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The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint UKCEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services.

Herbaceous vegetation are critical for life in the world. There are many special sorts of plant life and their variety will increase every 12 months. Knowledge of various species is important in groups such as foresters, farmers, ecologists and educators. Species identification is therefore of intermediate interest. However, this requires professional know-how and may be tough and hard for non-specialists who've very little knowledge of traditional botanical terminology. But advances in device studying and computer vision can help make this assignment exceedingly clean. No system is but advanced enough to pick out all plant species, but a few works has been finished. In any take a look at we've got made such a try. Vegetation identification commonly includes four steps: picture acquisition, preprocessing, function extraction, and segmentation. This takes a look at used photos from the Swedish Leaflet dataset, which includes 1125 photos of 15 distinct species. This is accompanied with the aid of preprocessing the usage of a Gaussian filtering engine, and then texture and colour features are extracted. Finally, the category become executed using convolutional neural networks, which accomplished nearly 95.26% accuracy, and we purpose for similarly development.

The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is responsible for overall shoot growth by generating all aboveground structures. Recent research has revealed that the SAM displays an autonomous heat stress (HS) memory of a previous non-lethal HS event. Considering the importance of the SAM for plant growth, it is essential to determine how its thermomemory is mechanistically controlled. Here, we report that HEAT SHOCK TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR A7b (HSFA7b) plays a crucial role in this process in Arabidopsis, as the absence of functional HSFA7b results in the temporal suppression of SAM activity after thermopriming. We found that HSFA7b directly regulates ethylene response at the SAM by binding to the promoter of the key ethylene signaling gene ETHYLENE-INSENSITIVE 3 to establish thermotolerance. Moreover, we demonstrated that HSFA7b regulates the expression of ETHYLENE OVERPRODUCER 1 (ETO1) and ETO1-LIKE 1, both of which encode ethylene biosynthesis repressors, thereby ensuring ethylene homeostasis at the SAM. Taken together, these results reveal a crucial and tissue-specific role for HSFA7b in thermomemory at the Arabidopsis SAM.

We present the semi-analytical light curve modelling of 13 supernovae associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRB-SNe) along with two relativistic broad-lined (Ic-BL) SNe without GRBs association (SNe 2009bb and 2012ap), considering millisecond magnetars as central-engine-based power sources for these events. The bolometric light curves of all 15 SNe in our sample are well-regenerated utilising a $\chi^2-$minimisation code, $\texttt{MINIM}$, and numerous parameters are constrained. The median values of ejecta mass ($M_{\textrm{ej}}$), magnetar's initial spin period ($P_\textrm{i}$) and magnetic field ($B$) for GRB-SNe are determined to be $\approx$ 5.2 M$_\odot$, 20.5 ms and 20.1 $\times$ 10$^{14}$ G, respectively. We leverage machine learning (ML) algorithms to comprehensively compare the 3-dimensional parameter space encompassing $M_{\textrm{ej}}$, $P_\textrm{i}$, and $B$ for GRB-SNe determined herein to those of H-deficient superluminous SNe (SLSNe-I), fast blue optical transients (FBOTs), long GRBs (LGRBs), and short GRBs (SGRBs) obtained from the literature. The application of unsupervised ML clustering algorithms on the parameters $M_{\textrm{ej}}$, $P_\textrm{i}$, and $B$ for GRB-SNe, SLSNe-I, and FBOTs yields a classification accuracy of $\sim$95%. Extending these methods to classify GRB-SNe, SLSNe-I, LGRBs, and SGRBs based on $P_\textrm{i}$ and $B$ values results in an accuracy of $\sim$84%. Our investigations show that GRB-SNe and relativistic Ic-BL SNe presented in this study occupy different parameter spaces for $M_{\textrm{ej}}$, $P_\textrm{i}$, and $B$ than those of SLSNe-I, FBOTs, LGRBs and SGRBs. This indicates that magnetars with different $P_\textrm{i}$ and $B$ can give birth to distinct types of transients., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, and 3 tables (including appendix). Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space mission to explore the Sun and solar atmosphere with seven multi-wavelength payloads, with Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) being the prime payload. It is an internally occulted coronagraph with four channels to image the Sun at 5000 \AA~ in the field of view 1.05 - 3 \rsun, and to pursue spectroscopy at 5303 \AA, 7892 \AA~ and 10747 \AA~ channels in the FOV (1.05 - 1.5 \rsun). In addition, spectropolarimetry is planned at 10747 \AA~ channel. Therefore, VELC has three sCMOS detectors and one InGaAs detector. In this article, we aim to describe the technical details and specifications of the detectors achieved by way of thermo-vacuum calibration at the CREST campus of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India. Furthermore, we report the estimated conversion gain, full-well capacity, and readout noise at different temperatures. Based on the numbers, it is thus concluded that it is essential to operate the sCMOS detectors and InGaAs detectors at $-5^{\circ}$ and $-17^{\circ}$ C, respectively, at the spacecraft level., Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy; 13 Pages, 5 Figures and 8 Tables

We present an optical photometric and spectroscopic analysis of the fast-declining hydrogen-rich Type II supernova (SN) 2019nyk. The light curve properties of SN 2019nyk align well with those of other fast-declining Type II SNe, such as SNe 2013by and 2014G. SN 2019nyk exhibits a peak absolute magnitude of -18.09 $\pm$ 0.17 mag in the V band, followed by a rapid decline at 2.84 $\pm$ 0.03 mag (100 d)$^{-1}$ during the recombination phase. The early spectra of SN 2019nyk exhibit high-ionisation emission features as well as narrow H Balmer lines, persisting until 4.1 d since explosion, indicating the presence of circumstellar material (CSM) in close proximity. A comparison of these features with other Type II SNe displaying an early interaction reveals similarities between these features and those observed in SNe 2014G and 2023ixf. We also compared the early spectra to literature models, estimating a mass-loss rate of the order of 10$^{-3}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Radiation hydrodynamical modelling of the light curve also suggests the mass loss from the progenitor within a short period prior to explosion, totalling 0.16 M$_\odot$ of material within 2900 R$_\odot$ of the progenitor. Furthermore, light curve modelling infers a zero-age main sequence mass of 15 M$_\odot$ for the progenitor, a progenitor radius of 1031 R$_\odot$, and an explosion energy of 1.1 $\times$ 10$^{51}$ erg., Comment: 18 pages, 23 figures, accepted in A&A

The outlook for February is for normal to above normal flows, and normal to exceptionally high groundwater levels to be seen across northern and eastern parts of the UK. Flows in south-western Britain and Northern Ireland are likely to be normal to below normal for February. This pattern is likely to persist for river flows over the next three months, whilst groundwater levels are likely to recess to be normal to above normal, with some normal to below normal exceptions.

