Animal models of retinal degeneration are critical for understanding disease and testing potential therapies. Inducing degeneration commonly involves the administration of chemicals that kill photoreceptors by disrupting metabolic pathways, signaling pathways, or protein synthesis. While chemically induced degeneration has been demonstrated in a variety of animals (mice, rats, rabbits, felines, 13-lined ground squirrels (13-LGS), pigs, chicks), few studies have used noninvasive high-resolution retinal imaging to monitor the in vivo cellular effects. Here, we used longitudinal scanning light ophthalmoscopy (SLO), optical coherence tomography, and adaptive optics SLO imaging in the euthermic, cone-dominant 13-LGS (46 animals, 52 eyes) to examine retinal structure following intravitreal injections of chemicals, which were previously shown to induce photoreceptor degeneration, throughout the active season of 2019 and 2020. We found that iodoacetic acid induced severe pan-retinal damage in all but one eye, which received the lowest concentration. While sodium nitroprusside successfully induced degeneration of the outer retinal layers, the results were variable, and damage was also observed in 50% of contralateral control eyes. Adenosine triphosphate and tunicamycin induced outer retinal specific damage with varying results, while eyes injected with thapsigargin did not show signs of degeneration. Given the variability of damage we observed, follow-up studies examining the possible physiological origins of this variability are critical. These additional studies should further advance the utility of chemically induced photoreceptor degeneration models in the cone-dominant 13-LGS.

Given a countable group G and a G-flow X, a probability measure $\mu $ on X is called characteristic if it is $\mathrm {Aut}(X, G)$-invariant. Frisch and Tamuz asked about the existence of a minimal G-flow, for any group G, which does not admit a characteristic measure. We construct for every countable group G such a minimal flow. Along the way, we are motivated to consider a family of questions we refer to as minimal subdynamics: Given a countable group G and a collection of infinite subgroups $\{\Delta _i: i\in I\}$, when is there a faithful G-flow for which every $\Delta _i$ acts minimally?

Taxonomic intricacies and high interspecific similarity have hampered the identification of scyllarid phyllosoma larvae to the species level. The pygmy locust lobster, Scyllarus pygmaeus, is distributed across the Mediterranean Sea and in the eastern Atlantic; however, its phyllosoma larvae were previously recorded only from the western Mediterranean. We employed DNA barcoding using the mitochondrial COI gene to identify S. pygmaeus phyllosoma collected from the offshore waters of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea and described its morphology. We further discuss the lack of genetic structure in S. pygmaeus with potential implications for species connectivity and conservation.

This study aims to develop a multidisciplinary artificial hybrid machine learning (AHML) approach to reduce the scanning time (ST) of the human wrist and improve the accuracy of 3D scanning for anthropometric data collection. A systematic AHML approach was deployed to scan the human wrist distal end optimally using a portable SENSE 2.0 3D scanner. A central composite design (CCD) matrix was developed for three input variables; light intensity (LI = 12–20 W/m2), capture angle (CA = 10°–50°), and scanning distance (SD = 10–20 inches) for executing the experimental runs. For accuracy evaluation, the wrist perimeter on the distal end was checked using CREO Parametric software for wrist perimeter error (WPE). Various AHML tools were developed using: response surface methodology (RSM), multi-objective genetic algorithm RSM, and multi-objective genetic algorithm neural networking (MOGANN). The optimal process parameters recommended by the hybrid tools were experimentally validated for their prediction accuracy. The MOGANN approach combined with the Bayesian regularization algorithm (trainabr) provided the best mutual combination of optimal ST = 20.072 sec and WPE = 0.375 cm corresponding to LI = 12.001 W/m2, CA = 29.428°, and SD = 18.214 inch, with a significant percentage reduction of 55.83% in WPE. Executing 3D scanning of the human wrist over the optimized process parameters predicted by AHML tools will ensure the availability of precise scans for the rapid prototyping of customized orthotic devices in a reliable manner.

Normally, the reported gain of the microstrip patch antenna is within 8 dBi. Using properly located three shorting pins on three bisectors, the present work reports a method to convert the non-radiating TM11 mode of equilateral triangular patch antennas (ETPAs) to a deformed TM11 radiating mode. The boresight gain of ETPA operating in TM11 mode is enhanced from −10.75 to 12.1 dBi at 5.43 GHz. The boresight measured gain is further enhanced to 14.2 dBi at 5.52 GHz by using a triangular surface-mounted short horn (SMSH) of about ${{\lambda }}/5$ height. The aperture efficiency of the ETPA with the shorting pins is 84.2%. The aperture efficiency is further improved to 94.2% using the SMSH. The measured boresight cross-polarization and side-lobe level are −40 and −29 dB, respectively. The nature of the electricfield and surface current distribution is analyzed, using both the characteristic mode analysis method and high-frequency structure simulator, to understand the role of shorting pin and coaxial feed in converting the non-radiating TM11 mode to the radiating mode. A systematic design process also is presented for a fast design of shorting pin-loaded ETPA on the suitable substrate at a specified frequency.

