Background: Meningiomas are the most common intracranial tumor, graded from 1 (benign) to 3 (malignant). The aim of this study was to identify clinical features associated with overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and functional status for malignant meningiomas. Methods: Demographic, clinical and histopathological data from grade 3 intracranial meningioma cases were identified in the clinical databases from seven sites in North America and Europe from 1991-2022. Summary statistics and Kaplan-Meier OS and PFS curves were generated. Results: We identified 108 patients, with a median age 65 years (IQR: 52, 72) and 53.7% were female. Median OS was 109 months (95% CIs: 88, 227), and 5-year OS rate was 65% (95% CIs: 56, 76). Median PFS was 38 months (95% CIs: 24, 56) and 5-year PFS rate was 37% (95% CIs: 28, 49). OS and PFS were significantly lower in patients aged ≥65 years. Median preoperative KPS score was 80 (IQR: 70, 90), postoperatively KPS was 90 (IQR: 70, 98) and 1-year follow-up KPS was 70 (IQR: 50, 80). Conclusions: This study provides robust survival, recurrence and functional data for grade 3 meningiomas in North America and Europe over a 30-year period.

While unobscured and radio-quiet active galactic nuclei are regularly being found at redshifts $z > 6$ , their obscured and radio-loud counterparts remain elusive. We build upon our successful pilot study, presenting a new sample of low-frequency-selected candidate high-redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs) over a sky area 20 times larger. We have refined our selection technique, in which we select sources with curved radio spectra between 72–231 MHz from the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky Murchison Widefield Array (GLEAM) survey. In combination with the requirements that our GLEAM-selected HzRG candidates have compact radio morphologies and be undetected in near-infrared $K_{\rm s}$ -band imaging from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey, we find 51 new candidate HzRGs over a sky area of approximately $1200\ \mathrm{deg}^2$ . Our sample also includes two sources from the pilot study: the second-most distant radio galaxy currently known, at $z=5.55$ , with another source potentially at $z \sim 8$ . We present our refined selection technique and analyse the properties of the sample. We model the broadband radio spectra between 74 MHz and 9 GHz by supplementing the GLEAM data with both publicly available data and new observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array at 5.5 and 9 GHz. In addition, deep $K_{\rm s}$ -band imaging from the High-Acuity Widefield K-band Imager (HAWK-I) on the Very Large Telescope and from the Southern Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey Regions $K_{\rm s}$ -band Survey (SHARKS) is presented for five sources. We discuss the prospects of finding very distant radio galaxies in our sample, potentially within the epoch of reionisation at $z \gtrsim 6.5$ .

Adolescent e-cigarette use has been labeled an epidemic and alcohol use during this developmental period is associated with deleterious outcomes. Though specific temperamental dimensions have been shown to predict substance use, profiles of temperament have rarely been examined as predictors. This study examines dimensions and profiles of adolescent temperament as predictors of early use of e-cigarettes and alcohol. The sample was comprised of adolescent (62.07% female, 87.59% White, 82.76% Hispanic/Latinx)/caregiver dyads (N = 146) who completed the first two timepoints (M age at second timepoint = 16.16, SD = 0.68) of a longitudinal adolescent substance use study. Models showed parent-reported effortful control predicted protection against adolescent use of e-cigarettes, whereas adolescent report of effortful control predicted protection against alcohol use. Though dissimilar in temperamental pattern, three profiles emerged from both parent- and adolescent-report-based latent profile analysis models. Adolescents characterized by parents as displaying a Resilient profile had greater odds of e-cigarette use than those characterized by a Reserved profile, whereas adolescents who self-characterized as Mixed-type had markedly greater odds of alcohol use than those who self-characterized as Resilient. Utilization of temperamental profiles may aid in identification of particularly vulnerable subgroups of adolescents who may benefit from relevant preventative programing.