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint UKCEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services.

We consider the capacitated clustering problem in general metric spaces where the goal is to identify $k$ clusters and minimize the sum of the radii of the clusters (we call this the Capacitated-$k$-sumRadii problem). We are interested in fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) approximation algorithms where the running time is of the form $f(k) \cdot \text{poly}(n)$, where $f(k)$ can be an exponential function of $k$ and $n$ is the number of points in the input. In the uniform capacity case, Bandyapadhyay et al. recently gave a $4$-approximation algorithm for this problem. Our first result improves this to an FPT $3$-approximation and extends to a constant factor approximation for any $L_p$ norm of the cluster radii. In the general capacities version, Bandyapadhyay et al. gave an FPT $15$-approximation algorithm. We extend their framework to give an FPT $(4 + \sqrt{13})$-approximation algorithm for this problem. Our framework relies on a novel idea of identifying approximations to optimal clusters by carefully pruning points from an initial candidate set of points. This is in contrast to prior results that rely on guessing suitable points and building balls of appropriate radii around them. On the hardness front, we show that assuming the Exponential Time Hypothesis, there is a constant $c > 1$ such that any $c$-approximation algorithm for the non-uniform capacity version of this problem requires running time $2^{\Omega \left(\frac{k}{polylog(k)} \right)}$.

Background: Elders are having balance issues with the increasing age, it become matter of concern to avoid injuries. Computerized simulation provides and assist elders for improving balance and developing confidence in elder’s person. The Patients are taking conventional exercises in group and individual show difference too. In this study, we compare the effect of Computerized simulation with conventional exercise for improving balance and confidence of elder person. Aim: Comparison of Computerized simulation versus Conventional Exercises in Elder patient in order to Increase balance and Confidence. Methodology: From Aashirwad centre,60 Patients are selected for the study. Inclusion Criteria: Community dwelling person. Physical activity of 30 minutes and normal vision. Research design: Randomized Repeated Measure. Age:60-80 years age old person. Exclusion Criteria: 1. Circulatory Disorders, 2. Orthopedic Disorder, 3. Neurological Disorders. Result: In this study shows p<0.05 means in Group A showing significant improvement after computerized simulation. Conclusions: Computerized simulation improves balance and confidence compare to conventional exercises in elder persons.

Enterprises grapple with the significant challenge of managing proprietary unstructured data, hindering efficient information retrieval. This has led to the emergence of AI-driven information retrieval solutions, designed to adeptly extract relevant insights to address employee inquiries. These solutions often leverage pre-trained embedding models and generative models as foundational components. While pre-trained embeddings may exhibit proximity or disparity based on their original training objectives, they might not fully align with the unique characteristics of enterprise-specific data, leading to suboptimal alignment with the retrieval goals of enterprise environments. In this paper, we propose a methodology to fine-tune pre-trained embedding models specifically for enterprise environments. By adapting the embeddings to better suit the retrieval tasks prevalent in enterprises, we aim to enhance the performance of information retrieval solutions. We discuss the process of fine-tuning, its effect on retrieval accuracy, and the potential benefits for enterprise information management. Our findings demonstrate the efficacy of fine-tuned embedding models in improving the precision and relevance of search results in enterprise settings.

This paper presents a numerical investigation into the phenomenon of flame spread over thin circular ducts in normal gravity and microgravity environments. Flame spread over such geometry is of significant interest due to its relevance in various practical applications, including tubes for flow purpose in medical system, fire safety in spacecrafts, ducts as well as wiring tubes. This study comprises of a comprehensive investigation of key parameters affecting flame spread rate, including fuel radius and opposed flow speed in normal gravity and microgravity environments. A 2-D axisymmetric flame spread model accounted for char and numerical simulations were performed which revealed valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms governing flame spread over such geometry. The results computed from the numerical model is compared with the experimentally observed flame spread rate to validate the numerical model which can be used to gain a comprehensive understanding of the underlying physical phenomena. As the radius of circular duct increases the flame spread rate increases both in normal gravity and microgravity environments. The conduction heat feedback and radiation heat gain coming from hot char through gas phase at inner core region are the two major mechanisms which controls the flame spread phenomena over the circular duct fuels. The flame spread rate at different flow ranging from quiescent (0 cm/s) to 30 cm/s is also evaluated and 21 % oxygen and found a non-monotonic increasing decreasing trend of flame spread rate at different opposed flow speed in both normal gravity and microgravity environments., Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures

The design and selection of ideal emitter discharge rates can be aided by accurate information regarding the wetted soil pattern under surface drip irrigation. The current field investigation was conducted in an apple orchard in SKUAST- Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, a Union Territory of India, during 2017–2019. The objective of the experiment was to examine the movement of moisture over time and assess the extent of wetting in both horizontal and vertical directions under point source drip irrigation with discharge rates of 2, 4, and 8 L h−1. At 30, 60, and 120 min since the beginning of irrigation, a soil pit was dug across the length of the wetted area on the surface in order to measure the wetting pattern. For measuring the soil moisture movement and wetted soil width and depth, three replicas of soil samples were collected according to the treatment and the average value were considered. As a result, 54 different experiments were conducted, resulting in the digging of pits [3 emitter discharge rates × 3 application times × 3 replications × 2 (after application and 24 after application)]. This study utilized the Drip-Irriwater model to evaluate and validate the accuracy of predictions of wetting fronts and soil moisture dynamics in both orientations. Results showed that the modeled values were very close to the actual field values, with a mean absolute error of 0.018, a mean bias error of 0.0005, a mean absolute percentage error of 7.3, a root mean square error of 0.023, a Pearson coefficient of 0.951, a coefficient of correlation of 0.918, and a Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient of 0.887. The wetted width just after irrigation was measured at 14.65, 16.65, and 20.62 cm; 16.20, 20.25, and 23.90 cm; and 20.00, 24.50, and 28.81 cm in 2, 4, and 8 L h−1, at 30, 60, and 120 min, respectively, while the wetted depth was observed 13.10, 16.20, and 20.44 cm; 15.10, 21.50, and 26.00 cm; 19.40, 25.00, and 31.00 cm, respectively. As the flow rate from the emitter in, Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-09-12 (hanlid);Funder: Deanship of Scientifc Research, King Saud University

