Five York-Adams League boys’ basketball players have received all-state honors from a panel of Pennsylvania sports writers All five boys’ selections helped lead their teams to the District 3 playoffs with four players competing in district title games Natal and Rill led Central York to the first district championship in program history while Dallas helped York Catholic stun eventual state champion Linville Hill Christian for a title of its own Wamsley and Eastern York won district silver after claiming gold in 2024 while Holmes was a breakout star for an overhauled New Oxford roster Natal and Rill averaged 19.5 and 19.4 points per game for a Central York team that finished 28-3 Natal became the Panthers’ all-time leading scorer in early February and Rill — who rejoined the program after spending his freshman year at a prep school — finished the season second on the program’s career points list Both players overtook former teammate Greg Guidinger who was a 6A first-team selection last spring Central York went 28-3 in the final go-round for Natal and Rill completing a York-Adams League tournament three-peat before making team history in the district playoffs The Panthers unraveled in the second round of the PIAA draw against a Roman Catholic team loaded with Division I talent but Jeff Hoke’s squad still finished a historic two-year run with a 57-6 overall record Holmes averaged 21.3 points per game for a New Oxford team that lost nine of its top 11 from a season ago The junior surpassed 20 points in 15 of the Colonials’ 24 games including seven straight times early in the season and went over 30 points on three occasions New Oxford finished 12-10 in the regular season — with six losses coming against YAIAA D-II co-champions West York Eastern York and York Suburban — before dropping both of its District 3-5A playoff tilts to finish .500 Wamsley was named D-II Player of the Year and finished the season averaging 19.9 points per game with a bevy of double-doubles mixed in who were loaded with seniors but had just one other double-digit scorer They won two thrillers in the District 3-4A playoffs before falling to Berks Catholic in the final then closed their season in the second round of states against Devon Prep (which beat Berks Catholic for the state title) The 6-foot-6 Wamsley was previously a third-team selection in 2024 when he helped Eastern York win the district title and reach the state quarterfinals Dallas’ 18.1 points per game were a full 10 more than any of his York Catholic teammates and while the Fighting Irish (20-7) leaned on their depth to capture division and district titles the senior was a consistent threat each night Dallas made 52 3-pointers and sank 78.8% of his free throws He led York Catholic with 15 points and hit a clutch triple in the District 3-2A championship upset of Linville Hill The sharpshooter was named to the Class 3A third team last year after averaging 23 points for a much younger Irish squad Rill and Wamsley will play Division II college basketball at Shippensburg and Gannon while Dallas will join Hood in the D-III ranks Natal plans to spend a postgraduate season at The Hill School in Pottstown; he has received significant D-I interest as part of the 2026 class Holmes will be a headlining member of New Oxford’s football Fourteen District 3 players earned all-state recognition in total with Linville Hill’s Stephen Smucker winning 2A Player of the Year Other first-teamers included Hershey’s Cameron Sweeney (5A) Trinity’s Owen Schlager (3A) and Linville Hill’s Giovanni Sejuste (2A) Hershey’s Paul Blackburn and Linville Hill’s Mike Schatzmann were named 5A and 2A Coach of the Year Musk has become one of the most visible beacons of anxiety about falling birth rates In recent years, a revitalized pronatalist movement has brought together parts of the religious right, tech types and dedicated "new right" anti-feminists. These camps have some disagreements over government policy, technologies like in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering and the rehabilitation of eugenics But most are united in the belief that modern culture has failed to adequately prioritize the value of nuclear families and making lots of babies many proponents of pronatalism met up at the second Natal Conference Many there see this moment as a chance to advance their agenda through perceived allies in the Trump administration Simone Collins has purposefully made herself into one of the more visible faces of pronatalism Etsy getup right now — it's intentionally cringe," Collins told NPR between other press interviews at Natal Con She describes her signature look as "techno-puritan." "There should obviously be more cybernetics in my outfit chunky hipster glasses and a lot of modern equipment with a bonnet and linen clothing and weird puritan stuff," said Collins Techno-puritan isn't just a fashion choice for the Collinses. It's a religion they've invented in part to maximize fertility, mental health and social good. Malcolm once slapped their 2-year-old son in front of a reporter likening it to the behavior of tigers in the wild "We constantly court controversy in order to get our message out because we know that's what gets clicks," Simone told NPR "The number one goal we have is to make everyone universally aware of demographic collapse as a catastrophic issue," she said "Our big focus is primarily on just signaling that this is a culture that values family and kids and taking a regulatory foot off the neck of parents." The couple's network also includes right-wing tech elites and Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Simone worked for PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and Malcolm's brother works for Musk's ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team Another pronatalist camp includes the more religiously motivated and believers in strict gender norms they're referred to as the "trads," as in "traditional." The first Natal Con, in 2023, included a presentation by far-right businessman Charles Haywood on the importance of men-only spaces. Haywood, who founded a shampoo company and aspires to be a self-described "warlord," told the audience that workplaces should revert to privileging men with families and being segregated by sex They should be socially stigmatized if they have careers," Haywood said at Natal Con that year He sponsored this year's conference but didn't speak He blames birth rate declines on feminism and democratic changes overturning what he sees as natural hierarchies of gender and race "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its progeny are probably the single most destructive set of laws in American history, and all should be wiped forever from the history of this nation," Haywood said in 2023 an entrepreneurial woman with a master's degree from the University of Cambridge told NPR she thinks Haywood's stances are "so dumb." But in addition to their commitment to spaces like Natal Con the two share a contempt for contemporary culture In interviews, the Collinses frame their arguments as concerns about preserving diversity or LGBTQ+ communities. If tolerant progressives don't reproduce, they've argued authoritarian solutions will assert themselves Simone often refers to her upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area by hippie parents as a symbol of her former left-wing bona fides In an initial interview with NPR last year Malcolm referred to himself as a "major thinker on the left." On their podcast, however, the Collinses say reversing demographic collapse is not possible without addressing "wokeness" or "progressiveness," which Malcolm refers to as "the urban monoculture and its goal of cultural genocide." This "monoculture" survives only by creating popular culture or "by parasitizing children from nearby demographically healthy cultural groups." Many demographers frame the issue of birth rate declines differently than pronatalists do a University of North Carolina sociologist who runs the Carolina Population Center is actually a couple of decades late to a global declining fertility trend parts of Brazil and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa right around two kids per [woman]," said Guzzo succeeded in reducing teen and unintended births as was the case with Romania's total ban on contraception and abortion beginning in the 1960s there has been a lingering notion that wealthy women have fewer children than their poor and working-class counterparts But recent research shows that this tendency has actually started to reverse in many countries college-educated women were less likely to have kids than other groups Guzzo said surveys show roughly 80% of people want kids she has seen that "one of the biggest things people think about when they think about having kids is 'how does the future look?'" Respondents want stable housing education and a good partner and worry about larger forces like politics and climate change These worries lead people to make a series of decisions to delay having children Guzzo said this pattern continues because "we aren't giving people the societal supports to meet their visions of [being] a good parent." that support could look like more government funding for health care education and child care and addressing student loan debt and climate change see their biggest allies as those in the White House right now "The topic of demographic decline clearly matters to Elon Musk JD Vance and many others in the Trump administration which means that the great ideas developed here can get a hearing that would not have been possible last year," said Dolan in his welcome speech at this year's Natal Con Dolan left his data science job in 2021 after his anonymous Twitter and Substack accounts were exposed. Among other things, he'd used them to promote author Charles Murray who has advanced discredited arguments that social inequalities exist because of supposed genetic differences between races rather than historical disadvantages and structural racism After his identity was revealed, Dolan continued sharing his thoughts about how society should be ordered on his podcast he described love between men and women as a "relationship between superior and inferior." "We're expected to lie about the existence of these hierarchies all of the time And if our goal is to rehabilitate hierarchies of nature then the best place to start is the most fundamental natural hierarchies which are found in the family," he said "And that brings us back to where we started with selective breeding." Dolan was reviewing what he called "a fantastic book" by Costin Alamariu, an influential hard-right writer who has written: "I believe in Fascism or 'something worse.'" Figures on the right have noted that Alamariu who goes by the pseudonym Bronze Age Pervert "The idea is essentially that our society has become excessively effeminate, weak, compassionate," said Matthew McManus, a lecturer at the University of Michigan, "and what they want to do is breed or elevate an aristocratic class that's going to be masculine Elon Musk echoed the sentiment on Joe Rogan's podcast saying "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy." McManus is an expert on the modern, hard-right thinkers whose ideas Dolan promotes establishing a "masculine" culture means rooting out feminism and multicultural democracy "Women are to be subordinated to men [They] largely are going to be responsible for managing the household although with no real particular authority they're going to have an awful lot of children," said McManus On the opening night of this year's conference Natal Con attendees bound for the introductory dinner were greeted by a small group of student protesters from the adjoining University of Texas at Austin Off our campus!" they chanted into a megaphone as conference attendees entered the Bullock Texas State History Museum It was a perplexing experience for speaker Bryan Caplan a George Mason University economics professor and bestselling author "To go and start calling a whole crowd of people Nazis seemed a rather odd thing to do," he told NPR In addition to doubling the number of attendees to 200 since the inaugural conference in 2023, Dolan had succeeded in widening the range of speakers beyond the original lineup of hard-right influencers and promoters of scientific racism Caplan was among the increased number of credentialed professors who accepted invitations to speak this year and he told NPR that his goal is to find a solution to birth rate declines that works for everyone "I think it's a tragedy that [liberal] people are not raising children with their cultural obsessions and interests and skills and talents," Dolan said in an interview But he also invited pseudonymous writer Peachy Keenan where she said: "We don't really want to market natalism to the progressive feminists The people maxing out their fertility should be people who won't raise their children to be gender-neutral furries who want to join antifa one day." Keenan is one of multiple Natal Con speakers published by Passage Publishing which sells books arguing Black people are inherently more criminal and less intelligent than white people both spoke at and sponsored this year's Natal Con Speaking at the conference's welcome dinner this year Posobiec referenced detractors of the pronatalist movement and call them whatever you want — the woke the nihilists — they don't just want to rewrite our history Asked whether his curation of Natal Con speakers contradicts his professed nonpartisan goals Dolan told NPR that he'd love to include more speakers from across the political spectrum he said he thinks progressive people who are "frightened" by "dangerous" ideas "just may not be a fit for what we're trying to do right now." "I would say this needs to be a very high openness very intellectually curious environment," said Dolan "It's been my experience that if you are unwilling to include people who have been labeled [racists] that is functionally a choice to exclude an incredible percentage of people who are thoughtful and interesting and have something new to say." Not all the ideas that Natal Con speakers are interested in are new Around the early 1900s, another period of historically low birth rates, the eugenicist concept of "race suicide" was amplified by President Theodore Roosevelt middle-class women were too busy going to college or getting ahead professionally — they were not having babies," explained Alexandra Stern Los Angeles history and English professor who has written books on the American history of eugenics and the contemporary far right Race suicide included fears that some people, like the poor, or new waves of Italian, Polish and Jewish immigrants, had too many babies, which led to widespread programs of sterilizing supposedly "unfit" groups in the United States. These and other American policies, like anti-miscegenation laws went on to influence some of the "racial hygiene" programs of the Nazi party are largely aware of this history and often try to disassociate themselves from it "So by a very superficial gloss, [today's pronatalist movements] could appear to be, let's say, almost a libertarian approach to babymaking," she said. "But if you look at the underlying, driving ideologies, à la Charles Murray and others who have written about who should be having babies and who should not be having babies it often comes down to ideologies of genetic determinism and who is more fit or less fit." "The logic behind [targeting DEI] is that diversity and difference has been prized over excellence and human optimization and we have to get back to judging people by their merit and not try to pull everyone up to the same level because some people just naturally biologically or God-given are not going to be at that level," said Stern Birth rate declines have also been prominent tropes for white supremacist mass shooters including the shooter who killed 51 Muslim people and wounded 40 others