A recent outbreak of cryptosporidiosis (Cryptosporidium parvum, subtype IIdA23G1) among veterinary students associated with extracurricular activities concerned with lambs is described from Norway. Although cryptosporidiosis outbreaks among veterinary students have been frequently reported, this is among the first from lamb contact. Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected in samples from two students and three lambs. A questionnaire distributed immediately after the outbreak was recognized, identified an assumed attack rate of 50% based on exposure and illness among exposed students (28 of 56), despite most reporting good or very good hygiene measures. Laboratory diagnostics confirmed infection in two of these. The illness lasted over a week in most students (up to 15 days), but contact with health services was negligible. In addition to implementing measures to reduce the likelihood of further such outbreaks among veterinary students, it is recommended that future outbreaks of diarrhoea among ruminants on the farm should be investigated for aetiological agents.

Weathered perthite and mixed muscovite-kaolinite from a kaolinitic granite at Trial Hill in east Queensland and kaolinized sericitic alteration from a granite from the Ardlethan Tin Mine of New South Wales were examined by optical, scanning electron (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to determine the alteration process of muscovite to kaolinite and kaolinite to halloysite (7Å). Muscovite was found intimately interleaved with kaolinite in a variety of proportions on a sub-micrometer scale. The contact was generally parallel to the (001) layers of both minerals, and the thickness of the contact layer alternated between 10 and 7 Å over short distances. Where the kaolinite to muscovite contact was at an acute angle to the muscovite layers, a small angle existed between the layering of the two phases, consistent with a topotactic alteration of muscovite to kaolinite. One tetrahedral sheet in the muscovite appeared to have been removed over 50–100 Å, converting a 10-Å layer to a 7-Å layer. The mica near the contact with kaolinite was easily damaged in the electron beam and showed Al loss during analytical transmission electron microscopy; thus, H3O+ probably substituted for K+ in this transitional phase.

An SEM examination of completely weathered plagioclase showed kaolinite plates having attached, parallel, polygonal rods of halloysite (7Å), which had planar sides and a central void, partly fused with the surfaces of the kaolinite crystals. TEM study showed that the kaolinite altered to halloysite, and that, where the kaolinite was partly altered to halloysite, a series of sharp kinks were present in the kaolinite plate in which alteration had occurred. These kinks were interspersed with linear kaolinite relics, 0.1–0.2 μm long, which appear to have provided local rigidity to the clay packet. Apparently, the altered clay first curled into loosely wound spirals, which ranged in cross-section from triangles to irregular octagons, with pentagons and hexagons being most common. The tendency to pentagons and hexagons compares well with a statistical study of the angles, which were most commonly grouped around 120°. As alteration of the kaolinite relics progressed, the linear parts of the spiral lost their rigidity and became circular or oval shaped. The long axis of the halloysite spirals was parallel to the X axis of the kaolinite. Halloysite spirals formed most readily if they had space to curl; if space was not available, the halloysite formed sheaves. Rare, thin layers of muscovite were present projecting through kaolinite into halloysite. Where muscovite relics reached open spaces, the 10-Å structure expanded to 14 Å.

Bruineberg and colleagues argue that a realist interpretation of Markov blankets inadvertently relies upon unfounded assumptions. However, insofar as their diagnosis is accurate, their prescribed instrumentalism may ultimately prove insufficient as a complete remedy. Drawing upon a process-based perspective on living systems, we suggest a potential way to avoid some of the assumptions behind problems described by Bruineberg and colleagues.

George L. Cowgill had a major influence on the study of the ancient city of Teotihuacan and the development and promotion of quantitative methods in archaeology. His wit, teaching, and research influenced many in the profession. We draw on two published autobiographical works (Cowgill 2008a, 2013a), some unpublished autobiographical notes (Cowgill 1983), his many publications, and our own associations with George.

