We apply two methods to estimate the 21-cm bispectrum from data taken within the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) project of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). Using data acquired with the Phase II compact array allows a direct bispectrum estimate to be undertaken on the multiple redundantly spaced triangles of antenna tiles, as well as an estimate based on data gridded to the uv-plane. The direct and gridded bispectrum estimators are applied to 21 h of high-band (167–197 MHz; z = 6.2–7.5) data from the 2016 and 2017 observing seasons. Analytic predictions for the bispectrum bias and variance for point-source foregrounds are derived. We compare the output of these approaches, the foreground contribution to the signal, and future prospects for measuring the bispectra with redundant and non-redundant arrays. We find that some triangle configurations yield bispectrum estimates that are consistent with the expected noise level after 10 h, while equilateral configurations are strongly foreground-dominated. Careful choice of triangle configurations may be made to reduce foreground bias that hinders power spectrum estimators, and the 21-cm bispectrum may be accessible in less time than the 21-cm power spectrum for some wave modes, with detections in hundreds of hours.

Grains rich in starch constitute the primary source of energy for both pigs and humans, but there is incomplete understanding of physiological mechanisms that determine the extent of digestion of grain starch in monogastric animals including pigs and humans. Slow digestion of starch to produce glucose in the small intestine (SI) leads to undigested starch escaping to the large intestine where it is fermented to produce short-chain fatty acids. Glucose generated from starch provides more energy than short-chain fatty acids for normal metabolism and growth in monogastrics. While incomplete digestion of starch leads to underutilised feed in pigs and economic losses, it is desirable in human nutrition to maintain consistent body weight in adults. Undigested nutrients reaching the ileum may trigger the ileal brake, and fermentation of undigested nutrients or fibre in the large intestine triggers the colonic brake. These intestinal brakes reduce the passage rate in an attempt to maximise nutrient utilisation, and lead to increased satiety that may reduce feed intake. The three physiological mechanisms that control grain digestion and feed intake are: (1) gastric emptying rate; (2) interplay of grain digestion and passage rate in the SI controlling the activation of the ileal brake; and (3) fermentation of undigested nutrients or fibre in the large intestine activating the colonic brake. Fibre plays an important role in influencing these mechanisms and the extent of their effects. In this review, an account of the physiological mechanisms controlling the passage rate, feed intake and enzymatic digestion of grains is presented: (1) to evaluate the merits of recently developed methods of grain/starch digestion for application purposes; and (2) to identify opportunities for future research to advance our understanding of how the combination of controlled grain digestion and fibre content can be manipulated to physiologically influence satiety and food intake.

A 2018 workshop on the White Mountain Apache Tribe lands in Arizona examined ways to enhance investigations into cultural property crime (CPC) through applications of rapidly evolving methods from archaeological science. CPC (also looting, graverobbing) refers to unauthorized damage, removal, or trafficking in materials possessing blends of communal, aesthetic, and scientific values. The Fort Apache workshop integrated four generally partitioned domains of CPC expertise: (1) theories of perpetrators’ motivations and methods; (2) recommended practice in sustaining public and community opposition to CPC; (3) tactics and strategies for documenting, investigating, and prosecuting CPC; and (4) forensic sedimentology—uses of biophysical sciences to link sediments from implicated persons and objects to crime scenes. Forensic sedimentology served as the touchstone for dialogues among experts in criminology, archaeological sciences, law enforcement, and heritage stewardship. Field visits to CPC crime scenes and workshop deliberations identified pathways toward integrating CPC theory and practice with forensic sedimentology’s potent battery of analytic methods.