at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019 In a document titled "The Great Replacement," the shooter wrote "If there is one thing I want you to remember from these writings its [sic] that the birthrates must change." The "great replacement" is a racist concept, promoted by at least one Natal Con speaker that populations in majority-white nations are deliberately being "replaced" by nonwhite immigrants Fears about the birth rates of white women are often a key component of the theory in extremist literature this is the path to what they term white extinction," said Michael Feola a political theorist at Lafayette College and the author of The Rage of Replacement: Far Right Politics and Demographic Fear Feola said it's also no surprise that proponents of scientific racism are helping fund events like Natal Con. There has been a deliberate investment by tech elites to rehabilitate these ideas "We're seeing a far more publicly sanitized set of big arguments being presented at the forefront and different sorts of speakers coming to the forefront as public faces of the movement," said Feola NPR asked Simone Collins to comment on whether her activism helps give cover for the more extreme elements of pronatalism Her response was that white nationalism is "obviously evil" and "dumb." But "They're just trying to point out that 'Oh Different genetic groups have different general traits,'" said Collins She and her husband also have traded multiple podcast appearances with a promoter of racial pseudoscience and promoted his book. Malcolm Collins later apologized for recommending the book, but the couple's episodes with the author remain up. Getty Images/Gallo Images ROOTS Collection KwaZulu-Natal Back to topAttractionsMust-see attractionsMoses Mabhida Stadium Durbanites are proud of their state-of-the-art stadium uShaka Marine World Divided into areas including Sea World and Wet’n’Wild uShaka Marine World boasts one of the largest aquariums in the world Campbell Collections a superb house designed by Sir Herbert Baker holds the documents and artefacts collected by Dr… Tatham Art Gallery In keeping with Pietermaritzburg’s self-styled role as a heritage city Nelson Mandela Capture Site Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was captured by apartheid police on the R103 outside of Howick This would mark the start of his 27 years of… Durban Botanic Gardens A 2000-sq-metre garden featuring one of the rarest cycads (Encephalartos woodii) Phansi Museum this museum features a private collection of Southern African tribal artefacts KwaZulu-Natal Museum This impressive museum has a range of well-curated displays reflecting a diversity of cultures View more attractionsPlan with a localExperience the real South Africa Get startedArticlesLatest stories from KwaZulu-NatalRead more articlesFilter by interest: Coasts & IslandsFood & Drink All Interests Adventure Travel Art & Culture Beaches Coasts & Islands Food & DrinkBeaches KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) shines like no other South African province – its 600km-long beach-lined coast is an unparalleled playground for… Get to the heart of KwaZulu-Natal with one of our in-depth Visit in ShopCape Town & the Garden Route $24.99 No part of this site may be reproduced without our written permission CNN’s Meena Duerson travels to Austin to join roughly 200 “pronatalists” for the second-ever Natal Conference an event devoted to discussing the world’s declining birth rates and potential solutions The issue is a hot topic among demographers '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" In 2007, Bruce Walker was five years into his first term as an HHMI Investigator and was growing increasingly involved in collaborative HIV research in Durban which had among the highest levels of HIV transmission in the world When an outbreak of treatment-resistant tuberculosis occurred in a community outside the city, Walker met with HHMI Investigator William R. Jacobs, Jr. who was studying tuberculosis in the country After recognizing the heightened risk of HIV and tuberculosis co-infection to this community and the relative lack of healthcare infrastructure in the region Walker and Jacobs made an unusual ask to the HHMI Board of Trustees: Would the Institute fund a facility that could revolutionize AIDS research and treatment in an area where tuberculosis and HIV still raged and where social stigma remained an enormous barrier to care HHMI initiated a 10-year funding commitment to create the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH) in partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal When the state-of-the-art research and treatment hub opened in 2012 5.7 million South Africans were infected with HIV Approximately 17 percent of adults were infected a rate that ran as high as 50 percent for women aged 25 Dennis McKearin joined HHMI as a Scientific Officer in 2008 After traveling back and forth to oversee its development McKearin moved to Durban full-time in 2013 where he became the facility’s acting director which isn’t typical for HHMI,” McKearin said “But the Board saw the need to put a very strong footprint of basic science in the midst of these epidemics which is to collect samples there locally and bring them back to Western labs for analysis we actually have the people in Durban there involved in solving these problems with the kind of equipment and resources they could have in a more highly developed setting.” during which K-RITH partnered with the Africa Centre for Population Health to become the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) an interdisciplinary institute to fight tuberculosis AHRI is also supported by the Wellcome Trust with academic partnership from University College London and the University of KwaZulu-Natal HHMI extended its financial commitment to the K-RITH project for an additional five years But McKearin says the investment paid off in big ways and small “We put those state-of-the-art resources in a place where there were co-epidemics so we could apply those resources to future pandemics and pathogens,” he explains the next pandemic that hit South Africa was COVID.” “Several scientists in the K-RITH building were the first to discover and describe the Omega SARS-CoV-2 variant which had considerable capacity to evade our immune responses," he says "Those K-RITH scientists and their colleagues made those discoveries because they had those resources onsite.”  He also says that the nature of HHMI’s K-RITH collaboration – a special project spearheaded by Walker and Jacobs – was a steppingstone to HHMI’s Emerging Pathogens Initiative Emerging Pathogens was directed at a particular scientific problem and we brought teams of people to bear on it," McKearin says he sees K-RITH as a lasting monument to HHMI’s commitment to capacity-building and developing others “You can see what people in resource-limited environments achieve and be impressed with the breakthroughs they make,” he says but it also underlines the importance of giving them more to work with we helped to build a scientific enterprise that could train a lot of African and South African scientists.”  HHMI-supported scientists have spent decades at the forefront of HIV and AIDS research I took a class at the University of Texas called anthropological genetics taught us how humans have constructed and deconstructed our various groups We learned that the racial categories of the United States Census have shifted several times We learned that humans have more genetic diversity within a defined racial group than between them And very critically, we learned about eugenics, the notion that certain “kinds” of people are better suited to reproduce. We learned how this was a guiding doctrine of Nazi science and the Jim Crow South, and was intertwined with similar dictums such as pronatalism — the idea that the “right kind” of people should reproduce as much as possible The class gathered three times a week in a sunny room in Painter Hall, a 15-minute walk from the AT&T Hotel & Conference Center — another university-owned venue where later this week a conference on natalism and eugenics will be held this week's Natal Conference seeks not to decry eugenics At first glance this may not seem so bad. Survival of the fittest, after all? But the key question to ask here is this: Who gets to decide who the fittest are? And on which criteria? Are people of a certain race inherently better Which combinations of nucleotides mark the best people Consider the speaking lineup for this conference Instead of demographers — scientists who study populations and how they change — the lineup features far-right gadflies and prominent proponents of eugenicist ideas and practices all with a stated aim to “improve” future generations not by investing in communities and the health and well-being of populations but by developing policies of genetic selection that elevate and encourage the reproduction of white But gadflies, by definition, exist to annoy. Arguing with them yields limited returns. And much to my dismay, UT has welcomed this event to our campus. While I urge university leadership in the strongest possible terms to disavow this embarrassing spectacle and protect our community from people who tweet cheerfully about the "butt rape" of Indigenous Americans What we can do is this: Learn how horrific this movement is Read about the nonconsensual sterilization of prisoners in California Read about the history of “Mississippi Appendectomies,” the nonconsensual hysterectomies performed on Black women in teaching hospitals across the South Learn about Carrie Buck, the young woman who became pregnant by rape and was sterilized by a pro-eugenics physician who treated his patients as if they were cats who needed spaying Discuss these examples and their lessons with your friends and family Do what you can with the emotional energy you have to counter this very ugly movement While eugenics has never gone away, those who support it are more comfortable and publicly accepted than they have been in decades. It is especially concerning that they find comfort on the campus of our state’s most celebrated public university, which has said it cannot discriminate against the viewpoints of anyone wishing to use the AT&T Conference Center The tacit approval of a race science conference at UT-Austin alongside the large-scale defunding and muzzling of American science by a far-right regime But no one can force us to forget our richly and beautifully diverse backgrounds as Americans Consider this quote from the late Stephen Jay Gould a paleontologist and one of the most celebrated and widely-read scholars in modern history: less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” Claire Zagorski is a graduate research assistant and PhD student in translational science at the University of Texas this weekend have set up matchmaking events for attendees that include the option of getting married onsite as part of their greater effort to repopulate the world who discusses falling birthrates and promotes eugenics Publicly available details about the Natal Conference are scant, with the vague online conference agenda promising closed-door sessions to address collapsing birth rates an email obtained by WIRED promoting a preconference mixer held Thursday night reveals matchmaking may play a significant role at the conference and in the pronatalist movement more widely “This is a special email to NatalCon attendees who indicated they were highly interested in finding the missing puzzle piece for singles “We were stunned to receive many emails saying right now!’ And we're here to serve you newlyweds that want to help their friends start families Attendees are instructed to register to learn the exact venue (though it is listed elsewhere on the website) and registration was listed as costing $10,000 for the full weekend—an increase from earlier this year when the cost was 90 percent cheaper (A Saturday-only ticket is $500.) Last year’s VIP package was $1,000 requiring them to submit their social media handles The website says prospective attendees aren’t charged unless they’re approved did not respond to messages from WIRED seeking comment Single registrants are directed to fill out a survey that asks their desired number of children (listing 1 to over 7 as options) and whether they would be open to a “Q&A with a NatalCon speaker to introduce yourself to the room.” He said his pronatalist events are a counter to the “perverse incentives in the dating app market.” Luke noted the conference had set up multiple sessions throughout the conference to strategize on the issue of matchmaking The email concludes by noting that there will be “some ministers attending if anyone decides to take the leap at the conference!” Luke also instructed attendees to “come up with great ideas” regarding matchmaking which will be passed on to him “for implementation.” Other conference guests include Indian Bronson the pseudonymous founder of AI dating app Keeper (he’s no longer affiliated with the company) and influencers Simone and Malcolm Collins who have four kids and say they plan to have up to 13 Even tech elites who have not explicitly associated themselves with the movement seem generally aligned with its aims: Sam Altman has invested in multiple fertility startups and said he would like to have a family with “six or eight” children The movement gained even more momentum during the 2024 election, when comments surfaced of then vice presidential candidate JD Vance calling Democrats "childless cat ladies” around the time of his Senate run in 2021; he also previously said people with children “should have more power” than “people who don’t have kids.” Dolan told the Jolly Heretic podcast his pronatalist events weed out “stupid people.” “Some of the debates that I hear about natalism [are] like we have too many stupid people.’ But in my opinion the only people who are going to respond to any of our natalism conferences are going to be on the higher end of the distribution,” he said University of Texas at Austin spokesperson Mike Rosen told WIRED the school rents out its spaces indiscriminately “The AT&T Hotel & Conference Center leases space to non-University groups for their events without regard to their viewpoint consistent with the First Amendment," Rosen said The venue also hosted an Ayn Rand conference in February. Updated: 3/31/2025, 11:30 AM EDT: This article has been updated to reflect that while pseudonymous writer Indian Bronson was a co-founder of the Keeper dating app, he is no longer affiliated with the company. You Might Also Like …In your inbox: Get Plaintext—Steven Levy's long view on tech Federal judge allows DOGE to take over $500 million office building for free Big Story: The quantum apocalypse is coming Bluesky can’t take a joke Summer Lab: Explore the future of tech with WIRED It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking There's a new king in town at Central York including two 3-pointers and a perfect 6-for-6 night from the free throw line Natal entered Monday's game needing 10 points to break the record He now sits at 1,636 points and will add to that as the Panthers YAIAA Bowling: It took three years, but Red Lion can finally celebrate season with bowling wins District 3 Winter Sports: When are the District 3 winter championships? Here is everything you need to know Natal has been one of the do-it-all players that's churned out production for the Panthers with stunning regularity He's one of two players − the other being Ben Rill − for Central York to be averaging at least 20 points per game this year He had never been held below 10 points in a game during his senior year He's scored at least 24 points in six of those games and he put down a season-high 30 points in the Panthers' win over Red Lion in December now 19-2 following the loss to State College concludes its regular season schedule at home against Northeastern on Tuesday night has finally acknowledged that it has failed to pay certain suppliers to the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) which provides food to thousands of underprivileged schools throughout the province The admission comes two weeks after the department categorically denied the service providers’ association’s initial allegations of wrongdoing Millions of underprivileged students would go hungry if they lost the only wholesome meal they receive at school Matiwane said at the time that the non-payment of service providers was endangering the programme stated in an internal memo that the Sunday World was able to obtain that only the March invoices were unpaid previously state that some suppliers had not received payment since November 2024 Although the department has tried its best to make sure that there is a payment run for the service providers at every chance Cele stated that the delay in making the payments was caused by the switch from Basic Accounting System (BAS) Version 5 to BAS Version 6 “Subsequent attempts to release the remaining payments on Friday were unsuccessful due to interface problems between the BAS and PERSAL [Personnel and Salary] systems leading to such payments being bombed out of the system,” Cele explains in the memo “After obtaining a second approval for a special run on Tuesday the payment processing continued once again “The department made another attempt at the payment run once again on Friday “These continuous attempts are demonstrable evidence that the department is doing all it can to pay service providers.” He added that the next payment run is set for May 5 citing that the department was getting ready for it “We are optimistic that all technical challenges will be addressed by then allowing recipients to receive their overdue payments by Thursday “It must be stated clearly that 78% of service providers have been paid up to date and only 22% have not yet been paid “The department has also sent the names of the service providers whose payments are delayed to districts with clear recommendations to mitigate non-feeding.” claimed that the memo validated their longstanding public assertion that the department is behind schedule in paying suppliers had not commented at the time of publishing Visit SW YouTube Channel for our video content Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Tel: +27 11 268 6300 Fundudzi Media (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms & conditions and privacy policy. President Donald Trump delivers Investing in America remarks from the White House. WATCHWeather AlertTORNADO WATCH for Milam County   Until 8 pm Wednesday. Conditions are favorable for severe storms, including tornadoes. FORECASTAustin protesters rally against Natal Unconference 2025by Adela Uchida AUSTIN, Texas — About a dozen protesters greeted attendees of the Natal conference at the Bullock Museum on Wednesday, the conference website says it is about promoting fertility but the protesters say it is more sinister than that They say it is about eugenics and far right politics and to their point it does feature right wing figures as speakers I did reach out to the organizer of the conference on X but have so far not gotten a response Eugenicists!” That came from about a dozen or so protesters who got loud in front of the Bullock Museum Friday protesting people seemingly arriving tot a reception for the 2025 Natal Un-Conference “has no political or ideological goal other than a world in which our children can have grandchildren.” But one protest organizer with Austin Students for a -Democratic Society – or SDS -- says the agenda is darker than that “We're here to oppose the fact that there's a pro eugenics pseudoscience organization with far-right leanings and far right Speaker lineups coming to our city coming to our campus to spread their ideology around eugenics and race science,” said Arshia Papadi ALSO| Texas House and Senate lawmakers have laid out their property tax cut proposals CBS Austin reached out to UT Austin to ask if there is a connection between the university and natal 2025 – and got this statement -- "The AT&T Hotel & Conference Center leases space to non-University groups for their events without regard to their viewpoint consistent with the First Amendment." But the protesters disagreed the AT&T Conference Center has all of its marketing all of its messaging on the fact that it is based on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin and it actually is physically on the land that the university owns they can't deny that they are allowing this to proceed on university grounds and with the university support,” said Papadi This is the Natal Un-Conference’s second event -- the website promises “deep and honest conversation” in a closed-door session – and strategies to counter what they call “birth rate collapse” it also says projects will launch here at the austin event Austin SDS told us that is exactly what they do not want to see happen and we need to push back against neo-Nazi ideologies like eugenics Tickets for the Natal Un-Conference at one thousand dollars and the website says they also require approval Metrics details The early microbiota of neonates is crucial for developing the postnatal immune system and establishing normal physiological This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing the diversity of the neonatal oral microbiome including mother-to-newborn microbial transmission The study includes a prospective cohort comprising 73 mothers and 87 neonates and a retrospective cohort comprising 991 mothers and 1,121 neonates Samples from the maternal cervix and neonatal gastric and oral cavities were analyzed using culture-based methods Neonatal oral swab samples were also analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing to characterize microbial diversity and composition Similar genera were detected in the neonatal gastric and the neonatal gastric culture was the most similar to the maternal cervical culture In addition to mother-to-newborn microbial transmission various natal factors including birth type maternal diabetes and the presence of microbes in other sites influenced neonatal oral microbiome diversity and preterm neonates exhibited decreased oral microbiome diversity with fewer beneficial bacteria and more pathogens These findings could serve as a baseline for research on the establishment of the oral microbiota in preterm neonates and its health implications maternal microbiota is vertically transmitted shaping the composition of the neonatal microbiota the establishment and development of the neonatal oral microbiota is influenced by various environmental factors such as feeding type and horizontal transmission from parents or caregivers few studies have explored the relationship between the gut These findings suggest the importance of oral microbiome diversity in newborn health research on factors influencing neonatal oral microbiome diversity remains limited we aimed to examine the patterns of microbial transmission from the maternal cervix to different body sites in newborns and oral sites and identify the factors influencing the diversity of the newborn oral microbiome through both prospective and retrospective cohort studies Microbial composition at the genus level from the sample cultures from mothers and newborns (a–d) Microbial composition of the (a) maternal cervical The x-axis represents the types of detected bacteria and the y-axis represents the detection rate of bacteria Lactobacillus (31.2%) was the most dominant Streptococcus was most prevalent in the neonate gastric (23.2%) and bronchial cultures (10.8%) while Staphylococcus (50%) was most prevalent in neonates oral culture No associations between bacterial detection and other neonatal factors (sex and multiplicity) were observed in the prospective and retrospective cohorts None of the factors showed a significant association with oral bacterial detection The bacterial detection in gastric and bronchial samples were positively correlated in both cohorts (Supplementary Tables S3 and S4) and gastric and oral samples were positively correlated in prospective cohort (Supplementary Table S3) a positive correlation was observed between the detection of bacteria in bronchial and oral samples; however this correlation was not statistically significant oral Escherichia coli and cervical Alloscardovia omnicolens were associated with a high bacterial detection rate in gastric samples (Supplementary Tables S3 and S4 pneumoniae were associated with high bacterial detection rates in bronchial samples (Supplementary Tables S3 and S4) Alpha diversity of neonatal oral microbiome based on natal factors and bacterial detection from other sites Box plots of alpha diversity values distribution of neonatal oral microbiome are shown The line inside each box represents the median value (a–f) The alpha diversity of oral microbiome based on neonatal factors: (a) birth type h) The alpha diversity of oral microbiome based on prenatal factors: (g) maternal diabetes and (h) chorioamnionitis (i–l) Effect of bacterial detection in (i) maternal cervical and (l) oral culture on the diversity of oral microbiome (m–p) Effect of the detection of Escherichia coli in (m) maternal cervical and (p) oral culture on the diversity of oral microbiome “NA” denotes the group of samples for which a culture test was not conducted *** p < 0.001 (Wilcoxon rank sum test); † Shannon Beta diversity of neonatal oral microbiome based on natal factors (a-c) Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) of beta diversity based on binomial distance of neonatal oral microbiome The sample proportions (%) for each group are as follows: (a) full-term (26.4) and preterm (73.6); (b) normal BW (27.6) and low BW (72.4) (d–f) Pairwise PERMANOVA results for differences in oral microbiome composition based on (d) birth type Comparison of the oral microbiome between preterm and full-term neonates Taxa with |log2FoldChange| > 1 and adjusted p < 0.001 are considered significantly different (c) Heatmap showing the relative abundance of microorganisms with significant differences by birth type in the DAA The color encodes the relative abundance of taxa (rows) in the samples (columns) The establishment and development of the neonatal microbiota play a crucial role in newborn health we focused on the early microbiota of the neonate (within 0–3 days of birth shortly after birth) as the starting point for the establishment of a stable normal flora This study aimed to examine microbial transmission patterns from the maternal cervix to different body sites in newborns and identify factors influencing the diversity of the newborn oral microbiome Our findings reveal a clear transmission pattern of microbiota from the maternal cervix to the neonatal gastric We showed that similar genera were detected in the neonatal gastric and that the neonatal gastric microbiota was the most similar to the maternal cervical microbiota such as preterm birth and low birth weight were associated with decreased diversity in the neonatal oral microbiome the composition of neonatal oral microbiome differed according to birth type These findings underscore the intricate interplay between maternal neonatal factors in shaping the neonatal oral microbiota and highlight potential implications for newborn health This finding indicates the colonization of maternal-origin microbiota in the oral and intestinal tracts of newborns due to the swallowing of amniotic fluid the high similarity between the neonatal gastric microbiota and maternal cervical microbiota compared to the neonatal oral microbiota could be because of the insufficient number of samples subjected to oral microbiota culture analysis and Escherichia were consistently detected among the top genera in all four sites These findings confirmed the pattern of transmission from the mother to the newborn and underscored the similarity in microbiota patterns among different sites in the newborn this study also aimed to identify the natal factors that influence the diversity of the oral microbiome shortly after birth the present study demonstrated the diversity of oral microbiome was reduced in low birth weight preterm neonates compared to full-term These findings suggest differences in microbial composition and indicate that birth type and birth weight are important in the formation of early-life oral microbiota we found a significantly higher proportion of neonatal gastric microbiota in vaginal births we also showed that the neonatal oral microbiome composition differed depending on the mode of delivery This finding further supported that the newborn microbiota is formed by swallowing the amniotic fluid at birth APGAR score evaluates the condition of a newborn immediately after birth by assessing skin color, heart rate, muscle tone, respiration, and reflexes19 neonates with detected bronchial microbiota had significantly reduced 5-min APGAR scores while no association was observed with oral microbiota This suggests that the condition of newborns immediately after birth may be related to the composition of the early-life microbiota As the oral microbiota of a newborn is derived from the placenta and amniotic fluid the diabetes-induced altered placental microbiota could affect the neonate oral microbiota This study confirms that the presence of specific pathogens in mothers or newborns at certain body sites can influence the composition of the early-life microbiota of neonates These findings suggest that beneficial bacteria tend to be less abundant and pathogens are more prevalent in preterm neonates; however further research using next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based metagenomic analysis is needed to identify specific beneficial and pathogenic bacteria at the strain level in preterm neonates a comparison with the PHI database revealed that the abundances of Corynebacterium diphtheriae were significantly different in preterm neonates indicating their association with a variety of infectious diseases; nevertheless this finding warrants further studies to confirm the precise role of these microbes to confirm the mother-to-newborn microbial transmission pattern retrospective cohort with a larger sample size was necessary and bronchial microbiota was based solely on the culture test results a direct comparison with the oral microbiome analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing was difficult allowing only for the identification of their respective associations the study focused primarily on 16S rRNA analysis for microbial composition which limits the ability to identify specific bacteria further studies incorporating additional analyses could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the neonatal microbiome Through further research to identify specific microbes associated with disease in preterm neonates and to elucidate the related mechanisms early oral microbiome assessments could be used to predict and diagnose disease in preterm neonates further analysis of beneficial and pathogenic bacteria could aid the development of therapies such as oral microbiome transplantation (OMT) for managing diseases in preterm neonates the study’s observational nature limits the ability to establish causal relationships between factors and microbial composition we performed a univariate analysis and were unable to present a risk model using multivariate analysis the study provides valuable insights into the early formation of the neonatal microbiota and its potential implications for newborn health it stands out from existing research by comprehensively investigating the association between bacterial detection across four body sites: the maternal cervix This holistic approach provides a more complete understanding of microbial transmission patterns unlike most studies on neonatal oral microbiota our study analyzes a wide range of factors categorizing them into four distinct categories This comprehensive analysis enhances the depth and breadth of our findings which are valuable