K F Schertz

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Two diary studies conducted during COVID-19 tracked which combinations of emotion regulation strategies people used daily to manage pandemic anxiety. People used highly varied and individualized combinations of strategies — 74% of combinations were unique across participants — and no single strategy reliably predicted use of another. Having a large, varied repertoire of healthy strategies predicted lower anxiety over time, and this benefit held even for people who were already psychologically distressed.

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Researchers examined whether the way people think about spending time alone influences how lonely they feel. News coverage overwhelmingly frames being alone as harmful, and reading such articles causally shifted people's beliefs in that direction. People who already held negative beliefs about solitude felt lonelier after spending time alone, while those with positive beliefs actually felt less lonely — a pattern that held across nine countries.

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Two studies tracked what working adults talked about with coworkers and how those conversations affected their mood and energy. Sharing positive news or connecting with colleagues boosted well-being, while venting or sharing negative information increased rumination and reduced well-being. Conversations also backfired nearly half the time when what the speaker wanted from the listener didn't match what the listener actually provided.

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Researchers tracked when and how people talked to themselves over two weeks, distinguishing between referring to oneself in the first person versus using more detached language like one's own name. Detached self-talk was less common than first-person self-talk across all situations and neither style predicted general emotional distress. However, using detached self-talk when preparing for something — like rehearsing what to say before a difficult conversation — did improve mood in the moment.

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Researchers developed a framework called the "adolescent neural urbanome" to systematically categorize how neighborhood environments — built infrastructure, natural features, air quality, policy context — shape brain and behavioral development in youth. The framework organizes newly geocoded data linked to the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, enabling researchers to study environmental influences on development without placing extra burdens on families. The paper also flags risks of misusing such data in ways that could harm communities that have historically faced discrimination.

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This study combined wearable sensor data and weather measurements to examine how hot weather affects mood during everyday outdoor activities. Thermal discomfort — how uncomfortable the heat felt — predicted negative mood more reliably than objective temperature or humidity readings. The relationship between heat and mood varied substantially from person to person, with older adults feeling more discomfort but being less emotionally affected by it.

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This study used a large national sample of 9- to 12-year-olds to test whether living in neighborhoods with more air pollution was linked to slower development of attention and working memory over two years. Higher neighborhood air pollution predicted smaller gains in cognitive task performance and weaker strengthening of the brain networks that support these abilities. The effect size was comparable to established social factors like family income and neighborhood deprivation.

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This clinical trial tested whether adding pharmacist-managed prescription medication to an intensive phone-based quit-smoking program helped lung cancer screening patients who had not quit early in treatment. Adding the medication management referral did not significantly improve quit rates among early non-responders. The overall 24% quit rate at 18 months confirms that integrating structured tobacco treatment into lung cancer screening programs is both feasible and clinically meaningful.

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A systematic review and meta-analysis of 68 studies covering nearly 29,000 pediatric cardiac surgery patients examined whether anti-bleeding medications given during surgery reduced blood loss and transfusion needs. All three agents studied — tranexamic acid, aminocaproic acid, and aprotinin — significantly reduced chest tube drainage and blood product requirements compared to placebo. The overall quality of evidence was rated moderate, and no one drug was clearly superior to another.

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Researchers analyzed baseline data from a lung cancer screening trial to identify subgroups among older smokers who might need more or less intensive help to quit. Factor analysis revealed three underlying constructs: self-reported health, heaviness of smoking, and nicotine dependence. The authors propose using these practical clinical variables to match patients to appropriate levels of smoking cessation treatment.

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Brain scans and cognitive tests from children and adults were used to identify the brain network patterns that predict sustained attention and working memory performance. Adult-derived brain models successfully predicted both abilities in children, but the working memory model performed less well in younger participants. This suggests that sustained attention relies on brain network patterns that mature earlier, while working memory draws on circuitry that continues to change more substantially across development.