In this paper, we study the $(s, C(s))$-Harnack inequality in a domain $G\subset \mathbb {R}^n$ for $s\in (0,1)$ and $C(s)\geq 1$ and present a series of inequalities related to $(s, C(s))$-Harnack functions and the Harnack metric. We also investigate the behavior of the Harnack metric under K-quasiconformal and K-quasiregular mappings, where $K\geq 1$. Finally, we provide a type of harmonic Schwarz lemma and improve the Schwarz–Pick estimate for a real-valued harmonic function.

The Maastricht Formation is a mostly calcarenitic unit that belongs to the Chalk Group but is unlike the typical North Sea chalk in that it is much coarser and at times contains a significant terrigenous component. The formation was deposited between the late Maastrichtian and the early Danian in a proximal zone of the Chalk Sea immediately north of the Anglo-Brabant and Rhenish massifs. The formation crops out in South Limburg, the Netherlands, in the German state of North Rhine–Westphalia, near Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), and in the Belgian provinces of Liège and Limburg, and it is present in the subsurface in the Campine Basin and in the Roer Valley Graben, in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The often spectacular fossil content of the Maastricht Formation has been extensively studied but its sedimentological aspects remain understudied. Indeed, the lithostratigraphy of the formation is largely informal and based on the abundance and morphology of flint and on the quantification of fossil content. The paucity of facies studies and the lack of a lithostratigraphic framework based on modern facies studies hampers stratigraphic correlation between outcrops and, more importantly, boreholes. A facies characterisation and facies-based lithostratigraphic framework of the Maastricht Formation in South Limburg is particularly urgent because groundwater is abstracted from aquifers in the formation and geological models currently in place fail to predict facies heterogeneity and, consequently, aquifer properties.

We studied eight outcrops of the Maastricht Formation across South Limburg and carried out a (micro)facies analysis of the outcrops. We show that the Maastricht Formation can be subdivided into three lithofacies and five microfacies. The lithofacies reflect the traditional subdivision of the formation into Maastricht and Kunrade limestones. Our results suggest that the current subdivision of the Maastricht Formation into six members is untenable. The formation is best subdivided into lower and upper members. The Kunrade limestone should be afforded the status of formation.

We interpret the Maastricht Formation as having been deposited in an epeiric ramp, in which facies distribution was controlled by water temperature, nutrient levels and storminess. The (micro)facies of the Maastricht Formation can be organised into two depositional stages: stage 1, representing the lower part of the formation, is characterised by heterozoan carbonates deposited under cooler, mesotrophic conditions in a nutrient-rich, more proximal region of the epeiric sea; stage 2 is characterised by heterozoan-photozoan carbonates deposited in a warmer and stormier environment with slightly lower nutrient levels.

In this paper, a hybrid approach organized in four phases is proposed to solve the multi-objective trajectory planning problem for industrial robots. In the first phase, a transcription of the original problem into a standard multi-objective parametric optimization problem is achieved by adopting an adequate parametrization scheme for the continuous robot configuration variables. Then, in the second phase, a global search is performed using a population-based search metaheuristic in order to build a first approximation of the Pareto front (PF). In the third phase, a local search is applied in the neighborhood of each solution of the PF approximation using a deterministic algorithm in order to generate new solutions. Finally, in the fourth phase, results of the global and local searches are gathered and postprocessed using a multi-objective direct search method to enhance the quality of compromise solutions and to converge toward the true optimal PF. By combining different optimization techniques, we intend not only to improve the overall search mechanism of the optimization strategy but also the resulting hybrid algorithm should keep the robustness of the population-based algorithm while enjoying the theoretical properties of convergence of the deterministic component. Also, the proposed approach is modular and flexible, and it can be implemented in different ways according to the applied techniques in the different phases. In this paper, we illustrate the efficiency of the hybrid framework by considering different techniques available in various numerical optimization libraries which are combined judiciously and tested on various case studies.

Considerable efforts have been devoted to the understanding of the small-scale characteristics in turbulent flows. While the universality of small-scale quantities has been established for incompressible flows, their extension to high-pressure transcritical flows remains an open area of research. To address this question, we investigate the real-fluid thermodynamic effects on small-scale velocity statistics of high-pressure transcritical wall-bounded turbulence. We show that in the locally isotropic region for transcritical flows, low-order moments of small-scale statistics collapse for all cases and Kolmogorov's (1941) theory holds. However, real-fluid thermodynamic effects introduce deviations in the tails of the probability density function for the velocity derivative and, consequently, high-order moments of velocity gradients and dissipation rate in transcritical flows cannot collapse in the locally isotropic region. Analysis of the intermittency shows that the low-order structure functions in transcritical flows follow extended self-similarity, while the dependence of the intermittency factor on real-fluid effects is observed for high-order structure functions. The real-fluid effects on intermittency are explained by turbulent structures related to rare events. Additionally, the dissipation rate moments for transcritical flows follow a universal scaling with Reynolds number, and the scaling exponents are different from those of incompressible flows. These results extend the small-scale universality in incompressible flows (Schumacher et al., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 111, 2014, pp. 10961–10965) to realistic flows with significant changes in thermodynamic properties, and provide a physical underpinning of the scaling laws of small-scale statistics at transcritical conditions.

