Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ecological Drivers and Consequences of Bumble Bee Body Size Variation

Abstract Body size is arguably one of the most important traits influencing the physiology and ecology of animals. Shifts in animal body size have been observed in response to climate change, including in bumble bees (Bombus spp. [Hymenoptera: Apidae]). Bumble bee size shifts have occurred concurrently with the precipitous population declines of several species, which appear to be related, in part, to their size. Body size variation is central to the ecology of bumble bees, from their social organization to the pollination services they provide to plants. If bumble bee size is shifted or constrained, there may be consequences for the pollination services they provide and for our ability to predict their responses to global change. Yet, there are still many aspects of the breadth and role of bumble bee body size variation that require more study. To this end, we review the current evidence of the ecological drivers of size variation in bumble bees and the consequences of that variation on bumble bee fitness, foraging, and species interactions. In total we review: (1) the proximate determinants and physiological consequences of size variation in bumble bees; (2) the environmental drivers and ecological consequences of size variation; and (3) synthesize our understanding of size variation in predicting how bumble bees will respond to future changes in climate and land use. As global change intensifies, a better understanding of the factors influencing the size distributions of bumble bees, and the consequences of those distributions, will allow us to better predict future responses of these pollinators.
SWIFT J164449.3+573451: A PLUNGING EVENT WITH A POYNTING-FLUX-DOMINATED OUTFLOW

Swift J164449+573451 is a peculiar outburst which is most likely powered by the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole. Within the tidal disruption scenario, we show that the periastron distance is considerably smaller than the disruption radius and the outflow should be launched mainly via magnetic activities (e.g., the Blandford–Znajek process), otherwise the observed long-lasting X-ray afterglow emission satisfying the relation cannot be reproduced, where LX is the X-ray luminosity and is the accretion rate. We also suggest that may hold in the quick decline phase of gamma-ray bursts.
Self-compassion and emotion regulation: testing a mediation model

ABSTRACT Self-compassion (SC) seems to play an important role in improving Emotion Regulation (ER). Nevertheless, the results of previous studies regarding the links between SC and ER are not consistent, especially facing diverse models of ER (strategy-based vs skill-based). The goal of this prospective study was to evaluate the links between these three concepts, by testing the predictive roles of SC and ER skills on both ER adaptive and maladaptive strategies, using standardised questionnaires and visual analogue scales. Results of regression analysis showed that self-compassion positively predicts cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, problem-solving, relaxation, self-support, tolerance and ER skills and negatively predicts behavioural avoidance, expressive suppression and ruminations. Results also showed that ER skills positively predict cognitive reappraisal, expression, acceptance, relaxation, self-support and tolerance and negatively predicts behavioural avoidance, expressive suppression and ruminations. Results from a mediation model are also promising regarding both the role of ER skills on the effect of SC on adaptive ER strategy use. Even if this study can be associated with common limits of self-report measures, it highlights the role of SC in a model of ER.
Poincaré indices of rheoscopic visualisations

Suspensions of small anisotropic particles, “rheoscopic fluids”, are used for flow visualisation. By illuminating the fluid with light of three different colours, it is possible to determine Poincaré indices for vector fields formed by the longest axis of the particles. Because this vector field is non-oriented, half-integer Poincaré indices are possible, and are observed experimentally. An exact solution for the direction vector appears to preclude the existence of topological singularities. However, we show that upon averaging over the random initial orientations of particles, singularities with half-integer Poincaré index appear. We describe their normal forms.
Exploiting Kerr cross nonlinearity in circuit quantum electrodynamics for nondemolition measurements

We propose a scheme for dispersive readout of stored energy in one mode of a nonlinear superconducting microwave ring resonator by detection of the frequency shift of a second mode coupled to the first via a Kerr nonlinearity. Symmetry is used to enhance the device responsivity while minimizing self nonlinearity of each mode. Assessment of the signal to noise ratio indicates that the scheme will function at the single photon level, allowing quantum non-demolition measurement of the photon number state of one mode. Experimental data from a simplified version of the device demonstrating the principle of operation are presented.
On black hole subsystems in idealized nuclear star clusters

Recent observational evidence, numerical simulations and theoretical arguments seem to indicate that stellar mass black holes (BH) persist in stellar systems such as globular star clusters for much longer than previously thought. Previously, theory implied that the BH would segregate into a compact system with short dynamical time scales, and that the BH would escape long before the present. But stellar systems can exist in a state of balanced evolution, where the energy generated in the core is regulated by the process of two-body relaxation in the bulk of the system. If the system has a centrally concentrated BH subsystem and there is no massive central BH, then the energy is generated by three-body encounters in the core of this subsystem. Therefore, in balanced evolution, the evolution of the BH subsystem is regulated by the much longer time scales of the host system. In the present paper the implications of these results for idealized nuclear star clusters (NSC) are discussed. Though previous theory implied that BH would be almost absent from many NSC -- those with relatively short dynamical time scales -- it is argued here that, based on the results of idealized models, many such NSC could still be host to substantial BH subsystems.
Bilingualism can cause enhanced monitoring and occasional delayed responses in a flanker task

