North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Abstract We report observations of main-belt asteroid 2025 VZ 8 using multiple telescopes from UT 2025 November 24 to UT 2025 December 23 that confirm the presence of visible comet-like activity. These observations were motivated by online reports that an abrupt brightening event may have led to the object’s discovery on UT 2025 November 9. In all observations reported here, the object displays a tapered tail approximately 3″ long aligned with the antisolar direction. The object has an asteroidal Tisserand parameter value with respect to Jupiter ( T J = 3.371), and is thus considered an active asteroid. We measure an average apparent r ′ -band magnitude of m r ∼ 21.6 mag over the reported observing period. Due to the sudden appearance of activity far from perihelion, we suggest that the activity is more likely due to an impact or rotational destabilization, rather than sublimation.

This chapter outlines the methodology used by the research team to address the research questions. The approach centered on through interviews with candidates selected for their field experience in diverse stabilization and stability policing operations. To guide the analysis of interview findings, the team applied a custom ‘knowledgeability rating’ to the convenience sample tailored to the unique expertise of the selected participants. The results of the interviews—conducted according to the prescriptions of a detailed protocol validated by an ethical research board –were analyzed using primary data to inform the discussion and conclusions.

Multiple lines of evidence indicate a northward expansion and year-round presence of fin whales especially around Svalbard, an area where highly variable Atlantic Water intrusion is changing the trophic community. Because fin whales are now documented in the high Arctic (≥ 80°N), we hypothesized that this would also increase their presence in lower latitude Arctic regions. We used one year of passive acoustic data collected on a mooring deployed on the continental slope southwest of Svalbard to assess the temporal acoustic presence of fin whales and the relationship with environmental data. Acoustic detections and call diversity were greatest in fall and spring and lowest in summer. The 20Hz calls were present from July to April and the 130Hz calls were present from August to April. Both calls peaked in September with smaller, secondary peaks in March. Downsweeps were bimodally present between July and October and between February and June. Linear models indicated more calls when krill and copepod numbers were high and sea ice extent and amphipod numbers were low. A year-round acoustic presence of a potential resident subpopulation of fin whales suggests the region is a mixed-use habitat for foraging and reproductive-related activities.

Abstract Background: A number of studies have demonstrated a significant impact of diet on the gut microbiome. We aimed to conduct the largest and most demographically diverse home-based exploratory cross-sectional study to date on the effects of different diet types on the canine microbiome. Although a range of diets were fed to the dogs in our study, the major focus was on comparing the impact of a gently cooked (fresh) diet with a conventional dry processed (kibble) diet. Methods: A total of 103 dogs were recruited for this study. Each participant provided a single faecal microbiome sample along with a completed questionnaire on their dog’s health and nutritional history. Microbial DNA was extracted and sequenced using 16S rRNA gene analysis to characterise the bacterial composition of the faecal sample, which is representative of the gut microbiome. Results: The study revealed several significant trends, providing a deeper and more complete understanding of the effects of feeding methods on the canine microbiome. Microbiome metrics, such as alpha diversity and richness, were lower in fresh-fed dogs, while levels of opportunistic and potentially pathogenic bacteria, such as the Sutterellagenus, were higher in kibble-fed dogs. Biochemical pathway analysis using the Picrust2 toolkit identified several pathways that were more abundant in fresh-fed compared with kibble-fed dogs, such as the combined protein degradation pathway and the synthesis of butyrate from amino acids. We subsequently developed a simple classifier model which differentiated microbiome samples from fresh-fed and kibble-fed dogs, with pathways such as POLYAMSYN, HISDEG and PWY0.1296 emerging as strong predictors for distinguishing between the two dietary cohorts. Conclusions: This study provides a robust and statistically significant investigation into the effects of fresh and kibble diets on the canine gut microbiome. To strengthen the findings and robustness of this preliminary research, we recommend that future studies incorporate metabolomic analysis, shotgun sequencing, and stringent control of the brand or quality of kibble diet.

