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Decarbonizing the economy must remain a critical priority Stabilizing Earth's climate and limiting temperature increase to well below 2°C per the Paris Agreement requires a dramatic uptick in the rate of progress on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Natural climate solutions (NCS) can be a substantial contributor, while also providing valuable cobenefits for people and ecosystems. Although analyses of NCS have some differences in the GHG fluxes they consider, all include emissions sources (such as deforestation, land-use change, and agricultural practices), emissions sinks (such as reforestation and restoring degraded lands), and non–carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) agricultural emissions (such as methane from livestock). Some of us have contributed to among the most optimistic assessments of the potential of NCS ( 1 ), whereas others have been more pessimistic ( 2 , 3 ). But one thing on which we agree, and which technical literature generally acknowledges, is that the benefits of NCS do not decrease the imperative for mitigation from the energy and industrial sectors ( 2 , 4 , 5 ). Yet this point sometimes gets lost in public-facing conversations [for example, are forests “our best weapon for fighting carbon emissions” or, more realistically, just one “piece of the puzzle”? ( 6 )]. Strategies for incorporating NCS with energy and industrial mitigation in the climate portfolio should not be “either/or” but “yes, and.”

The present study examined language trajectories and placement outcomes for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) receiving early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI). Language measures were collected at baseline and 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months or until exit from EIBI in 131 children with ASD. Growth models estimated overall and subgroup language trajectories. Overall, children receiving EIBI showed substantial increases in language relative to normative expectations. Earlier age at EIBI start, higher baseline cognitive function, and lower baseline ASD severity predicted better language trajectories. Although there was significant variability in language trajectories and educational outcomes, most children showed significant increases in language scores, relative to normative expectations. Additional research, in more representative samples, is needed to understand this variability.

Are forest offsets an effective way to address climate change, and do they provide other benefits? In some climate-change mitigation policies, industries and individuals can purchase offsets that compensate for their greenhouse-gas emissions by reducing emissions elsewhere. However, offsets may undermine mitigation efforts, by potentially giving carbon credits for emissions reductions that would have occurred even without the offset program in place. We evaluate California's forest offset program – the first-ever legally enforceable \"compliance\" offset program for existing forests – to determine whether offsets (1) provide additional emissions reductions that would not have occurred without the program (called \"additionality\") and (2) yield other benefits. We found that California's forest offset program, comprising a small portion of the state's mitigation portfolio, does not inhibit overall emissions reductions. Further, the program advances stringent \"additionality\" of emissions reductions through multiple mechanisms. Finally, mitigation through forest offsets can yield a suite of important co-benefits. Lessons from California's experience with forest offsets can help to inform other offset programs that are increasingly being developed around the world.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C) makes clear that most scenarios (90%) that hold warming to 1.5°C by 2100 include an overshoot, or a period in which the temperature increase exceeds 1.5°C before declining to the end-of-century 1.5°C goal (IPCC 2018). An overshoot is also possible for 2°C scenarios, given the lack of ambition in existing mitigation commitments. Current conservation policy and planning does not adequately account for the high likelihood of a temperature overshoot in a 1.5°C scenario, but the impacts of an overshoot on conservation may be large. Efforts to avoid an overshoot must be increased through more ambitious mitigation commitments and a greater focus on peak warming rather than end-of-century outcomes. Simultaneously, conservation planning should account for such impacts by anticipating more dynamic systems that carry greater uncertainties and potentially irreversible changes that may persist even as temperatures peak and decline.

Infants were followed longitudinally to document the relationship between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels and the development of attention. Erythrocyte (red-blood cell; RBC) phospholipid DHA (percentage of total fatty acids) was measured from infants and mothers at delivery. Infants were assessed in infant-control habituation at 4, 6, and 8 months augmented with psychophysiological measures, and on free-play attention and distractibility paradigms at 12 and 18 months. Infants whose mothers had high DHA at birth showed an accelerated decline in looking over the 1st year and increases in examining during single-object exploration and less distractibility in the 2nd year. These findings are consistent with evidence suggesting a link between DHA and cognitive development in infancy.

Analysis of long‐term trends in forest carbon stocks is challenged by interactions among climate change, wildfire and other disturbances, forest management actions, and heterogeneous vegetation responses. For such circumstances where complex interactions make it difficult to encompass the full range of processes in any one mode of analysis, expert elicitation is a well‐developed method for documenting judgments about uncertainty, based on available evidence, to inform ongoing decision‐making. Applying this method for the Sierra Nevada, we evaluate subjective probabilistic estimates of trends in aboveground forest carbon for different management scenarios toward the goal of maximizing carbon stored, while also considering implications for wildfire risk. The analysis examines the effects of four treatments in isolation (thinning, timber harvesting, prescribed burning, managed wildfire), as well as a user‐defined management portfolio allocating resources across five management practices (thinning, harvesting, prescribed burning, firefighting, and restoration). The expert elicitation suggests that aboveground forest carbon stocks will decline 8%, from 126 to 116 tC/ha, between 2030 and 2100 (median estimate across experts) assuming conventional forest management practices are continued. Out of all surveyed practices, the custom user‐defined management portfolio results in the highest carbon stock of 129 tC/ha which is 11% higher than conventional practice in 2100 at the 50th percentile. The expert elicitation indicates less beneficial carbon sequestration outcomes than recent modeling studies. Suggesting co‐benefits across objectives, 75 experts collectively estimate a 61% likelihood that managing for carbon also reduces wildfire risk. By contrast, decreases in carbon stocks are anticipated for large magnitudes of climate change or substantial decreases in forest management investments.

