The Classic Maya polities of Baking Pot and Lower Dover developed along two dramatically different trajectories. At Baking Pot, the capital and associated apical elite regime grew concomitantly with surrounding populations over a thousand-year period. The smaller polity of Lower Dover, in contrast, formed when a Late Classic political center was established by an emergent apical elite regime amidst several long-established intermediate elite-headed districts. The different trajectories through which these polities formed should have clear implications for residential size variability. We employ the Gini coefficient to measure variability in household volume to compare patterns of residential size differentiation between the two polities. The Gini coefficients, while similar, suggest greater differentiation in residential size at Baking Pot than at Lower Dover, likely related to the centralized control of labor by the ruling elite at Baking Pot. While the Gini coefficient is synonymous with measuring wealth inequalities, we suggest that in the Classic period Belize River Valley, residential size was more reflective of labor control.

Being a form of labor investment, house size is frequently analyzed as an index of socioeconomic inequality. However, datasets that lack wide-ranging residential stratigraphic information are not reliable sources of labor investment estimates. This is the case for Late Classic domestic architecture data from three polities in the Rosario Valley (modern-day Chiapas) on the southwest Maya frontier: Rosario, Ojo de Agua, and Los Encuentros. Although the sample's house size inequality generally cannot index period-specific labor investment, it may signify prestige differentiation. For each polity we generated Lorenz curves and calculated Gini coefficients for five variables representing house size (area and volume). Results resemble inequality data from lowland Classic Maya centers. We also demonstrate that the smallest, shortest-lived polity had more equal house size values, likely due to the modesty of its apical elite architecture. In contrast, the two larger, older polities were more unequal because they had substantial palaces.

Recent excavations at the ancient Maya minor center of Tutu Uitz Na in the Belize River Valley revealed an especially large—about 20 million shells—Middle Preclassic (900–300 BC) shell deposit underlying the plaza. Although marine shell species make up a small percentage of the assemblage, most shells are Pachychilus spp., a common freshwater snail known in the southern Maya Lowlands as jute. This report describes the architectural context and assemblage of the deposit and compares it to similar examples in the region. We propose that the Tutu Uitz Na deposit provides one of the earliest examples of depictions of the Maya primordial sea in an architectural context.

Background: Lower socioeconomic status is associated with worse outcomes after stroke. We evaluated the differences in acute revascularization treatments in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) who were materially deprived compared to those who were not. Methods: In a population-based cohort study, we used linked administrative data to identify community-dwelling adults hospitalized for AIS between 2017-2022 in Ontario, Canada. The main exposure was neighborhood-level material deprivation quintiles. Multivariable logistic regression was used to obtain the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of receiving revascularization treatments (thrombolysis or thrombectomy) for patients in each deprivation quintile compared to the least deprived quintile. Results: We identified 57,709 patients (median age 74 years; 45.9% female). Compared to patients in the least deprived quintile, those with higher deprivation were younger and more likely to have hypertension and diabetes, but less likely to have atrial fibrillation. Compared to patients in the least deprived quintile, fewer patients in the very deprived quintile (17.9% vs 19.6%, aOR 0.88, 95%CI [0.82,0.95]) and in the most deprived quintile (16.6% vs 19.6%, 0.77 [0.71,0.83]) received revascularization treatments. Conclusions: Our results suggest disparities in the use of acute ischemic stroke revascularization treatments by socioeconomic status despite access to universal health care.

We consider a local projection stabilization based on biorthogonal systems for convection–diffusion–reaction differential equations with mixed boundary conditions. The approach based on biorthogonal systems is numerically more efficient than other existing approaches to obtain a uniform approximation for convection dominated problems. We prove optimal a priori error estimates for the proposed numerical technique. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the performance of the approach.

Moles are widely trapped as pests on farms and amenity land in Britain. Spring traps for killing mammals generally require welfare approval in the UK, but mole traps are exempt. Previous research demonstrated wide variation in the mechanical performance of mole traps. In this context, we aimed to produce new data on the welfare impact of kill-trapping moles in the field. We collected 50 moles trapped in southern England (November 2008-August 2009). Captures peaked during the peak in male breeding activity, when captures were almost exclusively male. Post mortem and x-ray (radiation) examinations were conducted to determine injuries and likely cause of death. No moles sustained damaged skulls or upper cervical vertebrae (which could cause unconsciousness immediately). The primary identifiable cause of death for all but one mole was acute haemorrhage; this contrasts with the findings of the only previous such study, in which only one mole showed clear evidence of haemorrhaging. Some moles may have asphyxiated although it was not possible to determine this. Moles most likely became unconscious before death, but times to unconsciousness, and death, can be determined only through killing trials and further investigation is urgently needed. This should be done through the spring traps approval process; this could improve the welfare standards of trapping for many thousands of moles each year. Mole trapping for long-term population control might be better targeted after the peak in male breeding activity, when females are more likely to be caught, but this would threaten the welfare of dependent young underground.

