A new fossil site in a previously unexplored part of western Madagascar (the Beanka Protected Area) has yielded remains of many recently extinct vertebrates, including giant lemurs (Babakotia radofilai, Palaeopropithecus kelyus, Pachylemur sp., and Archaeolemur edwardsi), carnivores (Cryptoprocta spelea), the aardvark-like Plesiorycteropus sp., and giant ground cuckoos (Coua). Many of these represent considerable range extensions. Extant species that were extirpated from the region (e.g., Prolemur simus) are also present. Calibrated radiocarbon ages for 10 bones from extinct primates span the last three millennia. The largely undisturbed taphonomy of bone deposits supports the interpretation that many specimens fell in from a rock ledge above the entrance. Some primates and other mammals may have been prey items of avian predators, but human predation is also evident. Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) suggest that fossils were local to the area. Pottery sherds and bones of extinct and extant vertebrates with cut and chop marks indicate human activity in previous centuries. Scarcity of charcoal and human artifacts suggests only occasional visitation to the site by humans. The fossil assemblage from this site is unusual in that, while it contains many sloth lemurs, it lacks ratites, hippopotami, and crocodiles typical of nearly all other Holocene subfossil sites on Madagascar.

We determined how pasture and grazing management practices affected the number of days hay was fed to cattle by season. Data were collected from a survey of Tennessee cattle producers. Days of cattle on hay varied across seasons because of variations in forage production and weather. The number of days hay was fed to cattle varied with pasture-animal management practices such as rotating pastures, forage mixtures, and weed management strategies. Having mixtures of cool- and warm-season grasses reduced the number of days on hay in the winter, spring, and summer months indicating benefits from diversified forages.

We develop a general model to describe a network of interconnected thin viscous sheets, or viscidas, which evolve under the action of surface tension. A junction between two viscidas is analysed by considering a single viscida containing a smoothed corner, where the centreline angle changes rapidly, and then considering the limit as the smoothing tends to zero. The analysis is generalized to derive a simple model for the behaviour at a junction between an arbitrary number of viscidas, which is then coupled to the governing equation for each viscida. We thus obtain a general theory, consisting of $N$ partial differential equations and $3J$ algebraic conservation laws, for a system of $N$ viscidas connected at $J$ junctions. This approach provides a framework to understand the fabrication of microstructured optical fibres containing closely spaced holes separated by interconnected thin viscous struts. We show sample solutions for simple networks with $J=2$ and $N=2$ or 3. We also demonstrate that there is no uniquely defined junction model to describe interconnections between viscidas of different thicknesses.

We derive a mathematical model for the drawing of a two-dimensional thin sheet of viscous fluid in the direction of gravity. If the gravitational field is sufficiently strong, then a portion of the sheet experiences a compressive stress and is thus unstable to transverse buckling. We analyse the dependence of the instability and the subsequent evolution on the process parameters, and the mutual coupling between the weakly nonlinear buckling and the stress profile in the sheet. Over long time scales, the sheet centreline ultimately adopts a universal profile, with the bulk of the sheet under tension and a single large bulge caused by a small compressive region near the bottom, and we derive a canonical inner problem that describes this behaviour. The large-time analysis involves a logarithmic asymptotic expansion, and we devise a hybrid asymptotic–numerical scheme that effectively sums the logarithmic series.

The effect of animal characteristics and placement decisions on retained ownership profitability of Tennessee cattle from 2005 to 2015 was determined using a mixed model regression. Ex post simulation analysis examined retained ownership profitability by placement season under different animal characteristic and corn price scenarios. Regression results indicate that placement weight, placement season, days on feed, animal health, and animal sex affect retained ownership profitability. Simulation results indicate that winter placement of cattle in feedlots had the highest expected retained ownership profits. Results provide risk-averse producers information regarding the profitability of retained ownership.