Complex cognitive tasks require different stages of processing (i.e. conflict monitoring, attentional resource allocation and stimulus categorisation). Performance differences between bilinguals and monolinguals on conflict tasks can be affected by the balance of these sub‐processes. The current study investigated the effect of bilingualism on these sub‐processes during a conflict task with medium monitoring demand. Behavioural responses and evoked potentials from bilinguals and monolinguals were examined during a flanker task with 25% incongruent trials. Behavioural differences were analysed by means of averaged response times and exponentially modified Gaussian analyses of response time distributions. For evoked potentials, the study focussed on N2 (reflecting conflict monitoring) and P3 responses (reflecting allocation of attentional resources for cognitive control). Bilinguals had significantly longer response distribution tails compared to monolinguals. Bilinguals were shown to have a more pronounced N2 and smaller P3 compared to monolinguals, independent of condition, suggesting a different balance of sub‐processes for the two groups. This suggests that bilinguals were engaged more strongly in monitoring processes, leading to the allocation of fewer attentional resources during stimulus categorisation. Additionally, the P3 amplitudes were negatively related with the length of response distribution tails for bilinguals. These results are consistent with enhanced conflict monitoring in bilinguals that led to reduced engagement of attentional resources for stimulus categorisation. This enhanced conflict monitoring could lead to occasional extremely slow responses. Thus, the bilingual experience appears to impact the balance of cognitive control processes during conflict tasks, which might only be reflected in a minority of responses.
The effect of psychological treatment on repetitive negative thinking in youth depression and anxiety: a meta-analysis and meta-regression

Abstract Background Depression and anxiety are prevalent in youth populations and typically emerge during adolescence. Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a putative transdiagnostic mechanism with consistent associations with depression and anxiety. Targeting transdiagnostic processes like RNT for youth depression and anxiety may offer more targeted, personalised and effective treatment. Methods A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effect of psychological treatments on RNT, depression and anxiety symptoms in young people with depression or anxiety, and a meta-regression to examine relationships between outcomes. Results Twenty-eight randomised controlled trials examining 17 different psychological interventions were included. Effect sizes were small to moderate across all outcomes (Hedge's g depression = −0.47, CI −0.77 to −0.17; anxiety = −0.42, CI −0.65 to −0.20; RNT = −0.45, CI −0.67 to −0.23). RNT-focused and non-RNT focused approaches had comparable effects; however, those focusing on modifying the process of RNT had significantly larger effects on RNT than those focusing on modifying negative thought content. Meta-regression revealed a significant relationship between RNT and depression outcomes only across all intervention types and with both depression and anxiety for RNT focused interventions only. Conclusion Consistent with findings in adults, this review provides evidence that reducing RNT with psychological treatment is associated with improvements in depression and anxiety in youth. Targeting RNT specifically may not lead to better outcomes compared to general approaches; however, focusing on modifying the process of RNT may be more effective than targeting content. Further research is needed to determine causal pathways.
Why the laser linewidth is so narrow: a modern perspective

We review and interpret a modern approach to laser theory, steady-state ab initio laser theory (SALT), which treats lasing and amplification in a unified manner as a non-unitary scattering problem described by a nonlinear scattering matrix. Within the semiclassical version of the theory the laser line has zero width as the lasing mode corresponds to the existence of an eigenvector of the S-matrix with diverging eigenvalue due to the occurrence of a pole of the scattering matrix on the real axis. In this approach the system is infinite from the outset and no distinction is made between cavity modes and modes of the Universe; lasing modes exist both in the cavity and in the external region as solutions satisfying Sommerfeld radiation boundary conditions. We discuss how such solutions can be obtained by a limiting procedure in a finite box with damping according to the limiting absorption principle. When the electromagnetic and matter fields are treated as operators, quantum fluctuations enter the relevant correlation functions and a finite linewidth is obtained, via a generalization of SALT to include noise (N-SALT). N-SALT leads to an analytic formula for the linewidth that is more general than all previous corrected versions of the Schawlow–Townes formula, and can be evaluated simply from knowledge of the semiclassical SALT modes. We derive a simpler version of this formula which emphasizes that the noise is dominated by the fluctuations in the polarization of the gain medium and is controlled by the rate of spontaneous emission.
Gravitational Wave Sources in the Era of Multi-Band Gravitational Wave Astronomy