Through laboratory experiments and numerical simulations, we examine the evolution of buoyant plumes as they are influenced by background rotation in a uniform density ambient fluid. The source Rossby number is sufficiently large that rotation does not directly affect the plume at early times. However, on a time scale of the order of half a rotation period, the plume becomes deflected from the vertical axis. For some experiments and simulations, the deflection persists and the flow precesses about the vertical axis. In other cases, shortly after being deflected, the plume laminarizes near the source to form a near-vertical columnar vortex, which we refer to as a ‘tornado’. Tornado formation occurs in some experiments and not in others even if the source and background rotation parameters are identical. However, their formation is more likely if the plumes are ‘lazy’. Simulations reveal that this is a consequence of the competing dynamics that occurs on comparable time scales. As a consequence of entrainment, vertical vorticity builds up within the plume reducing the Rossby number and suppressing vertical motion at distances progressively closer to the source. Meanwhile, the swirl (the ratio of the azimuthal to vertical flow) around the vicinity of the source increases, which tends to suppress three-dimensional turbulence in the near-source flow. Although the former process ultimately acts to deflect the plume off axis, in some instances, the swirl around the source succeeds in laminarizing the flow, resulting in tornado formation.

Accurate and complete reporting of study methods, results and interpretation are essential components for any scientific process, allowing end-users to evaluate the internal and external validity of a study. When animals are used in research, excellence in reporting is expected as a matter of continued ethical acceptability of animal use in the sciences. Our primary objective was to assess completeness of reporting for a series of studies relevant to mitigation of pain in neonatal piglets undergoing routine management procedures. Our second objective was to illustrate how authors can report the items in the Reporting guidElines For randomized controLled trials for livEstoCk and food safety (REFLECT) statement using examples from the animal welfare science literature. A total of 52 studies from 40 articles were evaluated using a modified REFLECT statement. No single study reported all REFLECT checklist items. Seven studies reported specific objectives with testable hypotheses. Six studies identified primary or secondary outcomes. Randomization and blinding were considered to be partially reported in 21 and 18 studies, respectively. No studies reported the rationale for sample sizes. Several studies failed to report key design features such as units for measurement, means, standard deviations, standard errors for continuous outcomes or comparative characteristics for categorical outcomes expressed as either rates or proportions. In the discipline of animal welfare science, authors, reviewers and editors are encouraged to use available reporting guidelines to ensure that scientific methods and results are adequately described and free of misrepresentations and inaccuracies. Complete and accurate reporting increases the ability to apply the results of studies to the decision-making process and prevent wastage of financial and animal resources.

Antarctic and Southern Ocean science is vital to understanding natural variability, the processes that govern global change and the role of humans in the Earth and climate system. The potential for new knowledge to be gained from future Antarctic science is substantial. Therefore, the international Antarctic community came together to ‘scan the horizon’ to identify the highest priority scientific questions that researchers should aspire to answer in the next two decades and beyond. Wide consultation was a fundamental principle for the development of a collective, international view of the most important future directions in Antarctic science. From the many possibilities, the horizon scan identified 80 key scientific questions through structured debate, discussion, revision and voting. Questions were clustered into seven topics: i) Antarctic atmosphere and global connections, ii) Southern Ocean and sea ice in a warming world, iii) ice sheet and sea level, iv) the dynamic Earth, v) life on the precipice, vi) near-Earth space and beyond, and vii) human presence in Antarctica. Answering the questions identified by the horizon scan will require innovative experimental designs, novel applications of technology, invention of next-generation field and laboratory approaches, and expanded observing systems and networks. Unbiased, non-contaminating procedures will be required to retrieve the requisite air, biota, sediment, rock, ice and water samples. Sustained year-round access to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean will be essential to increase winter-time measurements. Improved models are needed that represent Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the Earth System, and provide predictions at spatial and temporal resolutions useful for decision making. A co-ordinated portfolio of cross-disciplinary science, based on new models of international collaboration, will be essential as no scientist, programme or nation can realize these aspirations alone.

Piglets reared in swine production in the USA undergo painful procedures that include castration, tail docking, teeth clipping, and identification with ear notching or tagging. These procedures are usually performed without pain mitigation. The objective of this project was to develop recommendations for pain mitigation in 1- to 28-day-old piglets undergoing these procedures. The National Pork Board funded project to develop recommendations for pain mitigation in piglets. Recommendation development followed a defined multi-step process that included an evidence summary and estimates of the efficacies of interventions. The results of a systematic review of the interventions were reported in a companion paper. This manuscript describes the recommendation development process and the final recommendations. Recommendations were developed for three interventions (CO2/O2 general anesthesia, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and lidocaine) for use during castration. The ability to make strong recommendations was limited by low-quality evidence and strong certainty about variation in stakeholder values and preferences. The panel strongly recommended against the use of a CO2/O2 general anesthesia mixture, weakly recommended for the use of NSAIDs and weakly recommended against the use of lidocaine for pain mitigation during castration of 1- to 28-day-old piglets.

