The U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) has been a leader in weed science research covering topics ranging from the development and use of integrated weed management (IWM) tactics to basic mechanistic studies, including biotic resistance of desirable plant communities and herbicide resistance. ARS weed scientists have worked in agricultural and natural ecosystems, including agronomic and horticultural crops, pastures, forests, wild lands, aquatic habitats, wetlands, and riparian areas. Through strong partnerships with academia, state agencies, private industry, and numerous federal programs, ARS weed scientists have made contributions to discoveries in the newest fields of robotics and genetics, as well as the traditional and fundamental subjects of weed–crop competition and physiology and integration of weed control tactics and practices. Weed science at ARS is often overshadowed by other research topics; thus, few are aware of the long history of ARS weed science and its important contributions. This review is the result of a symposium held at the Weed Science Society of America’s 62nd Annual Meeting in 2022 that included 10 separate presentations in a virtual Weed Science Webinar Series. The overarching themes of management tactics (IWM, biological control, and automation), basic mechanisms (competition, invasive plant genetics, and herbicide resistance), and ecosystem impacts (invasive plant spread, climate change, conservation, and restoration) represent core ARS weed science research that is dynamic and efficacious and has been a significant component of the agency’s national and international efforts. This review highlights current studies and future directions that exemplify the science and collaborative relationships both within and outside ARS. Given the constraints of weeds and invasive plants on all aspects of food, feed, and fiber systems, there is an acknowledged need to face new challenges, including agriculture and natural resources sustainability, economic resilience and reliability, and societal health and well-being.

Background: Recently, we showed cathodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) inhibits spikes in refractory status epilepticus (RSE) patients. We sought to characterize relative power changes within regional frequency bands to explore connectivity throughout stimulation. Methods: 28 ICU-EEGs from 10 patients were filtered with 1Hz-lower/127Hz-upper/60Hz-notch. Power spectral density was computed for each individual bipolar-longitudinal (excluding midline) electrode chain in delta/theta/alpha/beta/gamma frequency bands. Relative power was extracted throughout recordings by Welch’s method with 2.5-second Hanning window size with 50% overlap every 10 seconds. The average of relative powers from ≤20-minute pre/during/post stimulation windows were calculated per session/chain/band. Absolute maximal relative power change between pre-during and during-post were computed. ANOVA statistically tested for differences. Results: Change in pre-during for delta/theta/alpha/beta/gamma were respectively -0.7%/-3.1%/-2.8%/-2.1%/8.2%, and during-post were 1.3%/2.8%/2.3%/1.7%/-7%. Positive average changes are increases in average relative power where negative changes show decreases. Changes in absolute maximal average relative power between pre-during and during-post stimulation between frequency bands were significant respectively (p=0.0011, p=0.0139). Conclusions: Relative power in all bands drop pre-during and increase during-post except gamma which correlates with desynchronization being a mechanism for HD-tDCS efficacy in RSE. These frequency band power changes may imply brain connectivity changes that need to be further explored.

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 $z \gtrsim 6.5$ .

Understanding place-based contributors to health requires geographically and culturally diverse study populations, but sharing location data is a significant challenge to multisite studies. Here, we describe a standardized and reproducible method to perform geospatial analyses for multisite studies. Using census tract-level information, we created software for geocoding and geospatial data linkage that was distributed to a consortium of birth cohorts located throughout the USA. Individual sites performed geospatial linkages and returned tract-level information for 8810 children to a central site for analyses. Our generalizable approach demonstrates the feasibility of geospatial analyses across study sites to promote collaborative translational research.

