Bacteria residing in the human gastrointestinal tract has a symbiotic relationship with its host. Animal models have demonstrated a relationship between exercise and gut microbiota composition. This was the first study to explore the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness (maximal oxygen consumption, VOmax) and relative gut microbiota composition (Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio [F/B]) in healthy young adults in a free-living environment. Twenty males and 17 females (25.7 ± 2.2 years), who did not take antibiotics in the last 6 months, volunteered for this study. VOmax was measured using a symptom-limited graded treadmill test. Relative microbiota composition was determined by analyzing DNA extracted from stool samples using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction that specifically measured the quantity of a target gene (16S rRNA) found in Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. Relationships between F/B and potentially related dietary, anthropometric, and fitness variables were assessed using correlation analyses with an appropriate Bonferroni adjustment (p < .004). The average F/B ratio in all participants was 0.94 ± 0.03. The F/B ratio was significantly correlated to VOmax (r = .48, p < .003), but no other fitness, nutritional intake, or anthropometric variables (p > .004). VOmax explained ∼22% of the variance of an individual's relative gut bacteria as determined by the F/B ratio. These data support animal findings, demonstrating a relationship between relative human gut microbiota composition and cardiorespiratory fitness in healthy young adults. Gastrointestinal bacteria is integral in regulating a myriad of physiological processes, and greater insight regarding ramifications of exercise and nutrition on gut microbial composition may help guide therapies to promote human health.

Instructor Talk—noncontent language used by instructors in classrooms—is a recently defined and promising variable for better understanding classroom dynamics. Having previously characterized the Instructor Talk framework within the context of a single course, we present here our results surrounding the applicability of the Instructor Talk framework to noncontent language used by instructors in novel course contexts. We analyzed Instructor Talk in eight additional biology courses in their entirety and in 61 biology courses using an emergent sampling strategy. We observed widespread use of Instructor Talk with variation in the amount and category type used. The vast majority of Instructor Talk could be characterized using the originally published Instructor Talk framework, suggesting the robustness of this framework. Additionally, a new form of Instructor Talk—Negatively Phrased Instructor Talk, language that may discourage students or distract from the learning process—was detected in these novel course contexts. Finally, the emergent sampling strategy described here may allow investigation of Instructor Talk in even larger numbers of courses across institutions and disciplines. Given its widespread use, potential influence on students in learning environments, and ability to be sampled, Instructor Talk may be a key variable to consider in future research on teaching and learning in higher education.

Racial discrimination has been linked to allostatic load (i.e., cumulative biological stress) among African American women. However, limited attention has been given to psychosocial processes involved in the stress response—critical for understanding biological pathways to health—in studies examining racial discrimination as a social determinant of health. We examined whether the superwoman schema (SWS), a multidimensional culture‐specific framework characterizing psychosocial responses to stress among African American women, modifies the association between racial discrimination and allostatic load. We used purposive sampling to recruit a community sample of African American women ages 30–50 from five San Francisco Bay Area counties (n = 208). Path analysis was used to test for interactions while accounting for the covariance among SWS subscales using both linear and quadratic models. Significant interactions were observed between racial discrimination and four of the five SWS subscales. Feeling obligated to present an image of strength and an obligation to suppress emotions were each protective whereas feeling an intense motivation to succeed and feeling an obligation to help others exacerbated the independent health risk associated with experiencing racial discrimination. Our findings affirm the need to consider individual variability in coping and potentially other psychosocial processes involved in the stress response process, and offer several insights that may help elucidate the mechanisms by which racial discrimination gets “under the skin.”

In December 2019, the European Commission announced The European Green Deal, a plan to facilitate a transition to sustainability with the goal of making Europe climate neutral by 2050 (1). Green Deal objectives include preserving and restoring biodiversity and reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases (1). The EU Parliament adopted a resolution supporting these environmental goals in January (2). Lisbon, Portugal's capital, has been designated the European Green Capital 2020 for spearheading sustainability efforts (3). However, Lisbon's airport has reached capacity, and plans to build an additional airport are at odds with Green Deal objectives. The proposed location for the new airport is a peninsula at the heart of the Tagus estuary (4), a vast coastal wetland of key importance for breeding, wintering, and passing migratory birds in the East Atlantic Flyway (5, 6). This wetland is a major hub linking Palearctic and Nearctic breeding areas with Afro-tropical wintering areas for an estimated 300,000 waterbirds and many other migratory bird species. The region is protected under national legislation, EU directives, and international conventions (5-7). However, the privately funded proposed airport received an environmental license in early 2020 (8), and, despite the aviation sector facing unprecedented reductions in activity due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Edited by Jennifer Sills pandemic (9), the Portuguese government reiterated in July its intentions to go forward with this new infrastructure (10). By expanding its airport capacity, this EU member state will deliver a negative contribution toward climate targets by neither retiring nor halting new infrastructure (11), as well as threaten biodiversity through negative, permanent, and irreversible effects on bird species in an EU-designated protected area. These species already face massive declines globally [(e.g., (12)]. We urge the Portuguese government and the European Union to put the Green Deal into action by abandoning this project.

The 0FD factor of BaciUlus subtilis is required for the transcription of the flagellin and motility genes as well as for wild-type chemotaxis. Southern blot and sequence analyses demonstrate that the structural gene for SFD, sigD, is located immediately downstream of a region of DNA originally identified as the chemotaxis (che) locus and now renamed thefla/che region. In fact, sigD appears to be part of a very large operon (>26 kb) containing genes which encode structural proteins that form the hook-basal body complex as well as regulatory proteins required for chemotaxis. Transposon insertions up to 24 kb upstream of sigD, within several of the genes for the hook-basal body components, give rise to only a moderate decrease in sigD expression. The transposon insertions, however, block CrD activity as demonstrated by the lack of flagellin expression in strains bearing these insertions. These effects appear to arise from two types of regulation. In cis the transposon insertions appear to introduce a partial block to transcription of sigD from upstream promoter elements; in trans they disrupt genes whose gene products are required for oD activity. It appears that sigD transcription is initiated, at least in part, by a promoter many kilobases upstream of its translation start site and that transcription of the flagellin gene by SFD is dependent on the formation of a functional hook-basal body complex. The possibility that sigD is part of the Ia/che operon was further tested by the integration of an insertion plasmid, containing strong transcription terminators, 1.6 and 24 kb upstream of the sigD gene. In both cases, the introduction of the terminators resulted in a greater decrease of sigD expression than was caused by the plasmid sequences alone. These results indicate that wild-type transcription of sigD is dependent on promoter sequences >24 kb upstream of its structural gene and that the entirefla/che region forms a single operon.