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1. Craniofacial skeletal response to encephalization: How do we know what we think we know?

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23766  

   Lesciotto, Kate M.; Richtsmeier, Joan T. (January 2019, American Journal of Physical Anthropology)

   Abstract Dramatic changes in cranial capacity have characterized human evolution. Important evolutionary hypotheses, such as the spatial packing hypothesis, assert that increases in relative brain size (encephalization) have caused alterations to the modern human skull, resulting in a suite of traits unique among extant primates, including a domed cranial vault, highly flexed cranial base, and retracted facial skeleton. Most prior studies have used fossil or comparative primate data to establish correlations between brain size and cranial form, but the mechanistic basis for how changes in brain size impact the overall shape of the skull resulting in these cranial traits remains obscure and has only rarely been investigated critically. We argue that understanding how changes in human skull morphology could have resulted from increased encephalization requires the direct testing of hypotheses relating to interaction of embryonic development of the bones of the skull and the brain. Fossil and comparative primate data have thoroughly described the patterns of association between brain size and skull morphology. Here we suggest complementing such existing datasets with experiments focused on mechanisms responsible for producing the observed patterns to more thoroughly understand the role of encephalization in shaping the modern human skull. 

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2. Taxation and Innovation: What Do We Know?

   https://doi.org/10.3386/w27109  

   Akcigit, Ufuk; Stantcheva, Stefanie (November 2021, Innovation and Public Policy)

   Goolsbee, Austan; Jones, Benjamin (Ed.)

   Tax policies are a wide array of tools, commonly used by governments to influence the economy. In this paper, we review the many margins through which tax policies can affect innovation, the main driver of economic growth in the long-run. These margins include the impact of tax policy on i) the quantity and quality of innovation; ii) the geographic mobility of innovation and inventors across U.S. states and countries; iii) the declining business dynamism in the U.S., firm entry, and productivity; iv) the quality composition of firms, inventors, and teams; and v) the direction of research effort, e.g., toward applied versus basic research, or toward dirty versus clean technologies. We give ideas drawn from research on how the design of policy can allow policy makers to foster the most productive firms without wasting public funds on less productive ones. 

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3. Soil Carbon Saturation: What Do We Really Know?

   https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70197  

   Georgiou, Katerina; Angers, Denis; Champiny, Ryan_E; Cotrufo, M_Francesca; Craig, Matthew_E; Doetterl, Sebastian; Grandy, A_Stuart; Lavallee, Jocelyn_M; Lin, Yang; Lugato, Emanuele; et al (May 2025, Global Change Biology)

   ABSTRACT Managing soils to increase organic carbon storage presents a potential opportunity to mitigate and adapt to global change challenges, while providing numerous co‐benefits and ecosystem services. However, soils differ widely in their potential for carbon sequestration, and knowledge of biophysical limits to carbon accumulation may aid in informing priority regions. Consequently, there is great interest in assessing whether soils exhibit a maximum capacity for storing organic carbon, particularly within organo–mineral associations given the finite nature of reactive minerals in a soil. While the concept of soil carbon saturation has existed for over 25 years, recent studies have argued for and against its importance. Here, we summarize the conceptual understanding of soil carbon saturation at both micro‐ and macro‐scales, define key terminology, and address common concerns and misconceptions. We review methods used to quantify soil carbon saturation, highlighting the theory and potential caveats of each approach. Critically, we explore the utility of the principles of soil carbon saturation for informing carbon accumulation, vulnerability to loss, and representations in process‐based models. We highlight key knowledge gaps and propose next steps for furthering our mechanistic understanding of soil carbon saturation and its implications for soil management. 

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4. Learning to Reason with Data: How Did We Get Here and What Do We Know?

   https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2019.1705665  

   Rubin, Andee (January 2020, Journal of the Learning Sciences)
5. Consistent Individual Behavioral Variation: What Do We Know and Where Are We Going?

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102220-011451  

   Laskowski, Kate L.; Chang, Chia-Chen; Sheehy, Kirsten; Aguiñaga, Jonathan (November 2022, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics)

   The study of individual behavioral variation, sometimes called animal personalities or behavioral types, is now a well-established area of research in behavioral ecology and evolution. Considerable theoretical work has developed predictions about its ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences, and studies testing these theories continue to grow. Here, we synthesize the current empirical work to shed light on which theories are well supported and which need further refinement. We find that the major frameworks explaining the existence of individual behavioral variation, the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis and state-dependent feedbacks models, have mixed support. The consequences of individual behavioral variation are well studied at the individual level but less is known about consequences at higher levels such as among species and communities. The focus of this review is to reevaluate and reestablish the foundation of individual behavioral variation research: What do we know? What questions remain? And where are we going next? 

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