The SPARC tokamak is a critical next step towards commercial fusion energy. SPARC is designed as a high-field ($B_0 = 12.2$ T), compact ($R_0 = 1.85$ m, $a = 0.57$ m), superconducting, D-T tokamak with the goal of producing fusion gain $Q>2$ from a magnetically confined fusion plasma for the first time. Currently under design, SPARC will continue the high-field path of the Alcator series of tokamaks, utilizing new magnets based on rare earth barium copper oxide high-temperature superconductors to achieve high performance in a compact device. The goal of $Q>2$ is achievable with conservative physics assumptions ($H_{98,y2} = 0.7$) and, with the nominal assumption of $H_{98,y2} = 1$, SPARC is projected to attain $Q \approx 11$ and $P_{\textrm {fusion}} \approx 140$ MW. SPARC will therefore constitute a unique platform for burning plasma physics research with high density ($\langle n_{e} \rangle \approx 3 \times 10^{20}\ \textrm {m}^{-3}$), high temperature ($\langle T_e \rangle \approx 7$ keV) and high power density ($P_{\textrm {fusion}}/V_{\textrm {plasma}} \approx 7\ \textrm {MW}\,\textrm {m}^{-3}$) relevant to fusion power plants. SPARC's place in the path to commercial fusion energy, its parameters and the current status of SPARC design work are presented. This work also describes the basis for global performance projections and summarizes some of the physics analysis that is presented in greater detail in the companion articles of this collection.

A new fossil site in a previously unexplored part of western Madagascar (the Beanka Protected Area) has yielded remains of many recently extinct vertebrates, including giant lemurs (Babakotia radofilai, Palaeopropithecus kelyus, Pachylemur sp., and Archaeolemur edwardsi), carnivores (Cryptoprocta spelea), the aardvark-like Plesiorycteropus sp., and giant ground cuckoos (Coua). Many of these represent considerable range extensions. Extant species that were extirpated from the region (e.g., Prolemur simus) are also present. Calibrated radiocarbon ages for 10 bones from extinct primates span the last three millennia. The largely undisturbed taphonomy of bone deposits supports the interpretation that many specimens fell in from a rock ledge above the entrance. Some primates and other mammals may have been prey items of avian predators, but human predation is also evident. Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) suggest that fossils were local to the area. Pottery sherds and bones of extinct and extant vertebrates with cut and chop marks indicate human activity in previous centuries. Scarcity of charcoal and human artifacts suggests only occasional visitation to the site by humans. The fossil assemblage from this site is unusual in that, while it contains many sloth lemurs, it lacks ratites, hippopotami, and crocodiles typical of nearly all other Holocene subfossil sites on Madagascar.

BACKGROUND: IGTS is a rare phenomenon of paradoxical germ cell tumor (GCT) growth during or following treatment despite normalization of tumor markers. We sought to evaluate the frequency, clinical characteristics and outcome of IGTS in patients in 21 North-American and Australian institutions. METHODS: Patients with IGTS diagnosed from 2000-2017 were retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: Out of 739 GCT diagnoses, IGTS was identified in 33 patients (4.5%). IGTS occurred in 9/191 (4.7%) mixed-malignant GCTs, 4/22 (18.2%) immature teratomas (ITs), 3/472 (0.6%) germinomas/germinomas with mature teratoma, and in 17 secreting non-biopsied tumours. Median age at GCT diagnosis was 10.9 years (range 1.8-19.4). Male gender (84%) and pineal location (88%) predominated. Of 27 patients with elevated markers, median serum AFP and Beta-HCG were 70 ng/mL (range 9.2-932) and 44 IU/L (range 4.2-493), respectively. IGTS occurred at a median time of 2 months (range 0.5-32) from diagnosis, during chemotherapy in 85%, radiation in 3%, and after treatment completion in 12%. Surgical resection was attempted in all, leading to gross total resection in 76%. Most patients (79%) resumed GCT chemotherapy/radiation after surgery. At a median follow-up of 5.3 years (range 0.3-12), all but 2 patients are alive (1 succumbed to progressive disease, 1 to malignant transformation of GCT). CONCLUSION: IGTS occurred in less than 5% of patients with GCT and most commonly after initiation of chemotherapy. IGTS was more common in patients with IT-only on biopsy than with mixed-malignant GCT. Surgical resection is a principal treatment modality. Survival outcomes for patients who developed IGTS are favourable.

Injury to corn (Zea mays L.) from S-ethyl diisobutylthiocarbamate (butylate) was investigated with respect to hybrid. Field experiments in 1971 at Dillon and Clemson, South Carolina, established that the corn hybrid ‘Coker 71’ was more tolerant to butylate than ‘Pioneer 511A’. Also established as being tolerant and sensitive to butylate were the hybrids ‘Pioneer 3030’ and ‘PAG 644’, respectively. Laboratory studies with 14C-butylate showed that the resistant hybrid ‘Pioneer 3030’ took up less 14C-butylate and metabolized more to 14CO2 than did ‘PAG 644’.