The focus of this Chapter is on describing the prospective sources of the gravitational wave universe accessible to present and future observations, from kHz, to mHz down to nano-Hz frequencies. The multi-frequency gravitational wave universe gives a deep view into the cosmos, inaccessible otherwise. It has as main actors core-collapsing massive stars, neutron stars, coalescing compact object binaries of different flavours and stellar origin, coalescing massive black hole binaries, extreme mass ratio inspirals, and possibly the very early universe itself. Here, we highlight the science aims and describe the gravitational wave signals expected from the sources and the information gathered in it. We show that the observation of gravitational wave sources will play a transformative role in our understanding of the processes ruling the formation and evolution of stars and black holes, galaxy clustering and evolution, the nature of the strong forces in neutron star interiors, and the most mysterious interaction of Nature: gravity. The discovery, by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration, of the first source of gravitational waves from the cosmos GW150914, and the superb technological achievement of the space mission LISA Pathfinder herald the beginning of the new phase of exploration of the universe.
Volatile Organic Compounds for the Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: a Systematic Review

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an increasingly common and one of the leading causes of cancer mortality worldwide. Only a small percentage of HCC patients are eligible to curative treatment. There is a need for a point of care, early diagnostic or screening tool. It is not clear whether exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) could fulfil those needs. Hypothesis: We postulate that exhaled VOCs can identify potential biomarkers for non-invasive detection of HCC. Aims: This systematic review aims to critically review the current knowledge regarding the exhaled VOCs linked to HCC detection. Methods: A systematic electronic search was conducted. Search strategy included all studied published until the 24th of March 2021 using a combination of relevant keywords. Results: The search yielded 6 publications using the PRISMA pathway. Two of the studies described in vitro experiments, and four clinical studies were conducted on small groups of patients. Overall, 42 headspace gases were analysed in the in vitro studies. Combined, the clinical studies included 164 HCC patients and 260 controls. The studies reported potential role for a combination of VOCs in the diagnosis of HCC. However, only limonene, acetaldehyde and ethanol could be traced back to their biological pathways using KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Conclusions: Although there appears to be promising in VOCs research associated with HCC, there is no single volatile biomarker in exhaled breath attributed to HCC and data from extracted studies indicates a lack of standardization. Large population studies are required to verify the existence of VOCs linked to HCC.
Cosmological dynamics of fourth order gravity: A compact view

We construct a compact phase space for flat FLRW spacetimes with standard matter described by a perfect fluid with a barotropic equation of state for general f(R) theories of gravity, subject to certain conditions on the function f. We then use this framework to study the behaviour of the phase space of Universes with a non-negative Ricci scalar in R + αRn gravity.
AGE AND MASS STUDIES FOR YOUNG STAR CLUSTERS IN M31 FROM SEDS-FIT

In this paper, we present photometry for young star clusters in M31, which are selected from Caldwell et al. These star clusters have been observed as part of the Beijing–Arizona–Taiwan–Connecticut (BATC) Multicolor Sky Survey from 1995 February to 2008 March. The BATC images including these star clusters are taken with 15 intermediate-band filters covering 3000–10000 Å. Combined with photometry in the GALEX far- and near-ultraviolet, broadband UBV RI, SDSS ugriz, and infrared JHKs of Two Micron All Sky Survey, we obtain their accurate spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from 1538 to 20000 Å. We derive these star clusters' ages and masses by comparing their SEDs with stellar population synthesis models. Our results are in good agreement with previous determinations. The mean value of age and mass of young clusters (<2 Gyr) is about 385 Myr and 2 × 104 M☉, respectively. There are two distinct peaks in the age distribution, a highest peak at age ∼60 Myr and a secondary peak around 250 Myr, while the mass distribution shows a single peak around 104 M☉. A few young star clusters have two-body relaxation times greater than their ages, indicating that those clusters have not been well dynamically relaxed and therefore have not established the thermal equilibrium. There are several regions showing aggregations of young star clusters around the 10 kpc ring and the outer ring, indicating that the distribution of the young star clusters is well correlated with M31's star-forming regions. The young massive star clusters (age ⩽100 Myr and mass ⩾104 M☉) show apparent concentration around the ring splitting region, suggesting a recent passage of a satellite galaxy (M32) through M31 disk.
Approximate Policy Iteration with Bisimulation Metrics

