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

Selig Harrison originally visited North Korea in 1972, when he and Harrison Salisbury were the first independent or non-communist American journalists to visit since the Korean War. Mr. Harrison was also one of the first American experts to understand the strong grip of nationalism in North Korea, which he elucidated in his excellent 1978 book, The Widening Gulf: Asian Nationalism and American Policy. He now has more than 20 visits to Pyongyang under his belt, and his most recent book, Korean Endgame is a provocative call for American disengagement with Korea.

It also contains perhaps the best informed treatment that we have of the issues that have animated the confrontation between Washington and Pyongyang over the latter's nuclear program. With that stymied conflict now in its eighteenth year, it is no wonder that Mr. Harrison returned from his most recent visit with a suggestion that “benign neglect” of the nuclear issue might be the best among a narrowing list of American options.

Most species exhibit morphological stasis following speciation, and this is a key feature of the concept of punctuated equilibria. Stasis results in species often having long durations on geological timescales. Durational data are fundamental to many types of paleobiological analyses and are ideally based on occurrence data represented by specimens in museum collections. Often, however, durational data are presented without supporting information about voucher specimens that document stratigraphic ranges, including first and last appearances. We use the iconic Devonian trilobite Eldredgeops rana to demonstrate that durational data can be challenging to determine at multiple taxonomic levels. Further, we show that different datasets—including Sepkoski’s published databases, the Paleobiology Database, and iDigBio—give discordant results concerning first and last occurrences. We argue that paleontologists should adopt two general best practices to help address these problems. First, systematists should clearly identify voucher specimens that represent stratigraphic occurrences of species. Second, we recommend that high-quality photographs of occurrence vouchers be placed in open access websites and be assigned public domain licensing before being paywalled by journals. Such voucher images also have a role to play in training artificial intelligence (AI) systems that will be applied to future paleobiological questions.

We measured brain activity using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm and conducted a whole-brain analysis while healthy adult Democrats and Republicans made non-hypothetical food choices. While the food purchase decisions were not significantly different, we found that brain activation during decision-making differs according to the participant’s party affiliation. Models of partisanship based on left insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, superior frontal gyrus, or premotor/supplementary motor area activations achieve better than expected accuracy. Understanding the differential function of neural systems that lead to indistinguishable choices may provide leverage in explaining the broader mechanisms of partisanship.

The recent expansion of cross-cultural research in the social sciences has led to increased discourse on methodological issues involved when studying culturally diverse populations. However, discussions have largely overlooked the challenges of construct validity- ensuring instruments are measuring what they are intended to- in diverse cultural contexts, particularly in developmental research. We contend that cross-cultural developmental research poses distinct problems for ensuring high construct validity, owing to the nuances of working with children and that the standard approach of transporting protocols designed and validated in one population to another risks low construct validity. Drawing upon our own and others’ work, we highlight several challenges to construct validity in the field of cross-cultural developmental research, including 1) lack of cultural and contextual knowledge, 2) dissociating developmental and cultural theory and methods, 3) lack of causal frameworks, 4) superficial and short- term partnerships and collaborations, and 5) culturally inappropriate tools and tests. We provide guidelines to address these challenges, including 1) using ethnographic and observational approaches, 2) developing evidence-based causal frameworks, 3) conducting community-engaged and collaborative research, and 4) culture-specific refinements and training. We discuss the need to balance methodological consistency with culture-specific refinements to improve construct validity in cross-cultural developmental research.

This paper presents an analysis, based on simulation, of the stability of principal components. Stability is measured by the expectation of the absolute inner product of the sample principal component with the corresponding population component. A multiple regression model to predict stability is devised, calibrated, and tested using simulated Normal data. Results show that the model can provide useful predictions of individual principal component stability when working with correlation matrices. Further, the predictive validity of the model is tested against data simulated from three non-Normal distributions. The model predicted very well even when the data departed from normality, thus giving robustness to the proposed measure. Used in conjunction with other existing rules this measure will help the user in determining interpretability of principal components.

