Genetic analyses indicate minimal gene flow across the so-called Eastern Pacific Barrier (EPB) in larvae of the reef-building coral \emph{Porites lobata}. Notably, Clipperton Atoll, situated on the eastern side of the EPB, is the only site that exhibits detectable genetic connectivity with the Line Islands, which lie to the west of the EPB. To elucidate the relationship between this genetic signal and large-scale Pacific Ocean circulation, we analyze historical trajectories of surface-drifting buoys from the Global Drifter Program (GDP). We first discretize the GDP drifter trajectories into a Markov chain representation and subsequently apply transition path theory (TPT) in combination with Bayesian inference. The TPT analysis identifies reactive trajectories -- pathways that connect the Line Islands to Clipperton Atoll with minimal detours -- whose travel times do not exceed 5 months, which is taken as an upper bound for the larval survival time of \emph{P. lobata}. Consistently, the posterior distribution of transport from Pacific islands west of the EPB to Clipperton Atoll attains a local maximum in the Line Islands at a travel time of approximately 2.5 months. Our probabilistic
We apply persistent homology to the ORBIS Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World in order to quantify the structural resilience of the Eastern Mediterranean trade network between 0 and 400 ce. The network is represented as a weighted transport system whose edges correspond to road, maritime, and riverine routes, each carrying a base cost derived from the ORBIS cost model. To introduce historical dynamics into this static spatial infrastructure, we construct a differential friction model in which edge weights vary by decade and by transport mode according to documented historical perturbations, including epidemic mortality, civil war, military pressure, administrative reorganisation, and imperial reunification. For each decadal snapshot, we compute all-pairs shortest-path distances on the active sub-network and construct a Vietoris--Rips filtration using an adaptive threshold defined by the 90th percentile of finite pairwise distances. The resulting betti number ($β_1$) persistent entropy time series identifies three structurally distinct phases in the Eastern Mediterranean network. Phase~I, from 0 to 200 ce, is a stationary high-redundancy regime consistent with the commercial
This paper presents an overview of a human-centered initiative aimed at strengthening climate resilience along Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore. This region, a collection of rural villages with deep ties to the sea, faces existential threats from climate change that endanger its way of life. Our project moves beyond a purely technical response, weaving together expertise from Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, and Coastal Geography to co-create tools with the community. By integrating generational knowledge of residents, particularly elders, through the Eastern Shore Citizen Science Coastal Monitoring Network, this project aims to collaborate in building a living digital archive. This effort is hosted under Dalhousie University's Transforming Climate Action (TCA) initiative, specifically through its Transformative Adaptations to Social-Ecological Climate Change Trajectories (TranSECT) and TCA Artificial Intelligence (TCA-AI) projects. This work is driven by a collaboration model in which student teams work directly with residents. We present a detailed project timeline and a replicable model for how technology can support traditional communities, enabling them to navigate climate
The integration of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries into the European Economic Area serves as a valuable experiment for the regional economic development theory. The long-lasting convergence of these economies with more advanced Western Europe exhibits a few standard features and varying policies implemented. Even the Baltic countries, which started from very similar starting positions, demonstrate their unique trajectories of development. We employ a panel data regression model that allows coefficients to vary over time to compare the contributions of a few macroeconomic factors to the GDP growth of CEE countries. In particular, we regress the annual change of GDP per capita in PPP terms as a function of achieved GDP, price, trade, investment, and debt levels. Time-varying common slope coefficients in this approach describe the external economic environment in which countries implement their own policies. The panel consists of 11 Central and Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia), which have been observed annually from 1995 to 2024. While the main selected factors of this inv
This report introduces Dolphin, a large-scale multilingual automatic speech recognition (ASR) model that extends the Whisper architecture to support a wider range of languages. Our approach integrates in-house proprietary and open-source datasets to refine and optimize Dolphin's performance. The model is specifically designed to achieve notable recognition accuracy for 40 Eastern languages across East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, while also supporting 22 Chinese dialects. Experimental evaluations show that Dolphin significantly outperforms current state-of-the-art open-source models across various languages. To promote reproducibility and community-driven innovation, we are making our trained models and inference source code publicly available.
