The study, published in Frontiers in Health Services on October 21, 2026, evaluated the Long COVID and Fatiguing Illnesses Recovery Program as a two-arm, single-blind, professional cluster randomized controlled trial registered as NCT05167227. Clinicians were individually assigned at a 1:1 ratio. The intervention group received weekly ECHO sessions in addition to the educational opportunities available to both groups, while the control group received monthly interactive webinars and quarterly online short courses. One clinician from each arm withdrew after baseline data collection, leaving 18 participants and 92 repeated clinician observations for the primary survey analysis.

Each weekly ECHO meeting combined a presentation on emerging clinical topics and recommended practices with an interactive discussion and a case presented by a participating clinician. Subject-matter experts included specialists in pulmonology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, cardiology, neurology, nutrition, and ME/CFS, many based at academic medical centers. People with lived experience took part in every session, adding perspectives on symptom trajectories, stigma, and patient priorities. Across the study, which ran from December 2021 through October 2024, investigators conducted 89 weekly ECHO sessions, 34 monthly webinars, and nine quarterly courses. The monthly webinars averaged about 300 participants and reached audiences in the United States and more than 62 countries.

Clinicians reported their knowledge, confidence or self-efficacy, and changes to practice through quarterly surveys. The researchers constructed standardized composite scores for each outcome and used generalized linear models to account for repeated observations within clinicians. The preferred adjusted model controlled for time since baseline, clinician sex, years of experience, possession of a medical degree, and baseline confidence. In this model, the intervention was associated with a 0.77-standard-deviation increase in knowledge, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.20 to 1.33, and a 0.48-standard-deviation increase in confidence, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.09 to 0.88. The corresponding estimate for self-reported practice change was 0.52, but its interval ranged from -0.08 to 1.12 and included no effect.

The absence of a statistically significant between-group difference in self-reported practice change was important because clinicians in both arms improved. The investigators said it may reflect the design of the program, which deliberately converted lessons from the small weekly ECHO sessions into monthly webinars and short courses so that control clinicians received many of the same recommendations. Contamination was also possible because clinicians could not be blinded to their assignments and sometimes worked in the same clinics. Administrators reported that intervention clinicians shared information in staff meetings, training sessions, and informal consultations. Such exchanges would tend to improve control-group performance and reduce the measured difference between arms rather than exaggerate it, although the study did not directly quantify how much contamination occurred.

Objective electronic health record data nevertheless supported a change in behavior. Intervention clinicians made significantly fewer specialist referrals for each patient assigned to them with Long COVID or a related condition: the adjusted estimate was -0.44 referrals per patient, with a 95% confidence interval from -0.62 to -0.26. They also made fewer referrals when assigned and unassigned patients were combined, with an estimate of -0.33 and a 95% confidence interval from -0.50 to -0.15. The reduction for unassigned patients alone did not reach statistical significance. There was no significant difference in the number of patients seen each month or in average visit duration. Among 806 clinical recommendations made by multidisciplinary experts during weekly ECHO sessions, 178 were subsequently applied by intervention clinicians to patient care.

Participation appeared related to the size of the clinician outcomes. Across the pooled sample, each additional learning session was associated with an improvement of about 0.013 standard deviations on each of the three main outcome scales, and the corresponding standardized regression coefficients ranged from 0.34 to 0.37. Intervention clinicians attended an average of 51.3 learning sessions, compared with 16.6 among controls, accumulating about 27 more hours of educational exposure. An exploratory, unregistered analysis estimated that marginal gains began to plateau at approximately 65 sessions for knowledge and 74 sessions for confidence and practice change. The researchers cautioned that these thresholds should not be treated as definitive because the analysis was exploratory, the maximum observed attendance was 97 sessions, and the intervention-only estimate for knowledge was not statistically significant.

The ECHO approach uses a hub-and-spoke structure in which specialist teams interact with frontline clinicians through case-based learning. Its goal is to strengthen primary care capacity for conditions in which patients may otherwise wait months for specialty appointments or travel long distances. The program pairs access to multidisciplinary expertise with structured discussion of real cases and lived-experience input. In this clinician-outcomes report, the measured referral result is consistent with intervention clinicians managing more aspects of these cases themselves. The broader recovery program included separate analyses of patient outcomes; this paper reports the clinician results and does not by itself establish that reduced referral use improved symptoms, quality of life, or other patient health outcomes.

The evidence remains constrained by the trial’s scale and setting. It included only 20 clinicians from one health system, had approximately 66% power to detect a standardized mean effect of 0.5, and had limited external validity for clinicians, specialties, and communities operating in different systems. Most clinician outcomes were self-reported and therefore vulnerable to response bias, while knowledge improvement and practice change could only be measured after baseline because they were defined as changes from baseline. The control group received active education rather than no intervention, and knowledge sharing between colleagues was inherent to the pragmatic clinical setting. The results therefore support weekly ECHO sessions as a promising means of improving clinician knowledge and confidence and reducing specialist referral for complex chronic conditions, but they do not show that every health system will obtain the same effects.

Subject of Research: Randomized trial of weekly virtual ECHO clinician education for Long COVID and other infection-associated chronic conditions

Article Title: Effectiveness of an Extension for Community Health Outcomes case-based virtual community of practice model on clinician outcomes for the management of long COVID and fatiguing illnesses: a randomized control trial

Article References: Zuber, A., Rothwell, J. T., Samaniego, J. C., Sharp, S. P., Taren, D., Unger, E. R., Bertolli, J., Lin, J.-M. S., Regan, J. J., Armistad, A. J., Scott, J. D., Struminger, B. B., Godino, J. G., & Ramers, C. B. (2026). Effectiveness of an Extension for Community Health Outcomes case-based virtual community of practice model on clinician outcomes for the management of long COVID and fatiguing illnesses: a randomized control trial. Frontiers in Health Services, 6, Article 1912262. https://doi.org/10.3389/frhs.2026.1912262

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/frhs.2026.1912262

Keywords: Long COVID, ME/CFS, ECHO model, randomized controlled trial, primary care, clinician education, specialist referrals, telehealth, community health centers, infection-associated chronic conditions, Effectiveness, Extension

The frog was originally described from an adult male holotype and a female paratype from Nanxi Village, Nanxi Town, Hekou County, collected at an elevation of 350 meters above sea level. The holotype, KIZ 20210510, was collected on 15 May 2021; the source does not give that collection date for the paratype. The Chinese type specimens measured 20.5 and 20.8 millimeters in snout-vent length, but the Vietnamese series reveals that adults can be substantially larger: males measured 20.0–24.1 millimeters and females 25.4–29.5 millimeters. The authors propose that the female paratype was subadult when described and that the species is medium-sized within the Micryletta genus, rather than uniformly small.