as a foundational study identifying factors that influence the early oral microbiota our study includes both prospective and retrospective analyses with the retrospective component boasting a larger sample size than previous studies in this area This larger sample size increases the robustness and generalizability of our results by collecting oral microbiota samples immediately after birth we were able to analyze the early neonatal oral microbiota while minimizing confounding factors thereby providing a clearer picture of the initial microbial composition This study included a retrospective and a prospective cohort The study protocols were approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Severance Hospital (IRB no 4-2021-0419) and Yonsei University Dental Hospital (IRB no 2-2021-0091) and was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments Written informed consent for participation was obtained from the parents of newborns included in the prospective study The retrospective cohort included 991 mothers and 1,121 neonates comprising a total of 1,121 mother-neonate pairs (991 mothers and 260 multiples) admitted to Severance Hospital between January 2016 and December 2022 Culture-based data on the maternal cervical and neonatal gastric and oral microbiota were extracted from the medical records of the Obstetrics and Gynecology and Neonatology Departments of Severance Hospital The cervical culture of the mothers before delivery was compared with the gastric and oral cultures of the newborns on 0 to 3 days after birth (0.04 ± 0.20 for gastric and the association between the presence or absence of microbial detection in newborns and maternal and natal factors was investigated The prospective cohort included 73 mothers and 87 neonates comprising a total of 87 mother-neonate pairs (73 mothers and 28 multiples) admitted to Severance Hospital between August 2021 and July 2023 Samples were obtained from the maternal cervix before delivery and from the neonatal gastric and oral cavities within 0–2 days after birth (0.02 ± 0.15 for gastric These samples were analyzed using culture-based methods oral swab samples were collected from the newborns immediately after birth and analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing Oral swabs for 16S rRNA sequencing were obtained using the OMNIgene.ORAL | OMR110 kit (DNA Genotek Canada) according to the manufacturer’s instructions We investigated the factors influencing the diversity of the neonatal oral microbiome The independent variables evaluated in this cohort were divided into three categories: neonatal factors we also assessed the culture growth to evaluate the bacterial detection in different maternal and neonatal body sites and the presence of certain bacteria advanced maternal age was defined as ≥ 35 years at delivery Gestational age was categorized into two groups: preterm (< 37 weeks) and full term (≥ 37 weeks); the preterm was further divided into three groups: extremely preterm (< 28 weeks) Birth weight was divided into two groups: low birth weight (< 2,500 g) and normal birth weight (≥ 2,500 g); the low birth weight group was subsequently divided into extremely low birth weight (ELBW; < 1,000 g) very low birth weight (VLBW; ≥ 1,000 g and < 1,500 g) and low birth weight (LBW; ≥ 1,500 and < 2500 g) groups APGAR scores were measured 5 min after birth and are referred to as 5-min APGAR scores Groups were categorized using a 7-point cutoff for the 5-min APGAR scores Reads were filtered to remove those with greater than four (forward) and six (reverse) expected errors based on the quality scores and truncated after 280 (forward) and 260 (reverse) base pairs The DADA2 algorithm was used to infer the exact ASVs from the processed sequences while filtering chimeras The taxonomy was assigned to the ASVs using a naïve Bayesian classifier against the Expanded Human Oral Microbiome Database (eHOMD version 15.1) with a minimum bootstrap confidence of 50 An ASV table was constructed by recording the number of times each ASV was observed in each sample Additional sample data categories were added to the phylosequencing data table ASVs with no assigned phyla were filtered and agglomerated at the species level Alpha- and beta-diversity metrics were calculated on the filtered ASV table using Phyloseq’s ‘estimate_richness()’ and ‘ordinate()’ functions Multivariate dispersion analysis and pairwise permutation-based analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) for the beta diversity were performed using vegan (version 2.6-4) and pairwise Adonis (version 0.4.1) packages All analyses and visualizations were performed in R (version 4.3.2) and R Studio environments Descriptive statistics were used for the data analysis Fisher’s exact test was used to assess the association between natal factors and the presence of bacteria at different sites the association between bacterial detection at each site was analyzed using Fisher’s exact test Chi-squared or Fisher’s exact tests was used to assess the association between natal factors and the presence of bacteria at different sites the association between bacterial detection at each sites analyzed using Chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test Firth’s penalized logistic regression for the purpose of mitigating bias against rare events was conducted to identify variables that increase the likelihood of bacterial detection in maternal and neonatal sites Descriptive statistics and statistical analyses were conducted using SAS (version 9.4; SAS Institute USA) and R (version 4.0.0; R Foundation for Statistical Computing The minimum significance level adopted was 5% (0.05) Data is provided within the manuscript or supplementary information files How colonization by microbiota in early life shapes the immune system Novel developmental analyses identify longitudinal patterns of early gut microbiota that affect infant growth Gut microbiota and the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm neonates Extensive transmission of microbes along the gastrointestinal tract Ferretti, P. et al. Mother-to-Infant Microbial Transmission from Different Body Sites Shapes the Developing Infant Gut Microbiome. Cell Host Microbe 24, 133–145 e135https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2018.06.005 (2018) Selway, C. A. et al. Variable preterm oral microbiome stabilizes and reflects a full-term infant profile within three months. Pediatr. Res. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02517-1 (2023) Oral Prevotella species and their connection to events of clinical relevance in gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts Dzidic, M. et al. Oral microbiota maturation during the first 7 years of life in relation to allergy development. Allergy 73, 2000–2011. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.13449 (2018) Xiao, J., Fiscella, K. A. & Gill, S. R. Oral microbiome: possible harbinger for children’s health. Int. J. Oral Sci. 12, 12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41368-020-0082-x (2020) Nardi, G. M. et al. Maternal and neonatal oral Microbiome Developmental patterns and correlated factors: a systematic review-does the Apple fall close to the Tree? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health 18 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115569 (2021) Mother-to-infant microbiota transmission and infant microbiota development across multiple body sites Do maternal microbes shape newborn oral microbes Human gut microbiome viewed across age and geography Underwood, M. A. & Sohn, K. The microbiota of the extremely Preterm Infant. Clin. Perinatol. 44, 407–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clp.2017.01.005 (2017) PHI-base in 2022: a multi-species phenotype database for pathogen–host interactions Health and disease markers correlate with gut microbiome composition across thousands of people The microbiota of the extremely preterm infant Delayed establishment of gut microbiota in infants delivered by cesarean section Chorioamnionitis and neonatal outcome in preterm infants: a clinical overview Association of oral microbiome with type 2 diabetes risk Gestational diabetes is associated with changes in placental microbiota and microbiome maternal health and the placental microbiome Association of Escherichia coli O157: H7 with necrotizing enterocolitis in a full-term infant Early onset neonatal sepsis: the burden of group B Streptococcal and E Alloscardovia omnicolens emerging presence in premature rupture of membranes Prevalence of vaginal microorganisms among pregnant women according to trimester and association with preterm birth Virulence factors and antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated from neonates with sepsis Group B streptococcal maternal colonization and neonatal disease: molecular mechanisms and preventative approaches Birth weight and perinatal mortality: the effect of gestational age Outcomes and management of fetal infants with birth weight below 500 g at a tertiary center An ultra premature baby of 290 g birth weight needed more than 500 mg/kg of calcium and phosphorus daily Enterobacter sakazakii: an emerging pathogen in infants and neonates Staphylococcus capitis bacteremia of very low birth weight premature infants at neonatal intensive care units: clinical significance and antimicrobial susceptibility Effects of bifidobacterium breve supplementation on intestinal flora of low birth weight infants Zhou, P., Manoil, D., Belibasakis, G. N., Kotsakis, G. A. & Veillonellae Beyond bridging species in oral Biofilm Ecology. Front. Oral Health 2 https://doi.org/10.3389/froh.2021.774115 (2021) Relationship between dental and periodontal health status and the salivary microbiome: bacterial diversity co-occurrence networks and predictive models High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data Phyloseq: an R package for reproducible interactive analysis and graphics of microbiome census data Moderated estimation of Fold change and dispersion for RNA-seq data with DESeq2 Download references This study was supported by the Yonsei University College of Dentistry Fund (6-2023-0014) The biospecimens and data used for this study were provided by the Biobank of Yonsei University Dental Hospital a member of the Korea Biobank Network.(project No.2024ER050700) C.-M.K.) and critical revision of manuscript (Y.-H.K. All authors approved the final manuscript and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work The authors declare no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78609-7 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research This work, Caribbean Readiness Group Welcomes New Command Sergeant Major Rafael Natal-Muñiz, by SGT Jofenell RuizFebus, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright A year after watching his teammate set the all-time scoring record for Central York boys’ basketball The senior standout surpassed Greg Guidinger’s total of 1,621 career points Monday during the Panthers’ game at State College Natal entered the evening 10 points shy of the record and broke it with 24 It was a bittersweet night for Central York which lost 67-62 for just its second setback of the season But Natal won’t soon forget the putback layup at the 7:46 mark of the third quarter that secured his place in the history books he was recognized over the PA system and brought the ball to his parents who were sitting courtside across from the bench Central will commemorate his achievement prior to Wednesday’s home game against Northeastern “I still wanted to come out and play normally just let the game come to me and not force anything,” Natal said although he admitted he knew where he stood in the chase It’s something that me and my family are always going to remember forever my coaches (and) give the biggest thanks to my parents for all the sacrifices they made over the years.” The Panthers will go for a league tournament three-peat and seek their first District 3-6A crown later this month More: Thrilling championship runs headline York County's top sports stories of 2024 More: Teamwork — and trust — laid the foundation for Central York basketball's state championship season More: The notebook from Central York boys' basketball's state championship run The 6-foot-3 guard has been one of the smoothest scorers and most versatile playmakers in the York-Adams League throughout his career. He was named a divisional all-star in each of his first three seasons and received all-state honors last spring as Central’s “big three” included the 6-7 Guidinger and 6-8 Ben Rill for two years Natal and Rill are both averaging around 20 points per game as seniors this season Panthers head coach Jeff Hoke didn’t know Natal before he transferred to the Central York school district prior to his freshman year (he attended Dover in middle school) But Hoke trusted Natal with varsity minutes right away and he’s been vindicated in every game since but there’s some things that haven’t even changed,” Hoke said “He’s been mature to me on the court since day one — he’s not going to get upset He’s a kid that you just love to have around.” Although Natal picked up a handful of NCAA Division I offers he recently opted to take a postgraduate year and reclassify to the Class of 2026 While he hasn’t announced his destination publicly Hoke said a slew of major-conference coaches — including Penn State’s Mike Rhoades who was at Monday’s game because his son plays at State College — plan to keep tabs on Natal over the next year “You have an extra year to develop your body go to a prep school where it’s more like college so you can get a feel for being away from home … and then just more competitive basketball for the chance to get more looks from schools,” Natal said I think it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.” Please consider subscribing to support local journalism. There’s still plenty of unfinished business at Central York The Panthers (19-2) will begin their postseason with the YAIAA quarterfinals on Friday with hopes of celebrating their third straight league title Feb They’ll likely be the top seed in districts for a second straight year and they already know they can compete with anybody when the state tournament rolls around keeps in touch with Natal regularly and sent him a text of encouragement before Monday’s game who can hardly gush enough about the humility and selflessness of his two record-breaking stars Local roundup: Trio of YAIAA basketball teams complete 20-win regular seasons College: Delone Catholic's Mummert enjoys career week for Elizabethtown women's basketball NFL: Barkley can set NFL total season rushing record, but all he wants is a Super Bowl win The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. 