Debate about the nature of climate and the magnitude of ecological change across Australia during the last glacial maximum (LGM; 26.5–19 ka) persists despite considerable research into the late Pleistocene. This is partly due to a lack of detailed paleoenvironmental records and reliable chronological frameworks. Geochemical and geochronological analyses of a 60 ka sedimentary record from Brown Lake, subtropical Queensland, are presented and considered in the context of climate-controlled environmental change. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of dune crests adjacent to prominent wetlands across North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) returned a mean age of 119.9 ± 10.6 ka; indicating relative dune stability soon after formation in Marine Isotope Stage 5. Synthesis of wetland sediment geochemistry across the island was used to identify dust accumulation and applied as an aridification proxy over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. A positive trend of dust deposition from ca. 50 ka was found with highest influx occurring leading into the LGM. Complexities of comparing sedimentary records and the need for robust age models are highlighted with local variation influencing the accumulation of exogenic material. An inter-site comparison suggests enhanced moisture stress regionally during the last glaciation and throughout the LGM, returning to a more positive moisture balance ca. 8 ka.

On January 29, 2020, a total of 195 US citizens were evacuated from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Wuhan, China, to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, and entered the first federally mandated quarantine in over 50 years. With less than 1-d notice, a multi-disciplinary team from Riverside County and Riverside University Health System in conjunction with local and federal agencies established on-site 24-h medical care and behavioral health support. This report details the coordinated efforts by multiple teams that took place to provide care for the passengers and to support the surrounding community.

Many studies have shown that marijuana can negatively affect the cognitive development of adolescents. For some individuals, marijuana use may also initiate opioid use, dose escalation, and opioid use disorder. States that legalize marijuana should help adolescents through regulation of advertising and availability of marijuana-infused edibles. Such policies may assist in protecting neurodevelopment of the adolescent and young adult brain. The federal government should also remove its prohibition of marijuana sales and use, leaving their regulation to state law-makers.

Spot spraying POST herbicides is an effective approach to reduce herbicide input and weed control cost. Machine vision detection of grass or grass-like weeds in turfgrass systems is a challenging task due to the similarity in plant morphology. In this work, we explored the feasibility of using image classification with deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN), including AlexNet, GoogLeNet, and VGGNet, for detection of crabgrass species (Digitaria spp.), doveweed [Murdannia nudiflora (L.) Brenan], dallisgrass (Paspalum dilatatum Poir.), and tropical signalgrass [Urochloa distachya (L.) T.Q. Nguyen] in bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.]. VGGNet generally outperformed AlexNet and GoogLeNet in detecting selected grassy weeds. For detection of P. dilatatum, VGGNet achieved high F1 scores (≥0.97) and recall values (≥0.99). A single VGGNet model exhibited high F1 scores (≥0.93) and recall values (1.00) that reliably detected Digitaria spp., M. nudiflora, P. dilatatum, and U. distachya. Low weed density reduced the recall values of AlexNet at detecting all weed species and GoogLeNet at detecting Digitaria spp. In comparison, VGGNet achieved excellent performances (overall accuracy = 1.00) at detecting all weed species in both high and low weed-density scenarios. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using DCNN for detection of grass or grass-like weeds in turfgrass systems.

The new compound (4R)-methyl-3-(1-(4-chlorophenyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazole-4-carbonyl)thiazolidin-4-carboxylate was synthesized by the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction between (4R)-methyl-3-propionyl-thiazolidin-4-carboxylate (1) and 4-chlorophenylazide using the click chemistry approach. Molecular characterization was carried out by infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The X-ray powder diffraction study determined that the title compound crystallized in an orthorhombic system with unit-cell parameters a = 20.876 (2) Å, b = 12.111 (1) Å, and c = 6.288 (9) Å. The volume of the unit cell is V = 1589.7 (2) Å3. All measured diffraction maxima were indexed and are consistent with the P2221 space group (No. 17). No detectable impurities were observed.

