Local Group Research Articles

An exploratory clinical trial of preoperative non-invasive localization before breast-conserving surgery using augmented reality technology.

This single-center, randomized, prospective, exploratory clinical trial was conducted to assess the clinical efficacy of an augmented reality (AR)-based breast cancer localization imaging solution for patients with breast cancer. This clinical trial enrolled 20 women who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between the ages of 19 and 80, had a single lesion with a diameter ≥5 mm but ≤30 mm, had no metastases to other organs, and had not received prior chemotherapy. All patients underwent mammography, ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging for preoperative assessment. Patients were randomly assigned to ultrasound-guided skin marking localization (USL) and AR-based localization (ARL) groups (n=10 in each group). Statistical comparisons between USL and ARL groups were made based on demographics, radiologic features, pathological outcomes, and surgical outcomes using chi-square and Student t-tests. Two surgeons performed breast-conserving surgery on 20 patients. Histopathologic evaluation of all patients confirmed negative margins. Two independent pathologists evaluated the marginal distances, and there were no intergroup differences in the readers' estimates (R1, 6.20±4.37 vs. 5.04±3.47,P = 0.519; R2, 5.10±4.31 vs. 4.10±2.38,P = 0.970) or the readers' average values (5.65±4.19 vs. 4.57±2.84,P = 0.509). In comparing the tumor plane area ratio, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of either reader's mean values (R1, 15.90±9.52 vs. 19.38±14.05,P = 0.525; R2, 15.32±9.48 vs. 20.83±12.85,P = 0.290) or the overall mean values of two readers combined (15.56±9.11 vs. 20.09±13.38,P = 0.388). Convenience, safety, satisfaction, and reusability were all superior in the AR localization group (P <0.001) based on the two surgeons' responses. AR localization is an acceptable alternative to ultrasound-guided skin marking with no significant differences in surgical outcomes.

Predictors of solar water heater purchasing intention: An empirical analysis of residential behaviors in Hanoi city, Vietnam

Abstract Solar energy is a field that has grown rapidly in the world in recent years to solve the energy crisis and respond to climate change. Vietnam is a country with renewables energy potential including solar power and is pursuing net zero emissions target by 2050. This study explores factors affecting the residents' intention to buy solar water heater in Hanoi, Vietnam. We used theory of planned behaviors and technology acceptance model to build research model and hypotheses. A community survey was conducted with 450 households in 3 districts using cluster sampling method to collect information. We conducted descriptive statistical analysis, Cronbach's Alpha test, exploring factor analysis, conformity factor analysis and regression to identify and evaluate the impact of factors on solar water heater consumption intention. The results showed that there were significant factors affecting people's intention to buy solar water heater including attitude, perceived usefulness, price perception, social influence and financial support in which attitude is the most influential factor. Regarding social characteristic of respondents, we also found positively significant relationship between income, education level and intention to use solar heater. Recommendations for government and business included increasing awareness of the benefits and economic feasibility of renewable energy devices to consumers through social media, implementing financial incentives to support clean energy consumption behavior, and strengtheing the emergence of local solar evangelist groups in the communities. Future research can expand to other cities and explore more indirect factors affecting the green energy consumption behavior of Vietnamese residents.

Terrorism and education: Evidence from instrumental variables estimators

SummaryThis paper estimates the effect of exposure to terrorist violence on education. Since terrorists may choose targets endogenously, we construct a set of novel instruments. To that end, we leverage exogenous variation from a local terrorist group's revenues and its affiliation with al‐Qaeda. Across several Kenyan datasets, we find that attacks suppress school enrolment more than predicted by difference‐in‐differences‐type estimators. This indicates that terrorists target areas experiencing unobserved, positive shocks. Evidence suggests fears and concerns as mechanisms of impact, rather than educational supply.

Real-effort in the Multilevel Public Goods Game

Abstract We investigate the extent to which a real-effort effect and an inequality effect impact individuals’ prosocial behavior in the multilevel public goods game. We explore two symmetrical treatments: one where everyone participates in a preliminary task to obtain their initial endowment, and another where no one does, to assess the real-effort effect. Additionally, we examine two asymmetrical treatments where only individuals from one local group engage in the preliminary task to study the inequality effect. We find evidence that the contribution to the local public good is stable across all treatments, while the contribution to the global public good is significantly lower when both groups perform the preliminary task.

