Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of a mean field dynamo on neutron star mergers leading to magnetar remnants

We investigate the impact of a mean field model for the $\alpha\Omega$-dynamo potentially active in the post-merger phase of a binary neutron star coalescence. We do so by deriving equations for ideal general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) with an additional $\alpha-$term, which closely resemble their Newtonian counterpart, but remain compatible with standard numerical relativity simulations. We propose a heuristic dynamo closure relation for the magnetorotational instability-driven turbulent dynamo in the outer layers of a differentially rotating magnetar remnant and its accretion disk. As a first demonstration, we apply this framework to the early stages of post-merger evolution ($\lesssim 50\, \rm ms$). We demonstrate that depending on the efficacy of the dynamo action, magnetically driven outflows can be present with their amount of baryon loading correlating with the magnetic field amplification. These outflows can also contain precursor flaring episodes before settling into a quasi-steady state. For the dynamo parameters explored in this work, we observe electromagnetic energy fluxes of up to $10^{50}\, \rm erg/s$, although larger amplification parameters will likely lead to stronger fluxes. Our results are consistent with the expectation that substantial dynamo amplification (either during or after the merger) may be necessary for neutron-star remnants to power short gamma-ray bursts or precursors thereof.
Improving Collaborative Filtering Recommendation via Graph Learning

Recommendation systems are designed to provide personalized predictions for items that are most appealing to individual customers. Among various types of recommendation algorithms, k-nearest neighbor based collaborative filtering algorithm attracts tremendous attention and are widely used in practice. However, the k-nearest neighbor scheme can only capture the local relationship among users and the uniform neighborhood size is also not suitable to represent the underlying data structure. In this paper, we leverage emerging graph signal processing (GSP) theory to construct sparse yet high quality graph to enhance the solution quality and efficiency of collaborative filtering algorithm. Experimental results show that our method outperforms k-NN based collaborative filtering algorithm by a large margin on the benchmark data set.
An attempt to generate new bridge types from latent space of variational autoencoder

Try to generate new bridge types using generative artificial intelligence technology. The grayscale images of the bridge facade with the change of component width was rendered by 3dsMax animation software, and then the OpenCV module performed an appropriate amount of geometric transformation (rotation, horizontal scale, vertical scale) to obtain the image dataset of three-span beam bridge, arch bridge, cable-stayed bridge and suspension bridge. Based on Python programming language, TensorFlow and Keras deep learning platform framework, variational autoencoder was constructed and trained, and low-dimensional bridge-type latent space that is convenient for vector operations was obtained. Variational autoencoder can combine two bridge types on the basis of the original of human into one that is a new bridge type. Generative artificial intelligence technology can assist bridge designers in bridge-type innovation, and can be used as copilot.
Probabilistic Analysis of the Korean Historical Earthquake Records

Seismic‐hazard assessment for earthquakes with long recurrence intervals requires long earthquake records. Historical records for seismic damage can complement instrumental earthquake records, which is particularly useful for low‐seismicity regions. Uncertainty in epicenters and magnitudes, however, hinders the full use of historical earthquake records. A probabilistic method to determine the epicenters of historical events is presented. The epicenters of historical events are determined probabilistically considering the nature of seismicity such that the spatial distribution of seismicity is nearly stationary with time in a constant tectonic environment. The probabilities for historical events to have occurred at given locations can be calculated using an instrumental seismicity density function and a distance‐dependent weighting function. A location is selected randomly from a set of candidate source locations, of which probabilities are greater than a given prescribed value. The epicentral seismic intensity for the determined source location is calculated using an intensity–distance relationship. The magnitude is determined using an intensity–magnitude relationship. The method is verified with analysis of seismic intensity data for earthquakes in California. The method is applied to an ∼1900 year long Korean historical seismic record, and the magnitudes of historical earthquakes are estimated. The Gutenberg–Richter b values for the historical events are determined to be 0.73. It is observed that the northwestern and southern peninsula, and the southeastern offshore region have high seismic‐hazard potentials.
A necessary and suﬃcient condition for the existence of chaotic dynamics in a neoclassical growth model with a pollution eﬀect

In this paper, we study a neoclassical growth model with a (productivity inhibiting) pollution eﬀect. In particular, we obtain a necessary and suﬃcient condition for the existence of a topological chaos. We investigate how the condition changes as the strength of the pollution eﬀect changes. This is a new application of a recent result characterising the existence of a topological chaos for a unimodal interval map by Deng, Khan, Mitra (2022)
CARBON SEQUESTRATION BY NEW ZEALAND'S PLANTATION FORESTS