In this paper, we prove that the bound

\begin{equation*}\max \{ |8A-7A|,|5f(A)-4f(A)| \} \gg |A|^{\frac{3}{2} + \frac{1}{54}}\end{equation*}

$A \subset \mathbb R$

\begin{equation*}\max \{ |16A|, |A^{(16)}| \} \gg |A|^{\frac{3}{2} + c},\end{equation*}

$c\gt 0$

$\mathbb R$

$3/2$

\begin{equation*}|AA| \leq K|A| \implies \,\forall d \in \mathbb R \setminus \{0 \}, \,\, |\{(a,b) \in A \times A : a-b=d \}| \ll K^C |A|^{\frac{2}{3}-c^{\prime}},\end{equation*}

$c,C \gt 0$

The aim of this article is to propose a new neural machine translation (NMT) evaluation method based on the non-inferiority principle. In order to do that, we evaluate raw machine translation (MT) in terms of naturalness, which for this research is defined as not just the lack of fluency errors but also meeting the linguistic expectations of Galician end users when reading original texts in Galician. Our main objective is, in the first place, to validate the new methodology presented in our previous study by evaluating an NMT engine from Spanish into Galician for the social media domain that was retrained with a new Twitter corpus. This new methodology and NMT engine were applied after analyzing the conclusions of a pilot survey conducted among Twitter users to evaluate their perception of tweets translated from Spanish into Galician with our NMT engine created with a corpus of tweets. As in our preliminary study, our aim is to propose a robust quality approximation method based on the reception parameters of end users’ perceptions. This new survey was conducted in December of 2022 with the participation of 228 Galician-speaking Twitter users. Among the main changes proposed are the inclusion of more information about the participant profile, so the non-inferiority principle can be also evaluated according to these parameters; the inclusion of a new typology of tweets, the threads; the provision of context by means of presenting the tweets in their original display as shown in the Twitter app; a change in the number of tweets evaluated and the number of different questionnaires; the change in the distribution of the questionnaires; and the inclusion of an error classification human evaluation conducted by professional linguists to correlate the findings. We will present the steps carried out following the conclusions of the pilot study, describe the new study’s design, analyze the new findings, and present the final conclusions regarding the engine and the evaluation method based on the non-inferiority principle. Finally, we will also provide some examples of the use of this new methodology in the translation industry.

The spontaneous formation of zonal jets is a distinctive feature of geostrophic turbulence with the phenomenon witnessed in numerous numerical studies. In such systems, strong rotation anisotropises the spectral evolution of the energy density such that zonal modes are favoured. In physical space, this manifests as eddies zonally elongating and forming into zonal jets. In the presence of large scale dissipation, the flow may reach statistical stationarity such that the zonal structure persists in the zonal and time mean, and is supported by a flux of eddy momentum. What is unclear is how the excitation of Rossby waves arranges the underlying eddy momentum stresses to support the mean flow structures. To study this, we examine a steady-state flow in the so-called ‘zonostrophic’ regime, in which characteristic scales of geostrophic turbulence are well separated and there are several alternating zonal jets that have formed spontaneously. We apply a geometric eddy ellipse formulation, in which momentum fluxes are cast as ellipses that encode information about the magnitude and direction of flux; the latter is described using the tilt angle. With the aid of a zonal filter, it is revealed that the scales responsible for providing the momentum fluxes associated with the jet structure are much smaller than the characteristic scales identified, and occupy a region of the energy spectrum that has been typically associated with isotropic dynamics.

We introduce the concept of extrinsic catenary in the hyperbolic plane. Working in the hyperboloid model, we define an extrinsic catenary as the shape of a curve hanging under its weight as seen from the ambient space. In other words, an extrinsic catenary is a critical point of the potential functional, where we calculate the potential with the extrinsic distance to a fixed reference plane in the ambient Lorentzian space. We then characterize extrinsic catenaries in terms of their curvature and as a solution to a prescribed curvature problem involving certain vector fields. In addition, we prove that the generating curve of any minimal surface of revolution in the hyperbolic space is an extrinsic catenary with respect to an appropriate reference plane. Finally, we prove that one of the families of extrinsic catenaries admits an intrinsic characterization if we replace the extrinsic distance with the intrinsic length of horocycles orthogonal to a reference geodesic.

Ultrafast optical probing is a widely used method of underdense plasma diagnostic. In relativistic plasma, the motion blur limits spatial resolution in the direction of motion. For many high-power lasers the initial pulse duration of 30–50 fs results in a 10–15 μm motion blur, which can be reduced by probe pulse post-compression. Here we used the compression after compressor approach [Phys.-Usp. 62, 1096 (2019); JINST 17 P07035 (2022)], where spectral broadening is performed in thin optical plates and is followed by reflections from negative-dispersion mirrors. Our initially low-intensity probe beam was down-collimated for a more efficient spectral broadening and higher probe-to-self-emission intensity ratio. The setup is compact, fits in a vacuum chamber and can be implemented within a short experimental time slot. We proved that the compressed pulse retained the high quality necessary for plasma probing.