A heuristic greedy algorithm is developed for efficiently tiling spatially dense redshift surveys. In its first application to the Galaxy and MassAssembly (GAMA) redshift survey we find it rapidly improves the spatial uniformity of our data, and naturally corrects for any spatial bias introduced by the 2dF multi-object spectrograph. We make conservative predictions for the final state of the GAMA redshift survey after our final allocation of time, and can be confident that even if worse than typical weather affects our observations, all of our main survey requirements will be met.

A widely held view is that a “mini halo” with much less than 108 M⊙ in dark matter is unlikely to retain any baryons because even a single SN event is expected to sweep out all of the gas. But we show that a clumpy medium is much less susceptible to SN sweeping (particularly if it is off-centred) because the coupling efficiency of the explosive energy is much lower than for a diffuse interstellar medium. With the aid of the sophisticated 3D hydro code Fyris, we show that baryons are retained and stars are formed in dark matter haloes down to 3 × 106 M⊙. The gas survives the SN explosion and is enriched with specific abundance yields of the discrete events. The smallest galaxies may not contribute a large fraction of baryons and dark matter to the formation of galaxies. But they are likely to carry important chemical signatures that were laid down in the earliest epochs of star formation, as we show. We discuss the results in light of the newly discovered, very metal poor, damped Lyα systems and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies.

Surgical castration of male piglets is a common management practice conducted on commercial swine farms to prevent the occurrence of boar taint and aggressive behavior. However, the procedure of surgical castration causes acute pain-induced distress, which is an animal welfare concern. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of two topical anesthetics to alleviate the pain caused by castration in piglets as measured by physiological and behavior indices of stress. At 3 days of age, 40 weight-matched piglets were allocated to one of four treatment groups. Treatments included: (i) sham castration (CON), (ii) surgical castration (CAS), (iii) castration and short-acting local anesthetic applied topically to the castration wound (SHORT) and (iv) castration and long-acting local anesthetic applied topically to the castration wound (LONG). Blood samples were collected from piglets before and 30, 60, 120 and 180 min after castration to measure leukocyte and differential counts and cortisol concentrations. The above experiment was repeated without blood collection and behavior was recorded for 30 min before and 180 min after castration or handling. Stress vocalizations were recorded during castration and handling. All piglets were weighed before and 24 h after castration and wound healing was recorded daily for the first 14 days after castration. Leukocyte counts and differentials did not differ (P > 0.05) among any of the treatments. Cortisol concentrations were elevated (P < 0.06) in CAS, SHORT and LONG piglets compared with controls 30 and 60 min after castration. The percentage of stress vocalizations was greater (P < 0.05) among castrated piglets compared with CON piglets, regardless of anesthetic treatment. Piglets that were castrated and not given a topical anesthetic spent more time (P < 0.05) lying without contact compared with piglets castrated and given a topical anesthetic, regardless of the topical anesthetic administered. Body weight change did not differ (P > 0.05) among treatments 24 h after castration or control handling and wound healing scores were greater (P < 0.05) in SHORT compared with CAS and LONG piglets 9 to 14 days after castration. In this study, the use of a short- or long-acting topical anesthetic was not effective in reducing the pain-induced distress caused by castration in piglets. Further research is needed to evaluate alternative practical methods to reduce the pain caused by the on-farm castration of piglets.

1. Approximately 25000 mice have been produced over twelve generations of selection in nine lines. The experimental design involved a 3 × 3 factorial arrangement of direction of selection with mating system. The primary character measured was 6-week body weight.

2. Consistently high phenotypic correlations between mates have been achieved, positive in the assortative lines, negative in the disassortative lines. Correlations were low and inconsistent in direction in the random-bred lines. These correlations have had very little, if any, effect in redistributing the genetic variance as estimated from the variance component analysis; the expected higher variances in the assortative lines and expected lower variances in the disassortative lines have not appeared, thus leaving heritability unaffected.

3. Selection differentials likewise show no consistent advantage for the assortative lines, so that the progress from selection has been virtually identical in all three mating systems in each direction.

4. Assortment of mates, either positively or negatively, for characters of even moderate heritability appears to have little influence on the outcome of selection. On the other hand, selection has been singularly effective in modifying the mean 6-week weight, with progress markedly greater in the downward direction; indeed it appears that the lower limit, may already have been approximately attained.