Annual carbon uptake by the 1.24 million ha of plantation forest in New Zealand was calculated from detailed information provided to the Government by private owners on the age and volume of the timber resource, a national database of wood density variations, models of the allocation of biomass to tree and forest components other than stems, and estimates of roundwood removals derived from annual Government surveys of sawmills, chip mills, and other wood product mills, as well as export data. The plantation forests of New Zealand stored approximately 4.5±0.8 million tonnes C in the year between 1 April 1988 and 1 April 1989, increasing total plantation carbon storage to approximately 88 million tonnes C in April 1989. Without harvest, the average annual carbon uptake of the New Zealand plantation estate between 1988 and 1989 would have been approximately 6.4 tonnes C/ha. Plantation roundwood removals were equivalent to 2.7 tonnes C/ha, so that average carbon storage was approximately 3.6 tonnes C/ha. Some harvested carbon is stored in wood products, and additional carbon may be stored in the mineral soil, but these quantities were not included in our estimates. The annual storage of carbon in the New Zealand plantation estate in 1988-89 was equivalent to approximately 70% of total New Zealand fossil fuel emissions, but was <0.1% of total global fossil fuel emissions. The high annual rate of carbon uptake by the New Zealand plantation estate is a consequence of a large area of new plantings initiated in the 1970s and 1980s. Without continued new plantings, the net annual rate of carbon uptake by New Zealand plantation forests will rapidly approach zero.
Shaping the ‘China Problem’ of Colonial Southeast Asia

Abstract In the early 1920s Southeast Asia, before communism compelled the creation of inter-colonial intelligence networks in the late period of the decade, a situation that can be called the ‘China problem’ emerged as an issue for the colonial powers in the region. This problem refers to the political activities by local Chinese populations in response to events that were taking place in China. The colonial powers, however, could not find a common solution to this issue, but instead dealt with it individually. An explanation to this lies in the fact that, unlike in Northeast Asia where the ‘Washington System’ shaped international politics in the 1920s, in Southeast Asia no such official framework had been established to deal with regional issues. This article sets out to demonstrate that under Britain's ‘informal empire’ in Southeast Asia, the colonial powers informally started to exchange information on domestic Chinese politics in their colonies as well as the political development in China. The ‘China problem’ was thus a catalyst that brought to the region ‘international’ politics and in particular the politics of immigration control.
Utility-based Network Adaptation for MPEG-4 Systems

In a hydraulic oscillator having a main body equipped with inflow and outflow ports wherein a vibratory member is actuated to cause self-excited vibration by pressurized oil passing from the inflow port inside an oil pressure chamber so as to generate alternating flow of oil under pressure at the outflow ports, said hydraulic oscillator characterized by resilient devices provided proximate both ends of the stroke of the vibratory member so as to regulate the displacement thereof.
Bridging Semantic Gaps for Language-Supervised Semantic Segmentation

Vision-Language Pre-training has demonstrated its remarkable zero-shot recognition ability and potential to learn generalizable visual representations from language supervision. Taking a step ahead, language-supervised semantic segmentation enables spatial localization of textual inputs by learning pixel grouping solely from image-text pairs. Nevertheless, the state-of-the-art suffers from clear semantic gaps between visual and textual modality: plenty of visual concepts appeared in images are missing in their paired captions. Such semantic misalignment circulates in pre-training, leading to inferior zero-shot performance in dense predictions due to insufficient visual concepts captured in textual representations. To close such semantic gap , we propose Concept Curation (CoCu), a pipeline that leverages CLIP to compensate for the missing semantics. For each image-text pair, we establish a concept archive that maintains potential visually-matched concepts with our proposed vision-driven expansion and text-to-vision-guided ranking . Relevant concepts can thus be identified via cluster-guided sampling and fed into pre-training, thereby bridging the gap between visual and textual semantics. Extensive experiments over a broad suite of 8 segmentation benchmarks show that CoCu achieves superb zero-shot transfer performance and greatly boosts language-supervised segmentation baseline by a large margin, suggesting the value of bridging semantic gap in pre-training data. Code will be made available.
Shear stress and very low levels of ligand synergize to activate ALK1 signaling in endothelial cells

