Characterizing the structure and composition of clay minerals on the surface of Mars is important for reconstructing past aqueous processes and environments. Data from the CheMin X-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover demonstrate a ubiquitous presence of collapsed smectite (basal spacing of 10 Å) in ~3.6-billion-year-old lacustrine mudstone in Gale crater, except for expanded smectite (basal spacing of 13.5 Å) at the base of the stratigraphic section in a location called Yellowknife Bay. Hypotheses to explain expanded smectite include partial chloritization by Mg(OH)2 or solvation-shell H2O molecules associated with interlayer Mg2+. The objective of this work is to test these hypotheses by measuring partially chloritized and Mg-saturated smectite using laboratory instruments that are analogous to those on Mars rovers and orbiters. This work presents Mars-analog XRD, evolved gas analysis (EGA), and visible/shortwave-infrared (VSWIR) data from three smectite standards that were Mg-saturated and partially and fully chloritized with Mg(OH)2. Laboratory data are compared with XRD and EGA data collected from Yellowknife Bay by the Curiosity rover to examine whether the expanded smectite can be explained by partial chloritization and what this implies about the diagenetic history of Gale crater. Spectral signatures of partial chloritization by hydroxy-Mg are investigated that may allow the identification of partially chloritized smectite in Martian VSWIR reflectance spectra collected from orbit or in situ by the SuperCam instrument suite on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Laboratory XRD and EGA data of partially chloritized saponite are consistent with data collected from Curiosity. The presence of partially chloritized (with Mg(OH)2) saponite in Gale crater suggests brief interactions between diagenetic alkaline Mg2+-bearing fluids and some of the mudstone exposed at Yellowknife Bay, but not in other parts of the stratigraphic section. The location of Yellowknife Bay at the base of the stratigraphic section may explain the presence of alkaline Mg2+-bearing fluids here but not in other areas of Gale crater investigated by Curiosity. Early diagenetic fluids may have had a sufficiently long residence time in a closed system to equilibrate with basaltic minerals, creating an elevated pH, whereas diagenetic environments higher in the section may have been in an open system, therefore preventing fluid pH from becoming alkaline.

Enlist E3® soybean is resistant to 2,4-D, glyphosate, and glufosinate, allowing postemergence applications of these herbicides sequentially or as tank mixes. The objectives of this experiment were to evaluate the effect of postemergence herbicide application timing and sequence with or without a preemergence application of micro-encapsulated acetochlor on waterhemp and common lambsquarters control, soybean yield, and economic returns. Field experiments were conducted in Rosemount and Franklin, Minnesota, in 2021 and 2022. Site, herbicide application timing, and sequence influenced weed control, yield, and profitability. In Rosemount, preemergence followed by (fb) two-pass postemergence programs, including 2,4-D + glyphosate applied at mid-postemergence with or without S-metolachlor, resulted in ≥95% waterhemp control at 28 d after late postemergence application. In Franklin, where weed density was lower, two-pass postemergence programs, regardless of preemergence application that included at least one application of 2,4-D + glyphosate (with or without S-metolachlor), provided ≥97% control of waterhemp and common lambsquarters at 28 d after late postemergence. The level of control was comparable to that of a preemergence herbicide fb a mid-postemergence application of 2,4-D + glyphosate + S-metolachlor at that site. In Rosemount, including acetochlor as the preemergence herbicide in the preemergence fb postemergence programs improved soybean yield by 32% and partial returns by US$384.50 ha−1 compared to postemergence herbicides–only programs. In contrast, the preemergence application did not affect yield or profitability in Franklin. The highest soybean yield (2,925.7 kg ha−1) in Rosemount resulted after glufosinate was applied early postemergence fb 2,4-D + glyphosate applied mid-postemergence. This yield was comparable to that of glufosinate applied early postemergence fb 2,4-D + glyphosate + S-metolachlor applied mid-postemergence and the two-pass glufosinate (early postemergence fb mid-postemergence) program, highlighting the importance of early season weed control. In Franklin, 2,4-D + glyphosate + S-metolachlor (applied mid-postemergence) fb glufosinate (applied late postemergence) provided a yield that was similar to the aforementioned programs at that site.