Understanding the modification of jets and high-$p_T$ probes in small systems requires the integration of soft and hard physics. We present recent developments in extending the JETSCAPE framework to build an event generator, which includes correlations between soft and hard partons, to study jet observables in small systems. The multi-scale physics of the collision is separated into different stages. Hard scatterings are first sampled at binary collision positions provided by the Glauber geometry. They are then propagated backward in space-time following an initial-state shower to obtain the initiating partons' energies and momenta before the collision. These energies and momenta are then subtracted from the incoming colliding nucleons for soft-particle production, modeled by the 3D-Glauber + hydrodynamics + hadronic transport framework. This new hybrid approach (X-SCAPE) includes non-trivial correlations between jet and soft particle productions in small systems. We calibrate this framework with the final state hadrons' $p_T$-spectra from low to high $p_T$ in $p$-$p$, and and then compare with the spectra in $p$-$Pb$ collisions from the LHC. We also present results for additional observables such as the distributions of event activity as a function of the hardest jet $p_T$ in forward and mid-rapidity for both $p$-$p$ and $p$-$Pb$ collisions., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of Hard Probes 2023, 26-31 March 2023 Aschaffenburg, Germany

The leading jet transport coefficients $\hat{q}$ or $\hat{e}_{2}$ encode transverse or longitudinal momentum broadening of a hard parton traversing a hot medium. Understanding their temperature dependence is key to appreciating the observed suppression of high-transverse momentum probes at RHIC or LHC collision energies. We present a first continuum extrapolated result of $\hat{q}$ computed on pure SU(3) lattices with non-trivial temperature dependence different from the weak-coupling expectation. We discuss our formalism and its challenges and status in view of obtaining $\hat{e}_{2}$ or of unquenching the calculation. We consider a hard quark subject to a single scattering on the plasma. The transport coefficients are factorized in terms of matrix elements given as integrals of non-local gauge-covariant gluon field-strength field-strength correlators. After the analytic continuation to the deep-Euclidean region, the hard scale permits to recast these as a series of local, gauge-invariant operators. The renormalized leading-twist term in this expansion is closely related to static quantities, and is computed on pure SU(3) lattices ($N_{\tau}=4,~6,~8,$ and $10$) for a wide range of temperatures, ranging from 200MeV < T < 1GeV. Our estimate for the unquenched result in $2+1$-flavor QCD has very similar features., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, HardProbes2023, 26-31 March 2023, Aschaffenburg, Germany

The design and selection of ideal emitter discharge rates can be aided by accurate information regarding the wetted soil pattern under surface drip irrigation. The current field investigation was conducted in an apple orchard in SKUAST- Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, a Union Territory of India, during 2017–2019. The objective of the experiment was to examine the movement of moisture over time and assess the extent of wetting in both horizontal and vertical directions under point source drip irrigation with discharge rates of 2, 4, and 8 L h−1. At 30, 60, and 120 min since the beginning of irrigation, a soil pit was dug across the length of the wetted area on the surface in order to measure the wetting pattern. For measuring the soil moisture movement and wetted soil width and depth, three replicas of soil samples were collected according to the treatment and the average value were considered. As a result, 54 different experiments were conducted, resulting in the digging of pits [3 emitter discharge rates × 3 application times × 3 replications × 2 (after application and 24 after application)]. This study utilized the Drip-Irriwater model to evaluate and validate the accuracy of predictions of wetting fronts and soil moisture dynamics in both orientations. Results showed that the modeled values were very close to the actual field values, with a mean absolute error of 0.018, a mean bias error of 0.0005, a mean absolute percentage error of 7.3, a root mean square error of 0.023, a Pearson coefficient of 0.951, a coefficient of correlation of 0.918, and a Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient of 0.887. The wetted width just after irrigation was measured at 14.65, 16.65, and 20.62 cm; 16.20, 20.25, and 23.90 cm; and 20.00, 24.50, and 28.81 cm in 2, 4, and 8 L h−1, at 30, 60, and 120 min, respectively, while the wetted depth was observed 13.10, 16.20, and 20.44 cm; 15.10, 21.50, and 26.00 cm; 19.40, 25.00, and 31.00 cm, respectively. As the flow rate from the emitter in, Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-09-12 (hanlid);Funder: Deanship of Scientifc Research, King Saud University

Spitting in public places is a significant factor in spreading contagious diseases such as viral meningitis, hepatitis, and cytomegalovirus among humans. A recent study found that the novel Coronavirus is also spread via the spit of an infected person. 91.7% of patients have covid-19 detected in self-collected saliva. Many countries have emphasized stopping people from spitting in open or public places such as hospitals, parks, airports, railway stations, etc. The Coronavirus will be deactivated within one minute when it will expose to 353 K temperature. Direct concentrated sunlight has high-intensity UV rays that break down the DNA of Coronavirus and significantly reduce the spread of infection by spitting on infected persons in public places. In this regard, the present work is an attempt to design and construct a solar concentrating spittoon. This spittoon can burn spitted saliva of a person within a minute. It can generate 390 k temperature and 176 watts of heat at its receiver. At this temperature, most viruses (including Coronavirus), bacteria, and pathogens are killed or lose their ability to disease transmission. The results show that the solar concentrating spittoon performs effectively from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm daily. During this period, most people spend their time outside, such as in the park, bus stand, hospital, etc., where this solar concentrating spittoon incinerates human cough and spit within a minute. The efficiency of the solar-concentrating spittoon reached its peak for a duration of nine hours. The thermal efficiency of the receiver was found to be 80 percent, with 20 percent of the heat being dissipated to the nearby environment. It was revealed that the total efficiency was about 70 percent. Installation of this solar concentrating spittoon will help prevent the transmission of deadly contagious diseases among humans and clean the city.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the profitability and future viability of LGBI Airport Guwahati in terms of sources of revenue from traffic & non-traffic modes by identifying the factors that influence the traffic (aeronautical) revenue and non-tariff (non aeronautical) revenue. Theoretical Framework: The study followed economical concepts related to traffic and non-traffic assets that exist on an airport. The theoretical framework reveals the revenue model. It is essential to declare the profitability and competitiveness of an Airport whether operating under single till approach or Dual till approach or hybrid one. Design/Methodology/Approach: The systematic literature review is based on an exploratory research design following a quantitative study, from a list of 12-15 research and review papers relevant to the purpose of the study. The data extraction from the sorted literature is done through linear regression using SPSS software. Research, Practical & Social Implication: Certain initiatives may directly influence Non-Aero income. Except for significant airports like DIAL, MIAL, BIAL, and HIAL, the ratio of traffic to non-traffic income at Indian airports is 25/75.Also the implications drawn from this study would help the airport managers to develop innovative strategies to improve the revenues via both, traffic and non-traffic modes. Findings: The researcher used Factor analysis, Linear regression and Principal component analysis. The analysis identified negative and positive factors that affect tariff and non-tariff revenues separately.Regression analysis revealed significant determinants that have influence on the profitability..Using the results, managing the variables to maximize total income and controlling variables may increase income. Originality/Value: This academic article is a research work highlighting the comprehensive revenue sources in the LGBI airport, Guwahati.