Research showing that risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychosis, and other psychosis-spectrum diagnoses in adulthood is multidetermined has underscored the necessity of studying the additive and interactive factors in childhood that precede and predict future disorders. In this study, risk for the development of psychosis-spectrum disorders was examined in a 2-generation, 30-year prospective longitudinal study of 3,905 urban families against a sociocultural backdrop of changing economic and social conditions. Peer nominations of aggression, withdrawal, and likeability and national census information on neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage in childhood, as well as changes in neighborhood socioeconomic conditions over the lifespan, were examined as predictors of diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychosis-spectrum disorders in adulthood relative to developing only nonpsychotic disorders or no psychiatric disorders. Individuals who were both highly aggressive and highly withdrawn were at greater risk for other psychosis-spectrum diagnoses when they experienced greater neighborhood disadvantage in childhood or worsening neighborhood conditions over maturation. Males who were highly aggressive but low on withdrawal were at greater risk for schizophrenia diagnoses. Childhood neighborhood disadvantage predicted both schizophrenia and bipolar diagnoses, regardless of childhood social behavior. Results provided strong support for multiple-domain models of psychopathology, and suggest that universal preventive interventions and social policies aimed at improving neighborhood conditions may be particularly important for decreasing the prevalence of psychosis-spectrum diagnoses in the future.

Herbicides registered in vegetable soybean often fail to control waterhemp. The objective of this research was to quantify vegetable soybean tolerance to preemergence herbicides for early-season waterhemp control, including flumioxazin applied alone PRE or in mixture with chlorimuron, metribuzin, or pyroxasulfone at use rates in grain-type soybean. Crop tolerance to the herbicides was tested in field trials with 20 vegetable soybean cultivars and four grain-type cultivars through 4 wk after treatment (WAT). Flumioxazin-based treatments were equally safe, resulting in only minor, transitory crop response (<5% injury 2 WAT) and no effect on crop emergence or early season growth. Flumioxazin mixtures provided greater than 99% control of waterhemp 4 WAT, as evidenced by reduced weed density from 29.7 plants m−2 in the nontreated control to no waterhemp. Flumioxazin applied alone or in tank mixture with chlorimuron, metribuzin, or pyroxasulfone were as safe in vegetable soybean as previously reported in grain-type soybean. Registration of these products in vegetable soybean would provide the industry with additional options for managing waterhemp.

We have been using the technique of pulsed neutron powder diffraction to study several problems in the physics and chemistry of the actinide elements. In these elements one often encounters very complex structures resulting from polymorphic transformations presumably induced by the presence of 5f-electrons. For exampie, at least five distinct structures of plutonium metal are found between room temperature and its melting point of 640°C, and two of the structures are monoclinic! Single crystals are usually not available, and the high resolution which is intrinsic to the time-of-flight powder technique is a powerful tool in the solution of complex structural problems. The relatively low absorption coefficients for neutrons for at least some actinide isotopes is an advantage when surface oxidation is a problem (as in high-temperature experiments) and provides good particle statistics so that high-quality data are available for Rietveld refinement. The low absorption of neutrons by other materials such as vanadium and fused silica enables the use of these materials for the containment of samples in high- and low-temperature environments, and the fixed geometry of the time-of-flight technique simplifies the design of furnaces and cryostats.

We have determined the strain and particle size for several samples of palladium powder by time-of-flight nrutron powder diffraction on two different diffractometers and by x-ray powder diffraction. The results are compared and found to be in fair agreement. The time-of-flight method gives good enough precision to reveal deficiencies in the simple models used for strain and particle size line broadening.

Mastitis is an inflammatory disease of the mammary gland, which has a significant economic impact and is an animal welfare concern. This work examined the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number variations (CNVs) with the incidence of clinical mastitis (CM). Using information from 16 half-sib pairs of Holstein-Friesian cows (32 animals in total) we searched for genomic regions that differed between a healthy (no incidence of CM) and a mastitis-prone (multiple incidences of CM) half-sib. Three cows with average sequence depth of coverage below 10 were excluded, which left 13 half-sib pairs available for comparisons. In total, 191 CNV regions were identified, which were deleted in a mastitis-prone cow, but present in its healthy half-sib and overlapped in at least nine half-sib pairs. These regions overlapped with exons of 46 genes, among which APP (BTA1), FOXL2 (BTA1), SSFA2 (BTA2), OTUD3 (BTA2), ADORA2A (BTA17), TXNRD2 (BTA17) and NDUFS6 (BTA20) have been reported to influence CM. Moreover, two duplicated CNV regions present in nine healthy individuals and absent in their mastitis-affected half-sibs overlapped with exons of a cholinergic receptor nicotinic α 10 subunit on BTA15 and a novel gene (ENSBTAG00000008519) on BTA27. One CNV region deleted in nine mastitis-affected sibs overlapped with two neighbouring long non-coding RNA sequences located on BTA12. Single nucleotide polymorphisms with differential genotypes between a healthy and a mastitis-affected sib included 17 polymorphisms with alternate alleles in eight affected and healthy half-sib families. Three of these SNPs were located introns of genes: MET (BTA04), RNF122 (BTA27) and WRN (BTA27). In summary, structural polymorphisms in form of CNVs, putatively play a role in susceptibility to CM. Specifically, sequence deletions have a greater effect on reducing resistance against mastitis, than sequence duplications have on increasing resistance against the disease.