In the Canadian Maritimes, many beekeepers rent honey bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae), hives to growers of lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium (Ericaceae), for pollination services. Anecdotally, hives have less vigour following pollination, potentially due to higher Nosema spp. (Nosematidae) spore loads, the microsporidian causing nosemosis. We undertook a study to determine whether sending honey bee hives to lowbush blueberry fields for pollination (blueberry hives) results in higher Nosema spp. spore loads relative to hives remaining in apiaries (home hives). Nosema spp. spore loads were quantified using light microscopy. Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae were differentiated using polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Nosema spp. spore loads were greatest in April and May and declined to low levels from June to September. Ninety-eight per cent of Nosema detections were positive for N. ceranae. In April, blueberry hives had a lower spore load than home hives did; however, in June, spore loads were significantly higher in blueberry hives. No other differences in Nosema spp. spore loads were observed between hive types. We conclude that Nosema ceranae is the dominant Nosema species in the Canadian Maritimes and that using hives for lowbush blueberry pollination does not appear to influence long-term Nosema spp. spore loads.

In this paper, we describe the system design and capabilities of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope at the conclusion of its construction project and commencement of science operations. ASKAP is one of the first radio telescopes to deploy phased array feed (PAF) technology on a large scale, giving it an instantaneous field of view that covers $31\,\textrm{deg}^{2}$ at $800\,\textrm{MHz}$. As a two-dimensional array of 36$\times$12 m antennas, with baselines ranging from 22 m to 6 km, ASKAP also has excellent snapshot imaging capability and 10 arcsec resolution. This, combined with 288 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth and a unique third axis of rotation on each antenna, gives ASKAP the capability to create high dynamic range images of large sky areas very quickly. It is an excellent telescope for surveys between 700 and $1800\,\textrm{MHz}$ and is expected to facilitate great advances in our understanding of galaxy formation, cosmology, and radio transients while opening new parameter space for discovery of the unknown.

Calcareous loess in North Canterbury, eastern South Island, New Zealand (NZ), preserves subfossil bird bone, terrestrial gastropods, and eggshell, whose abundances and radiocarbon ages allowed us to reconstruct aspects of palaeoenvironment at high resolution through 25 to 21 cal ka BP. This interval includes millennial-scale climatic variability during the extended last glacial maximum (30–18 ka) of Australasia. Our loess palaeoclimatic record shows good correspondence with stadial and interstadial climate events of the NZ Climate Event Stratigraphy, which were defined from a pollen record on the western side of South Island. An interstade from 25.4 to 24 cal ka BP was warm but also relatively humid on eastern South Island, and loess grain size may indicate reduced vigour of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds. The subsequent stade (24–22.6 cal ka BP) was drier, colder, and probably windier. The next interstade remained relatively dry on eastern South Island, and westerly winds remained vigorous. The 25.4–24 ka interstade is synchronous with Heinrich stade 2, which may have driven a southward migration of the subtropical front, leading to warming and wetting of northern and central South Island and retreat of Southern Alps glaciers at ca. 26.5 ka.

Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.

We provide an update on diagnostic methods for the detection of urogenital schistosomiasis (UGS) in men and highlight that satisfactory urine-antigen diagnostics for UGS lag much behind that for intestinal schistosomiasis, where application of a urine-based point-of-care strip assay, the circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) test, is now advocated. Making specific reference to male genital schistosomiasis (MGS), we place greater emphasis on parasitological detection methods and clinical assessment of internal genitalia with ultrasonography. Unlike the advances made in defining a clinical standard protocol for female genital schistosomiasis, MGS remains inadequately defined. Whilst urine filtration with microscopic examination for ova of Schistosoma haematobium is a convenient but error-prone proxy of MGS, we describe a novel low-cost sampling and direct visualization method for the enumeration of ova in semen. Using exemplar clinical cases of MGS from our longitudinal cohort study among fishermen along the shoreline of Lake Malawi, the portfolio of diagnostic needs is appraised including: the use of symptomatology questionnaires, urine analysis (egg count and CCA measurement), semen analysis (egg count, circulating anodic antigen measurement and real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis) alongside clinical assessment with portable ultrasonography.