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To date, studies on how having children affects the research productivity of academics, and whether the effects differ by gender, have had inconsistent findings. Using nuanced measures of parental obligations and linear growth modeling, we analyzed the effects of children on the entire careers of academics in two disciplines — linguistics and sociology — and tested for differential effects by gender. In addition, we modeled not only productivity, but also visibility, another component of scholarly success. Our findings suggest that after the birth a child, productivity growth declines, but more so for women. Thus, children account for part of the gender gap in rates of productivity over time. Children also have an impact on the research visibility of academics, but cannot account for gender differences in visibility.

How can we best test evolutionary phenomena that have historically muddled definitions? How do we ascertain whether data are appropriate or sufficient to explore our hypotheses? Moen et al. demonstrate a framework for accomplishing these goals that can be applied to most studies that use trait and tree data. Simultaneously, they provide a generalized approach for testing for adaptive radiation, a phenomenon with potential to help us understand drivers of evolution.

How can we bridge the gap between studies concerning microevolution and those concerning macroevolution? Taverne et al. provide a framework for how to study both intraspecific and interspecific variations simultaneously through their examination of how craniomandibular skeletal and muscle shape responds to ecological pressures in Podarcis lizards.

How common is morphological convergence, and can the cause of convergence be traced to simple ecological categories like diet? Tamagnini et al. use phylogenetic comparative methods and simple morphological data from a large number of Carnivora taxa to investigate whether diet causes convergence in their craniomandibular complex. They find that convergence is less prevalent than expected and that this outcome is likely caused by a complex interplay between biomechanics, ecology, and morphology.

How does plasticity evolve over relatively short timescales? Through a series of common garden and reciprocal transplant experiments, Walter et al. found distinct patterns of variation in the phenotype and gene expression for two closely related Sicilian daisy species of the genus Senecio across an elevational gradient. This suggests that adaptive divergence may produce interspecific differences in both the magnitude and direction of plasticity. The nonadaptive nature of the plasticity found in Senecio aethnensis has important implications for conservation efforts and evolutionary modeling.

In natural settings, people evaluate complex multi-attribute situations and decide which attribute to request information about. Little is known about how people make this selection and specifically, how they identify individual observations that best predict the value of a multi-attribute situation. Here show that, in a simple task of information demand, participants inefficiently query attributes that have high individual value but are relatively uninformative about a total payoff. This inefficiency is robust in two instrumental conditions in which gathering less informative observations leads to significantly lower rewards. Across individuals, variations in the sensitivity to informativeness is associated with personality metrics, showing negative associations with extraversion and thrill seeking and positive associations with stress tolerance and need for cognition. Thus, people select informative queries using sub-optimal strategies that are associated with personality traits and influence consequential choices. People actively seek information but can be inefficient in identifying informative observations. The authors show that these inefficiencies covary with personality traits and persist under instrumental incentives and despite minimal memory load.

Sleep is important for cow health and shows promise as a tool for assessing welfare, but methods to accurately distinguish between important sleep stages are difficult and impractical to use with cattle in typical farm environments. The objective of this study was to determine if data from more easily applied non-invasive devices assessing neck muscle activity and heart rate (HR) alone could be used to differentiate between sleep stages. We developed, trained, and compared two machine learning models using neural networks and random forest algorithms to predict sleep stages from 15 variables (features) of the muscle activity and HR data collected from 12 cows in two environments. Using k-fold cross validation we compared the success of the models to the gold standard, Polysomnography (PSG). Overall, both models learned from the data and were able to accurately predict sleep stages from HR and muscle activity alone with classification accuracy in the range of similar human models. Further research is required to validate the models with a larger sample size, but the proposed methodology appears to give an accurate representation of sleep stages in cattle and could consequentially enable future sleep research into conditions affecting cow sleep and welfare.

Non-human primate models of Tuberculosis (TB) are one of the most commonly used within the experimental TB field because they closely mimic the whole spectrum of disease progression of human TB. However, the early cellular interactions of the pulmonary granuloma are still not well understood. The use of this model allows investigation into the early interactions of cells within pulmonary granulomas which cannot be undertaken in human samples. Pulmonary granulomas from rhesus and cynomolgus macaques from two timepoints post infection were categorised into categories 1 – 6 (early to late stage granulomas) and immunohistochemistry was used to identify CD68+ macrophages, CD3+ T cells and CD20+ B cells. Multinucleated giant cells and acid-fast bacilli were also quantified. At week four post infection, cynomolgus macaques were found to have more CD68+ cells than rhesus in all but category 1 granulomas. Cynomolgus also had a significantly higher percentage of CD20+ B cells in category 1 granulomas. At week twelve post infection, CD68+ cells were most abundant in category 4 and 5 granulomas in both species; however, there were no significant differences between them. CD3+ T cells and CD20+ B cells were significantly higher in the majority of granuloma categories in cynomolgus compared to rhesus. Multinucleated giant cells and acid-fast bacilli were most abundant in categories 5 and 6 at week 12 post challenge in both species. This study has identified the basic cellular composition and spatial distribution of immune cells within pulmonary granulomas in both rhesus and cynomolgus macaques over time. The data from this study will add to the knowledge already gained in this field and may inform future research on vaccines and therapeutics for TB.

Therapies that halt progression of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and achieve a cure for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) have encouraged development of innovative strategies to diagnose and link patients to care. We describe the prevalence and risk factors for HBV and HCV infections and use of an opt-out hepatitis testing and integrated linkage to care pathway in a London Emergency Department (ED). ED patients aged ≥16 years having routine blood tests from 15 February-28 March 2016 were tested for hepatitis, unless opted out. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis C antibody tests (HCV-Ab, including a confirmatory hepatitis C antigen test (HCV-Ag)) were pre-selected on electronic blood test requests. Linkage to care (attending one clinic appointment) was offered to HBsAg and HCV-Ag patients (new or known-disengaged with care diagnoses). Weighted prevalence estimates and risk factors for seropositivity adjusted by demographics and survey weights were calculated using logistic regression. Hepatitis testing uptake was 56% (3,290/5,865). Overall, 26 HBsAg (10 new diagnoses) and 63 HCV-Ab patients were identified of which 32 were HCV-Ag positive (10 new diagnoses). Weighted seroprevalence of HBsAg was 0.50% (95% CI 0.3-0.8%); HCV-Ab 2.0% (95% CI 1.5-2.7%) and HCV-Ag 1.2% (95% CI 0.8-1.7%). Risk factors for infection were being male (HBsAg: aOR 4.1, 95% CI 1.5-11.3), of non-White British ethnicity (HBsAg: aOR>11) or being homeless (HCV-Ag: aOR 18.9, 95% CI 6.9-51.4). We achieved a high linkage to care uptake for HBsAg (93%) and HCV-Ag (78%) among patients who were contacted and required linkage. A pre-selected hepatitis testing ordering system facilitated a high testing uptake. New and disengaged with care diagnoses and a high HCV prevalence were identified demonstrating the potential to identify and link patients to care in this setting. Strategies connecting clinical care with community outreach services are key for improving patient linkage to care.

Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a severe tick-borne disease, endemic in many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia. There is no approved vaccine currently available against CCHF. The most promising candidate, which has previously been shown to confer protection in the small animal model, is a modified Vaccinia Ankara virus vector expressing the CCHF viral glycoprotein (MVA-GP). It has been shown that MVA-GP induces both humoral and cellular immunogenicity. In the present study, sera and T-lymphocytes were passively and adoptively transferred into recipient mice prior to challenge with CCHF virus. Results demonstrated that mediators from both arms of the immune system were required to demonstrate protective effects against lethal challenge.