‘A deadly weapon aimed at our hearts’: the scope and composition of Lord Scarman’s 1981 public inquiry

ABSTRACT State-led inquiries have been prominently positioned within British political and social cultures, seemingly popular with its citizens. They are often tactically utilized to depoliticize issues and provide the appearance that ministers share public concern, arguably acting as a political device to maintain the state through apparent declarations of unfailing commitment to ‘accountability’ and ‘legitimacy’. Lord Scarman’s 1981 inquiry into anti-police uprisings, portrayed by the State as violence belonging in ‘less-civilised countries’, provoked opposition to its unrepresentative membership and narrow focus. Some local groups, such as the Brixton Defence Campaign, viewed Scarman’s inquiry as the state’s attempt to legitimize characterizations of the ‘riots’ as ‘blameless forces of law and order [battling] black criminals’. Characterizations of the uprisings as simply ‘irrational’ criminality attempted to remove legitimacy from actions by politically marginalized Black Britons, previously denied access to processes more widely defined to be ‘legitimate’. Throughout, this article highlights the colonial legacies of inquiries, through their aims, operation, and membership. Scarman also refused to investigate accusations of police misconduct, which depict a different situation than accepted narratives, demonstrating the state’s influence on knowledge production and suggesting the potential for such records to reveal violence conducted in the name of the state. By marginalizing certain voices and limiting the inquiry’s scope, the uprisings were characterized as simply a ‘crisis’ of law and order. This aspect of discussion adds to recent debates on the use of the concepts of ‘’militarisation’ and ‘martial politics’, demonstrating practices that reproduce violence in the name of liberal governance.

Effects of Combined Live Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bacillus Cereus Tablets on the Structure and Function of the Intestinal Flora in Rabbits Undergoing Hepatic Artery Infusion Chemotherapy

Few studies have explored the biological mechanism by which probiotics alleviate adverse reactions to chemotherapy drugs after local hepatic chemotherapy perfusion by regulating the intestinal flora. This study investigates the effects of Combined Live Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bacillus Cereus Tablets on the intestinal microbial structure and intestinal barrier function, as well as the potential mechanism in rabbits after local hepatic chemotherapy infusion. Eighteen New Zealand White rabbits were randomly divided into a control group, a hepatic local chemotherapy perfusion group, and a hepatic local chemotherapy perfusion + Combined Live Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bacillus Cereus Tablets group to assess the effects of Combined Live Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bacillus Cereus Tablets on the adverse reactions. The administration of Combined Live Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bacillus Cereus Tablets alleviated the intestinal flora disorder caused by local hepatic perfusion chemotherapy, promoted the growth of beneficial bacteria, and inhibited the growth of harmful bacteria. The Combined Live Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bacillus Cereus Tablets also reduced the levels of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines and liver injury factors induced by local hepatic perfusion chemotherapy. Our findings indicate that Combined Live Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bacillus Cereus Tablets can ameliorate the toxicity and side effects of chemotherapy by regulating intestinal flora, blocking pro-inflammatory cytokines, reducing liver injury factors, and repairing the intestinal barrier. Probiotics may be used as a potential alternative therapeutic strategy to prevent the adverse reactions caused by chemotherapy with local hepatic perfusion.

Picard sheaves, local Brauer groups, and topological modular forms

AbstractWe develop tools to analyze and compare the Brauer groups of spectra such as periodic complex and real ‐theory and topological modular forms, as well as the derived moduli stack of elliptic curves. In particular, we prove that the Brauer group of is isomorphic to the Brauer group of the derived moduli stack of elliptic curves. Our main computational focus is on the subgroup of the Brauer group consisting of elements trivialized by some étale extension, which we call the local Brauer group. Essential information about this group can be accessed by a thorough understanding of the Picard sheaf and its cohomology. We deduce enough information about the Picard sheaf of and the (derived) moduli stack of elliptic curves to determine the structure of their local Brauer groups away from the prime 2. At 2, we show that they are both infinitely generated and agree up to a potential error term that is a finite 2‐torsion group.

