This study investigated the transactional relations between vocabulary and disruptive behaviors (DB; physical aggression and opposition/rule breaking/theft and vandalism), during the transition to formal schooling, using a community sample of 572 children. Cross-lagged panel model analyses were used to examine bidirectional relationships, comparing physical aggression to non-aggressive DB. Transactional associations between vocabulary and DB were observed, coinciding with school entry. Lower vocabulary in preschool (60mo.) was predictive of higher physical aggression scores in kindergarten. In turn, higher physical aggression in kindergarten was predictive of lower vocabulary in 1st grade. For non-aggressive DB, recurrent associations were found. Lower verbal skills in preschool (42mo.) and kindergarten predicted higher non-aggressive DB scores later in preschool and in 1st grade respectively. In turn, higher non-aggressive DB in kindergarten predicted lower vocabulary scores in 1st grade. In contrast to transactional paths from vocabulary to DB, transactional paths from DB to vocabulary observed after the transition to elementary school remained significant after controlling for comorbid hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention behaviors, suggesting these links were specific to aggressive and non-aggressive DB. Practical implications for prevention are discussed.

The potential of Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) S.T. Blake to reinvade cleared areas was evaluated over a 13-yr period that included two wildfires and the introduction of biological control agents. The first wildfire occurred in 1998 and was followed by a mean of 591.5 recruited seedlings m−2. Recruits from that fire were cleared 7 yr later in July 2005 for a second experiment to evaluate seedling recruitment into cleared areas. Seed rain, seedling recruitment and mortality, and sapling growth rates were measured in four plots located around individual large reproductive trees. A second natural wildfire in 2007 burned through those plots, leading to increases in seed rain followed by a pulse in recruitment of 21.04 seedlings m−2, 96.5% fewer than after the 1998 fire. Recruits in half of the plots around each tree were then treated with regular applications of an insecticide to restrict herbivory by biological control agents, while herbivory was not restricted in the other half. There was no difference in seedling mortality between treatments 1,083 d post-fire (2007) with 96.6% seedling mortality in the unrestricted herbivory treatment and 89.4% mortality in the restricted herbivory treatment. Recruits subjected to the restricted herbivory treatment grew taller than those in the unrestricted herbivory treatment, 101.3 cm versus 37.4 cm. Many of the recruits were attacked by the biological control agents, which slowed their growth. Although solitary M. quinquenervia trees retain some capacity to reinvade areas under specific circumstances, there was a downward trend in their overall invasiveness at this site, with progressively smaller recruitment cohorts due to biological control agents. Land managers should prioritize removing large reproductive trees over treating recently recruited populations, which can be left for many years for the biological control agents to suppress before any additional treatment would be needed.

The majority of children living in foster care in the United States have a history of maltreatment and/or disrupted caregiving. Maltreatment in early childhood adversely affects development at many levels, including neurobiology and behavior. One neurobiological measure associated with maltreatment is alpha electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry. Prior research has found greater right frontal asymmetry among children with a history of maltreatment. However, little research has been extended developmentally downward to examine alpha asymmetry and its behavioral correlates among toddlers in foster care; this was the purpose of the present study. Differences in EEG asymmetry were examined between a sample of foster toddlers (mean age = 3.21 years, n = 38) and a community comparison, low-income sample without a history of foster care (mean age = 3.04 years, n = 16). The toddlers in the foster care group exhibited greater right alpha asymmetry, primarily driven by differences in parietal asymmetry. Neither frontal nor parietal asymmetry were clearly related to internalizing or externalizing behaviors, measured concurrently or at previous time points. These findings reveal differences in alpha EEG asymmetry among toddlers in foster care, and highlight the need to better understand associations between neurobiological and behavioral functioning following early adversity.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk is widely used for data collection; however, data quality may be declining due to the use of virtual private servers to fraudulently gain access to studies. Unfortunately, we know little about the scale and consequence of this fraud, and tools for social scientists to detect and prevent this fraud are underdeveloped. We first analyze 38 studies and show that this fraud is not new, but has increased recently. We then show that these fraudulent respondents provide particularly low-quality data and can weaken treatment effects. Finally, we provide two solutions: an easy-to-use application for identifying fraud in the existing datasets and a method for blocking fraudulent respondents in Qualtrics surveys.

