St. Olaf College

Background A growing body of literature suggests that creative arts interventions can effectively support mental health and well-being in young people. We recently reported that after participating in “Creativity Camp”– a 2-week creative arts group intervention– 69 adolescents with depression showed significantly reduced depression symptoms and improved ratings of well-being. To understand the key processes impacting adolescents during and after this intervention, this study applies a multi-informant qualitative data approach. Method Qualitative data collection methods included participatory observation notes taken during the Creativity Camp sessions and interviewing the adolescents and their parents or guardians at the end of the intervention and six months later. We analyzed data using Constructivist Grounded Theory and triangulated the findings from both sets of data to gain comprehensive and reliable interpretation. Results We found several key processes in the adolescents’ experiences during and after camp: internal negotiation between novelty and discomfort, exploring playfulness and responsibility, discovering the uniqueness of self and others, flexible approach toward life, and an expanded view of creativity. From parent interviews, we found that their children expanded personal boundaries and enthusiasm through deep engagement, empowered perspective, and sustained enthusiasm. Triangulating the data from both sources, we constructed a theory that explains the benefits of Creativity Camp on adolescent well-being: “Personal growth by navigating the world as an artist.” Discussion The qualitative analysis identified key processes from the Creativity Camp intervention, along with changes and long-term impacts that may have fostered personal growth. The framework of navigating the world through an artist’s lens as a pathway to personal growth presents a novel contribution to existing knowledge and practice in art-based interventions for adolescents with depression. This insight can help shape the design of future arts-in-health approaches for supporting adolescent mental health.

Climate change is creating mismatches between species' current environments and their historical niches. Locations that once had the abiotic and biotic conditions to support the persistence of a species may now be too warm, too dry, or simply too different, to meet their niche requirements. Changes in behaviors, altered phenology, and range shifts are common responses to climate change. Though these responses are often studied in isolation by scientists from disparate subfields of ecology, they all represent variants of the same solution—strategies to realign the conditions populations experience with their niche. Here, we aim to (1) identify the physiological and ecological effects, and potential alignment, of these three ecological responses: shifts in behavior, phenology, or ranges, (2) determine the circumstances under which each type of response may be more or less effective at mitigating the effects of climate change, and (3) consider how these strategies might interact with each other. Each response has been previously reviewed, but efforts to consider relationships between ecological (or with evolutionary) responses have been limited. A synthetic perspective that considers the similarities among ecological responses and how they interact with each other and with evolutionary responses offers a more robust view on species' resilience to climate change.

We explored how the number of structures is determined in an intracellular organelle series. In Tetrahymena, the oral apparatus contains three diagonal ciliary rows: M1, M2, and M3. During development, the M rows emerge by sequential segmentation of a group of basal bodies, starting with the longest and most anterior M1 and ending with the shortest and most posterior M3. The mpD-1 and mpH-1 alleles increase and decrease the number of M rows, respectively. We identify MpH as a TPR protein and MpD as an importin-9. Both proteins localize to the M rows and form concentration gradients. MpH is a row elongation factor whose loss shortens all M rows and often prevents the formation of M3. MpD limits row initiation after the emergence of M2. MpD could be a part of a negative feedback loop that limits row initiation when M1 assembly is properly advanced. We conclude that the forming oral apparatus has properties of a semi-autonomous intracellular developmental field.

We present Bedmap3, the latest suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60 °S. Bedmap3 incorporates and adds to all post-1950s datasets previously used for Bedmap2, including 84 new aero-geophysical surveys by 15 data providers, an additional 52 million data points and 1.9 million line-kilometres of measurement. These efforts have filled notable gaps including in major mountain ranges and the deep interior of East Antarctica, along West Antarctic coastlines and on the Antarctic Peninsula. Our new Bedmap3/RINGS grounding line similarly consolidates multiple recent mappings into a single, spatially coherent feature. Combined with updated maps of surface topography, ice shelf thickness, rock outcrops and bathymetry, Bedmap3 reveals in much greater detail the subglacial landscape and distribution of Antarctica’s ice, providing new opportunities to interpret continental-scale landscape evolution and to model the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets.

