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The olivine-wadsleyite transformation is believed to occur at depths of about 410 km in the Earth, producing a major seismic discontinuity in this region of the Earth’s mantle. The mechanism of this phase transition controls the microstructures of the newly nucleated wadsleyite, the major phase of the upper part of the mantle transition zone, and thus impacts seismic observations in the region. Here, we study the microstructures produced by the olivine-wadsleyite transformation using in situ laboratory experiments at pressures and temperatures relevant for the mantle transition zone. We transform pure olivine samples in laser-heated diamond-anvil cells at pressures ranging from 12.3 to 20.2 GPa and temperatures of 1400–1730 K. At different steps of the transformation we measure the orientation and size distribution of individual sample grains using multigrain crystallography at synchrotron radiation sources. We find that the olivine to wadsleyite transformation is incoherent at the conditions of the mantle transition zone, and is probably dominated by nucleation of wadsleyite at grain boundaries of the parent olivine. Thus, we expect that seismic anisotropy near 410 km would drop significantly due to the randomized lattice preferred orientation of newly nucleated wadsleyite induced by the incoherent transformation.

How well can we predict reading times and thus cognitive processing load? This study first assesses correlations between reading times and then uses linear regression to predict reading times from two corpora. We suggest noise reduction methods using reader means and medians to obtain generalisations across individuals. This leads to much higher correlations, prediction accuracy and model fit. Our best models reach a prediction accuracy that is, on average, 37 % off, or that explains up to 54 % of the variation in our data, according to R^2. As the offness is smaller than the standard deviation, we accurately predict a potential reader. We use surprisal, part-of-speech (POS) tags, syntax, and many other features such as word length as a language model. Discourse-related features, for which we use distributional semantic similarity and the distance to previous occurrences, are shown to play a significant role Morphosyntactic (POS tags) and syntactic features (dependency labels) are also significant, though with a smaller weight. We also observe that fast readers correlate better to surprisal and our models.

Phylogenetic relationships of and within non-photosynthetic parasitic lineages are notoriously poorly known, which negatively affects our understanding of parasitic plants. This is also the case for Cistanche (Orobanchaceae), an Old World genus with about two dozen species, whose relationships have not yet been addressed using molecular phylogenetic approaches. Here we infer phylogenetic relationships within the genus, employing a taxonomically and geographically broad sampling covering all previously distinguished infrageneric groups and most of the currently recognized species. A combined matrix of three plastid markers (trnL-trnF, including the trnL intron and the intergenic spacer (IGS), trnS-trnfM IGS and psbA-trnH IGS) and one nuclear marker (ITS) was analyzed using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. Cistanche falls into four well-supported and geographically differentiated clades: East Asian Clade, Northwest African Clade, Southwest Asian Clade and Widespread Clade. Of those, only the East Asian Clade corresponds to a previously recognized taxonomic section, whereas the others either contain members of two or three sections (Widespread Clade and Southwest Asian Clade, respectively) or have not been taxonomically recognized so far (Northwest African Clade). Whereas the Southwest Asian Clade exhibits strong phylogenetic structure among and partly within species (the East Asian Clade and the Northwest African Clade are monospecific), phylogenetic resolution within the Widespread Clade is often low and hampered by discrepancies between nuclear and plastid markers. Both molecular and morphological data indicate that species diversity in Cistanche is currently underestimated.

This study addresses the dynamics of the Agulhas inshore front in the submesoscale range upstream of 26°E. Submesoscale frontal eddies are observed in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth (26°E) from satellite images and in observations collected from under‐water gliders. Using a submesoscale‐resolving numerical model (dx ~ 0.75 km) we are able to simulate similar submesoscale eddies. Barotropic instability is confirmed as the generation mechanism by a 1D linear stability analysis and an eddy kinetic energy budget. Kinetic energy is transferred from the mean flow to the eddies through the mean horizontal shear, which is a signature of barotropic instability. When the Agulhas Current is in a non‐meandering state, submesoscale eddy generation is a recurrent process which locally drives the front's variability. Along the front, the spatial variability of barotropic instability is shaped by the background strain. A large strain aligned with the frontal axis intensifies the frontal shear upstream of 28°E while a weakening of the strain allows for barotropic instability to be triggered downstream. Although an intermittent process, the barotropic instability shows a dominant period of variability comparable with the variability of the Agulhas Current and Undercurrent.

Ocean boundary current systems are key components of the climate system, are home to highly productive ecosystems, and have numerous societal impacts. Establishment of a global network of boundary current observing systems is a critical part of ongoing development of the Global Ocean Observing System. The characteristics of boundary current systems are reviewed, focusing on scientific and societal motivations for sustained observing. Techniques currently used to observe boundary current systems are reviewed, followed by a census of the current state of boundary current observing systems globally. Next steps in the development of boundary current observing systems are considered, leading to several specific recommendations.

The OceanGliders program started in 2016 to support active coordination and enhancement of global glider activity. OceanGliders contributes to the international efforts of the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS) for Climate, Ocean Health and Operational Services. It brings together marine scientists and engineers operating gliders around the world: (1) to observe the long-term physical, biogeochemical, and biological ocean processes and phenomena that are relevant for societal applications; and, (2) to contribute to the GOOS through real-time and delayed mode data dissemination. The OceanGliders program is distributed across national and regional observing systems and significantly contributes to integrated, multi-scale and multi-platform sampling strategies. OceanGliders shares best practices, requirements, and scientific knowledge needed for glider operations, data collection and analysis. It also monitors global glider activity and supports the dissemination of glider data through regional and global databases, in real-time and delayed modes, facilitating data access to the wider community. OceanGliders currently supports national, regional and global initiatives to maintian and expand the capabilities and application of gliders to meet key global challenges such as improved measurement of ocean boundary currents, water transformation and storm forecast.