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Researchers tested whether a peer-written and illustrated book about perinatal mood disorders — anxiety and depression during and after pregnancy — could change how women think and feel about these conditions. After 251 women read the book while waiting for obstetric appointments, their knowledge increased and stigma scores dropped significantly. The study suggests that first-person narratives created by women who have experienced these conditions are an effective and accessible educational tool for reducing stigma.

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This cohort study tracked over 1,600 patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) treated at a single cancer center over 35 years to characterize which cancers occurred, at what age, and with what outcomes. Patients with NF1 developed cancers at nearly 10 times the rate of the general population and at substantially younger ages. Malignant nerve sheath tumors and high-grade brain tumors were the most common causes of cancer death.

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Researchers reviewed lung cancer screening CT scans to assess how often incidentally detected coronary artery calcium — a marker of heart disease risk — was reported and acted upon. Calcium was present in 75% of patients but rarely triggered follow-up cardiac testing or preventive treatment. Publication of a 2016 guideline recommending calcium reporting on chest CTs did not meaningfully change reporting rates.

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This study used four independent U.S. datasets and a mathematical model to test whether larger cities have higher or lower rates of depression. Contrary to common assumptions, larger cities were associated with lower depression rates. The model attributes this to denser social networks in cities, which may buffer against depression — consistent with how other social behaviors scale with city size.

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Researchers described the range of physical fitness levels among older smokers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial and examined which health conditions were associated with poor fitness. Nearly 20% of participants had poor exercise capacity, and this was most strongly linked to COPD and the overall burden of multiple chronic conditions. The findings raise questions about how fitness and comorbidity should factor into decisions about who benefits most from lung cancer screening.

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Resting-state brain scans were used to track how song-learning experience shapes neural network connectivity in juvenile zebra finches. Depriving juveniles of a tutor weakened connectivity in the auditory brain region required for learning song and reduced coordination between that region and the cerebellum. The strength of auditory network connectivity predicted how stereotyped and consistent the bird's song became, linking experience, brain network organization, and learned behavior.

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This study tested whether the curved, non-straight edges present in natural environments influence thought content even when the images are scrambled so that scenes cannot be recognized. Scrambled images with more curved edges still prompted more thoughts about spiritual and life-meaning topics, mirroring results from studies using intact nature images. This suggests that low-level visual properties — not conscious recognition of a scene — can shape cognitive content.

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Six experiments tested whether natural environments improve mood because of something inherent to nature, or simply because people find nature aesthetically appealing. When images of nature and urban settings were matched for how much participants liked them, the mood benefit disappeared — preference for the image, not the presence of nature, predicted mood change. Nature scenes produced the largest mood improvements because people tend to rate them as most beautiful, not because they are nature per se.

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Healthy adults received either methamphetamine or placebo before viewing simple and complex images in an fMRI scanner, to test whether the drug alters how the brain processes visual information. Methamphetamine increased brain activity in visual association areas specifically for simpler images, not complex ones. This effect was independent of the drug's mood-altering properties, suggesting stimulants selectively heighten processing of less attention-grabbing visual input.

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Resting-state brain scans of zebra finches were analyzed to determine whether the two brain hemispheres show coordinated activity, as they do in mammals via the corpus callosum — a structure birds lack. Despite the absence of this major connecting tract, the finch brain showed widespread homotopic connectivity between hemispheres throughout development, including within the song-learning network. This indicates that indirect neural pathways present in the vertebrate ancestor are sufficient to maintain bilateral brain coordination.

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Data from 13 experiments involving 528 participants were pooled to examine whether viewing or visiting natural versus urban environments improves performance on a demanding memory task. After accounting for the order in which participants experienced conditions — which created practice effects that could obscure results — nature consistently outperformed urban environments on the memory task. Mood changes did not explain the cognitive benefit.

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This entry is a published correction to an earlier article on nature and cognitive performance. No new scientific findings are presented.

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Researchers used ultrasound to measure vaginal wall thickness in postmenopausal women and asked them about painful sex and other menopausal vaginal symptoms. They found no connection between how thick the vaginal walls were and whether women experienced these symptoms. This matters because doctors were hoping ultrasound measurements could become an objective, non-invasive way to diagnose and measure vaginal atrophy—a common problem after menopause—but this study shows that thickness measurements alone don't predict which women actually have symptoms.

