Biology subjects

Press, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Press, D..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Passive Acoustic Monitoring within the Northwest Forest Plan Area: 2025 Annual Report

The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) program is a large-scale interagency biodiversity monitoring framework designed to assess the status and trends of northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina), barred owls (Strix varia), marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus), and broader forest biodiversity across federally administered lands in the Pacific Northwest. In 2025, we deployed autonomous recording units at 2,095 sampling stations within 532 5-km2 hexagons randomly selected across approximately 24 million acres of federal forest lands in Washington, Oregon, and California. These deployments generated 1.37 million hours of acoustic recordings that we processed using the convolutional neural network PNW-Cnet v5 for automated species identification and subsequent human validation of focal species detections. Northern spotted owls were detected in 28% of sampled hexagons range-wide, including 16% in Washington, 25% in Oregon, and 60% in California. Occupancy patterns remained consistent compared to previous years, with higher occupancy concentrated in southern portions of the geographic range and continued low occupancy across much of the Washington Cascades and Oregon Coast Range. Barred owls were detected in 86% of sampled hexagons and remained broadly distributed throughout most of the NWFP area. Marbled murrelets were detected in 50% of reviewed hexagons within NWFP marbled murrelet management zones, with highest occupancy occurring in coastal forests of Oregon and Washington. The 2025 field season occurred under substantial operational constraints that reduced sampling effort by approximately half relative to 2023 and 2024 because of staffing limitations affecting participating federal agencies. Despite these reductions, the NWFP-PAM framework continued to provide broad-scale, spatially representative ecological information across the NWFP area. Results highlight the growing importance of passive acoustic monitoring and machine learning approaches for long-term biodiversity monitoring under changing environmental and operational conditions.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Passive Acoustic Monitoring within the Northwest Forest Plan Area: 2024 Annual Report

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has become the primary framework for assessing the status, distribution, and habitat associations of forest-dependent wildlife under the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). In 2024, the NWFP PAM program continued to operate as a fully integrated, range-wide monitoring network, building on deployments initiated in 2018 and now conducting surveys across approximately 24 million acres of federal land. Using a randomized 2+20% sampling design, more than 4,000 autonomous recording units generated over 2 million hours of acoustic data analyzed with convolutional neural networks, enabling statistically rigorous inference at regional and range-wide scales. This report summarizes 2024 field efforts and analytical advancements in the context of recent peer-reviewed and in-progress studies. Updated analyses confirm persistent, low occupancy of northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina), with detections concentrated in the Klamath Mountains and southern Cascades, consistent with long-term demographic declines. Range-wide models of barred owl (Strix varia) landscape use continue to show high occupancy across much of the NWFP area, reinforcing competitive displacement as the dominant driver of spotted owl range contraction. The PAM network also advanced monitoring of marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus), with 2024 results supporting PAM as a cost-efficient alternative to traditional audio-visual surveys for assessing inland nesting habitat use in coastal forests. Beyond focal species, the program increasingly supports multi-taxa biodiversity monitoring through bioacoustic bycatch and soundscape analyses, linking species occurrence, habitat condition, and disturbance dynamics. Collectively, 2024 results demonstrate that PAM has reached operational maturity as the cornerstone of Phase II NWFP effectiveness monitoring. Sustaining adequate sampling effort and field capacity remains a challenge but essential, as reduced deployment intensity would increase uncertainty and weaken inference. Continued investment in PAM infrastructure and expertise is critical for informing adaptive management, supporting sustainable timber harvest, and evaluating ecosystem resilience under changing disturbance regimes.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Passive Acoustic Monitoring within the Northwest Forest Plan Area: 2023 Annual Report

Here we document progress in implementing large-scale passive acoustic monitoring across the Northwest Forest Plan area to track population trends of northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina), barred owls (S. varia), marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus), and a broad array of forest-adapted wildlife. In 2023, we deployed 4,012 autonomous recording units across 1,009 randomly selected 5-km{superscript 2} hexagons, generating nearly 2.2 million hours of recordings, representing approximately 1 petabyte of acoustic data. These data were processed with PNW-Cnet v5, the latest version of our convolutional neural network model, trained on 135 sound classes representing over 80 species and environmental sounds. Model performance demonstrated high precision for focal species and many additional taxa, substantially reducing manual review effort while enabling broad-scale biodiversity assessments. Results confirmed northern spotted owl detections in all 20% sample areas, with occupancy varying geographically and declining notably in the Tyee study area. Barred owls were widely detected, with the highest prevalence in Oregon and Washington and comparatively lower occupancy in California. Marbled murrelets were consistently detected in coastal areas, particularly the Olympic Peninsula and Oregon Coast Range. Beyond these focal species, PAM and PNW-Cnet generated robust datasets for a wide range of birds, mammals, and disturbance indicators, underscoring the value of random-site, multi-species monitoring. The 2023 field season marked the first full implementation of the 2% + 20% NWFP sampling design, expanding monitoring coverage while strengthening collaborations with federal and state partners. These efforts provide the foundation for long-term, cost-effective wildlife monitoring and inform conservation strategies in dynamic forest ecosystems.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Neurophysiological signatures of default mode network dysfunction and cognitive decline in Alzheimer disease.