In response to the global imperative of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the optimisation of renewable energy systems under regionally favourable conditions has become increasingly essential. Solar irradiance forecasting plays a pivotal role in enhancing energy planning, grid reliability, and long-term sustainability. However, in the context of Turkey, existing studies on solar radiation forecasting often rely on traditional statistical approaches and are limited to single-site analyses, with insufficient attention to regional diversity and deep learning-based modelling. To address this gap, the present study focuses on Turkey’s Mediterranean region, characterised by high solar potential and diverse climatic conditions and strategically relevant to national clean energy targets. Historical data from 2020 to 2023 were used to forecast solar irradiance patterns up to 2026. Five representative locations—Adana, Isparta, Fethiye, Ulukışla, and Yüreğir—were selected to capture spatial and temporal variability across inland, coastal, and high-altitude zones. Advanced deep learning models, including artificial neural networks (ANN), long short-term memory (LSTM), and bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM), were developed and evaluated using standard performance metrics. Among these, BiLSTM achieved the highest accuracy, with a correlation coefficient of R = 0.95, RMSE = 0.22, and MAPE = 5.4% in Fethiye, followed by strong performance in Yüreğir (R = 0.90, RMSE = 0.12, MAPE = 7.2%). These results demonstrate BiLSTM’s superior capacity to model temporal dependencies and regional variability in solar radiation. The findings contribute to the development of location-specific forecasting frameworks and offer valuable insights for renewable energy planning and grid integration in solar-rich environments.

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals assigned female at birth (AFAB) are greatly impacted by endometriosis, which can severely affect their quality of life. This group faces significant barriers to healthcare due to structural discrimination and marginalization. Their experiences are often silenced, and healthcare professionals (HCPs) lack training to adequately diagnose and treat them. A TGD-led group implemented graphic medicine methodology to research endometriosis and gender diversity within a participatory action research (PAR) approach. Participants had diverse backgrounds and contributed to the project thanks to a combination of their real lived experiences and their professional expertise. In this report, we use a participatory action research (PAR) approach to implement a graphic medicine initiative on endometriosis and gender diversity. Graphic medicine is a methodology that combines healthcare and visual storytelling to enhance understanding of medical experiences and is a particularly suitable method for recentering experiences of marginalized communities and empowering them through the development of a knowledge product. The participants who contributed to the development of the graphic medicine product had diverse backgrounds and contributed both their real lived experiences and professional expertise. A comprehensive graphic medicine product was eventually developed, incorporating three key components: (1) a biographical narrative of a representative nonbinary transmasculine individual with endometriosis, (2) anonymized quotes from focus groups with TGD individuals, capturing diverse lived experiences, and (3) educational content aimed at HCPs on combining endometriosis treatment with gender-affirming care. Available in English, both online and in hardcopy, the product is currently used for educational, clinical training, and scientific purposes. Feedback from early users suggests its effectiveness in enhancing awareness and understanding among HCPs of endometriosis, gender diversities, and the intersections thereof.

Detection, classification and identification of underwater objects are both complex and essential tasks for perception and navigation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). AUVs need to detect obstacles to avoid them and need to identify certain objects in tasks such as Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) or in manipulation tasks in the case of ROVs. Leveraging a dataset published by the Robotics for Asset Maintenance and Inspection (RAMI) competition for the 2023 Virtual competition, in this work, we detail our machine learning-based solution for the visual detection, classification and identification of several objects including buoys of different colours, markers with numbers, pipes and ring poles among others. The results show excellent performance in training dataset and very good performance for detection and classification in the unknown test dataset showing the goodness of the methods in harsh environments with low visibility. Identification remains a challenging task especially for not previously seen data and requires further work including synthethic data generation.

Symmetric cryptography is the de-facto approach to information security for ad-hoc underwater acoustic networks. The requirement is that all network nodes possess the same cryptographic keys and key distribution that happens offline. Thus, it is hardly possible to include a new keyless node during network operation. In addition, online key replenishment is an open problem. In this article, we tackle key distribution/replenishment by formulating a new protocol that generates a key between two trusted underwater acoustic nodes (Alice and Bob) without the need to exchange the key itself. The proposed protocol initially extracts common acoustic channel features between Alice and Bob after some signal exchanges. Then, each party uses these features to generate his/her own secret bits via a random sequence generator. To correct any differences in their secret bits, we propose two reconciliation methods that employ Reed–Solomon codes. At the last step of the protocol, a 256-bit cryptographic key is generated by feeding the reconciled secret bit string to the Secure Hash Algorithm 3. We evaluate the key generation rate of the proposed protocol with real acoustic data recorded from a littoral environment, in which Alice and Bob exchanged 915 channel probes over different link geometries. To assess security performance, we invent a passive eavesdropper, Eve, who is able to simulate the acoustic link between Alice and Bob. She uses her simulated channels and the same protocol to generate her keys. Our analysis demonstrates a tradeoff between the key generation rate of Alice and Bob and Eve's ability to extract the same key. Our best result shows that Alice and Bob can independently generate 567 keys out of 915 attempts while Eve does not have access to any of the keys.