The evaluation of different mango varieties was conducted during 2019-20 and 2020-21. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design (RBD) with four varieties, namely, Ambika, Pusa Arunima, Kesar, and Dashehari-51, each replicated three times. The plants were spaced at 4x4 m intervals. The results obtained demonstrated significant variations in various parameters, ranging from minimum to maximum values. The canopy spread ranged from 1.77 to 7.49 m, stem girth from 16.67 to 40 cm, number of fruits per plant from 21 to 118, fruit length from 92.04 to 123.28 mm, fruit width from 56.02 to 77.41 mm, and fruit weight from 202 to 591 g. However, the number of primary branches (2-3) and plant height (1.54-4.35 m) were found to be nonsignificant. Based on the morpho-economic traits, Pusa Arunima appeared to be a superior variety in terms of tree morpho-economic traits, while others were considered moderate. Considering the average number of fruits per plant and fruit weight (g) over a two-year period, Pusa Arunima clearly outperformed the other three varieties in terms of yield. Furthermore, Pusa Arunima, Kesar, and Ambika exhibited more marketable fruit traits. These findings emphasize the significant diversity among the examined mango cultivars. Therefore, it is crucial to protect and preserve these valuable genetic resources for future breeding programs aimed at developing novel and commercially viable cultivars.

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint UKCEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services.

The Hydrological Outlook provides an insight into future hydrological conditions across the UK. Specifically, it describes likely trajectories for river flows and groundwater levels on a monthly basis, with a particular focus on the next three months. Well established monitoring programmes provide the current status of both river flows and groundwater levels at many sites across the UK, and data from these programmes provide the starting point for the Outlook. A number of techniques are used to project forwards from the current state and results from these are used to produce a summary that includes a highlights map.

The capacity of aquifers to store water and the stability of infrastructure can each be adversely influenced by variations in groundwater levels and subsequent land subsidence. Along the south bank of the River Thames, the Battersea neighbourhood of London is renovating a vast 42-acre (over 8 million sq ft) former industrial brownfield site to become host to a community of homes, shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, offices, and over 19 acres of public space. For this renovation, between 2016 and 2020, a significant number of bearing piles and secant wall piles, with diameters ranging from 450 mm to 2000 mm and depths of up to 60 m, were erected inside the Battersea Power Station. Additionally, there was considerable groundwater removal that caused the water level to drop by 2.55 ± 0.4 m/year between 2016 and 2020, as shown by Environment Agency data. The study reported here used Sentinel-1 C-band radar images and the persistent scatterer interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PSInSAR) methodology to analyse the associated land movement for Battersea, London, during this period. The average land subsidence was found to occur at the rate of −6.8 ± 1.6 mm/year, which was attributed to large groundwater withdrawals and underground pile construction for the renovation work. Thus, this study underscores the critical interdependence between civil engineering construction, groundwater management, and land subsidence. It emphasises the need for holistic planning and sustainable development practices to mitigate the adverse effects of construction on groundwater resources and land stability. By considering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by the United Nations, particularly Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), city planners and stakeholders can proactively address these interrelated challenges.

In India, the economic losses incurred due to ticks and tick-borne diseases are estimated around 498.7 million US dollars. Among these diseases, anaplasmosis causes significant mortality and morbidity in animals, leading to significant production losses. However, only scant information on the molecular characterization, phylogenetic and matrix analysis of Anaplasma spp in cattle is available. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to perform phylogenetic and molecular characterization of field isolates of Anaplasma spp. infecting dairy animals in Uttar Pradesh, India. Blood samples from 200 cattle showing the clinical signs of bovine anaplasmosis were collected from the western part of Uttar Pradesh, India. To detect Anaplasma spp., screening of blood smears and molecular confirmation by PCR was performed. The molecular characterization was done by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene and its bioinformatic analysis using MEGA version X. On the basis of microscopic examination, Anaplasma spp. were detected in 106 (53%) samples, while the 16S rRNA gene-based polymerase chain reactions revealed positive results in 176 (88%). The sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and the bioinformatic analysis of sequences revealed the existence of three different populations of Anaplasma spp., viz., Anaplasma marginale and two other Anaplasma spp. genetically related to Anaplasma capra and Anaplasma ovis, circulating in the blood of infected cattle. All the field isolates of A. marginale and A. ovis from Uttar Pradesh, India, were clustered in a single clade with others isolated from Iran, Brazil, Thailand and Israel, while A. capra isolates from India, established in same clade of A. capra, have been reported from Japan, China and South Korea. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of Anaplasma capra and Anaplasma ovis from bovine in India, and indicates the potential of cattle to serve as reservoirs of these pathogens, leading to the requirement for further, Ekonomski gubici koje u Indiji uzrokuju krpelji i bolesti koje se prenose krpeljima procjenjuju se na oko 498,7 milijuna američkih dolara. Među tim je bolestima i anaplazmoza, koja uzrokuje znatnu smrtnost i pobol među životinjama, što vodi do velikih gubitaka u proizvodnji. S obzirom na oskudne podatke o molekularnoj karakterizaciji, filogenetskoj i matriksnoj analizi bakterije Anaplasma spp. u goveda, cilj je ovog rada bio dobiti znanstvene informacije iz navedenih područja istraživanja na terenskim izolatima Anaplasma spp. koja inficira mliječna goveda u zapadnom dijelu savezne države Uttar Pradesh u Indiji. Prikupljeni su uzorci krvi od 200 goveda koja su pokazivala kliničke znakove anaplozmoze. Za detekciju bakterije učinjena je analiza razmaza krvi i molekularna potvrda PCR-om. Karakterizacija izolata na molekularnoj razini provedena je sekvenciranjem gena 16S rRNA i njegovom bioinformatičkom analizom upotrebom MEGA verzije X. Mikroskopskim je pregledom Anaplasma spp. otkrivena u 106 uzoraka (53%), dok je PCR analizom gena 16S rRNA pozitivno bilo 176 uzoraka (88%). Sekvenciranje gena 16S rRNA i bioinformatička analiza slijedova otkrili su postojanje triju različitih populacija bakterije Anaplasma spp., i to Anaplasma marginale i dviju drugih anaplazmi genetski povezanih s vrstama Anaplasma capra i Anaplasma ovis koje cirkuliraju u krvi zaraženih goveda. Svi su terenski izolati bakterija A. marginale i A. ovis iz države Uttar Pradesh svrstani u jednu filogenetsku kladu zajedno s izolatima iz Irana, Brazila, Tajlanda i Izraela, dok su izolati A. capra iz Indije svrstani u kladu s A. capra iz Japana, Kine i Južne Koreje. Prema autorovim je saznanjima ovo prvo izvješće o vrsti Anaplasma capra i Anaplasma ovis u goveda u Indiji što upućuje na potencijal goveda da budu rezervoari ovih patogena. To pak upućuje na potrebu za daljnjim istraživanjima bakterije Anaplasma spp. s obzirom na njezinu emergenciju i zoonotski potencijal.

