Stephen F. Austin State University

Enterococcus spp. are common but not predominant commensal bacteria that inhabit the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and animals and are widely distributed in various environmental matrices and diverse food sources. Multiple strains of beneficial enterococci are increasingly utilized as protective cultures, alternatives to antibiotics, and probiotics for controlling pathogens, mitigating disease, modulating the microbiome, and supporting overall host health. They also support food fermentation and safety, enhance sensory properties, and produce bioactive compounds such as bacteriocins with strong pathogen-inhibitory activity and multifarious health benefits. Despite their advantages in health and agrifood systems, their association with healthcare-associated infections and the spread of antimicrobial resistance raises concerns about their safety. These risks underscore the need for stringent safety evaluations before their use as probiotics, alternatives to antibiotics, or protective cultures. Here, we provide a comprehensive atlas of the multifaceted probiotic and antimicrobial potential, as well as safety considerations of beneficial enterococci. This would provide a valuable resource for future research, regulatory assessments, and applications in the agrifood system and healthcare.

In this conceptual article, we argue that Accelerated Learning Theory (ALT) provides a pedagogical design framework for operationalizing multidimensional writing engagement through instructional sequencing, task design, and participation structures. We synthesize ALT with multidimensional engagement theory to address a persistent theory-to-practice challenge: although engagement is strongly associated with positive learning outcomes, it remains difficult to translate engagement constructs into actionable classroom design decisions, particularly in the realm of writing instruction. We articulate a set of ALT-informed design levers (e.g., multimodal access, participation structures, learning climate, relevance, and iterative feedback) that support affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social engagement in writing. We conclude with illustrative classroom practices and an example scenario that demonstrate how the framework can guide teachers’ decisions about writing instruction and outline directions for future empirical research.

Urbanization profoundly impacts wildlife behavior and habitat use. While the effects of urbanization on diel activity patterns and mammal interactions have been well studied at the ground level, little is known about spatiotemporal patterns above the ground. Here, we assessed scansorial mammals and their diel activity patterns in the canopy, as well as the effectiveness of different camera trap orientations in tree crowns. We deployed 16 camera traps across ground and canopy strata at 5 sampling points in an urban green space and a residential neighborhood in a well-arbored town in the southeastern United States. From September 2024 to January 2025, we recorded 3,723 independent detections over 11,856 trap days, identifying 12 mammal species from 6 orders. Four scansorial species were observed using the canopy: eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) and fox squirrels (S. niger), which exhibited diurnal activity, and southern flying squirrels (Glaucomys volans) and raccoons (Procyon lotor), which were primarily nocturnal. The 4 scansorial species differed in their patterns of canopy and ground use; for example, southern flying squirrels and fox squirrels were mainly found in the canopy, while eastern gray squirrels showed a balanced use of both vertical strata, in contrast to raccoons which were found mainly on the ground. Notably, Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and domestic cats (Felis catus), despite their climbing ability, were detected exclusively on the ground. Detection rates were related to camera orientation and species. Cameras mounted on trunks and oriented downward (vertically) detected more southern flying squirrels, while cameras facing along branches (horizontally) showed a nonsignificant trend in detecting more fox squirrels, suggesting how species behavior and camera configuration jointly influence detection probability. Our results suggested the need to incorporate vertical strata into urban ecological research to enhance wildlife monitoring and management strategies. Future studies should investigate how specific urbanization-driven factors influence climbing behavior and canopy use for well-studied species such as eastern gray and fox squirrels, as well as for southern flying squirrels, whose ecology remains poorly understood.

Sub-Neptunes with planetary radii of Rp ≃ 2–4 R⊕ are the most common planets around solar-type stars in short-period (P < 100 d) orbits. It is still unclear, however, what their most likely composition is, that is whether they are predominantly gas dwarfs or water worlds. The sub-Neptunes orbiting bright host stars are very valuable because they are suitable for atmospheric characterization, which can break the well-known degeneracy in planet composition from the planet bulk density, when combined with a precise and accurate mass measurement. Here we report on the characterization of the sub-Neptune TOI-5789 c, which transits in front of the bright (V = 7.3 mag and Ks = 5.35 mag) and magnetically inactive K1 V dwarf HIP 99452 every 12.93 days, thanks to TESS photometry and 141 high-precision radial velocities obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph. We find that its radius, mass, and bulk density are Rc = 2.86−0.15+0.18 R⊕, Mc = 5.00 ± 0.50 M⊕, and ρc = 1.16 ± 0.23 g cm−3, respectively, and we show that TOI-5789 c is a promising target for atmosp-heric characterization with both JWST and, in the future, Ariel. By analyzing the HARPS-N radial velocities with different tools, we also detected three additional non-transiting planets, namely TOI-5789 b, d, and e, with orbital periods and minimum masses of Pb = 2.76 d, Mb sin i = 2.12 ± 0.28 M⊕, Pd = 29.6 d, Md sin i = 4.29 ± 0.68 M⊕, and Pe = 63.0 d, Me sin i = 11.61 ± 0.97 M⊕. TOI- 5789 is a mutually inclined system as the difference between the orbital inclinations of planets b and c must be higher than ~4 deg. Nevertheless, from sensitivity studies based on both the HARPS-N and archival HIRES radial-velocity measurements, we can exclude the possibility that these relatively high mutual inclinations are due to the perturbation by an outer gaseous giant planet.

TOI-1232 is a G dwarf star with a mass of 1.06(-0.06)(+0.07)M(circle dot) , a radius of 1.07 +/- 0.05 R-circle dot, and a slightly higher metallicity than solar of Fe/H = 0.18 +/- 0.05. The star hosts a transiting warm Jovian-mass planet, TOI-1232 b, with an orbital period of P-b=14.256(-0.001)(+0.001 )days, identified with data from multiple sectors of the TESS space telescope. The TESS light curve of TOI-1232 is complex, as it is contaminated by a background eclipsing binary with a period of 1.37 days. TOI-1232 b was firmly confirmed by ground-based transit follow-up campaigns from the Las Cumbres, Hazelwood, Brierfield, and ASTEP observatories. Additionally, the TESS transits of TOI-1232 b exhibit strong transit-timing variations (TTVs) with a superperiod of 235.5 +/- 0.7 days and a semiamplitude of 27 minutes. Radial velocity (RV) follow-up with the FEROS spectrograph confirms the planetary nature of the transiting candidate, while a self-consistent N-body analysis of RVs and TTVs pinpoints the presence of a second outer Saturn-mass companion, TOI-1232 c with a period of P-c=30.356(-0.012)(+0.010) days. The TOI-1232 warm-giant system is particularly important due to the evidence of two massive planets that reside near the 2:1 commensurability but are not locked in a mean-motion resonance. Thanks to TESS, we have revealed a handful of these rare systems. Hence, TOI-1232 is an important addition to understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of such compact, massive, warm giant planets.