Electron microprobe trace element analysis is a significant challenge. Due to the low net intensity of peak measurements, the accuracy and precision of such analyses relies critically on background measurements, and on the accuracy of any pertinent peak interference corrections. A linear regression between two points selected at appropriate background positions is a classical approach for electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). However, this approach neglects the accurate assessment of background curvature (exponential or polynomial), and the presence of background interferences, a hole in the background, or an absorption edge can dramatically affect the results if underestimated or ignored. The acquisition of a quantitative wavelength-dispersive spectrometry (WDS) scan over the spectral region of interest remains a reasonable option to determine the background intensity and curvature from a fitted regression of background portions of the scan, but this technique can be time consuming and retains an element of subjectivity, as the analyst has to select areas in the scan which appear to represent background. This paper presents a new multi-point background (MPB) method whereby the background intensity is determined from up to 24 background measurements from wavelength positions on either side of analytical lines. This method improves the accuracy and precision of trace element analysis in a complex matrix through careful regression of the background shape, and can be used to characterize the background over a large spectral region covering several elements to be analyzed. The overall efficiency improves as systematic WDS scanning is not required to assess background interferences. The method is less subjective compared to methods that rely on WDS scanning, including selection of two interpolation points based on WDS scans, because “true” backgrounds are selected through an exclusion method of possible erroneous backgrounds. The first validation of the MPB method involves blank testing to ensure the method can accurately measure the absence of an element. The second validation involves the analysis of U-Th-Pb in several monazite reference materials of known isotopic age. The impetus for the MPB method came from efforts to refine EPMA monazite U-Th-Pb dating, where it was recognized that background errors resulting from interference or strong background curvature could result in errors of several tens of millions of years on the calculated date. Results obtained on monazite reference materials using two different microprobes, a Cameca SX-100 Ultrachron and a JEOL JXA-8230, yield excellent agreement with ages obtained by isotopic methods (Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry [TIMS], Sensitive High-Resolution Ion MicroProbe [SHRIMP], or Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry [SIMS]). Finally, the MPB method can be used to model the background over a large spectrometer range to improve the accuracy of background measurement of minor and trace elements acquired on a same spectrometer, a method called the shared background measurement. This latter significantly improves the accuracy of minor and trace element analysis in complex matrices, as demonstrated by the analysis of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in REE-silicates and phosphates and of trace elements in scheelite.

We provide the first in situ measurements of antenna element beam shapes of the Murchison Widefield Array. Most current processing pipelines use an assumed beam shape, which can cause absolute and relative flux density errors and polarisation ‘leakage’. Understanding the primary beam is then of paramount importance, especially for sensitive experiments such as a measurement of the 21-cm line from the epoch of reionisation, where the calibration requirements are so extreme that tile to tile beam variations may affect our ability to make a detection. Measuring the primary beam shape from visibilities is challenging, as multiple instrumental, atmospheric, and astrophysical factors contribute to uncertainties in the data. Building on the methods of Neben et al. [Radio Sci., 50, 614], we tap directly into the receiving elements of the telescope before any digitisation or correlation of the signal. Using ORBCOMM satellite passes we are able to produce all-sky maps for four separate tiles in the XX polarisation. We find good agreement with the beam model of Sokolowski et al. [2017, PASA, 34, e062], and clearly observe the effects of a missing dipole from a tile in one of our beam maps. We end by motivating and outlining additional on-site experiments.

