We describe Swauka ypresiana n. gen. n. sp., the second fossil gossamerwing damselfly (Odonata, Zygoptera, Epallagidae, Epallaginae) and its oldest occurrence. It is the first fossil insect reported from the Swauk Formation of central Washington State, U.S.A. It was recovered from the “Sandstone facies of Swauk Pass,” a fluvial unit, immediately below the Silver Pass Volcanic Member of the Swauk Formation, which has a U–Pb zircon CA-ID-TIMS age of 51.364 ± 0.029 Ma. The host deposits probably represent mud-dominated floodplain lake or oxbow lake environments.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/20167852-bcbc-4f8b-b372-dffa591abd6a

Commentaries on the target article offer diverse perspectives on integrative experiment design. Our responses engage three themes: (1) Disputes of our characterization of the problem, (2) skepticism toward our proposed solution, and (3) endorsement of the solution, with accompanying discussions of its implementation in existing work and its potential for other domains. Collectively, the commentaries enhance our confidence in the promise and viability of integrative experiment design, while highlighting important considerations about how it is used.

The dominant paradigm of experiments in the social and behavioral sciences views an experiment as a test of a theory, where the theory is assumed to generalize beyond the experiment's specific conditions. According to this view, which Alan Newell once characterized as “playing twenty questions with nature,” theory is advanced one experiment at a time, and the integration of disparate findings is assumed to happen via the scientific publishing process. In this article, we argue that the process of integration is at best inefficient, and at worst it does not, in fact, occur. We further show that the challenge of integration cannot be adequately addressed by recently proposed reforms that focus on the reliability and replicability of individual findings, nor simply by conducting more or larger experiments. Rather, the problem arises from the imprecise nature of social and behavioral theories and, consequently, a lack of commensurability across experiments conducted under different conditions. Therefore, researchers must fundamentally rethink how they design experiments and how the experiments relate to theory. We specifically describe an alternative framework, integrative experiment design, which intrinsically promotes commensurability and continuous integration of knowledge. In this paradigm, researchers explicitly map the design space of possible experiments associated with a given research question, embracing many potentially relevant theories rather than focusing on just one. Researchers then iteratively generate theories and test them with experiments explicitly sampled from the design space, allowing results to be integrated across experiments. Given recent methodological and technological developments, we conclude that this approach is feasible and would generate more-reliable, more-cumulative empirical and theoretical knowledge than the current paradigm – and with far greater efficiency.

Over the last 25 years, the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) has made a significant return to the Southern Bight of the North Sea and the English Channel due to a shift in distribution from northerly regions. Although the ecological drivers of this return are unclear, this species faces multiple threats in the region, including by-catch and habitat degradation. Ferry-based surveys were conducted year-round between November 2011 and June 2014 to assess the influence of environmental parameters upon the spatiotemporal distribution and relative abundance of harbour porpoises in the Southern Bight of the North Sea. A total of 1450 sightings of harbour porpoises were recorded during the 100 round-trip surveys carried out between Dunkirk (France) and Dover (England). Inter-annual and monthly variations in group size were observed, with largest groups recorded in 2014 (mean = 2.02) and in January (mean = 2.32). The relative abundance showed significant seasonal variation, with peaks recorded during winter months. An inter-annual increasing relative abundance was recorded during the study period. There was a seasonally dependent association with environmental variables, particularly depth, seabed roughness and current speed. Finally, predictions suggest large increases of the relative abundance in offshore habitats during winter months and over the study period.

At present, analysis of diet and bladder cancer (BC) is mostly based on the intake of individual foods. The examination of food combinations provides a scope to deal with the complexity and unpredictability of the diet and aims to overcome the limitations of the study of nutrients and foods in isolation. This article aims to demonstrate the usability of supervised data mining methods to extract the food groups related to BC. In order to derive key food groups associated with BC risk, we applied the data mining technique C5.0 with 10-fold cross-validation in the BLadder cancer Epidemiology and Nutritional Determinants study, including data from eighteen case–control and one nested case–cohort study, compromising 8320 BC cases out of 31 551 participants. Dietary data, on the eleven main food groups of the Eurocode 2 Core classification codebook, and relevant non-diet data (i.e. sex, age and smoking status) were available. Primarily, five key food groups were extracted; in order of importance, beverages (non-milk); grains and grain products; vegetables and vegetable products; fats, oils and their products; meats and meat products were associated with BC risk. Since these food groups are corresponded with previously proposed BC-related dietary factors, data mining seems to be a promising technique in the field of nutritional epidemiology and deserves further examination.

