We present the serendipitous radio-continuum discovery of a likely Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G305.4–2.2. This object displays a remarkable circular symmetry in shape, making it one of the most circular Galactic SNRs known. Nicknamed Teleios due to its symmetry, it was detected in the new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) radio–continuum images with an angular size of 1 320$^{\prime\prime}$$\times$1 260$^{\prime\prime}$ and PA = 0$^\circ$. While there is a hint of possible H$\alpha$ and gamma-ray emission, Teleios is exclusively seen at radio–continuum frequencies. Interestingly, Teleios is not only almost perfectly symmetric, but it also has one of the lowest surface brightnesses discovered among Galactic SNRs and a steep spectral index of $\alpha$=–0.6$\pm$0.3. Our best estimates from Hi studies and the $\Sigma$–D relation place Teleios as a type Ia SNR at a distance of either $\sim$2.2 kpc (near-side) or $\sim$7.7 kpc (far-side). This indicates two possible scenarios, either a young (under 1 000 yr) or a somewhat older SNR (over 10 000 yr). With a corresponding diameter of 14/48 pc, our evolutionary studies place Teleios at the either early or late Sedov phase, depending on the distance/diameter estimate. However, our modelling also predicts X-ray emission, which we do not see in the present generation of eROSITA images. We also explored a type Iax explosion scenario that would point to a much closer distance of $\lt$1 kpc and Teleios size of only $\sim$3.3 pc, which would be similar to the only known type Iax remnant SN1181. Unfortunately, all examined scenarios have their challenges, and no definitive Supernova (SN) origin type can be established at this stage. Remarkably, Teleios has retained its symmetrical shape as it aged even to such a diameter, suggesting expansion into a rarefied and isotropic ambient medium. The low radio surface brightness and the lack of pronounced polarisation can be explained by a high level of ambient rotation measure (RM), with the largest RM being observed at Teleios’s centre.

The Lyman alpha (Ly$\alpha$) forest in the spectra of $z\gt5$ quasars provides a powerful probe of the late stages of the epoch of reionisation (EoR). With the recent advent of exquisite datasets such as XQR-30, many models have struggled to reproduce the observed large-scale fluctuations in the Ly$\alpha$ opacity. Here we introduce a Bayesian analysis framework that forward-models large-scale lightcones of intergalactic medium (IGM) properties and accounts for unresolved sub-structure in the Ly$\alpha$ opacity by calibrating to higher-resolution hydrodynamic simulations. Our models directly connect physically intuitive galaxy properties with the corresponding IGM evolution, without having to tune ‘effective’ parameters or calibrate out the mean transmission. The forest data, in combination with UV luminosity functions and the CMB optical depth, are able to constrain global IGM properties at percent level precision in our fiducial model. Unlike many other works, we recover the forest observations without invoking a rapid drop in the ionising emissivity from $z\sim7$ to 5.5, which we attribute to our sub-grid model for recombinations. In this fiducial model, reionisation ends at $z=5.44\pm0.02$ and the EoR mid-point is at $z=7.7\pm0.1$. The ionising escape fraction increases towards faint galaxies, showing a mild redshift evolution at fixed UV magnitude, $M_\textrm{UV}$. Half of the ionising photons are provided by galaxies fainter than $M_\textrm{UV} \sim -12$, well below direct detection limits of optical/NIR instruments including $\textit{ JWST}$. We also show results from an alternative galaxy model that does not allow for a redshift evolution in the ionising escape fraction. Despite being decisively disfavoured by the Bayesian evidence, the posterior of this model is in qualitative agreement with that from our fiducial model. We caution, however, that our conclusions regarding the early stages of the EoR and which sources reionised the Universe are more model-dependent.

This paper focuses on the developmental tendencies and mechanisms underlying the unfolding of mood systems in Romance complement clauses. In view of the fact that the subsequent dynamics of change can be better understood and motivated against the backdrop of the Latin system, we take the basic structure of the Latin mood system as the reference and necessary starting point of our analysis. After briefly discussing the basic approaches to the mechanisms of mood change in the relevant research literature that puts forward notions like ‘modal harmony’, ‘regrammation’, ‘lexicalization’, and ‘conventionalization’, the article develops a modal–semantic perspective that casts a different light on the convergent and divergent developments of mood in the complement clause domain of Romance languages. The modal–semantic approach allows, apart from a coherent description and analysis of the developments, recasting the question of whether mood, especially the subjunctive, also comes with its own semantic value(s) in complement clauses. This modal–semantic approach not only provides a coherent description and analysis of the developments but also allows for a re-examination of the abstract semantics of the subjunctive mood (in complement clauses), spelling out its basic semantic features.

In temporal extensions of answer set programming (ASP) based on linear time, the behavior of dynamic systems is captured by sequences of states. While this representation reflects their relative order, it abstracts away the specific times associated with each state. However, timing constraints are important in many applications like, for instance, when planning and scheduling go hand in hand. We address this by developing a metric extension of linear-time temporal equilibrium logic, in which temporal operators are constrained by intervals over natural numbers. The resulting Metric Equilibrium Logic (MEL) provides the foundation of an ASP-based approach for specifying qualitative and quantitative dynamic constraints. To this end, we define a translation of metric formulas into monadic first-order formulas and give a correspondence between their models in MEL and Monadic Quantified Equilibrium Logic, respectively. Interestingly, our translation provides a blue print for implementation in terms of ASP modulo difference constraints.