Aim This study aims to clinically evaluate whether the local administration of vitamin D3 enhances postorthodontic tooth stability over a period of 3 months immediately after debonding. Materials and methods Patients aged 15–30 years with dental malocclusion and moderate crowding in the lower arch (Little’s irregularity score of 4–6) were selected and randomly split into the experimental and the control groups. After complete alignment and leveling, vitamin D3 injection was delivered to the experimental group and the control group was given a placebo injection with 0.9% normal saline mixed with 2% lignocaine. Fourteen days after the injection, the lower archwires were removed from the control and experimental groups. Results Relapse was significantly higher in control than in the experimental group at all-time intervals. Statistically significant values of relapse were observed at T2 and T3 intervals between the two groups, with greater relapse in the control group than in the experimental group. Inter-canine width, arch perimeter, and intermolar width showed mild changes over 3-month period, but there were no significant differences between the two groups. Conclusion Relapse was seen in both the control and the experimental in the first 4 weeks of the study. Still, the control group showed a greater relapse rate in the following 8th week and 12th week when compared to the experimental group. How to cite this article Kothandaraman T, Anbarasu P, Dinesh SPS, et al. Impact of Vitamin D3 on Postorthodontic Treatment Stability: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Contemp Dent Pract 2024;25(12):1156–1161.

Gram-negative bacteria have outer membrane proteins called TonB-dependent receptors (TBDRs) that facilitate energy-dependent transport of substrates. Caulobacter crescentus is a gram-negative bacterium with a large set of TBDRs, yet the function of many of these TBDRs remains uncharacterized. This study focuses on SucA, a TBDR that transports sucrose. Previous studies showed that sucA expression was induced in the presence of sucrose, yet did not provide a measurable fitness advantage under the conditions tested. This work identifies conditions where sucA does confer a significant growth advantage and provides evidence that SucA activity relies on the proton motive force, a feature of canonical TBDRs.

In gram-negative bacteria, when nutrients are too large or too scarce to diffuse through outer membrane porins, TonB-dependent receptors (TBDRs) are utilized to actively translocate substrates across the outer membrane. Caulobacter crescentus is a gram-negative bacterium with a large set of TBDRs, many which have not been fully characterized. Previous studies identified SucA, a Caulobacter TBDR that transports sucrose. Our experiments further characterize the expression of sucA from the P suc promoter and we identify P suc as a tightly controlled, tunable promoter, responsive to changes in sucrose concentration with and without other carbon sources in the media.

During group activities, instructors expect that students will ask each other questions. Therefore, in this study, we looked at the nature and role of peer-to-peer questions during an in-class activity. During the activity, students worked collaboratively to respond to five prompts about an acid–base neutralization reaction. We examined the questioning behavior in groups and the nature and types of questions asked. We then looked specifically at the content questions, analyzing how they varied by prompt, as well as the level of those content questions using Bloom’s taxonomy. Finally, we looked at the role that the peer-to-peer questions played as the students completed the activity. The results revealed that the students broadly asked each other social questions, process questions, and content questions, with content questions being the most frequently posed. The prompts that required students to make a prediction, sketch a graph, and explain their reasoning elicited most of the content questions asked. Furthermore, most of the peer-to-peer content questions asked across the five prompts ranked at the two lowest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Finally, the posed peer-to-peer questions were found to play many roles in the discussion, including initiating and sustaining conversations, seeking consensus, challenging each other, and promoting social metacognition. The implications for instruction and research are discussed.

Although variation in effect sizes and predicted values among studies of similar phenomena is inevitable, such variation far exceeds what might be produced by sampling error alone. One possible explanation for variation among results is differences among researchers in the decisions they make regarding statistical analyses. A growing array of studies has explored this analytical variability in different fields and has found substantial variability among results despite analysts having the same data and research question. Many of these studies have been in the social sciences, but one small “many analyst” study found similar variability in ecology. We expanded the scope of this prior work by implementing a large-scale empirical exploration of the variation in effect sizes and model predictions generated by the analytical decisions of different researchers in ecology and evolutionary biology. We used two unpublished datasets, one from evolutionary ecology (blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus, to compare sibling number and nestling growth) and one from conservation ecology (Eucalyptus, to compare grass cover and tree seedling recruitment). The project leaders recruited 174 analyst teams, comprising 246 analysts, to investigate the answers to prespecified research questions. Analyses conducted by these teams yielded 141 usable effects (compatible with our meta-analyses and with all necessary information provided) for the blue tit dataset, and 85 usable effects for the Eucalyptus dataset. We found substantial heterogeneity among results for both datasets, although the patterns of variation differed between them. For the blue tit analyses, the average effect was convincingly negative, with less growth for nestlings living with more siblings, but there was near continuous variation in effect size from large negative effects to effects near zero, and even effects crossing the traditional threshold of statistical significance in the opposite direction. In contrast, the average relationship between grass cover and Eucalyptus seedling number was only slightly negative and not convincingly different from zero, and most effects ranged from weakly negative to weakly positive, with about a third of effects crossing the traditional threshold of significance in one direction or the other. However, there were also several striking outliers in the Eucalyptus dataset, with effects far from zero. For both datasets, we found substantial variation in the variable selection and random effects structures among analyses, as well as in the ratings of the analytical methods by peer reviewers, but we found no strong relationship between any of these and deviation from the meta-analytic mean. In other words, analyses with results that were far from the mean were no more or less likely to have dissimilar variable sets, use random effects in their models, or receive poor peer reviews than those analyses that found results that were close to the mean. The existence of substantial variability among analysis outcomes raises important questions about how ecologists and evolutionary biologists should interpret published results, and how they should conduct analyses in the future.

