Thales (Australia)

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are cosmopolitan apex predators that interact with numerous species, including sharks, skates, and rays (subclass Elasmobranchii). Interactions between killer whales and elasmobranchs have garnered attention from the scientific community, but the dynamics of these events are poorly understood, as interactions are often challenging to observe. In this study, we collated imagery of interactions between killer whales and elasmobranchs to create the first image-based repository of interspecific interactions between marine predators. A total of 320 photos and videos from 82 unique interactions were collected from 12 countries. A minimum of 18 elasmobranch species across 16 genera were identified from the imagery. Furthermore, 10 different interaction types were documented, encompassing both predatory and non-predatory behavior. This dataset can provide insight into various research topics, including killer whale predation techniques, elasmobranch behavior, and the identification of individual killer whales that specialize in elasmobranch prey. As a new and openly accessible resource, this dataset provides the foundation to support future ecological and behavioral research on killer whale and elasmobranch interactions.

To address seed decay in direct-seeded rice caused by waterlogging resulting from inadequate field leveling, this study conducted split-split-plot field experiments in Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province (103°38’31’’–103°39’22’’ E, 30°33’16’’–30°33’54’’ N). Specifically, two hybrid rice varieties previously identified as flood-resistant (V1: Jinyou 1319) and flood-sensitive (V2: Jingliangyou 1377) were assigned to the main plots, wet direct seeding (P1) and water direct seeding (P2) were compared in the subplots, and the coating (C1) and no-coating (C2) treatments were applied to the sub-subplots. In the coating treatment with water direct seeding, the seedling percentage of V1 and V2 increased by 25.58% and 78.54%, respectively, the number of effective panicles increased by 4.69% and 12.95%, respectively, and the seed setting rate improved by 15.05% and 16.64%, respectively. This synergy boosted the yields of the two varieties by 23.15% and 31.77%. In particular, the yield of V2 with water direct seeding with coating matched that under wet direct seeding without coating. With little difference in total energy consumption (≤ 1.88%), the sensitive variety with water direct seeding and coating saved irrigation water and labor inputs by 13% and 17%, respectively, in the demonstration area (calculated based on the input of the demonstration area). With water direct seeding, the stable oxygen supply from the coating improved the seed germination rate and seedling growth vitality, especially for the sensitive variety. Thus, the oxygen-releasing coating achieved yield increases, resource conservation, and efficiency enhancement synergistically, providing a valuable solution for the development of direct-seeded rice in China’s hilly regions.

The nasopalatine canal (NPC) is a critical anatomic structure in maxillofacial surgery. Variations in its morphology among individuals with cleft lip and palate (CLP) may increase the risk of neurovascular injury and adversely affect surgical outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the anatomic characteristics of the NPC in CLP patients using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at a Turkish university hospital, based on CBCT scan data collected between 2016 and 2024. The primary predictor variable was cleft status (yes/no), and the main outcome variables included NPC shape, number of canaliculi, canal length, diameters, and number of the incisive (IF) and nasopalatine foramen (NF), and buccal bone thickness. Appropriate statistics were computed using a significance threshold of P≤0.05. A total of 78 unilateral CLP patients (29 females and 49 males; mean age 16.23) and 78 matched controls were included. Tree-branch, needle-shaped, and funnel-shaped canals, as well as type 1 and 2 canaliculi, were significantly more common in the CLP group (P<0.001, P=0.012). CLP patients exhibited significantly fewer NF, shorter canal length, and smaller IF diameters (P<0.001). Buccal bone thickness differed by location, with the CLP group showing higher values at points B to D, and the control group at point A (P≤0.05). Anatomic variability of the nasopalatine canal in CLP patients underscores the importance of individualized radiographic assessment. Incorporating CBCT into preoperative planning can enhance procedural safety and improve outcomes in maxillofacial interventions such as Le Fort I osteotomy, implant placement, and orthodontic procedures involving anterior tooth movement.