Alterations of the gut microbiome have been associated with obesity and metabolic disorders. The gut microbiota can be influenced by the intake of dietary fibres with prebiotic properties, such as inulin-type fructans. The present study tested the hypothesis that obese individuals subjected for 12 weeks to an inulin-enriched v. inulin-poor diet have differential faecal fermentation patterns. The fermentation of cellulose and inulin hydrolysates of six different inulin-rich and inulin-poor vegetables of both groups was analysed in vitro on faecal inocula. The results showed that the microbiota from obese patients who received a fructan-rich diet for 3 weeks produces more gas and total SCFA compared with the microbiota taken from the same individuals before the treatment. Obese individuals fed with a low-fructan diet produce less gas and less SCFA compared with the treated group. The present study highlighted profound changes in microbiota fermentation capacity obtained by prebiotic intervention in obese individuals, which favours the production of specific bioactive metabolites.

Erosion of the upper Arkadelphia Formation by the Ouachita River in Hot Spring County, Arkansas, has revealed a diverse and abundant, late Maastrichtian chondrichthyan fauna representing at least 17 species: Squatina hassei, Ginglymostoma lehneri, Plicatoscyllium derameei, Ondontaspis aculeatus, Carcharias cf. C. holmdelensis, Serratolamna serrata, Squalicorax kaupi, Galeorhinus girardoti, Rhinobatos casieri, Ischyrhiza avonicola, Ischyrhiza mira, Sclerorhynchus sp., Ptychotrygon cf. P. vermiculata, Raja farishi, Rhombodus binkhorsti, and Dasyatis sp. All of these species are widely known from the Upper Cretaceous of North America. An extremely rare species, Schizorhiza cf. S. stromeri, currently known only from Mexico and Africa, is also present. The chondrichthyan remains occur almost entirely as teeth scattered by river activity across the surface of the marl and marly clay of the Arkadelphia Formation and can be collected from within localized accumulations of river sediments. Also present with the chondrichthyan remains are teeth from actinopterygians and reptiles as well as molluscan steinkerns, echinoid spines, and fragments of branching corals. This fauna expands the known geographic distribution of late Maastrichtian chondrichthyans in North America, and provides an important biostratigraphic connection between fauna of the Gulf Coastal Plain and Western Interior Seaway. It also supports the idea of a significant chondrichthyan turnover across the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary.

Atrazine has been the most widely used herbicide in North Americanprocessing sweet corn for decades; however, increased restrictions in recentyears have reduced or eliminated atrazine use in certain production areas.The objective of this study was to identify the best stakeholder-derivedweed management alternatives to atrazine in processing sweet corn. In fieldtrials throughout the major production areas of processing sweet corn,including three states over 4 yr, 12 atrazine-free weed managementtreatments were compared to three standard atrazine-containing treatmentsand a weed-free check. Treatments varied with respect to herbicide mode ofaction, herbicide application timing, and interrow cultivation. Alltreatments included a PRE application of dimethenamid. No single weedspecies occurred across all sites; however, weeds observed in two or moresites included common lambsquarters, giant ragweed, morningglory species,velvetleaf, and wild-proso millet. Standard treatments containing bothatrazine and mesotrione POST provided the most efficacious weed controlamong treatments and resulted in crop yields comparable to the weed-freecheck, thus demonstrating the value of atrazine in sweet corn productionsystems. Timely interrow cultivation in atrazine-free treatments did notconsistently improve weed control. Only two atrazine-free treatmentsconsistently resulted in weed control and crop yield comparable to standardtreatments with atrazine POST: treatments with tembotrione POST either withor without interrow cultivation. Additional atrazine-free treatments withtopramezone applied POST worked well in Oregon where small-seeded weedspecies were prevalent. This work demonstrates that certain atrazine-freeweed management systems, based on input from the sweet corn growers andprocessors who would adopt this technology, are comparable in performance tostandard atrazine-containing weed management systems.

The Lower Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale in southeastern Utah preserves a chondrichthyan assemblage of at least 13 taxa that include: Hybodus sp., Ptychodus cf. P. mammillaris Agassiz, 1843, Ptychodus whipplei Marcou, 1858, cf. Chiloscyllium sp., Scapanorhynchus raphiodon (Agassiz, 1843), Cretodus crassidens (Dixon, 1850), cf. Leptostyrax sp., cf. Cretalamna appendiculata (Agassiz, 1835), Squalicorax sp., Pseudohypolophus mcnultyi (Thurmond, 1971), Protoplatyrhina hopii Williamson, Kirkland and Lucas, 1993, Ischyrhiza schneideri (Slaughter and Steiner, 1968), and Ptychotrygon triangularis (Reuss, 1844). Although this assemblage is typical of other Turonian chondrichthyan faunas in North America, fossil teeth are preserved in two unique facies associations that consist of arenitic sandstones with mud interclasts and rounded chert, feldspar, and quartz pebbles. the coarser beds within these facies associations are previously interpreted to represent storm events and turbidity flows associated with a sea level lowstand. Chondrichthyan teeth occurring within these coarser beds are indicative of extensive transport and reworking and attest to the durable nature of chondrichthyan teeth for biostratigraphic and paleoecological interpretations. Similar studies of chondrichthyan teeth in shelf marine settings may also provide new insights for facies interpretations related to sequence stratigraphy and regional stratigraphic correlations.