UNASSIGNED: Listeners can rapidly adapt to English speech produced by non-native speakers of English with unfamiliar accents. Prior work has shown that the type and number of talkers contained within a stimulus set may impact rate and magnitude of learning, as well as any generalization of learning. However, findings across the literature have been inconsistent, with relatively little study of these effects in populations of older listeners.
UNASSIGNED: In this study, adaptation and generalization to unfamiliar talkers with familiar and unfamiliar accents are studied in younger normal-hearing adults and older adults with and without hearing loss. Rate and magnitude of adaptation are modelled using both generalized linear mixed effects regression and generalized additive mixed effects modelling.
UNASSIGNED: Rate and magnitude of adaptation were not impacted by increasing the number of talkers and/or varying the consistency of non-native English accents across talkers. Increasing the number of talkers did strengthen generalization of learning for a talker with a familiar non-native accent, but not for an unfamiliar accent. Aging alone did not diminish adaptation or generalization.
UNASSIGNED: These findings support prior evidence of a limited benefit for talker variability in facilitating generalization of learning for non-native accented speech, and extend the findings to older adults.

Invasive plants along transportation corridors can significantly threaten ecosystems and biodiversity if they spread beyond anthropogenic environments. Rapid evolution may increase the ability of invading plant populations to establish in resident plant communities over time, posing a challenge to invasion risk assessment. We tested for adaptive differentiation in Dittrichia graveolens (stinkwort), an invasive species of ruderal habitat in California that is increasingly spreading away from roadsides into more established vegetation. We collected seeds from eight pairs of vegetated sites and their nearest (presumed progenitor) roadside population. We assessed differentiation between populations in roadside and vegetated habitat for germination behavior and for response to competition in a greenhouse experiment. We also tested for increased performance in vegetated habitat with a grassland field experiment including a neighbor removal treatment. Germination rates were slightly reduced in seeds from vegetated sites, which may indicate lower seed viability. Otherwise, plants did not show consistent differences between the two habitat types. Competition strongly reduced performance of D. graveolens in both the greenhouse and in the field, but plants originating from vegetated sites did not show enhanced competitive ability. Our findings show no evidence of adaptive differentiation between D. graveolens populations from roadside and vegetated habitats to date, suggesting that invasiveness in grasslands has not been enhanced by rapid evolution in the 40 + years since this species was introduced to California. Evolutionary constraints or potentially high levels of gene flow at this small scale may limit adaptation to novel habitats along roadsides.
UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10530-024-03359-6.

Photoreception is essential for the development of the visual system, shaping vision\'s first synapse to cortical development. Here, we find that the lighting environment controls developmental rod apoptosis via Opn4-expressing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). Using genetics, sensory environment manipulations, and computational approaches, we establish a pathway where light-dependent glutamate released from ipRGCs is detected via a transiently expressed glutamate receptor (Grik3) on rod precursors within the inner retina. Communication between these cells is mediated by hybrid neurites on ipRGCs that sense light before eye opening. These structures span the ipRGC-rod precursor distance over development and contain the machinery for photoreception (Opn4) and neurotransmitter release (Vglut2 & Syp). Assessment of the human gestational retina identifies conserved hallmarks of an ipRGC-to-rod axis, including displaced rod precursors, transient GRIK3 expression, and ipRGCs with deep-projecting neurites. This analysis defines an adaptive retrograde pathway linking the sensory environment to rod precursors via ipRGCs prior to eye opening.

