The air–water interface is a highly prevalent phase boundary impacting many natural and artificial processes. The significance of this interface arises from the unique properties of water molecules within the interfacial region, with a crucial parameter being the thickness of its structural anisotropy, or “healing depth”. This quantity has been extensively assessed by various simulations which have converged to a prediction of a remarkably short length of ∼6 Å. Despite the absence of any direct experimental measurement of this quantity, this predicted value has surprisingly become widely accepted as fact. Using an advancement in nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy, we provide the first measurement of this thickness and, indeed, find it to be ∼6–8 Å, finally confirming the prior predictions. Lastly, by combining the experimental results with depth-dependent second-order spectra calculated from ab initio parametrized molecular dynamics simulations, which are also in excellent agreement with this experimental result, we shed light on this surprisingly short correlation length of molecular orientations at the interface.

Structure prediction of protein complexes has improved significantly with AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold-multimer (AFM), but only 60% of dimers are accurately predicted. Here, we learn a bias to the MSA representation that improves the predictions by performing gradient descent through the AFM network. We demonstrate the performance on seven difficult targets from CASP15 and increase the average MMscore to 0.76 compared to 0.63 with AFM. We evaluate the procedure on 487 protein complexes where AFM fails and obtain an increased success rate (MMscore>0.75) of 33% on these difficult targets. Our protocol, AFProfile, provides a way to direct predictions towards a defined target function guided by the MSA. We expect gradient descent over the MSA to be useful for different tasks.

Distributed learning requires a frequent communication of neural network update data. For this, we present a set of new compression tools, jointly called differential neural network coding (dNNC). dNNC is specifically tailored to efficiently code incremental neural network updates and includes tools for federated BatchNorm folding (FedBNF), structured and unstructured sparsification, tensor row skipping, quantization optimization and temporal adaptation for improved context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC). Furthermore, dNNC provides a new parameter update tree (PUT) mechanism, which allows to identify updates for different neural network parameter sub-sets and their relationship in synchronous and asynchronous neural network communication scenarios. Most of these tools have been included into the standardization process of the NNC standard (ISO/IEC 15938-17) edition 2. We benchmark dNNC in multiple federated and split learning scenarios using a variety of NN models and data including vision transformers and large-scale ImageNet experiments: It achieves compression efficiencies of 60% in comparison to the NNC standard edition 1 for transparent coding cases, i.e., without degrading the inference or training performance. This corresponds to a reduction in the size of the NN updates to less than 1% of their original size. Moreover, dNNC reduces the overall energy consumption required for communication in federated learning systems by up to 94%.

Hot melt extrudates with combinations of Soluplus® and Aqoat® AS-LF or Eudragit® E PO were investigated to improve drug release and to overcome the pH-dependent release of poorly water-soluble basic (itraconazole, ITZ) and acidic (mefenamic acid, MFA) drugs. The release of ITZ was improved in both 0.1 N HCl and PBS pH 6.8 by hot-melt extrusion with combinations of Soluplus®:Aqoat® AS-LF and can be adjusted by varying the ratio of the polymers. At the ratio Soluplus®:Aqoat® AS®LF 75:25, an almost pH-independent release was achieved without any drop in the drug concentration within 24 h. A pH-independent and extended release (over 24 h) was obtained from milled extrudates when formulated in erodible matrix tablets using 15 % Methocel® K15M as the carrier. The release of MFA from extrudates with Soluplus® was immediate only in PBS pH 6.8. From extrudates with cationic Eudragit® E PO the release of MFA was slow in 0.1 N HCl and PBS pH 6.8, due to poor drug solubility and insoluble Eudragit® EPO, respectively. However, in the medium with an intermediate pH of 5.5, both MFA and Eudragit® E PO are highly ionized, and the release was fast, complete, and stable within 24 h. These release behaviors could be to some degree applicable for immediate or enteric, but not for extended-release formulations.