Osiurak and Reynaud (O&R) claim that research into the origin of cumulative technological culture has been too focused on social cognition and has consequently neglected the importance of uniquely human reasoning capacities. This commentary raises two interrelated theoretical concerns about O&R's notion of technical-reasoning capacities, and suggests how these concerns might be met.

The Teotihuacan Mapping Project (TMP) provided vast quantities of invaluable data to our understanding of this famous ancient city. The ‘Documenting, Disseminating, and Archiving Data from the Teotihuacan Mapping Project’ aims to analyse, re-examine and ultimately coalesce TMP data for entry into The Digital Archaeological Record.

Twenty one samples of relatively pure tubular halloysites (HNTs) from localities in Australia, China, New Zealand, Scotland, Turkey and the USA have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and electron microscopy. The halloysites occur in cylindrical tubular forms with circular or elliptical cross sections and curved layers and also as prismatic tubular forms with polygonal cross sections and flat faces. Measurements of particle size indicate a range from 40 to 12,700 nm for tube lengths and from 20 to 600 nm for diameters. Size distributions are positively skewed with mean lengths ranging from 170 to 950 nm and mean diameters from 50 to 160 nm. Cylindrical tubes are systematically smaller than prismatic ones. Features related to order/ disorder in XRD patterns e.g. as measured by a ‘cylindrical/prismatic’ (CP) index and IR spectra as measured by an ‘OH-stretching band ratio’ are related to the proportions of cylindrical vs. prismatic tubes and correlated with other physical measurements such as specific surface area and cation exchange capacity. The relationships of size to geometric form, along with evidence for the existence of the prismatic form in the hydrated state and the same 2M 1 stacking sequence irrespective of hydration state (i.e. 10 vs. 7 Å) or form, suggests that prismatic halloysites are the result of continued growth of cylindrical forms.

Historically, alloy development with better radiation performance has been focused on traditional alloys with one or two principal element(s) and minor alloying elements, where enhanced radiation resistance depends on microstructural or nanoscale features to mitigate displacement damage. In sharp contrast to traditional alloys, recent advances of single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys (SP-CSAs) have opened up new frontiers in materials research. In these alloys, a random arrangement of multiple elemental species on a crystalline lattice results in disordered local chemical environments and unique site-to-site lattice distortions. Based on closely integrated computational and experimental studies using a novel set of SP-CSAs in a face-centered cubic structure, we have explicitly demonstrated that increasing chemical disorder can lead to a substantial reduction in electron mean free paths, as well as electrical and thermal conductivity, which results in slower heat dissipation in SP-CSAs. The chemical disorder also has a significant impact on defect evolution under ion irradiation. Considerable improvement in radiation resistance is observed with increasing chemical disorder at electronic and atomic levels. The insights into defect dynamics may provide a basis for understanding elemental effects on evolution of radiation damage in irradiated materials and may inspire new design principles of radiation-tolerant structural alloys for advanced energy systems.

Since 1998 archaeological investigations on Holme-next-the-Sea beach have recorded the waterlogged remains of two Bronze Age timber circles, timber structures, coppiced trees, metal objects, and salt- and freshwater marshes. The second timber circle (Holme II) is only the third waterlogged structure of its type to be discovered in Britain and only the second to be dated by dendrochronology. The felling of timbers used in Holme II has been dated to the spring or summer of 2049 bc , exactly the time as the felling of the timbers used to build the first circle (Holme I). This shared date provides the only known example of two adjacent monuments constructed at precisely the same time in British prehistory. It also informs comparisons between Holme II and other British timber circles and therefore helps develop interpretations. This paper suggests Holme II was a mortuary monument directly related to the use of Holme I.