The identification rests partly on an analysis of the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian analyses recovered the Vietnamese samples in the same lineage as the holotype and paratype of M. hekouensis. Six newly analyzed sequences differed from the Chinese type-series sequences by an uncorrected genetic distance of 0.7 percent. The reconstructed tree placed M. hekouensis within a monophyletic complex containing M. steinegeri, M. menglienica and M. immaculata. Maximum-likelihood support was estimated with 1,000 ultrafast bootstrap replicates, while Bayesian posterior probabilities were calculated from two simultaneous runs of four Markov chains, each run for 5 million generations.

Morphological examination independently supported the molecular result. The Vietnamese frogs have a relatively slender body, a small triangular head, small slightly projecting eyes and a rounded snout that projects beyond the lower jaw. Their fingers and toes are unwebbed, the outer metatarsal tubercle is absent, and the tibiotarsal articulation of an adpressed hind limb reaches the level of the eye. Distinctive features include a white upper-lip stripe extending from below the eye toward the forelimb, a dark chin in adult males, irregular white marbling on the chest and lateral belly, and dorsal coloration ranging from purplish brown to bluish gray or dark brown. The dorsal surface bears small tubercles, while the ventral surface of the body and limbs is smooth.

Variation created an important qualification to the original description. The Chinese type series was reported to possess a small, rounded and distinct tympanum, whereas the tympanum was concealed in the Vietnamese specimens. Other proportional differences, including the ratio of tibia length to snout-vent length in females, could reflect genuine intraspecific variation, differences in preservation, reproductive condition or observer effects. The authors acknowledge that mitochondrial markers alone have limitations for delimiting amphibian species, but the close genetic match, corresponding external morphology and similar coloration collectively support the assignment of the Vietnamese animals to M. hekouensis. The comparison also documented a wider range of female body size than was apparent from the original two-specimen description.

Observations from the two Vietnamese parks add limited natural-history information to a species for which biological data had previously been scarce. In Cuc Phuong National Park, the frogs were seen from 16:00 to 20:00 beneath dead leaves on the ground. In Cat Ba National Park, they were observed during the same hours between small pieces of limestone rock. Gravid females were recorded at Cuc Phuong in June. The species shared its habitat with several other microhylid frogs, including Micryletta nigromaculata, and all three confirmed localities—the two Vietnamese parks and the Chinese type locality—are associated with limestone karst environments. The study had not previously reported the frog’s advertisement call, tadpole morphology or diet, leaving major aspects of its biology unresolved.

Those records suggest that M. hekouensis may occupy additional limestone massifs in northern Vietnam, but the paper distinguishes anticipated range from confirmed occurrence. The authors identify Quang Ninh, Lang Son and Bac Giang in northeastern Vietnam, together with Hoa Binh, Ha Nam and Thanh Hoa in northwestern Vietnam, as areas requiring survey rather than as established parts of the species’ range. The Vietnamese records expand the calculated extent of occurrence to 23,374 square kilometers. This estimate is based on the available records from 12 examined Vietnamese specimens and the Chinese type series, while the actual distribution, abundance and population trends remain unknown.

The Vietnamese record also changes the country’s known Micryletta diversity. Four nominal species were previously recognized in Vietnam, but confirmation of M. hekouensis raises that number to five. Two of the five, M. melanops and M. nigromaculata, are endemic to Vietnam. Conversely, the study supports removing M. steinegeri from the Vietnamese fauna because the northern Vietnamese populations previously identified as that species are now referred to M. hekouensis. The authors also call for re-examination of Micryletta populations formerly assigned to M. inornata across Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. In the molecular analysis, some specimens reported as M. inornata clustered with M. immaculata, while others grouped with M. menglienica, indicating that the distributions of those species may be wider than currently recorded.

Based on the restricted and fragmented records, the authors recommend listing M. hekouensis as Near Threatened under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List categories. They note that limestone karst in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia continues to face severe pressure from deforestation and destruction for cement manufacturing. The size of the frog’s actual population and its sensitivity to habitat loss have not been quantified, so the conservation proposal is based on limited distributional information rather than a measured population trend. Additional fieldwork across northern Vietnam and southern Yunnan is needed to determine where the species persists, clarify its biology and assess its conservation status, with calls, tadpole morphology and diet still unknown.

Subject of Research: Taxonomic reassessment and range extension of the Hekou Paddy Frog, Micryletta hekouensis, in northern Vietnam

Article Title: Range extension and expanded description of Micryletta hekouensis Liu, Hou, Mo & Rao, 2021 ( Amphibia , Anura , Microhylidae ), with comments on Micryletta of Northern Vietnam

Article References: Nguyen, T. V., Liu, S., Tran, V. T., Tran, T. G., Trofimets, A. V., Dau, V. Q., & Poyarkov, N. A. (2024). Range extension and expanded description of Micryletta hekouensis Liu, Hou, Mo & Rao, 2021 (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae), with comments on Micryletta of Northern Vietnam. Herpetozoa, 37, 111-121. https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.37.e120524

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.37.e120524

Keywords: Micryletta hekouensis, Hekou Paddy Frog, Vietnam, amphibian taxonomy, range extension, mitochondrial DNA, karst habitat, conservation assessment, microhylid frogs, Range, extension, expanded

The species, scientifically known as Gonidea angulata, is the only extant member of its genus and is easily identifiable by its thick-walled trapezoidal shell and prominent dorsal ridge. Its global range spans western North America, from British Columbia south to central California and east through Nevada and Idaho. In Canada, however, the mussel’s presence was previously restricted to the Okanagan watershed, a region of approximately 8,000 square kilometers that includes several connected lakes and rivers. Historical records from other parts of the province were vague and unverified, leaving the Fraser River watershed, the largest in British Columbia, seemingly devoid of this species.

The turning point came in 2023 when a user posted images of a mussel shell to iNaturalist, a popular platform for sharing nature observations. The shell was found at the confluence of the Pitt and Fraser rivers in the lower Fraser Valley. Because the Fraser River watershed has no direct aquatic link to the Okanagan system, the observation raised immediate questions about whether the shell was a local find or had been transported from elsewhere. Researchers recognized that the presence of a shell alone was insufficient to confirm a resident population, as shells can be moved by boats or other human activities.

To resolve this uncertainty, a team of scientists conducted targeted field surveys in 2023, 2024, and 2025. These surveys were challenging due to the tidal nature of the Fraser River system, which causes significant fluctuations in water levels. The researchers employed a combination of beach walking, wading, and snorkeling to search for live mussels in the Pitt River. They had to carefully time their efforts to coincide with low tides, when muddy foreshore flats and deeper pools were exposed, allowing for safe and effective inspection of the riverbed.

The surveys yielded a definitive result: a subpopulation of live Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussels was confirmed approximately 5.4 kilometers upstream from the original shell discovery site. A total of 81 live mussels were recorded during the study period, with the majority found in deep pools that become isolated from the main river flow during low tide. The mussels were observed in various positions, either lying flat on the substrate or partially embedded in the mud and silt. This confirmed that the population is not merely a collection of discarded shells but a living community of mussels inhabiting the Fraser River system.

