The Mountain West Clinical and Translational Infrastructure Network Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core has fostered academic-community engagement since 2018. States historically receiving lower levels of NIH funding are characterized by significantly higher proportions of rural and remote populations, as well as uniquely elevated percentages of Native American/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations compared to most other states. This case study highlights the Core’s efforts in advancing community-engaged research. Key initiatives included forming a CEO Core Steering Committee to recruit interdisciplinary investigators, establishing regional community advisory boards to identify research priorities, and creating a Resource Library and Training Portal for stakeholders. The Core also collaborated with other Cores to provide training, mentorship, and funding for community-engaged research. Despite these achievements, geographical and cultural diversity presented engagement challenges. Regular meetings between investigators and stakeholders ensured bidirectional communication and aligned goals. The Core transformed transactional engagement into meaningful collaboration, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary teams who understand community needs. Future goals include training academic teams, clinical providers, and community members, empowering early-stage investigators to share findings with partners, leveraging health records for research, and developing strategies to protect investigators’ time.

The semiarid northeast coast of Brazil harbours just less than 44,300 ha of mangroves, 4% of Brazilian total. Notwithstanding this relatively small area, these forests have high ecological and economic importance, sustaining traditional fisheries and protecting biodiversity, including many threatened species. They present unique biogeochemical characteristics resulting in distinct ecosystem functioning compared to mangroves located in humid areas. Semiarid mangroves present lower aboveground biomass compared to humid region mangroves but show similar belowground biomass. Whereas mangrove soils in humid areas are strongly influenced by sulphate reduction, iron geochemistry is a primary driver of soil characteristics in semiarid mangrove soils, suggesting different responses to climate change drivers between them. Although legally protected, they have incurred continuous degradation due to regional drivers, mostly aquaculture and river damming, which differs from those in humid coast mangroves. Semiarid mangroves are also particularly sensitive to drivers associated with global climate change (high temperatures, reduced rainfall and sea level rise). These conditions occur at a global scale; however, the impacts are worsened by the natural conditions of semiarid coastlines, which already provide biologically stressful conditions for mangroves. This article compares the impacts of such drivers in semiarid mangroves with those of humid mangroves, focusing on their biogeochemical response and eventual rehabilitation.

This study aimed to closely replicate Wiseheart et al. (Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(1), 141–146, 2016) by investigating the transferability of language-switching skills to nonlinguistic task switching. Current evidence is mixed and there is a need to conduct robust replications in this area. Bilingual (n = 31) and monolingual (n = 47) young adults characterized stimuli by either colour or shape based on a given cue. Modifications include online data collection (as opposed to in-person) and adapting the nonverbal intelligence test used. All other aspects of the study mirror those by Wiseheart et al. Results indicate that the bilinguals exhibited better cognitive flexibility in task switching, as evidenced by a reduced global switch cost compared with monolinguals. In contrast, mixed evidence was found for local switch costs. Findings mirror those reported by Wiseheart et al. and suggest that by employing comparable task-switch paradigms and recruiting samples matched on several key variables, including age, gender, variety of languages spoken, and use of English, bilingualism does seem to confer broader executive function advantages. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical implications to inform future replication studies and advance the bilingual advantage in the switching debate.

What does it mean to teach American studies in UK higher education? We teach “American” content in our classes, modules, and degree programmes, but do we also conduct our teaching in ways specific to American studies? Lee Shulman describes a “signature pedagogy” as “the forms of instruction that leap to mind when we first think about the preparation of members of particular professions,” encompassing both the types of teaching we conduct in our classrooms and the assumptions and values that underpin that practice. Initial conversations about the concept of a signature pedagogy for American studies in the UK were held in a session organized by Lydia Plath on behalf of the Teaching American Studies Network at the Digital BAAS Conference in 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic that required all of us to reflect on our teaching practice. Building on that earlier conversation, this exchange was conducted between February and July 2022. The discussion explores American studies pedagogical approaches through the assumptions, beliefs, and values that underpin our teaching; the challenges of multi- and interdisciplinarity; and questions of identity, inclusion, and national context.