Background Planarians are renowned for their regenerative capacity and are an attractive model for the study of adult stem cells and tissue regeneration. In an effort to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying planarian regeneration, we performed a functional genomics screen aimed at identifying genes involved in this process in Schmidtea mediterranea . Methods We used microarrays to detect changes in gene expression in regenerating and non-regenerating tissues in planarians regenerating one side of the head and followed this with high-throughput screening by in situ hybridization and RNAi to characterize the expression patterns and function of the differentially expressed genes. Results Along with five previously characterized genes ( Smed-cycD , Smed-morf41/mrg-1 , Smed-pdss2/dlp1, Smed-slbp , and Smed-tph ), we identified 20 additional genes necessary for stem cell maintenance ( Smed-sart3 , Smed-smarcc-1 , Smed-espl1 , Smed-rrm2b-1 , Smed-rrm2b-2 , Smed-dkc1 , Smed-emg1 , Smed-lig1 , Smed-prim2 , Smed-mcm7 , and a novel sequence) or general regenerative capability ( Smed-rbap46/48-2 , Smed-mcm2 , Smed-ptbp1 , and Smed-fen-1 ) or that caused tissue-specific defects upon knockdown ( Smed-ddc , Smed-gas8 , Smed-pgbd4 , and Smed-b9d2 ). We also found that a homolog of the nuclear transport factor Importin-α plays a role in stem cell function and tissue patterning, suggesting that controlled nuclear import of proteins is important for regeneration. Conclusions Through this work, we described the roles of several previously uncharacterized genes in planarian regeneration and implicated nuclear import in this process. We have additionally created an online database to house our in situ and RNAi data to make it accessible to the planarian research community.

While researchers have increasingly accurate data about changing forest cover from satellites, the complex causal mechanisms that link forest cover change and forest management policy are not yet fully understood. My dissertation contributes broadly to the question: How does land use policy for forest management directly and indirectly impact forest outcomes? I address this overarching question in four chapters, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of land use policy for forest management, and the direct and indirect outcomes of deforestation, forest carbon storage, and air pollution. First I examine an empirical case and demonstrate that multiple use allocation decreases deforestation rates in the Peruvian Amazon. Second I analyze sustainability commitments and fines in private concessions in the Peruvian Amazon and find that they are not associated with significant changes in deforestation rates. Third I examine forest carbon offset projects in the US and find that they have increased forest carbon stock for climate change mitigation. Fourth, I examine the use of forest carbon offsets and find that they have a small potential impact on human-health related air quality.

Planarians are renowned for their regenerative capacity and are an attractive model for the study of adult stem cells and tissue regeneration. In an effort to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying planarian regeneration, we performed a functional genomics screen aimed at identifying genes involved in this process in Schmidtea mediterranea. We used microarrays to detect changes in gene expression in regenerating and non-regenerating tissues in planarians regenerating one side of the head and followed this with high-throughput screening by in situ hybridization and RNAi to characterize the expression patterns and function of the differentially expressed genes. Along with five previously characterized genes (Smed-cycD, Smed-morf41/mrg-1, Smed-pdss2/dlp1, Smed-slbp, and Smed-tph), we identified 20 additional genes necessary for stem cell maintenance (Smed-sart3, Smed-smarcc-1, Smed-espl1, Smed-rrm2b-1, Smed-rrm2b-2, Smed-dkc1, Smed-emg1, Smed-lig1, Smed-prim2, Smed-mcm7, and a novel sequence) or general regenerative capability (Smed-rbap46/48-2, Smed-mcm2, Smed-ptbp1, and Smed-fen-1) or that caused tissue-specific defects upon knockdown (Smed-ddc, Smed-gas8, Smed-pgbd4, and Smed-b9d2). We also found that a homolog of the nuclear transport factor Importin-[alpha] plays a role in stem cell function and tissue patterning, suggesting that controlled nuclear import of proteins is important for regeneration. Through this work, we described the roles of several previously uncharacterized genes in planarian regeneration and implicated nuclear import in this process. We have additionally created an online database to house our in situ and RNAi data to make it accessible to the planarian research community.