Background: There is an unmet need for blood-based biomarkers that can reliably detect MS disease activity. Serum Biomarkers of interest includ Neurofilament-light-chain (NfL), Glial-fibrillary-strocyte-protein(GFAP) and Tau. Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) is reserved for aggressive forms of MS and has been shown to halt detectable CNS inflammatory activity for prolonged periods. Significant pre-treatment tissue damage at followed by inflammatory disease abeyance should be reflected longitudinal sera collected from these patients. Methods: Sera were collected from 23 MS patients pre-treatment, and following BMT at 3, 6, 9 and 12-months in addition from 33 non-inflammatory neurological controls. Biomarker quantification was performed with SiMoA. Results: Pre-AHSCT levels of serum NfL and GFAP but not Tau were elevated compared to controls (p=0.0001), and NfL correlated with lesion-based disease activity (6-month-relapse, MRI-T2 and Gadolinium-enhancement). 3-months post-treatment, while NfL levels remained elevated, Tau/GFAP paradoxically increased (p=0.0023/0.0017). These increases at 3m correlated with MRI ‘pseudoatrophy’ at 6-months. NfL/Tau levels dropped to that of controls by 6-months (p=0.0036/0.0159). GFAP levels dropped progressively after 6-months although even at 12-months remained higher than controls (p=0.004). Conclusions: NfL was the closest correlate of MS disease activity and treatment response. Chemotherapy-related toxicity may account for transient increases in NfL, Tau and MRI brain atrophy post-BMT.

In this paper, we will report about the implementation of the self-consistent Kröner–Eshelby model for the calculation of X-ray elastic constants for general, triclinic crystal symmetry. With applying appropriate symmetry relations, the point groups of higher crystal symmetries are covered as well. This simplifies the implementation effort to cover the calculations for any crystal symmetry. In the literature, several models can be found to estimate the polycrystalline elastic properties from single crystal elastic constants. In general, this is an intermediate step toward the calculation of the polycrystalline response to different techniques using X-rays, neutrons, or ultrasonic waves. In the case of X-ray residual stress analysis, the final goal is the calculation of X-ray Elastic constants. Contrary to the models of Reuss, Voigt, and Hill, the Kröner–Eshelby model has the benefit that, because of the implementation of the Eshelby inclusion model, it can be expanded to cover more complicated systems that exhibit multiple phases, inclusions or pores and that these can be optionally combined with a polycrystalline matrix that is anisotropic, i.e., contains texture. We will discuss a recent theoretical development where the approaches of calculating bounds of Reuss and Voigt, the tighter bounds of Hashin–Shtrikman and Dederichs–Zeller are brought together in one unifying model that converges to the self-consistent solution of Kröner–Eshelby. For the implementation of the Kröner–Eshelby model the well-known Voigt notation is adopted. The 4-rank tensor operations have been rewritten into 2-rank matrix operations. The practical difficulties of the Voigt notation, as usually concealed in the scientific literature, will be discussed. Last, we will show a practical X-ray example in which the various models are applied and compared.

Identifying Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) constructs in early childhood is essential for understanding etiological pathways of psychopathology. Our central goal was to identify early emotion knowledge and self-regulation difficulties across different RDoC domains and examine how they relate to typical versus atypical symptom trajectories between ages 3 and 10. Particularly, we assessed potential contributions of children's gender, executive control, delay of gratification, and regulation of frustration, emotion recognition, and emotion understanding at age 3 to co-occurring patterns of internalizing and externalizing across development. A total of 238 3-year-old boys and girls were assessed using behavioral tasks and parent reports and reassessed at ages 5 and 10 years. Results indicated that very few children developed “pure” internalizing or externalizing symptoms relative to various levels of co-occurring symptoms across development. Four classes of co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems were identified: low, low-moderate, rising, and severe-decreasing trajectories. Three-year-old children with poor executive control but high emotion understanding were far more likely to show severe-decreasing than low/low-moderate class co-occurring internalizing and externalizing symptom patterns. Child gender and poor executive control differentiated children in rising versus low trajectories. Implications for early intervention targeting self-regulation of executive control are discussed.