During the gestation and lactation period, the energy demand in pregnant and lactating bitches is elevated. Non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) are utilized either directly from the fed diet or from body fat storage. High NEFA concentration in the blood plasma leads to an increased risk for diseases. Therefore, measuring blood NEFA concentrations may be an indicator for a period of scarcity. The aim of this study is to explore if serum NEFA concentrations in healthy bitches change during gestation and lactation. Healthy pregnant and lactating bitches were sampled on three appointed dates around parturition. NEFA values were examined with a multiparameter clinical chemistry analyser. All statistical analyses were performed using R. Overall, 38 bitches were enrolled in the study. Twenty-one bitches were sampled on all three appointed dates. The median NEFA concentration antepartum was 0.73 mmol/L (IQR: 0.59, 1.01); during peak lactation, it was 0.57 mmol/L (IQR: 0.44, 0.82); and around weaning, it was 0.58 mmol/L (IQR: 0.46, 0.73). NEFA concentrations rose slightly with litter size in late gestation. Body condition score had no influence on observed NEFA values. We conclude that NEFA concentrations widely remain within reference ranges in well-fed pregnant and lactating bitches. Nevertheless, they may be a valuable parameter to assess the actual metabolic status of malnourished pregnant and lactating bitches.

Non-democratic regimes have increasingly been hosting major sports events to boost their visibility and image abroad, which sparked debates about the potential for “sportswashing”. Using the case of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar we examine how the framing of the tournament influenced opinions about Qatar abroad. Our pre-registered survey experiment with more than 14,000 respondents in eight European countries conducted before the tournament shows that framing it in light of human rights issues in Qatar leads to more negative attitudes towards the host of the World Cup. In contrast, frames emphasizing Qatar’s organizational capacity improve respondents’ attitudes. The heterogeneity of effects across countries highlights the relevance of the national information environment for the effects of major sports events on public opinion. These findings suggest that critical media coverage could potentially mitigate sportswashing efforts while uncritical coverage can increase the legitimacy of autocracies.

Ultrafast control over the magnetic orientation of matter represents a vital element of potential future spin-based electronics (“spintronics”). While physical mechanisms underpinning spin switching are established for picosecond time scales, we here present a physical route to magnetization toggle control, i.e., multiple switching events, at <100 femtoseconds. A minority spin current injected into a ferromagnet is shown to generate rapid depopulation of the minority channel below the ground-state Fermi level, creating a minority “spin vacuum” that then drives rapid charge redistribution from the majority channel and spin switching. We demonstrate that this mechanism reproduces many of the features of recent subpicosecond switching of ferromagnetic Co/Pt multilayers and provide simple practical rules for the design of materials via tailoring the electronic density of states to optimize spin vacuum control over magnetic order.

Este dosier propone extender la mirada crítica a algunos momentos y manifestaciones en el pluriverso de las representaciones y performances culturales, procedentes de múltiples géneros y redes de realización y circulación. Con este objetivo se indaga en textos procedentes de la literatura en sentido estricto -¿autónoma?- hasta la literatura “difusa”, ubicada en los límites de la autobiografía y la ficción, concebida desde su intermedialidad tanto en su producción como en su difusión y recepción, en un tránsito fluido de modalidades informales tanto análogas como digitales.

Temperature-dependent alternative splicing (AS) is a crucial mechanism for organisms to adapt to varying environmental temperatures. In mammals, even slight fluctuations in body temperature are sufficient to drive significant AS changes in a concerted manner. This dynamic regulation allows organisms to finely tune gene expression and protein isoform diversity in response to temperature cues, ensuring proper cellular function and physiological adaptation. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying temperature-dependent AS thus provides valuable insights into the intricate interplay between environmental stimuli and gene expression regulation. In this review, we provide an overview of recent advances in understanding temperature-regulated AS across various biological processes and systems. We will discuss the machinery sensing and translating temperature cues into changed AS patterns, the adaptation of the splicing regulatory machinery to extreme temperatures, the role of temperature-dependent AS in shaping the transcriptome, functional implications and the development of potential therapeutics targeting temperature-sensitive AS pathways.

This paper analyzes fairness and bargaining in a dynamic bilateral matching market. Traders from both sides of the market are pairwise matched to share the gains from trade. The bargaining outcome depends on the traders' fairness attitudes. In equilibrium fairness matters because of market frictions. But, when these frictions become negligible, the equilibrium approaches the Walrasian competitive equilibrium, independently of the traders' inequity aversion. Fairness may yield a Pareto improvement; but also the contrary is possible. Overall, the market implications of fairness are very different from its effects in isolated bilateral bargaining.

