Kaolinite: alkali halide intercalates have been successfully prepared by grinding the salt with kaolinite in the absence of water. Rate of intercalation is shown to correlate negatively with melting point of the salt. The basal dimensions of the intercalates increase with increasing size of the ion. As shown recently for kaolinite: NaCl intercalate, the layered structure survives the dehydroxylation of the kaolinite at 500°–600°C, at which point the excess alkali halide can be removed by rinsing to give an XRD-amorphous material. This amorphous material, of approximate stoichiometry MAlSiO4, reacts at surprisingly low temperatures to give crystalline phases, apparently of the same stoichiometry, with structures closely related to eucryptite (M = Li), carnegieite (M = Na), kalsilite (M = K), and leucite (M = K, Rb, Cs). The relationships between the structures of the reaction products are discussed.

There are several ways to convert a closure or interior operation to a different operation that has particular desirable properties. In this paper, we axiomatize three ways to do so, drawing on disparate examples from the literature, including tight closure, basically full closure, and various versions of integral closure. In doing so, we explore several such desirable properties, including hereditary, residual, and cofunctorial, and see how they interact with other properties such as the finitistic property.

Until recently, the influence of basal liquid water on the evolution of buried glaciers in Mars' mid latitudes was assumed to be negligible because the latter stages of Mars' Amazonian period (3 Ga to present) have long been thought to have been similarly cold and dry to today. Recent identifications of several landforms interpreted as eskers associated with these young (100s Ma) glaciers calls this assumption into doubt. They indicate basal melting (at least locally and transiently) of their parent glaciers. Although rare, they demonstrate a more complex mid-to-late Amazonian environment than was previously understood. Here, we discuss several open questions posed by the existence of glacier-linked eskers on Mars, including on their global-scale abundance and distribution, the drivers and dynamics of melting and drainage, and the fate of meltwater upon reaching the ice margin. Such questions provide rich opportunities for collaboration between the Mars and Earth cryosphere research communities.

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.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) provides a unique opportunity to probe the physics of supermassive black holes through Very Large Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), such as the existence of the event horizon, the accretion processes as well as jet formation in Low Luminosity AGN (LLAGN). We build a theoretical model which includes an Advection Dominated Accretion Flow (ADAF) and a simple radio jet outflow. The predicted spectral energy distribution (SED) of this model can be compared to observations to get the best estimates of the model parameters. The model-predicted radial emission profiles at different frequency bands can be used to predict whether the inflow can be resolved by the EHT or other telescopes. We have applied this method to some nearby LLAGN such as M84, NGC 4594, NGC 4278 and NGC 3998. We also estimate the model parameters for each of them using high resolution data from different surveys.

SNP in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene is associated with risk of lower respiratory infections. The influence of genetic variation in the vitamin D pathway resulting in susceptibility to upper respiratory infections (URI) has not been investigated. We evaluated the influence of thirty-three SNP in eleven vitamin D pathway genes (DBP, DHCR7, RXRA, CYP2R1, CYP27B1, CYP24A1, CYP3A4, CYP27A1, LRP2, CUBN and VDR) resulting in URI risk in 725 adults in London, UK, using an additive model with adjustment for potential confounders and correction for multiple comparisons. Significant associations in this cohort were investigated in a validation cohort of 737 children in Manchester, UK. In all, three SNP in VDR (rs4334089, rs11568820 and rs7970314) and one SNP in CYP3A4 (rs2740574) were associated with risk of URI in the discovery cohort after adjusting for potential confounders and correcting for multiple comparisons (adjusted incidence rate ratio per additional minor allele ≥1·15, Pfor trend ≤0·030). This association was replicated for rs4334089 in the validation cohort (Pfor trend=0·048) but not for rs11568820, rs7970314 or rs2740574. Carriage of the minor allele of the rs4334089 SNP in VDR was associated with increased susceptibility to URI in children and adult cohorts in the United Kingdom.

Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84–88) presented a critique of our recently published paper in Cell Reports entitled ‘Large-Scale Cognitive GWAS Meta-Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific Neural Expression and Potential Nootropic Drug Targets’ (Lam et al., Cell Reports, Vol. 21, 2017, 2597–2613). Specifically, Hill offered several interrelated comments suggesting potential problems with our use of a new analytic method called Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS (MTAG) (Turley et al., Nature Genetics, Vol. 50, 2018, 229–237). In this brief article, we respond to each of these concerns. Using empirical data, we conclude that our MTAG results do not suffer from ‘inflation in the FDR [false discovery rate]’, as suggested by Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84–88), and are not ‘more relevant to the genetic contributions to education than they are to the genetic contributions to intelligence’.

