Childhood obesity represents a significant global health concern and identifying its risk factors is crucial for developing intervention programs. Many “omics” factors associated with the risk of developing obesity have been identified, including genomic, microbiomic, and epigenomic factors. Here, using a sample of 48 infants, we investigated how the methylation profiles in cord blood and placenta at birth were associated with weight outcomes (specifically, conditional weight gain, body mass index, and weight-for-length ratio) at age six months. We characterized genome-wide DNA methylation profiles using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEpic chip, and incorporated information on child and maternal health, and various environmental factors into the analysis. We used regression analysis to identify genes with methylation profiles most predictive of infant weight outcomes, finding a total of 23 relevant genes in cord blood and 10 in placenta. Notably, in cord blood, the methylation profiles of three genes (PLIN4, UBE2F, and PPP1R16B) were associated with all three weight outcomes, which are also associated with weight outcomes in an independent cohort suggesting a strong relationship with weight trajectories in the first six months after birth. Additionally, we developed a Methylation Risk Score (MRS) that could be used to identify children most at risk for developing childhood obesity. While many of the genes identified by our analysis have been associated with weight-related traits (e.g., glucose metabolism, BMI, or hip-to-waist ratio) in previous genome-wide association and variant studies, our analysis implicated several others, whose involvement in the obesity phenotype should be evaluated in future functional investigations.

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.

This paper focuses on one orogenic belt that formed during the Rinconada phase on the final stage of the Famatinian orogeny, between 445 and 410 Ma, which is well exposed at Sierra de Ramaditas and neighbouring ranges in western Argentina. The Ramaditas Complex is formed by metasedimentary and meta-ultrabasic rocks and amphibolites. This complex forms the upper nappe of a thrust stack resulting from westward thrusting. Deformation consists of an early high-temperature S1 foliation (stromatic migmatites), coeval with thrusting and metamorphism. Metamorphism attained peak P–T conditions of 6.0–6.9 kbar and 795–810 °C, at c. 440 Ma, i.e. coincident with the Rinconada orogenic phase. The lower unit and intermediate nappes crop out in the nearby sierras of Maz and Espinal and underwent low- to medium-grade Silurian metamorphism, respectively, together with the upper nappe, defining an inverted Barrovian-type metamorphism with T decreasing and P increasing downwards across the thrust stack (i.e. westward). We argue that the Rinconada orogenic phase developed near the continental margin of SW Gondwana, during a magmatic lull following accretion of the Precordillera terrane to the continental margin at c. 470 Ma. The active margin jumped to the west after accretion, and flat-slab subduction resumed in the early Silurian, provoking thrusting and imbrication of nappe stack under the still hot root (800–900 °C) of the older Famatinian magmatic arc. This ‘hot-iron’ process explains both the inverted Barrovian-type metamorphism and the missing overburden of 21 to 24 km implied by the P estimate.

White Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.) is indigenous to West Africa, a region that harbours the crop's tremendous landrace diversity. The knowledge and understanding of local cultivars’ genetic diversity are essential for properly managing genetic resources, conservation, sustainable use and their improvement through breeding. This study aimed to dissect phenotypic and molecular diversity of white yam cultivars from Benin using agro-morphological and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Eighty-eight Beninese white Guinea yam cultivars collected through a countrywide ethnobotanical survey were phenotyped with 53 traits and genotyped with 9725 DArT-SNP. Multivariate analysis using phenotypic traits revealed 30 traits as most discriminative and explained up to 80.78% of cultivars’ phenotypic variation. Assessment of diversity indices such as Shannon–Wiener (H′), inverse Shannon (H.B.), Simpson's (λ) index and Pilou evenness (J) based molecular and phenotypic data depicted a moderate genetic diversity in Beninese white Guinea yam cultivars. Genetic differentiation of cultivars among country production zones was low due to the high exchange of planting materials among farmers of different regions. However, there was high genetic diversity within regions. Hierarchical clusters (HCs) on phenotypic data revealed the presence of two groups while HCs based on the SNP markers and the combined analysis identified three genetic groups. Our result provided valuable insights into the Beninese white Guinea yam diversity for its proper conservation and improvement through breeding.

The Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) Project accessed Mercer Subglacial Lake using environmentally clean hot-water drilling to examine interactions among ice, water, sediment, rock, microbes and carbon reservoirs within the lake water column and underlying sediments. A ~0.4 m diameter borehole was melted through 1087 m of ice and maintained over ~10 days, allowing observation of ice properties and collection of water and sediment with various tools. Over this period, SALSA collected: 60 L of lake water and 10 L of deep borehole water; microbes >0.2 μm in diameter from in situ filtration of ~100 L of lake water; 10 multicores 0.32–0.49 m long; 1.0 and 1.76 m long gravity cores; three conductivity–temperature–depth profiles of borehole and lake water; five discrete depth current meter measurements in the lake and images of ice, the lake water–ice interface and lake sediments. Temperature and conductivity data showed the hydrodynamic character of water mixing between the borehole and lake after entry. Models simulating melting of the ~6 m thick basal accreted ice layer imply that debris fall-out through the ~15 m water column to the lake sediments from borehole melting had little effect on the stratigraphy of surficial sediment cores.