The physical characteristics of the mussels provided further insight into their biology. The average length of the specimens was 89.7 millimeters, with a width of 47.3 millimeters and a height of 29.6 millimeters. All observed mussels were considered adults, as there is currently no established size threshold to distinguish juveniles from adults in this species. The absence of detected juveniles may be due to survey limitations, as young mussels often burrow deeper into the substrate or inhabit cooler, deeper parts of the river that are difficult to access. This lack of juvenile data remains a gap in understanding the population’s reproductive health and long-term viability.

Water quality measurements at the survey sites indicated conditions generally suitable for freshwater mussel survival. The average pH was 7.8, which is within the optimal range for most freshwater bivalves. However, the electrical conductivity was notably low at 76.3 microsiemens per centimeter, suggesting water with low mineral content. While this indicates clean water, it may also limit calcium availability, which is essential for shell growth and physiological functions. The water temperature at the time of survey was 20.4 degrees Celsius, which is at the upper end of the expected range for this species. Long-term monitoring will be necessary to understand how seasonal temperature variations affect the mussels in this new habitat.

The conservation implications of this discovery are complex. While the identification of a new subpopulation expands the known range of the species, it does not necessarily reduce the overall conservation concern. The Fraser River population is hydrologically isolated from the Okanagan population, meaning there is no natural gene flow between the two groups. This isolation could lead to genetic distinctiveness, making the Fraser population a unique designatable unit. However, the unknown size of the population and the potential threats from shoreline development and invasive species, such as zebra and quagga mussels, remain significant concerns for its long-term survival.

This case underscores the power of citizen science in uncovering hidden biodiversity. The initial observation on iNaturalist triggered a rigorous scientific response that would not have occurred otherwise. The ease with which the Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussel can be identified from photographs makes it an ideal candidate for public monitoring. As a result, this discovery has already sparked interest in community-based stewardship and public engagement in freshwater conservation efforts in British Columbia. The collaboration between scientists and the public is now essential for improving understanding of this newly documented subpopulation.

Future research will focus on determining whether the Pitt River subpopulation is genetically distinct from those in the Okanagan or the Chehalis River in Washington State. This information will be crucial for developing targeted conservation strategies. Continued monitoring of water quality, population size, and habitat conditions will be vital to ensure the survival of this endangered species in its new, unexpected home. The discovery serves as a reminder that even well-studied species can hold surprises, and that the eyes of the public are an invaluable tool in the fight to protect biodiversity.

Subject of Research: Range extension and natural history of the Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussel in Canada

Article Title: Range extension and natural history notes on Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussel Gonidea angulata (Lea, 1838) ( Mollusca , Unionidae ) in Canada

Article References: Heron, J., Jessome, R., Yoon-Henderson, K., & Achal, S. (2026). Range extension and natural history notes on Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussel Gonidea angulata (Lea, 1838) (Mollusca, Unionidae) in Canada. Biodiversity Data Journal, 14, Article e191607. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.14.e191607

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.14.e191607

Keywords: Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussel, Gonidea angulata, Freshwater Bivalves, Citizen Science, iNaturalist, Fraser River, British Columbia, Conservation Biology, Range Extension, Endangered Species, Range, extension

The research team combined field surveys conducted during 2023 and 2024 with occurrence data drawn from the global GBIF biodiversity database, assembling records from all 13 population distribution areas where the species is found worldwide, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Papua New Guinea. With this dataset in hand, they turned to machine learning to answer a deceptively simple question: where, based on climate alone, could Bruguiera hainesii survive?

To model the species’ ecological niche, the researchers used Maxent, a widely adopted maximum-entropy algorithm that predicts species distributions from presence records and environmental layers. Nineteen bioclimatic variables were obtained from WorldClim version 2.1, and to avoid overfitting, any pair of variables correlated above 0.8 was pruned. Seven variables survived the screening: annual mean temperature, mean diurnal range, mean temperature of the wettest quarter, mean temperature of the driest quarter, mean temperature of the warmest quarter, annual precipitation and precipitation seasonality.

Two modelling pipelines were run in parallel. The first used Maxent software version 3.4.4 on a desktop platform, executed ten times with cross-validation, a random test-data seed and a maximum of 500 iterations, with a Jackknife test employed to evaluate the significance of each climatic variable and response curves generated to assess their impact. The second pipeline deployed the same algorithm on Google Earth Engine, a cloud-computing platform, incorporating both presence and pseudo-absence data. Model performance was validated using the Area Under the Curve (AUC) metric, where a value of 1 indicates perfect precision and values at or below 0.5 indicate performance no better than random guessing.

The desktop model decisively outperformed its cloud-based counterpart, achieving an AUC of 0.862 against 0.66 for the Google Earth Engine version. The high AUC indicates that the bioclimatic variables used in the model effectively explain the distribution range of Bruguiera hainesii, underscoring the critical role of climatic factors in shaping and maintaining its habitat. The weaker performance of the pseudo-absence model carries a practical lesson: for species with limited presence records or those inhabiting specialised environments such as mangrove forests, pseudo-absence data should be approached with caution, since random placement of absences can introduce inaccuracies.

Three climatic variables emerged as the decisive factors. The mean diurnal range — the difference between maximum and minimum temperatures within a day — contributed the most useful information when considered independently and also held the most distinct information not found in other variables, as revealed by the Jackknife test. The mean temperature of the driest quarter and the annual mean temperature completed the trio, together driving the model’s effectiveness in predicting habitat suitability. In other words, it is the stability of daily and seasonal temperatures, rather than rainfall alone, that defines where this rare mangrove can persist.

The resulting maps place the most suitable habitat squarely in Southeast Asia, encompassing Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Papua New Guinea, with parts of northern Australia also predicted to offer suitable conditions. Projections under the ACCESS-CM2 climate model — chosen for its high accuracy in the Asia region — and the medium-emission scenario SSP2-4.5, which assumes moderate socioeconomic development with coordinated emissions reductions, indicate a potential expansion of ideal habitats by 2080 to 2100, with a significant increase in the total area of high Habitat Suitability Index values across the region. The Habitat Suitability Index standardises predictions from 0 to 1, with values above 0.75 classified as highly suitable and below 0.45 as unsuitable.

The field component of the study provides the first detailed biological and ecological portrait of the Vietnamese population. The seven documented individuals on the Con Dao Islands average 15 metres in height with trunk diameters of 84 centimetres. The species possesses a distinctive aerial root system that resists erosion, stabilises soil and absorbs oxygen in the muddy, tidally submerged environment. Its small flowers, clustered in groups of two to three, predominantly bloom from January to March, yet fruiting trees are uncommon — a pattern consistent with the species’ notoriously low regeneration capacity. Soil analysis of 24 samples showed predominantly sandy composition exceeding 89 percent, slightly acidic to neutral pH between 4.62 and 6.77, moderate organic matter at 3.27 percent and low phosphorus at 0.04 percent.