Field studies were conducted in Mississippi on a Marietta loam during 1988, 1989, and 1990, and in Tennessee on a Statler loam during 1988 and 1989, to determine effect of tillage on chlorimuron persistence. A corn shoot bioassay was conducted to determine bioavailable chlorimuron in the soil. Tillage system affected chlorimuron persistence only in 1989 at Tennessee. Chlorimuron half-life was 10 to 31 d longer in both tillage systems in Mississippi in 1988 compared to 1989 and 1990, probably due to low soil moisture immediately after application in 1988. In Tennessee, chlorimuron half-life was 71 d shorter in the no-till system in 1988 compared to 1989. Differences did not occur between locations in the conventional tillage system in 1989. Differences in chlorimuron persistence between years and locations were most often attributed to soil water and temperature. Soil pH differences between the two locations did not consistently affect chlorimuron persistence.

Although high dose n-3 PUFA supplementation reduces exercise- and hyperpnoea-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB/HIB), there are concurrent issues with cost, compliance and gastrointestinal discomfort. It is thus pertinent to establish the efficacy of lower n-3 PUFA doses. Eight male adults with asthma and HIB and eight controls without asthma were randomly supplemented with two n-3 PUFA doses (6·2 g/d (3·7 g EPA and 2·5 g DHA) and 3·1 g/d (1·8 g EPA and 1·3 g DHA)) and a placebo, each for 21 d followed by 14 d washout. A eucapnic voluntary hyperpnoea (EVH) challenge was performed before and after treatments. Outcome measures remained unchanged in the control group. In the HIB group, the peak fall in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) after EVH at day 0 (−1005 (sd 520) ml, −30 (sd 18) %) was unchanged after placebo. The peak fall in FEV1 was similarly reduced from day 0 to day 21 of 6·2 g/d n-3 PUFA (−1000 (sd 460) ml, −29 (sd 17) % v. −690 (sd 460) ml, −20 (sd 15) %) and 3·1 g/d n-3 PUFA (−970 (sd 480) ml, −28 (sd 18) % v. −700 (sd 420) ml, −21 (sd 15) %) (P<0·001). Baseline fraction of exhaled nitric oxide was reduced by 24 % (P=0·020) and 31 % (P=0·018) after 6·2 and 3·1 g/d n-3 PUFA, respectively. Peak increases in 9α, 11β PGF2 after EVH were reduced by 65 % (P=0·009) and 56 % (P=0·041) after 6·2 and 3·1 g/d n-3 PUFA, respectively. In conclusion, 3·1 g/d n-3 PUFA supplementation attenuated HIB and markers of airway inflammation to a similar extent as a higher dose. Lower doses of n-3 PUFA thus represent a potentially beneficial adjunct treatment for adults with asthma and EIB.

The purpose of this work was to determine whether the morphology of the oral mucosa epithelium (OME) of patients with xerostomia differ from patients without xerostomia. In total, 34 patients with dry eye disease (DED) with or without xerostomia were examined at The Norwegian Dry Eye Disease Clinic with in vivo confocal microscopy of the lower lip. In addition, age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) were included. DED patients with xerostomia had a higher superficial to deep backscatter ratio compared with DED patients without xerostomia (p=0.002) and HC (p=0.001). Regression analysis demonstrated that this ratio was related to xerostomia independently of gender and age (p<0.001). Sensitivity and specificity of detecting xerostomia were 0.78 and 0.85, respectively, when using a superficial to deep backscatter ratio cut-off value of 0.995 (p=0.004). The mean nucleus to cytosol backscatter ratio in the superficial OME was lower in patients with xerostomia than in those without xerostomia (p=0.034). In vivo confocal microscopy is a potential tool for evaluating the oral cavity and to assess changes in the OME associated with xerostomia, objectively and quantitatively. The cause of the increased backscatter in the superficial OME in xerostomia, however, remains to be elucidated.

Because horsenettle and tall ironweed are difficult to control in cool-season grass pastures, research was conducted in Tennessee and Kentucky in 2010 and 2011 to examine the efficacy of aminocyclopyrachlor on these weeds. Aminocyclopyrachlor was evaluated at 49 and 98 g ai ha−1 alone and in mixtures with 2,4-D amine at 371 and 742 g ae ha−1. Aminopyralid was also included as a comparison treatment at 88 g ai ha−1. Treatments were applied at three POST timings to horsenettle and two POST timings to tall ironweed. By 1 yr after treatment (YAT) horsenettle was controlled 74% with aminocyclopyrachlor plus 2,4-D applied late POST (LPOST) at 98 + 742 g ha−1. By 1 YAT, tall ironweed was controlled ≥ 93% by aminocyclopyrachlor applied early POST (EPOST) or LPOST, at rates as low as 49 g ha−1. Similar control was achieved with aminopyralid applied LPOST. Both aminocyclopyrachlor and aminopyralid were found to reduce horsenettle and tall ironweed biomass the following year. Moreover, all LPOST applications of aminocyclopyrachlor alone or in mixtures with 2,4-D prevented regrowth of tall ironweed at 1 YAT. Based on these studies, a LPOST herbicide application in August or September when soil moisture is adequate is recommended for control of horsenettle and tall ironweed in cool-season grass pastures.