New machine-vision technologies like the John Deere See & Spray™ could provide the opportunity to reduce herbicide use by detecting weeds and target-spraying herbicides simultaneously. Experiments were conducted for 2 yr in Keiser, AR, and Greenville, MS, to compare residual herbicide timings and targeted spray applications versus traditional broadcast herbicide programs in glyphosate/glufosinate/dicamba-resistant soybean. Treatments utilized consistent herbicides and rates with a preemergence (PRE) application followed by an early postemergence (EPOST) dicamba application followed by a mid-postemergence (MPOST) glufosinate application. All treatments included a residual at PRE and excluded or included a residual EPOST and MPOST. Additionally, the herbicide application method was considered, with traditional broadcast applications, broadcasted residual + targeted applications of postemergence herbicides (dual tank), or targeted applications of all herbicides (single tank). Targeted applications provided comparable control to broadcast applications with a ≤1% decrease in efficacy and overall control ≥93% for Palmer amaranth, broadleaf signalgrass, morningglory species, and purslane species. Additionally, targeted sprays slightly reduced soybean injury by at most 5 percentage points across all evaluations, and these effects did not translate to a yield increase at harvest. The relationship between weed area and targeted sprayed area also indicates that nozzle angle can influence potential herbicide savings, with narrower nozzle angles spraying less area. On average, targeted sprays saved a range of 28.4% to 62.4% on postemergence herbicides. On the basis of these results, with specific machine settings, targeted application programs could reduce the amount of herbicide applied while providing weed control comparable to that of traditional broadcast applications.

Radiocarbon (14C) data for 2nd millennium BC urban sites in northern Mesopotamia have been lacking until recently. This article presents a preliminary dataset and Bayesian model addressing the Middle and early Late Bronze Age (Old Babylonian and pre/early Mittani) strata of Kurd Qaburstan—one of the largest archaeological sites on the Erbil plain of Iraqi Kurdistan. The results place the large, densely occupied and fortified Middle Bronze Age city in the first part of the 18th century BC, an outcome consistent with the site’s tentative identification as ancient Qabra. A long occupation gap (up to two centuries) probably ensued, before a smaller town confined to the high mound and part of the northeastern lower town resumed in the late 16th and early 15th centuries BC, possibly before this region became part of the Late Bronze Age kingdom of Mittani.

Italian ryegrass is a major weed in winter cereals in the south-central United States. Harvest weed seed control (HWSC) tactics that aim to remove weed seed from crop fields are a potential avenue to reduce Italian ryegrass seedbank inputs. To this effect, a 4-yr, large-plot field study was conducted in College Station, Texas, and Newport, Arkansas, from 2016 to 2019. The treatments were arranged in a split-plot design. The main-plot treatments were (1) no narrow-windrow burning (a HWSC strategy) + disk tillage immediately after harvest, (2) HWSC + disk tillage immediately after harvest, and (3) HWSC + disk tillage 1 mo after harvest. The subplot treatments were (1) pendimethalin (1,065 g ai ha−1; Prowl H2O®) as a delayed preemergence application (herbicide program #1), and (2) a premix of flufenacet (305 g ai ha−1) + metribuzin (76 g ai ha−1; Axiom®) mixed with pyroxasulfone (89 g ai ha−1; Zidua® WG) as an early postemergence application followed by pinoxaden (59 g ai ha−1; Axial® XL) in spring (herbicide program #2). After 4 yr, HWSC alone was significantly better than no HWSC. Herbicide program #2 was superior to herbicide program #1. Herbicide program #2 combined with HWSC was the most effective treatment. The combination of herbicide program #1 and standard harvest practice (no HWSC; check) led to an increase in fall Italian ryegrass densities from 4 plants m−2 in 2017 to 58 plants m−2 in 2019 at College Station. At wheat harvest, Italian ryegrass densities were 58 and 59 shoots m−2 in check plots at College Station and Newport, respectively, whereas the densities were near zero in plots with herbicide program #2 and HWSC at both locations. These results will be useful for developing an improved Italian ryegrass management strategy in this region.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A) is a hyperinflammatory illness related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The characteristics of patients with this syndrome and the frequency with which it occurs among patients hospitalised after SARS-CoV-2 infection are unclear. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case definition for MIS-A, we created ICD-10-CM code and laboratory criteria to identify potential MIS-A patients in the Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release, a database containing patient-level information on hospital discharges across the United States. Modified MIS-A criteria were applied to hospitalisations with discharge from March to December 2020. The proportion of hospitalisations meeting electronic health record criteria for MIS-A and descriptive statistics for patients in the potential MIS-A cohort were calculated. Of 34 515 SARS-CoV-2-related hospitalisations with complete clinical and laboratory data, 53 met modified criteria for MIS-A (0.15%). The median age was 62 years (IQR 52–74). Most patients met the severe cardiac illness criterion through either myocarditis (66.0%) or new-onset heart failure (35.8%). A total of 79.2% of patients required ICU admission, while 43.4% of patients in the cohort died. MIS-A appears to be a rare but severe outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additional studies are needed to investigate how this syndrome differs from severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adults.

