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.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has produced two different narratives in India. One, here described as “historical,” looks back to the pandemics of the colonial past—bubonic plague from 1896, influenza in 1918–19—as a source of comparisons, lessons, and dire warnings for the present. This narrative envisages the reenactment of past scenes, including flight from the cities, victimization of the poor, and the questioning of state authority. The other narrative, here called “insurgent,” questions the value of historical analogies, doubts that history ever substantially repeats itself, and stresses the specificity of postcolonial Indian politics and health. While recognizing the validity of both narratives, the author urges caution in employing colonial history to critique contemporary events and, while recognizing the 1890s plague as a watershed moment, questions whether even the most devastating pandemics (such as 1918's influenza) necessarily result in profound social, political, and health care changes.

In India the 1918–19 influenza pandemic cost at least twelve million lives, more than in any other country; it caused widespread suffering and disrupted the economy and infrastructure. Yet, despite this, and in contrast to the growing literature on recovering the ‘forgotten’ pandemic in other countries, remarkably little was recorded about the epidemic in India at the time or has appeared in the subsequent historiography. An absence of visual evidence is indicative of a more general paucity of contemporary material and first-hand testimony. In seeking to explain this absence, it is argued that, while India was exposed to influenza as a global event and to the effects of its involvement in the Great War, the influenza episode needs to be more fully understood in terms of local conditions. The impact of the disease was overshadowed by the prior encounter with bubonic plague, by military recruitment and the war, and by food shortages and price rises that pushed India to the brink of famine. Subsumed within a dominant narrative of political unrest and economic discontent, the epidemic found scant expression in official documentation, public debate and/or even private correspondence.

This article experimentally explores the use of ferrite cores to miniaturize the receivers used for inductive wireless power transmission. A variety of receivers were designed and fabricated using cylindrical ferrite cores, ranging in total size from 47 to 687 mm3. The receivers were tested with a commercially available transmitter operating under the Rezence (Air Fuel Alliance) standard at 6.78 MHz. Experiments measured performance of the receivers in terms of their maximum power draw and efficiency as functions of the receiver load and transmission distance. Experimental results showed that ferrite-core receivers could draw multiple watts of power with end-to-end efficiencies in excess of 50%. While the efficiencies are less than a commercially planar coil receiver, the ferrite-core receivers offer a >50% reduction in mass and >90% reduction in footprint. As a result, the receiver power densities reach up to 17.6 W/cm3, which is a 25× improvement over previously reported work. This effort confirms the viability of ferrite-core receivers for size- and weight-constrained applications.

Applications of ethofumesate [(±)-2-ethoxy-2,3-dihydro-3,3-dimethyl-5-benzofuranyl methanesulfonate] at rates from 0.3 to 1.4 kg/ha were made in the field to soils of 2 and 30% (w/w) soil moisture. After 2 to 4 days, all soils were irrigated to establish stands of either sweet corn (Zea mays L. ‘Jubilee’) or winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ‘Stephens’) used as bioassay species for ethofumesate activity. Ethofumesate, at most rates, was significantly less effective on both corn and wheat when applied to dry soil than to wet soil. In greenhouse studies, ethofumesate activity was significantly greater when incorporated into soil of 12% than 2% (w/w) moisture 2 or 4 days prior to irrigation. An increase in herbicide activity was apparent as the length of time between herbicide application and wetting increased from 2 to 4 days. Analysis of wet (20%, w/w) and dry (2%, w/w) soils treated with equal levels of ethofumesate revealed no loss of herbicide applied to wet soil over a 12-day period, but in the dry soil, the amount extracted after 12 days was 10% of the amount extracted at 0 days. These data and other considerations suggest that chemical degradation of ethofumesate is the most likely mechanism for the activity loss in dry soil.

Ethofumesate [(±)-2-ethoxy-2,3-dihydro-3,3-dimethyl-5-benzofuranyl methanesulfonate] was applied to dry soils (2%, w/w moisture content) that were either wetted immediately or remained dry for 1 to 8 days prior to wetting. Two degradation products were isolated with thin-layer and column chromatography from soils that were kept dry for 4 days before wetting. The major product was identified as 2,3-dihydro-3,3-dimethyl-2-oxo-5-benzofuranyl methanesulfonate which accounted for more than 80% of the degradation products. The products were detected 1 day after application to dry soil (between 1 and 3% moisture content), while at moisture contents greater than 3% (w/w) very little ethofumesate was degraded. Radiolabeled ethofumesate and breakdown products were extracted with methanol from dry and wetted soils, and the soil samples were oxidized to quantify nonextractable radioactivity. The percentage of nonextracted ethofumesate was at least 5% greater in dry soil than in wet soil. Activity loss of ethofumesate applied to dry soil probably is due to both chemical degradation and strong adsorption.