This study evaluated the impact of four cover crop species and their termination timings on cover crop biomass, weed control, and corn yield. A field experiment was arranged in a split-plot design in which cover crop species (wheat, cereal rye, hairy vetch, and rapeseed) were the main plot factor, and termination timings [4, 2, 1, and 0 wk before planting corn (WBP)] was the subplot factor. In both years (2021 and 2022), hairy vetch produced the most biomass (5,021 kg ha–1) among cover crop species, followed by cereal rye (4,387 kg ha–1), wheat (3,876 kg ha–1), and rapeseed (2,575 kg ha–1). Regression analysis of cover crop biomass with accumulated growing degree days (AGDDs) indicated that for every 100 AGDD increase, the biomass of cereal rye, wheat, hairy vetch, and rapeseed increased by 880, 670, 780, and 620 kg ha–1, respectively. The density of grass and small-seeded broadleaf (SSB) weeds at 4 wk after preemergence herbicide (WAPR) application varied significantly across termination timings. The grass and SSB weed densities were 56% and 36% less at 0 WBP compared with 2 WBP, and 67% and 61% less compared with 4 WBP. The sole use of a roller-crimper did not affect the termination of rapeseed at 0 WBP and resulted in the least corn yield (3,046 kg ha–1), whereas several different combinations of cover crops and termination timings resulted in greater corn yield. In conclusion, allowing cover crops to grow longer in the spring offers more biomass for weed suppression and impacts corn yield.

Distinguishing early domesticates from their wild progenitors presents a significant obstacle for understanding human-mediated effects in the past. The origin of dogs is particularly controversial because potential early dog remains often lack corroborating evidence that can provide secure links between proposed dog remains and human activity. The Tumat Puppies, two permafrost-preserved Late Pleistocene canids, have been hypothesized to have been littermates and early domesticates due to a physical association with putatively butchered mammoth bones. Through a combination of osteometry, stable isotope analysis, plant macrofossil analysis, and genomic and metagenomic analyses, this study exploits the unique properties of the naturally mummified Tumat Puppies to examine their familial relationship and to determine whether dietary information links them to human activities. The multifaceted analysis reveals that the 14,965–14,046 cal yr BP Tumat Puppies were littermates who inhabited a dry and relatively mild environment with heterogeneous vegetation and consumed a diverse diet, including woolly rhinoceros in their final days. However, because there is no evidence of mammoth consumption, these data do not establish a link between the canids and ancient humans.

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.

Ocean radiocarbon (14C) is a proxy for air-sea exchange, vertical and horizontal mixing, and water mass identification. Here, we present five pre- to post-bomb coral Δ14C records from West Flower Garden Bank and Santiaguillo reefs in the Gulf of Mexico, Boca de Medio, and Isla Tortuga near the Cariaco Basin north of Venezuela. To assess basin-wide Δ14C variability, we compiled the Atlantic Ocean reef-building surface coral Δ14C records (24 corals and 28 data sets in total) with these new records. Cumulatively, the Δ14C records, on their independent age models, reveal the onset of post-bomb Δ14C trends in 1958 ±1 to 2 years. A general decrease in maximum Δ14C values occurs with decreasing latitude reflecting the balance between air-sea gas exchange and surface water residence time, vertical mixing, and horizontal advection. A slightly larger atmospheric imprint in the northern sites and relatively greater vertical mixing and/or advection of low-14C waters influence the southern Caribbean and eastern Atlantic sites. The eastern Atlantic sites, due to upwelling, have the lowest post-bomb Δ14C values. Equatorial currents from the eastern Atlantic transport low Δ14C water towards the western South Atlantic and southern Caribbean sites. Decadal Δ14C averages for the pre-bomb interval (1750–1949) for the low latitude western Atlantic are relatively constant within analytical (3–5‰) and chronological uncertainties (∼1–2 years) due to mixing and air-sea exchange. The compiled Δ14C records provide updated regional marine Δ14C values for marine reservoir corrections.