Within the transactional framework of stress, resilience may be conceptualized as a dynamic process wherein individuals, when confronted with adversity, utilize both internal and external coping resources. This article focuses on two resources, namely self-efficacy and social support, examining their roles in the context of war, terrorism, and forced migration. These resources are perceived as protective factors capable of mitigating the impact of adversity and aiding in the recovery from traumatic experiences. They facilitate individuals in reshaping their perspectives and engaging in cognitive restructuring as integral components of the coping process, ultimately leading to a rebound from adversity or even the development of higher levels of functioning post trauma.

When scrutinizing the trajectories of coping resources over time, distinct mechanisms may come to the fore. A causation model posits a positive effect of resources on recovery outcomes, while an erosion model elucidates the wear and tear that ongoing adversity may inflict upon these resources.

In exploring the interplay between self-efficacy and social support within the resilience process, diverse mechanisms may emerge. These include the enabling effect, where support enhances self-efficacy, and the cultivation effect, wherein self-efficacy contributes to the development of robust social networks.

Knufia petricola is a black fungus that colonizes sun-exposed surfaces as extreme and oligotrophic environments. As ecologically important heterotrophs and biofilm-formers on human-made surfaces, black fungi form one of the most resistant groups of biodeteriorating organisms. Due to its moderate growth rate in axenic culture and available protocols for its transformation and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing, K. petricola is used for studying the morpho-physiological adaptations shared by extremophilic and extremotolerant black fungi. In this study, the bacteria-derived tetracycline (TET)-dependent promoter (Tet-on) system was implemented to enable controllable gene expression in K. petricola. The functionality i.e., the dose-dependent inducibility of TET-regulated constructs was investigated by using GFP fluorescence, pigment synthesis (melanin and carotenoids) and restored uracil prototrophy as reporters. The newly generated cloning vectors containing the Tet-on construct, and the validated sites in the K. petricola genome for color-selectable or neutral insertion of expression constructs complete the reverse genetics toolbox. One or multiple genes can be expressed on demand from different genomic loci or from a single construct by using 2A self-cleaving peptides, e.g., for localizing proteins and protein complexes in the K. petricola cell or for using K. petricola as host for the expression of heterologous genes.

We study the potential impact of the commodity price boom of 2003 to 2013 on public social spending in Latin America. We estimate structural vector autoregressions and local projections for 16 Latin American countries over the period from 1990 to 2019 and investigate if we can attribute increases in public spending on health, education, and social protection to increases in a country’s net commodity terms-of-trade. By focusing on the impulse responses derived from country-specific estimations, we find a huge variety in response patterns. Our study finds that two countries experienced lasting increases in public social spending due to the commodity boom (Argentina, Ecuador). Some others observed at least temporary increases of few years (Brazil, Mexico), reacted first with declines and then rises (Chile), and yet others did not respond at all (Bolivia, Colombia, Peru). As expected, we cannot relate public social spending with commodity prices in countries without commodity price boom. Among countries with positive responses, there is no clear tendency concerning the function of spending that benefits most. We discuss potential explanations behind the heterogeneity of our country-wise results and conclude that the presence of left-wing governments, fiscal rules, natural resource funds and economic diversification provide plausible explanations for single country cases, but no general patterns emerge. We conclude that the commodity price boom was neither necessary nor sufficient for social policy expansion in Latin America, and factors explaining its effects differ from country to country. Our study highlights the importance of in-depth examinations of country-specific factors and the need of (currently lacking) high-quality time series data in development research.

Interdisciplinary migration research is currently witnessing an increased interest in the impact of colonialism, decolonization, and expertization on present-day integrationism and racism. Tracing the genealogy of current ways of framing, categorizing, and governing groups viewed as “migrant Others” forms part of a reflexive research agenda that analyses migration as a product of changing constellations and categorizations. The article takes up this interest in the recent (and sometimes less recent) past in migration research. Bringing this interdisciplinary body of work into conversation with historical scholarship, we discuss how migration scholars make use of historical genealogies and we identify three different ways of relating the past to the present in debates about current migration and border regimes: We distinguish between what we term an anthropological “deep history” mode, a “genealogical” mode, and a “contrapuntal” or “disruptive” mode. This article argues for a careful, reflexive use of the past. We contend that both the alterity of past discourses and practices and their persistence and lasting impact can help us better make sense of the present in critical migration research.