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) is a self-describing, portable and platform-independent format for array-oriented scientific data which has become a community standard for sharing measurements and analysis results in the fields of oceanography, meteorology, and space domain. The volume of scientific data is continuously increasing at a very fast rate and poses challenges for efficient storage and sharing of these data. The object storage paradigm that appeared with cloud infrastructures, can help with data storage and parallel access issues. The availability of ample network bandwidth within cloud infrastructures allows for the utilization of large amounts of data. Processing data where the data is located is preferable as it can result in substantial resource savings. However, for some use cases downloading data from the cloud is required and results still have to be fetched once processing tasks have been executed on the cloud. However, networks bandwidth and quality can exhibit significant variations depending on the available resources in different use cases: networks can range from fiber-optic and copper connections to satellite connections with poor reception in degraded conditions on boats, among other scenarios. Therefore, it is crucial for formats and software libraries to be specifically designed to optimize access to data by minimizing the transfer to only what is strictly necessary. By design, the NetCDF data format offers such capabilities. A netCDF file is composed of a pool of chunks. Each chunk is a small unit of data that is independent and may be compressed. These units of data are read or written in a single I/O operation. In this article, we reuse the notion of sub-chunk introduced in the kerchunk library (Sterzinger et al, 2021): we refer to a sub-chunk as a sub-part of a chunk. The sub-chunking strategies help reducing the amount of data transferred by splitting netCDF chunks in even smaller unit of data. Kerchunk limits the sub-chunking capability to uncompressed chunks. Our approach goes further: it allows the sub-chunking of compressed chunks by indexing their content. In this context, a new approach has emerged in the form of a library that indexes the content of netCDF-4. This indexing enables the retrieval of sub-chunks without the need to read and decompress the entire chunk. This approach targets access patterns such as time series in netCDF-4 datasets formatted with large chunks and it has the advantage of not requiring the entire file to be reformatted. This report provides a performance assessment of netCDF-4 datasets for various use cases and conditions: POSIX and S3 local filesystems, as well as a simulated degraded network connection. The results of this assessment may provide guidance on the most suitable and most efficient library for reading netCDF data in different situations. Another outcome of this study is the impact of the libraries used to access the data: while extensive existing literature compares different file formats performance (open, read and write), the impact of specific standard libraries remains poorly studied. This study evaluates the performance of four Python libraries (netcdf4-python, xarray, h5py, and a custom chunk-indexing library) for reading parts of the datasets through fsspec or S3fs. To complete the study, a comparison with the cloud-oriented formats Zarr and ncZarr is conducted. Results show that the h5py library provides high efficiency for accessing netCDF-4 formatted files and performance close to Zarr on a S3 server. These results suggest that it may not be necessary to convert netCDF-4 datasets to Zarr when moving to the cloud. This would avoid reformatting petabytes of data and costly adaptation of scientific software.

This study advances prior work by Matsas et al. (2024) , which demonstrated that time alone can serve as the base unit for all physical quantities, eliminating reliance on traditional LMT dimensions. The fundamental component of this work is distance measurement using clocks from three inertial systems. In this study, using linear algebra and Lorentz transformations, we confirm the published distance expression originally derived from Minkowski diagrams. Additionally, two unpublished velocity equations for moving clocks were derived using three duration inputs without a distance parameter. The investigation was expanded to Tangherlini 4D spacetime (1958). Using a three-clock scenario with two clocks in a round-trip pattern—and assuming distance is measured by conventional means—the three absolute velocities of each clock were calculated from three derived nonlinear equations. This setup circumvents the usual cancellation of absolute velocity that occurs in traditional thought experiments. This finding should revive the long-standing debate initiated in the 19th century and later reignited by Poincaré and Einstein. The findings confirmed that Tangherlini’s intuition and predictions about possible absolute velocity measurements were right and his theory is complementary to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (STR) rather than antagonistic. This theoretical breakthrough may pave the way to the practical measurement of absolute velocity without waiting for infinite fast signals that likely may not exist. Yet, instantaneous ‘Now’ appears as a background of co-existence that is the background reality of all temporal relations while finite speed signals are only available.

This paper presents an accurate and fast numerical method to compute the imaging performance of a centimeter-scale optical system comprising at least one metasurface that can be used inside an optimization design loop to allow direct design of the full system. In order to fit in the optimization design process, the optical response of the metasurfaces is approximated with a surrogate model of the locally periodic response of their constitutive meta-atoms described by a relevant set of variables. This surrogate model is used to obtain the performance of imaging systems containing both metasurfaces and refractive lenses using either the generalized Snell's law or a more physically accurate hybrid ray optics/wave optics model that accounts for the diffraction occurring at metasurfaces. We show that the hybrid model is necessary to obtain an accurate prediction of the modulus transfer function of systems containing metasurfaces with non-negligible optical power.