The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) offers powerful new capabilities for studying the polarised and magnetised Universe at radio wavelengths. In this paper, we introduce the Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism (POSSUM), a groundbreaking survey with three primary objectives: (1) to create a comprehensive Faraday rotation measure (RM) grid of up to one million compact extragalactic sources across the southern $\sim50$% of the sky (20,630 deg$^2$); (2) to map the intrinsic polarisation and RM properties of a wide range of discrete extragalactic and Galactic objects over the same area; and (3) to contribute interferometric data with excellent surface brightness sensitivity, which can be combined with single-dish data to study the diffuse Galactic interstellar medium. Observations for the full POSSUM survey commenced in May 2023 and are expected to conclude by mid-2028. POSSUM will achieve an RM grid density of around 30–50 RMs per square degree with a median measurement uncertainty of $\sim$1 rad m$^{-2}$. The survey operates primarily over a frequency range of 800–1088 MHz, with an angular resolution of 20” and a typical RMS sensitivity in Stokes Q or U of 18 $\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$. Additionally, the survey will be supplemented by similar observations covering 1296–1440 MHz over 38% of the sky. POSSUM will enable the discovery and detailed investigation of magnetised phenomena in a wide range of cosmic environments, including the intergalactic medium and cosmic web, galaxy clusters and groups, active galactic nuclei and radio galaxies, the Magellanic System and other nearby galaxies, galaxy halos and the circumgalactic medium, and the magnetic structure of the Milky Way across a very wide range of scales, as well as the interplay between these components. This paper reviews the current science case developed by the POSSUM Collaboration and provides an overview of POSSUM’s observations, data processing, outputs, and its complementarity with other radio and multi-wavelength surveys, including future work with the SKA.

We present the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) survey conducted with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). EMU aims to deliver the touchstone radio atlas of the southern hemisphere. We introduce EMU and review its science drivers and key science goals, updated and tailored to the current ASKAP five-year survey plan. The development of the survey strategy and planned sky coverage is presented, along with the operational aspects of the survey and associated data analysis, together with a selection of diagnostics demonstrating the imaging quality and data characteristics. We give a general description of the value-added data pipeline and data products before concluding with a discussion of links to other surveys and projects and an outline of EMU’s legacy value.

This paper reports an expansion of the English as a second language (L2) component of the Multilingual Eye Movement Corpus (MECO L2), an international database of eye movements during text reading. While the previous Wave 1 of the MECO project (Kuperman et al., 2023) contained English as a L2 reading data from readers with 12 different first language (L1) backgrounds, the newly collected dataset adds eye-tracking data on English text reading from 13 distinct L1 backgrounds (N = 660) as well as participants’ scores on component skills of English proficiency and information about their demographics and language background and use. The paper reports reliability estimates, descriptive statistics, and correlational analyses as means to validate the expansion dataset. Consistent with prior literature and the MECO Wave 1, trends in the MECO Wave 2 data include a weak correlation between reading comprehension and oculomotor measures of reading fluency and a greater L1-L2 contrast in reading fluency than reading comprehension. Jointly with Wave 1, the MECO project includes English reading data from more than 1,200 readers representing a diversity of native writing systems (logographic, abjad, abugida, and alphabetic) and 19 distinct L1 backgrounds. We provide multiple pointers to new venues of how L2 reading researchers can mine this rich publicly available dataset.

During the past 30 yr an impasse has developed in the discovery and commercialization of synthetic herbicides with new molecular targets and novel chemistries. Similarly, there has been little success with bioherbicides, both microbial and chemical. These bioherbicides are needed to combat fast-growing herbicide resistance and to fulfill the need for more environmentally and toxicologically safe herbicides. In response to this substantial and growing opportunity, numerous start-up companies are utilizing novel approaches to provide new tools for weed management. These diverse new tools broaden the scope of discovery, encompassing advanced computational, bioinformatic, and imaging platforms; plant genome–editing and targeted protein degradation technologies; and machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)-based strategies. This review contains summaries of the presentations of 10 such companies that took part in a symposium held at the WSSA annual meeting in 2024. Four of the companies are developing microbial bioherbicides or natural product–based herbicides, and the other six are using advanced technologies, such as AI, to accelerate the discovery of herbicides with novel molecular target sites or to develop non-GMO, herbicide-resistant crops.

We report 3 years of data from one meteorological and three smaller stations in University Valley, a high-elevation (1677 m) site in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica with extensive dry permafrost. Mean air temperature was -23.4°C. Summer air temperatures were virtually always < 0°C and were consistent with the altitude lapse rate and empirical relationships between summer temperature, distance from the coast and elevation. The measured frost point (-22.5°C) at the 42 cm deep ice table is equal to the surface frost point and above the atmospheric frost point (-29.6°C), providing direct evidence that surface conditions control ground ice depth. Observed peak surface soil temperatures reach 6°C for ice-cemented ground > 15 cm deep but stay < 0°C when it is shallower. We develop an energy balance model tuned to this rocky and dry environment. We find that differences in peak soil surface temperatures are primarily due to the higher thermal diffusivity of ice-cemented ground compared to dry soil. Sensitivity studies show that expected natural variability is insufficient for melt to form and significant excursions from current conditions are required. The site's ice table meets the criteria for a Special Region on Mars, with 30% of the year > -18°C and water activity > 0.6.

The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years.