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.

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.

Low-cost, light-weight, low-power, large-format, room-temperature, mid-wave infrared (MWIR) detectors are needed for reduced-scale aircraft. An opportunity, suggested by direct-read X-radiography systems, is the use of thin film transistor (TFT) array as read-out integrated circuit (ROIC) for low-cost sensors deposited directly and unpatterned onto this ROIC. TFTs have already been thoroughly optimized for power, weight, large-format, and cost by the flat-panel-display industry. We present experimental investigation of aqueous-spray-deposited, mid-wave-IR, metal-chalcogenide heterojunction CdS/PbS photodiodes for this application. Measured responsivity, detectivity D*, and photoresponse spectra are reported.

Several grass and broadleaf weed species around the world have evolved multiple-herbicide resistance at alarmingly increasing rates. Research on the biochemical and molecular resistance mechanisms of multiple-resistant weed populations indicate a prevalence of herbicide metabolism catalyzed by enzyme systems such as cytochrome P450 monooxygenases and glutathione S-transferases and, to a lesser extent, by glucosyl transferases. A symposium was conducted to gain an understanding of the current state of research on metabolic resistance mechanisms in weed species that pose major management problems around the world. These topics, as well as future directions of investigations that were identified in the symposium, are summarized herein. In addition, the latest information on selected topics such as the role of safeners in inducing crop tolerance to herbicides, selectivity to clomazone, glyphosate metabolism in crops and weeds, and bioactivation of natural molecules is reviewed.

Thermoelectric (TE) thin films have promise for harvesting electrical energy from waste heat. We demonstrate TE materials and thermocouples deposited by aqueous spray deposition on glass. The n-type material was CdO doped with Mn and Sn. Two p-type materials were investigated, namely PbS with co-growth of CdS and doped with Na and Na2CoO4. Seebeck coefficients, resistivity, and power generation for thermocouples were characterized.

Vanadium Oxide has application to infrared bolometers due to high temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR). It has attracted interest for switchable plasmonic devices due to its metal to insulator transition near room temperature. We report here the properties of vanadium oxide deposited by an aqueous spray process. The films have a ropy surface morphology with ∼70 nm surface roughness. The polycrystalline phase depends on annealing conditions. The films have TCR of ∼2%/deg, which compares well with sputtered films. Only weak evidence is found for an insulator-metal phase transition in these films.

Ternary lead chalcogenides, such as PbSxSe1-x, offer the possibility of room-temperature infrared detection with engineered cut-off wavelengths within the important 3-5 micron mid-wave infrared (MWIR) wavelength range. We present growth and characterization of aqueous spray-deposited thin films of PbSSe. Complexing agents in the aqueous medium suppress unwanted homogeneous reactions so that growth occurs only by the heterogeneous reaction on the hydrophilic substrate. The strongly-adherent films are smooth with a mirror-like finish. The films comprise densely packed grains with tens of nm dimensions and a total film thickness of ∼400-500 nm. Measured optical constants reveal absorption out to at least 4.5 μm wavelength and a ∼0.3 eV bandgap intermediate between those of PbS and PbSe. The semiconducting films are p-type with resistivity ∼1 and 85 Ohm-cm at 300 and 80 K, respectively. Sharp x-ray diffraction peaks identify the films as Clausthalite-Galena solid-state solution with a lattice constant that indicates an even mixture of PbS and PbSe. The photoconductive response is observed at both nitrogen and room temperature up to at least 2 kHz chopping frequency.

Self-assembled TiO2 films deposited by aqueous-spray deposition were investigated to evaluate morphology, crystalline phase, and infrared optical constants. The Anatase nano-crystalline film had ∼10 nm characteristic surface roughness sparsely punctuated by defects of not more than 200 nm amplitude. The film is highly transparent throughout the visible to wavelengths of 12 μm. The indirect band gap was determined to be 3.2 eV. Important for long-wave infrared applications is that dispersion in this region is weak compared with the more commonly used dielectric SiO2 for planar structures. An example application to a metal-insulator-metal resonant absorber is presented. The low-cost, large-area, atmospheric-pressure, chemical spray deposition method allows conformal fabrication on flexible substrates for long-wave infrared photonics.

Quasi-stationary distributions (QSDs) arise from stochastic processes that exhibit transient equilibrium behaviour on the way to absorption. QSDs are often mathematically intractable and even drawing samples from them is not straightforward. In this paper the framework of sequential Monte Carlo samplers is utilised to simulate QSDs and several novel resampling techniques are proposed to accommodate models with reducible state spaces, with particular focus on preserving particle diversity on discrete spaces. Finally, an approach is considered to estimate eigenvalues associated with QSDs, such as the decay parameter.