Indigenous Water Engineering and Aquaculture Systems in Australia: The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape and Baiame’s Ngunnhu (the Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps)

In Australia, First Peoples have practiced sustainable forms of water management for millennia. They have done so by respectfully caring for Country through their use of engineering and maintenance processes, including sophisticated fish and eel trapping structures and weir systems. Some of the largest continuing sites of water engineering and aquaculture in the world are still visible and used by local Aboriginal groups – the Budj Bim in Victoria and Baiame’s Ngunnhu (Brewarrina Aboriginal fish traps) in New South Wales (NSW). Recent scholarship and successful heritage listings, including the World Heritage listing of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape and work by and with traditional custodians in these river systems, are starting to bring into public discourse and knowledge these sophisticated and important places of global cultural significance. The principles used in the design of these systems, and the social and environmental contexts of their maintenance and convening power over millennia, are particularly important as we navigate new technologically mediated forms of water management today and into the future. These management challenges include communities in Australia and globally working on the importance of significant places, values, rights, justice and voice for Indigenous peoples in building sustainable futures, including through innovation and safe, sustainable and responsible cybernetic approaches to water governance and the SDGs.

Asymmetric drift in MaNGA: Mass and radially-dependent stratification rates in galaxy disks

Abstract We measure the age-velocity relationship from the lag between ionized gas and stellar tangential speeds in ∼500 nearby disk galaxies from MaNGA in SDSS-IV. Selected galaxies are kinematically axisymmetric. Velocity lags are asymmetric drift, seen in the Milky Way’s (MW) solar neighborhood and other Local Group galaxies; their amplitude correlates with stellar population age. The trend is qualitatively consistent in rate ($\dot{\sigma }$) with a simple power-law model where σ ∝ tb that explains the dynamical phase-space stratification in the solar neighborhood. The model is generalized based on disk dynamical times to other radii and other galaxies. We find in-plane radial stratification parameters σ0, r (dispersion of the youngest populations) in the range of 10-40 km s−1 and 0.2 &amp;lt; br &amp;lt; 0.5 for MaNGA galaxies. Overall br increases with galaxy mass, decreases with radius for galaxies above 10.4 dex (M⊙) in stellar mass, but is ∼constant with radius at lower mass. The measurement scatter indicates the stratification model is too simple to capture the complexity seen in the data, unsurprising given the many possible astrophysical processes that may lead to stellar population dynamical stratification. Nonetheless, the data show dynamical stratification is broadly present in the galaxy population, with systematic trends in mass and density. The amplitude of the asymmetric drift signal is larger for the MaNGA sample than the MW, and better represented in the mean by what is observed in the disks of M31 and M33. Either typical disks have higher surface-density or, more likely, are dynamically hotter (hence thicker) than the MW.

Personal and organisational health literacy in the non-specific symptom pathway for cancer: An ethnographic study.

People being investigated for cancer face a wealth of complex information. Non-specific symptom pathways (NSS) were implemented in the United Kingdom in 2017 to address the needs of patients experiencing symptoms such as weight loss, fatigue or general practitioner 'gut feeling', who did not have streamlined pathways for cancer investigation. This study aimed to explore the health literacy skills needed by patients being investigated for cancer in NSS pathways. This study employed ethnographic methods across four hospitals in England, including interviews, patient shadowingand clinical care observations, to examine NSS pathways for cancer diagnosis. We recruited 27 patients who were shadowed and interviewed during their care. We also interviewed 27 professionals. The analysis focused on patient communication and understanding, drawing on the concepts of personal and organisational health literacy. Our analysis derived six themes highlighting the considerable informational demands of the NSS pathway. Patients were required to understand complex blood tests and investigations in primary care and often did not understand why they were referred. The NSS pathway itself was difficult to understand with only a minority of patients appreciating that multiple organs were being investigated for cancer. The process of progressing through the pathway was also difficult to understand, particularly around who was making decisions and what would happen next. The results of investigations were complex, often including incidental findings. Patients whose persistent symptoms were not explained were often unsure of what to do following discharge. We have identified several potential missed opportunities for organisations to support patient understanding of NSS pathways which could lead to inappropriate help-seeking post-discharge. Patients' difficulties in comprehending previous investigations and findings could result in delays, overtestingor inadequately targeted investigations, hindering the effective use of their medical history. Third, patients' limited understanding of their investigations and results may impede their ability to engage in patient safety by reporting potential care errors. Patient, public, clinical and policy representatives contributed to developing the research objectives through a series of meetings and individual conversations in preparation for the study. We have held several events in which patients and the public have had an opportunity to give feedback about our results, such as local interest groups in North London and academic conferences. A clinical contributor (J.-A. M.) was involved in data analysis and writing the manuscript.