The stellar age and mass of galaxies have been suggested as the primary determinants for the dynamical state of galaxies, with environment seemingly playing no or only a very minor role. We use a sample of 77 galaxies at intermediate redshift ($z\sim0.3$) in the Middle-Ages Galaxies Properties with Integral field spectroscopy (MAGPI) Survey to study the subtle impact of environment on galaxy dynamics. We use a combination of statistical techniques (simple and partial correlations and principal component analysis) to isolate the contribution of environment on galaxy dynamics, while explicitly accounting for known factors such as stellar age, star formation histories, and stellar masses. We consider these dynamical parameters: high-order kinematics of the line-of-sight velocity distribution (parametrised by the Gauss-Hermite coefficients $h_3$ and $h_4$), kinematic asymmetries $V_{\textrm{asym}}$ derived using kinemetry, and the observational spin parameter proxy $\lambda_{R_e}$. Of these, the mean $h_4$ is the only parameter found to have a significant correlation with environment as parametrised by group dynamical mass. This correlation exists even after accounting for age and stellar mass trends. We also find that satellite and central galaxies exhibit distinct dynamical behaviours, suggesting they are dynamically distinct classes. Finally, we confirm that variations in the spin parameter $\lambda_{R_e}$ are most strongly (anti-)correlated with age as seen in local studies, and show that this dependence is well-established by $z\sim0.3$.

This work presents visual morphological and dynamical classifications for 637 spatially resolved galaxies, most of which are at intermediate redshift ($z\sim0.3$), in the Middle-Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral field spectroscopy (MAGPI) Survey. For each galaxy, we obtain a minimum of 11 independent visual classifications by knowledgeable classifiers. We use an extension of the standard Dawid-Skene bayesian model introducing classifier-specific confidence parameters and galaxy-specific difficulty parameters to quantify classifier confidence and infer reliable statistical confidence estimates. Selecting sub-samples of 86 bright ($r\lt20$ mag) high-confidence ($\gt0.98$) morphological classifications at redshifts ($0.2 \le z \le0.4$), we confirm the full range of morphological types is represented in MAGPI as intended in the survey design. Similarly, with a sub-sample of 82 bright high-confidence stellar kinematic classifications, we find that the rotating and non-rotating galaxies seen at low redshift are already in place at intermediate redshifts. We do not find evidence that the kinematic morphology–density relation seen at $z\sim0$ is established at $z\sim0.3$. We suggest that galaxies without obvious stellar rotation are dynamically pre-processed sometime before $z\sim0.3$ within lower mass groups before joining denser environments.

A concept for a femtosecond pulse compressor based on underdense plasma prisms is presented. An analytical model is developed to calculate the spectral phase incurred and the expected pulse compression. A 2D particle-in-cell simulation verifies the analytical model. Simulated intensities (${\sim} {10}^{16}$ W/cm2) were orders of magnitude higher than the damage threshold for conventional gratings used in chirped pulse amplification. Theoretical geometries for compact (tens of cm scale) compressors for 1, 10 and 100 PW power levels are proposed.

Lewy body dementias (LBD) are the second most common dementia. Several genes have been associated with LBD, but little is known about their contributions to LBD pathophysiology. Each gene may transcribe multiple RNA, and LBD brains have extensive RNA splicing dysregulation. Hence, we completed the first transcriptome-wide transcript-level differential expression analysis of post-mortem LBD brains for gaining more insights into LBD molecular pathology that are essential for facilitating discovery of novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers for LBD. We completed transcript-level quantification of next-generation RNA-sequencing data from post-mortem anterior cingulate (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (DLPFC) of people with pathology-verified LBD (LBD = 14; Controls = 7) using Salmon. We identified differentially expressed transcripts (DET) using edgeR and investigated their functional implications using DAVID. We performed transcriptome-wide alternative splicing analysis using DRIMseq. We identified 74 DET in ACC and 96 DET in DLPFC after Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction (5%). There were 135 and 98 FDR-corrected alternatively spliced genes in ACC and DLPFC of LBD brains, respectively. Identified DET may contribute to LBD pathology by altering DNA repair, apoptosis, neuroplasticity, protein phosphorylation, and regulation of RNA transcription. We confirm widespread alternative splicing and absence of chronic neuroinflammation in LBD brains. Transcript-level differential expression analysis can reveal specific DET that cannot be detected by gene-level expression analyses. Therapeutic and diagnostic biomarker potential of identified DET, especially those from TMEM18, MICB, MPO, and GABRB3, warrant further investigation. Future LBD blood-based biomarker studies should prioritise measuring the identified DET in small extracellular vesicles.