5. Environmental effects operating in the various generations have affected all lines in remarkably consistent fashion.

We present the preliminary results of a frequency analysis of 1457 fundamental mode RR Lyrae (RR0) stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) from MACHO Project photometry. We find the same classes of pulsational behavior as were found in our earlier survey of first overtone RR Lyrae (RR1) stars. Variables whose prewhitened power spectra contain one or two peaks close to the main frequency component in the original power spectra are commonly known as Blazhko-type variables. The present analysis shows the overall frequency of Blazhko-type stars in the total RR0 population analysed to date to be ≈ 10%. This is lower than the often cited Galactic field/globular rate of 20-30% (Szeidl, 1988).

The incidence rate of Blazhko-type variability in the LMC appears to be about three times higher in RR0 stars than in RR1 stars. This puts important constraints on possible models of the Blazhko effect.

A review of the properties of Type II Cepheids and RV Tauri stars in the Magellanic Clouds is presented. In the behaviour of their light and colour curves, the RV Tauri stars appear to be a direct extension of the Type II Cepheids to longer periods. A single P – L – C relationship describes both the Type II Cepheids and RV Tauri stars in the LMC. The derived high intrinsic magnitudes for the RV Tauri variables supports the proposition that these objects are luminous stars evolving off the AGB. Preliminary analysis of the long time-series MACHO photometry indicates one star (MACHO*05:37:45.0–69:54:16) has an obvious ‘period-quadrupled’ periodicity, which is supporting evidence for a period-doubling bifurcation transition to chaotic pulsations.

We present the first results of the analysis of 22 Blazhko stars. We find: 1) Blazhko RRab stars that are nearly pure amplitude modulators; 2) Blazhko RRab stars that have both amplitude and phase modulation; 3) A Blazhko RRab star that has an abrupt period change; 4) Proof of the Blazhko effect in RRc stars. Our data show the character of the amplitude and phase modulations of the light curves over the Blazhko cycles far better than has been previously possible.

We present the first massive frequency analysis of the 1200 first overtone RR Lyrae stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud observed in the first 4.3 yr of the MACHO project. Besides the many new double-mode variables, we also discovered stars with closely spaced frequencies. These variables are most probably nonradial pulsators.

Electrically switchable volume reflection holograms were written by inhomogeneous illumination of a prepolymer syrup containing a nematic liquid crystal and a multifunctional acrylate monomer. Switchable holograms are diffractive optics structures and the diffraction efficiency can be controlled by the application of an electric field. Reflection gratings with grating spacing varying between 0.16-0.27 µm were made during the phase separation of liquid crystals from the fast curing prepolymer syrup. The reflection efficiency of the holograms were electrically modulated with the applied field of ∼10-15V/µm. Real time study of the grating formation revealed that the maximum efficiency is reached in ∼15 seconds. The shrinkage of the host polymer during grating formation resulted in the blue shift of the reflection notch. The response time of the grating in an electric field is ∼50 µs. Low voltage scanning electron microscope studies showed the presence of discrete nematic droplet domains of sizes 30-60 nm in liquid crystal rich region.

We have analyzed a sample of 1150 type ab, and 550 type c RR Lyrae stars found in 24 of 94 bulge fields of the MACHO database. These fields cover a range in Galactocentric distances from 0.3 to 1.6 kpc. In combination with the data on the outer bulge fields of Alard (1997) and Wesselink (1987), here we present the surface density distribution of bulge RR Lyrae between 0.3 and 3 kpc.

The photophysics and nonlinear absorption behaviour of a series of α, ω-dithienyl polyenes were studied in chloroform and n-octane solutions. Steady state fluorescence, fluorescence lifetime and quantum yield measurements were made. The fluorescence quantum yields were significantly lower than those of the corresponding ax,o-diphenyl polyenes. Among the dithienyl polyenes, 3,3′-substituted polyenes exhibited stronger fluorescence than those of the 2,2′-substituted. Nonlinear optical absorption experiments showed evidence of two photon absorption.

The MACHO microlensing experiment's time-sampled photometry database contains blue and red lightcurves for nearly 9 million stars in the central bar region of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We have identified known LMC Planetary Nebulae (PN) in the database and find one, Jacoby 5, to be variable. We additionally present data on the “parent populations” of LMC PN, and discuss the star formation history of the LMC bar.