Seed retention, and ultimately seed shatter, are extremely important for the efficacy of harvest weed seed control (HWSC) and are likely influenced by various agroecological and environmental factors. Field studies investigated seed-shattering phenology of 22 weed species across three soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]-producing regions in the United States. We further evaluated the potential drivers of seed shatter in terms of weather conditions, growing degree days, and plant biomass. Based on the results, weather conditions had no consistent impact on weed seed shatter. However, there was a positive correlation between individual weed plant biomass and delayed weed seed–shattering rates during harvest. This work demonstrates that HWSC can potentially reduce weed seedbank inputs of plants that have escaped early-season management practices and retained seed through harvest. However, smaller individuals of plants within the same population that shatter seed before harvest pose a risk of escaping early-season management and HWSC.

In the Cordillera Darwin, southernmost South America, we used 10Be and 14C dating, dendrochronology, and historical observations to reconstruct the glacial history of the Dalla Vedova valley from deglacial time to the present. After deglacial recession into northeastern Darwin and Dalla Vedova, by ~16 ka, evidence indicates a glacial advance at ~13 ka coeval with the Antarctic Cold Reversal. The next robustly dated glacial expansion occurred at 870 ± 60 calendar yr ago (approximately AD 1150), followed by less-extensive dendrochronologically constrained advances from shortly before AD 1836 to the mid-twentieth century. Our record is consistent with most studies within the Cordillera Darwin that show that the Holocene glacial maximum occurred during the last millennium. This pattern contrasts with the extensive early- and mid-Holocene glacier expansions farther north in Patagonia; furthermore, an advance at 870 ± 60 yr ago may suggest out-of-phase glacial advances occurred within the Cordillera Darwin relative to Patagonia. We speculate that a southward shift of westerlies and associated climate regimes toward the southernmost tip of the continent, about 900–800 yr ago, provides a mechanism by which some glaciers advanced in the Cordillera Darwin during what is generally considered a warm and dry period to the north in Patagonia.

Stem cells give rise to the entirety of cells within an organ. Maintaining stem cell identity and coordinately regulating stem cell divisions is crucial for proper development. In plants, mobile proteins, such as WUSCHEL-RELATED HOMEOBOX 5 (WOX5) and SHORTROOT (SHR), regulate divisions in the root stem cell niche. However, how these proteins coordinately function to establish systemic behaviour is not well understood. We propose a non-cell autonomous role for WOX5 in the cortex endodermis initial (CEI) and identify a regulator, ANGUSTIFOLIA (AN3)/GRF-INTERACTING FACTOR 1, that coordinates CEI divisions. Here, we show with a multi-scale hybrid model integrating ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and agent-based modeling that quiescent center (QC) and CEI divisions have different dynamics. Specifically, by combining continuous models to describe regulatory networks and agent-based rules, we model systemic behaviour, which led us to predict cell-type-specific expression dynamics of SHR, SCARECROW, WOX5, AN3 and CYCLIND6;1, and experimentally validate CEI cell divisions. Conclusively, our results show an interdependency between CEI and QC divisions.