Education is one of the important needs of human life like food, cloth and house. It helps to develop and nourish overall human personality and socialization through physical and mental abilities. In similar manner, undergraduate courses play crucial role to built personnel and professional carrier in the world. Undergraduate courses such as B. Pharm. and B. Tech. (Biotechnology) are demanding in the present situation and are conducting by various government and private universities. According to the course curriculum of the universities, curriculum based industrial training for the undergraduate students are part of their courses. Therefore, the present study was designed, and conducted based on one month industrial training program for the undergraduate students by training department of Bharat Immunologicals & Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL), Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India as biopharmaceutical industry and also investigated for the effectiveness of the training program for students as participants belonging to the undergraduate courses from different academic institutions. Results of the study revealed that there was found significant impact of the designed and conducted training program on the participants through employing up-gradation in grade system A, B, C, & D after the successfully completion in BIBCOL as a bio-pharmaceutical industry.

Education is one of the important needs of human life like food, cloth and house. It helps to develop and nourish overall human personality and socialization through physical and mental abilities. In similar manner, undergraduate courses play crucial role to built personnel and professional carrier in the world. Undergraduate courses such as B. Pharm. and B. Tech. (Biotechnology) are demanding in the present situation and are conducting by various government and private universities. According to the course curriculum of the universities, curriculum based industrial training for the undergraduate students are part of their courses. Therefore, the present study was designed, and conducted based on one month industrial training program for the undergraduate students by training department of Bharat Immunologicals & Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL), Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India as biopharmaceutical industry and also investigated for the effectiveness of the training program for students as participants belonging to the undergraduate courses from different academic institutions. Results of the study revealed that there was found significant impact of the designed and conducted training program on the participants through employing up-gradation in grade system A, B, C, & D after the successfully completion in BIBCOL as a bio-pharmaceutical industry.

Among all cereals, oat is considered to be one of the goods consumed in functional grain, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical components. The review article aims to explore plant profile, phytochemical constituents present in different parts, and potential therapeutic agent which prevents people from different diseases with their respective mechanism of action it also includes toxicity studies, dosage form, marketed formulation, and industrial application. The information on Avena sativa is collected from the different databases available in Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar to search for research papers for literature and data. Reviewed information suggests that the A. Sativa is a good source of a range of phytochemicals including lignans, saponin, anthocyanidins, and avenanthramides, which might be directly and/or indirectly linked with beneficial nutraceutical and/or pharmacological effect(s). The review states, that A. sativa is a promising candidate as a functional and/or non-functional food because of various phytoconstituents. The clinical report has described that the utilization of oats can provide several health benefits. However, systematic rational investigations for such indications and safety profiles are yet to be explored.

ADITYA-L1 is India's first dedicated mission to observe the sun and its atmosphere from a halo orbit around L1 point. Visible emission line coronagraph (VELC) is the prime payload on board at Aditya-L1 to observe the sun's corona. VELC is designed as an internally occulted reflective coronagraph to meet the observational requirements of wide wavelength band and close to the solar limb (1.05 Ro). Images of the solar corona in continuum and spectra in three emission lines 5303{\AA} [Fe xiv], 7892{\AA} [Fe xi] and 10747 [Fe xiii] obtained with high cadence to be analyzed using software algorithms automatically. A reasonable part of observations will be made in synoptic mode, those, need to be analyzed and results made available for public use. The procedure involves the calibration of instrument and detectors, converting the images into fits format, correcting the images and spectra for the instrumental effects, align the images etc. Then, develop image processing algorithms to detect the occurrence of energetic events using continuum images. Also derive physical parameters, such as temperature and velocity structure of solar corona using emission line observations. Here, we describe the calibration of detectors and the development of software algorithms to detect the occurrence of CMEs and analyze the spectroscopic data.

The 4K$\times$4K CCD Imager is the first light instrument for the 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope and is producing broad-band imaging observations of many Galactic and extra-galactic sources since 2015-2016. Capabilities of the CCD Imager are demonstrated recently through several publications using the well-calibrated multi-band deep photometric results as expected from other similar facilities globally. In this article, we summarize some of the recent up-gradations made to improve the Imager, i.e., mounting the new filter wheel casing, replacing stray light baffles and discussing the fringe pattern corrections in redder filters. Some of the new science initiatives like galaxy-embedded faint point sources including WR stars and the observations of low surface brightness galaxy clusters are also discussed., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation, 20 pages, 17 figures and 2 tables

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint UKCEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services.

