Stone was a critical resource for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Archaeologists, therefore, have long argued that these groups would actively have sought out stone of ‘high quality’. Although the defining of quality can be a complicated endeavour, researchers in recent years have suggested that stone with fewer impurities would be preferred for tool production, as it can be worked and used in a more controllable way. The present study shows that prehistoric hunter-gatherers at the Holocene site of Welling, in Ohio, USA, continuously selected the ‘purest’ stone for over 9000 years.

While our fascination with understanding the past is sufficient to warrant an increased focus on synthesis, solutions to important problems facing modern society require understandings based on data that only archaeology can provide. Yet, even as we use public monies to collect ever-greater amounts of data, modes of research that can stimulate emergent understandings of human behavior have lagged behind. Consequently, a substantial amount of archaeological inference remains at the level of the individual project. We can more effectively leverage these data and advance our understandings of the past in ways that contribute to solutions to contemporary problems if we adapt the model pioneered by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis to foster synthetic collaborative research in archaeology. We propose the creation of the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis coordinated through a U.S.-based National Center for Archaeological Synthesis. The coalition will be composed of established public and private organizations that provide essential scholarly, cultural heritage, computational, educational, and public engagement infrastructure. The center would seek and administer funding to support collaborative analysis and synthesis projects executed through coalition partners. This innovative structure will enable the discipline to address key challenges facing society through evidentially based, collaborative synthetic research.

In this paper, we use the Riemann zeta function ζ(x) and the Bessel zeta function ζμ(x) to study the log behaviour of combinatorial sequences. We prove that ζ(x) is log-convex for x > 1. As a consequence, we deduce that the sequence {|B2n|/(2n)!}n ≥ 1 is log-convex, where Bn is the nth Bernoulli number. We introduce the function θ(x) = (2ζ(x)Γ(x + 1)) 1/x, where Γ(x) is the gamma function, and we show that logθ(x) is strictly increasing for x ≥ 6. This confirms a conjecture of Sun stating that the sequence is strictly increasing. Amdeberhan et al. defined the numbers an(μ) = 2 2n+1 (n + 1)!(μ+ 1)nζμ(2n) and conjectured that the sequence {an(μ)}n≥1 is log-convex for μ = 0 and μ = 1. By proving that ζμ(x) is log-convex for x > 1 and μ > -1, we show that the sequence {an(≥)}n>1 is log-convex for any μ > - 1. We introduce another function θμ,(x) involving ζμ(x) and the gamma function Γ(x) and we show that logθμ(x) is strictly increasing for x > 8e(μ + 2)2. This implies that

Based on Dobinski’s formula, we prove that

where Bn is the nth Bell number. This confirms another conjecture of Sun. We also establish a connection between the increasing property of and Holder’s inequality in probability theory.

This article represents a systematic effort to answer the question, What are archaeology’s most important scientific challenges? Starting with a crowd-sourced query directed broadly to the professional community of archaeologists, the authors augmented, prioritized, and refined the responses during a two-day workshop focused specifically on this question. The resulting 25 “grand challenges” focus on dynamic cultural processes and the operation of coupled human and natural systems. We organize these challenges into five topics: (1) emergence, communities, and complexity; (2) resilience, persistence, transformation, and collapse; (3) movement, mobility, and migration; (4) cognition, behavior, and identity; and (5) human-environment interactions. A discussion and a brief list of references accompany each question. An important goal in identifying these challenges is to inform decisions on infrastructure investments for archaeology. Our premise is that the highest priority investments should enable us to address the most important questions. Addressing many of these challenges will require both sophisticated modeling and large-scale synthetic research that are only now becoming possible. Although new archaeological fieldwork will be essential, the greatest pay off will derive from investments that provide sophisticated research access to the explosion in systematically collected archaeological data that has occurred over the last several decades.

