We present the data and initial results from the first pilot survey of the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), observed at 944 MHz with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. The survey covers $270 \,\mathrm{deg}^2$ of an area covered by the Dark Energy Survey, reaching a depth of 25–30 $\mu\mathrm{Jy\ beam}^{-1}$ rms at a spatial resolution of $\sim$ 11–18 arcsec, resulting in a catalogue of $\sim$ 220 000 sources, of which $\sim$ 180 000 are single-component sources. Here we present the catalogue of single-component sources, together with (where available) optical and infrared cross-identifications, classifications, and redshifts. This survey explores a new region of parameter space compared to previous surveys. Specifically, the EMU Pilot Survey has a high density of sources, and also a high sensitivity to low surface brightness emission. These properties result in the detection of types of sources that were rarely seen in or absent from previous surveys. We present some of these new results here.

In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked serious concern within qualitative research communities and raised fundamental questions about the meaning, value, costs, and intellectual relevance of transparency for qualitative inquiry. In this Perspectives Reflection, we crystallize the central findings of a three-year deliberative process—the Qualitative Transparency Deliberations (QTD)—involving hundreds of political scientists in a broad discussion of these issues. Following an overview of the process and the key insights that emerged, we present summaries of the QTD Working Groups’ final reports. Drawing on a series of public, online conversations that unfolded at www.qualtd.net, the reports unpack transparency’s promise, practicalities, risks, and limitations in relation to different qualitative methodologies, forms of evidence, and research contexts. Taken as a whole, these reports—the full versions of which can be found in the Supplementary Materials—offer practical guidance to scholars designing and implementing qualitative research, and to editors, reviewers, and funders seeking to develop criteria of evaluation that are appropriate—as understood by relevant research communities—to the forms of inquiry being assessed. We dedicate this Reflection to the memory of our coauthor and QTD working group leader Kendra Koivu.1

We present a detailed overview of the cosmological surveys that we aim to carry out with Phase 1 of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA1) and the science that they will enable. We highlight three main surveys: a medium-deep continuum weak lensing and low-redshift spectroscopic HI galaxy survey over 5 000 deg2; a wide and deep continuum galaxy and HI intensity mapping (IM) survey over 20 000 deg2 from $z = 0.35$ to 3; and a deep, high-redshift HI IM survey over 100 deg2 from $z = 3$ to 6. Taken together, these surveys will achieve an array of important scientific goals: measuring the equation of state of dark energy out to $z \sim 3$ with percent-level precision measurements of the cosmic expansion rate; constraining possible deviations from General Relativity on cosmological scales by measuring the growth rate of structure through multiple independent methods; mapping the structure of the Universe on the largest accessible scales, thus constraining fundamental properties such as isotropy, homogeneity, and non-Gaussianity; and measuring the HI density and bias out to $z = 6$ . These surveys will also provide highly complementary clustering and weak lensing measurements that have independent systematic uncertainties to those of optical and near-infrared (NIR) surveys like Euclid, LSST, and WFIRST leading to a multitude of synergies that can improve constraints significantly beyond what optical or radio surveys can achieve on their own. This document, the 2018 Red Book, provides reference technical specifications, cosmological parameter forecasts, and an overview of relevant systematic effects for the three key surveys and will be regularly updated by the Cosmology Science Working Group in the run up to start of operations and the Key Science Programme of SKA1.

We comment on the conjecture by Parker et al. (2016) that Antarctic toothfish recently returned to McMurdo Sound, arguing that this species never departed. Instead, as deduced from a 40-year fishing effort, toothfish water column prevalence became markedly reduced where bottom depths are <500 m, with research continuing to show their presence on the bottom or above the bottom where depths are deeper. We also counter arguments that toothfish departed, and remained absent, during and following a five-year presence of mega-icebergs residing near the opposite coast of Ross Island, the icebergs inhibiting or fomenting conditions that discouraged toothfish presence in the Sound. Available analyses reveal that toothfish movement into the Sound was probably not significantly affected, and additionally that neither changes in hydrography nor in primary productivity in the Sound would have been sufficient to impact toothfish presence through food web alteration. We hypothesize that the local effect of predation by seals and whales and the regional effect of a fishery targeting the largest toothfish (those neutrally buoyant and thus capable of occupying upper levels of the water column) has resulted in the remaining toothfish now being found predominantly closer to the bottom at greater depths.