Apple is largely cultivated in India's northwestern Himalayan area, which also encompasses the nation's mountainous north-eastern regions as well as the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. This research was conducted during 2019-2020 and 2020-21 at Horticultural Research Centre, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) and the number of treatments was 3, each replicated 4 times. Each treatment consists of one plant. Total 12 plants were selected for study. The plants were planted at spacing of 5x5 m. The obtained results showed that the no. of fruits per plant (176.62), no. of branches per plant (28.5) was found to be significant. On the other side canopy spread (4.84 m), stem girth (33.87 cm), plant height (4.06 m), number of flowers (1020.75), fruit size (length) (57.12 mm), fruit size (width) (52.61 mm), fruit weight per fruit (76.62 gm), ), fruit weight (5 fruits) (383.12) were found to be non-significant. The results of present study indicate that the basis of their vegetative behavior, Dorsett Golden appeared to be superior variety in terms of tree morphology and other as moderate. Further, it can be concluded that variety Dorsett Golden had more productivity and the fruits of ANNA and HRMN-99 were having more marketable fruit traits. The current study revealed the diversity of the apple cultivars analysed in this experiment, highlighting the significance of safeguarding these precious genetic resources and pursuing additional study to ensure their conservation, exchange, and utilisation in upcoming breeding initiatives for the development of novel, improved apple varieties.

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint UKCEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services.

The Hydrological Outlook provides an insight into future hydrological conditions across the UK. Specifically, it describes likely trajectories for river flows and groundwater levels on a monthly basis, with a particular focus on the next three months. Well established monitoring programmes provide the current status of both river flows and groundwater levels at many sites across the UK, and data from these programmes provide the starting point for the Outlook. A number of techniques are used to project forwards from the current state and results from these are used to produce a summary that includes a highlights map.

An estimated 2.4 million newborn infants died in 2020, 80% of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. To achieve the Sustainable Development Target for neonatal mortality reduction, countries with high mortality need to implement evidence-based, cost-effective interventions at scale. Our study aimed to estimate the cost, cost-effectiveness, and benefit-cost ratio of a participatory women's groups intervention scaled up by the public health system in Jharkhand, eastern India. The intervention was evaluated through a pragmatic cluster non-randomised controlled trial in six districts. We estimated the cost of the intervention at scale from a provider perspective, with a 42-month time horizon for 20 districts. We estimated costs using a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. All costs were adjusted for inflation, discounted at 3% per year, and converted to 2020 International Dollars (INT$). Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were estimated using extrapolated effect sizes for the impact of the intervention in 20 districts, in terms of cost per neonatal deaths averted and cost per life year saved. We assessed the impact of uncertainty on results through one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. We also estimated benefit-cost ratio using a benefit transfer approach. Total intervention costs for 20 districts were INT$ 15,017,396. The intervention covered an estimated 1.6 million livebirths across 20 districts, translating to INT$ 9.4 per livebirth covered. ICERs were estimated at INT$ 1,272 per neonatal death averted or INT$ 41 per life year saved. Net benefit estimates ranged from INT$ 1,046 million to INT$ 3,254 million, and benefit-cost ratios from 71 to 218. Our study suggests that participatory women's groups scaled up by the Indian public health system were highly cost-effective in improving neonatal survival and had a very favourable return on investment. The intervention can be scaled up in similar settings within India and other co

The leading jet transport coefficients $\hat{q}$ or $\hat{e}_{2}$ encode transverse or longitudinal momentum broadening of a hard parton traversing a hot medium. Understanding their temperature dependence is key to appreciating the observed suppression of high-transverse momentum probes at RHIC or LHC collision energies. We present a first continuum extrapolated result of $\hat{q}$ computed on pure SU(3) lattices with non-trivial temperature dependence different from the weak-coupling expectation. We discuss our formalism and its challenges and status in view of obtaining $\hat{e}_{2}$ or of unquenching the calculation. We consider a hard quark subject to a single scattering on the plasma. The transport coefficients are factorized in terms of matrix elements given as integrals of non-local gauge-covariant gluon field-strength field-strength correlators. After the analytic continuation to the deep-Euclidean region, the hard scale permits to recast these as a series of local, gauge-invariant operators. The renormalized leading-twist term in this expansion is closely related to static quantities, and is computed on pure SU(3) lattices ($N_{\tau}=4,~6,~8,$ and $10$) for a wide range of temperatures, ranging from 200MeV < T < 1GeV. Our estimate for the unquenched result in $2+1$-flavor QCD has very similar features., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, HardProbes2023, 26-31 March 2023, Aschaffenburg, Germany

An effective way to use germplasm for genetic improvement is to be aware of the genetic variation among crop genotypes. The objective of the present study was to assess the genetic diversity and population structure of 30 genotypes of pigeonpea from populations that were collected from various sources. In order to show a new structure within the pigeonpea genetic pool and to give crucial information for pigeonpea breeding operations, the predetermined study's goal was to define pigeonpea genotypes using a microsatellite marker technique. The genomic DNA of 30 pigeon pea genotypes were amplified with 20 SSR primers that produced 46 amplified bands, out of which 30 band were polymorphic (65.21%) and 16 bands were monomorphic (34.82%). Primer CcM 2977 generated a maximum number of amplified bands, of which 2 bands were polymorphic. Among 20 primers, only 8 primers showed the highest polymorphism (100%) and 5 primers were monomorphic in nature. Average of 2.30 bands per primer was amplified. The dendrogram constructed from the pooled data revealed six distinct clusters of which five were solitary. Cluster analysis of pigeon pea genotypes was based on Unweighted Pair Group Method with the Arithmetic average (UPGMA) method and the 30 pigeon pea genotypes were classified into six main groups. The present study indicated that the performance of SSR markers for the evaluation of genetic diversity could be beneficial for pigeon pea breeding. They could additionally be useful in genomic mapping research, developing pigeon pea cultivars with various genetics and reaping advanced crop productivity.