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Volume 16 - 2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2025.1583915 This article is part of the Research TopicPre-natal and Post-natal Environmental Impacts on Metabolic ControlView all 5 articles Editorial on the Research TopicPre-natal and post-natal environmental impacts on metabolic control Diverse environmental and maternal behavioral factors influence the future metabolic health of the offspring including the pre-pregnancy health of the mother Environmental risk factors are diverse and include maternal stress and lifestyle choices such as recreational drugs and alcohol Such variables can impact diverse fetal tissues including the pancreas The placenta is a key mediator between maternal metabolic stress and altered fetal growth and development Substantial gaps exist in our understanding of how individual organs and tissues are modified in both form and function by early life stressors how limitations in tissue plasticity combine to build risk for adult disease and where potential opportunities exist for metabolic rescue before or after birth The intent of this Research Topic was to illustrate key structural and functional developmental changes to organs and tissues that arise in response to sub-optimal environmental conditions during pregnancy and neonatal life and how these can mutually build risk for adult metabolic diseases Mechanistic changes include altered tissue stem cell populations altered hormone and growth factor presence epigenetic modifications in key genes regulating metabolism Recreational drugs such as cannabinoids present an unknown paradigm of risk to the offspring in addition to other maternal lifestyle choices Understanding the extent of environmental impacts on tissue plasticity and the potential for when and how these might be reversed is essential to preventing future metabolic diseases The review by Hill and Hill focuses on the implications of maternal under- or overnutrition during pregnancy as key factors that alter fetal development and the future metabolic health early trajectory of the child Pregnancy involves adaptive changes to metabolism in the mother as a result of placental endocrinology Maternal glycemic control and fetal organ development are compromised by either under- or overnutrition In the fetus this includes long-lasting changes to pancreatic beta-cell mass and glucose-stimulated insulin release The cellular and molecular mechanisms identified include premature aging of fetal tissues epigenetic changes to key genes regulating tissue metabolic function developmental changes to the central nervous system and an altered set point for basal circulating glucocorticoid levels the plasticity of metabolically-active tissues to accommodate metabolic stress in the offspring is compromised Lifestyle and therapeutic interventions in the mother can improve her metabolic control and reduce the risk of abnormal birth size but their effectiveness in changing the adverse metabolic trajectory in the offspring appear limited so far The paper Knuth et al. focuses on how a deficiency in vitamin D in early life might alter future hepatic cholesterol metabolism A deficiency in vitamin D in utero was shown previously to result in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in rat offspring In the present study genetically inbred mouse strains were used where pregnant dams were maintained on a vitamin D deficient or sufficient diet throughout pregnancy and until weaning The male offspring were thereafter fed vitamin-D sufficient diet and examined at 8-9 weeks of age Profound changes were found in the liver transcriptome of mice deficient in vitamin D in early life with altered gene transcription associated with tissue development Transcriptional differences were accompanied by a general DNA hypomethylation suggesting long-lasting epigenetic changes in transcriptional control these changes could not be reversed by vitamin D supplementation after weaning demonstrating the importance of vitamin D in early life in determining the trajectory of liver health The risk of developing Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has been associated previously with an adverse intra-uterine environment and the paper by Fernandez Trigo et al. extends these studies to the importance of the intestinal microbiome using the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse model Animals were bred in germ-free conditions and offspring colonized with a microbiome by exposure to a non-obese female mouse commencing either at birth or at weaning Mice colonized at birth showed a subsequent reduction in the development of T1DM compared to those colonized at weaning with a different profile of intestinal regulatory T cells The paper highlights the importance of the microbiome during early postnatal life in determining an autoimmune T cell signature Lastly, Zhou et al. examined how the clinical management at delivery of women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) can alter maternal and newborn health GDM is often associated with large-for-gestational age birth size and an increased risk of adult chronic diseases in the offspring and developing Type 2 diabetes mellitus in the mother A retrospective cohort study compared perioperative management options during caesarean section An ‘Enhanced recovery after surgery’ protocol (ERAS) was compared to a normally managed group of women with GDM ERAS includes a pre-operative low carbohydrate drink which induces anabolism through an increase in insulin release This can stabilize perioperative glycemia and prevent post-operative complications the impact on metabolism in women with GDM was unclear Results showed that the differences in preoperative glucose levels between ERAS and control group were minimal but the ERAS group experienced a substantial decrease in composite adverse outcome including perioperative maternal and neonatal hypoglycemia and hypertension This could be anticipated to result in a lower referral to neonatal intensive care with reduced associated costs The papers included in this Research Topic highlight the range of environmental stressors during pregnancy that can impact the development of the fetus and the health of the offspring from macronutrition to micronutrients and the host microbiome The importance of early intervention and prevention strategies aimed at optimizing maternal health and the in utero environment is emphasized While lifestyle and therapeutic interventions can improve maternal metabolic control and reduce the risk of abnormal neonatal outcomes reversing the adverse metabolic programming remains a major challenge care protocols surrounding birth can also help to ensure neonatal health DBH: Writing – review & editing The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest The author(s) declare that no Generative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Sobrevia L and Desoye G (2025) Editorial: Pre-natal and post-natal environmental impacts on metabolic control Received: 26 February 2025; Accepted: 05 March 2025;Published: 18 March 2025 Copyright © 2025 Hill, Hardy, Sobrevia and Desoye. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: David J. Hill, ZGF2aWQuaGlsbEBzamhjLmxvbmRvbi5vbi5jYQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Details emerge about Natal conference in Austin later this month set to feature figures linked to far-right politics A natalist conference featuring speakers including self-described eugenicists and promoters of race science, apparently including the man behind a previously pseudonymous race-science influencer account, and the founder of a startup offering IQ screening for IVF embryos, will be held at a hotel and conference venue operated by the public University of Texas, Austin Details of the conference have emerged as a prominent supporter of pro-natalist positions lays waste US government agencies under the banner of his “Doge” initiative Read moreThe Natal conference website embeds a Musk post on X reading: “If birth rates continue to plummet who reportedly has at least 13 children by four mothers was in recent days confronted on X by musician Grimes and the rightwing influencer Ashley St Clair over his alleged neglect of the children he has fathered with them said that the pro-natalism beliefs informing the Natal conference was one of the crucial planks of “the modern race science movement” It’s about promoting the idea that certain people should have babies that have been improved with positive eugenics.” On the ticketing page of the website for the conference prospective attendees are told of the venue: “Register to see address.” However prospective attendees are told that on day one they can “mingle with speakers and experts for dinner at the Bullock Museum of Texas History in Austin” and the following day attend a “symposium at the AT&T Conference Center featuring keynote speakers as well as a closed-door A promotional email sent out by the organization said the conference had secured “discounted accommodations at the AT&T Conference Center for attendees” but buyers are warned that purchases will “require approval” The Guardian emailed the University of Texas for comment on their venue hosting the conference One of the speakers at the conference is billed under a social media alias but the Guardian has corroborated that the account is apparently run by Jordan Lasker The @cremieuxrecueil X account has been boosted or engaged with dozens of times by that platform’s proprietor On 27 November, Musk reposted a Cremieux comment on falling birthrates all countries are trending towards population collapse.” On 29 April, Cremieux posted: “Only about a third of the world even meets replacement rate fertility. This is the biggest problem of our time.” Musk responded: “Yes.” Musk has also boosted or responded favorably to Cremieux posts on other rightwing hobby horses such as crime in Portland, Oregon, and allegations that Democrats had created loopholes in the asylum system writing: “Any conclusions drawn from these data are both untenable and likely to give rise to racist conclusions.” Lynn, whose work Cremieux seeks to defend in the post, was a self-described scientific racist and is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the most unapologetic and raw ‘scientific’ racists” He held a position on the advisory board of the Occidental Quarterly a key platform for far-right intellectuals to express pseudo-scientific antisemitic views He also presented at the American Renaissance conference a white nationalist gathering where in 2002 he claimed higher rates of psychopathy and psychopathic behavior existed among Black populations compared to others Jordan Lasker has also sought to rehabilitate and employ Lynn’s work in papers published under his own name, perhaps most controversially in a co-written paper was later dismissed from his tenured professorship at Cleveland State University over the use of National Institutes of Health data in the paper Last October, the Guardian reported that Pesta had joined a video call with a network of race-science researchers who claimed to have “under the table” access to sensitive genetic data at the UK Biobank Another of Lasker’s co-authors on Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability Kirkegaard is a self-described eugenicist, explicitly advocates “race science” and has credentialled himself as a senior fellow at the Ulster Institute for Social Research (UISR) an organization headed by Richard Lynn until his death Lasker’s role in running the Cremieux account has long been a subject of social media speculation, and recent efforts by some writers to further substantiate that identification have not been disputed by Lasker or the Cremieux account While previous investigations have focused on Lasker’s alleged history across several Reddit accounts the Guardian obtained a scrape of the website of the 2024 Manifest conference via a source whose identity is being protected over fears of retaliation Source code from the site detailing conference registrations indicates that Cremieux registered under an email associated with Lasker When the Guardian reached out on that Lasker-linked email to ask about the registration and other evidence pointing to his operation of the Cremieux Lasker replied with a message containing a promotional code for discounted subscriptions to the Cremieux Substack Between the Guardian’s request for comment and Lasker’s response, the “neofascist lifestyle influencer” Charles Cornish-Dale, who posts under the pseudonym Raw Egg Nationalist, told his X followers that the Guardian was about to “doxx another anon” that is to identify another pseudonymous rightwing influencer account Cornish-Dale is a figurehead of the rightwing bodybuilding scene and has been a keen promoter of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory He had nevertheless lived with his mother in sleepy south Dorset during the entirety of his career as a rightwing influencer Cornish-Dale and Keeperman are both also slated to speak at Natal this year Other Natal speakers are affiliated with organizations that promote eugenicist ideas and practices eugenics is a group of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of a human population It became the basis of a popular movement from the late 19th century and led to governments around the world adopting policies such as forced sterilization of disabled and mentally ill people The field was discredited due to its association with racial policies in Nazi Germany and many critics have attacked it as a pseudoscience Jonathan Anomaly is a former academic and an advocate of what he has called “liberal eugenics” The Guardian reported in October that he was a senior staff member at Heliospect a startup offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ even though screening embryos for these traits would be illegal in the UK On the podcast of “new right” figure Alex Kaschuta Anomaly said of his company’s services: “What can you do you’re going to be able to calculate polygenic scores that reduce disease another speaker scheduled to appear at Natal is a podcast host and contributor at online magazine Aporia as well as an academic evolutionary psychologist The Guardian also reported last October that Aporia was at the center of an “international network of ‘race science’ activists seeking to influence public debate with discredited ideas on race and eugenics” One of Fleischman’s articles at Aporia is entitled “You’re probably a eugenicist”. On her Substack feed she has promoted excerpts from Aporia articles including one on 29 November that used the Holocaust to bolster the claim that black people are innately less intelligence than whites: “If anti-black racism has such devastating effects on cognitive performance among blacks why did the Holocaust leave no discernible impact on cognitive performance among Jews?” The publication is operated by the Human Diversity Foundation an organization registered in Wyoming by Emil Kirkegaard Aporia’s executive editor Bo Winegard was by his own account fired by Ohio’s Marietta College in March 2020 after, in a seminar hosted by the University of Alabama, Winegard reportedly said: “People in colder climates Aporia editor Noah Carl was stripped of a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge University after it emerged that alongside his academic work in sociology he had simultaneously been publishing scientific-racist articles in outlets notorious for peddling scientific racism Returning to Natal for a second year running are also Malcolm and Simone Collins, the so-called “hipster eugenicists” who have become the prominent advocates of pro-natalism. The Guardian reported in November that the Collinses after being approached by a man posing as a potential investor in their projects produced a proposal for a city-state on the Isle of Man that “contained ideas that seem plucked out of a dystopian science fiction movie” The plan envisioned a society that would “grant more voting power to creators of economically productive agents” and be ruled by a periodically rotated “dictator” They said the arrangement would make the British crown dependency a center for the “mass production of genetically selected humans” also derived from undercover interactions with the Collinses showing that “despite [their] rejection of the label what the couple propose is often reminiscent of eugenics” The Guardian reported on the 2024 iteration of the Natal conference ahead of the event detailing the far-right history of event organizer Dolan and the prominent place of other speakers in eugenicist and far-right politics Politico reporting from the event, and revealed that long-time white nationalist activist Taylor, founder of the American Renaissance conference, had been in attendance. which is adjacent to the Impendle Nature Reserve in the KZN Midlands Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has announced the declaration of the iNkonjane Nature Reserve as the new protected area in KwaZulu-Natal signaling renewed hope for some of South Africa’s most threatened wildlife The formal declaration of the iNkonjane Nature Reserve in the KZN Midlands by Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Musa Zondi marks a significant addition to KwaZulu-Natal’s growing network of protected areas the reserve provides a critical sanctuary for the Critically Endangered Blue Swallow It is located adjacent to the iMpendle Nature Reserve and currently hosts 4 (13%) of the country's estimated 30 remaining breeding pairs of Blue Swallows the iNkonjane Nature Reserve secures a vital foraging habitat for this small yet critically important population of swallows The entity said the proclamation of the iNkonjane Nature Reserve marks a meaningful step towards ensuring the survival of this bird species said the organisation in a statement.  "The Blue Swallow is not the only conservation priority in the new reserve The iNkonjane Nature Reserve is also home to the Critically Endangered Pennington’s Protea Butterfly (Capys penningtoni) a highly range-restricted species found only in the greater Mkhomazi River valley This is now the third reserve in KwaZulu-Natal established specifically for the protection of threatened butterfly species alongside the uMvemvane Nature Reserve and Wahroonga Farm "In addition to its role in butterfly conservation the new reserve conserves valuable portions of Southern KwaZulu-Natal Moist Grassland and patches of Eastern Mistbelt Forest both of which are under mounting pressure from afforestation The grassland habitat is suitable for several other threatened species including the Endangered oribi antelope (Ourebia ourebi ourebi) and Near Threatened grey rhebok (Pelea capreolus)," it said Ezemvelo said the establishment of the iNkonjane Nature Reserve marks the successful conclusion of a carefully negotiated biodiversity offset agreement between Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and uMngeni and uThukela Water This agreement was initiated to compensate for the environmental impact of constructing a new wastewater pipeline through a portion of the Midmar Nature Reserve It said the iNkonjane Nature Reserve will be managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife along with the neighbouring iMpendle Nature Reserve There will be no fences separating these nature reserves allowing for the free movement of wildlife and the integrated management of a larger conservation unit The addition of the iNkonjane Nature Reserve to the protected area estate brings the area of land managed by Ezemvelo to 518,628 hectares—about 5.5% of the province—and the total protected area extent to 1,016,769 hectares THE MERCURY South Africa’s Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has signed a 25-year terminal operator agreement with Zululand Energy Terminals (ZET) for the development of a new LNG terminal at the deepwater KwaZulu-Natal port The LNG import terminal is expected to have an initial yearly throughput of at least 2 Mt/year with the potential to raise the volume to above 5 Mt/year over the 25-year concession period The KwaZulu-Natal port will be the country's first LNG import terminal The first phase of the project includes a floating storage unit and an onshore regasification system and is expected to start commercial operations by 2028 TNPA aims to attract ZAR7bn (US$380m) in investment to the Port of Richards Bay and aspires to eventually develop LNG terminals in the ports of Saldanha (Western Cape) and Ngqura (Eastern Cape) a JV between Vopak Terminal Durban and Transnet Pipelines was selected in 2024 as the preferred bidder to develop construct and operate the deepwater KwaZulu-Natal port The development was in line with South Africa’s plan to introduce at least 6 GW of gas-to-power projects by both Eskom and independent power producers in KwaZulu-Natal TNPA also signed a ZAR123m (US$7m) terminal operator agreement with FFS Tank Terminals for a liquid bulk terminal to be built and operated also at the Port of Richards Bay to enhance the port’s capability to handle liquid bulk cargo particularly bunker fuels essential for maritime logistics South Africa did not yet possess any LNG regasification capacity World LNG Database offers a complete set of data on LNG markets The service provides detailed information on existing and planned liquefaction and regasification plants It also includes LNG shipping around the world time series on regasification and liquefaction capacities LNG flows and LNG prices for all players in the market Register now to subscribe to our informative monthly There was no shortage of playmakers on the state champion Central York boys’ basketball team this past season and then-junior Ben Natal was squarely in the middle of the action He will enter his senior season with a chance to surpass teammate Greg Guidinger’s program scoring record Featured: Teamwork — and trust — laid the foundation for Central York basketball's state championship season intensity and basketball smarts have made him a sought-after commodity as he prepares for his future He recently received his first official offer to play NCAA Division I basketball at Loyola Maryland That’s the same Baltimore-area school where Guidinger is set to begin his freshman season this fall Natal has a long list of other schools that have shown interest Programs in contact with Natal include a slew of Ivy League schools — Brown and Penn — as well as many other mid-major outfits We caught up with Natal recently to talk about the recruiting process and his future for this edition of Sports Q&A More: Sports Q&A with former York Suburban multi-sport star CJ Rissmiller Sports Q&A with Red Lion grad, Penn State hoops walk-on Joe Sedora Sports Q&A with Dallastown senior, Arizona State football pledge Michael Scott Sports Q&A with Spring Grove star, Maryland football recruit Michael Hershey Question: So heading into your senior year of high school My AAU coach (Justin Seitz) and my high school coach both are very connected in the collegiate level I just got my first offer from Loyola Maryland and some other schools have been reaching out Would you mind following him to school if it turned out that way I feel like the chemistry is already there on and off the court I've been there before on an unofficial visit and I really like the facilities so soon I'm probably going to get down there and get to meet Coach (Josh) Loeffler and the other staff Q: If you had your choice — if you had your dream I guess — what would the dream be like in the recruiting process here for you Natal: “My dream school would probably be Penn State high-level basketball school that's pretty close to my area having my parents being able to come out to some of my games So that would be really cool to play at a high level pretty close to where I live.” Q: I know Coach Hoke has been big on you since the beginning of the year I think three or four times he said he thinks you're the best guard in the state and what's the conversation with him been like during this process And it's been a journey going from that to now winning a state championship It just brought me and Coach Hoke (and) our team closer Q: What's life been like after winning the state title Natal: “I think just that feeling of winning a state championship and being the first (public-school state champion) here in York It's only 13 of us that were on that team that made history really for York I want that to kind of be the standard now knowing that we have the talent (to do that again) “Even playing against some of these private schools the fact that we're able to compete at that level is crazy what do you envision the difference being in terms of the game flow and ball movement and all of that but what things can you see without Greg being there I'd say probably his length and rebounding — I mean we're losing a guy that had a whole bunch of rebounds this year So we're definitely going to need to make up for that And I'd say we're just going to need our younger guys and me Q: Does that mean more time for Saxton Suchanic I'd say I'd like to see Saxton have some more minutes and he definitely can get in there and get some extra rebounds versus what we need not everybody's going to have 30 points a night So we just need everybody to play their role And I think that's what's going to bring us together as a team when everybody puts their ego to the side and plays team basketball.” Q: You guys kind of did things backwards in the sense that you didn’t win a District 3 title yet still won the PIAA title How big of a goal is it to win a district final next year then we can definitely be in the same position but I'd say that that's probably not our biggest goal right now We just want to take it one game at a time start off with winning some regular-season games So we just want to take it one game at a time.” More: York-Adams League garners 7 all-state boys' volleyball selections More: York Catholic's Katie Bullen looking ahead after All-American lacrosse honor More: Casey leads York Revolution trio of Atlantic League midseason all-stars More: York's Jay Daryman set to enter state bowling Hall of Fame Read this week's magazine The New York Times culture writer’s Second Life explores how the internet looms over contemporary pregnancy The seed of this memoir comes from your experiences with Flo When did you realize you had a book on your hands you’re mind-melding with a screen and it feels very intimate when Instagram figured out how to drill into my isolated brain and discern which sweatpants I would buy once my child was diagnosed with a rare syndrome and my pregnancy became more complex as if even making notes had somehow brought danger to myself and my baby that is something that you should write about What changed about your relationship to technology in the context of pregnancy and parenthood Because my pregnancy put me so face-to-face with the medical there were experts using technology on my body thatI didn’t understand I didn’t know what they were trying to find out or what would happen if they did find something I found myself really turning to simple consumer technologies that I did understand hoping they’d give me have some control What are some of the challenges and rewards of seeking out IRL communities connected to pregnancy and childbirth Having my first child in 2020 was an extreme version of something that affects a lot of parents which is that I was really isolated: my community and my son’s place in the world were all very mediated through social media I’ve tried to reorient myself to being helpful in my real-life community; the main thing for me is being involved in a mutual aid group that works with local migrants This book identifies a thread of eugenics within the freebirther movement When I was first introduced to the pregnancy and parenting internet I am a white American woman who has some disposable income After my pregnancy was diagnosed with complications you’re in this separate category now That was happening in seemingly progressive as well as in spiritual or conservative-coded communities including one that was outwardly fascist and antisemitic it seemed rational to try to ensure my child was healthy But as the parent of a child with a disability without an actual society that cares about real children becoming healthy UPDATED ON 2 MAY: Following persistent rainfall across KwaZulu-Natal in recent weeks the province’s dams have become a focal point for assessing water security and resilience As KwaZulu-Natal balances the benefits of recent rainfall with the demands on its water resources these dam level updates provide a critical perspective on the province’s resilience Stakeholders are encouraged to remain proactive in managing water use ensuring that these vital reservoirs continue to sustain communities and ecosystems May I ask were you get your info from for this article Because its totally wrong if you go on the DWS sight We’ve successfully published these updates for years without issue As a hardworking and deeply committed news team running a phenomenal independent news product The journalist has therefore been sentenced to 100 push-ups and a 3km run Thank you for bringing the issue to our attention so it could be promptly resolved Please explain how Midmar dam is overflowing well yet it is only 89.9%.Where do the Department of Water Affairs intend storing the other 10,1% When I went to school a glass of water could hold 100% before overflowing Your dam levels in this article are vastly different to the ones reflected on the DWS site Commenting Guidelines we value the voice of our community and encourage open dialogue it is crucial to maintain a respectful and constructive environment We remind everyone that using fake or anonymous identities does not shield you from being identified and held accountable for your comments malicious personal attacks and the use of offensive language are not tolerated and will be promptly removed It is also important to note that remarks targeting individuals or companies must be factual and free from unfounded accusations or reveal confidential details can lead to legal consequences for the commenter We reserve the right to remove such comments without prior notice to ensure our community standards are upheld Please note that while we encourage diverse opinions and lively debates Newcastillian News does not intervene in comment disputes Moderating such interactions is unfeasible and often leads to further complications It’s important to remember that the commenter could face legal consequences if a comment infringes on someone else’s rights Let’s all strive to contribute positively and remember that in this small community Read our TERMS, CONDITIONS AND USER RULES for further information We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences These 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responsibility to use data and technology for good We may use or share your data with our data vendors The Weather Channel is the world's most accurate forecaster according to ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Vodacom South Africa has instituted what it calls a community-based model to secure towers against battery theft. The community of Kamberg in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal has partnered with Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal region to implement additional security measures at the operator’s base station sites in the area.  Executive Head of Operations at Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal explains: "Following a series of meetings between ourselves and the Kamberg community this community offered to deploy further security measures in ensuring that the community is not deprived of essential communications services."  