Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy Probe is a concept for a National Aeronautics and Space Administration probe-class space mission that will achieve ground-breaking science in the fields of galaxy evolution, cosmology, Milky Way, and the Solar System. It is the follow-up space mission to Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), boosting its scientific return by obtaining deep 1–4 μm slit spectroscopy for ∼70% of all galaxies imaged by the ∼2 000 deg2 WFIRST High Latitude Survey at z > 0.5. Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy will measure accurate and precise redshifts for ∼200 M galaxies out to z < 7, and deliver spectra that enable a wide range of diagnostic studies of the physical properties of galaxies over most of cosmic history. Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy Probe and WFIRST together will produce a 3D map of the Universe over 2 000 deg2, the definitive data sets for studying galaxy evolution, probing dark matter, dark energy and modifications of General Relativity, and quantifying the 3D structure and stellar content of the Milky Way. Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy Probe science spans four broad categories: (1) Revolutionising galaxy evolution studies by tracing the relation between galaxies and dark matter from galaxy groups to cosmic voids and filaments, from the epoch of reionisation through the peak era of galaxy assembly; (2) Opening a new window into the dark Universe by weighing the dark matter filaments using 3D weak lensing with spectroscopic redshifts, and obtaining definitive measurements of dark energy and modification of General Relativity using galaxy clustering; (3) Probing the Milky Way’s dust-enshrouded regions, reaching the far side of our Galaxy; and (4) Exploring the formation history of the outer Solar System by characterising Kuiper Belt Objects. Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy Probe is a 1.5 m telescope with a field of view of 0.4 deg2, and uses digital micro-mirror devices as slit selectors. It has a spectroscopic resolution of R = 1 000, and a wavelength range of 1–4 μm. The lack of slit spectroscopy from space over a wide field of view is the obvious gap in current and planned future space missions; Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy fills this big gap with an unprecedented spectroscopic capability based on digital micro-mirror devices (with an estimated spectroscopic multiplex factor greater than 5 000). Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy is designed to fit within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration probe-class space mission cost envelope; it has a single instrument, a telescope aperture that allows for a lighter launch vehicle, and mature technology (we have identified a path for digital micro-mirror devices to reach Technology Readiness Level 6 within 2 yr). Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy Probe will lead to transformative science over the entire range of astrophysics: from galaxy evolution to the dark Universe, from Solar System objects to the dusty regions of the Milky Way.

Secondary plant compounds have shown bioactivity against multi-drug resistant Haemonchus contortus in small ruminants. This study screened 51 strains of birdsfoot trefoil (BFT, Lotus corniculatus) crude aqueous extracts (BFT-AqE) for anti-parasitic activity in vitro against egg hatching, and of those 51 strains, 13 were selected for further testing of motility of first (L1) and third stage (L3) larvae, and exsheathment of L3. Proanthocyanidin content ranged between 1.4 and 63.8 mg PAC g−1 powder across the 51 BFT strains. When tested against egg hatching, 21 of the 51 aqueous extracts had an EC50 of 1–2 mg powder mL−1, 70% of the strains were >90% efficacious at 6 mg powder mL−1 and 11 of the strains were 100% efficacious at 3 mg powder mL−1 BFT-AqE. Across the 13 strains tested against L3, efficacy ranged from 0 to 75% exsheathment inhibition, and 17 to 92% L3 motility inhibition at a concentration of 25 mg powder mL−1 BFT-AqE. There was no correlation between the PAC content of BFT powders and the anti-parasitic activity of aqueous extracts, therefore other secondary compounds may have contributed to the observed anti-parasitic effects. Further testing of BFT using bioactivity-driven fractionation and screening of BFT populations for the identified anti-parasitic compounds is needed.

Anomalous Hall effect was observed at room temperature in MOCVD-grown GaGdN from a (TMHD)3Gd source, which can contain oxygen in its organic ligand. GaN, and GaGdN grown using a Cp3Gd precursor which does not contain oxygen only showed the ordinary Hall effect. This indicates that oxygen could have a role in magnetic properties of GaGdN. The relationship between the anomalous Hall conductivity and longitudinal conductivity indicated that metallic conduction, hopping of carriers, and scattering-independent mechanisms are likely responsible for the ferromagnetism. However, this still requires further clarification.

One frequent observation about the contemporary world is that the pace of change appears to be accelerating. Turkey is a case in point, and the same is true of Turkey’s relationships with the Middle East, the European Union, and the wider world. All have continued to evolve at such an astonishing rate that almost the only constant has been change itself. Early in the millennium Turkey appeared to have managed the difficult transition from a long era of military control to a relatively stable elected government and liberal democratic values. That expectation eroded in subsequent years under the rule of Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), with an unmistakable drift towards a decidedly illiberal democracy – if not outright authoritarianism – and increased violence at home and abroad. At the time of writing (late-July 2016), Turkey has recently experienced a major military coup, a formal state of emergency has been declared, and a sweeping crackdown is occurring that affects virtually every sector of society.