The study of brain differences across Eastern and Western populations provides vital insights for understanding potential cultural and genetic influences on cognition and mental health. Diffusion MRI (dMRI) tractography is an important tool in assessing white matter (WM) connectivity and brain tissue microstructure across different populations. However, a comprehensive investigation into WM fiber tracts between Eastern and Western populations is challenged due to the lack of a cross-population WM atlas and the large site-specific variability of dMRI data. This study presents a dMRI tractography atlas, namely the East-West WM Atlas, for concurrent WM mapping between Eastern and Western populations and creates a large, harmonized dMRI dataset (n=306) based on the Human Connectome Project and the Chinese Human Connectome Project. The curated WM atlas, as well as subject-specific data including the harmonized dMRI data, the whole brain tractography data, and parcellated WM fiber tracts and their diffusion measures, are publicly released. This resource is a valuable addition to facilitating the exploration of brain commonalities and differences across diverse cultural backgrounds.
This workshop explores innovative human-AI collaboration methodologies in HCI visual storytelling education through our established "gap-and-fill" approach. Drawing on Eastern aesthetic philosophies of intentional emptiness, including Chinese negative-space traditions, Japanese "ma" concepts, and contemporary design minimalism, we demonstrate how educators can teach students to maintain creative agency while strategically leveraging AI assistance. During this workshop, participants will experience a structured three-phase methodology: creating a human-led narrative foundation, identifying strategic gaps, and collaborating on AI enhancements. The workshop combines theoretical foundations with intensive hands-on practice, enabling participants to create compelling HCI visual narratives that demonstrate effective human-AI partnership. Through sequential art techniques, storyboarding exercises, and guided AI integration, attendees learn to communicate complex interactive concepts, accessibility solutions, and user experience flows while preserving narrative coherence and creative vision. Building on our successful workshops at ACM C&C 2025, this session specifically addresses the n
In traditional medical practices, music therapy has proven effective in treating various psychological and physiological ailments. Particularly in Eastern traditions, the Five Elements Music Therapy (FEMT), rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, possesses profound cultural significance and unique therapeutic philosophies. With the rapid advancement of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence, applying these modern technologies to FEMT could enhance the personalization and cultural relevance of the therapy and potentially improve therapeutic outcomes. In this article, we developed a music therapy system for the first time by applying the theory of the five elements in music therapy to practice. This innovative approach integrates advanced Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence with Five-Element Music Therapy (FEMT) to enhance personalized music therapy practices. As traditional music therapy predominantly follows Western methodologies, the unique aspects of Eastern practices, specifically the Five-Element theory from traditional Chinese medicine, should be considered. This system aims to bridge this gap by utilizing computational technologies to provide a more
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate new techniques for computing multiday extreme precipitation taken from recent theoretical advancements in extreme value theory in the framework of dynamical systems, using historical precipitation data along the eastern coast of Australia as a case study. We explore the numerical pitfalls of applying standard extreme value techniques to model multiday extremes. Then, we illustrate that our data conforms to the appropriate setting for the application of recently derived extreme value distributions for runs of extremes in the dynamical framework and adapt these to the non-stationary setting. Finally, we use these distributions to make more informed predictions on the return times and magnitudes of consecutive daily extreme precipitation and find changes in the dependence of increasing consecutive daily rainfall extremes on the Southern Oscillation Index. Although our case study is focused on extreme precipitation across eastern Australia, we emphasize that these techniques can be used to model expected returns and magnitudes of consecutive extreme precipitation events across many locations.
Microquasar SS 433 located at the geometric center of radio nebula W50 is a suitable source for investigating the physical process of how galactic jets affect the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). Previous studies have searched for evidence of the interaction between the SS 433 jet and ISM, such as neutral hydrogen gas and molecular clouds; however, it is still unclear which ISM interacts with the jet. We looked for new molecular clouds that possibly interact at the terminal of the SS 433 eastern jet using the Nobeyama 45-m telescope and the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE). We identified two molecular clouds, comprising many small clumps, in the velocity range of 30.1--36.5 km s$^{-1}$ for the first time. These clouds have complex velocity structures, and one of them has a density gradient toward SS 433. Although it is difficult to conclude the relation between the molecular clouds and the SS 433/W50 system, there is a possibility that the eastern structure of W50 constructed by the SS 433 jet swept up tiny molecular clumps drifting in the surroundings and formed the molecular clouds that we identified in this study.