The findings feed into a broader scientific conversation about mangroves and climate change. Research in the Gulf of Mexico and along the south-eastern coast of the United States indicates that warming temperatures and declining cold spells are enabling mangroves to expand poleward, with coverage increasing by 4.3 percent in Texas and southern Florida between 1980 and 2015. Mangroves possess complex adaptive mechanisms across morphology, anatomy, physiology and molecular biology that allow them to thrive in high-salinity, tidally fluctuating environments, and local assessments suggest Bruguiera hainesii may have reached the Con Dao Islands via ocean currents. Yet expansion is never straightforward: urbanisation, resource extraction and marine ecosystem changes can create barriers even where climatic conditions turn favourable, and local factors such as tidal range and sediment supply fundamentally shape how mangrove ecosystems respond to rising seas.

Herein lies the study’s central tension. The bioclimatic models suggest that Bruguiera hainesii could colonise new areas as temperatures and precipitation rise, potentially enhancing its distribution and ecological role. But climatic factors alone are evidently not responsible for the species’ global rarity. Its low regeneration capacity — possibly linked to poor seed viability, limited pollination or challenges in seedling establishment — remains a more critical limiting factor than climate in determining population dynamics. The authors recommend prioritising habitat protection where the species already exists, while simultaneously pursuing research into overcoming the physiological barriers to regeneration, whether through enhanced seedling establishment, improved pollination rates or genetic approaches. On a small island with limited access to external sediment sources, rising sea levels are likely to reduce the species’ geographical distribution in Con Dao National Park, making the preservation of existing populations and the management of suitable habitats essential to ensuring the long-term survival of this critically endangered mangrove and the coastal ecosystems it supports.

Subject of Research: Bioclimatic niche modelling extends the potential range of the critically endangered mangrove Bruguiera hainesii in Vietnam and Southeast Asia under current and future climates.

Article Title: Global range extension of bioclimatic zone of Bruguiera hainesii C.G.Rogers 1919 ( Rhizophoraceae )

Article References: Pham, M.-P., Hoang, T. T. T., Pham, V. D., Pham, T. T., & Vu, D. D. (2025). Global range extension of bioclimatic zone of Bruguiera hainesii C.G.Rogers 1919 (Rhizophoraceae). One Ecosystem, 10, Article e142064. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.10.e142064

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/oneeco.10.e142064

Keywords: Bruguiera hainesii, mangrove, bioclimatic niche modelling, Maxent, climate change, Vietnam, Con Dao, conservation, Global, range, extension, bioclimatic

The research, published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, examines the Agroecology Extension (AX) summer Research Fellowship, a five-year, USDA-funded program that ran from 2021 to 2025 and engaged 47 undergraduates in an intensive ten-week model integrating extension research with agroecology education. Drawing on predominantly qualitative evaluation of five cohorts, the team led by Karen Nordstrom, Victor Izzo, Emily Hoyler, and V. Ernesto Méndez identified the enabling and constraining pedagogical factors that shaped the program’s effort to create common ground between two domains that remain institutionally separated at most land-grant universities.

The intellectual stakes are considerable. Agroecology education has grown rapidly over the past two decades, driven by rising student interest and societal demand for professionals equipped to address complex food system challenges. Yet this growth has been characterized more by fragmentation than coherence, with programs evolving independently without shared frameworks or standardized learning outcomes. Scholars have articulated an emerging signature pedagogy for sustainable food systems education—one built on systems thinking, transdisciplinarity, experiential learning, and participation in collective action—but significant gaps remain between stated goals and actual delivery. Recent analyses found that many food systems courses at U.S. land-grant universities fail to incorporate content helping students critically examine equity and social justice or engage in transformative change.

Transformative learning theory, as defined by Mezirow, describes the process by which individuals transform their taken-for-granted frames of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, and reflective. In agroecology, this aspiration extends beyond skill acquisition: many programs, critics argue, exist in a contextual vacuum that does not analyze the political and economic reasons why the current food system exists. Understanding agroecological transformation requires moving beyond agroecology as science and practice toward a holistic agroecology that also engages food justice and food sovereignty frameworks. The AX Fellowship was designed to test whether such transformative pedagogy could be operationalized within a land-grant institution, where workforce development imperatives often pull programs toward technical and applied orientations.

The program’s structure rested on two integrated components. The Extension Mentor Program engaged students three days per week in ongoing extension research projects spanning pest management, fruit production, crop genetics, agroforestry, community food systems, and watershed management, with soil health running across all projects as a core agroecological principle. Students conducted field data collection, laboratory analysis, farmer surveys, and educational material development alongside extension mentors who served as co-educators. The remaining two days per week were occupied by the Agroecology Leadership Enrichment Program, which provided the conceptual and relational infrastructure through which students could make sense of their field experiences within broader agroecological frameworks, drawing on guest speakers, farm visits, and structured reflection through journals, peer dialog, and shared documentation.

The program’s evolution was driven by embedded, participatory evaluation. Rather than an external assessment appended after the fact, evaluation was built into the program’s design from the outset, grounded in utilization-focused evaluation traditions that position participants as co-creators of knowledge about the program rather than subjects of external measurement. Pre- and post-participation surveys, participant observation, focus groups, document review, and annual advisory team meetings created a cycle from participant experience to structured data collection to collective interpretation to programmatic change. One adaptation proved particularly telling: in 2022, a cohort raised concerns that traditional qualitative methods felt extractive and worked with the evaluation director to co-design a photo-documentation approach as an alternative—a practice that drew on photovoice methodology and subsequently became central to the program’s reflective and participatory architecture.

The 2022 cohort also marked the program’s most significant inflection point around equity. Participant observation surfaced tensions that led a group of BIPOC women fellows to request a meeting with the evaluation director—an act of agency that became a turning point. What the meeting surfaced was not a single incident but a recognized pattern: Vermont’s predominantly white agricultural landscape, the relative homogeneity of extension as a professional field, and the program’s own early limitations in centering equity created conditions in which BIPOC fellows experienced vulnerability and isolation that white fellows did not. The facilitation team responded by treating equity as a sustained pedagogical commitment requiring ongoing attention to how the learning environment itself was structured, including a partnership with UVM’s Center for Cultural Pluralism that brought identity and intersectionality workshops to fellows and cross-cultural competency frameworks to mentors.

Across cohorts, the cohort learning community emerged as the program’s most consistently enabling structure for equity work. Fellows described the peer group as a primary source of support for navigating predominantly white agricultural spaces, the emotional labor of bringing critical food systems perspectives into extension contexts, and the vulnerability of being among few people of color in many field settings. The community did not eliminate these challenges but created conditions in which they could be named and processed collectively. Its most vivid illustration came in response to Vermont’s catastrophic flooding in July 2023, when fellows participated in emergency response efforts including pre-flood harvesting and flood relief at partner farms. A guest speaker described their contribution as immense, embodying the spirit of service learning; fellows’ own reflections spoke of gaining hope and witnessing how people become resilient and come together—expressions, the authors argue, of an emerging agroecological identity formed through collective action in response to community need.