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Three studies examined how the physical features of outdoor environments influence what people think about. Analysis of park journal entries, an online simulation study, and a controlled experiment all showed that curved, non-straight edges and perceived naturalness of a scene influenced whether people wrote about nature or spiritual and life-journey topics. The results suggest that designing environments with specific visual properties could be used to promote reflection and well-being.

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Researchers used transabdominal ultrasound to measure vaginal wall thickness in 76 women and found that postmenopausal women had significantly thinner vaginal walls than premenopausal women. The difference was clear for overall wall thickness but not for the innermost mucosal layer alone. This supports using routine pelvic ultrasound as an objective, noninvasive marker of the vaginal thinning that drives menopausal symptoms like dryness and pain.

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This study demonstrated that transabdominal ultrasound — the same type used to image the bladder from outside the body — can reliably measure vaginal wall and mucosal thickness without inserting any probe. The measurements were consistent with established benchmarks from bladder wall studies, confirming the technique works. This matters because it offers a painless, widely available way to objectively measure vaginal tissue changes caused by menopause.

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Deletions on chromosome 6q16.1 were identified in ten individuals from six families who shared a pattern of intellectual disability, developmental delay, and obesity. The deleted region consistently included POU3F2, a gene important for hypothalamic development. Using zebrafish models, the researchers showed POU3F2 acts downstream of SIM1 and controls oxytocin production in the hypothalamus, linking it to the brain pathway that regulates body weight.

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Researchers mapped the Pc gene in sorghum, which controls susceptibility to a fungal disease caused by Periconia circinata and its toxin. Using DNA markers, the gene was localized to a 0.9 centimorgan region on chromosome 9 covered by a single bacterial artificial chromosome clone. Sequence analysis revealed multiple candidate genes in the region resembling known disease resistance genes, including tandem copies of an NBS-LRR resistance gene.

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Genetic maps from two sorghum crosses sharing one parent were aligned using 106 shared DNA markers, enabling comparison of quantitative trait loci across different genetic backgrounds. Marker order was nearly identical between the two populations, validating the utility of molecular tools developed in one cross for use in the other. Among 61 newly mapped traits, QTLs for plant height and tiller number showed non-random correspondence between the two populations.

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Researchers cloned the sorghum fertility restorer gene Rf1, which re-enables pollen production in plants carrying cytoplasmic male sterility. The gene encodes a pentatricopeptide repeat protein predicted to be targeted to mitochondria, and 19 sequence differences distinguished fertile from sterile plants at this locus. Comparison with the colinear region of rice showed the gene is absent from rice chromosome 12, suggesting it arose or transposed specifically in the sorghum lineage.

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A dense genetic map of sorghum was constructed using over 2,500 molecular markers spaced at roughly 300 kilobase intervals, with many markers drawn from related crops including maize, rice, wheat, and sugarcane. The map revealed strong interference between recombination events and regions of structural difference between two sorghum species. About 45% of comparative markers fell outside previously inferred syntenic regions with maize, indicating more rearrangement than expected since the two species diverged.

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A rat model was developed to produce partial, graded losses of dopamine neurons in the striatum, mimicking early stages of Parkinson's disease before symptoms appear. Injecting a neurotoxin at different sites along the midbrain produced predictable gradients of dopamine loss across the striatum in a single animal. Real-time electrochemical monitoring confirmed that dopamine release tracked the tissue loss gradient, making the model useful for studying how the brain compensates as dopamine is progressively depleted.

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A bacterial artificial chromosome clone from sorghum containing a sequence matching the maize sh2 gene was used in fluorescent in situ hybridization to physically map the sequence to a specific sorghum chromosome arm. Three FISH signals appeared in a plant carrying an extra chromosome arm, confirming the sequence's location. The result demonstrates a method for physically placing cloned genes onto chromosomes using BAC probes.

