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Abstract. The concept of open data has become the modern science meme, and major funding bodies and publishers support open data. On a daily basis, however, the open data mandate frequently encounters technical obstacles, such as a lack of a suitable data format for data sharing and long-term data preservation. Such issues are often community-specific and best addressed through community-tailored solutions. In Quaternary sciences, luminescence dating is widely used for constraining the timing of event-based processes (e.g. sediment transport). Every luminescence dating study produces a vast body of primary data that usually remains inaccessible and incompatible with future studies or adjacent scientific disciplines. To facilitate data exchange and long-term data preservation (in short, open data) in luminescence dating studies, we propose a new XML-based structured data format called XLUM. The format applies a hierarchical data storage concept consisting of a root node (node 0), a sample (node 1), a sequence (node 2), a record (node 3), and a curve (node 4). The curve level holds information on the technical component (e.g. photomultiplier, thermocouple). A finite number of curves represent a record (e.g. an optically stimulated luminescence curve). Records are part of a sequence measured for a particular sample. This design concept allows the user to retain information on a technical component level from the measurement process. The additional storage of related metadata fosters future data mining projects on large datasets. The XML-based format is less memory-efficient than binary formats; however, its focus is data exchange, preservation, and hence XLUM long-term format stability by design. XLUM is inherently stable to future updates and backwards-compatible. We support XLUM through a new R package xlum, facilitating the conversion of different formats into the new XLUM format. XLUM is licensed under the MIT licence and hence available for free to be used in open- and closed-source commercial and non-commercial software and research projects. International audience

The complexity of hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion systems is also characterized by the greater number of degrees of freedom of the energy management system, whose objective is to split the required power to fly the aircraft to the different available powertrains (i.e., gas turbines, electric motors, fuel cells, etc.). Typically, a single design mission is considered for assessing the performance of a hybrid-electric propulsion system, often with a simple constant split power between the batteries and gas turbine. A probabilistic set-based design space exploration methodology is used and allows us to study the effects of lifecycle analysis of the battery pack of a hybrid-electric 50-seater turboprop, while different mission scenarios are considered. Using this approach, it is possible to flexibly find multiple families of energy management strategies that can satisfy battery capacity requirements and the reduction of emissions simultaneously. Furthermore, the generated data can help the designers to understand the hierarchy of the requirements that drive the design of the propulsion system for a range of operating scenarios, with emphasis on the energy storage system. Hence, the airliners are offered enhanced operational flexibility of the aircraft for different and desirable mission profiles. International audience

Recent excavations of Late Antiquity settlements in the Negev Highlands of southern Israel uncovered a society that established commercial-scale viticulture in an arid environment [D. Fuks et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 19780-19791 (2020)]. We applied target-enriched genome-wide sequencing and radiocarbon dating to examine grapevine pips that were excavated at three of these sites. Our analyses revealed centuries long and continuous grape cultivation in the Southern Levant. The genetically diverse pips also provided clues to ancient cultivation strategies aimed at improving agricultural productivity and ensuring food security. Applying genomic prediction analysis, a pip dated to the eighth century CE was determined to likely be from a white grape, to date the oldest to be identified. In a kinship analysis, another pip was found to be descendant from a modern Greek cultivar and was thus linked with several popular historic wines that were once traded across the Byzantine Empire. These findings shed light on historical Byzantine trading networks and on the genetic contribution of Levantine varieties to the classic Aegean landscape. International audience

Explosive volcanism is a key contributor to climate variability on interannual to centennial timescales1. Understanding the far-field societal impacts of eruption-forced climatic changes requires firm event chronologies and reliable estimates of both the burden and altitude (that is, tropospheric versus stratospheric) of volcanic sulfate aerosol2, 3. However, despite progress in ice-core dating, uncertainties remain in these key factors4. This particularly hinders investigation of the role of large, temporally clustered eruptions during the High Medieval Period (HMP, 1100–1300 ce), which have been implicated in the transition from the warm Medieval Climate Anomaly to the Little Ice Age5. Here we shed new light on explosive volcanism during the HMP, drawing on analysis of contemporary reports of total lunar eclipses, from which we derive a time series of stratospheric turbidity. By combining this new record with aerosol model simulations and tree-ring-based climate proxies, we refine the estimated dates of five notable eruptions and associate each with stratospheric aerosol veils. Five further eruptions, including one responsible for high sulfur deposition over Greenland circa 1182 ce, affected only the troposphere and had muted climatic consequences. Our findings offer support for further investigation of the decadal-scale to centennial-scale climate response to volcanic eruptions. Acknowledgements: S.G., C.C., M.K. and M. Stoffel were supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation Sinergia Project CALDERA (CRSII5_183571). S.G. acknowledges A. Harrak (Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto), F. Espenak (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), F. Hierink (Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva) and P. Souyri (Department of East Asian Studies, University of Geneva) for providing advice on the manuscript. F. Lavigne was supported by Institut Universitaire de France (IUF, Academic Institute of France). M.K. received funding from the EUR IPSL – Climate Graduate School project, managed by the ANR within the “Investissements d’avenir” programme under reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-17-EURE-0006. F. Ludlow received funding from an Irish Research Council Starting Laureate Award (CLICAB project, IRCLA/2017/303). F. Ludlow and Z.Y. also received funding from a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant (4-OCEANS; grant agreement no. 951649) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. M. Sigl received funding from the ERC under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 820047). This paper is a product of the Volcanic Impacts on Climate and Society (VICS) working group.

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants. Open access funding provided by Max Planck Society. This project has received funding by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 803147-RESOLUTION (to S.T.), no. 771234-PALEoRIDER (to W.H.), no. 864358 (to K.M.), no. 724703 and no. 101019659 (to K.H.). K.H. is also supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG FOR 2237). E.A. has received funding from the Van de Kamp fonds. PACEA co-authors of this research benefited from the scientific framework of the University of Bordeaux’s IdEx Investments for the Future programme/GPR Human Past. A.G.-O. is supported by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-22558). L. Sineo, M.L. and D.C. have received funding from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) PRIN 2017 grants 20177PJ9XF and 20174BTC4R_002. H. Rougier received support from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences of CSUN and the CSUN Competition for RSCA Awards. C.L.S. and T. Saupe received support from the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (project no. 2014-2020.4.01.16-0030) and C.L.S. received support from the Estonian Research Council grant PUT (PRG243). S. Shnaider received support from the Russian Science Foundation (no. 19-78-10053). Peer reviewed