The study’s central findings cohere around three interconnected pedagogical dynamics. First, transformative education at the intersection of agroecology and extension requires explicit engagement with the political dimensions of agroecology and the critical history of extension as an institution—a history, scholars document, that was designed with and for white dominant culture and built on land-grant institutions whose founding rested on the transfer and violent seizure of Indigenous land. Students oriented toward food system transformation encountered extension without the historical and political grounding necessary to make sense of it critically; the authors argue that teaching this history explicitly is itself a critical pedagogical act. Second, equity cannot be treated as a discrete curricular element but must function as a sustained commitment woven into every dimension of program design, from mentor preparation to learning space structure—moving beyond safe space toward brave space across the entire learning community. Third, participatory knowledge co-creation with students requires deliberate structures: photo documentation evolved from a student-selected evaluation tool toward photovoice as an explicit qualitative participatory action research method, and by 2025 the cohort collaboratively developed a shared inquiry question—how do we find purpose and strengthen community through the land and research—presented publicly at a gallery walk.

The authors acknowledge limitations: this is a single case study whose insights are offered as transferable lessons rather than generalizable findings; the evaluation was conducted by the facilitation team itself, mitigated through triangulation across sources; cohorts were small and predominantly white and female-identifying; and arts-based methods came together only in the final year, precluding cross-cohort comparison. Yet the five-year experience demonstrates that bridging agroecology and extension requires more than curricular alignment—it demands explicit pedagogical commitment to political agroecology, relational infrastructure for equity work, and deliberate structures for co-learning. For land-grant universities seeking to develop sustainable programs that prepare graduates to address complex agricultural and food systems challenges, the AX Fellowship offers a rare, detailed roadmap of what transformative integration actually looks like in practice—and a reminder that workforce development and transformative education are complementary imperatives, provided technical skills are situated within the broader formation of becoming an agroecologist.

Subject of Research: Creating common ground: integrating transformative agroecology and extension research in undergraduate education

Article Title: Creating common ground: integrating transformative agroecology and extension research in undergraduate education

Article References: Nordstrom, K. L., Izzo, V., Hoyler, E., & Méndez, V. E. (2026). Creating common ground: integrating transformative agroecology and extension research in undergraduate education. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 10, Article 1882768. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1882768

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2026.1882768

Keywords: Creating, common, ground, integrating, transformative, agroecology, extension, research, undergraduate, education, scientific research

The discovery matters far beyond a simple country tick. Odorrana nagao belongs to the O. lipuensis species group, a phylogenetically distinct lineage of frogs whose members are intimately tied to limestone landscapes — karst streams, cave mouths and subterranean aquatic habitats. All six species currently recognised in the group have been described since 2015, a rate of discovery that suggests scientists are only now beginning to catalogue the diversity sheltered within the fragmented, rugged and often dangerously inaccessible karst blocks of southern China and northern Vietnam. With the new record, the number of Odorrana species known from China rises from 47 to 48, and Yunnan — the province with the highest documented amphibian richness in the country — now harbours 17 species of the genus.

The genus Odorrana, the Asian cascade frogs, sprawls across an enormous range: from north-eastern India and southern mainland China, through mainland Southeast Asia, to the Malay Peninsula and the Greater Sunda Islands, and eastwards to Hainan, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Archipelago. Most species live along forested streams, but several have evolved a striking affinity for limestone. That affinity is no accident of geography. Karst systems are environmentally heterogeneous and fragmented, scattered across the landscape like islands, which restricts dispersal and promotes local differentiation of populations. Add the sheer difficulty of surveying many limestone areas, and it becomes clear why the amphibian diversity of these terrains remains incompletely documented.

The trail to the new record began in May 2026, during fieldwork in Laoshan Provincial Nature Reserve in Malipo County, Yunnan, at an elevation of 1,030 metres above sea level. Three adult female Odorrana, referable to the O. lipuensis species group on external appearance, were collected after complete darkness on limestone rocks near the entrance of a cave — a microhabitat closely matching that reported at the species’ type locality in Vietnam. The specimens were euthanised with tricaine methanesulphonate, fixed in buffered formalin and preserved in 75% ethanol in the herpetological collection of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, with thigh-muscle tissue retained in 95% ethanol for molecular work.

In the laboratory, the team amplified partial fragments of two mitochondrial markers — the 16S ribosomal RNA gene and the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene, COI — following established primers and protocols. The final concatenated alignment spanned 1,630 base pairs, comprising 1,036 base pairs of 16S and 594 of COI, and included 23 ingroup samples of Odorrana plus two samples of the related genus Nidirana as outgroups. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred under both Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference, with substitution models selected separately for 16S and the three COI codon positions using the Bayesian information criterion. Nodal support was assessed with 1,000 SH-like approximate likelihood-ratio test replicates and 1,000 ultrafast bootstrap replicates, alongside Bayesian posterior probabilities from two independent MrBayes runs of 100 million generations each.

The results were unambiguous. The six sampled species of the O. lipuensis species group formed a well-supported lineage distinct from other Odorrana, with combined support values of 1.00 for Bayesian posterior probability, 99.4 for SH-aLRT and 100 for ultrafast bootstrap. Within that lineage, the three Yunnan specimens clustered with two specimens from the type series of O. nagao from Tuyen Quang Province in a strongly supported clade (1.00/98.3/99). Genetic distances sealed the case: the Kimura two-parameter distance between the Chinese frogs and the Vietnamese type series was just 0.38% for 16S and 1.73–1.90% for COI, whereas the distance to O. feii, the genetically closest sampled congener, was 2.11% for 16S and 6.25% for COI. The three Chinese specimens showed almost no divergence among themselves — 0 to 0.19% for 16S, with identical COI sequences.

Morphology agreed with the molecules. The three females are of moderate size, with snout–vent lengths of 56.6, 57.0 and 59.5 millimetres. Their heads are longer than wide, their tympana distinct, round and roughly two-thirds of the eye diameter, and their snouts obtusely rounded in dorsal view, projecting beyond the lower jaw. Their fingers bear the group’s signature features — the discs of Fingers III and IV prominently enlarged and transversely oval, with the disc of Finger IV the widest, and the tip of Finger I lacking a lateroventral groove. Their toe webbing follows the diagnostic formula I0–1II0–1III0–1⅓IV1⅓–¼V, and the tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the tip of the snout when the hind-limb is adpressed along the body. In life, the dorsum is moss-green to olive-green with irregular dark-brown blotches, the flanks brownish-green with darker mottling, the upper lip mottled brown and cream, the iris golden brown and the ventral surfaces creamy-white. No diagnostically relevant differences separate them from the type series.

