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The sacred kingfisher Todiramphus sanctus is a widespread bird species that is non-migratory in New Zealand, in contrast to elsewhere in the world. We describe a new species of Skrjabinoclava , a genus of acuariid nematodes, recovered from the oropharynx of sacred kingfishers in New Zealand. This is the first record of Skrjabinoclava in Australasia and the first publicly available DNA sequence for the genus. Skrjabinoclava pha...
Radon is an established lung carcinogen, but more research is needed to inform whether area-based measures of radon exposure reflect underlying cancer risk. This study, the first of its kind in the UK, aimed to investigate the association between a nationwide indicative radon atlas and lung cancer risk in Northern Ireland, a region in which lung cancer screening programmes are under design. A population-based case–control stud...
Interpretable deep learning reveals spatiotemporal MRI features of brain aging that align with neurodegenerationNARA Subscribed
Cortical thinning and atrophy are hallmarks of brain aging that have been characterized using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Brain aging involves many neuroanatomic features whose effects on brain structure remain unexplored. To address this challenge, we trained interpretable deep neural networks (DNNs) to estimate brain age (BA) from T 1 -weighted ( T 1 w) MRI. By identifying MRI features unapparent to humans, DNNs can fi...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) disproportionately affects women and carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4), yet little is known about how sex and APOE interact to influence white matter (WM) integrity during disease progression. We integrated diffusion MRI and matched blood transcriptomic data to investigate these interactions and their underlying biological mechanisms. WM microstructure was quantified using diffusion te...
Reliable predictions of species responses to intensifying temperature extremes are crucial for managing climate change impacts. However, limited data of species' responses to heat stress across their distribution restricts prediction accuracy. Here we analyse three‐decades of kelp abundance observations in Australia, including cool to warm‐edge populations, relative to marine heatwaves (MHWs). As MHWs intensified, changes in k...
Predicting the progression of MCI and Alzheimer’s disease on structural brain integrity and other features with machine learningNARA Subscribed
Machine learning (ML) on structural MRI data shows high potential for classifying Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression, but the specific contribution of brain regions, demographics, and proteinopathy remains unclear. Using Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) data, we applied an extreme gradient-boosting algorithm and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) values to classify cognitively normal (CN) older adults, th...
Divergent trajectories of Arctic change: Implications for future socio-economic patternsNARA Subscribed
Climate change is causing rapid warming in the Arctic, which, alongside other physical, socio-economic, cultural, geopolitical, and technological factors, is driving change in the far north. This research presents a conceptual model summarizing Arctic change factors which in turn was used in the design of a Delphi exercise which leveraged a variety of experts to forecast trajectories in different parts of the Arctic. Based on...
Morphological and molecular identification of metacestodes infecting teleost fishes of Moreton Bay, AustraliaNARA Subscribed
In a parasitological survey of fishes from Moreton Bay (southeastern Queensland, Australia), 169 teleost fishes, representing 54 species from 28 families, were examined for larval cestodes. Of these 54 species, 36 were found to be infected by metacestodes. Metacestodes were characterised by morphological and molecular data (the D1-D3 region of the 28S rDNA gene); these data were analysed in parallel to inform larval type alloc...
Endangered giant kelp forests support similar fish and macroinvertebrate communities to sympatric stipitate kelp forestsNARA Subscribed
Kelp forests provide habitat for many species, but it remains uncertain whether specific kelp forest types support distinct biodiversity. Surface canopy-forming giant kelp ( Macrocystis pyrifera ) forests in Tasmania, Australia, have declined significantly due to climate change, and have been widely replaced by forests dominated by smaller stipitate kelps like Ecklonia radiata . However, there is limited knowledge of the commu...
The Kelp Forest Challenge: A collaborative global movement to protect and restore 4 million hectares of kelp forestsNARA Subscribed
Marine kelp forests cover 1/3 of our world's coastlines, are heralded as a nature-based solution to address socio-environmental issues, connect hundreds of millions of people with the ocean, and support a rich web of biodiversity throughout our oceans. But they are increasingly threatened with some areas reporting over 90% declines in kelp forest cover in living memory. Despite their importance and the threats they face, kelp...
A functional perspective on the meaning of the term ‘herbivore’: patterns versus processes in coral reef fishesNARA Subscribed
Herbivorous fishes are a key functional group in coral reef ecosystems and have been the focus of a vast body of research. While substantial progress has been made in research, challenges persist, especially in respect to quantifying patterns versus processes. Despite this challenge being recognised over 40 years ago. To help clarify such challenges, and work towards solutions, in this perspective we explore how the definition...
Protected areas are a key instrument for conservation. Despite this, they are vulnerable to risks associated with weak governance, land‐use intensification, and climate change. We used a novel hierarchical optimization approach to identify priority areas for expanding the global protected area system that explicitly accounted for such risks while maximizing protection of all known terrestrial vertebrate species. To incorporate...
Vulnerable Waters are Essential to Watershed ResilienceNARA Subscribed
Watershed resilience is the ability of a watershed to maintain its characteristic system state while concurrently resisting, adapting to, and reorganizing after hydrological (for example, drought, flooding) or biogeochemical (for example, excessive nutrient) disturbances. Vulnerable waters include non-floodplain wetlands and headwater streams, abundant watershed components representing the most distal extent of the freshwater...
Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shiftsNARA Subscribed
Transformation toward a sustainable future requires an earth stewardship approach to shift society from its current goal of increasing material wealth to a vision of sustaining built, natural, human, and social capital—equitably distributed across society, within and among nations. Widespread concern about earth’s current trajectory and support for actions that would foster more sustainable pathways suggests potential social t...