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1. Early Phosphorylated Protein 1 is required to activate the early rhizobial infection program

   https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19423  

   Ferrer‐Orgaz, Susana; Tiwari, Manish; Isidra‐Arellano, Mariel C; Pozas‐Rodriguez, Eithan A; Vernié, Tatiana; Rich, Mélanie K; Mbengue, Malick; Formey, Damien; Delaux, Pierre‐Marc; Ané, Jean‐Michel; et al (February 2024, New Phytologist)
2. Learning to Improve: Early Evaluation of the First2 Network

   https://doi.org/10.55632/pwvas.v93i1.837  

   Howley, Caitlin (April 2021, Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science)

   The first two years of an undergraduate student’s STEM program of study are particularly treacherous, with roughly half of STEM majors switching to other fields or dropping out entirely after their sophomore year. Moreover, attending a rural high school that was unable to offer higher-level math courses and being a first-generation college student further increase the likelihood of STEM attrition.   This presentation will feature evaluation results from the First2 Network’s first two years of operation. Funded by the National Science Foundation, First2 is a collective impact effort to improve STEM persistence among rural, first-generation college students in West Virginia. With students themselves as co-creators of solutions to problems of persistence, core Network activities include iterative testing of improvements to practice, development of a statewide network to support student success, and capacity building to ensure sustainability.   Study methods include surveys and interviews, observation of Network activities, document review, social network analysis, and tracking of student progress. Key findings suggest rapid Network expansion, establishment of core processes to support workgroups, provision of Network-wide training in improvement science, and successful facilitation of summer immersive research experiences for targeted students (in-person in 2019 and virtually in 2020). Early outcomes include statistically significant improvements in students’ STEM efficacy and STEM identity following summer immersive experiences, and improved survey scores indicating progress through iterative testing cycles. Early persistence data from participating students is less promising. But since the purpose of the Network is to learn how to help students persist, members continue their efforts to improve. 

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3. Learning to Improve: Early Evaluation of the First2 Network.

   Howley, C. (April 2021, Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science)

   null (Ed.)

   The first two years of an undergraduate student’s STEM program of study are particularly treacherous, with roughly half of STEM majors switching to other fields or dropping out entirely after their sophomore year. Moreover, attending a rural high school that was unable to offer higher-level math courses and being a first-generation college student further increase the likelihood of STEM attrition. This presentation will feature evaluation results from the First2 Network’s first two years of operation. Funded by the National Science Foundation, First2 is a collective impact effort to improve STEM persistence among rural, first-generation college students in West Virginia. With students themselves as co-creators of solutions to problems of persistence, core Network activities include iterative testing of improvements to practice, development of a statewide network to support student success, and capacity building to ensure sustainability. Study methods include surveys and interviews, observation of Network activities, document review, social network analysis, and tracking of student progress. Key findings suggest rapid Network expansion, establishment of core processes to support workgroups, provision of Network-wide training in improvement science, and successful facilitation of summer immersive research experiences for targeted students (in-person in 2019 and virtually in 2020). Early outcomes include statistically significant improvements in students’ STEM efficacy and STEM identity following summer immersive experiences, and improved survey scores indicating progress through iterative testing cycles. Early persistence data from participating students is less promising. But since the purpose of the Network is to learn how to help students persist, members continue their efforts to improve. 

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4. Why the Early Paleozoic was intrinsically prone to marine extinction

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adg7679  

   Pohl, Alexandre; Stockey, Richard G.; Dai, Xu; Yohler, Ryan; Le Hir, Guillaume; Hülse, Dominik; Brayard, Arnaud; Finnegan, Seth; Ridgwell, Andy (September 2023, Science Advances)

   Climate and continental configuration combined to make Early Paleozoic animals susceptible to extinction. 

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5. Asynchronous trilobite extinctions at the early to middle Cambrian transition

   https://doi.org/10.1130/G46913.1  

   Sundberg, F.A.; Karlstrom, K.E.; Geyer, G.; Foster, J.R.; Hagadorn, J.W.; Mohr, M.T.; Schmitz, M.D.; Dehler, C.M.; Crossey, L.J. (February 2020, Geology)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Trilobites appeared and diversified rapidly in the Cambrian, but it is debated as to whether their radiations and extinctions were globally synchronous or geographically restricted and diachronous. The end of the early Cambrian is a classic example—it has traditionally been defined by the extinction of olenellid and redlichiid trilobites and the appearance of paradoxidid trilobites. Here we integrate the global biostratigraphy of these three trilobite groups with high-precision tuff and tandem detrital zircon U-Pb age constraints to falsify prior models for global synchronicity of these events. For the first time, we demonstrate that olenellid trilobites in Laurentia went extinct at least 3 Ma after the first appearance of paradoxidids in Avalonia and West Gondwana (ca. 509 Ma). They also disappeared before the extinction of redlichiids and prior to the base of the Miaolingian at ca. 506 Ma in South China. This indicates that these three trilobite groups (paradoxidids, olenellids, and redlichiids) and their associated biotas overlapped in time for nearly 40% of Cambrian Epoch 2, Age 4. Implications of this chronological overlap are: (1) trilobite transitions were progressive and geographically mediated rather than globally synchronous; and (2) paleontological databases underestimate the diversity of the early Cambrian. This ∼3 Ma diachroneity, at a critical time in the early evolution of animals, also impacts chemostratigraphic and paleoclimatic data sets that are tied to trilobite biostratigraphy and that collectively underpin our understanding of the Cambrian Earth system. 

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