Endothelial cells (ECs) respond to concurrent stimulation by biochemical fac-tors and wall shear stress (SS) exerted by blood flow. Disruptions in flow-induced responses can result in remodeling issues and cardiovascular diseases, but the detailed mechanisms linking flow-mechanical cues and biochemical signaling remain unclear. Activin receptor-like kinase 1 (ALK1) integrates SS and ALK1-ligand cues in ECs; ALK1 mutations cause hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), marked by arteriovenous malformation (AVM) development. However, the mechanistic underpinnings of ALK1 signaling modulation by fluid flow and the link to AVMs remain uncertain. We recorded EC responses under varying SS magnitudes and ALK1 ligand concentrations by assaying pSMAD1/5/9 nuclear localization using a custom multi-SS microfluidic device and a custom image analysis pipeline. We extended the previously reported syn-ergy between SS and BMP9, to include BMP10 and BMP9/10 . Moreover, we demonstrated this synergy is effective even at extremely low SS magnitudes (0.4 dyn/cm2) and ALK1 ligand range (femtogram/mL). The synergistic response to ALK1 ligands and SS requires the kinase activity of ALK1. Moreover, ALK1’s basal activity and response to minimal ligand levels depend on endo-cytosis, distinct from cell-cell junctions, cytoskeleton-mediated mechanosensing, or cholesterol-enriched microdomains. Yet, an in-depth comprehension of ALK1 receptor trafficking’s molecular mechanisms requires further investigation.
Seven-up acts in neuroblasts to specify adult central complex neuron identity and initiate neuroblast decommissioning

An open question in neurobiology is how diverse neuron cell types are generated from a small number of neural stem cells. In the Drosophila larval central brain, there are eight bilateral Type 2 neuroblast (T2NB) lineages that express a suite of early temporal factors followed by a different set of late temporal factors and generate the majority of the central complex (CX) neurons. The early-to-late switch is triggered by the orphan nuclear hormone receptor Seven-up (Svp), yet little is known about this Svp-dependent switch in specifying CX neuron identities. Here, we (i) birthdate the CX neurons P-EN and P-FN (early and late, respectively); (ii) show that Svp is transiently expressed in all early T2NBs; and (iii) show that loss of Svp expands the population of early born P-EN neurons at the expense of late born P-FN neurons. Furthermore, in the absence of Svp, T2NBs fail decommissioning and abnormally extend their lineage into week-old adults. We conclude that Svp is required to specify CX neuron identity, as well as to initiate T2NB decommissioning. Summary Seven-up acts in Type 2 neuroblasts to specify adult central complex columnar neuron identity and to initiate neuroblast decommissioning.
Orsay virus infection increases Caenorhabditis elegans resistance to heat-shock

The heat shock response plays a role in the immune defense against viruses across various organisms. Studies on model organisms show that inducing this response prior to viral exposure enhances host resistance to infections, while deficient responses make individuals more vulnerable. Moreover, viruses rely on components of the heat shock response for their own stability and viral infections improve thermal tolerance in plants, giving infected individuals an advantage in extreme conditions, which aids the virus in replication and transmission. Here, we examine the interaction between the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and its natural pathogen the Orsay virus (OrV) under heat stress. We found that OrV infection leads to differential gene expression related to heat stress, and infected populations showed increased resistance to heat shock. This resistance was associated with increased expression of argonautes alg-1 and alg-2, which are crucial for survival after heat shock and for OrV replication. Overall, our study suggests an environmental-dependent mutualistic relationship between the worm and OrV, potentially expanding the worm’s ecological niche and providing the virus with extra opportunities for replication and adaptation to extreme conditions. IMPORTANCE Viruses have traditionally been viewed as self-serving pathogens that harm their hosts to ensure their own survival. However, recent studies are painting a different picture, revealing that viruses are ubiquitous and not always linked to diseases. In the realm of plant pathology, it has been long noted that the outcome of an infection hinges on environmental factors. Here, we show that the interaction between an animal virus and its natural host can be mutualistic under harsh temperature conditions. Our research highlights that this shift towards mutualism hinges on the expression of argonaute proteins.
Extralimital Terrestrials: A reassessment of range limits in Alaska’s land mammals

Understanding and mitigating the effects of anthropogenic climate change and development on species requires the ability to track distributional changes over time. This is particularly true for species occupying high-latitude regions, which are experiencing a greater magnitude of climate change than the rest of the world. In North America, ranges of many mammals reach their northernmost extent in Alaska, positioning this region at the leading edge of climate-induced distribution change. Over a decade has elapsed since the publication of the last spatial assessments of terrestrial mammals in the state. We compared public occurrence records against commonly referenced range maps to evaluate potential extralimital records and develop repeatable baseline range maps. We compared occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility for 64 terrestrial mammals native to mainland Alaska against a variety of range estimates (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Alaska Gap Analysis Project, and the published literature). We mapped extralimital records and calculated proportions of occurrences encompassed by range extents. We also evaluated extralimital records against published species models, highlighted extralimital observations on U.S. Department of Interior lands, and report on two species of bats new to Alaska since 2014. Range comparisons identified 6,848 extralimital records belonging to 39 of 112 (34.8%) Alaskan species. On average, the Alaska Gap Analysis Project encompassed 95.5% of occurrence records and ranges were deemed accurate (> 90.0% correct) for 31 of 37 species, but overestimated extents for 13 species. International Union for Conservation of Nature range maps encompassed 68.1% of occurrence records and were > 90% accurate for 17 of 39 species. Results are either the product of improved sampling and digitization or represent actual geographic range expansions. Here we provide new data-driven range maps, update standards for the archival of museum-quality locational records and offer recommendations for mapping range changes for monitoring and conservation.
From connectome to effectome: learning the causal interaction map of the fly brain