Neural hyper-excitability and network dysfunction are neurophysiological hallmarks of Alzheimers disease (AD) in animal studies, but their presence and clinical relevance in humans remain poorly understood. We introduce a novel perturbation-based approach combining transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG), alongside resting-state EEG (rsEEG), to investigate neurophysiological basis of default mode network (DMN) dysfunction in early AD. While rsEEG revealed global neural slowing and disrupted synchrony, these measures reflected widespread changes in brain neurophysiology without network-specific insights. In contrast, TMS-EEG identified network-specific local hyper-excitability in the parietal DMN and disrupted connectivity with frontal DMN regions, which uniquely predicted distinct cognitive impairments and mediated the link between structural brain integrity and cognition. Our findings provide mechanistic insights into how network-specific neurophysiological disruptions contribute to AD-related cognitive dysfunction. Perturbation-based assessments hold promise as novel markers of early detection, disease progression, and target engagement for disease-modifying therapies aiming to restore abnormal neurophysiology in AD.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Novel psilocin prodrugs with altered pharmacological properties as candidate therapies for treatment-resistant anxiety disorders

The psychedelic compound psilocybin has shown therapeutic benefit in the treatment of numerous psychiatric diseases. A recent randomized clinical trial conducted at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center demonstrated the efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy in the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Similarly, a phase IIb study evaluating psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) presented statistically meaningful and long-term reduction in depressive symptoms. Also, many studies have reported the successful treatment of severe anxiety after a single oral dose of psilocybin, especially in patients struggling with cancer-related distress (CRD). Despite these compelling clinical results, concerns regarding the duration of the psychedelic experience produced by psilocybin pose a significant barrier to its widespread therapeutic application. Psilocybin, derived from magic mushrooms is the naturally occurring prodrug of the neuroactive compound psilocin. When orally administered, exposure to the acidic gastrointestinal (GI) environment together with enzymatic processing by intestinal and hepatic alkaline phosphatase lead to the dephosphorylation of psilocybin producing elevated levels of systemic psilocin. These plasma levels are detectable up to 24 h and produce a psychoactive episode lasting as long as 6 h post-ingestion. In order to positively modify the kinetics of the acute psychedelic response, we have engineered a library of novel prodrug derivatives (NPDs) of psilocin, introducing a diversity of alternative metabolically cleavable moieties modified at the 4-carbon position of the core indole ring. This library consists of twenty-eight unique compounds represented by nine distinct prodrug classes. Each molecule was screened in vitro for metabolic stability using isolated human serum, and human cellular fractions derived from liver and intestinal tissues. This screen revealed fifteen prodrugs that produced measurable levels of psilocin in vitro, with ester and thiocarbonate-based prodrug derivatives significantly represented. These fifteen NPDs were further evaluated for pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles in mice, assessing plasma levels of both residual prodrug and resultant psilocin. PK results confirmed the efficiency of ester and thiocarbonate-based prodrug metabolism upon oral and intravenous administration, achieving levels reduced, albeit comparable to levels of psilocybin-derived psilocin. Of note, almost all NPDs tested maintained reduced overall exposure of psilocin relative to psilocybin, with no measurable levels detected at 24 h post-dose. Finally, all NPDs were screened for CNS bioavailability in healthy mice using the Head Twitch Response (HTR), a behavioural biomarker of 5-HT2A receptor stimulation and an established proxy for psychoactive potential. Interestingly, five NPDs produced peak HTR that approached or exceeded levels induced by an equivalent dose of psilocybin. Among these bioactive prodrugs, an ester-based and thiocarbonate-based molecule produced long-term anxiolytic benefit in chronically stressed mice evaluated in the marble burying psychiatric model. Overall, this screening campaign identified novel candidate prodrugs of psilocin with altered metabolic profiles and reduced pharmacological exposure, potentially attenuating the duration of the psychedelic response. These molecules still maintained the long-term psychiatric and physiological benefits characteristic of psilocybin therapy. Additionally, these modified parameters also offer the opportunity for altered routes of administration bypassing conventional oral dosing.

pharmacology and toxicology↗