Introduction. While many individuals quit smoking during pregnancy, most relapse within one year postpartum. Research into methods to decrease smoking relapse postpartum has been hampered by difficulties with recruitment. Method. We conducted individual interviews with pregnant women (N = 22) who were interested in quitting smoking while pregnant about their attitudes regarding smoking and quitting during pregnancy, clinical trial participation, and smoking cessation medication use. Results. Participants were aware of the risks of smoking while pregnant. Many wanted to quit smoking before delivery. Few used empirically supported treatments to quit. While research was viewed positively, interest in taking on new commitments postpartum and taking a medication to prevent relapse was low. Medication concerns were evident among most participants, especially among those planning to breastfeed. Further, several women noted medication was unnecessary, as they did not believe they would relapse postpartum. Financial incentives, childcare, and fewer and/or remote visits were identified as facilitators to participating in research. However, these factors did not outweigh women’s concerns about medication use and time commitments. Conclusions. Women are aware that quitting smoking during pregnancy and remaining smoke-free postpartum are important. However, beliefs that personal relapse risk is low and that medications are dangerous reduced enthusiasm for taking medication for postpartum relapse prevention. Future medication trials should educate women about the high likelihood of relapse, prepare to answer detailed questions about risks of cessation medications, and connect with participants’ clinicians. For new mothers, studies conducted remotely with few scheduled appointments would reduce barriers to participation.

Assimilation of continuously streamed monitored data is an essential component of a digital twin; the assimilated data are used to ensure the digital twin represents the monitored system as accurately as possible. One way this is achieved is by calibration of simulation models, whether data-derived or physics-based, or a combination of both. Traditional manual calibration is not possible in this context; hence, new methods are required for continuous calibration. In this paper, a particle filter methodology for continuous calibration of the physics-based model element of a digital twin is presented and applied to an example of an underground farm. The methodology is applied to a synthetic problem with known calibration parameter values prior to being used in conjunction with monitored data. The proposed methodology is compared against static and sequential Bayesian calibration approaches and compares favourably in terms of determination of the distribution of parameter values and analysis run times, both essential requirements. The methodology is shown to be potentially useful as a means to ensure continuing model fidelity.

The Scaling-up Health-Arts Programme: Implementation and Effectiveness Research (SHAPER) project is the world's largest hybrid study on the impact of the arts on mental health embedded into a national healthcare system. This programme, funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to study the impact and the scalability of the arts as an intervention for mental health. The programme will be delivered by a team of clinicians, research scientists, charities, artists, patients and healthcare professionals in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and the community, spanning academia, the NHS and the charity sector. SHAPER consists of three studies – Melodies for Mums, Dance for Parkinson's, and Stroke Odysseys – which will recruit over 800 participants, deliver the interventions and draw conclusions on their clinical impact, implementation effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. We hope that this work will inspire organisations and commissioners in the NHS and around the world to expand the remit of social prescribing to include evidence-based arts interventions.

For decades, political and private polling operations have informed about the public’s perceptions regarding a range of topics. In particular, universities (e.g., Marist and Quinnipiac) provide noteworthy research to inform and predict the outcomes of US elections. Yet, what role do our classrooms play in advancing the public opinion polling skills of our students? This article uses experiential learning as a descriptive framework to illustrate how a yearlong, immersive, and student-led public opinion polling experience, the Big Sky Poll, advances students’ social-science and data-fluency skills. Our findings suggest important insights into the future of public opinion polling from the vantage point of a rural Western state, which can be replicated in other academic institutions.

Reintroduction practitioners must often make critical decisions about reintroduction protocols despite having little understanding of the reintroduction biology of the focal species. To enhance the available knowledge on the reintroduction biology of the warru, or black-footed rock-wallaby Petrogale lateralis MacDonnell Ranges race, we conducted a trial reintroduction of 16 captive individuals into a fenced predator and competitor exclosure on the An̲angu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia. We conducted seven trapping sessions and used radio-tracking and camera traps to monitor survival, reproduction and recruitment to the population over 36 months. Blood samples were collected pre-release and during two trapping sessions post-release to assess nutritional health. The survival rate of founders was 63%, with all losses occurring within 10 weeks of release. Post-release blood biochemistry indicated that surviving warru adapted to their new environment and food sources. Female warru conceived within 6 months of release; 28 births were recorded during the study period and 52% of births successfully recruited to the population. Our results suggest that captive-bred warru are capable of establishing and persisting in the absence of introduced predators. However, the high mortality rate immediately post-release, with only a modest recruitment rate, suggests that future releases into areas where predators and competitors are present should use a trial approach to determine the viability of reintroduction. We recommend that future releases of warru into unfenced areas include an intensive monitoring period in the first 3 months post-release followed by a comprehensive long-term monitoring schedule to facilitate effective adaptive management.