Portugal has one of the highest rates of childhood overweight and obesity in Europe. However, little is known about the health of ethnic minorities living in its capital city, Lisbon. The Cape Verdean community in Lisbon tend to have low educational levels, material deprivation and struggle with discrimination and racism, factors that would probably be associated with a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity. Data for the Cape Verdean population were collected in three different time periods by three different research teams in 1993, 2009 and 2013 and included children aged 6–12 years living in the Cova da Moura neighbourhood of the Greater Lisbon Metro Area. The Portuguese national survey was conducted between 2009 and 2010 at public and private schools in mainland Portugal and included height, weight, skinfolds and arm and waist circumferences. From these survey data body mass index (BMI) and prevalence of stunting (chronic malnutrition – low height-for-age) and underweight (low weight-for-age) were calculated according to reference values proposed by Frisancho (2008). Overweight and obesity prevalence values were defined based on the references established by the International Obesity Task Force. The results show significant differences in height between Cape Verdean and Portuguese boys and girls. Generally, Cape Verdeans’ growth falls within the healthy range of international growth references across all of the survey data collected. Cape Verdean rates for combined overnutrition (overweight and obesity) in 2013 (9.8% for boys and 16.7% for girls) were lower than those of the Portuguese (33% for boys and 31.7% for girls). Logistic regression models showed that Cape Verdean children had a lower risk of being overweight or obese when accounting for breast-feeding, birth weight, maternal education and occupation. Despite living in a deprived neighbourhood these Cape Verdean children seemed to have grown more healthily than Portuguese ancestry children. The challenge for policymakers will be to support improvement of the poverty-related living conditions of this community without creating a risky environment for increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity.

Filters that act by adsorbing contaminant onto their pore walls will experience a decrease in porosity over time, and may eventually block. As adsorption will generally be greater towards the entrance of a filter, where the concentration of contaminant particles is higher, these effects can also result in a spatially varying porosity. We investigate this dynamic process using an extension of homogenization theory that accounts for a macroscale variation in microstructure. We formulate and homogenize the coupled problems of flow through a filter with a near-periodic time-dependent microstructure, solute transport due to advection, diffusion and filter adsorption, and filter structure evolution due to the adsorption of contaminant. We use the homogenized equations to investigate how the contaminant removal and filter lifespan depend on the initial porosity distribution for a unidirectional flow. We confirm a conjecture made by Dalwadi et al. (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 471 (2182), 2015, 20150464) that filters with an initially negative porosity gradient have a longer lifespan and remove more contaminant than filters with an initially constant porosity, or worse, an initially positive porosity gradient. In addition, we determine which initial porosity distributions result in a filter that will block everywhere at once by exploiting an asymptotic reduction of the homogenized equations. We show that these filters remove more contaminant than other filters with the same initial average porosity, but that filters which block everywhere at once are limited by how large their initial average porosity can be.

We describe the performance of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array, the prototype for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. Boolardy Engineering Test Array is the first aperture synthesis radio telescope to use phased array feed technology, giving it the ability to electronically form up to nine dual-polarisation beams. We report the methods developed for forming and measuring the beams, and the adaptations that have been made to the traditional calibration and imaging procedures in order to allow BETA to function as a multi-beam aperture synthesis telescope. We describe the commissioning of the instrument and present details of Boolardy Engineering Test Array’s performance: sensitivity, beam characteristics, polarimetric properties, and image quality. We summarise the astronomical science that it has produced and draw lessons from operating Boolardy Engineering Test Array that will be relevant to the commissioning and operation of the final Australian Square Kilometre Array Path telescope.

The Cycadales are a group of significant global conservation concern and have the highest extinction risk of all seed plants. Understanding the synchronisation of reproductive phenology of Cycadales may be useful for conservation by enabling the targeting of pollen and seed collection from wild populations and identifying the window of fertilisation to aid in the cultivation of Cycadales. Phenological data for 11 species of Zamia were gathered from herbarium specimens. Four phenological characters were coded with monthly character states. DNA was isolated and sequenced for 26S, CAB, NEEDLY, matK and rbcL, and a simultaneous phylogenetic analysis of phenology and DNA sequence data was carried out. Three major clades were recovered: a Caribbean clade, a Central American clade and a South American clade. Eight species showed statistically significant synchronisation in microsporangiate and ovulate phenological phases, indicating the time of fertilisation. Close reproductive synchronisation was consistently observed throughout the Caribbean clade (statistically significant in four of five species) but was less consistent in the Central American clade (statistically significant in one of two species) and South American clade (statistically significant in three of four species). Ultimately, phenology is shown to be a potential driver of speciation in some clades of Zamia and in others to be a potential barrier to hybridisation.

