Detecting Rising Wildfire Risks for South East England.

In July 2022 southeast England experienced a record breaking heatwave and unprecedented wildfires in urban areas. We investigate fire weather trends since 1960 in southeast England using a large ensemble of initialised climate models. Record smashing temperatures coincided with widespread fires in London, and we find that while wildfire risk was high, it was not record breaking.

Testing hypotheses of skull function with comparative finite element analysis: three methods reveal contrasting results.

Comparative finite element analysis involves standardising aspects of models to test equivalent loading scenarios across species. However, regarding feeding biomechanics of the vertebrate skull, what is considered "equivalent" can depend on the hypothesis. Using 13 diversely-shaped skulls of marsupial bettongs and potoroos (Potoroidae), we demonstrate that scaling muscle forces to standardise specific aspects of biting mechanics can produce clearly opposing comparisons of stress or strain that are differentially suited to address specific kinds of hypotheses.

Draft genome dataset of strain R-35 isolated from tidal pool sediments.

The marine isolate, strain R-35, was isolated from marine sediments collected from the Glencairn Tidal Pool, Table Mountain National Park, Cape Town, South Africa. The genomic DNA was sequenced using the Ion Torrent GeneStudio™ S5 platform, and the assembly was performed using the SPAdes assembler on the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) Lengau Cluster located at the CSIR, Rosebank, South Africa. The draft genome assembly consisted of 722 contigs totaling 7,625,174 base pairs and a G+C% content of 72.

An update on beverage consumption patterns and caffeine intakes in a representative sample of the US population.

Caffeine is a popular stimulant, predominantly consumed from beverages. The caffeinated beverage marketplace is continually evolving resulting in considerable interest in understanding the impact caffeinated beverages have on levels of intakes. Therefore, estimates of caffeine intakes in the U.