Marine eukaryotic phytoplankton are fundamental to the marine food web, yet the lack of reference genomes or just a single genome representing a taxon has led to an underestimation of their taxonomic, adaptive, and functional diversity. Here, we integrated strain isolation with metagenomic binning to recover genomes from the cosmopolitan picophytoplankton genus Bathycoccus, traditionally considered monospecific. Our recovery and analysis of 37 Bathycoccus genomes delineated their global genomic diversity and established four evolutionary clades (BI, BII, BIII, BIV). Our metagenomic abundance survey revealed well-differentiated ecological niches and distinct biogeographic distributions for each clade, predominantly shaped by temperature, salinity, and nutrient availability. Comparative genomics analyses further revealed clade-specific genomic traits, that underpin niche adaptation and contribute to the global prevalence of Bathycoccus. Our findings underscore temperature as a major driver of genome diversification in this genus, with clade divergences coinciding with major paleoclimatic events that influenced their contemporary thermal niches. Moreover, the unique enrichment of C2H2 zinc finger and ankyrin repeat gene families in polar-adapted clades suggests previously unrecognized cold-adaptation mechanisms in marine eukaryotic phytoplankton. Our study offers a comprehensive genomic landscape of this crucial eukaryotic picophytoplankton, providing insights into their microdiversity and adaptive evolution in response to changing environments.

How species respond to climate change will depend on the collective response of populations. Intraspecific variation in traits, evolved through genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity, can cause thermal performance curves to vary over species\' distributions. Intraspecific variation within marine species has received relatively little attention due to the belief that marine systems lack dispersal barriers strong enough to promote locally adapted traits. Here we show that intraspecific variation is present between low- and high-latitude populations of a coral reef damselfish (Acanthochromis polyacanthus). Co-gradient variation was observed when examining aerobic physiology across a thermal gradient that reflected mean summer temperatures of high- and low-latitude regions, as well as projected future ocean temperatures (i.e. 27, 28.5, 30, 31.5°C). Whilst thermally sensitive, no significant differences were observed between high- and low-latitude regions when measuring immunocompetence, haematocrit and anaerobic enzyme activity. The presence of co-gradient variation suggests that dispersal limitations in marine systems can promote local adaptive responses; however, intraspecific variation may not be ubiquitous amongst traits. Identifying locally adapted traits amongst populations remains necessary to accurately project species responses to climate change and identify differences in adaptive potential.

Climate change poses a substantial threat to agricultural sustainability globally. Agriculture is a vital component of the gross domestic production of developing countries. The multifaceted impacts of climate change on agriculture, highlighting how extreme weather events such as water stress, heatwaves, erratic rainfall, storms, floods, and emerging pest infestations are disrupting agricultural productivity. The socioeconomic status of farmers is particularly vulnerable to climatic extremes with future projections indicating significant increment in ambient air temperatures and unpredictable, intense rainfall patterns. Agriculture has historically relied on the extensive use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides, combined with advancements in irrigation and biotechnological approaches to boost productivity. It encompasses a range of practices designed to enhance the resilience of agricultural systems, improve productivity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By adopting climate-smart practices, farmers can better adapt to changing climatic conditions, thereby ensuring more sustainable and secure food production. Furthermore, it identifies key areas for future research, focusing on the development of innovative adaptation and mitigation strategies. These strategies are essential for minimizing the detrimental impacts of climate change on agriculture and for promoting the long-term sustainability of food systems. This article underscores the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and the integration of advanced technologies to address the challenges posed by climate change. By fostering a deeper understanding of these issues to inform policymakers, researchers, and practitioners about effective strategies to safeguard agricultural productivity and food security in the face of changing climate.

OBJECTIVE: Amphistomy is a potential method for increasing photosynthetic rate; however, the latitudinal gradients of stomatal density across amphistomatous species and their drivers remain unknown.
METHODS: Here, the adaxial stomatal density (SDad) and abaxial stomatal density (SDab) of 486 amphistomatous species-site combinations, belonging to 32 plant families, were collected from China, and their total stomatal density (SDtotal) and stomatal ratio (SR) were calculated.
RESULTS: Overall, these four stomatal traits did not show significant phylogenetic signals. There were no significant differences in SDab and SDtotal between woody and herbaceous species, but SDad and SR were higher in woody species than in herbaceous species. Besides, a significantly positive relationship between SDab and SDad was observed. We also found that stomatal density (including SDab, SDad, and SDtotal) decreased with latitude while SR increased with latitude, and temperature seasonality was the most important environmental factor driving it. Besides, evolutionary history (represented by both phylogeny and species) explained about 10-22 fold more of the variation in stomatal traits than the present-day environment (65.2%-71.1% vs. 2.9%-6.8%).
CONCLUSIONS: Our study extended our knowledge of trait-environment relationships and highlighted the importance of evolutionary history in driving stomatal trait variability.