The Kamberg community recently put up a second security layer in the form of an electric fence around the three Vodacom towers that are regularly hit in the area working together with a private security company apprehended two criminals that broke into Vodacom’s site in the area and successfully secured two stolen batteries from the thieves As well as supporiing the community involvement Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal region has invested in robust security measures including installing security cameras to monitor sites and deploying trained security personnel to respond quickly to any suspicious activity High-security battery cabinets and hardened site containers have also been installed the region is working closely with law enforcement agencies communities and security companies to arrest thieves for prosecution As we have reported before vandalism and theft are big problems for operators in Southern Africa – and for communities when residents are left without connectivity not only the cost of the equipment and resources required for restoration but also the cost of restoring connectivity can be significant In fact Vodacom South Africa estimates that it loses about ZAR100 million (about US$5.3 million) to vandalism and battery theft each year Caroline Shannon Karasik is an instructor at Catapult and an MFA candidate in Antioch University's creative writing program among others and she is currently at work on a memoir This ice giant is associated with electricity it can facilitate enlightening breakthroughs This means that — unless it is in strong aspect to one of somebody’s personal planets — it has a slightly weaker effect on people than inner planets like the sun (Jupiter and Saturn are the social planets holding a place between the personal and transpersonal planets.) It takes about 84 years to move through the zodiac spending approximately seven years in each sign Uranus is in retrograde (a process in which another planet appears to be moving backward) for about five months every year If you were born with Uranus Rx (shorthand for retrograde) then Uranus Retrograde is usually a fairly easy time for you because you’ve been handling these energies since you were small if you would like to see where and how Uranus Retrograde affects your chart specifically you can get a reading with an amazing Astrology Psychic who can help you understand what to expect from this transitional period and how to get the most out of it Here is a brief overview of Uranus Retrograde and the different ways that it may affect you as it moves through each house: Uranus Retrograde here gives you a chance to reinvent yourself especially if it means that you start allowing yourself to be the unique You will become keenly aware of the fact that your individuality is a strength When Uranus Retrograde transits your second house you may question your sense of security and try to take steps to increase it You’ll be presented with new ways to make money and be asked to reassess your feelings of self-worth You may be given exciting new ways to communicate while Uranus Retrograde is in the third house Expect blocks in communication to dissolve and know that you may have a breakthrough regarding how you express yourself to others You may now be able to say the things you want to say Necessary changes in your home and family life will come forth now whether you’re seeking to leave everything behind or to strengthen your current situation Do you want to uproot yourself or remain planted where you are With Uranus Retrograde in your fourth house you might learn something surprising about one or more of your family members (or vice-versa) Your inner wild child wants to come out and play Uranus moving retrograde in your fifth house unleashes your inner visionary helping you find ways to release your creative inner genius It will help you shoo away fear and anxiety setting you free so you can fly and show the world everything you have to give Uranus Retrograde in the sixth house will help you discover how you’re meant to assist others during your time on Earth It will also deepen your intuitive connection with your pets You’ll see that the more you open your heart to your fur babies Uranus Retrograde here will show you how to find greater freedom in your committed relationships ideally bringing you closer together and helping you establish an even deeper trust If a relationship is no longer serving you you can move beyond what’s considered conventional in romantic unions and instead create a dynamic that is unique and highly fulfilling for you both While Uranus Retrograde transits the eighth house be extra careful with financial interactions — especially if they involve other people’s money You may also learn how to make an adjustment that will improve money matters it can also help you break the chains of your shadow side opening you up to new opportunities for personal growth When Uranus moves retrograde through the ninth house you may find yourself having interesting or unusual thoughts about your beliefs especially regarding religion and/or philosophy You may begin to challenge old ways of thinking you might find that you suddenly have the freedom necessary to travel somewhere far away filling you with the rebellious spirit of wild adventure With Uranus Retrograde in your eleventh house friendships can be broken and born in unexpected ways You are being asked to find new methods of interacting socially and you may begin to dream of something different for yourself you’ll discover some exciting ways to do just that Uranus Retrograde here brings forth hidden blessings that can help you make the radical transformation you need to break free of any long-term inner troubles You might feel inspired to speak with a therapist or psychic so you can find a clearer path to happiness and fulfillment you may also connect more powerfully with Spirit right now Think of Uranus Retrograde as your ticket to freedom It invites you to trust your inner genius and create like never before You are being reminded of your unique qualities and independent spirit and you will be given ways to harness your rebellious tendencies and transform them into fuel for your true passions Uranus Retrograde is the perfect time to ride this lightning straight into the life changes that you want and need Gives the perspective of a psychic\'s psychic Psychic Kallista ext. 9623 Psychic Kallista ext. 9623 Talk Talk Gives the perspective of a psychic's psychic The spirit of Christmas in shows worthy of Hollywood was transformed into a true Christmas tale and hotels also joined in the festive atmosphere This unique atmosphere makes Natal Luz de Gramado known as the largest Christmas event in Latin America and one of the largest Christmas spectacles in the world The public’s enchanting experience was enhanced by the modern and agile technology of Imply® ElevenTickets From purchasing tickets to accessing attractions and experiences “Imply® was a fundamental strategic partner for the success of Natal Luz de Gramado We are very pleased to have Imply ® by our side and together we provide unforgettable moments for millions of people with a smooth and modern experience We are highly satisfied with the support and operational efficiency that transforms the management of major events like ours Imply offers much more than technology – it delivers partnership and excellence.” Rosa Helena Pereira Volk Imply® ElevenTickets was exclusively responsible for operating the sale of tickets for the 39th Natal Luz de Gramado The project included ElevenTickets Imply® technologies and services with ticket sales across various integrated channels in addition to access control for people and vehicles “We combine technology and services to provide the best experiences for visitors and optimize management for organizers,” highlights Imply’s CEO The 2024/2025 edition began on October 24 and concluded on January 19 delivering a true Christmas spectacle throughout 88 days of shows and parades in the streets of Gramado An event of this scale and technical level requires excellence and expertise in ticket management and public access control Imply® ElevenTickets managed ticket sales through an intuitive and customized platform the Imply® ElevenAccess system ensured fast and accurate validations while real-time data collection provided valuable strategic insights for the organization the Grand Christmas Parade) returned to the iconic Hortencias Avenue Thanks to the advanced technology of Imply® ElevenTickets the entire event was carried out with complete safety and comfort Imply® ElevenTickets is recognized as one of the leading references in the technology market in Brazil With over 20 years of experience and a presence in more than 125 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Learn more: https://imply.com/engb/access-systems/ 1.111 - RST 287 Km 105 | Santa Cruz do Sul | RS - Brazil imply@imply.com (+55) 51 2106-8000 ISSN 3049-902X          Research Professional | Pivot-RP Community partnerships and collaboration are crucial to plans for an observatory facility on remote mountain South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province is set to house its first-ever large optical telescope a physics professor from the University of Zululand The optical telescope and observatory will be built on KwaNtoza Mountain located 900 metres above sea level on a remote peak The location is two hours’ drive from the University of Zululand’s main KwaDlangezwa campus around 160 kilometres northeast of Durban on South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast In order to read the full article you will have to authenticate Depending on which product your institution is subscribed to you will have to authenticate via either your Pivot-RP or Research Professional account if your organisation is only subscribed to Research Professional News and not one of our funding databases then you will have to authenticate via the third option 'Continue with Research Professional News only' if you are unsure which database your institution is subscribed to This article on Research Professional News is onlyavailable to Pivot-RP Research Professional and Research Professional News only users Research Professional News is an editorially independent part of Clarivate Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission When it comes to astrology, horoscopes are only the tip of the iceberg, my friends. Astrology is much more complex — and can be so much more personal. If you’ve been ready for a less generalized approach to the stars and want to go deeper, it’s time to learn about your astrological birth chart Also referred to as the “natal chart,” this map of the stars uses the exact date and location of your birth to re-create a snapshot of the sky at your precise moment of arrival Take my hand; let me walk you through the fundamentals of the birth chart Back in the day, the only way to calculate a birth chart was by hand, using a protractor and a table known as an ephemeris. Thankfully, we have astrology software now, making it possible to calculate a complete birth chart in less than a second. To that end, TimePassages is my favorite app (available on both iOS and Android) for rendering birth charts, along with the website astro.com But keep in mind that the birth chart is an extremely sensitive diagram that requires accurate and precise data the birth chart changes every four minutes (more on that later) which is why it’s critical to have an exact time of birth — approximates or estimates can (and will) skew the results it’s best to verify the information with a birth certificate Seeing your birth chart for the first time can be intimidating Because it’s filled with unfamiliar symbols and a whole complicated assortment of shapes and lines making sense of a birth chart can feel like deciphering ancient hieroglyphics it sort of is: Astrology is a complex visual language that’s been around for thousands of years it requires practice (and patience) to understand this intricate symbolic diagram While it may seem like a bit much to reach out to the hospital records department it’s usually a pretty straightforward process sometimes fabled birth-story details can be helpful in narrowing down a window of birth (for example if a parent remembers “you were born early in the morning” or “I was hungry for dinner”) that if you were born on the day a planet changes zodiac signs (for example the day the moon transitions from Libra into Scorpio) there will be ambiguity surrounding those celestial bodies you may want to work with a professional astrologer on a chart rectification — a bespoke process in which astrologers reverse engineer your birth chart based on notable life experiences Every planet and celestial body measured in astrology has a symbol (also referred to as a “glyph”) so — in a birth chart — different symbols are often stacked next to each other Every planet and celestial object with astrological relevance has a glyph the position of these planets (in other words which house the planets occupy) reveals how (and where) their energy appears in your life Think of the planets as character archetypes each tasked with playing a specific role in our lives Below are keywords associated with each planet If the planets are characters, the zodiac signs are personalities and values) is the character that is all about romance Venus in the airy zodiac sign of Gemini will express itself through curiosity it will express its romantic sensibilities in Scorpionic ways — through intensity You may notice that the chart is divided into different sections — 12, to be exact. These pie slices are referred to as “houses.” Avoid the common misstep of conflating houses with zodiac signs (yes The houses are a visual expression of Earth’s 24-hour rotation around its axis which means that each house spans approximately two hours of time Each astrological house represents a different area of your life We start counting the houses at the ascendant which is located at the nine o’clock position in your birth chart and the houses gradually transition from personal and tangible to interpersonal and abstract Below are a few keywords for each house to help you familiarize yourself with the regions of the birth chart Note that some houses in your birth chart will have “things” inside of them (in just a moment it does not mean that the keywords of that house won’t appear in your life every house plays a vital role in our birth chart regardless of whether a planet occupies that domain So if your fifth house of creativity or seventh house of partnership is “empty,” it doesn’t mean that you’re artistically stifled or destined to be alone forever When reading a birth chart, start at a point known as the ascendant (also known as the rising sign) the ascendant refers to the zodiac sign ascending over the eastern horizon at your exact moment of birth Although the visual location of the ascendant will vary based on astrology software it’s usually located on or around the nine o’clock position and may be symbolized by a circle with a horizontal line in the middle The ascendant represents your perception of reality and cycles you encounter throughout your life This placement establishes the architecture for your entire birth chart After you’ve successfully identified your ascendant you’ll begin to scan the chart counterclockwise you’ll be able to start analyzing the birth chart the formula for interpretation is pretty simple: Planet = characterSign = personalityHouse = area of life and in which area of life is it showing up Mars in Virgo in the third house will be motivated (Mars) through structure (Virgo) through its interpersonal relationships (third house) while the moon in Sagittarius in the 12th house will process its emotions (the Moon) through discovering (Sagittarius) its psychic abilities (12th house) From there, you’ll be able to get into more complex topics such as aspects which explores how the planets relate to each other your sun (identity) in Libra (diplomacy) in the fourth house (home and family) is at odds with Saturn (discipline) in Aries (autonomy) in the tenth house (career and legacy) — that would create notable tension within the birth chart planets can also work together harmoniously: Mercury (communication) in Pisces (intuition) in the ninth house (travel and exploration) would be pleasantly supported by Jupiter (expansion) in Cancer (sensitivities) in the first house of personality identity There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to your birth chart. My advice? Take your time! Go slow! Your ability to create strong astrological interpretations will be strengthened the more you practice, so don’t be afraid to experiment with narratives and bold observations! Virtual communities like the Constellation Club since it’s helpful to get feedback on your interpretations (especially when you’re just starting out) One of the mystical axioms I say often is “You will know what you need to know when you need to know it.” And that You will understand as soon as you are meant to … and not a second too late By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York During the confinement period, you can access PSG TV Premium for free and enjoy all this season's match videos. Learn more You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience The 6th edition