One obvious characteristic of world affairs today is rapid – possibly accelerating-- change. When I wrote about ‘Turkey and the EU’ for the Academia Europaea meeting in Vienna October 2012, my subtitle was ‘A Changed Context’. In 2012 the EU was still in the grip of the crisis over the euro, which had teetered on the brink of collapse and was only just beginning to look a little more secure. In contrast, Turkey had experienced an amazing economic boom and appeared to have successfully transitioned from an era of secular military rule to a relatively stable elected government (despite some human rights concerns) led by the moderately Islamist Justice and Development (AK) party and its broadly popular Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and President Abdullah Gul. The Middle East was in the throes of the ‘Arab Spring’. The developed world was still largely focused on the task of recovery from the 2008–2009 financial crisis and pondering how to respond to the looming failure of Doha trade talks at the global level. Now, only two years later, the context has changed yet again. The EU, Turkey, the Middle East, and even global trends – all are substantially different. Therefore an ‘Update’ now follows my original text.

Brown dwarf atmospheres form molecules, then high temperature condensates (corundum, titanates, silicates, and iron compounds), and then low temperature condensates (ices) as they cool down over time. These produce large opacities which govern entirely their spectral energy distribution. Just as it is important to know molecular opacities (TiO, H2O, CH4, etc.) with accuracy, it is imperative to understand the interplay of processes (e.g. condensation, sedimentation, coagulation, convection) that determines the radial and size distribution of grains. Limiting case models have shown that young, hot brown (L) dwarfs form dust mostly in equilibrium, while at much cooler stages (late T dwarfs) all high temperature condensates have sedimented out of their photospheres. But this process is gradual and all intermediate classes of brown dwarfs can partly be understood in terms of partial sedimentation of dust. With new models accounting for these processes, we describe the effects they may have upon brown dwarf spectral properties.

We have completed a grid of spherically symmetric AGB star atmospheres using the state of the art spectral synthesis code PHOENIX. Models are constructed for stars with masses of 1 M⊙ and 1.5 M⊙, spanning the range 10 to 3300 L⊙ in luminosity and 2500 to 5200 K in effective temperature. We find that grains of Al2O3 and CaTiO3 among other species form in atmospheres cooler than Teff = 3000 K. In the coolest models the grains cause a weakening of the TiO absorption features in the red and near infrared of up to 30% through both a depression of the continuum and a depletion of the TiO number abundance. We use spectrophotometric observations from a number of catalogs to determine effective temperature – spectral class and effective temperature – color relationships. We also compare synthetic colors calculated from our models with observations of M giants on Wing's 8-color narrow-band system of classification photometry.

Spectroscopic observations of CNO emission lines are presented for old nova systems, and possible excitation processes for the lines are considered. The Bowen fluorescence mechanism cannot generally be responsible for the strength of N III λ4640 because of the weakness of 0 III λ3429. Other CNO lines are observed which indicate that all of the lines are excited by resonance fluorescence of UV continuum radiation. Several nonfluorescent excited lines of carbon are also present in old novae, probably formed by recombination processes. The available data for the optical CNO lines suggest that non-solar CNO enhancements exist in quiescent novae, indicating that some of the binary systems may be evolved.

We present the results from the state-of-the-art wide-field survey of the M81 galaxy group that we are conducting with Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru Telescope. Our photometry reaches about 2 mag below the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) and reveals the spatial distribution of both old and young stars over an area of 5°2 around the M81. The young main-sequence (MS) stars closely follow the HI distribution and can be found in a stellar stream between M81 and NGC 3077 and in numerous outlying stellar associations. Our survey also reveals for the first time the very extended (>2 × R25) halos of RGB stars around M81, M82, and NGC 3077, as well as faint tidal streams that link these systems. The gravitational interactions between M81, M82 and NGC 3077 galaxies induced star formation in tidally stripped gas, and also significantly perturbed the older stellar components leading to disturbed halo morphologies.

The public health threat posed by zoonotic Plasmodium knowlesi appears to be growing: it is increasingly reported across South East Asia, and is the leading cause of malaria in Malaysian Borneo. Plasmodium knowlesi threatens progress towards malaria elimination as aspects of its transmission, such as spillover from wildlife reservoirs and reliance on outdoor-biting vectors, may limit the effectiveness of conventional methods of malaria control. The development of new quantitative approaches that address the ecological complexity of P. knowlesi, particularly through a focus on its primary reservoir hosts, will be required to control it. Here, we review what is known about P. knowlesi transmission, identify key knowledge gaps in the context of current approaches to transmission modelling, and discuss the integration of these approaches with clinical parasitology and geostatistical analysis. We highlight the need to incorporate the influences of fine-scale spatial variation, rapid changes to the landscape, and reservoir population and transmission dynamics. The proposed integrated approach would address the unique challenges posed by malaria as a zoonosis, aid the identification of transmission hotspots, provide insight into the mechanistic links between incidence and land use change and support the design of appropriate interventions.