Injury to corn (Zea mays L.) hybrids from butylate (S-ethyl diisobutylthiocarbamate) was investigated as a function of planting depth, soil pH, and temperature. Field and growth chamber studies indicated that the potential for butylate injury increased with increasing planting depth regardless of hybrid. Greenhouse and growth chamber experiments suggested that as soil pH decreased butylate injury increased, depending upon the hybrid. Butylate injury was also a differential response among hybrids, depending on temperature. Certain hybrids may be injured more at higher temperatures and other hybrids more at lower temperatures. Butylate injury to corn, therefore, appears to be due to a three-way interaction, stress x hybrid X butylate.

The Holocene pollen sequence in the Minnesota area is “asymmetric” around the so-called prairie period: the early Holocene is dominated by elm (with pine in the north) and the late Holocene by oak. The elm zone is interpreted as a manifestation of summer monsoonal rains enhanced by the Milankovitch insolation maximum, and the pine in the north is interpreted as a result of summer cooling near the retreating ice sheet. As the summer insolation waned during the Holocene, its associated monsoonal rains from the Caribbean moisture source lasted longer in the south (northeastern Iowa and southern Wisconsin), where the inferred mesic elm forest changed to prairie as late as 5000 yr B.P., compared to 8000 yr. B.P. in Minnesota (and 9000 yr B.P. in the Dakotas).

Radiocarbon dates of organic alluvium beneath as much as 40 m of dune sand along the Dismal River have led to the suggestion that the Nebraska Sandhills date from the Holocene rather than the last glacial period. On the other hand, the basal layers of lake and marsh deposits in interdune depressions at three localities date in the range of 9000 to 12,000 yr B.P., implying a pre-Holocene age for the sand dunes. A pollen diagram for one of these sites, Swan Lake, indicates prairie vegetation throughout the last 9000 yr, with no suggestion that the landscape was barren enough to permit the shaping of the massive dunes characterizing the area. Sand was not transported across the site during the Holocene, either during the marsh phase, which lasted until 3700 yr B.P., or during the subsequent lake phase. The sand that buries the alluvium along the Dismal River may represent only local eolian activity, or it may indicate that the younger of the two main dune series identified by H. T. U. Smith (1965, Journal of Geology 73, 557–578) is Holocene in age, and the older one Late Wisconsin in age.

The Klutlan Glacier in the St. Elias Mountains of the Yukon Territory has surged repeatedly during the last few hundred years, and its drift-covered stagnant ice provides an analog for the downwastage, landform development, vegetational succession, and lake formation on Late Wisconsin moraines of Minnesota. Melting of the buried ice caused collapse of the drift mantle and the formation of lakes, which become filled with sediment that slumps in from receding ice walls. Topographic reversals are common, as the sediment cover of drained lakes inhibits local under-melting, and collapse occurs elsewhere. As the drift mantle thickens the land surface becomes stabilized and pioneer herbs are succeeded by shrubs and then by white spruce. The oldest moraines (600–1200 yr old) have a multiple-generation spruce forest, yet melting of buried ice still locally forms young lakes. Cores of organic sediment from the oldest lakes contain a stratigraphic sequence of pollen, diatoms and cladocerans that record the early stages in lake and landscape succession.