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${\sim}60\%$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

The need for hollow microneedle arrays is important for both drug delivery and wearable sensor applications; however, their fabrication poses many challenges. Hollow metal microneedle arrays residing on a flexible metal foil substrate were created by combining additive manufacturing, micromolding, and electroplating approaches in a process we refer to as electromolding. A solid microneedle with inward facing ledge was fabricated with a two photon polymerization (2PP) system utilizing laser direct write (LDW) and then molded with polydimethylsiloxane. These molds were then coated with a seed layer of Ti/Au and subsequently electroplated with pulsed deposition to create hollow microneedles. An inward facing ledge provided a physical blocking platform to restrict deposition of the metal seed layer for creation of the microneedle bore. Various ledge sizes were tested and showed that the resulting seed layer void could be controlled via the ledge length. Mechanical properties of the PDMS mold was adjusted via the precursor ratio to create a more ductile mold that eliminated tip damage to the microneedles upon removal from the molds. Master structures were capable of being molded numerous times and molds were able to be reused. SEM/EDX analysis showed that trace amounts of the PDMS mold were transferred to the metal microneedle upon removal. The microneedle substrate showed a degree of flexibility that withstood over 100 cycles of bending from side to side without damaging. Microneedles were tested for their fracture strength and were capable of puncturing porcine skin and injecting a dye.

Mandatory I fortification in bread was introduced in Australia in 2009 in response to the re-emergence of biochemical I deficiency based on median urinary I concentration (UIC)<100 µg/l. Data on the I status of lactating mothers and their infants in Australia are scarce. The primary aim of this study was to assess the I status, determined by UIC and breast milk I concentration (BMIC), of breast-feeding mothers in South Australia and UIC of their infants. The secondary aim was to assess the relationship between the I status of mothers and their infants. The median UIC of the mothers (n 686) was 125 (interquartile range (IQR) 76–200) µg/l and median BMIC (n 538) was 127 (IQR 84–184) µg/l. In all, 38 and 36 % of the mothers had a UIC and BMIC below 100 µg/l, respectively. The median UIC of infants (n 628) was 198 (IQR 121–296) µg/l, and 17 % had UIC<100 µg/l. Infant UIC was positively associated with maternal UIC (β 0·26; 95 % CI 0·14, 0·37, P<0·001) and BMIC (β 0·85; 95 % CI 0·66, 1·04, P<0·001) at 3 months postpartum after adjustment for gestational age, parity, maternal secondary and further education, BMI category and infant feeding mode. The adjusted OR for infant UIC<100 µg/l was 6·49 (95 % CI 3·80, 11·08, P<0·001) in mothers with BMIC<100 µg/l compared with those with BMIC≥100 µg/l. The I status of mothers and breast-fed infants in South Australia, following mandatory I fortification, is indicative of I sufficiency. BMIC<100 µg/l increased the risk of biochemical I deficiency in breast-fed infants.

Research was conducted to determine the effects of management practices and precipitation on herbicide loss in surface water runoff. A field runoff experiment was conducted in 1999 and 2000 in Manhattan, KS. Some plots received only natural precipitation, whereas others received natural precipitation plus additional precipitation from a rainfall simulator. Atrazine was applied at 0.9 and 1.8 kg ha−1, S-metolachlor at 0.7 and 1.4 kg ha−1, and isoxaflutole at 0.05 and 0.11 kg ha−1 to field corn grown under conventional tillage and no-till. Runoff volumes and herbicide concentrations were determined for each runoff event. Across all precipitation, tillage, and placement variables, atrazine, S-metolachlor, and isoxaflutole and diketonitrile (DKN) (soil metabolite of isoxaflutole), hereafter referred to as isoxaflutole/DKN, losses were similar at 5.0, 4.1, and 4.1% of applied, respectively. Additional precipitation increased runoff 2.5-, 2.2-, and 3.4-fold for atrazine, S-metolachlor, and isoxaflutole/DKN, respectively. Preplant soil incorporation reduced atrazine, S-metolachlor, and isoxaflutole/DKN losses in runoff by 67, 69, and 57%, respectively, compared with soil surface applications. Lower preplant rainfall in 2000 resulted in sharply reduced runoff losses despite postplant precipitation similar to that in 1999. These findings suggest that the best management practices for atrazine can be used to manage S-metolachlor and isoxaflutole/DKN loss in surface water runoff.

