an increasingly important activity to recover and conserve at-risk plant species. Yet because many are not published in the scientific literature, learning from previous attempts may often require considerable time and effort. The Center for Plant Conservation Reintroduction Database (CPCRD; https://saveplants.org/reintroduction-database/), a new centralized and standardized repository of U.S.-based plant reintroductions, aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of accessing data on rare plant reintroductions. Methods: The CPCRD is the product of multiple efforts to assemble information on rare plant reintroductions in the United States. The database comprises a wealth of standardized data on the key stages of a reintroduction, from the planning and implementation phases, to monitoring and management techniques. Results: The CPCRD is a dynamic resource, allowing data contributors to continually update their entries as projects progress. While contributions are ongoing, the CPCRD currently includes 460 projects involving 201 plant taxa, spanning diverse growth forms, ecosystems, and regions. Discussion: The CPCRD and its well-documented and monitored projects provide a valuable practical resource for conservation practitioners, and have supported multiple scientific studies and contributed to the internationally recognized Center for Plant Conservation Best Practices Guidelines.

Restoration age affects microbial-herbaceous plant interactions in an oak woodland.

In degraded ecosystems, soil microbial communities (SMCs) may influence the outcomes of ecological restoration. Restoration practices can affect SMCs, though it is unclear how variation in the onset of restoration activities in woodlands affects SMCs, how those SMCs influence the performance of hard-to-establish woodland forbs, and how different woodland forbs shape SMCs. In this study, we quantified soil properties and species abundances in an oak woodland restoration chronosequence (young, intermediate, and old restorations). We measured the growth of three woodland forb species when inoculated with live whole-soil from young, intermediate, or old restorations. We used DNA metabarcoding to characterize SMCs of each inoculum treatment and the soil after conditioning by each plant species. Our goals were to (1) understand how time since the onset of restoration affected soil abiotic properties, plant communities, and SMCs in a restoration chronosequence, (2) test growth responses of three forb species to whole-soil inoculum from restoration sites, and (3) characterize changes in SMCs before and after conditioning by each forb species. Younger restored woodlands had greater fire-sensitive tree species and lower concentrations of soil phosphorous than intermediate or older restored woodlands. Bacterial and fungal soil communities varied significantly among sites. Forbs exhibited the greatest growth in soil from the young restoration. Each forb species developed a unique soil microbial community. Our results highlight how restoration practices affect SMCs, which can in turn affect the growth of hard-to-establish forb species. Our results also highlight that the choice of forb species can alter SMCs, which could have long-term potential consequences for restoration success.

Dexamphetamine selectively increases 40 Hz auditory steady state response power to target and nontarget stimuli in healthy humans.

BACKGROUND: An emerging endophenotype of schizophrenia is the reduction of both power and phase locking of the 40 Hz auditory steady state response (ASSR), and there have been a number of reports linking increased γ activity with positive psychotic symptoms. Schizophrenia and, more specifically, positive psychotic symptoms have been closely linked to increased dopamine (DA) neurophysiology. Therefore, we gave dexamphetamine to healthy participants to determine the effect that increased DA transmission would have on the ASSR. METHODS: We administered 0.45 mg/kg of dexamphetamine orally in a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study. Stimuli were 20 Hz and 40 Hz click trains presented in an auditory oddball-type stimulus format (probability of stimulus presentation: 0.2 for targets, 0.8 for nontargets). RESULTS: We included 44 healthy volunteers (18 women) in the study. Dexamphetamine significantly increased the 40 Hz power for both target and nontarget ASSR stimuli. Dexamphetamine did not significantly affect the 40 Hz phase-locking factor (PLF) or the 20 Hz power and PLF. Whereas there were significant effects of selective attention on power and PLF for 20 and 40 Hz ASSR, there were no significant interactions between dexamphetamine and selective attention. LIMITATIONS: Dexamphetamine releases both noradrenaline and DA with equal potency. Further research with selective dopaminergic and noradrenergic agents will better characterize the effects of monoamines on γ activity. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate a frequency-specific effect of dexamphetamine on the ASSR. This finding is consistent with previous research that has found an association between increased γ and positive symptoms of psychosis. However, this result also raises the possibility that previous 40 Hz ASSR findings in people with schizophrenia may be confounded by effects of antipsychotic medication. Possible neural mechanisms by which dexamphetamine specifically increases 40 Hz power are also discussed. AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRY NUMBER: ACTRN12608000610336.

Risk factors associated with 30-day unplanned hospital readmission for patients with mental illness.

Unplanned hospital readmission rate is up to 43% in mental health settings, which is higher than in general health settings. Unplanned readmissions delay the recovery of patients with mental illness and add financial burden on families and healthcare services. There have been efforts to reduce readmissions with a particular interest in identifying patients at higher readmission risk after index admission; however, the results have been inconsistent. This systematic review synthesized risk factors associated with 30-day unplanned hospital readmissions for patients with mental illness. Eleven electronic databases were searched from 2010 to 30 September 2021 using key terms of 'mental illness', 'readmission' and 'risk factors'. Sixteen studies met the selection criteria for this review. Data were synthesized using content analysis and presented in narrative and tabular form because the extracted risk factors could not be pooled statistically due to methodological heterogeneity of the included studies. Consistently cited readmission predictors were patients with lower educational background, unemployment, previous mental illness hospital admission and more than 7 days of the index hospitalization. Results revealed the complexity of identifying unplanned hospital readmission predictors for people with mental illness. Policymakers need to specify the expected standards that written discharge summary must reach general practitioners concurrently at discharge. Hospital clinicians should ensure that discharge summary summaries are distributed to general practitioners for effective ongoing patient care and management. Having an advanced mental health nurse for patients during their transition period needs to be explored to understand how this role could ensure referrals to the general practitioner are eventuated.