The contribution to sea level to 2200 from the grounded, mainland Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet (APIS) was calculated using an ice-sheet model initialized with a new technique computing ice fluxes based on observed surface velocities, altimetry and surface mass balance, and computing volume response using a linearized method. Volume change estimates of the APIS resulting from surface mass-balance anomalies calculated by the regional model RACMO2, forced by A1B and E1 scenarios of the global models ECHAM5 and HadCM3, predicted net negative sea-level contributions between −0.5 and −12 mm sea-level equivalent (SLE) by 2200. Increased glacier flow due to ice thickening returned ∼15% of the increased accumulation to the sea by 2100 and ∼30% by 2200. The likely change in volume of the APIS by 2200 in response to imposed 10 and 20 km retreats of the grounding line at individual large outlet glaciers in Palmer Land, southern Antarctic Peninsula, ranged between 0.5 and 3.5 mm SLE per drainage basin. Ensemble calculations of APIS volume change resulting from imposed grounding-line retreat due to ice-shelf break-up scenarios applied to all 20 of the largest drainage basins in Palmer Land (covering ∼40% of the total area of APIS) resulted in net sea-level contributions of 7–16 mm SLE by 2100, and 10–25 mm SLE by 2200. Inclusion of basins in the northern peninsula and realistic simulation of grounding-line movement for AP outlet glaciers will improve future projections.

There is increasing emphasis on the need for effective ways of sharing knowledge to enhance environmental management and sustainability. Knowledge exchange (KE) are processes that generate, share and/or use knowledge through various methods appropriate to the context, purpose, and participants involved. KE includes concepts such as sharing, generation, coproduction, comanagement, and brokerage of knowledge. This paper elicits the expert knowledge of academics involved in research and practice of KE from different disciplines and backgrounds to review research themes, identify gaps and questions, and develop a research agenda for furthering understanding about KE. Results include 80 research questions prefaced by a review of research themes. Key conclusions are: (1) there is a diverse range of questions relating to KE that require attention; (2) there is a particular need for research on understanding the process of KE and how KE can be evaluated; and (3) given the strong interdependency of research questions, an integrated approach to understanding KE is required. To improve understanding of KE, action research methodologies and embedding evaluation as a normal part of KE research and practice need to be encouraged. This will foster more adaptive approaches to learning about KE and enhance effectiveness of environmental management.

A simple 1-dimensional Monte Carlo (KMC) model has been developed to simulate the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of a diamond (100) surface. The model considers adsorption, etching/desorption, lattice incorporation, and surface migration along and across the dimer rows. The reaction probabilities for these processes are re-evaluated in detail and their effects upon the predicted growth rates and morphology are described. We find that for standard CVD diamond conditions, etching of carbon species from the growing surface is negligible. Surface migration occurs rapidly, but is mostly limited to CH2 species oscillating rapidly back and forth between two adjacent radical sites. Despite the average number of migration hops being in the thousands, the average diffusion length for a surface species is <2 sites.

A glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth biotype was confirmed in central Georgia. In the field, glyphosate applied to 5- to 13-cm-tall Palmer amaranth at three times the normal use rate of 0.84 kg ae ha−1 controlled this biotype only 17%. The biotype was controlled 82% by glyphosate at 12 times the normal use rate. In the greenhouse, I 50 values (rate necessary for 50% inhibition) for visual control and shoot fresh weight, expressed as percentage of the nontreated, were 8 and 6.2 times greater, respectively, with the resistant biotype compared with a known glyphosate-susceptible biotype. Glyphosate absorption and translocation and the number of chromosomes did not differ between biotypes. Shikimate was detected in leaf tissue of the susceptible biotype treated with glyphosate but not in the resistant biotype.

We compute theoretical infrared light curves for several known extrasolar planets. We have constructed a set of routines to calculate the orbital parameters for a given planet and integrate over the planetary disk to determine the total flux density of the planet as it orbits the parent star. We have further developed a spectral synthesis routine to calculate theoretical spectra of extrasolar giant planets from 3–24 $\mu$m. The code requires a temperature-pressure profile as input, calculated by solving the radiative transfer equation; it then calculates continuous opacities and line opacities for water, carbon monoxide, and methane, and finally integrates over the layers of the atmosphere to determine the emergent flux. By integrating the theoretical spectrum over the bandpass of a particular instrument and including realistic instrument noise, we produce a set of multi-wavelength, infrared light curves. Using these light curves, we predict whether a particular known planet can be observed and characterized using the Spitzer Space Telescope, as well as other proposed space-based instruments, such as the Fourier-Kelvin Stellar Interferometer (FKSI) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The fossil record displays remarkable stasis in many species over long time periods, yet studies of extant populations often reveal rapid phenotypic evolution and genetic differentiation among populations. Recent advances in our understanding of the fossil record and in population genetics and evolutionary ecology point to the complex geographic structure of species being fundamental to resolution of how taxa can commonly exhibit both short-term evolutionary dynamics and long-term stasis.