Field experiments were conducted from 1996 to 2000 near Manhattan, KS, to determine the effects of application timing on atrazine loss in surface water runoff. In addition, Groundwater Loading Effects of Agricultural Management Systems (GLEAMS) was run to compare simulated loss with actual loss in the field. Atrazine treatments were fall plus preemergence (FALL + PRE), early preplant plus PRE (EPP + PRE), PRE at a low rate (PRE-LOW), and PRE at a full (recommended) rate (PRE-FULL). Ridge-till furrows served as mini watersheds for the collection of surface water runoff. Water runoff volumes and herbicide concentrations were determined for each runoff event. Across four sampling years, mean atrazine runoff loss was 1.7, 4.3, and 1.7% of applied for FALL + PRE, EPP + PRE, and the mean of the PRE treatments, respectively. Thus, actual average losses from FALL + PRE and EPP + PRE treatments were somewhat higher than that predicted by GLEAMS. For PRE treatments, actual average losses were significantly lower than that predicted by GLEAMS, with measured losses falling below the bottom of the graph in 3 of 4 yr. These findings suggest that in certain parts of the Great Plains, FALL + PRE split applications of atrazine offer acceptably low atrazine runoff loss potential; EPP + PRE is more vulnerable to loss than FALL + PRE; and the GLEAMS model may overestimate atrazine runoff potential for PRE applications.

Charcoal peaks in lake-sediment records are commonly used to reconstruct fire histories spanning thousands of years, but quantitative methods for evaluating the suitability of records for peak detection are largely lacking. We present a signal-to-noise index (SNI) that quantifies the separation of charcoal peaks (signal) from other variability in a record (noise). We validate the SNI with simulated and empirical charcoal records and show that an SNI > 3 consistently identifies records appropriate for peak detection. The SNI thus offers a means to evaluate the suitability of sediment–charcoal records for reconstructing local fires. MATLAB and R functions for calculating SNI are provided.

For the first time, we are reporting the growth of high quality single crystalline 3C-SiC epitaxially on hexagonal silicon carbide substrates using Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition (HF-CVD) on full 4” wafers. Rocking curve X-Ray diffraction (XRD) measurements resulted in a full width at half maximum (FWHM) as low as 88 arcsec for a 40 µm thick layer. We achieved this quality using a carefully optimized process making use of the additional degrees of freedom the hot filaments create. The filaments allow for precursor pre-cracking and a tuning of the vertical thermal gradient, which creates an improved thermal field compared to conventional Chemical Vapor Deposition. Growth rates of up to 8 µm/h were achieved with standard silane and propane chemistry, and further increased to 20 µm/h with chlorinated chemistry. The use of silicon carbide substrates promises superior layer quality compared to silicon substrates due to their better match in lattice parameters and thermal expansion coefficients. High resolution scanning electron microscopy, X-Ray rocking measurements, and micro-Raman allow us to assess the crystalline quality of our material and to compare it to layers grown on low-cost silicon substrates. Hall measurements reveal a linear increase of the charge carrier density in the material with the flow of nitrogen gas as a dopant. Electron densities above 10-18 cm-3 have been reached.

Remingtonocetidae are Eocene archaeocetes that represent a unique experiment in cetacean evolution. They possess long narrow skulls, long necks, fused sacra, and robust hind limbs. Previously described remingtonocetids are known from middle Eocene Lutetian strata in Pakistan and India. Here we describe a new remingtonocetid, Rayanistes afer, n. gen. n. sp., recovered from a middle to late Lutetian interval of the Midawara Formation in Egypt. The holotype preserves a sacrum with four vertebral centra; several lumbar and caudal vertebrae; an innominate with a complete ilium, ischium, and acetabulum; and a nearly complete femur. The ilium and ischium of Rayanistes are bladelike, rising sharply from the body of the innominate anterior and posterior to the acetabulum, and the acetabular notch is narrow. These features are diagnostic of Remingtonocetidae, but their development also shows that Rayanistes had a specialized mode of locomotion. The expanded ischium is larger than that of any other archaeocete, supporting musculature for powerful retraction of the hind limbs during swimming. Posteriorly angled neural spines on lumbar vertebrae and other features indicate increased passive flexibility of the lumbus. Rayanistes probably used its enhanced lumbar flexibility to increase the length of the power stroke during pelvic paddling. Recovery of a remingtonocetid in Egypt broadens the distribution of Remingtonocetidae and shows that protocetids were not the only semiaquatic archaeocetes capable of dispersal across the southern Tethys Sea.