We present the third data release from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project. The release contains observations of 32 pulsars obtained using the 64-m Parkes ‘Murriyang’ radio telescope. The data span is up to 18 yr with a typical cadence of 3 weeks. This data release is formed by combining an updated version of our second data release with $\sim$3 yr of more recent data primarily obtained using an ultra-wide-bandwidth receiver system that operates between 704 and 4032 MHz. We provide calibrated pulse profiles, flux density dynamic spectra, pulse times of arrival, and initial pulsar timing models. We describe methods for processing such wide-bandwidth observations and compare this data release with our previous release.

While predicting the course of an epidemic is difficult, predicting the course of a pandemic from an emerging virus is even more so. The validity of most predictive models relies on numerous parameters, involving biological and social characteristics often unknown or highly uncertain. Data of the COVID-19 epidemics in China, Japan, South Korea and Italy were used to build up deterministic models without strong assumptions. These models were then applied to other countries to identify the closest scenarios in order to foresee their coming behaviour. The models enabled to predict situations that were confirmed little by little, proving that these tools can be efficient and useful for decision making in a quickly evolving operational context.

Findings as to whether individuals’ experiences of physical maltreatment from their parents in childhood predict their own perpetration of physical maltreatment toward their children in adulthood are mixed. Whether the maltreatment experienced is severe versus moderate or mild may relate to the strength of intergenerational associations. Furthermore, understanding of the roles of possible mediators (intervening mechanisms linking these behaviors) and moderators of the intervening mechanisms (factors associated with stronger or weaker mediated associations) is still relatively limited. These issues were examined in the present study. Mediating mechanisms based on a social learning model included antisocial behavior as assessed by criminal behaviors and substance use (alcohol and drug use), and the extent to which parental angry temperament moderated any indirect effects of antisocial behavior was also examined. To address these issues, data were used from Generations 2 and 3 of a prospective three-generational study, which is an extension of the Oregon Youth Study. Findings indicated modest intergenerational associations for severe physical maltreatment. There was a significant association of maltreatment history, particularly severe maltreatment with mothers’ and fathers’ delinquency. However, neither delinquency nor substance use showed significant mediational effects, and parental anger as a moderator of mediation did not reach significance.

Marteilia refringens causes marteiliosis in oysters, mussels and other bivalve molluscs. This parasite previously comprised two species, M. refringens and Marteilia maurini, which were synonymized in 2007 and subsequently referred to as M. refringens ‘O-type’ and ‘M-type’. O-type has caused mass mortalities of the flat oyster Ostrea edulis. We used high throughput sequencing and histology to intensively screen flat oysters and mussels (Mytilus edulis) from the UK, Sweden and Norway for infection by both types and to generate multi-gene datasets to clarify their genetic distinctiveness. Mussels from the UK, Norway and Sweden were more frequently polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive for M-type (75/849) than oysters (11/542). We did not detect O-type in any northern European samples, and no histology-confirmed Marteilia-infected oysters were found in the UK, Norway and Sweden, even where co-habiting mussels were infected by the M-type. The two genetic lineages within ‘M. refringens’ are robustly distinguishable at species level. We therefore formally define them as separate species: M. refringens (previously O-type) and Marteilia pararefringens sp. nov. (M-type). We designed and tested new Marteilia-specific PCR primers amplifying from the 3’ end of the 18S rRNA gene through to the 5.8S gene, which specifically amplified the target region from both tissue and environmental samples.

Black widows and redbacks are binary systems consisting of a millisecond pulsar in a close binary with a companion having matter driven off of its surface by the pulsar wind. X-rays due to an intrabinary shock have been observed from many of these systems, as well as orbital variations in the optical emission from the companion due to heating and tidal distortion. We have been systematically studying these systems in radio, optical and X-rays. Here we will present an overview of X-ray and optical studies of these systems, including new XMM-Newton and NuStar data obtained from several of them, along with new optical photometry.

