Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Traits Explain Variation in Chaparral Shrub Sensitivity to Altered Water and Nutrient Availability

Worldwide drylands are threatened by changes in resource availability associated with global environmental change. Functional traits may help predict which species will be most responsive to these alterations in nutrient and water availability. Current functional trait work focuses on tissue construction and nutrient concentrations, but plant performance in low resource environments also may be strongly influenced by traits related to nutrient budgets and allocation. Our overall objective was to compare trait responses in a suite of serpentine and nonserpentine congener pairs from the California chaparral, a biodiverse region facing nutrient deposition and future changes in precipitation. In a common garden greenhouse environment, we grew small plants of Arctostaphylos manzanita, A. viscida, Ceanothus cuneatus, C. jepsonii, Quercus berberidifolia, and Q. durata in contrasting soil nutrient and moisture treatments. We measured a suite of traits representing physiological, growth, and mineral nutrient responses to these treatments. Overall, plant growth rate and leaf-level phosphorus use efficiency were greatest in the low water, high nutrient treatment, and lowest in the high water, low nutrient treatment. Variation in growth rate and plasticity among species and treatments was primarily associated with differences in mineral nutrition-based traits as opposed to differences in biomass allocation or specific leaf area. Namely, faster growing species and species with greater plasticity allocated more nitrogen and phosphorous to leaves and demonstrated greater photosynthetic phosphorus use efficiency. Overall, nonserpentine species had greater plasticity and biomass response to resource addition than serpentine species, and congener pairs responded to these resource additions more similarly to each other than species across congener pairs. This study extends our general understanding of how functional traits may influence species responses to environmental change and highlights the need to integrate mineral nutrition-based traits, including allocation of nutrient pools and nutrient use efficiency into this larger trait framework. Ultimately, this insight can help identify, in part, why coexisting species may vary in sensitivity to anthropogenic driven changes in soil resource availability.
HIGH-RESOLUTION X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY OF THE GALACTIC SUPERNOVA REMNANT PUPPIS A WITH XMM-NEWTON/RGS

We present high-resolution X-ray spectra of cloud–shock interaction regions in the eastern and northern rims of the Galactic supernova remnant Puppis A, using the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on board the XMM-Newton satellite. A number of emission lines including Kα triplets of He-like N, O, and Ne are clearly resolved for the first time. Intensity ratios of forbidden to resonance lines in the triplets are found to be higher than predictions by thermal emission models having plausible plasma parameters. The anomalous line ratios cannot be reproduced by effects of resonance scattering, recombination, or inner-shell ionization processes, but could be explained by charge-exchange emission that should arise at interfaces between the cold/warm clouds and the hot plasma. Our observations thus provide observational support for charge-exchange X-ray emission in supernova remnants.
Permanent and resilient deformation behaviour of recycled concrete aggregates from different sources, in pavement base and subbase

This paper presents an investigation on the permanent and resilient deformation behaviour as well as the shear and physical properties of different RCA, sourced from demolished buildings (RCAB1 and RCAB2) and concrete pavement (RCAP). Monotonic triaxial tests and repeated load triaxial tests (RLTT) were performed to determine respectively their failure resistance and the cyclic behaviour, modelled with the Boyce model and the DBGSP model. In addition, the physical properties and water absorption kinetics of aggregates were studied and compared with the existing standard. The results indicated that all RCA have admissible physical properties and can be used in pavement base and subbase layer. However, the RLTT revealed that the use of concrete wastes with low strength and containing high amount of rounded particles (RCAP in this study) can lead to poor performance of pavement, which should be limited in the pavement construction.
IS EXTRA MIXING REALLY NEEDED IN ASYMPTOTIC GIANT BRANCH STARS?

We demonstrate that the amount of extra mixing required to fit the observed low C/N and 12C/13C ratios in first giant branch (FGB) stars is also sufficient to explain the carbon and nitrogen abundances of Galactic asymptotic/second giant branch (AGB) stars. We simulate the effect of extra mixing on the FGB by setting the composition of the envelope to that observed in low-mass (M ⩽ 2 M☉) FGB stars, and then evolve the models to the tip of the AGB. The inclusion of FGB extra mixing compositional changes has a strong effect on the C and N abundance in our AGB models, leading to compositions consistent with those measured in Galactic carbon-rich stars. The composition of the models is also consistent with C and N abundances measured in mainstream silicon carbide grains. While our models cover the range of C abundances measured in carbon stars in the LMC cluster NGC 1846, we cannot simultaneously match the composition of the O- and C-rich stars at the same time. A second important result is that our models only match the oxygen isotopic composition of K and some M, MS giants, and are not able to match the oxygen composition of carbon-rich AGB stars. By increasing the abundance of 16O in the intershell (based on observational evidence) it is possible to reproduce the observed trend of increasing 16O/18O and 16O/17O ratios with evolutionary phase. We also find that some Li production takes place during the AGB and that Li-rich carbon stars (log ϵ(Li) ≳ 1) can be produced. These models show a correlation between increasing Li abundances and C. The models cannot explain the composition of the most Li-enriched carbon stars, nor can we produce a Li-rich carbon star if we assume extra mixing occurs during the FGB owing to 3He destruction. We tentatively conclude that (1) if extra mixing occurs during the AGB it likely only occurs efficiently in low metallicity objects, or when the stars are heavily obscured making spectroscopic observations difficult and (2) the intershell compositions of AGB stars need further investigation.
A review of research on the molybdenum requirements of New Zealand pastures