GAP-43 levels have been determined by immunoassay in cat visual cortex during postnatal development to test the idea that GAP-43 expression could be related to the duration of the critical period for plasticity. For comparison, GAP-43 levels have also been assayed in primary motor cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, and cerebellum at each age. GAP-43 levels were high in all regions at 5 d (with concentrations ranging from 7−10 ng;/μg protein) and then declined 60−80% by 60 d of age. After 60 d of age, GAP-43 concentrations in each region continued a slow decline to adult values, which ranged from 0.5−2 ng/μg protein. To test for the involvement of GAP-43 in ocular dominance plasticity during the critical period, the effect of visual deprivation on GAP-43 levels was investigated. Monocular deprivation for 2−7 d, ending at either 27 or 35 d of age, had no effect on total membrane levels of GAP-43. The concentrations of membrane-associated GAP-43 prior to 40 d of age correlate with events that occur during postnatal development of the cat visual cortex. However, the slow decline in membrane-associated GAP-43 levels after 40 d of age may be an index of relative plasticity remaining after the peak of the critical period.

The two main receptor subtypes for 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT) were measured and localized in visual cortical areas of macaque monkey. [3H]5HT was used to label all 5HT-1 receptor subtypes and [3H]ketanserin was used to label 5HT-2 receptors. Both receptor types could be demonstrated in membranes prepared from macaque primary visual cortex. The specificity of these ligands for 5HT-1 or 5HT-2 receptors was demonstrated by the pharmacological profile of inhibitors of the specific binding. 5HT-1A receptor sites were detected by displacement experiments and by direct labeling with [3H]8-hydroxy-2(di-n-propylamino) tetralin 8OH-DPAT. Receptor autoradiography showed that the distribution of these receptor subtypes varied from one part of visual cortex to another. 5HT-1 receptors, labeled with [3H]5HT were present in several bands through layer IV of primary visual cortex with the densest band seen in and above layer IVA: another band was in lower layer VI. The band in layer VI was predominantly 5HT-1A sites. There were two main bands of 5HT-2 receptor sites, the most prominent around the IV/V boundary, and the other extending from layer IVA upwards. Adjacent areas showed 5HT receptors in a broad band corresponding to layer IV. 5HT-1A sites were found in superficial layers of adjacent areas, except V2. These layering patterns did not correspond precisely with cytoarchitectonic layering, nor with the pattern of 5HT-containing presynaptic fibres in published reports. It is important, therefore, in considering the role of the 5HT-containing neurons in cortical function to take account not only of the anatomy of the presynaptic terminals, but also of the postsynaptic receptors upon which the released transmitter will act, and their location within the cortex.

We have purified a protein that changes in relative concentration during the development of the kitten visual cortex. It resembles GAP-43 (a neuronal protein that is expressed at elevated levels during periods of development and regenerative axon growth) in the following respects: (1) it is an acidic protein (pI=4.7) whose electrophoretic mobility on SDS-PAGE is similar to, but lower than rat GAP-43, suggesting that the cat protein is larger; (2) its electrophoretic mobility varies with the acrylamide concentration in a manner that is characteristic of GAP-43; (3) its concentration in kitten forebrain is elevated during early postnatal development; (4) the sequence of ten consecutive amino acids from a chemically generated fragment matches the expected sequence from GAP-43; and (5) its amino-acid content also matches GAP-43. We conclude that our purified protein is cat GAP-43. Immunoblots with an antibody prepared against rat GAP-43 suggested that the concentration of GAP-43 in the visual cortex declines with age.