Three new species of Ypresian (early Eocene) Odonata are described: Paradysagrion sosbyae gen. and sp. nov. from the Klondike Mountain Formation at Republic, Washington, United States of America, and Dysagrionites allenbyensis sp. nov. and Allenby gen. and sp. A from the Allenby Formation near Princeton, British Columbia, Canada. All three are assigned to the Dysagrionidae and Cephalozygoptera but only tentatively, as key diagnostic morphology is missing from their incomplete fossils. The definition of the collective genus Dysagrionites is broadened to include odonates tentatively assigned to the Dysagrioninae (Dysagrionidae) that are distinct as species but have unclear nominal genus affinity.

This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of reduced-order models (ROMs) for the determination of pressure coefficient distributions on supersonic and hypersonic bodies. The study investigates the limitations, aerodynamic precision and computational performance associated with various methodologies, ranging from simplistic Newtonian theory-based approaches to more advanced first and second-order shock-expansion theories. Validation is performed by comparing computed results with experimental and computational data for pressure distributions, drag and lift coefficients and centres of pressure for fundamental geometries and authentic vehicle design over a wide range of freestream conditions. The study also includes a comprehensive computational complexity analysis, demonstrating the superiority of finite-element ROM approaches over traditional finite-volume computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The primary objective of this paper is to scrutinise the extension of these methodological classes to the low supersonic regime. Hence, thermo-chemical reactions within the flow are disregarded, and the ideal gas law is adopted. A value of $\gamma = 1.4$ is chosen for consistency and comparability across the analyses. The proposed ROMs show remarkable potential for reducing high-speed simulation execution times by four orders of magnitude, maintaining accuracy within 20 per cent and as low as 1 per cent. The study unveils three key findings: first, the accuracy degradation of Newtonian-based theories for inclined elements, particularly around 45 degrees, and their reduced dependency on Mach number at large inclination. Secondly, the study presents novel insights into the impact of shock-wave-Mach-wave interactions on pressure distribution calculations, emphasising the Mach number as a crucial metric governing recompression effects. Lastly, the study demonstrates the exceptional accuracy of DeJarnette’s method, providing ${C_P}$ results within 2 per cent for a wide range of conditions, offering an attractive alternative to the Taylor-Maccoll equation.

Policy specialization in the U.S. Congress benefits the institution collectively and members individually. Yet members of Congress (MCs) are insufficiently specialized to optimize lawmaking success (Volden and Wiseman 2020). In this paper, we demonstrate the increasing propensity of MCs to generalize legislatively is driven largely by an expansion of MC legislative agendas in business domains. We then offer and test an explanation for this trend whereby business’s increasing demand for congressional attention (Drutman 2015) has outpaced the supply of congressional capacity to serve business needs (Crossen, Furnas, LaPira, and Burgat 2020; McKay 2022). This unmet demand incentivizes MCs to expand their business portfolio, which results in increased campaign contributions from business political action committees (PACs). We provide evidence consistent with this theory, showing that under conditions of access scarcity, MCs benefit financially (in terms of increased business PAC contributions) by broadening the number of business domains they are active in legislatively.

The heat capacities of kaolinite (7 to 380 K) and of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) intercalated kaolinite (20 to 310 K) were measured by adiabatically shielded calorimetry. The third law entropy of kaolinite, S298, is 200.9 ± 0.5 J·mol−1K−1.

The “melting point” of the DMSO in the intercalate, 288.0 ± 0.2 K, is 3.7 K lower than that of pure DMSO, 291.67 K. The heat capacity of DMSO in the intercalate above 290 K is approximately 5.2 J·mol−1·K−1 smaller than that of pure liquid DMSO at the same temperature.