ABSTRACT The requirement for molybdenum (Mo) for legume and pasture growth on New Zealand soils was first identified in the 1950s and most of the research was carried out up to the 1980s. This resulted in a recommendation to apply 56–70 g/ha of sodium molybdate every 4–5 years that was later modified to 50 g/ha every five years. On most soils, the availability of Mo increased with soil pH but the rates of lime required were uneconomic on hill country pastures so Mo was applied as the most cost-effective option. Measuring available soil Mo was a poor predictor of pasture yield responses to Mo compared with the Mo content of clover. More recent research showed that the Mo content of clover had to be less than 0.1 ppm and nitrogen (N) content less than about 4.5% for a definite response in yield to applied Mo to occur. High natural levels of soil Mo elevating pasture Mo content above 0.5–1 ppm or overuse of fertiliser Mo where pasture copper (Cu) is low (<5 ppm for sheep, <10 ppm for cattle and deer) can cause less Cu to be adsorbed from the rumen and reduce animal growth.
Deep Anomaly Detection for Generalized Face Anti-Spoofing

Face recognition has achieved unprecedented results, surpassing human capabilities in certain scenarios. However, these automatic solutions are not ready for production because they can be easily fooled by simple identity impersonation attacks. And although much effort has been devoted to develop face anti-spoofing models, their generalization capacity still remains a challenge in real scenarios. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach that reformulates the Generalized Presentation Attack Detection (GPAD) problem from an anomaly detection perspective. Technically, a deep metric learning model is proposed, where a triplet focal loss is used as a regularization for a novel loss coined "metric-softmax", which is in charge of guiding the learning process towards more discriminative feature representations in an embedding space. Finally, we demonstrate the benefits of our deep anomaly detection architecture, by introducing a few-shot a posteriori probability estimation that does not need any classifier to be trained on the learned features. We conduct extensive experiments using the GRAD-GPAD framework that provides the largest aggregated dataset for face GPAD. Results confirm that our approach is able to outperform all the state-of-the-art methods by a considerable margin.
Brackett alpha images of the Galactic center

Images of the central parsec of the galaxy have been obtained in the Brα emission line of hydrogen. The images are, for the most part, very similar to 5 and 15 GHz radio continuum images of this region. Alignment of the Brα with the radio images gives an improved position of the Sgr A* radio point source with respect to the infrared sources: 5.50‘ S and 0.15‘ W of IRS 7, a position remarkably devoid of compact objects in the near infrared. This position rules out identification of Sgr A* with IRS 16 Centre or IRS 16NW. A number of compact Brα sources with no radio counter‐parts are seen. There is a string of four sources just north of Sgr A*, which itself is located in a Brα void. An isolated Brα source was also seen ≊10‘ SW or Sgr A*. These Brα sources may arise in very dense regions (optically thick in the radio), may be very cold, or may result from collosional excitation. They may also indicate the presence of local exciting sources in the central parsec.
Neutrinoless double-$ßbeta$ decay of $^{48}$Ca in the shell model: Closure versus nonclosure approximation

Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a unique process that could reveal physics beyond the Standard Model. Essential ingredients in the analysis of neutrinoless double-beta rates are the associated nuclear matrix elements. Most of the approaches used to calculate these matrix elements rely on the closure approximation. Here we analyze the light neutrino-exchange matrix elements of 48Ca neutrinoless double-beta decay and test the closure approximation in a shell-model approach. We calculate the neutrinoless double-beta nuclear matrix elements for 48Ca using both the closure approximation and a nonclosure approach, and we estimate the uncertainties associated with the closure approximation. We demonstrate that the nonclosure approach has excellent convergence properties which allow us to avoid unmanageable computational cost. Combining the nonclosure and closure approaches we propose a new method of calculation for neutrinoless double-beta decay rates which can be applied to the neutrinoless double-beta decay rates of heavy nuclei, such as 76Ge or 82Se.
THE SUPPRESSION OF STAR FORMATION AND THE EFFECT OF THE GALAXY ENVIRONMENT IN LOW-REDSHIFT GALAXY GROUPS