Evidence supporting the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis indicates that improving early life environments can reduce non-communicable disease risks and improve health over the lifecourse. A widespread understanding of this evidence may help to reshape structures, guidelines and individual behaviors to better the developmental conditions for the next generations. Yet, few efforts have yet been made to translate the DOHaD concept beyond the research community. To understand why, and to identify priorities for DOHaD Knowledge Translation (KT) programs, we review here a portion of published descriptions of DOHaD KT efforts and critiques thereof. We focus on KT targeting people equipped to apply DOHaD knowledge to their everyday home or work lives. We identified 17 reports of direct-to-public DOHaD KT that met our inclusion criteria. Relevant KT programs have been or are being initiated in nine countries, most focusing on secondary school students or care-workers-in-training; few target parents-to-be. Early indicators suggest that such programs can empower participants. Main critiques of DOHaD KT suggest it may overburden mothers with responsibility for children’s health and health environments, minimizing the roles of other people and institutions. Simultaneously, though, many mothers-to-be seek reliable guidance on prenatal health and nutrition, and would likely benefit from engagement with DOHaD KT. We thus recommend emphasizing solidarity, and bringing together people likely to one day become parents (youth), people planning pregnancies, expecting couples, care workers and policymakers into empowering conversation about DOHaD and about the importance and complexity of early life environments.

Drawing on five waves of longitudinal data from 392 families (52% female; mean age of wave 1 [Mage_W1] = 12.89, standard deviation [SD] = .48; Mage_W5 = 21.95, SD = .77; 199 European American and 193 Mexican American families; 217 intact and 175 stepfather families), this study documented transactional relations of mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms with youth's symptomatology from early adolescence to young adulthood. Trait and time-varying cross-lagged models revealed that both mothers’ and fathers’ between- and within-person differences in depressive symptoms were associated with youth's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Whereas each parent's depressive symptoms uniquely contributed to youth's internalizing symptoms, however, only mothers’ depressive symptoms influenced youth's externalizing symptoms. Although reciprocal effects of youth's internalizing symptoms on parents’ depressive symptoms were not significant, youth's externalizing symptoms predicted changes in mothers’ depressive symptoms over time. Moderation analyses revealed distinct transactional patterns by family ethnicity and child gender, but not by family structure. This study revealed dynamic transactions among family members’ symptomatology that point to opportune times and targets for intervention efforts aimed at mitigating the negative impact of parents’ depressive symptoms on youth's adjustment.

We describe the motivation and design details of the ‘Phase II’ upgrade of the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. The expansion doubles to 256 the number of antenna tiles deployed in the array. The new antenna tiles enhance the capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array in several key science areas. Seventy-two of the new tiles are deployed in a regular configuration near the existing array core. These new tiles enhance the surface brightness sensitivity of the array and will improve the ability of the Murchison Widefield Array to estimate the slope of the Epoch of Reionisation power spectrum by a factor of ∼3.5. The remaining 56 tiles are deployed on long baselines, doubling the maximum baseline of the array and improving the array u, v coverage. The improved imaging capabilities will provide an order of magnitude improvement in the noise floor of Murchison Widefield Array continuum images. The upgrade retains all of the features that have underpinned the Murchison Widefield Array’s success (large field of view, snapshot image quality, and pointing agility) and boosts the scientific potential with enhanced imaging capabilities and by enabling new calibration strategies.

Valentine (1, Theorems 2 and 3) has defined a three-point property which he called P 3 and has shown that a closed subset of the euclidean plane possessing this property is expressible as the union of at most three convex sets. He also showed that if the number of isolated points of local non-convexity of such a set is one, finite and even, or infinite, the set is the union of two convex sets. In this paper we give properties which, together with Valentine's results, characterize those subsets of a plane which may be represented as a union of two closed, convex sets.