We answer a question of Bardakov (Kourovka Notebook, Problem 19.8) which asks for the existence of a pair of natural numbers (c, c, m ) with the property that every element in the free group on the two-element set { a, b } can be represented as a concatenation of c , or fewer, m-almost-palindromes in letters a +/- 1, +/- 1 , b +/- 1 . Here, an m-almost-palindrome is a word which can be obtained from a palindrome by changing at most m letters. We show that no such pair (c, c, m ) exists. In fact, we show that the analogous result holds for all non-abelian free groups.

There is an ongoing discussion about how to forecast the maximum magnitudes of induced earthquakes based on operational parameters, subsurface conditions and physical process understanding. Although the occurrence of damage caused by induced earthquakes is rare, some cases have caused significant economic loss, injuries and even loss of life. We analysed a global compilation of earthquakes induced by hydraulic fracturing, geothermal reservoir stimulation, water disposal, gas storage and reservoir impoundment. Our analysis showed that maximum magnitudes scale with the characteristic length of pressure diffusion in the brittle Earth’s crust. We observed an increase in the nucleation potential of larger-magnitude earthquakes with time and explained it by diffusion-controlled growth of the pressure-perturbed part of faults. Numerical and analytical fault size modelling supported our findings. Finally, we derived magnitude scaling laws to manage induced seismic hazard of upcoming energy projects prior to operation.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Induced seismicity in coupled subsurface systems’.

Under the name “picture science“ an access to the internal logic of the picture in demarcation from verbal language and text was demanded first from side of the spiritual sciences – in broad accordance among prominent authors from this field. Social sciences and sociology as empirical sciences especially have to face the challenge of implementing these demands methodically and theoretically according to their epistemological standards. Concerning the groundbreaking Iconology developed by Panofsky a stronger consideration of the formal composition of the picture is demanded from side of the history of arts. From a mere sociological perspective the following has to be claimed in addition: the iconological access to the picture with its praxeological perspective on the modus operandi of its production by Panofsky’s category of the habitus had overcome the iconographic perspective, which is bounded to the common sense with its (methodically not justifiable) ascriptions or imputations of intentions and motives to the picture producers. In the further development of the praxeological perspective on the one hand a differentiation of the category of the habitus regarding photography seems to be necessary – by distinguishing between the habitus of the picture producers behind the camera from those in front of it. On the other hand it seems important to transcend the category of the habitus in direction of incongruencies and ambiguities which are constitutive for the frames of orientation of the picture producers and thus the semantic of the picture. This will be demonstrated empirically in this work by the interpretation of advertising pictures on base of the Documentary Method with respect to the category of the pose, which appears as a de-contextualization of relevant gestures.

La escritura literaria en Twitter, denominada tuiteratura por autores y científicos, sigue reglas distintas a las del sector literario tradicional. Las condiciones de producción, publicación y recepción difieren decisivamente y estas especificidades hacen de la tuiteratura un ejemplo de lo que Josefina Ludmer califica como “Literaturas posautónomas”. Inspirándose en las tesis de Ludmer, en “Los muertos indóciles”, Cristina Rivera Garza desarrolla una poética de la tuiteratura que enfatiza el potencial de la escritura colectiva en Twitter. Sin embargo, los estudios literarios han tenido siempre dificultades con el análisis de formas textuales que no se pueden citar ni archivar. En lo que respecta a la literatura digital, parece necesario por tanto desarrollar nuevas herramientas. No obstante, las restricciones del medio, sus “contraintes” en el mejor sentido oulipiano, también pueden trasladarse de nuevo al soporte del libro: en 2020, Heber Quijano publicó un delgado volumen con sus tuits de los años 2008-2013: “Eco de un ave que estalla”. Estos textos también pueden incluirse en la categoria de literatura posautónoma y analizarse desde esa perspectiva