The objective of this report was to show how the Center for Humanitarian Emergencies (the Center) at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia USA) has trained graduate students to respond to complex humanitarian emergencies (CHEs) through innovative educational programs, with the goal of increasing the number of trained humanitarian workers. Natural disasters are on the rise with more than twice as many occurring from 2000-2009 as there were from 1980-1989. In 2012 alone, 144 million people were affected by a natural disaster or displaced by conflict worldwide. This has created an immense need for trained humanitarian workers to respond effectively to such disasters. The Center has developed a model for educational programming that targets learners along an educational continuum ranging from the undergraduate level through continuing professional education. These programs, based in the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) of Emory University, include: a competency-based graduate certificate program (the Certificate) in humanitarian emergencies; a fellowship program for mid-career professionals; and funded field practica. The competency-based Certificate program began in 2010 with a cohort of 14 students. Since then, 101 students have received the Certificate with 50 more due for completion in 2016 and 2017 combined. The fellowship program for mid-career professionals has hosted four fellows from conflict-affected or resource-poor countries, who have then gone on to assume leadership positions with humanitarian organizations. From 2009-2015, the field practicum program supported 34 students in international summer practicum experiences related to emergency response or preparedness. Students have participated in summer field experiences on every continent but Australia. Together the Certificate, funded field practicum opportunities, and the fellowship comprise current efforts in providing innovative education and training for graduate and post-graduate students of public health in humanitarian response. These modest efforts are just the beginning in terms of addressing the global shortage of skilled public health professionals that can coordinate humanitarian response. Evaluating existing programs will allow for refinement of current programs. Ultimately, these programs may influence the development of new programs and inform others interested in this area.

Evans DP, Anderson M, Shahpar C, del Rio C, Curran JW. Innovation in Graduate Education for Health Professionals in Humanitarian Emergencies. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(5):532–538.

Aim 1 of this study was to examine the developmental changes in typically developing English-speaking children's syntactically based sentence interpretation abilities and sensitivity to word order. Aim 2 was to determine the psychometric standing of the novel sentence interpretation task developed for this study, because we wish to use it later with children with specific language impairment. Children listened to semantically implausible sentences in which noun animacy and the natural affordance between the nouns were removed, thus controlling for event probability. Using this novel “whatdunit?” agent selection task, 256 children 7–11 years old listened to two structures with canonical word order and two with noncanonical word order. After each sentence, children selected as quickly as possible the picture of the noun they believed was “doing the action.” Children interpreted sentences with canonical word order with greater accuracy and speed than those with noncanonical word order. Older children (mean age = 10 years, 8 months) were more accurate and faster than younger children (mean age = 8 years, 1 month) across all sentence forms. Both older and younger children demonstrated similar error patterns across sentence type. The “whatdunit?” task also proved to have strong validity and reliability, making it suitable for studies with children with specific language impairment.

Multi-functionalization of catalytically-active nanomaterials provides a valuable tool for enhancing reaction yield by shifting reaction equilibrium, and potentially also by adjusting reaction-diffusion kinetics. For example, multi-functionalization of mesoporous silica to make the interior pore surface hydrophobic can enhance yield in dehydration reactions. Detailed molecular-level modeling to describe the pore environment, as well as the reaction and diffusion kinetics is challenging, although we briefly discuss current strategies. Our focus, however, is on coarse-grained stochastic modeling of the overall catalytic process for highly restricted transport within narrow pores (with single-file diffusion), while accounting for a tunable interaction of the pore interior with reaction products. We show that making the pore interior unfavorable to products can significantly enhance yield due to both thermodynamic and kinetics factors.

Strategies are described for modeling the kinetics of non-equilibrium film growth during deposition of metals on quasicrystalline substrates. We review previous atomistic-level lattice-gas modeling and Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation for pseudomorphic (or commensurate) submonolayer growth based on a “disordered or irregular bond-network” (DBN) of neighboring adsorption sites. We describe extensions to treat strain effects and multilayer growth, and discuss a type of commensurate-incommensurate transition expected around 2-3 layers. We also describe a coarse-grained “step dynamics” modeling which tracks the dynamics of island edges in each layer rather than individual atoms. Step dynamics models can also include key aspects of the physics such as layer-dependent energetics, including quantum size effects, and strain effects.

Stepped Si(100) surfaces exhibit alternating stiff SA and meandering SB steps, and thus constitute a so-called AB-vicinal surface. Both growth by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) or Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), and erosion by ion sputtering or chemical etching, induce step pairing, although different factors contribute. In addition, more complex pattern formation often occurs during step train motion. We synthesize recent developments in modeling of these processes ranging from ab-initio electronic structure approaches for key surface energetics, to atomistic lattice-gas modeling, to coarse-grained sharp-interface (front-tracking) and smeared-interface (phase-field) step dynamics approaches. We briefly describe development of new formalisms related to coarse-grained approaches, as well as selected results for step pairing.