The Chinese specimens do, however, push the species’ known physical limits. They are larger than the females of the Vietnamese type series, which measured 47.1–54.7 millimetres in snout–vent length, extending the known female range of the species to 47.1–59.5 millimetres. The record also raises the documented upper elevational limit by 257 metres, from 773 metres at the type locality to 1,030 metres in Yunnan. Mature ovarian oocytes were present in all three females collected in May, hinting at reproductive activity during this period, though the species’ breeding season, reproductive microhabitat and larval ecology remain unknown. Minor variation was noted in the ratio of internarial to interorbital distance, which is slightly greater than one in the Chinese specimens but was reported as 0.94 in the male holotype — a difference the authors attribute to intraspecific variation.

Biogeographically, the record is entirely plausible. Malipo County and the type locality in Cham Chu Nature Reserve lie within the same transboundary limestone belt, unseparated by any obvious major ecological or geographical barrier. The country record is new, but the presence of the species in southern China is not unexpected and probably reflects incomplete survey coverage in the border region rather than a genuine distributional gap. Extensive limestone formations and potentially suitable karst forests occur between and around the two known localities, and additional populations may well occur in Tuyen Quang and Cao Bang Provinces of northern Vietnam, in Wenshan Prefecture of south-eastern Yunnan, and in other karst landscapes along the international border. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that the herpetofaunas on either side of the China–Vietnam border are closely connected, with recent studies repeatedly revealing comparable transboundary distributions and previously unrecognised diversity.

Conservation questions remain wide open. Odorrana nagao is currently known from only two confirmed localities, both within protected areas — an encouraging circumstance, but one that does not by itself demonstrate stable populations or the absence of threats. Nothing is yet known about population size, trends, reproductive success or connectivity between the two populations, and the species’ extent of occurrence and area of occupancy cannot be estimated reliably. Potential threats to limestone ecosystems, including quarrying, forest degradation, tourism development and hydrological alteration, have not been evaluated across its possible range. The team provisionally recommends assessing the species as Data Deficient under the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, and calls for targeted surveys across the limestone landscapes between and surrounding the two confirmed localities. Notably, while the present manuscript was under peer review, a second team independently published the first record of O. nagao from China, based on a single female collected in Tianbao Town, Malipo County, in 2021 — a study the authors acknowledge as preceding their account, with the two works complementing one another and jointly strengthening the evidence for the species’ occurrence in south-eastern Yunnan. Coordinated cross-border surveys integrating voucher specimens, morphology, molecular data and acoustic observations, the authors argue, will be essential for refining the distribution of O. nagao — and may yet reveal overlooked populations or undescribed diversity within this enigmatic limestone lineage.

Subject of Research: Taxonomy and Biodiversity

Article Title: Range extension of Odorrana nagao ( Anura , Ranidae ) to south-western China, with comments on the limestone-associated Odorrana lipuensis species group

Article References: Song, H.-M., Zhou, D.-Y., Qi, S., Lu, M.-X., Poyarkov, N., Nguyen, T., & Wang, Y.-Y. (2026). Range extension of Odorrana nagao (Anura, Ranidae) to south-western China, with comments on the limestone-associated Odorrana lipuensis species group. Biodiversity Data Journal, 14, Article e213369. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.14.e213369

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.14.e213369

Keywords: Range, extension, Odorrana, nagao, Anura, Ranidae, south-western, China, comments, limestone-associated, lipuensis, species

Peiretti joined the UT Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science on September 1, bringing with him more than a decade of hands-on experience in precision agriculture, agricultural engineering and international outreach. His appointment places him at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Jackson, a strategic location in the heart of the state’s row crop country, from which he will serve producers statewide. His Extension program will evaluate the cost-effectiveness and large-scale application of technologies spanning precision planting, nutrient management, and pest and plant disease control, among other areas of crop production.

The challenge Peiretti is arriving to address is one that resonates far beyond Tennessee. Farmers today are surrounded by claims about what precision technology can do: planters that adjust seeding rates on the fly, sensors that detect crop stress before the human eye can see it, and software platforms that promise to turn field variability into profit. Very little of that information, however, comes from independent trials conducted under local conditions. Peiretti has been explicit about the gap he intends to fill. According to the university’s announcement, he notes that growers are surrounded by claims about what precision technology can do, but very little of that information comes from Tennessee fields. His stated goal is to generate independent, local data so producers can decide which technologies actually pay off in their own operations, as well as get more out of the equipment they already own.

That second part of his mission, helping farmers extract more value from machinery they have already purchased, is often overlooked in discussions of agricultural innovation. Precision agriculture equipment represents a substantial capital investment, and its full capabilities are frequently underused in practice. An Extension specialist whose job is to bridge that gap between what a machine can do and what a farmer actually needs it to do occupies a distinctive position in the land-grant university system, where the Extension service exists precisely to translate research into practical guidance for the people who grow the state’s food and fiber.

Peiretti’s own trajectory gives him an unusually international perspective on the field. Before joining UTIA, he spent more than 11 years as a research scientist at Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology, known as INTA, the country’s national agricultural research agency. Based at the experiment station in Salta, in northwestern Argentina, he specialized in precision crop and livestock farming systems, work that exposed him to production environments and technological constraints quite different from those of the American Midwest or the Mississippi Delta region that shapes much of Tennessee agriculture.

In 2021, Peiretti began doctoral studies at Kansas State University, one of the leading institutions in the United States for biological and agricultural engineering. His doctoral research evaluated precision planters and involved designing sensor-based data collection systems for corn and soybean production, two crops whose planting operations are among the most technologically intensive steps in modern row crop farming. Precision planters, which control seed spacing, depth and population with remarkable accuracy, are a natural focal point for cost-benefit analysis, since they sit at the intersection of machinery investment, seed cost and yield response.

He completed his PhD in biological and agricultural engineering in 2025, and along the way earned graduate certificates in geographic information systems and applied statistics. Those credentials matter for the kind of work he is now undertaking. Geographic information systems allow researchers to map and analyze spatial variability across fields, which is the foundation of any site-specific management recommendation. Applied statistics provides the tools to determine whether an observed yield difference or input saving is a real effect of a technology or simply noise from weather, soil variation or chance. In a field where marketing claims often outpace the evidence, that statistical rigor is what separates an Extension program from a product demonstration.

Leadership at UTIA has framed the appointment as a significant addition to the institute’s capacity. Justin Rhinehart, dean of UT Extension, says Peiretti brings a unique skill set to the organization. As a member of the UTIA faculty, Rhinehart says, Dr. Peiretti will lead a statewide precision agriculture program focused on evaluating the latest row crop technologies by working directly with producers to ensure innovations are practical, effective and responsive to the needs of Tennessee’s diverse row crop industry. That emphasis on working directly with producers reflects the core philosophy of Extension work: technology is only valuable if it fits the realities of the farms expected to adopt it.

