The Automated Meteorology—Ice—Geophysics Observation System 3 (AMIGOS-3) is a multi-sensor on-ice ocean mooring and weather, camera and precision GPS measurement station, controlled by a Python script. The station is designed to be deployed on floating ice in the polar regions and operate unattended for up to several years. Ocean mooring sensors (SeaBird MicroCAT and Nortek Aquadopp) record conductivity, temperature and depth (reported at 10 min intervals), and current velocity (hourly intervals). A Silixa XT fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing system provides a temperature profile time-series through the ice and ocean column with a cadence of 6 d−1 to 1 week−1 depending on available station power. A subset of the station data is telemetered by Iridium modem. Two-way communication, using both single-burst data and file transfer protocols, facilitates station data collection changes and power management. Power is supplied by solar panels and a sealed lead-acid battery system. Two AMIGOS-3 systems were installed on the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf in January 2020, providing data well into 2022. We discuss the components of the system and present several of the data sets, summarizing observed climate, ice and ocean conditions.

Rift propagation, rather than basal melt, drives the destabilization and disintegration of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf. Since 2016, rifts have episodically advanced throughout the central ice-shelf area, with rapid propagation events occurring during austral spring. The ice shelf's speed has increased by ~70% during this period, transitioning from a rate of 1.65 m d−1 in 2019 to 2.85 m d−1 by early 2023 in the central area. The increase in longitudinal strain rates near the grounding zone has led to full-thickness rifts and melange-filled gaps since 2020. A recent sea-ice break out has accelerated retreat at the western calving front, effectively separating the ice shelf from what remained of its northwestern pinning point. Meanwhile, a distributed set of phase-sensitive radar measurements indicates that the basal melting rate is generally small, likely due to a widespread robust ocean stratification beneath the ice–ocean interface that suppresses basal melt despite the presence of substantial oceanic heat at depth. These observations in combination with damage modeling show that, while ocean forcing is responsible for triggering the current West Antarctic ice retreat, the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf is experiencing dynamic feedbacks over decadal timescales that are driving ice-shelf disintegration, now independent of basal melt.

In the past decade many powerplant systems have been proposed for VTOL aircraft. Of these, flight tests have shown the lift jet and vectored thrust engine to be practical and suitable for forming the basis of operational VTOL military strike aircraft. High on the list of proposed VTOL powerplant systems is the lift turbo-fan which has the inherent advantages of better hover fuel consumption, lower efflux velocity and lower jet noise. So far there has been no practical demonstration of this type of powerplant in Europe, and it is useful to look at some of the studies that have been made to compare the characteristics of the lift fan and the lift jet.

The paper compares the Rolls-Royce RB 162 16:1 thrust/weight ratio lift jet and its installation with a range of Rolls-Royce lift fans derived from the RB 162 using the latter as the gas generator.

The comparisons between the basic engines reveal the fan to have worse thrust/volume, thrust/weight and response rates. The installation of these engines in a lift pod is fully described showing the equipment required for complete VTOL powerplant. A comparison of the Installed weight breakdown for the two types of pod is made. Some of the advantage of the fans’ inherently lower fuel consumption is lost in the longer take-off transition time which accrues from the higher momentum drag of the lift fans and higher pod drag.

Looking to the future, the authors suggest fan engines based on more advanced gas generators and having a greater degree of ingenuity to minimise the weight and volume penalties.

Monoclinic Cu2SnS3 was made by solution based processing of the precursor metals after which the samples are annealed in a sulphur environment. XRD and Raman spectra shows that the monoclinic phase was synthesised. One sample was further etched in KCN and HCl to remove possible secondary phases. Transmission spectra show that the material has two optical transitions and in conjunction with reflection data absorption spectra were calculated. The two optical transitions are determined to be 0.91 and 0.98 for the unetched sample and 0.90 and 0.95 eV for the etched sample. The values of the optical transitions are within the error the same and thus etching does not affect the values of these optical transitions. Photoluminescence spectra map show only one luminescence peak with a maximum at 0.95 eV, which is consistent with the values found by absorption spectra. This in combination with the Raman spectra and XRD indicates that the sample contains only one polymorph of Cu2SnS3, which is monoclinic. Therefore the two optical transitions are intrinsic to monoclinic Cu2SnS3.

The Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave is one of the most important sites for the study of the earliest manifestations and development of prehistoric art at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. Different dating techniques have been performed thus far (AMS 14C, U/Th TIMS, 36Cl dating) to model the chronological framework of this decorated cave. The cave yielded several large charcoal fragments, which enabled the opportunity for obtaining multiple dates; thus, a First Radiocarbon Intercomparison Program (FIP) was initiated in 2004 using three charcoal pieces. The FIP demonstrated that those cross-dated samples belonged to a time period associated with the first human occupation. One of the statistical interests of an intercomparison program is to reduce the uncertainty on the sample age; thus, to further assess the accuracy of the chronological framework, the Second Intercomparison Program (SIP) involving 10 international 14C laboratories was carried out on two pieces of charcoal found inside two hearth structures of the Galerie des Mégacéros. Each laboratory used its own pretreatment and AMS facilities. In total, 21 and 22 measurements were performed, respectively, which yielded consistent results averaging ∼32 ka BP. Two strategies have currently been developed to identify statistical outliers and to deal with them; both lead to quasi-identical calibrated combined densities. Finally, the new results were compared with those of the FIP, leading to the important conclusion that five different samples from at least three different hearth structures give really tightened temporal densities, associated with one short human occupation in the Galerie des Mégacéros.

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture takes advantage of the mutualism between some detritivorous fish and phytoplankton. The fish recycle nutrients by consuming live (and dead) algae and provide the inorganic carbon to fuel the growth of live algae. In the meanwhile, algae purify the water and generate the oxygen required by fishes. Such mechanism stabilizes the functioning of an artificially recycling ecosystem, as exemplified by combining the euryhaline tilapia Sarotherodon melanotheron heudelotii and the unicellular alga Chlorella sp. Feed addition in this ecosystem results in faster fish growth but also in an increase in phytoplankton biomass, which must be limited. In the prototype described here, the algal population control is exerted by herbivorous zooplankton growing in a separate pond connected in parallel to the fish–algae ecosystem. The zooplankton production is then consumed by tilapia, particularly by the fry and juveniles, when water is returned to the main circuit. Chlorella sp. and Brachionus plicatilis are two planktonic species that have spontaneously colonized the brackish water of the prototype, which was set-up in Senegal along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. In our system, water was entirely recycled and only evaporation was compensated (1.5% volume/day). Sediment, which accumulated in the zooplankton pond, was the only trophic cul-de-sac. The system was temporarily destabilized following an accidental rotifer invasion in the main circuit. This caused Chlorella disappearance and replacement by opportunist algae, not consumed by Brachionus. Following the entire consumption of the Brachionus population by tilapias, Chlorella predominated again. Our artificial ecosystem combining S. m. heudelotii, Chlorella and B. plicatilis thus appeared to be resilient. This farming system was operated over one year with a fish productivity of 1.85 kg/m2 per year during the cold season (January to April).

Containerless techniques (levitation) completely eliminate contact with the sample. This unique sample environment allows deep supercooling of many liquids and avoids contamination of high-temperature melts. Recent experiments at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) high-energy beamline 11 ID-C used aerodynamic levitation with laser beam heating and acoustic levitation with cryogenic cooling. By using these two methods, liquids were studied over much of the temperature range from −40 to +2500°C. This paper briefly describes the instrumentation and its use and is illustrated with examples of measurements on molten oxides and low-temperature liquids.

This paper will describe the results of in situ high-energy X-ray measurements performed on stable and supercooled oxide liquids using containerless techniques. As will be discussed in the companion paper (Weber et al.), the use of an aerodynamic levitator furnace with laser heating allows the structures of refractory oxide liquids to be probed. Because of the contactless nature of this sample environment liquids can be deeply supercooled, and this provides opportunities to study the metastable structures of supercooled liquids. Of particular interest are the so-called fragile liquids that depart from Arrhenius-law viscosity behaviour and that, by definition, have temperature-dependent structures. The focus of this paper is the study of two oxide systems, MgO–SiO2 and Al2O3–SiO2. These two liquids have highly disordered stable liquid structures that differ substantially from the structures of the equivalent glasses. We present data showing how these structures change when supercooled and demonstrate dramatic changes in short-range (coordination number) and intermediate-range order during vitrification. These data have been collected by isothermal measurement and also fast quenching methods using the recently developed method of rapid acquisition using a Perkin Elmer amorphous silicon flat panel detector; this gives a large Q coverage for incident energies of >115 keV. The rapid data acquisition enables the vitrification process to be observed directly.