of the PSG Academy Cup Brazil will be remembered as an unforgettable moment marking an important milestone in the history of the PSG Academy in Brazil the event brought together around 2,500 people including 923 players accompanied by their families sporting atmosphere packed with entertainment The players had the chance to play on the pitch of a 2014 World Cup stadium known for hosting some memorable matches 81 teams from 25 PSG Academy units across Brazil played a total of 323 intense matches broadcast live on the PSG Academy Brazil YouTube channel offered an impressive spectacle with 980 goals scored was marked by a spectacular opening ceremony during which the players introduced themselves in a lap of honour took to the stage to share their enthusiasm and perspectives Diego Jatobá said: "This event has exceeded all our expectations and the opening ceremony was a real spectacle we succeeded in offering new experiences with remarkable excellence thanks to careful planning and flawless execution." the event offered a variety of activities to enrich the experience of the participants Players were able to experience a unique moment by taking part in post-match press conferences to share their thoughts with journalists Natal's cuisine was showcased in a social zone allowing everyone to fully discover the richness of the region video games and many other activities completed the off-field experience The Guest Relations and Concierge services were also on hand to answer any questions and help participants and their families make the most of their stay The official PSG Academy Brazil shop was also present coaches and families shared moments of emotion joy and pride as they watched the young talents shine on the pitch The competition was also attended by personalities such as Benjamin Houri Global Technical Director of the PSG Academy The PSG Academy Brazil technical staff closely monitored the players in order to select the players who will join the 2025 teams The results were announced at the closing ceremony - U12 – PSG Academy Pompéia- U11 – PSG Academy Natal- U10 – PSG Academy Natal- U9 – PSG Academy Natal- U8 – PSG Academy Botafogo 'Arc de Triomphe’ tournament:- U12 – PSG Academy Florianópolis- U11 – PSG Academy Pinheiros- U10 – PSG Academy Recife- U9 – PSG Academy Vitória- U8 – PSG Academy Belo Horizonte PSG Academy Brazil warmly thanks all the players technical teams and organisers for their contribution to the success of this event their spirit of fair play and passion for football every moment of this 6th edition was exceptional visit PSG Academy Brazil's social networks: more information on the academy Severe Storm Warning Alert for KwaZulu-Natal Similar warnings have been issued for the Mpumalanga escarpment and northeastern Northern Cape This comes after last week's heavy rains in KZN including a 21-year-old woman swept away while crossing a river a 54-year-old pharmacist whose car was washed away in Pinetown and a 10-year-old girl struck by lightning Disaster management teams are on high alert with KZN's MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs urging motorists to drive cautiously and residents to limit non-essential travel due to hazardous conditions Gauteng police are searching for a group of approximately 30 suspects who bombed five FNB ATMs and a drop safe at a Hammanskraal shopping mall in Tshwane, stealing an undisclosed amount of money, reports EWN The suspects also robbed two security officers of a firearm and a mobile phone A shootout erupted when police and private security officers arrived resulting in one security officer being shot and wounded; he was taken to a medical center for treatment Cocaine Smuggling Attempt Foiled at Cape Town Airport Police at Cape Town International Airport intercepted a cocaine smuggling attempt when a Brazilian woman was found carrying drugs in her sports bag and concealed in her body, reports IOL who arrived on a flight from Brazil on March 16 was identified and searched by the South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau (SANEB) and Border Police leading to the discovery of cocaine in her bag Further investigation revealed she had also ingested drug pellets and she is currently hospitalized for their removal The woman is set to appear in the Bellville Magistrate's Court on March 18 for drug trafficking charges.  Western Cape Hawks head Major Mathipa Makgato praised the operation saying the team demonstrated great vigilance in intercepting the suspect before the drugs could enter circulation More South African news Government Steps in to Assist Citizens Affected By Severe Weather AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 110 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals representing a diversity of positions on every topic We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. 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Volume 11 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1139235 It is now broadly admitted that female reproductive senescence – a decline in reproductive performance with increasing age – occurs in most species male reproductive senescence has been regularly inferred from the decline in the size or performance of phenotypic traits that underly male reproductive success the degree to which environmental conditions influence the pattern of senescence in sexual traits remains largely unknown From the analysis of two long-term studies of populations of European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) subjected to markedly different environmental contexts in the wild we tested the hypothesis that harsh natal and/or current conditions should lead to earlier and/or stronger rates of senescence in the length of fully-grown antlers than good natal and/or current conditions We found evidence of similar patterns of antler length senescence in both populations with an onset of senescence around 7 years of age and a decrease of length by about 1–1.5 cm per additional year of life from 7 years of age onwards We found that good early-life conditions delay senescence in antler length in roe deer Our results also revealed that senescent males seem to be unable to allocate substantially to antler growth an honest signal of male individual quality By modulating age-specific allocation to secondary sexual traits natal and current conditions could influence female mate choice and male–male competition over mates and as a result age-specific reproductive success and should be accounted for when studying the dynamics of sexual selection Table 1 Studies reporting age-related antler metrics in cervids both in terms of the strength (rate) and timing (age at onset) of male reproductive senescence are now required precluding an accurate assessment of the onset and rate of reproductive senescence that experience a high-quality natal environment should exhibit later and/or less steep senescence in antler length than males born in poor cohorts More than two thirds of individuals are of known age in each of the two populations Due to management restrictions in the two study areas known-age individuals are rarely removed from the populations Harvest is not selective in neither Chizé nor Trois-Fontaines and is allowed only for population control Given the limited support for senescence at one site we also pooled data from the two populations to compare senescence rates (for both absolute and relative antler length) between populations using additive and interactive effects of population and age the quality of a given cohort was determined as being either low (i.e mean fawn winter mass lower than the median among cohorts) or high (i.e with the median being determined separately for each population Following the same logic as previously described we evaluated the pattern of reproductive senescence for each cohort quality (i.e high) to compare the onset and rate of reproductive senescence in relation to environmental conditions in early life Model selection was consistently based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), using the correction for sample size (AICc) to avoid data overfitting (Burnham and Anderson, 2004). All analyses were performed using the R software (version 4.1.2; R Development Core Team, 2015) and all results are reported as parameter estimate ± SE Coefficients of determination for the models were reported as conditional (providing the proportion of variance explained by both the fixed and random factors) All data and script for the analyses are available in supplementary information Our dataset contained fully-grown antler length measurements for 213 males (223 measurements of 142 males at Chizé and 111 measurements of 71 males at Trois-Fontaines) Antlers were on average 11.5% longer at Trois-Fontaines than at Chizé (sum of both antlers: mean of 417 ± 4.76 mm vs 369 ± 3.43 mm; t224 = −8.208 There were few data on very old individuals for either population in our dataset: for males 10 years of age or older we obtained 11 measurements for 9 individuals at Chizé and 4 measurements for 4 individuals at Trois-Fontaines In Chizé, the selected model of age-specific changes in antler length was the threshold model (Tables S1–S6, Figures 1A, B) Absolute antler length started to decrease by about 1.4 cm each year from 7.28 [5.37; 8.97] years of age onwards (slope ± SE = −14.39 ± 4.02 mm R2 = 0.50) or by 1.35 cm when the allometric effect of body mass on antler length was accounted for (i.e from 7.22 [5.12; 8.84] years of age onwards (slope ± SE = −0.04 ± 0.01 on a log scale Figure 1 Patterns of age-specific changes in antlers in Chizé and Trois-Fontaines (A) Absolute antler length in relation to age: age threshold set at 7.28 years old in Chizé (N = 223 measurements of 142 individuals) (B) Relative (to body mass) antler length in relation to age: age threshold set at 7.22 in Chizé (C) Absolute antler length in relation to age: age threshold set at 6.84 in Trois-Fontaines (N = 110 measurements of 71 individuals) (D) Relative (to body mass) antler length in relation to age: age threshold set at 6.67 in Trois-Fontaines Red bands correspond to the confidence intervals for the age at the onset of senescence Light bands correspond to 95% confidence intervals Residual antler length was obtained by extracting residuals from a regression model of antler length vs In Trois-Fontaines, the baseline model (i.e. only including the age at last capture) was retained: no detectable diminution of antler length with increasing age was detected at first sight using either absolute or relative antler length (Tables S2–S6, Figures 1C, D) a threshold model allowing increased antler length throughout the prime adulthood provided the best fit (AICc = 1178.76 and −152.89 vs 1179.09 and −152 for the constant model for absolute and relative antler length The absolute antler length increased by approximately 0.7 cm each year from 3 to 6.84 [3; 11] years of age (slope before the threshold age ± SE = 7.23 ± 3.68 mm and then decreased by about 1 cm per additional year of age (slope beyond the threshold age = −10.67 ± 5.97 When accounting for the allometric effect of body mass antler length increased until 6.67 [3; 11] years of age and then decreased by approximately 0.9 cm per additional year of age (slope before the threshold age ± SE = 0.02 ± 0.01 on a log scale P = 0.03; slope beyond the threshold age = −0.02 ± 0.01 P = 0.11 Although the effect sizes of these models were not statistically different from 0 these models provided a satisfactory fit of the data (R2 = 0.63 and 0.71 for absolute and relative antler length with a very similar explanatory power to what we reported at Chizé The rate of decline of antler length tended to be lower in Trois-Fontaines than in Chizé although no significant differences were detected in neither absolute (1.07 ± 0.6 vs 1.44 ± 0.4 cm lower per year of age z210 = − 0.51; P = 0.60) nor relative antler length analysis (−0.02 ± 0.01 vs −0.04 ± 0.01 We did not find any statistical support for a difference in the age-dependent pattern of antler length between populations (i.e. no evidence of any interactive effect of age and population, Table S3) antler length declined linearly from around 7 years of age onwards We therefore conducted the following analyses by pooling the two populations and testing the additive effect of population in our model selection fully-grown antler length of males from 3 years of age onwards did not differ between low- and high-quality cohorts (386 ± 4.07 mm vs 382 ± 4.30 mm in high- and low-quality cohorts Figure 2 Patterns of age-specific changes in antlers in low- and high-quality cohorts (A) Absolute total antler length with age in low-quality cohorts (i.e with a mean yearling mass below the median over the study period): full-age model (N = 217 measures of 134 individuals) (B) Relative total antler length with age in low-quality cohorts: full-age model (C) Absolute total antler length with age in high-quality cohorts (i.e with a mean yearling mass above the median over the study period): threshold model with an onset of senescence at 9.33 years of age (N = 117 measures of 79 individuals) (D) Relative total antler length with age in high-quality cohorts: threshold model with an onset of senescence at 9.6 years of age Grey bands correspond to 95% confidence intervals with a decrease between prime-aged (2–7 years old) and senescent males (8+ years old) but it has never been firmly assessed by quantitative analyses based on detailed individual monitoring Our results provide evidence that senescence in antler size might be widespread across deer species irrespective of the intensity of sexual selection despite a modest sexual size dimorphism and a low level of polygyny roe deer males cannot maintain the same allocation to antlers throughout their entire lifetime It would now be particularly interesting to analyse patterns of senescence in male fertility measured by various ejaculate-related traits to test the hypothesis that patterns of senescence for pre- and post-copulatory traits are aligned this may partly explain the low number of old males (> 10 years of age) in our dataset conclude that senescence in antler length did actually occur for high-quality cohorts although it appears that poor natal conditions lead to earlier age at onset of antler length senescence the later onset of senescence in antler length for males born from high-quality cohorts might indicate a later onset of senescence in terms of reproductive success The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author The animal study was reviewed and approved by Director of Food The protocol of capture and blood sampling under the authority of the Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB) was approved by the Director of Food Agriculture and Forest (Prefectoral order 2009–14 from Paris) permitted the study of the populations (Partnership Convention ONCFS-ONF dated 2005-12-23) All experiments were performed in accordance with guidelines and regulations of the Ethical Committee of Lyon 1 University (project DR2014-09 and J-FL designed the study with input from AJMH SC wrote the first draft with inputs from J-MG All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version SC is supported by a grant from by the French Ministry of Education and Research This research has been supported by ANR research programs DivInT and EVORA We thank all the staff from the Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB) Stéphane Chabot and the field volunteers for organising the roe deer captures We are also grateful to four reviewers for insightful comments on a previous draft of this work The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1139235/full#supplementary-material Agence nationale des chasseurs de grand gibier (2005). 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Solène Cambreling, c29sZW5lLmNhbWJyZWxpbmdAdW5pdi1seW9uMS5mcg== the page you were looking for could not be found The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web