This paper utilized the high temporal and spatial resolution temperature profile data observed by the multi-channel microwave radiometer at the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on the eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau from February to May and August to November 2021, combined with the ERA5 reanalysis data products for the whole year of 2021, to study the daily, monthly, and seasonal variations of the atmospheric boundary layer height (ABLH). The results are as follows: (1) The ABLH on sunny days showed obvious fluctuations with peaks and valleys. The ABLH continued to rise with the increase of surface temperature after sunrise and usually reached its maximum value in the afternoon around 18:00, then rapidly decreased until sunset. (2) The average ABLH in April was the highest at about 1200 m, while it was only around 600 m in November. The ABLH fluctuated greatly during the day and was stable at around 400 m at night. The ABLH results obtained from ERA5 were slightly smaller overall but had a consistent trend of change with the microwave radiometer. (3) The maximum ABLH appeared in spring, followed by summer and autumn, and winter had the lowest value, with al
Air pollution (e.g., PM2.5) has a negative effect on human health. Recently, the population-weighted annual mean PM2.5 concentration (PWAM) has been selected as an indicator 11.6.2 in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for various countries to perfrom a long-term monitoring of population exposure to PM2.5 in cities. However, few studies have employed this indicator for a city-level analysis and also in a long-time series (e.g., for decades). To fill this research gap, this study investigates the long-term (2000-2020) variation of population exposure to PM2.5 in Eastern China (including 318 prefecture-level cities). Three categories of open geospatial data (including high-resolution and long-term PM2.5 and population data, and administrative boundary data of cities) are involved for analysis. We found that: 1) A considerable decrease has been observed for the PWAM during 2014-2020. 2) In 2020, the PWAM is for the first time lower than the interim target-1 (35 μg/m3) defined by the World Health Organization for 214 prefecture-level cities in Eastern China, which accounts for 67% of the total population. The results indicates a considerable improvement of air quality in Eastern Chi
We present the first comprehensive spectroscopic study of the Andromeda galaxy's Eastern Extent. This ~4 degree long filamentary structure. located 70-90 kpc from the centre of M31, lies perpendicular to Andromeda's minor axis and the Giant Stellar Stream and overlaps Stream C. In this work, we explore the properties of the Eastern Extent to look for possible connections between it, the Giant Stellar Stream and Stream C. We present the kinematics and photometry for ~50 red giant branch stars in 7 fields along the Eastern Extent. We measure the systemic velocities for these fields and find them to be -368 km/s < v < -331 km/s with a slight velocity gradient of -0.51 +/- 0.21 km/s/kpc towards the Giant Stellar Stream. We derive the photometric metallicities for stars in the Eastern Extent finding them to be metal-poor with values of -1.0 < [Fe/H]phot < -0.7 with a <[Fe/H]phot> ~-0.9. We find consistent properties for the Eastern Extent, Stream B and one of the substructures in Stream C, Stream Cr, plausibly linking these features. Stream Cp and its associated globular cluster, EC4, have distinctly different properties indicative of a separate structure. When we comp
Did the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 influence the scientific performance of the researchers in Eastern European countries? Did this historical event affect international collaboration by researchers from the Eastern European countries with those of Western countries? Did it also change international collaboration among researchers from the Eastern European countries? Trying to answer these questions, this study aims to shed light on international collaboration by researchers from the Eastern European countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia). The number of publications and normalized citation impact values are compared for these countries based on InCites (Thomson Reuters), from 1981 up to 2011. The international collaboration by researchers affiliated to institutions in Eastern European countries at the time points of 1990, 2000 and 2011 was studied with the help of Pajek and VOSviewer software, based on data from the Science Citation Index (Thomson Reuters). Our results show that the breakdown of the communist regime did not lead, on average, to a huge improvement in the publication performance of the
This paper proposes a two blocks and three regions economic geography model that can account for the most salient stylized facts experienced by Eastern European transition economies during the period 1990 2005. In contrast to the existing literature, which has favored technological explanations, trade liberalization is the only driving force. The model correctly predicts that in the first half of the period, trade liberalization led to divergence in GDP per capita, both between the West and the East and within the East. Consistent with the data, in the second half of the period, this process was reversed and convergence became the dominant force.
