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EQUIPMENT CONSIDERATIONS (COREY MACKEY) Efficient vibration is vital for clarinet tone and long-term success and is greatly impacted by the condition of your equipment. Yes, you need a certain amount of muscle engagement regarding breath support, and a firm embouchure when playing, but if your instrument is not sealing you will be forced to add undesired finger pressure or use both pinkies when only one is needed. Because the hands need to manipulate the clarinet in an efficient and ergonomic manner, proper hand position is crucial- this is a considerable variable in efficient playing. Ultimately, hand size and finger length will determine the most comfortable position of the thumb, as well as the position of the thumbrest. Since everyone's hands are different, these positions will be slightly different for each individual player.

Climate variables affect the phenology of bird migration, and anthropogenic climate change has likely resulted in shifts in these phenological patterns. Warmer springtime temperatures could lead to birds arriving earlier to northerly latitudes in North America. We modeled the effect of temperature with 74 years of data on first arrival for 84 bird species in Worcester County, MA. We found migratory bird species have shifted their arrival to Worcester County an average of 0.11 days per year earlier, with short-distance migrants having stronger shifts (an average of 0.18 days earlier per year) than long-distance migrants (an average of 0.06 days earlier per year). Our results add to a body of literature regarding the potential impacts of climate change on bird migration phenology. We supply support for the notion that some species are temporally shifting their migration in response to warming springtime temperatures. These shifts may be mismatched with resource availability and thus could negatively affect populations and communities. Consequently, it is important to understand patterns in bird migration phenology in order to inform adequate conservation strategies.

Because few data exist on substance abuse rates in American Indian (AI) communities, the Methamphetamine and Other Drug project was developed and implemented by five nodes within the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (NIDA CTN). This article presents findings from AI clients in a Northern Plains urban non-Native substance abuse treatment setting. Alcohol and marijuana were used earlier, longer, and by more clients, followed by stimulants and prescription opioids. Most regularly smoked tobacco. Differences in substance use patterns were associated with age of onset and victimization. Age of onset was correlated with victimization, gender, cognitive impairment, and suicidal behavior. Despite considerable health and economic disparities, most clients found support for recovery in relationships and elements of Native culture.

Mass, radius, and age measurements of young (<100 Myr) planets have the power to shape our understanding of planet formation. However, young stars tend to be extremely variable in both photometry and radial velocity, which makes constraining these properties challenging. The V1298 Tau system of four ~0.5 Rjup planets transiting a pre-main sequence star presents an important, if stress-inducing, opportunity to directly observe and measure the properties of infant planets. Suárez-Mascareño et al. (2021) published radial-velocity-derived masses for two of the V1298 Tau planets using a state-of-the-art Gaussian Process regression framework. The planetary densities computed from these masses were surprisingly high, implying extremely rapid contraction after formation in tension with most existing planet formation theories. In an effort to further constrain the masses of the V1298 Tau planets, we obtained 36 RVs using Keck/HIRES, and analyzed them in concert with published RVs and photometry. Through performing a suite of cross validation tests, we found evidence that the preferred model of SM21 suffers from overfitting, defined as the inability to predict unseen data, rendering the masses unreliable. We detail several potential causes of this overfitting, many of which may be important for other RV analyses of other active stars, and recommend that additional time and resources be allocated to understanding and mitigating activity in active young stars such as V1298 Tau.