The adsorption of arsenate (As(V)) on kaolinite, montmorillonite and illite was investigated at varying pH and competing anion concentration while holding As(V) concentration (6.7 × 10−7M), clay suspension density (2.5 g L−1) and ionic strength (0.1 M NaCl) constant. The effects of 2 concentrations of phosphate (P) or molybdate (Mo) (6.7 × 10−7 and 6.7 × 10−6M) on As(V) adsorption envelopes (adsorption vs. pH) gave evidence for direct competitive adsorption (in the case of As(V) + P) and possibly site-specific non-competitive adsorption (As(V) + Mo). Distinct As(V) adsorption maxima occurred at approximately pH 5.0 for kaolinite, 6.0 for montmorillonite and 6.5 for illite, and ranged from 0.15 to 0.22 mmol As(V) kg−1. When both As(V) and P were present at equimolar concentrations (6.7 × 10−7M), As(V) adsorption decreased slightly, whereas As(V) adsorption substantially decreased in binary As(V)/P systems when the P concentration was 6.7 × 10−6M, which was 10 times greater than As(V). The presence of Mo at equimolar (6.7 × 10−7 M) and 10 times greater (6.7 × 10−6M) concentrations than As(V) caused only slight decreases in As(V) adsorption because the Mo adsorption maximum occurred at pH < 4. The constant capacitance surface complexation model was applied to As(V) and P adsorption data and was used to predict As(V) adsorption at varying P concentrations. The model gave reasonable descriptions of As(V) adsorption on the 3 clay minerals at varying pH and in the presence of a competing oxyanion (P), indicating that surface complexation modeling may be useful in predicting As(V) adsorption in soils.

While mentors can learn general strategies for effective mentoring, existing mentorship curricula do not comprehensively address how to support marginalized mentees, including LGBTQIA+ mentees. After identifying best mentoring practices and existing evidence-based curricula, we adapted these to create the Harvard Sexual and Gender Minority Health Mentoring Program. The primary goal was to address the needs of underrepresented health professionals in two overlapping groups: (1) LGBTQIA+ mentees and (2) any mentees focused on LGBTQIA+ health. An inaugural cohort (N = 12) of early-, mid-, and late-career faculty piloted this curriculum in spring 2022 during six 90-minute sessions. We evaluated the program using confidential surveys after each session and at the program’s conclusion as well as with focus groups. Faculty were highly satisfied with the program and reported skill gains and behavioral changes. Our findings suggest this novel curriculum can effectively prepare mentors to support mentees with identities different from their own; the whole curriculum, or parts, could be integrated into other trainings to enhance inclusive mentoring. Our adaptations are also a model for how mentorship curricula can be tailored to a particular focus (i.e., LGBTQIA+ health). Ideally, such mentor trainings can help create more inclusive environments throughout academic medicine.

We examine the fossil weaver ants (Formicidae, Formicine, Oecophyllini) of the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands fossil localities of British Columbia, Canada and Washington, United States of America, naming Eoecophylla quilchenensis n. gen. et sp. from Quilchena (British Columbia), formally transferring Camponotites kraussei Dlussky and Rasnitsyn (Republic, Washington) to the genus Oecophylla Smith, F., and describing but not naming a worker (McAbee, British Columbia), treated as Oecophyllini sp. A. These are the oldest known Oecophyllini (Oecophylla + Eoecophylla) and Oecophylla. Forewing vein stubs of E. quilchenensis and its well-developed hind wing vein M are plesiomorphies; this M is unique within the subfamily, suggesting Oecophyllini is sister to other Formicine. The head shape of O. kraussei n. comb. indicates a close relationship to Oecophylla longiceps Dlussky from Eocene Messel, Germany. The ant Titanomyrma Archibald et al. is also known from the Okanagan Highlands and Messel, consistent with Late Cretaceous/early Paleogene intercontinental dispersal. We discuss possible host plants and trophobionts of these ants. Although Okanagan Highlands localities were cooler than the Paleotropical range of modern Oecophylla, their presence there might be explained by mild winters without significant frost.