Shawn Hawkins, head of the UT Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, has highlighted the collaborative dimension of the new role. According to Hawkins, Dr. Peiretti will collaborate with some of the university’s top experts in agronomy, soil science, weed science, plant pathology and entomology, and his contributions will expand the capabilities of the department while furthering the mission of UTIA statewide and beyond. That interdisciplinary structure is essential to evaluating precision technologies in a meaningful way. A variable-rate nitrogen recommendation, for example, cannot be judged by machinery performance alone; it must be assessed against soil science and crop physiology. Similarly, sensor-based disease detection depends on plant pathology expertise to interpret what the sensors are actually seeing.

For Tennessee’s row crop producers, the practical significance of the appointment lies in the promise of locally grounded answers. The state’s row crop industry includes corn, soybean, cotton and wheat production across diverse soils and growing conditions, and a technology that delivers a clear return in one region may fail in another. By conducting evaluations under Tennessee conditions and publishing the results through Extension channels, Peiretti’s program aims to give growers the independent evidence they need to make confident purchasing and management decisions. The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, which comprises the Herbert College of Agriculture, the UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension, carries out this translation of research into practice as part of its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach. More information about the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science is available at bess.tennessee.edu, and the latest UTIA row crop research can be found at utcrops.com. As precision agriculture continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the arrival of a specialist dedicated to testing what works, and what merely promises to work, offers Tennessee farmers something increasingly rare in the technology marketplace: answers rooted in their own fields.

Subject of Research: Appointment of a precision agriculture Extension specialist for row crop production in Tennessee

Article Title: UTIA appoints new precision agriculture Extension specialist for row crops

Article References: UTIA appoints new precision agriculture Extension specialist for row crops. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: precision agriculture, row crops, Extension, University of Tennessee, José Peiretti, Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, Kansas State University, INTA, agricultural technology, cost-effectiveness, Tennessee growers

The tool in question is the FUNC score, short for the Functional Outcome in Patients with Primary Intracerebral Hemorrhage score, developed by neurologists at Massachusetts General Hospital and first published in the journal Stroke in 2008. The score distills a handful of variables available at hospital admission — the volume and location of the bleed on initial imaging, the patient’s age, the Glasgow Coma Scale score on arrival, and whether the patient was already taking an anticoagulant medication such as warfarin — into a single number ranging from zero to eleven. In its original validation, the score predicted whether patients would achieve functional independence, defined as a Glasgow Outcome Scale score of four or higher, ninety days after the hemorrhage. That three-month window, however, has increasingly been recognized as an arbitrary snapshot of what is often a much longer recovery.

Recovery after brain injury is not a fixed event but a moving target. Emerging evidence, including a growing body of work on recovery trajectories after intracerebral hemorrhage, shows that many patients continue to improve between three and twelve months after the bleed. In some cohorts, a meaningful proportion of survivors who were dependent at three months walk, feed themselves, and manage their own affairs a year later. If clinicians base early prognostic conversations only on tools validated at three months, they risk anchoring families to an overly pessimistic view — or, conversely, they may lack the statistical justification to make confident statements about long-term independence at all. Recognizing this gap, a team led by Joel Neves Briard, a postdoctoral researcher in Columbia’s Department of Neurology, and senior author Jan Claassen, professor of neurology and critical care specialist, set out to ask whether the FUNC score could be stretched, without distortion, to a twelve-month horizon.

The team conducted a single-center prospective cohort study, enrolling adult patients admitted with primary intracerebral hemorrhage between February 2009 and January 2018. Prospective enrollment matters in this kind of research: rather than reconstructing cases from medical records after the fact, investigators collected structured data on patients as they arrived and followed them forward, reducing the bias and missingness that plague retrospective analyses. All patients included in the analysis had a primary hemorrhage — meaning the bleed was not secondary to trauma, aneurysm rupture, or vascular malformation — and each patient’s FUNC score was calculated at admission using the same variables that have anchored the score since its debut. Twelve months later, surviving patients’ functional status was assessed using the Glasgow Outcome Scale, a five-point measure that ranges from death to good recovery and that classifies patients scoring four or five as broadly independent.

The cohort ultimately comprised 535 patients, a substantial sample for this disease. The patients were, on average, seriously ill: their median age was 68 years, 44 percent were women, and the median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score at presentation was 16, a level indicating moderate to severe neurological impairment. Median FUNC score in the cohort was 8 on the eleven-point scale. Among the 445 patients with a known Glasgow Outcome Scale assessment at twelve months, 99 — roughly 22 percent — had achieved functional independence. That figure alone carries a message for families: even in a cohort skewing severely ill, more than one in five patients was living independently a year after a brain bleed, a reminder that early appearances can mislead.

The statistical heart of the study lay in testing whether the FUNC score’s predictions still held at one year. The researchers used logistic regression to calculate the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, or AUC, the standard gauge of a prediction model’s ability to separate those who will experience an outcome from those who will not. An AUC of 0.5 indicates performance no better than a coin flip, while 1.0 represents perfect discrimination. For twelve-month functional independence, the FUNC score achieved an AUC of 0.79, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 0.75 to 0.84 — a level of discrimination broadly comparable to the score’s originally validated three-month performance. In practical terms, the score’s simple admission-time arithmetic remained nearly as informative about the one-year future as about the three-month one.

Discrimination, however, is only half the story. A model can rank patients correctly yet still misjudge how likely the outcome actually is, which is why the researchers also evaluated calibration — the agreement between predicted probabilities and observed frequencies — using a calibration plot, alongside the Brier score, a composite measure of both discrimination and calibration that penalizes confident wrong answers. The calibration plot showed reasonable agreement between predicted and observed outcomes across the probability range, with modest evidence that the score slightly overestimated the likelihood of independence at the low end of predicted probabilities. The Brier score came in at 0.15, a respectable figure for a binary clinical outcome. To address the patients lost to follow-up, the team handled missing twelve-month outcomes using multiple imputation by chained equations, a modern statistical technique that fills gaps by modeling each incomplete variable conditional on all others, preserving uncertainty rather than pretending missing data do not exist.

Finally, the investigators asked a question that has become central to the modern evaluation of clinical prediction tools: does the score actually help make decisions? Using decision curve analysis, a method developed by Vickers and Elkin that quantifies the net clinical benefit of acting on a model’s predictions across a range of risk thresholds, the team found that the FUNC score delivered measurable net benefit across threshold probabilities from 5 to 50 percent. In other words, within the range of probabilities most relevant to real clinical conversations, basing decisions on the score beat both the strategy of assuming every patient will be independent and the strategy of assuming none will be — the two extremes any prognostic tool must outperform to be worth the bedside clinician’s attention.

The implications reach beyond the family meeting. The authors point to two principal applications. The first is counseling: armed with a validated twelve-month prediction, clinicians can offer families a more honest account of long-term prospects, tempering the nihilism that has historically shadowed intracerebral hemorrhage care. This matters because premature withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy, driven in part by excessively pessimistic early prognostication, remains a documented concern in hemorrhagic stroke, and formal guidelines for neuroprognostication in critically ill adults with intracerebral hemorrhage explicitly caution against self-fulfilling prophecies. The second application is methodological. The FUNC score can support sliding dichotomy, a trial-design strategy in which the outcome threshold for success is adjusted to each patient’s predicted baseline risk — an approach pioneered in traumatic brain injury research that increases statistical power by recognizing that a modest recovery for the sickest patients may be as meaningful as a full recovery for the mildest ones.