Strengthening the Rule of Law Through Community Policing: Evidence From Liberia

How to improve security and strengthen the rule of law in fragile states? Community policing programs have long been at the forefront of policymakers’ efforts to address this challenge. These programs tend to be more expansive than those found in developed countries, focusing not only on building trust through meetings and foot patrols, but also on eliciting ‘coproduction’ from communities to supplement scarce police capacity and provide alternatives to vigilantism. I partnered with the Liberian National Police (LNP) to experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in Monrovia, Liberia, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most crime-ridden cities. Drawing on a large-scale resident survey and administrative crime data, I find that the program improved relations between police and citizens, strengthened social norms against vigilantism, and mobilized communities to participate in the police’s “Watch Forum” initiative by forming and sustaining local security groups designed to facilitate cooperation with police. These changes were accompanied by a roughly 40% reduction in the incidence of mob violence. Despite these improvements, the program did not reduce the overall incident of crime, improve perceptions of security, or increase crime reporting.

Spatial and temporal clustering of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Illinois household cats, 2021-2023.

This study aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence and spatial and temporal clustering of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in household cats within 63 counties in Illinois from October 2021 to May 2023. The analysis followed a stepwise approach. First, in a choropleth point map, we illustrated the distribution of county-level seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Next, spatial interpolation was used to predict the seroprevalence in counties without recorded data. Global and local clustering methods were used to identify the extent of clustering and the counties with high or low seroprevalence, respectively. Next, temporal, spatial, and space-time scan statistic was used to identify periods and counties with higher-than-expected seroprevalence. In the last step, to identify more distinct areas in counties with high seroprevalence, city-level analysis was conducted to identify temporal and space-time clusters. Among 1,715 samples tested by serological assays, 244 samples (14%) tested positive. Young cats had higher seropositivity than older cats, and the third quarter of the year had the highest odds of seropositivity. Three county-level space-time clusters with higher-than-expected seroprevalence were identified in the northeastern, central-east, and southwest regions of Illinois, occurring between June and October 2022. In the city-level analysis, 2 space-time clusters were identified in Chicago's downtown and the southwestern suburbs of Chicago between June and September 2022. Our results suggest that the high density of humans and cats in large cities such as Chicago, might play a role in the transmission and clustering of SARS-CoV-2. Our study provides an in-depth analysis of SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology in Illinois household cats, which will aid in COVID-19 control and prevention.

Abstract PO1-23-05: Exploratory clinical trial of preoperative non-invasive localization before surgery in breast cancer patients using augmented reality technology

Abstract Purpose: A single-center, randomized, prospective exploratory clinical trial to assess the clinical efficacy of augmented reality(AR)-based breast cancer localization medical imaging solution in patients with breast cancer Methods: This prospective exploratory clinical trial enrolled 20 women who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between the ages of 19 and 70, had a single lesion or multifocal lesion with a lesion size of 5mm or more and 30mm or less, had no metastasis to other organs, and had not received prior chemotherapy. All patients underwent mammography, ultrasound, CT, and MRI for preoperative assessment. Patients were randomly assigned to US-guided skin marking (control) and SKIA-breast (AR localization) groups of 10 each. Result: Two surgeons performed breast-conserving surgery on twenty patients. Pathologic evaluation of all patients confirmed negative margins. Two independent pathologists evaluated marginal distance, and neither the two reader's estimates (R1, 6.20±4.37 vs. 5.04±3.47, p=0.519; R2, 5.10±4.31 vs. 4.10±2.38, p= 0.970) nor the two reader's average values (5.65±4.19 vs. 4.57±2.84, p= 0.509) showed any difference between the two groups. In comparing the tumor plane area ratio, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups for the two readers (R1, 15.90±9.52 vs. 19.38±14.05, p=0.525; R2, 15.32±9.48 vs. 20.83±12.85, p=0.290) and the two reader's mean values (15.56±9.11 vs. 20.09±13.38, p=0.388). Based on the two surgeons' responses, convenience, safety, satisfaction, and reusability were all superior in the AR localization group (p=0.000). Conclusion: AR localization is an acceptable alternative to US-guided skin marking with no significant differences in surgical outcomes. Citation Format: Minah Lee, Jun Woo Lee, Woosung Lim, Joohyun Woo, Hyun-Goo Kim, Se Hyun Paek, SangHui Park, Ji Min Kim, Jin Chung, Jee Eun Lee, Jeoung Hyun Kim. Exploratory clinical trial of preoperative non-invasive localization before surgery in breast cancer patients using augmented reality technology [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO1-23-05.