Phenological data collection and analysis are well-suited to higher education settings, providing valuable opportunities for hands-on data collection, manipulation, and interpretation. Few subjects are more conducive or accessible for engaging diverse learners in meaningful and impactful science at such large scales and minimal cost. In this chapter, we provide a range of examples of how instructors have incorporated observing and analysis of seasonal phenomena into their curricula. Many of these examples can be readily replicated and folded into new courses.

A concise linear encoding of group settings and group-subgroup relations is described. The simple notation allows for unambiguous generalized machine-coded space group settings and intergroup transformation relationships. A correlation between the notation and Hermann-Mauguin names is provided. Use of Hall notation allows for a fully self-contained description of space group settings and space group relationships. Examples of how the notation has been implemented in Jmol are presented.

In this first of a two-part series, we introduce the concept of a FAIRSpec-ready spectroscopic data collection – that is, a collection of instrument data, chemical structure representations, and related digital items that is ready to be automatically or semi-automatically extracted for metadata that will allow the production of an IUPAC FAIRSpec Finding Aid. Associating this finding aid with the collection produces an IUPAC FAIRSpec Data Collection. The challenge we set for researchers is relatively simple: to maintain their data in a form that allows critical metadata to be extracted in a discipline-specific way, increasing the probability that the data will be findable and reusable both during the research process and after publication. We focus on a few specific suggestions that researchers can use to maximize the “fairness” of their spectroscopic data collection. Most importantly, following these guidelines ensures that instrument datasets are unambiguously associated with chemical structure. The guidelines promote the inclusion of the instrument dataset itself in the collection and describe ways of organizing the collection such that automated metadata creation is possible. In these guidelines we emphasize the importance of systematically organizing data throughout the entire research process, not just at the time of publication.

The loss of wildlife habitat is often due to land degradation. This is particularly true in arid lands where vegetation is typically heterogeneous, low, sparse, and slow-growing. Contrary to what their designation suggests, Protected Areas (PA) are not exempt from these environmental changes. Assessing vegetation as a proxy for measuring habitat loss is challenging in dry lands even when employing radiometric data. Historical vegetation data and primary productivity rates allow for the quantification of plant cover but do not indicate the quality of habitat. This study examines three PAs in arid northern México in order to determine decline-absence of vegetative cover at pixel level (30 m spatial resolution). Methods used include: (1) supervised classification; (2) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; and (3) empirical field data. Results provide an overview of habitat loss, emphasizing in qualitative terms five levels of change in vegetative cover.

Extending the Standard Model (SM) by one additional Higgs doublet leads to the Two-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM). A specific charge assignment of the SM fermions under the Z2 symmetry leads to the Type-I 2HDM. A key feature of the Type-I 2HDM is that all the additional Higgs bosons can be fermiophobic, when their couplings to the SM fermions are suppressed. As a result, all the new Higgs states can be fairly light, ~ 100 GeV or less, without being in conflict with the current data from the direct Higgs boson searches and the B-physics measurements. In a recent study Ref. [1], which this proceeding is based on, we established that the new neutral as well as the charged Higgs bosons in this model can all be simultaneously observable in the multi-b final state at the HL-LHC. An experimental validation of our results would be a clear indication that the true underlying Higgs sector in nature is the Type-I 2HDM. Additionally, in this proceeding we discuss the prospects of our work in the future e⁺e⁻ colliders.