Poor effortful control is a key temperamental factor underlying behavioral problems. The bidirectional association of child effortful control with both positive parenting and negative discipline was examined from ages approximately 3 to 13–14 years, involving five time points, and using data from parents and children in the Oregon Youth Study—Three Generational Study (N = 318 children from 150 families). Based on a dynamic developmental systems approach, it was hypothesized that there would be concurrent associations between parenting and child effortful control and bidirectional effects across time from each aspect of parenting to effortful control and from effortful control to each aspect of parenting. It was also hypothesized that associations would be more robust in early childhood, from ages 3 to 7 years, and would diminish as indicated by significantly weaker effects at the older ages, 11–12 to 13–14 years. Longitudinal feedback or mediated effects were also tested. The findings supported (a) stability in each construct over multiple developmental periods; (b) concurrent associations, which were significantly weaker at the older ages; (c) bidirectional effects, consistent with the interpretation that at younger ages children's effortful control influenced parenting, whereas at older child ages, parenting influenced effortful control; and (d) a transactional effect, such that maternal parenting in late childhood was a mechanism explaining children's development of effortful control from middle childhood to early adolescence.

Cores dating back to deglaciation were taken from three lakes in Atlantic Canada and analyzed for arcellaceans and pollen. Paleotemperatures and paleo-precipitation were calculated from the pollen data using transfer functions. A sudden warming is recorded by the pollen around 10,000 years B.P., followed by a general warming to the mid Holocene Hypsithermal, then by a decrease in temperature and increase in effective precipitation to the present. The three lakes, two in western Newfoundland and one in eastern Nova Scotia, contain similar late glacial (13-10 ka), early Holocene (10-8 ka), mid Holocene (8-4 ka), and late Holocene (4-0 ka) arcellacean assemblages. Immediately following retreat of the ice sheets, Centropyxis aculeata, Centropyxis constricta, Difflugia oblonga, Difflugia urceolata, and Difflugia corona were common. The latter part of the late glacial is characterized by sparse assemblages dominated by C. aculeata. The arcellacean record thus suggests a climatic reversal in Atlantic Canada between 11,500 and 10,000 years B.P., analogous to the Younger Dryas, although this is not recorded by the pollen. Species diversity increased sharply at the beginning of the Holocene, and D. oblonga is the dominant taxon in early Holocene sediments. Difflugia oblonga remained common through the mid Holocene, but percentages of C. aculeata were very low, and Pontigulasia compressa and Difflugia bacillifera peaked in abundance during the Hypsithermal. The late Holocene is characterized by a resurgence in C. aculeata at the expense of other taxa. The increase in Heleopera sphagni and Nebella collaris since 5,000 years B.P. at the two sites in southwestern Newfoundland reflects paludification in response to increased precipitation since the Hypsithermal. Because the changes in arcellacean assemblages are regionally synchronous in all three lakes and coincide with climatically driven vegetational successions indicated by the pollen record, arcellaceans appear to respond to climatic change, and thus may be useful paleoecological and paleolimnological indicators. With their quicker generation time, these protists may be better suited than pollen to recording short-lived phenomena, like the mid-Holocene Hypsithermal and the Younger Dryas reversal.

Inclusion of fermentable fibres in the diet can have an impact on the hindgut microbiome and provide numerous health benefits to the host. Potato fibre (PF), a co-product of potato starch isolation, has a favourable chemical composition of pectins, resistant and digestible starch, cellulose, and hemicelluloses. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of increasing dietary PF concentrations on the faecal microbiome of healthy adult dogs. Fresh faecal samples were collected from ten female dogs with hound bloodlines (6·13 (sem 0·17) years; 22·0 (sem 2·1) kg) fed five test diets containing graded concentrations of PF (0, 1·5, 3, 4·5 or 6 % as-fed; Roquette Frères) in a replicated 5 × 5 Latin square design. Extraction of DNA was followed by amplification of the V4–V6 variable region of the 16S rRNA gene using barcoded primers. Sequences were classified into taxonomic levels using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLASTn) against a curated GreenGenes database. Inclusion of PF increased (P< 0·05) the faecal proportions of Firmicutes, while those of Fusobacteria decreased (P< 0·05). Similar shifts were observed at the genus level and were confirmed by quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis. With increasing concentrations of PF, faecal proportions of Faecalibacterium increased (P< 0·05). Post hoc Pearson's correlation analysis showed positive (P< 0·05) correlations with Bifidobacterium spp. and butyrate production and Lactobacillus spp. concentrations. Overall, increases in the proportion of Faecalibacterium (not Lactobacillus/Bifidobacterium, as confirmed by qPCR analysis) and faecal SCFA concentrations with increasing dietary PF concentrations suggest that PF is a possible prebiotic fibre.