A long-standing goal of neuroscience is to obtain a causal model of the nervous system. This would allow neuroscientists to explain animal behavior in terms of the dynamic interactions between neurons. The recently reported whole-brain fly connectome [1–7] specifies the synaptic paths by which neurons can affect each other but not whether, or how, they do affect each other in vivo. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a novel combined experimental and statistical strategy for efficiently learning a causal model of the fly brain, which we refer to as the “effectome”. Specifically, we propose an estimator for a dynamical systems model of the fly brain that uses stochastic optogenetic perturbation data to accurately estimate causal effects and the connectome as a prior to drastically improve estimation efficiency. We then analyze the connectome to propose circuits that have the greatest total effect on the dynamics of the fly nervous system. We discover that, fortunately, the dominant circuits significantly involve only relatively small populations of neurons—thus imaging, stimulation, and neuronal identification are feasible. Intriguingly, we find that this approach also re-discovers known circuits and generates testable hypotheses about their dynamics. Overall, our analyses of the connectome provide evidence that global dynamics of the fly brain are generated by a large collection of small and often anatomically localized circuits operating, largely, independently of each other. This in turn implies that a causal model of a brain, a principal goal of systems neuroscience, can be feasibly obtained in the fly.
CONTROL OF ACID ROCK DRAINAGE FROM MINE TAILINGS THROUGH THE ADDITION OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC CARBON

Acid mine drainage detrimentally affects thousands of surface watercourses throughout the world and costs tens of millions of dollars annually in site remediation expenditures. This process is accelerated by the activity of ironand sulfur-oxidizing bacteria which grow chemolithotrophically in mine tailings. Low cost, environmentally acceptable, and low maintenance treatment technologies are needed to both treat acid mine drainage and prevent its occurrence. The addition of dissolved organic carbon to mine tailings has the potential to stimulate beneficial heterotrophic populations of bacteria at the expense of iron and sulfur oxidizers. These experiments investigated the use of three organic carbon sources: molasses, cheese whey and methanol in controlling acid mine drainage from two tailings sources. All three organic carbon sources are easily dissolved in water, relatively inexpensive, and easily transported to remote locations. Mine tailings were acquired from the Fox Lake Mine (Manitoba) and the Mammoth Mine (Montana) and were packed into columns. Columns were watered on a weekly basis and dissolved organic carbon was periodically applied. The treatments increased pH up to 3 units over untreated controls, while simultaneously decreasing oxidation-reduction potential over 300 mV. Sulfate reducing bacteria were stimulated in columns treated with organic carbon, as were heterotrophic populations. Some ironand sulfur-oxidizing organisms were found to be capable of heterotrophic growth, a condition which compromised treatment effectiveness. Individual organic carbon treatments were found to vary in pH/ORP effect from several months to over 2 years. Phylogenetic analysis of column samples suggests both a robust population of bacteria in untreated mine tailings and the growth of SRB resulting from treatment.
Characterizing constitutive promoters across the Proteobacteria

Although research on promoters has spanned decades, the precise prediction of promoter activity from DNA sequence remains a challenge even in model organisms. Recent literature has identified important differences in the core sequence of σ70 promoters across classes of Proteobacteria as well as a lack of transferability when promoters are moved from host to host. Currently, there is a need for synthetic constitutive promoters spanning a range of expression levels in species outside of Escherichia coli. Additionally, characterization data defining behavior of the same promoter across multiple species would be extremely valuable to the field. Here, we analyzed promoter activity in three classes of Proteobacteria, which enabled us to better understand the sequence elements correlated with a strong promoter in different hosts. In doing so, we identified and characterized constitutive promoters spanning a range of expression in these species for community use and described the portability of a subset of these promoters as they were moved between hosts. These promoter libraries have broad applications as predictable genetic tools to control gene expression in diverse species (1–3). This work adds to the toolkit for gene expression in non-model bacteria and is a step towards the larger goal of accurate promoter prediction in a given host from a de novo sequence.
Analysis of broadband seismograms from the Chile-eru area

Broadband seismograms, recorded at the Graefenberg (GRF) Array in Germany are analyzed. These data from the Chile-Peru area have often a very complicated signature. We have attempted to identify pP using theoretical seismograms. A third phase besides P and pP , which may have higher frequencies, was discovered in a number of broadband records. Interpretations that relate this phase to the source or the structure are discussed. Our preferred interpretation is an S to P conversion at the bottom of the descending plate.