Distortions of the Hubble diagram: Line-of-sight signatures of local galaxy clusters

The Universe expansion rate is modulated around local inhomogeneities due to their gravitational potential. Velocity waves are then observed around galaxy clusters in the Hubble diagram. This paper studies them in a sim 738 Mpc-wide, 2048$^3$-particle cosmological simulation of our cosmic environment (a.k.a. CLONE: Constrained LOcal Nesting Environment Simulation). For the first time, the simulation shows that velocity waves that arise in the lines of sight of the most massive dark matter halos agree with those observed in local galaxy velocity catalogs in the lines of sight of Coma and several other local (Abell) clusters. For the best-constrained clusters such as Virgo and Centaurus -- that is, those closest to us -- secondary waves caused by galaxy groups, further into the non-linear regime, also stand out. This match was not utterly expected given that before being evolved into a fully non-linear z=0 state, assuming Lambda CDM, CLONE initial conditions are constrained solely with linear theory, the power spectrum, and highly uncertain and sparse local peculiar velocities. Additionally, Gaussian fits to velocity wave envelopes show that wave properties are tightly tangled with cluster masses. This link is complex, though, and involves the environment and formation history of the clusters. A proposed metric, measuring the distance between the observed and several re-centred simulated lines of sight, waves included, is shown to be capable of providing a tight mass range estimate for massive local clusters. Using machine learning techniques to grasp more thoroughly the complex wave-mass relation, velocity waves could in the near future be used to provide additional and independent mass estimates from galaxy dynamics within large cluster radii.

A too-many dwarf satellite galaxies problem in the MATLAS low-to-moderate density fields

Dwarf galaxy abundances can serve as discernment tests for models of structure formation. Previous small-scale tensions between observations and dark matter-only cosmological simulations may have been resolved with the inclusion of baryonic processes; however, these successes have been largely concentrated on the Local Group dwarfs the feedback models were initially calibrated on. We investigate whether the Lambda CDM model can reliably reproduce dwarf abundances in the MATLAS low-to-moderate density fields that are centred upon early-type host galaxies beyond the Local Volume. We carried out mock observations of MATLAS-like fields with the high-resolution hydrodynamic simulation IllustrisTNG-50. We used matching selection criteria and compared the properties of dwarfs contained within them with their MATLAS analogues. Although simulated MATLAS-like dwarfs demonstrate photometric properties that are consistent with the observed galaxy population and follow the same scaling relations, TNG50 underestimates the number of dwarf galaxies in isolated MATLAS fields at the $6 level. This significance maintained within crowded fields containing more than a single bright host. Our $55-62&lt;!PCT!&gt;$ estimate of the fraction of background galaxies is in agreement with estimates by MATLAS, but is wholly insufficient to alleviate this discrepancy in dwarf abundances. Any incompleteness in the observed fields further exacerbates this tension. We identified a "too-many-satellites" problem in Lambda CDM, emphasising the need for the continued testing and refining of current models of galaxy formation in environments beyond the Local Group.

LEADER and rural development policy - What's the problem represented to be?

This article problematizes the EU Programme LEADER as a policy to improve opportunities to live and thrive in rural areas. LEADER was initiated in 1991 as a Commission initiative and has, over time, expanded and become an institutionalized public policy in the EU. LEADER is based on a particular development method - the LEADER method - which sets out fundamental principles for conducting development work. The idea is that rural development should start with Local Action Groups at the grassroots level, emphasizing networking and entrepreneurship within a geographic context. Drawing on Bacchi's methodology, What's the problem represented to be, the article aims to examine the LEADER Programme and analyze problem representations and political rationalities. The analysis shows that actors working within LEADER have developed political rationalities that partly constitute obstacles to achieving long-term impacts. It concerns issues related to the bureaucratic framework of LEADER and representations on a fixation on producing added values, an internal logic of project administration, and an emphasis highlighting the role of the individual entrepreneur. The LEADER Programme has not only been institutionalized as part of the EU and member states' administrative systems. Still, it has also created its ideological superstructure consisting of a specific narrative, methodology, language, and common forms of organizing. This gives LEADER advantages but also risks associated with internal closedness that creates subjectification between ‘them and us' and produces lived effects that hinder structural changes promoting rural areas.