One of the significant challenges of Machine Translation (MT) is the scarcity of large amounts of data, mainly parallel sentence aligned corpora. If the evaluation is as rigorous as resource-rich languages, both Neural Machine Translation (NMT) and Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) can produce good results with such large amounts of data. However, it is challenging to improve the quality of MT output for low resource languages, especially in NMT and SMT. In order to tackle the challenges faced by MT, we present a novel approach of using a scaled similarity score of sentences, especially for related languages based on a 5-gram KenLM language model with Kneser-ney smoothing technique for filtering in-domain data from out-of-domain corpora that boost the translation quality of MT. Furthermore, we employ other domain adaptation techniques such as multi-domain, fine-tuning and iterative back-translation approach to compare our novel approach on the Hindi-Nepali language pair for NMT and SMT. Our approach succeeds in increasing ~2 BLEU point on multi-domain approach, ~3 BLEU point on fine-tuning for NMT and ~2 BLEU point on iterative back-translation approach.

Coresets for $k$-means and $k$-median problems yield a small summary of the data, which preserve the clustering cost with respect to any set of $k$ centers. Recently coresets have also been constructed for constrained $k$-means and $k$-median problems. However, the notion of coresets has the drawback that (i) they can only be applied in settings where the input points are allowed to have weights, and (ii) in general metric spaces, the size of the coresets can depend logarithmically on the number of points. The notion of weak coresets, which have less stringent requirements than coresets, has been studied in the context of classical $k$-means and $k$-median problems. A weak coreset is a pair $(J,S)$ of subsets of points, where $S$ acts as a summary of the point set and $J$ as a set of potential centers. This pair satisfies the properties that (i) $S$ is a good summary of the data as long as the $k$ centers are chosen from $J$ only, and (ii) there is a good choice of $k$ centers in $J$ with cost close to the optimal cost. We develop this framework, which we call universal weak coresets, for constrained clustering settings. In conjunction with recent coreset constructions for constrained settings, our designs give greater data compression, are conceptually simpler, and apply to a wide range of constrained $k$-median and $k$-means problems.

This manuscript proposes a generalized inverse for a dual matrix called dual Drazin generalized inverse (DDGI) which generalizes the notion of the dual group generalized inverse (DGGI). Under certain necessary and sufficient conditions, we establish the existence of the DDGI of a dual matrix of any index. Thereafter, we show that the DDGI is unique (whenever exists). The DDGI is then used to solve a linear dual system. We also establish reverse-order law and forward-order law for a particular form of the DGGI, dual Moore-Penrose generalized inverse (DMPGI), dual core generalized inverse (DCGI), and DDGI under certain suitable conditions. Finally, the partial-orders based on DCGI and DGGI are proposed., Comment: Under certain necessary and sufficient conditions, we establish the existence of the DDGI of a dual matrix of any index

The use of subword embedding has proved to be a major innovation in Neural Machine Translation (NMT). It helps NMT to learn better context vectors for Low Resource Languages (LRLs) so as to predict the target words by better modelling the morphologies of the two languages and also the morphosyntax transfer. Even so, their performance for translation in Indian language to Indian language scenario is still not as good as for resource-rich languages. One reason for this is the relative morphological richness of Indian languages, while another is that most of them fall into the extremely low resource or zero-shot categories. Since most major Indian languages use Indic or Brahmi origin scripts, the text written in them is highly phonetic in nature and phonetically similar in terms of abstract letters and their arrangements. We use these characteristics of Indian languages and their scripts to propose an approach based on common multilingual Latin-based encodings (WX notation) that take advantage of language similarity while addressing the morphological complexity issue in NMT. These multilingual Latin-based encodings in NMT, together with Byte Pair Embedding (BPE) allow us to better exploit their phonetic and orthographic as well as lexical similarities to improve the translation quality by projecting different but similar languages on the same orthographic-phonetic character space. We verify the proposed approach by demonstrating experiments on similar language pairs (Gujarati-Hindi, Marathi-Hindi, Nepali-Hindi, Maithili-Hindi, Punjabi-Hindi, and Urdu-Hindi) under low resource conditions. The proposed approach shows an improvement in a majority of cases, in one case as much as ~10 BLEU points compared to baseline techniques for similar language pairs. We also get up to ~1 BLEU points improvement on distant and zero-shot language pairs., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures

Constrained clustering problems generalize classical clustering formulations, e.g., $k$-median, $k$-means, by imposing additional constraints on the feasibility of clustering. There has been significant recent progress in obtaining approximation algorithms for these problems, both in the metric and the Euclidean settings. However, the outlier version of these problems, where the solution is allowed to leave out $m$ points from the clustering, is not well understood. In this work, we give a general framework for reducing the outlier version of a constrained $k$-median or $k$-means problem to the corresponding outlier-free version with only $(1+\varepsilon)$-loss in the approximation ratio. The reduction is obtained by mapping the original instance of the problem to $f(k,m, \varepsilon)$ instances of the outlier-free version, where $f(k, m, \varepsilon) = \left( \frac{k+m}{\varepsilon}\right)^{O(m)}$. As specific applications, we get the following results: - First FPT (in the parameters $k$ and $m$) $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm for the outlier version of capacitated $k$-median and $k$-means in Euclidean spaces with hard capacities. - First FPT (in the parameters $k$ and $m$) $(3+\varepsilon)$ and $(9+\varepsilon)$ approximation algorithms for the outlier version of capacitated $k$-median and $k$-means, respectively, in general metric spaces with hard capacities. - First FPT (in the parameters $k$ and $m$) $(2-\delta)$-approximation algorithm for the outlier version of the $k$-median problem under the Ulam metric. Our work generalizes the known results to a larger class of constrained clustering problems. Further, our reduction works for arbitrary metric spaces and so can extend clustering algorithms for outlier-free versions in both Euclidean and arbitrary metric spaces.

Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) offer a promising approach for Neural Machine Translation (NMT). However, feeding multiple morphologically languages into a single model during training reduces the NMT's performance. In GAN, similar to bilingual models, multilingual NMT only considers one reference translation for each sentence during model training. This single reference translation limits the GAN model from learning sufficient information about the source sentence representation. Thus, in this article, we propose Denoising Adversarial Auto-encoder-based Sentence Interpolation (DAASI) approach to perform sentence interpolation by learning the intermediate latent representation of the source and target sentences of multilingual language pairs. Apart from latent representation, we also use the Wasserstein-GAN approach for the multilingual NMT model by incorporating the model generated sentences of multiple languages for reward computation. This computed reward optimizes the performance of the GAN-based multilingual model in an effective manner. We demonstrate the experiments on low-resource language pairs and find that our approach outperforms the existing state-of-the-art approaches for multilingual NMT with a performance gain of up to 4 BLEU points. Moreover, we use our trained model on zero-shot language pairs under an unsupervised scenario and show the robustness of the proposed approach., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

Orphan galaxies that have lost a large fraction of the dark matter subhaloes have often been invoked in semi-analytical as well as empirical models of galaxy formation. We run a mock cluster finder that mimics the optical cluster finding technique of the redMaPPer algorithm on a catalogue of galaxies with quenched star formation from one such empirical model, the UniverseMachine, and obtain the prevalence of orphan galaxies in these clusters as a function of their cluster-centric distance. We compare the fraction of orphan galaxies with the upper limits derived based on our prior observations of the weak lensing signals around satellite galaxies from SDSS redMaPPer clusters. Although the orphan fraction from the UniverseMachine is marginally consistent with the upper limits in the innermost regions of galaxy clusters spanning [0.1, 0.3] $h^{-1}$ Mpc, we observe that the orphan fractions substantially violate the upper limits in the outer regions of galaxy clusters beyond 0.3 $h^{-1}$ Mpc. We discuss the reasons, plausible improvements to the model and how observations can be used to constrain such models further., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

Cells have evolved their communication methods to sense their microenvironments and send biological signals. In addition to communication using ligands and receptors, cells use diverse channels including gap junctions to communicate with their immediate neighbors. Current approaches, however, cannot effectively capture the influence of various microenvironments. Here, we propose a novel approach to investigate cell neighbor-dependent gene expression (CellNeighborEX) in spatial transcriptomics (ST) data. To categorize cells based on their microenvironment, CellNeighborEX uses direct cell location or the mixture of transcriptome from multiple cells depending on ST technologies. For each cell type, CellNeighborEX identifies diverse gene sets associated with partnering cell types, providing further insight. We found that cells express different genes depending on their neighboring cell types in various tissues including mouse embryos, brain, and liver cancer. Those genes are associated with critical biological processes such as development or metastases. We further validated that gene expression is induced by neighboring partners via spatial visualization. The neighbor-dependent gene expression suggests new potential genes involved in cell–cell interactions beyond what ligand-receptor co-expression can discover.

Cells have evolved their communication methods to sense their microenvironments and send biological signals. In addition to communication using ligands and receptors, cells use diverse channels including gap junctions to communicate with their immediate neighbors. Current approaches, however, cannot effectively capture the influence of various microenvironments. Here, we propose a novel approach to investigate cell neighbor-dependent gene expression (CellNeighborEX) in spatial transcriptomics (ST) data. To categorize cells based on their microenvironment, CellNeighborEX uses direct cell location or the mixture of transcriptome from multiple cells depending on ST technologies. For each cell type, CellNeighborEX identifies diverse gene sets associated with partnering cell types, providing further insight. We found that cells express different genes depending on their neighboring cell types in various tissues including mouse embryos, brain, and liver cancer. Those genes are associated with critical biological processes such as development or metastases. We further validated that gene expression is induced by neighboring partners via spatial visualization. The neighbor-dependent gene expression suggests new potential genes involved in cell–cell interactions beyond what ligand-receptor co-expression can discover.

The k-SERVER problem is one of the most prominent problems in online algorithms with several variants and extensions. However, simplifying assumptions like instantaneous server movements and zero service time has hitherto limited its applicability to real-world problems. In this paper, we introduce a realistic generalization of k-SERVER without such assumptions - the k-FOOD problem, where requests with source-destination locations and an associated pickup time window arrive in an online fashion, and each has to be served by exactly one of the available k servers. The k-FOOD problem offers the versatility to model a variety of real-world use cases such as food delivery, ride sharing, and quick commerce. Moreover, motivated by the need for fairness in online platforms, we introduce the FAIR k-FOOD problem with the max-min objective. We establish that both k-FOOD and FAIR k-FOOD problems are strongly NP-hard and develop an optimal offline algorithm that arises naturally from a time-expanded flow network. Subsequently, we propose an online algorithm DOC4FOOD involving virtual movements of servers to the nearest request location. Experiments on a real-world food-delivery dataset, alongside synthetic datasets, establish the efficacy of the proposed algorithm against state-of-the-art fair food delivery algorithms., Comment: AAAI 2024 Conference

Biases with respect to socially-salient attributes of individuals have been well documented in evaluation processes used in settings such as admissions and hiring. We view such an evaluation process as a transformation of a distribution of the true utility of an individual for a task to an observed distribution and model it as a solution to a loss minimization problem subject to an information constraint. Our model has two parameters that have been identified as factors leading to biases: the resource-information trade-off parameter in the information constraint and the risk-averseness parameter in the loss function. We characterize the distributions that arise from our model and study the effect of the parameters on the observed distribution. The outputs of our model enrich the class of distributions that can be used to capture variation across groups in the observed evaluations. We empirically validate our model by fitting real-world datasets and use it to study the effect of interventions in a downstream selection task. These results contribute to an understanding of the emergence of bias in evaluation processes and provide tools to guide the deployment of interventions to mitigate biases., Comment: The conference version of this paper appears in NeurIPS 2023

In this paper, we study the weighted $k$-server problem on the uniform metric in both the offline and online settings. We start with the offline setting. In contrast to the (unweighted) $k$-server problem which has a polynomial-time solution using min-cost flows, there are strong computational lower bounds for the weighted $k$-server problem, even on the uniform metric. Specifically, we show that assuming the unique games conjecture, there are no polynomial-time algorithms with a sub-polynomial approximation factor, even if we use $c$-resource augmentation for $c < 2$. Furthermore, if we consider the natural LP relaxation of the problem, then obtaining a bounded integrality gap requires us to use at least $\ell$ resource augmentation, where $\ell$ is the number of distinct server weights. We complement these results by obtaining a constant-approximation algorithm via LP rounding, with a resource augmentation of $(2+\epsilon)\ell$ for any constant $\epsilon > 0$. In the online setting, an $\exp(k)$ lower bound is known for the competitive ratio of any randomized algorithm for the weighted $k$-server problem on the uniform metric. In contrast, we show that $2\ell$-resource augmentation can bring the competitive ratio down by an exponential factor to only $O(\ell^2 \log \ell)$. Our online algorithm uses the two-stage approach of first obtaining a fractional solution using the online primal-dual framework, and then rounding it online., Comment: This paper will appear in the proceedings of APPROX 2023