Weed interference during crop establishment is a serious concern for Florida strawberry [Fragaria×ananassa (Weston) Duchesne ex Rozier (pro sp.) [chiloensis×virginiana]] producers. In situ remote detection for precision herbicide application reduces both the risk of crop injury and herbicide inputs. Carolina geranium (Geranium carolinianum L.) is a widespread broadleaf weed within Florida strawberry production with sensitivity to clopyralid, the only available POST broadleaf herbicide. Geranium carolinianum leaf structure is distinct from that of the strawberry plant, which makes it an ideal candidate for pattern recognition in digital images via convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The study objective was to assess the precision of three CNNs in detecting G. carolinianum. Images of G. carolinianum growing in competition with strawberry were gathered at four sites in Hillsborough County, FL. Three CNNs were compared, including object detection–based DetectNet, image classification–based VGGNet, and GoogLeNet. Two DetectNet networks were trained to detect either leaves or canopies of G. carolinianum. Image classification using GoogLeNet and VGGNet was largely unsuccessful during validation with whole images (Fscore<0.02). CNN training using cropped images increased G. carolinianum detection during validation for VGGNet (Fscore=0.77) and GoogLeNet (Fscore=0.62). The G. carolinianum leaf–trained DetectNet achieved the highest Fscore (0.94) for plant detection during validation. Leaf-based detection led to more consistent detection of G. carolinianum within the strawberry canopy and reduced recall-related errors encountered in canopy-based training. The smaller target of leaf-based DetectNet did increase false positives, but such errors can be overcome with additional training images for network desensitization training. DetectNet was the most viable CNN tested for image-based remote sensing of G. carolinianum in competition with strawberry. Future research will identify the optimal approach for in situ detection and integrate the detection technology with a precision sprayer.

Parameters such as pretreatment method, enzyme type and concentration, determine the conversion efficiency of biomass’ cellulose and hemicellulose to glucose and mainly xylose in biomass-based fuel production. Chemical quantification of these processes offers no information on the effect of enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) on particle morphology. We report on the development of a microscopy method for imaging pretreated biomass particles at different EH stages. The method was based on acquiring large field of view images, typically 20×10 mm2 containing thousands of particles. Morphology of particles with lengths between 2 μm and 5 mm could be visualized and analyzed. The particle length distribution of corn stover samples, pretreated with increasing amounts of sulfuric acid at different EH stages, was measured. Particle size was shown to be dependent on pretreatment severity and EH time. The methodology developed could offer an alternative method for characterization of EH of biomass for second generation biofuels and visualization of recalcitrant structures.

The development of laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) over the past several years has led to an interest in very compact sources of X-ray radiation – such as “table-top” free electron lasers. However, the use of conventional undulators using permanent magnets also implies system sizes which are large. In this work, we assess the possibilities for the use of novel mini-undulators in conjunction with a LWFA so that the dimensions of the undulator become comparable with the acceleration distances for LWFA experiments (i.e., centimeters). The use of a prototype undulator using laser machining of permanent magnets for this application is described and the emission characteristics and limitations of such a system are determined. Preliminary electron propagation and X-ray emission measurements are taken with a LWFA electron beam at the University of Michigan.

The stellar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) has been studied in the last decade and has been found to be an important factor to determine the habitability of planetary surfaces. It is known that UVR can be a constraint for life. However, most of the studies of UVR and habitability have missed some fundamental aspects: i) Accurate estimation of the planetary atmospheric attenuation, ii) The biological inferences used to represent the impact of the stellar UVR on life are theoretical and based on the action spectrum (for DNA or microorganisms) or considering parameters as the “lethal dose” obtained from non-astrobiological experiments. Therefore, the conclusions reached by previous studies about the UVR habitability of planetary bodies may be inaccurate. In this work, we propose how to address these studies in a more accurate way through an interdisciplinary approach that combines astrophysics, microbiology, and photobiology and by the use of specially designed laboratory experiments.