With HST and WFPC2, galaxies in the Medium Deep Survey can be reliably classified to magnitudes I 814 ≲ 22.0 in the F814W band, at a mean redshift . The main result is the relatively high proportion (~40%) of objects which are in some way irregular or anomalous, and which are of relevance in understanding the origin of the familiar excess population of faint galaxies. These diverse objects include compact galaxies, apparently interacting pairs, galaxies with superluminous starforming regions and diffuse low surface brightness galaxies of various forms. The ‘irregulars’ and ‘peculiar’ galaxies contribute most of the excess counts in the I-band at our limiting magnitude, and may explain the ‘faint blue galaxy’ problem.

Introduction: The older adult population is growing. The consequences of minor trauma involving a head injury (MT-HI) in independent older adults are largely unknown. This study assessed the impact of a MT-HI on the functional and cognitive outcomes six months post injury of older adults who sustained a minor trauma. Methods: This multicenter prospective cohort study in eight sites included patients who were: aged 65 years or older, presenting to the emergency department (ED) within two weeks of injury with a chief complaint of a minor trauma, discharged within 48 hours, and independent for their basic activities of daily living prior to the ED visit. Participants underwent a baseline evaluation and a follow-up evaluation at six months post-injury. The main outcome was the functional decline measured with the Older Americans’ Resources and Services (OARS) scale six months after the trauma. Results: All 926 eligible patients were included in the analyses: 344 MT-HI patients and 582 without head injury. After six months, the functional decline was similar in both groups, 10.8% and 11.9% respectively (RR=0.79 [95% CI: 0.55-1.14]). The proportion of participants with mild cognitive disabilities was also similar, 21.7% and 22.8% respectively (RR=0.91 [95% CI: 0.71-1.18]). Furthermore, for the group of patients with a MT-HI, the functional outcome was not statistically different with or without the presence of a co-injury (RR= 1.35 [95% CI: 0.71-2.59]), or with or without the presence of a mTBI as defined by the WHO criteria (RR= 0.90 [95% CI: 0.59-1.13]). Conclusion: This study did not demonstrate that the occurrence of a MT-HI is associated with a worse functional or cognitive prognosis than other minor injuries without a head injury in an elderly population six months after injury.

During 1990 we surveyed the southern sky using a multi-beam receiver at frequencies of 4850 and 843 MHz. The half-power beamwidths were 4 and 25 arcmin respectively. The finished surveys cover the declination range between +10 and −90 degrees declination, essentially complete in right ascension, an area of 7.30 steradians. Preliminary analysis of the 4850 MHz data indicates that we will achieve a five sigma flux density limit of about 30 mJy. We estimate that we will find between 80 000 and 90 000 new sources above this limit. This is a revised version of the paper presented at the Regional Meeting by the first four authors; the surveys now have been completed.

Active galaxy-X-ray sources are well known to be variable on timescales of days to years (Ricketts, et al. 1977, Mushotzky, et al. 1979, Lawrence 1979). Here we present some new data from the Einstein Observatory which shows that these sources also vary in less than one day, on timescales of hours. Large luminosity changes in such short times promise to allow the investigation of the physics of such sources in several new ways. We shall give some examples of how this can be begun. This is only a preliminary report of this work. A full account will be given elsewhere.