Understanding the interaction between galaxies and their surroundings is central to building a coherent picture of galaxy evolution. Here we use Galaxy Evolution Explorer imaging of a statistically representative sample of 23 galaxy groups at z ≈ 0.06 to explore how local and global group environments affect the UV properties and dust-corrected star formation rates (SFRs) of their member galaxies. The data provide SFRs out to beyond 2R200 in all groups, down to a completeness limit and limiting galaxy stellar mass of 0.06 M☉ yr−1 and 1 × 108 M☉, respectively. At fixed galaxy stellar mass, we find that the fraction of star-forming group members is suppressed relative to the field out to an average radius of R ≈ 1.5 Mpc ≈2R200, mirroring results for massive clusters. For the first time, we also report a similar suppression of the specific SFR within such galaxies, on average by 40% relative to the field, thus directly revealing the impact of the group environment in quenching star formation within infalling galaxies. At fixed galaxy density and stellar mass, this suppression is stronger in more massive groups, implying that both local and global group environments play a role in quenching. The results favor an average quenching timescale of ≳ 2 Gyr and strongly suggest that a combination of tidal interactions and starvation is responsible. Despite their past and ongoing quenching, galaxy groups with more than four members still account for at least ∼25% of the total UV output in the nearby universe.
Chilean Universities Under the Junta: Regime and Policy

While universities in several South American nations are experiencing the effects of redemocratization, Chilean universities have entered their second decade under military rule. Exploring Chilean higher education in the first decade reveals much about the fate of a major political, economic, and social institution and also sheds light on theoretical concerns that have attracted substantial scholarly attention.
Dynamic convolutional capsule network for In-loop filtering in HEVC video codec

Recently, several in-loop ﬁltering algorithms based on convolutional neural network (CNN) have been proposed to improve the efﬁciency of HEVC (High Efﬁciency Video Coding). Conventional CNN-based ﬁlters only apply a single model to the whole image, which cannot adapt well to all local features from the image. To solve this problem, an in-loop ﬁltering algorithm based on a dynamic convolutional capsule network (DCC-net) is proposed, which embeds localized dynamic routing and dynamic segmentation algorithms into capsule network, and integrate them into the HEVC hybrid video coding framework as a new in-loop ﬁlter. The proposed method brings average 7.9% and 5.9% BD-BR reductions under all intra (AI) and random access (RA) con-ﬁgurations, respectively, as well as, 0.4 dB and 0.2 dB BD-PSNR gains, respectively. In addition, the proposed algorithm has an outstanding performance in terms of time efﬁciency.
Quenching star formation: insights from the local main sequence

The so-called star-forming main sequence of galaxies is the apparent tight relationship between the star formation rate and stellar mass of a galaxy. Previous studies exclude galaxies which are not strictly 'star forming' from the main sequence, because they do not lie on the same tight relation. Using local galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey we have classified galaxies according to their emission line ratios, and studied their location on the star formation rate - stellar mass plane. We find that galaxies form a sequence from the `blue cloud' galaxies which are actively forming stars, through a combination of composite, Seyfert, and LINER (Low-ionization nuclear emission-line region) galaxies, ending as 'red-and-dead' galaxies. The sequence supports an evolutionary pathway for galaxies in which star formation quenching by active galactic nuclei (AGN) plays a key role.
New visual companions of solar-type stars within 25 pc

We report the discovery of faint common-proper-motion companions to the nearby southern solar-type stars HD43162, HD67199, HD114837, HD114853, HD129502, HD165185, HD197214, and HD212330 from near-infrared imaging and astrometry. We also confirm the previously identified tertiary components around HD165401 and HD188088. Since the majority of these stars were already known as binaries, they ascend now to higher-level systems. A particularly interesting case is the G6.5V BY Dratype variable HD43162, which harbors two common-proper-motion companions at distances of 410AU and 2740AU. Our limited study shows that the inventory of common-proper-motion companions around nearby bright stars is still not completely known.
Previous antithrombotic therapy does not have an impact on the in-hospital mortality of patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding

Abstract The association between antithrombotics (ATs) and the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding is well known; however, data regarding the influence of ATs on outcomes are scarce. The goals of this study are: (i) to assess the impact of prior AT therapy on in-hospital and 6-month outcomes and (ii) to determine the re-initiation rate of the ATs after a bleeding event. All patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGB) who underwent urgent gastroscopy in three centres from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 were retrospectively analysed. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used. Among 333 patients [60% males, mean age 69.2 (±17.3) years], 44% were receiving ATs. In multivariate logistic regression, no association between AT treatment and worse in-hospital outcomes was observed. Development of haemorrhagic shock led to worse survival [odds ratio (OR) 4.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.9–10.2, P < 0.001; after PSM: OR 5.3, 95% CI 1.8–15.7, P = 0.003]. During 6-months follow-up, higher age (OR 1.0, 95% CI 1.0–1.1, P = 0.002), higher comorbidity (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2–1.7, P < 0.001), a history of cancer (OR 3.6, 95% CI 1.6–8.1, P < 0.001) and a history of liver cirrhosis (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.0–4.4, P = 0.029) were associated with higher mortality. After a bleeding episode, ATs were adequately re-initiated in 73.8%. Previous AT therapy does not worsen in-hospital outcomes in after UGB. Development of haemorrhagic shock predicted poor prognosis. Higher 6-month mortality was observed in older patients, patients with more comorbidities, with liver cirrhosis and cancer.
A holographic critical point