A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION OF THE EFFECT OF A METASTATIC BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSIS ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE

BACKGROUND Physical activity is beneficial for people living with metastatic breast cancer, a cancer that has spread to other body parts such as liver, lungs and lymph nodes, but less is known about patient views on supporting them in an active lifestyle. Through a qualitative scope this study aimed to investigate the effect of a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis on physical activity and quality of life aiming to capture exercise motivators, barriers, and preferences to inform and introduce feasible and effective physical activity in treatment plans. METHODS This study involved semi-structured interviews with eight female participants from the local Metastatic Breast Cancer Support Group in Portsmouth. RESULTS Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted on the data, and five higher order themes were developed: (i) Life is affected by diagnosis and treatment, (ii) Limitations to being more physically active, (iii) Physical activity’s impact on quality of life, (iv) Factors supporting/enhancing physical activity and quality of life, and (v) Actions to support physical activity and quality of life. Generally, participants reported that living with metastatic breast cancer had negatively altered their quality of life, including their ability to be physically active. Perceptions of the introduction or continuation of physical activity were welcomed. Despite the benefits and factors found to support physical activity engagement several barriers were identified, such as treatment focus and exercise misconceptions. CONCLUSION Metastatic breast cancer impacts quality of life and the ability to be physically active, being active is generally perceived to be beneficial, and social and environmental support is important to being physically active.

Histologic, metabolomic, and transcriptomic differences in fir trees from a peri-urban forest under chronic ozone exposure.

Urbanization modifies ecosystem conditions and evolutionary processes. This includes air pollution, mostly as tropospheric ozone (O3), which contributes to the decline of urban and peri-urban forests. A notable case are fir (Abies religiosa) forests in the peripheral mountains southwest of Mexico City, which have been severely affected by O3 pollution since the 1970s. Interestingly, some young individuals exhibiting minimal O3-related damage have been observed within a zone of significant O3 exposure. Using this setting as a natural experiment, we compared asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals of similar age (≤15 years old; n = 10) using histologic, metabolomic, and transcriptomic approaches. Plants were sampled during days of high (170 ppb) and moderate (87 ppb) O3 concentration. Given that there have been reforestation efforts in the region, with plants from different source populations, we first confirmed that all analyzed individuals clustered within the local genetic group when compared to a species-wide panel (Admixture analysis with ~1.5K SNPs). We observed thicker epidermis and more collapsed cells in the palisade parenchyma of needles from symptomatic individuals than from their asymptomatic counterparts, with differences increasing with needle age. Furthermore, symptomatic individuals exhibited lower concentrations of various terpenes (ß-pinene, ß-caryophylene oxide, α-caryophylene, and ß-α-cubebene) than asymptomatic trees, as evidenced through GC-MS. Finally, transcriptomic analyses revealed differential expression for 13 genes related to carbohydrate metabolism, plant defense, and gene regulation. Our results indicate a rapid and contrasting phenotypic response among trees, likely influenced by standing genetic variation and/or plastic mechanisms. They open the door to future evolutionary studies for understanding how O3 tolerance develops in urban environments, and how this knowledge could contribute to forest restoration.

Scalable semidefinite programming approach to variational embedding for quantum many-body problems

In quantum embedding theories, a quantum many-body system is divided into localized clusters of sites which are treated with an accurate ‘high-level’ theory and glued together self-consistently by a less accurate ‘low-level’ theory at the global scale. The recently introduced variational embedding approach for quantum many-body problems combines the insights of semidefinite relaxation and quantum embedding theory to provide a lower bound on the ground-state energy that improves as the cluster size is increased. The variational embedding method is formulated as a semidefinite program (SDP), which can suffer from poor computational scaling when treated with black-box solvers. We exploit the interpretation of this SDP as an embedding method to develop an algorithm which alternates parallelizable local updates of the high-level quantities with updates that enforce the low-level global constraints. Moreover, we show how translation invariance in lattice systems can be exploited to reduce the complexity of projecting a key matrix to the positive semidefinite cone.

Penalized Flow Hypergraph Local Clustering

Penalized Flow Hypergraph Local Clustering