Kalahari Group sediments accumulated in the Kalahari basin, which started forming during the breakup of Gondwana in the early Cretaceous. These sediments cover an extensive part of southern Africa and form a low-relief landscape. Current models assume that the Kalahari Group accumulated throughout the entire Cenozoic. However, chronology has been restricted to early–middle Cenozoic biostratigraphic correlations and to OSL dating of only the past ~ 300 ka. We present a new chronological framework that reveals a dynamic nature of sedimentation in the southern Kalahari. Cosmogenic burial ages obtained from a 55 m section of Kalahari Group sediments from the Mamatwan Mine, southern Kalahari, indicate that the majority of deposition at this location occurred rapidly at 1–1.2 Ma. This Pleistocene sequence overlies the Archaean basement, forming a significant hiatus that permits the possibility of many Phanerozoic cycles of deposition and erosion no longer preserved in the sedimentary record. Our data also establish the existence of a shallow early–middle Pleistocene water body that persisted for > 450 ka prior to this rapid period of deposition. Evidence from neighboring archeological excavations in southern Africa suggests an association of high-density hominin occupation with this water body.

Studies were conducted in 1997 and 1998 to evaluate the efficacy and economics of glyphosate-resistant and nontransgenic soybean systems. The three highest yielding glyphosate-resistant and nontransgenic soybean cultivars were chosen each year for three Mississippi locations based on Mississippi Soybean Variety Trials. Treatments within each cultivar/herbicide system included nontreated, low input (one-half of the labeled rate), medium input (labeled rate), and high input level (labeled rate plus an additional postemergence application). In 1997, all systems controlled hemp sesbania by more than 80% but nontransgenic systems controlled hemp sesbania more than the glyphosate-resistant systems in most instances in 1998. High input levels usually controlled pitted morningglory more than low or medium inputs in 1997. In 1998, both systems controlled pitted morningglory by 90% or more at Shelby; however, at other locations control was less than 85%. Soybean yield in 1997 at Shelby was more with the glyphosate-resistant system than with the nontransgenic systems at medium and high input levels, primarily because of early-season injury to a metribuzin-sensitive cultivar in the nontransgenic system. In 1998, soybean yield at Shelby was more with the nontransgenic system than the glyphosate-resistant system, regardless of input level, due to poor late-season hemp sesbania control with glyphosate. Net returns were often more with the glyphosate-resistant system at Shelby in 1997. Within the glyphosate-resistant system, there were no differences in net return between input levels. Within the nontransgenic system, low input level net returns were higher compared to medium and high input levels due to higher soybean yield and less herbicide cost. At Brooksville, using high input levels, the glyphosate-resistant systems net returns were $55.00/ha more than the nontransgenic system. Net returns were higher with the nontransgenic system compared to the glyphosate-resistant system at Shelby in 1998, regardless of input level.

Greenhouse studies were initiated to evaluate glyphosate alone and tank-mixed with acifluorfen, CGA 277476, chlorimuron, cloransulam-methyl, fomesafen, imazaquin, or pyrithiobac on seedling johnsongrass, broadleaf signalgrass, pitted morningglory, and hemp sesbania. Johnsongrass and broadleaf signalgrass control by glyphosate was not affected by the selective herbicides applied in mixtures. Pitted morningglory control by glyphosate ranged from 0% with 280 g ai/ha to 67% with 840 g/ha. There was an additive effect when selective herbicides were added to 280 g/ha glyphosate 2 wk after treatment (WAT). When acifluorfen was added to 560 g/ha glyphosate, pitted morningglory control 2 WAT increased to 100% compared with 55% with glyphosate alone. Similarly, the addition of fomesafen or acifluorfen to 840 g/ha glyphosate controlled pitted morningglory 2 WAT by 90 and 98%, respectively, compared with 67% with glyphosate alone. Only tank mixtures of acifluorfen, CGA 277476, or fomesafen, and 840 g/ha glyphosate reduced fresh weight compared with glyphosate alone 4 WAT. Acifluorfen, CGA 277476, and fomesafen controlled pitted morningglory by 85 to 100% when added to 1,120 g/ha glyphosate. Both acifluorfen and fomesafen effectively controlled hemp sesbania without the addition of glyphosate 2 WAT. Chlorimuron and pyrithiobac added to 1,120 g/ha glyphosate increased hemp sesbania control to 88 and 99%, respectively, compared with 45% with glyphosate alone 2 WAT. CGA 277476, cloransulam-methyl, imazaquin, and pyrithiobac were antagonistic to hemp sesbania fresh weight reduction when compared with the expected response, but fresh weights were still reduced more than with the same rate of glyphosate alone.