Continual deep reinforcement learning with task-agnostic policy distillation.

Central to the development of universal learning systems is the ability to solve multiple tasks without retraining from scratch when new data arrives. This is crucial because each task requires significant training time. Addressing the problem of continual learning necessitates various methods due to the complexity of the problem space.

Strontium isoscape of sub-Saharan Africa allows tracing origins of victims of the transatlantic slave trade.

Strontium isotope (Sr/Sr) analysis with reference to strontium isotope landscapes (Sr isoscapes) allows reconstructing mobility and migration in archaeology, ecology, and forensics. However, despite the vast potential of research involving Sr/Sr analysis particularly in Africa, Sr isoscapes remain unavailable for the largest parts of the continent. Here, we measure the Sr/Sr ratios in 778 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combine this data with published data to model a bioavailable Sr isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa using random forest regression.

Fatal dengue virus infection in an unvaccinated traveler.

Dengue is an increasing threat to individuals living in or visiting endemic countries. Effective vaccines have become available, but their use in travelers is typically only recommended to individuals with documented prior infection. We present a fatal case of severe dengue in an unvaccinated traveler without known prior dengue virus infection but longitudinal serologic and molecular evidence for secondary infection.

Mirror-invariance is not exclusively visual but extends to touch.

Mirror-invariance enables recognition of mirrored objects as identical. During reading acquisition, sighted readers must overcome this innate bias to distinguish between mirror-inverted letters ('d' vs. 'b').

Comparative evaluation of feature reduction methods for drug response prediction.

Personalized medicine aims to tailor medical treatments to individual patients, and predicting drug responses from molecular profiles using machine learning is crucial for this goal. However, the high dimensionality of the molecular profiles compared to the limited number of samples presents significant challenges. Knowledge-based feature selection methods are particularly suitable for drug response prediction, as they leverage biological insights to reduce dimensionality and improve model interpretability.

Green Cities, Healthier Children: The Effect of Expanding Urban Green Space on Body Weight for Primary School Starters.

The discussion on tackling childhood obesity is often centered around fostering physical activity. A potential relationship yet overlooked could run from providing the proper environment for healthy lifestyles to reduced weight problems. A unique quasi-experimental setting of transforming former airport grounds to a large urban green space allows me to apply a difference-in-differences approach within an intention-to-treat framework, comparing several weight outcomes of residential children to children living further away before and after park opening.

Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis of meropenem and fosfomycin combinations in in vitro time-kill and hollow-fibre infection models against multidrug-resistant and carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Background: MDR Gram-negative bacteria, such as ESBL-producing and carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, represent major global health threats. Treatment options are limited due to increasing resistance and slowed development of novel antimicrobials, making it necessary to apply effective combination therapies based on approved antibiotics.

Objectives: To quantitatively evaluate the synergistic potential of meropenem and fosfomycin against carbapenem-resistant K.

Phylogeny, evolution and a re-classification of the .

The is an independent lichenized lineage within the comprising . 390 species and 50 genera. Very few studies have dealt with family and genus classification using molecular data and many groups are in need of thorough revision.

Mechanism and Kinetics of Hydration of CuSO·HO in the Presence of an Intermediate Step.

The hydration of salt hydrates is often described as a solution mediated nucleation and growth mechanism, occurring between a reagent and a product in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other. If a system possesses more than one hydrate phase, the kinetic pathway may involve additional mechanisms due to the formation of intermediate hydrate species. We elected CuSO as our model system and analyzed the pathway leading from CuSO·HO (C1H) to CuSO·5HO (C5H), while CuSO·3HO (C3H) being a possible intermediate.

Change in postgraduate medical education - how much didactic shaping is possible at all? A document analysis of the guideline regulations on specialty training 1992-2018 with a focus on surgery.

Background: The structures of postgraduate medical education are regulated by the (guideline) regulations on specialty training ((M-)WBO). This formal structure is the result of medical discourse between medical associations, specialist societies and other associations. Various developments can be seen in the WBO.

Genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana reveals the existence of natural heat resilience factors for meiosis.

Heat interferes with multiple meiotic processes, leading to genome instability and sterility in flowering plants, including many crops. Despite its importance for food security, the mechanisms underlying heat tolerance of meiosis are poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed different meiotic processes in the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) accessions Columbia (Col) and Landsberg erecta (Ler), their F1 hybrids, and the F2 offspring under heat stress (37°C).

Hyperreflective material evolution patterns during long term anti-VEGF therapy in neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

This retrospective, real-life cohort was analyzed to detect the frequency of different HRM evolution patterns and their correlation with MNV types, morphological and functional changes in exudative nAMD under long-term anti-VEGF therapy. We evaluated optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume scans in 143 eyes of 94 nAMD patients (start of anti-VEGF therapy 2009-2018, therapy until the last visit) and recorded the VA at all visits. HRM evolution patterns were differentiated: pattern 1 = no HRM, pattern 2 = subretinal HRM resolved during follow-up, pattern 3 = persistent subretinal HRM with new HRM-boundary remodeling [BR], pattern 4 = persistent subretinal HRM without HRM-BR.

Accurate measurements of slice electron beam parameters at the undulator in seeded free-electron lasers.