Bisimulation metrics define a distance measure between states of a Markov decision process (MDP) based on a comparison of reward sequences. Due to this property they provide theoretical guarantees in value function approximation (VFA). In this work we first prove that bisimulation and $\pi$-bisimulation metrics can be defined via a more general class of Sinkhorn distances, which unifies various state similarity metrics used in recent work. Then we describe an approximate policy iteration (API) procedure that uses a bisimulation-based discretization of the state space for VFA and prove asymptotic performance bounds. Next, we bound the difference between $\pi$-bisimulation metrics in terms of the change in the policies themselves. Based on these results, we design an API($\alpha$) procedure that employs conservative policy updates and enjoys better performance bounds than the naive API approach. We discuss how such API procedures map onto practical actor-critic methods that use bisimulation metrics for state representation learning. Lastly, we validate our theoretical results and investigate their practical implications via a controlled empirical analysis based on an implementation of bisimulation-based API for finite MDPs.
RESONANTLY DAMPED PROPAGATING KINK WAVES IN LONGITUDINALLY STRATIFIED SOLAR WAVEGUIDES

It has been shown that resonant absorption is a robust physical mechanism for explaining the observed damping of magnetohydrodynamic kink waves in the solar atmosphere due to naturally occurring plasma inhomogeneity in the direction transverse to the direction of the magnetic field. Theoretical studies of this damping mechanism were greatly inspired by the first observations of post-flare standing kink modes in coronal loops using the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer. More recently, these studies have been extended to explain the attenuation of propagating coronal kink waves observed by the Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter. In the present study, for the first time we investigate the properties of propagating kink waves in solar waveguides including the effects of both longitudinal and transverse plasma inhomogeneity. Importantly, it is found that the wavelength is only dependent on the longitudinal stratification and the amplitude is simply a product of the two effects. In light of these results the advancement of solar atmospheric magnetoseismology by exploiting high spatial/temporal resolution observations of propagating kink waves in magnetic waveguides to determine the length scales of the plasma inhomogeneity along and transverse to the direction of the magnetic field is discussed.
FORMATION OF H i CLOUDS IN SHOCK-COMPRESSED INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM: PHYSICAL ORIGIN OF ANGULAR CORRELATION BETWEEN FILAMENTARY STRUCTURE AND MAGNETIC FIELD

Recent observations of the neutral Galactic interstellar medium showed that filamentary structures of H i clouds are aligned with the interstellar magnetic field. Many interesting applications are proposed based on the alignment, such as measurement of magnetic field strength through the Chandrasekhar–Fermi method and removal of foreground dust emissions for the detection of inflationary polarized emission in the cosmic microwave background radiation. However, the physical origin of the alignment remains to be explained. To understand the mechanism, we examine the formation of H i clouds triggered by shock compression of the diffuse warm neutral medium using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We show that the shock-compressed medium of density cm−3 evolves into H i clouds with cm−3 via thermal instability consistent with previous studies. We apply a machine vision transformation developed by Clark et al. to the simulated column density structures to measure angle correlation between filamentary structures of H i clouds and magnetic field. We find that the orientation of H i filaments depends on the environmental turbulent velocity field, particularly on the strength of shear strain in the direction of the magnetic field, which is controlled by the angle between the shock propagation direction and upstream magnetic field. When the strain along the magnetic field is weak, filamentary components of H i clouds lie perpendicular to the magnetic field. However, the filaments have come to align with the magnetic field, if we enhance the turbulent strain along the magnetic field or if we set turbulence in the preshock medium.
Totally real algebraic integers in short intervals, Jacobi polynomials, and unicritical families in arithmetic dynamics

We classify all postcritically finite unicritical polynomials defined over the maximal totally real algebraic extension of . Two auxiliary results used in the proof of this result may be of some independent interest. The first is a recursion formula for the th diameter of an interval, which uses properties of Jacobi polynomials. The second is a numerical criterion that allows one to give a bound on the degree of any algebraic integer having all of its complex embeddings in a real interval of length less than 4.
SSL4EO-S12: A Large-Scale Multi-Modal, Multi-Temporal Dataset for Self-Supervised Learning in Earth Observation

Self-supervised pre-training bears potential to generate expressive representations without human annotation. Most pre-training in Earth observation (EO) are based on ImageNet or medium-size, labeled remote sensing (RS) datasets. We share an unlabeled RS dataset SSL4EO-S12 (Self-Supervised Learning for Earth Observation - Sentinel-1/2) to assemble a large-scale, global, multimodal, and multi-seasonal corpus of satellite imagery from the ESA Sentinel-1 \&-2 satellite missions. For EO applications we demonstrate SSL4EO-S12 to succeed in self-supervised pre-training for a set of methods: MoCo-v2, DINO, MAE, and data2vec. Resulting models yield downstream performance close to, or surpassing accuracy measures of supervised learning. In addition, pre-training on SSL4EO-S12 excels compared to existing datasets. We make openly available the dataset, related source code, and pre-trained models at https://github.com/zhu-xlab/SSL4EO-S12.