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A chimeric gene called orf107 was identified in the mitochondrial DNA of cytoplasmic male-sterile sorghum, containing sequences similar to genes associated with male sterility in rice. Sorghum lines restored to fertility showed efficient internal cleavage of orf107 transcripts, preventing full-length transcript accumulation, while sterile lines did not. The results suggest that fertility restoration in sorghum involves blocking production of a mitochondrially encoded protein through targeted transcript processing.

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Sixty-two DNA probes were used to compare genetic diversity among 53 sorghum accessions from Africa, Asia, and the United States, including wild and cultivated subspecies. Wild sorghum showed greater nuclear diversity than cultivated lines, though 60% of detected genetic variants were shared between wild and cultivated forms. Phylogenetic clustering separated wild from cultivated accessions, but exceptions were common, and outcrossing appeared more important than seed dispersal in shaping gene flow between wild and domestic sorghum.

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Six mitochondrial DNA clones were used to fingerprint 28 sorghum lines carrying different forms of cytoplasmic male sterility, distinguishing four cytoplasmic types based on restriction fragment patterns. Three of these types appeared potentially diagnostic for male sterility when tested against a broader set of 50 diverse sorghum accessions, and three additional cytoplasmic types were discovered. These molecular markers offer a tool for identifying and tracking sterility-inducing cytoplasms in breeding programs.

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Molecular markers were used to map quantitative trait loci controlling rhizome production and regrowth in a cross between cultivated and wild sorghum — key traits that make johnsongrass a persistent weed. Three QTLs were linked to rhizome number, and additional QTLs influenced whether vegetative buds developed into rhizomes versus tillers. The mapped markers could be used to study gene flow from crops to weeds and to explore strategies for suppressing or harnessing rhizomatous growth in grasses.

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A 165-base-pair deletion in the plastid gene rpoC2 was found in four types of cytoplasmic male-sterile sorghum but not in three other CMS types, dividing sorghum CMS lines into two groups based on the stage at which pollen development fails. Despite this structural difference, transcription rates of chloroplast genes were similar across sterile and fertile lines. The deletion affects a monocot-specific region with similarity to transcription factor motifs, though its precise functional role remains unclear.

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QTLs affecting plant height and flowering time were compared across sorghum, maize, rice, wheat, and barley by aligning maps from 32 populations totaling 185 mapped loci. In the sorghum interspecific population, a single chromosomal region accounted for the majority of height and flowering time variation and corresponded to regions converted in commercial sorghum breeding. Corresponding QTLs appeared across grass species more often than chance would predict, suggesting conserved genetic architecture for these traits across the cereal grasses.

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Comparative mapping showed that independent domestication of sorghum, rice, and maize each involved selection for large seeds, reduced seed shattering, and day-length-insensitive flowering — and that these parallel changes were driven by mutations at corresponding genomic locations across all three crops. This correspondence persists despite 65 million years of evolutionary divergence between the species. The finding supports models in which a small number of key genes underlie major agronomic traits and suggests that cloning domestication genes in one crop can guide efforts in others.

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A sorghum genomic clone was identified that detects highly variable DNA fragment patterns when a specific restriction enzyme is used, with 46 distinct patterns observed across 53 sorghum accessions. Much less variation was seen with a different enzyme, indicating the hypervariability is enzyme-specific. Clones with this property are particularly valuable for assessing genetic diversity in germplasm collections and distinguishing hybrid plants from their parents.

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Conditions were optimized to reproducibly generate random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers in sorghum, using radiolabeled PCR products separated on polyacrylamide gels for high resolution. Key parameters including magnesium concentration and temperature were found to affect yield and reproducibility, and most primers tested produced 1 to 5 polymorphisms between two sorghum lines. Eight primers successfully mapped RAPD markers onto an existing sorghum RFLP linkage map.

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A genetic linkage map of sorghum was constructed using 190 molecular markers spanning 1,789 centimorgans across 14 linkage groups, derived from an F2 cross between two sorghum inbred lines. The map was built primarily from sorghum's own low-copy nuclear DNA sequences, with an RFLP detection rate of 51%. About 11% of mapped clones detected duplicate loci, and null alleles were observed at 13% of sites.