The Einstein Observatory (Giacconi, et al. 1979) is capable of exploring this regime of variability because its imaging capability gives it two unique advantages. Firstly, the background rate in one beam area is negligible so that intensity determinations are limited only by Poisson counting statistics. Secondly, the background counts in the remainder of the field can be integrated to give a simultaneous monitor with the same instrument of cosmic ray and background X-ray events. Thus, any peculiarities in detector behaviour, telemetry or software can be traced and separated from real source variations. This is a significant advantage and gives us a great deal more confidence in our results. Many sources do not show variability. For example, in our data, Cen A is constant to ˜ 2% over 1 day.

Early nutrition is critical for later health and sustainable development. We determined potential effectiveness of the Kenyan Community Health Strategy in promoting exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in urban poor settings in Nairobi, Kenya. We used a quasi-experimental study design, based on three studies [Pre-intervention (2007–2011; n=5824), Intervention (2012–2015; n=1110) and Comparison (2012–2014; n=487)], which followed mother–child pairs longitudinally to establish EBF rates from 0 to 6 months. The Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) study was a cluster randomized trial; the control arm (MIYCN-Control) received standard care involving community health workers (CHWs) visits for counselling on antenatal and postnatal care. The intervention arm (MIYCN-Intervention) received standard care and regular MIYCN counselling by trained CHWs. Both groups received MIYCN information materials. We tested differences in EBF rates from 0 to 6 months among four study groups (Pre-intervention, MIYCN-Intervention, MIYCN-Control and Comparison) using a χ 2 test and logistic regression. At 6 months, the prevalence of EBF was 2% in the Pre-intervention group compared with 55% in the MIYCN-Intervention group, 55% in the MIYCN-Control group and 3% in the Comparison group (P<0.05). After adjusting for baseline characteristics, the odds ratio for EBF from birth to 6 months was 66.9 (95% CI 45.4–96.4), 84.3 (95% CI 40.7–174.6) and 3.9 (95% CI 1.8–8.4) for the MIYCN-Intervention, MIYCN-Control and Comparison group, respectively, compared with the Pre-intervention group. There is potential effectiveness of the Kenya national Community Health Strategy in promoting EBF in urban poor settings where health care access is limited.

Thin glass sheets may be manufactured using a two-part process in which a sheet is first cast and then subsequently reheated and drawn to a required thickness. The latter redrawing process typically results in a sheet with non-uniform thickness and with smaller width than the cast glass block. Experiments suggest that the loss of width can be minimized and the non-uniformities can be essentially confined to thickening at the sheet edges if the heater zone through which the glass is drawn is made very short. We present a three-dimensional mathematical model for the redraw process and consider the limits in which (i) the heater zone is short compared with the sheet width, and (ii) the sheet thickness is small compared with both of these length scales. We show that, in the majority of the sheet, the properties vary only in the direction of drawing and the sheet motion is one-dimensional, with two-dimensional behaviour and the corresponding thick edges confined to boundary layers at the sheet extremities. We present numerical solutions to this boundary-layer problem and demonstrate good agreement with experiment, as well as with numerical solutions to the full three-dimensional problem. We show that the final thickness at the sheet edge scales with the inverse square root of the draw ratio, and explore the effect of tapering of the ends to identify a shape for the initial preform that results in a uniform rectangular final product.

In this paper, we consider the straining flow of a weakly interacting polymer–surfactant solution below a free surface, with the bulk surfactant concentration above the critical micelle concentration. We formulate a set of coupled differential equations describing the concentration of monomers, micelles, polymer, and polymer–micelle aggregates in the flow. We analyse the model in several asymptotic limits, and make predictions about the distribution of each of the species. In particular, in the large-reaction-rate limit we find that the model predicts a region near the free surface where no micelles or aggregates are present, and beneath this a region where the concentration of surfactant is constant, across which the concentration of aggregates increases until all the free polymer is consumed. For certain parameter regimes, a maximum in the concentration of the polymer–micelle complex occurs within the bulk fluid. In the finite-reaction-rate limit, micelles, and aggregates are present right up to the free surface, and the plateau in the concentration of surfactant in the bulk is no longer present. Results from the asymptotic theory compare favorably with full numerical solutions.