The study examines the palaeoclimatic background and the regional manifestations of the Medieval Climate Anomaly in the Eastern Mediterranean, with a focus on the Byzantine Empire, but also including neighbouring polities. It explores the interplay between climatic factors and the socioeconomic dynamics between the 10th and 12th centuries, concentrating on the late 10th and 11th centuries, also overlapping with the Oort Solar Minimum. In particular it contrasts scenarios of an economic boom and of an collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean created in recent scholarship for this period and evaluates these notions based on a close reading and citation of historiographical and other written sources. Thereby, both potentials as well as problems of a combination of archives of society and archives of nature become evident.
Lightning flashes are rare albeit hazardous events. Despite this scarcity, generalized additive models (GAMs) succeed in producing a climatology of lightning occurrence for the eastern Alps and surrounding lowlands at an unprecedented resolution of 1\,km$^2$ for each day of April through September with data from the ALDIS lightning location system. The GAM adds the effects of seasonality, jaggedness of the terrain, and seasonally varying effects of elevation and region, thus combining information from analysis cells sharing similar characteristics. The probability of a cloud-to-ground discharge over 1\,km$^2$ on a given day is typically less than 1\,\% with a rapid increase in spring, followed by a plateau and a gentler tapering-off in fall. Probabilities early are lower at high elevations but increase once their snow cover is gone. Regional patterns of lightning also vary with season with an overall southward shift later in the year but more complex details. Grid cells with jagged topography have a higher probability of lightning.
The history of southern Africa involved interactions between indigenous hunter-gatherers and a range of populations that moved into the region. Here we use genome-wide genetic data to show that there are at least two admixture events in the history of Khoisan populations (southern African hunter-gatherers and pastoralists who speak non-Bantu languages with click consonants). One involved populations related to Niger-Congo-speaking African populations, and the other introduced ancestry most closely related to west Eurasian (European or Middle Eastern) populations. We date this latter admixture event to approximately 900-1,800 years ago, and show that it had the largest demographic impact in Khoisan populations that speak Khoe-Kwadi languages. A similar signal of west Eurasian ancestry is present throughout eastern Africa. In particular, we also find evidence for two admixture events in the history of Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Ethiopian populations, the earlier of which involved populations related to west Eurasians and which we date to approximately 2,700 - 3,300 years ago. We reconstruct the allele frequencies of the putative west Eurasian population in eastern Africa, and show that t
This paper discusses a recently proposed scenario of a climate-induced Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 11th century AD. It demonstrates that such a scenario cannot be maintained when confronted with proxy data from various regions. On the other hand, data on the interplay between environment and economy in the Komnenian period (1081-1185) and evidence for a change of climatic conditions in the period of the Angeloi (1185-1204) is presented, arguing that climatic parameters should be taken into consideration when comparing socio-economic dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean with those in Western Europe. The necessity of further research on the regional as well as over-regional level for many aspects of the interaction between human society and environment in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean is highlighted.
The seasonal and interannual variability of mesoscale circulation along the eastern coast of the Sakhalin Island in the Okhotsk Sea is investigated using AVISO velocity field and oceanographic data for the period from 1993 to 2016. It is found that mesoscale cyclones with the horizontal dimension of about 100 km occur there predominantly during summer, whereas anticyclones occur predominantly during fall and winter. The cyclones are generated due to the coastal upwelling forced by northward winds and the positive wind stress curl along the Sakhalin coast. The anticyclones are formed due to an inflow of low-salinity Amur-River waters from the Sakhalin Gulf intensified by southward winds and the negative wind stress curl in the cold season. The mesoscale cyclones support the high biological productivity at the eastern Sakhalin shelf in July - August.