The intricate pattern of moraines of the Laurentide ice sheet in the Great Lakes region reflects the marked lobation of the ice margin in late Wisconsin time, and this in turn reflects the distribution of steam-cut lowlands etched in preglacial times in the weak-rock belts of gentle Paleozoic fold structures. It is difficult to trace and correlate moraines from lobe to lobe and to evaluate the magnitude of recession before readvance, but three breaks stand out in the sequence, with readvances at about 14,500, 13,000, and 11,500 years ago. The first, corresponding to the Cary advance of the Lake Michigan lobe, is represented to the west by distant advance of the Des Moines lobe in Iowa, and to the east by the overriding of lake beds by the Erie lobe. The 13,000-year advance is best represented by the Port Huron moraine of the Lake Michigan and Huron lobes, but by relatively little action to west and east. The 11,500-year advance is based on the Valders till of the Lake Michigan lobe, but presumed correlations to east and west prove to be generally older, and the question is raised that these and some other ice advances in the Great Lakes region may represent surges of the ice rather than regional climatic change. Surging may involve the buildup of subglacial meltwater, which can provide the basal sliding necessary for rapid forward movement. It would be most favored by the conditions in the western Lake Superior basin, where the Superior lobe had a suitable form and thermal regime, as estimated from geomorphic and paleoclimatic criteria. The Valders advance of the Lake Michigan and Green Bay lobes may also have resulted from a surge: the eastern part of the Lake Superior basin, whence the ice advanced, has a pattern of deep gorges that resemble subglacial tunnel valleys, which imply great quantities of subglacial water that may have produced glacial surges before the water became channeled.

We carried out an extensive photometric and spectroscopic investigation of the SPB binary, HD 25558 (see Fig. 1 for the time and geographic distribution of the observations). The ~2000 spectra obtained at 13 observatories during 5 observing seasons, the ground-based multi-colour light curves and the photometric data from the MOST satellite revealed that this object is a double-lined spectroscopic binary with a very long orbital period of about 9 years. We determined the physical parameters of the components, and have found that both lie within the SPB instability strip. Accordingly, both components show line-profile variations consistent with stellar pulsations. Altogether, 11 independent frequencies and one harmonic frequency were identified in the data. The observational data do not allow the inference of a reliable orbital solution, thus, disentangling cannot be performed on the spectra. Since the lines of the two components are never completely separated, the analysis is very complicated. Nevertheless, pixel-by-pixel variability analysis of the cross-correlated line profiles was successful, and we were able to attribute all the frequencies to the primary or secondary component. Spectroscopic and photometric mode-identification was also performed for several of these frequencies of both binary components. The spectroscopic mode-identification results suggest that the inclination and rotation of the two components are rather different. While the primary is a slow rotator with ~6 d rotation period, seen at ~60° inclination, the secondary rotates fast with ~1.2 d rotation period, and is seen at ~20° inclination. Our spectropolarimetric measurements revealed that the secondary component has a magnetic field with at least a few hundred Gauss strength, while no magnetic field was detected in the primary.

The detailed analysis and results of this study will be published elsewhere.

Little is known about the effects of combined micronutrient and sugar consumption on growth and cognition. In the present study, we investigated the effects of micronutrients and sugar, alone and in combination, in a beverage on growth and cognition in schoolchildren. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, children (n 414, 6–11 years) were randomly allocated to consume beverages containing (1) micronutrients with sugar, (2) micronutrients with a non-nutritive sweetener, (3) no micronutrients with sugar or (4) no micronutrients with a non-nutritive sweetener for 8·5 months. Growth was assessed and cognition was tested using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children version II (KABC-II) subtests and the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT). Micronutrients decreased the OR for Fe deficiency at the endpoint (OR 0·19; 95 % CI 0·07, 0·53). Micronutrients increased KABC Atlantis (intervention effect: 0·76; 95 % CI 0·10, 1·42) and HVLT Discrimination Index (1·00; 95 % CI 0·01, 2·00) scores. Sugar increased KABC Atlantis (0·71; 95 % CI 0·05, 1·37) and Rover (0·72; 95 % CI 0·08, 1·35) scores and HVLT Recall 3 (0·94; 95 % CI 0·15, 1·72). Significant micronutrient × sugar interaction effects on the Atlantis, Number recall, Rover and Discrimination Index scores indicated that micronutrients and sugar in combination attenuated the beneficial effects of micronutrients or sugar alone. Micronutrients or sugar alone had a lowering effect on weight-for-age z-scores relative to controls (micronutrients − 0·08; 95 % CI − 0·15, − 0·01; sugar − 0·07; 95 % CI − 0·14, − 0·002), but in combination, this effect was attenuated. The beverages with micronutrients or added sugar alone had a beneficial effect on cognition, which was attenuated when provided in combination.