Vaccines have revolutionised the field of medicine, eradicating and controlling many diseases. Recent pandemic vaccine successes have highlighted the accelerated pace of vaccine development and deployment. Leveraging this momentum, attention has shifted to cancer vaccines and personalised cancer vaccines, aimed at targeting individual tumour-specific abnormalities. The UK, now regarded for its vaccine capabilities, is an ideal nation for pioneering cancer vaccine trials. This article convened experts to share insights and approaches to navigate the challenges of cancer vaccine development with personalised or precision cancer vaccines, as well as fixed vaccines. Emphasising partnership and proactive strategies, this article outlines the ambition to harness national and local system capabilities in the UK; to work in collaboration with potential pharmaceutic partners; and to seize the opportunity to deliver the pace for rapid advances in cancer vaccine technology.

In Coombs' unidimensional unfolding theory each individual ranks all stimuli, often in terms of preference judgments. These ranks, called I scales, are used to infer the latent continuum called a J scale which is presumed to have generated the I scale rankings. A major problem concerns the inference of the J scale given a set of I scales because an I scale is not unique to any one J scale. This paper presents a procedure for estimating J scale probabilities given a set of I scales. Models for three and four or more stimuli are presented. Results of computer tests are reported.

This paper treats the problem of testing an ordered hypothesis based on the ranks of the data. The statistical procedures for the randomized block design with more than one observation per cell are derived. Multiple comparisons and estimation procedures are also included.

This paper develops a unified approach, based on ranks, to the statistical analysis of data arising from complex experimental designs. In this way we answer a major objection to the use of rank procedures as a major methodology in data analysis. We show that the rank procedures, including testing, estimation and multiple comparisons, are generated in a natural way from a robust measure of scale. The rank methods closely parallel the familiar methods of least squares, so that estimates and tests have natural interpretations.

We study the mixing time of the single-site update Markov chain, known as the Glauber dynamics, for generating a random independent set of a tree. Our focus is obtaining optimal convergence results for arbitrary trees. We consider the more general problem of sampling from the Gibbs distribution in the hard-core model where independent sets are weighted by a parameter $\lambda \gt 0$; the special case $\lambda =1$ corresponds to the uniform distribution over all independent sets. Previous work of Martinelli, Sinclair and Weitz (2004) obtained optimal mixing time bounds for the complete $\Delta$-regular tree for all $\lambda$. However, Restrepo, Stefankovic, Vera, Vigoda, and Yang (2014) showed that for sufficiently large $\lambda$ there are bounded-degree trees where optimal mixing does not hold. Recent work of Eppstein and Frishberg (2022) proved a polynomial mixing time bound for the Glauber dynamics for arbitrary trees, and more generally for graphs of bounded tree-width.

We establish an optimal bound on the relaxation time (i.e., inverse spectral gap) of $O(n)$ for the Glauber dynamics for unweighted independent sets on arbitrary trees. We stress that our results hold for arbitrary trees and there is no dependence on the maximum degree $\Delta$. Interestingly, our results extend (far) beyond the uniqueness threshold which is on the order $\lambda =O(1/\Delta )$. Our proof approach is inspired by recent work on spectral independence. In fact, we prove that spectral independence holds with a constant independent of the maximum degree for any tree, but this does not imply mixing for general trees as the optimal mixing results of Chen, Liu, and Vigoda (2021) only apply for bounded-degree graphs. We instead utilize the combinatorial nature of independent sets to directly prove approximate tensorization of variance via a non-trivial inductive proof.