In the 1960s, the Teotihuacan Mapping Project (TMP) focused an ambitious, multiyear survey program on the pre-Columbian urban center of Teotihuacan. In addition to creating a highly detailed map, the TMP made systematic records of surface remains and collected nearly one million artifacts from roughly 5,000 provenience tracts. Taken together, the spatial, descriptive, and artifactual data collected by the TMP still constitutes one of the most extensive and most detailed records in existence for any ancient city. This paper characterizes and provides an update on TMP surface observations, particularly as they exist in digital format. Several analytical case studies illustrate substantive ways in which these data have been used in the decades since the TMP survey to investigate the culture and history of ancient Teotihuacan. The utility of extensive surface survey data for investigating key urban organizational elements such as neighborhoods and social districts is briefly considered, along with the growing importance of the TMP collections and records as increasingly large parts of Teotihuacan are lost to urban sprawl and destructive agricultural practices.

Progress toward combining time-resolved experiments with periodic three-dimensional analysis of the evolved microstructural state has been made recently. In situ electron microscopy is used to observe in real time the development of irradiation defects and the influence of these defects on dislocation behavior. Three-dimensional characterization provides information on the true spatial distribution of defects and clarifies effects of the free surfaces in thin films. This quasi-four dimensional analysis approach has been applied to understand the formation of channels in irradiated alloys, the depth distribution of ion damage in an electron transparent foil, and the dislocation channel interactions with grain boundaries. The new insight obtained from these experiments is highlighted and contrasted with findings from simulations.

A single nucleotide polymorphism rs12807809 located upstream of the neurogranin (NRGN) gene has been identified as a risk variant for schizophrenia in recent genome-wide association studies. To date, there has been little investigation of the endophenotypic consequences of this variant, and our own investigations have suggested that the effects of this gene are not apparent at the level of cognitive function in patients or controls. Because the impact of risk variants may be more apparent at the level of brain, the aim of this investigation was to delineate whether NRGN genotype predicted variability in brain structure and/or function. Healthy individuals participated in structural (N = 140) and/or functional (N = 36) magnetic resonance imaging (s/fMRI). Voxel-based morphometry was used to compare gray and white matter volumes between carriers of the non-risk C allele (i.e., CC/CT) and those who were homozygous for the risk T allele. Functional imaging data were acquired during the performance of a spatial working memory task, and were also analyzed with respect to the difference between C carriers and T homozygotes. There was no effect of the NRGN variant rs12807809 on behavioral performance or brain structure. However, there was a main effect of genotype on brain activity during performance of the working memory task, such that while C carriers exhibited a load-independent decrease in left superior frontal gyrus/BA10, TT individuals failed to show a similar decrease in activity. The failure to disengage this ventromedial prefrontal region, despite preserved performance, may be indicative of a reduction in processing efficiency in healthy TT carriers. Although it remains to be established whether this holds true in larger samples and in patient cohorts, if valid, this suggests a potential mechanism by which NRGN variability might contribute to schizophrenia risk.

Three white spruces, Picea glauca (Moench) Voss (30–35 cm diameter at breast height), felled in central Alberta, were colonized by Ips perturbatus (Eichhoff) beginning in late May 1999. The mean (±SE) density of breeding galleries on the trees was 217 ± 23/m2 (n = 30). Harem size ranged from one to four females per gallery, with a mean of 2.1 ± 0.6 (n = 90). Tunnel excavation and oviposition occurred primarily during the first 3 weeks after gallery initiation. Individual females laid 48.9 ± 2.5 eggs (n = 30) in galleries that reached 10.0 ± 0.3 cm in length (n = 45). Males assisted their mates by removing frass and woody debris from the tunnels. Males remained in their galleries for at least 1 week, although there was gradual attrition such that < 15% of males remained after 6 weeks. Large males abandoned their galleries sooner than small males. In contrast, females were present in almost half of the oviposition tunnels examined after 6 weeks, and there was no significant relationship between female size and residence time. Mortality from egg to adult was high (98%) during this 1-year study, likely a result of the intense crowding of galleries. Adult offspring were found beneath the bark in mid-July, although the main emergence did not begin until mid-September. Because such late emergence would be too late for these individuals to reproduce before winter, I conclude that I. perturbatus has only one generation per year in central Alberta.