It is not clear whether patient's psycho-education enhances compliance to antipsychotic treatments and reduces the number of relapses. Here we investigated the impact of a new psycho-educational program (SOLEDUC®) on the one- and two-years rate of relapse (primary outcome measure) and a number of clinical assessments (secondary outcome measures). This was a multicentric French clinical trial (51 centers) of Phase IV, open, controlled, randomized, consisting in two parallel groups: the Soleduc group (N = 111) and the control group (N = 109). All subjects received a variable dose over the 2-year period of the same antipsychotic drug (amisulpride). Soleduc consisted of a 7-session program (1 h per session), presented three times (at baseline, 6-months and 12-months). Patients in the control group received a non-specific psychosocial training for an equivalent period of time. The models of Andersen-Gill (AG) and Prentice, Williams and Peterson (PWP) were used to analyze relapses. Patients in the Soleduc group attended 14.8 ± 6.1 sessions (mean ± SD), including 17 patients who never attended a session. Intent to treat analysis showed less patients relapsing in the Soleduc group as compared to the control group (21.6% versus 28.4% after 1 year and 84.4% versus 90.8% after 2 years), but the differences were not statistically significant. Relapse risk was significantly reduced for patients who followed at least 7 modules (p = 0.015 AG-test; p < 0.001 PWP-test). In conclusion, no significant differences in relapse rates were found between patients attending the Soleduc program and the control group. Attendance of at least 7 out of 21 program sessions was required to see a modest, but significant two-year relapse prevention in schizophrenia. Other well designed studies are required to evaluate the medical impact of patient's education programs.

Lake Untersee is one of the largest perennially ice-covered lakes in Dronning Maud Land. We investigated the energy and water mass balance of Lake Untersee to understand its state of equilibrium. The thickness of the ice cover is strongly correlated with sublimation rates; variations in sublimation rates across the ice cover are largely determined by wind-driven turbulent heat fluxes and the number of snow-covered days. Lake extent and water level have remained stable for the past 20 years, indicating that the water mass balance is in equilibrium. The lake is damned by the Anuchin Glacier and mass balance calculation suggest that subaqueous melting of terminus ice contributes 40–45% of the annual water budget; since there is no evidence of streams flowing into the lake, the lake must be connected to a groundwater system that contributes 55–60% in order to maintain the lake budget in balance. The groundwater likely flows at a rate of ~8.8 × 10−2 m3 s−1, a reasonable estimate given the range of subglacial water flux in the region. The fate of its well-sealed ice cover is likely tied to changes in wind regime, whereas changes in water budget are more closely linked to the response of surrounding glaciers to climate change.

We have observed the G23 field of the Galaxy AndMass Assembly (GAMA) survey using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in its commissioning phase to validate the performance of the telescope and to characterise the detected galaxy populations. This observation covers ~48 deg2 with synthesised beam of 32.7 arcsec by 17.8 arcsec at 936MHz, and ~39 deg2 with synthesised beam of 15.8 arcsec by 12.0 arcsec at 1320MHz. At both frequencies, the root-mean-square (r.m.s.) noise is ~0.1 mJy/beam. We combine these radio observations with the GAMA galaxy data, which includes spectroscopy of galaxies that are i-band selected with a magnitude limit of 19.2. Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) infrared (IR) photometry is used to determine which galaxies host an active galactic nucleus (AGN). In properties including source counts, mass distributions, and IR versus radio luminosity relation, the ASKAP-detected radio sources behave as expected. Radio galaxies have higher stellar mass and luminosity in IR, optical, and UV than other galaxies. We apply optical and IR AGN diagnostics and find that they disagree for ~30% of the galaxies in our sample. We suggest possible causes for the disagreement. Some cases can be explained by optical extinction of the AGN, but for more than half of the cases we do not find a clear explanation. Radio sources aremore likely (~6%) to have an AGN than radio quiet galaxies (~1%), but the majority of AGN are not detected in radio at this sensitivity.

Oedometer swelling and compaction tests up to a maximum pressure of 32 bars were made on the Wyoming montmorillonite SWy-1 with a range of mixed (Na,K) exchange ion compositions. The permeabilities and water diffusivities of the compacted clays were calculated using soil physics theory. Significant inhibition of swelling from that of the Na-montmorillonite is developed for K fractions in the range 0·30 < K+ < 0·56. However, the water diffusivity increases by a factor of approximately six as the K exchange fraction increases from 0 to 0·7. Permeabilities to water flow show a power-law dependence on the void ratio e.

XRD measurements at controlled humidity yield equilibrium interlayer spacings which in general increase with both increasing relative humidity and increasing Na exchange fraction. The extent of swelling is strongly inhibited in clays having Na exchange fractions of 0·44 or less, in good agreement with the oedometer studies.

Most major modern families of Hymenoptera were established in the Mesozoic, but the diversifications within ecologically key trophic guilds and lineages that significantly influence the character of modern terrestrial ecosystems – bees (Apiformes), ants (Formicidae), social Vespidae, parasitoids (Ichneumonidae), and phytophagous Tenthredinoidea – were previously known to occur mostly in the middle to late Eocene. We find these changes earlier, seen here in the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands fossil deposits of western North America. Some of these may have occurred even earlier, but have been obscured by taphonomic processes. We provide an overview of the Okanagan Highlands Hymenoptera to family level and in some cases below that, with a minimum of 25 named families and at least 30 when those tentatively assigned or distinct at family level, but not named are included. Some are poorly known as fossils (Trigonalidae, Siricidae, Peradeniidae, Monomachidae), and some represent the oldest confirmed occurrences (Trigonalidae, Pompilidae, Sphecidae sensu stricto, Peradeniidae, Monomachidae, and possibly Halictidae). Some taxa previously thought to be relictual or extinct by the end of the Cretaceous (Angarosphecidae, Archaeoscoliinae, some Diapriidae) are present and sometimes abundant in the early Eocene. Living relatives of some taxa are now present in different climate regimes or on different continents.