The operation of modern free-electron lasers (FELs) necessitates precise knowledge of electron beam properties at the undulator to ensure the level of control required by increasingly demanding experiments. In seeded FELs, where only electrons interacting with the seed laser contribute to the process, it is crucial to determine the local values of these properties. We present a novel method, based on accurate modeling of the FEL process in high-gain harmonic generation, to accurately retrieve the electron beam slice energy spread, current and laser-induced energy modulation.

Three- but not 2-year-olds misinform others spontaneously in an interaction-based task.

One-year-olds spontaneously inform others, but less is known about the emergence of spontaneous misinforming. The current study investigated whether young children who spontaneously inform ignorant others also deliberately misinform others in matched uninstructed interactions. Conceptually, misinforming provides a convincing case for interaction-based, implicit false belief understanding.

Synthesis of evidence yields high social cost of carbon due to structural model variation and uncertainties.

Estimating the cost to society from a ton of CO-termed the social cost of carbon (SCC)-requires connecting a model of the climate system with a representation of the economic and social effects of changes in climate, and the aggregation of diverse, uncertain impacts across both time and space. A growing literature has examined the effect of fundamental structural elements of the models supporting SCC calculations. This work has accumulated in a piecemeal fashion, leaving their relative importance unclear.

Survival analysis based on an enhanced Rayleigh-inverted Weibull model.

This study proposes a two-parameter survival model based on the Kavya-Manoharan transformation family and the Rayleigh-inverted Weibull distribution, the so-called Kavya-Manoharan-Rayleigh inverted Weibull distribution (KMRIWD). Various reliability measures and statistical properties of this distribution are analyzed. The parameters of the distribution are estimated using the maximum likelihood method and different sampling techniques.

Food Authentication Goes Green: Method Optimization for Origin Discrimination of Apples Using Apple Juice and ICP-MS.

Apples are among the most important fruits worldwide and the most consumed fruit in Germany. Due to higher energy and personnel costs, domestic apples are more expensive and thus offer an incentive for mixing with foreign goods. Moreover, imported apples have a higher carbon footprint, which is an obstacle regarding sales in times of climate change.

Stress enhances memory for previously encoded events depending on stressor recall.

Stressful events are typically well remembered, but their effects on memory for surrounding neutral events and the underlying mechanisms remain less clear. We hypothesized that stress would enhance memory for events surrounding the stressor, contingent on the memory of the stressor itself. Additionally, we predicted that memory for neutral events would be modulated by pairing them with stressor-related cues.

Ancient genomics support deep divergence between Eastern and Western Mediterranean Indo-European languages.

The Indo-European languages are among the most widely spoken in the world, yet their early diversification remains contentious. It is widely accepted that the spread of this language family across Europe from the 5th millennium BP correlates with the expansion and diversification of steppe-related genetic ancestry from the onset of the Bronze Age. However, multiple steppe-derived populations co-existed in Europe during this period, and it remains unclear how these populations diverged and which provided the demographic channels for the ancestral forms of the Italic, Celtic, Greek, and Armenian languages.

Diversity on a small scale - phylogeography of the locally endemic dwarf succulent genus Oophytum (Aizoaceae) in the Knersvlakte of South Africa.

Background And Aims: Oophytum (Aizoaceae) is a locally endemic genus of the extremely fast evolving subfamily Ruschioideae and consists of only two formally accepted species (O. nanum and O. oviforme).

New Upper Limit on the Axion-Photon Coupling with an Extended CAST Run with a Xe-Based Micromegas Detector.

Hypothetical axions provide a compelling explanation for dark matter and could be emitted from the hot solar interior. The CERN Axion Solar Telescope has been searching for solar axions via their back conversion to x-ray photons in a 9-T 10-m long magnet directed toward the Sun. We report on an extended run with the International Axion Observatory pathfinder detector, doubling the previous exposure time.

Bypassing the lattice BCS-BEC crossover in strongly correlated superconductors through multiorbital physics.

Superconductivity emerges from the spatial coherence of a macroscopic condensate of Cooper pairs. Increasingly strong binding and localization of electrons into these pairs compromises the condensate's phase stiffness, thereby limiting critical temperatures - a phenomenon known as the BCS-BEC crossover in lattice systems. In this study, we demonstrate enhanced superconductivity in a multiorbital model of alkali-doped fullerides (AC) that goes beyond the limits of the lattice BCS-BEC crossover.

An extended Rayleigh Weibull model with actuarial measures and applications.

In this article, we discuss a new extension of the Rayleigh-Weibull model using the Marshall-Olkin family of distributions. The proposed model is called the Marshall-Olkin-Rayleigh-Weibull (MORW) model. Various statistical properties of the MORW distribution are discussed, including explicit expressions for quantiles, moments, incomplete and conditional moments, some inequality measures, moment generating function, moments of the residual and reversed residual life, the Rényi entropy, and order statistics.

Strong-field quantum control in the extreme ultraviolet domain using pulse shaping.

Tailored light-matter interactions in the strong coupling regime enable the manipulation and control of quantum systems with up to unit efficiency, with applications ranging from quantum information to photochemistry. Although strong light-matter interactions are readily induced at the valence electron level using long-wavelength radiation, comparable phenomena have been only recently observed with short wavelengths, accessing highly excited multi-electron and inner-shell electron states. However, the quantum control of strong-field processes at short wavelengths has not been possible, so far, because of the lack of pulse-shaping technologies in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and X-ray domain.