Background: Several studies have compared early-onset Parkinson disease (EOPD) and late-onset Parkinson disease (LOPD) but most are not based on autopsy confirmed cases. Methods: We compared clinical and pharmacological profiles, time to reach irreversible Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) Stage 3 and levodopa motor complications in autopsy confirmed EOPD and LOPD cases. Results: At first clinic visit EOPD cases were younger but had longer disease duration and they died at a younger age (all p<0.0001). Anti-Parkinsonian drug use, including levodopa, was significantly delayed in EOPD. Lifetime use of amantadine (p<0.05) and dopamine agonists (p<0.01) were higher in EOPD. While lifetime use of levodopa was similar in the two groups, levodopa was used for a significantly longer period by EOPD (p< 0.0001). EOPD had a higher cumulative incidence of dyskinesias (p<0.01), wearing-off (p<0.01), and on-off (p<0.01). However, the time to dyskinesia onset was similar in the two groups. The threshold to wearing-off was much longer in EOPD (p<0.01). H&Y stage profile at first visit was similar in the two groups. The duration from disease onset to reach irreversible H&Y stage 3 was significantly longer in EOPD. Conclusions: Our observations indicate that progression of PD is slower in EOPD and suggest that the pre-clinical interval in this group is longer. These findings can be used for case selection for drug trials and studies of the pathogenesis of PD.

GaN and its alloys are promising candidates for high temperature thermoelectric (TE) materials due to their high Seebeck coefficient and high thermal and mechanical stability. Moreover, these materials can overcome the toxicity concern of current Te-based TE materials, such as Bi2Te3 and PbTe. These materials have recently shown a higher Seebeck coefficient than that of SiGe in high temperature region because their large bandgap characteristic eliminates the bipolar conduction. In this study, we report the room temperature thermoelectric properties of p-type Mg doped GaN, grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire substrate with various carrier concentrations. Undoped and n-type GaN are also incorporated with p-type GaN films to make comparison. The structural, optical, electrical, and thermal properties of the samples were examined by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, van der Pauw hall-effect, and thermal gradient methods, respectively. The Seebeck coefficient ranging from 710-900µV/K at room temperature of Mg: GaN were observed, which further indicated their potential TE applications.

Throughout 1915 and 1916 a study was made of the dietaries of forty-seven labouring class families in Glasgow, and in February 1917, shortly after the publication of the Devonport Voluntary Ration, ten of the original families were investigated for a second time. The results of all these studies were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xxxvii, p. 117, 1917.

In November 1917, after nine months of voluntary rationing, after the price of bread had been reduced from to per 2 lbs., and just before the introduction of the Rhondda Voluntary Ration, the diets of eight of the families were studied for a third time.

We have used time-resolved photoluminescence (PL), with 400 nm (3.1 eV) excitation, to examine InxGa1−xN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) before the final stages of processing at room temperature. We have found dramatic differences in the time-resolved kinetics between dim, bright and super bright LED devices. The lifetime of the emission for dim LEDs is quite short, 110 ± 20 ps at photoluminescence (PL) maximum, and the kinetics are not dependent upon wavelength. This lifetime is short compared to bright and super bright LEDs, which we have examined under similar conditions. The kinetics of bright and super bright LEDs are clearly wavelength dependent, highly non-exponential, and are on the nanosecond time scale (lifetimes are in order of 1 ns for bright and 10 ns for super bright LED at the PL max). The non-exponential PL kinetics can be described by a stretched exponential function, indicating significant disorder in the material. Typical values for β, the stretching coefficient, are 0.45 − 0.6 for bright LEDs, at the PL maxima at room temperature. We attribute this disorder to indium alloy fluctuations.

From analysis of the stretched exponential kinetics we estimate the potential fluctuations to be approximately 75 meV in the super bright LED. Assuming a hopping mechanism, the average distance between indium quantum dots in the super bright LED is estimated to be 20 Å.

Killer whales in the Eastern Canadian Arctic (ECA) prey on narwhal, beluga, bowhead whales and seals, while further south in the north-west Atlantic (NWA), killer whales off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador prey on both marine mammals and fish. Bulk and amino acid (AA) specific isotopic composition of dentinal collagen in teeth of 13 ECA/NWA killer whales were analysed to assess the degree, if any, of dietary specialization of killer whales across the region. Dentine was sampled from within annual growth layer groups (GLGs) to construct chronological profiles of stable nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) isotopic compositions for individual whales spanning 3–25 years. Interannual isotopic variation across GLGs was less than that among individuals, and median bulk δ15N values differed by up to 5‰ among individuals. Significant correlation between bulk δ15N values and baseline (source AA) δ15N values indicates much of the observed isotopic variation among individuals reflects foraging within isotopically distinct food webs, rather than diet differences. This interpretation is supported by consistent differences in bulk δ13C values between the two individuals with lowest source AA δ15N values and the remaining whales. After accounting for baseline isotopic variation, comparable δ15N values among individuals indicates similar trophic-level diet, although uncertainties in relative trophic 15N enrichment of individual AAs currently limits trophic position estimates for top consumers. Further research is required to clarify seasonal movement patterns and possible diet shifts of ECA/NWA killer whales to better define their role in marine ecosystems across the region.