We numerically construct a family of ve-dimensional black holes exhibiting a line of rst-order phase transitions terminating at a critical point at nite chemical potential and temperature. These black holes are constructed so that the equation of state and baryon susceptibilities approximately match QCD lattice data at vanishing chemical potential. The critical endpoint in the particular model we consider has temperature 143 MeV and chemical potential 783 MeV. Critical exponents are calculated, with results that are consistent with mean-eld scaling relations.
Quantifying households' vulnerability, regional environmental indicators, and climate change mitigation by using a combination of vulnerability frameworks

Many susceptible regions face significant climatic threats. This study proposes an extended framework by linking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Vulnerability Framework and Sustainable Livelihood Framework to assess the impacts of ecological indicators, household vulnerability, and climate change mitigation. A major ecological region of northwestern Pakistan with diverse geographical and climatic conditions was selected. In total, 24 adjacent rural communes were randomly selected, and 300 farm households were face‐to‐face interviewed based on a pretested questionnaire. The study findings reveal that the Charsadda District is more vulnerable to climate change, having the highest exposure level compared to the Mardan District and the district of Nowshera. Our findings also show that there are small differences in adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and adaptation measures, and sensitivity sources are relatively distinctive among these three districts, which directly and indirectly influence the perception of farmers. Based on the sensitivity analysis, the sensitivity of the Mardan District is the highest in terms of crop and livestock diseases, while the highest sensitivity in terms of water is assumed in the Charsadda District. In terms of adaptive capacity, the advantages and disadvantages varied greatly between the three targeted study districts; specifically, Nowshera had equitable adaptive capacity, Mardan leaned entirely on capital sources, and Charsadda depended solely on advantages in education level. Diverse efforts to address the risks of climate change should be proposed aptly by considering the climatic, socioeconomic, and geographical characteristics of each district.
Noninvasive Evaluation of the Biomechanical Accommodations to Bolus Volume during Human Swallowing

Bolus volume is very important in the biomechanics of swallowing. By noninvasively characterizing swallow responses to volume challenges, we can gain more knowledge on swallowing and evaluate swallowing behavior easily. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of bolus volume on the biomechanical characteristics of oropharyngeal swallowing events with a noninvasive sensing system. Fifteen healthy male subjects were recruited and instructed to swallow 5, 10, and 15 ml of water. The sensing system consisted of a tongue pressure sensor sheet, bend sensor, surface electrodes, and a microphone. They were used to monitor tongue pressure, hyoid activity, surface EMG of swallowing-related muscles, and swallowing sound, respectively. In addition to the onset, the peak time and offset of the above four structures, certain characteristics, such as the duration, peak value, and interval of the structure motions, were measured during the different drinking tasks. The coordination between the hyoid movement and tongue pressure was also assessed. Although no sequence of the structural events changed with volume, most of the timings of the structural events were significantly delayed, except for certain hyoid activities. The swallowing volume did not affect the active durations of the monitored structures, the peak values, or intervals of tongue pressure and supra- and infrahyoid muscle activity, but certain hyoid kinetic phases were prolonged when a larger volume was swallowed. Additionally, sequential coordination between hyoid movement and tongue pressure was confirmed among the three volumes. These findings suggest that oropharyngeal structural movements change in response to bolus volume to facilitate safe swallowing. The noninvasive and quantitative measurements taken with the sensing system provide essential information for understanding normal oropharyngeal swallowing.
ASTEROSEISMIC INVESTIGATION OF KNOWN PLANET HOSTS IN THE KEPLER FIELD

In addition to its great potential for characterizing extra-solar planetary systems, the Kepler Mission is providing unique data on stellar oscillations. A key aspect of Kepler asteroseismology is the application to solar-like oscillations of main-sequence stars. As an example, we here consider an initial analysis of data for three stars in the Kepler field for which planetary transits were known from ground-based observations. For one of these, HAT-P-7, we obtain a detailed frequency spectrum and hence strong constraints on the stellar properties. The remaining two stars show definite evidence for solar-like oscillations, yielding a preliminary estimate of their mean densities.