The researchers are careful about limits. This was a single-center study at a major academic medical center, and prediction models notoriously lose calibration when transplanted to different populations and care environments; external validation across centers is needed before the twelve-month FUNC score becomes standard practice. The field’s own reporting standards, codified in the TRIPOD+AI statement for clinical prediction models, demand exactly this kind of transparency about performance, calibration, and intended use. Still, the study’s message is striking in its simplicity. A tool invented nearly two decades ago, computed from five variables a clinician can gather before the patient has even reached the intensive care unit, appears to hold its predictive power across the full year in which the brain does its slow, stubborn work of healing. For the families sitting in hospital corridors, that is not just a statistical achievement — it is a reason to keep asking the question, and to keep hoping the answer changes.

Subject of Research: Prediction of 12-month functional independence after primary intracerebral hemorrhage using the FUNC score

Article Title: Extension of the FUNC Score for Prediction of 12-Month Functional Independence after Primary Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Article References: Neves Briard, J., Kansara, V., Shen, Q., Song, Y. L., Cami, A. B., Velazquez, A. G., Esposito, J. M., Klein, A. J., Ghoshal, S., Agarwal, S., Park, S., Connolly, E. S., Roh, D., & Claassen, J. (2026). Extension of the FUNC Score for Prediction of 12-Month Functional Independence after Primary Intracerebral Hemorrhage. Neurocritical Care. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-026-02661-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s12028-026-02661-6

Keywords: intracerebral hemorrhage, stroke, FUNC score, prognostication, functional outcome, Glasgow Outcome Scale, neurocritical care, prediction model, recovery, brain bleed, Extension, FUNC

Behind the program are Phillip Myer and Jennie Ivey, both professors in the UT Department of Animal Science, who have secured a $750,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to fund the project over five years. Their central premise is that scientific training alone is insufficient. Students must also learn how knowledge moves out of the laboratory and into the field, where it influences livestock management, animal welfare and the economic viability of farms. By deliberately fusing these domains within a single fellowship, the program aims to produce graduates who can generate, translate and communicate science with equal confidence.

Recruitment will be national in scope, drawing applicants from animal science, agricultural and related life science programs across the country. Once selected, fellows will embark on a year-long sequence combining virtual and in-person experiences, each anchored in one of six focus areas: animal nutrition; livestock production, robotics and automation; livestock gene editing and genomics; animal disease, immunology and parasitism; animal welfare; or animal reproduction. These tracks reflect the scientific frontiers where animal agriculture is changing fastest, from precision feeding strategies to genome editing tools that promise healthier, more productive herds.

One of the program’s most distinctive features is its integrated mentoring model. Rather than pairing each student with a single advisor, F.U.S.E. assigns every fellow a team that includes research faculty, Extension faculty, a graduate student mentor and a county Extension agent. This structure exposes students to the full arc of agricultural science: the design of experiments, the interpretation of data and the practical challenge of delivering findings to producers, industry representatives and other stakeholders who will ultimately apply them. Mentors from different professional backgrounds will model the collaboration that modern agricultural problem-solving increasingly requires.

Myer emphasizes the broader stakes of the effort. By strengthening the pipeline of well-trained animal science professionals, he notes, the program will support not only agriculture itself but also the local communities, economies and food systems that depend on a skilled and innovative workforce. Ivey adds that the project will train undergraduates through mentored research, farm-based experiences and Extension activities that translate science into practical solutions for producers and stakeholders. Together, their vision positions the fellowship as an investment in rural resilience as much as in individual careers.

The technical training embedded in the fellowship is deliberately comprehensive. Fellows will receive hands-on instruction in experimental design, data collection and analysis, animal management, scientific writing and science communication. They will also work alongside Extension professionals during farm visits, production-site experiences and outreach programming, and will contribute to the development of Extension materials used with real audiences. The experience culminates in an intensive summer research and Extension residency in which students finalize their projects, sharpen their communication skills and engage directly with animal agriculture professionals, ensuring that no fellow completes the program without having presented and defended their work in professional settings.

Networking opportunities form another pillar of the program. Fellows will prepare scientific abstracts and presentations and will have opportunities to present their research at the American Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting, one of the field’s most important gatherings, as well as at a dedicated F.U.S.E. Animal Science Conference hosted by UTIA. These venues will connect students with scientists, Extension specialists, industry representatives and other leaders across animal agriculture, giving early-career undergraduates access to professional networks that typically take years to build. Recruitment for the first cohort is expected to begin in January 2027, with the inaugural fellows starting their experience later that year.

The F.U.S.E. award is part of a considerably larger federal commitment: an $8.8 million investment by USDA-NIFA in Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates, or REEU. That national program funds experiential learning opportunities that help undergraduates develop the technical, professional and leadership skills needed for careers in food and agriculture or for continued study in graduate and professional programs. F.U.S.E. Animal Science advances these goals by intentionally integrating research and Extension training within a single year-long fellowship, a design its creators argue is rarer than it should be in undergraduate agricultural education.

The program’s leaders bring complementary expertise to the effort. Myer’s research focuses on gut microbiology in beef cattle, with particular emphasis on the rumen microbiome and its significance for feed efficiency and nutritional physiology. He helped create rumenmicrobes.utk.edu, a public resource explaining the science of microorganisms and animal nutrition, and earned his B.S. in biology from Bradley University in 2008 and his Ph.D. in microbiology from Purdue University in 2013. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the USDA-ARS U.S. Meat Animal Research Center from 2013 to 2015, studying gut microbiome impacts on nutrition and feed efficiency in finishing beef steers, and currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the UT Department of Animal Science.

Ivey completed a B.S. in equine science at Rutgers University in 2009 before earning her M.S. and Ph.D. at West Virginia University, where she studied equine nutrition and exercise physiology. Her research and Extension interests center on nutritional, exercise and management interventions that improve equine well-being, along with the influence of owner knowledge on equine management. She serves on the Equine Health Advisory Commission for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Equine Affiliated Academics. Together with the broader University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, which comprises the Herbert College of Agriculture, the UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension, the two professors hope F.U.S.E. will become a national model for how land-grant institutions prepare students to carry agricultural science from the bench to the barn and beyond.

Subject of Research: An undergraduate fellowship integrating animal science research and Extension training at the University of Tennessee

Article Title: UTIA launches fellowship to prepare future animal science professionals

Article References: UTIA launches fellowship to prepare future animal science professionals. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: animal science, undergraduate fellowship, USDA NIFA, Extension, University of Tennessee, research training, livestock, REEU, science communication, agricultural workforce, mentoring, professional development