Numerous studies examining the responses of individual neurons in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex have revealed their characteristics such as two-dimensional or three-dimensional shape tuning, objects, or category selectivity. While these basic selectivities have been studied assuming that their response to stimuli is relatively stable, physiological experiments have revealed that the responsiveness of IT neurons also depends on visual experience. The activity changes of IT neurons occur over various time ranges; among these, repetition suppression (RS), in particular, is robustly observed in IT neurons without any behavioral or task constraints. I observed a similar phenomenon in the ventral visual neurons in macaque monkeys while they engaged in free viewing and actively fixated on one consistent object multiple times. This observation indicates that the phenomenon also occurs in natural situations during which the subject actively views stimuli without forced fixation, suggesting that this phenomenon is an everyday occurrence and widespread across regions of the visual system, making it a default process for visual neurons. Such short-term activity modulation may be a key to understanding the visual system; however, the circuit mechanism and the biological significance of RS remain unclear. Thus, in this review, I summarize the observed modulation types in IT neurons and the known properties of RS. Subsequently, I discuss adaptation in vision, including concepts such as efficient and predictive coding, as well as the relationship between adaptation and psychophysical aftereffects. Finally, I discuss some conceptual implications of this phenomenon as well as the circuit mechanisms and the models that may explain adaptation as a fundamental aspect of visual processing.

UNASSIGNED: The absence of a coordinated approach to health and social care compromises the ability of health systems to provide universal, equitable, high-quality, and financially sustainable care. Transferring evidence-based practices focused on digitally-enabled integrated care to new contexts can overcome this challenge if implementation is satisfactory. This paper presents the scaling-out methodology that JADECARE has designed to spread effective innovative practices across Europe.
UNASSIGNED: The scaling-out methodology pretends to guide the Next Adopters in the transfer and adoption of practices, whereas increasing their implementation capacity and providing an evaluation framework to assess impact and success.
UNASSIGNED: JADECARE scaling-out effort is based on guiding principles found in the literature such as the balance between fidelity to the original practice and the degree of adaptation required to fit the new context, the need for capacity building in implementation to bridge the gap between research and routine practice and the focus on explaining why, for whom and in what circumstances an intervention works.
UNASSIGNED: The JADECARE scaling-out methodology is theory-driven and pragmatic and aims to facilitate the transfer of complex interventions across different contexts.

Sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity has evolved in many vertebrate species, and the sex with a larger body size typically shows more sensitive hearing. However, generalizing this association is controversial. Research on sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity contributes to an understanding of auditory sense functions, adaptations, and evolution among species. Therefore, the hypothesized association between body size and hearing needs further validation, especially in specific animal groups. In this study, we assessed hearing sensitivity by measuring auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) in both sexes of 3-year-old Chinese softshell turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis). In this species, male bodies are larger than those of female, and individuals spend most of their lives in the mud at the bottom of freshwater habitats. We found that for both sexes, the hearing sensitivity bandwidth was 0.2-0.9 kHz. Although males were significantly larger than females, no significant differences in ABR thresholds or latencies were found between males and females at the same stimulus frequency. These results indicate that P. sinensis hearing is only sensitive to low-frequency (typically <0.9 kHz) sound signals and that sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity is not a trait that has evolved in P. sinensis. Physiological and environmental reasons may account for P. sinensis acoustic communication via low-frequency sound signals and the lack of sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity in these benthic turtles. The results of this study refine our understanding of the adaptation and evolution of the vertebrate auditory system.