@article{19726, abstract = {The oxidation of biomass-derived compounds such as glucose within electrochemical cells enables both the energy-efficient production of hydrogen and the generation of additional added-value chemicals from biomass. However, for this biomass valorization approach to become commercially viable, selective, cost-effective, and highly active electrooxidation catalysts need to be developed. In this work, we detail the synthesis of a nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn)-based electrocatalyst for the glucose oxidation reaction (GOR) to formic acid (FoA) via calcination of a Zn-based zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF) functionalized with ethylenediamine and doped with Ni. The structure, morphology, and electrochemical performance of the catalysts towards the anodic GOR to FoA coupled with the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are subsequently studied. Chronopotentiometry tests with 0.1 M of glucose show a conversion of 94 % at 250 mA in only 70 min, with a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 91 % toward the production of FoA. Meanwhile, at the cathode, the HER FE is close to 98 %.}, author = {Mejia-Centeno, Karol V. and Montaña-Mora, Guillem and Chacón-Borrero, Jesús and Xue, Qian and Gong, Li and Martí-Sánchez, Sara and Berlanga-Vázquez, Armando and Llorca, Jordi and Ibáñez, Maria and Arbiol, Jordi and Qi, Xueqiang and Martinez-Alanis, Paulina R. and Cabot, Andreu}, issn = {1385-8947}, journal = {Chemical Engineering Journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Glucose electrooxidation with simultaneous H2 production on nickel-zinc electrocatalysts derived from an ethylenediamine-functionalized zeolitic imidazole framework}}, doi = {10.1016/j.cej.2025.163491}, volume = {515}, year = {2025}, } @article{19728, abstract = {Root system integrates multiple environmental cues, chiefly gravity and soil humidity, to anchor plants in soil and forage for water. While the mechanism of auxin-mediated root gravitropism is comparably well-understood, the root’s capability to grow toward moist soil for water uptake and drought avoidance, termed root hydrotropism, remains largely mysterious. Here, we provide key insights into the mechanism of hydrotropic growth and assign a role to the master regulator of hydrotropism, MIZU-KUSSEI 1 (MIZ1). We show that efficient hydrotropism requires the attenuation of antagonistically acting gravitropism, which is inhibited under drought conditions. Drought stress interferes with subcellular trafficking and the lateral mobility of PIN auxin transporters, which are polarly localized at the root cell plasma membranes. This leads to defects in PIN2 polarity and gravity-induced polarization of PIN3, ultimately inhibiting gravity-induced auxin redistribution and root bending. The miz1 mutant is defective in all these regulations, and in support of MIZ1’s action on PINs, pin mutations rescue the hydrotropic defects in the miz1 mutant. These observations identify a mechanism for how drought via MIZ1 attenuates gravitropism to promote root hydrotropism for efficient water foraging under drought conditions.}, author = {Zhang, Yuzhou and Bao, Zhulatai and Smoljan, Adrijana and Liu, Yifan and Wang, Huihui and Friml, Jiří}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, number = {20}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Foraging for water by MIZ1-mediated antagonism between root gravitropism and hydrotropism}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.2427315122}, volume = {122}, year = {2025}, } @article{19729, abstract = {From anthropogenic litter carried by ocean currents to plant stems travelling through the atmosphere, geophysical flows are often seeded with elongated, fibre-like particles. In this study, we used a large-scale laboratory model of a tidal current – representative of a widespread class of geophysical flows – to investigate the tumbling motion of long, slender and floating fibres in the complex turbulence generated by flow interactions with a tidal inlet. Despite the non-stationary, non-homogeneous and anisotropic nature of this turbulence, we find that long fibres statistically rotate at the same frequency as eddies of similar size, a phenomenon called scale selection, which is known to occur in ideal turbulence. Furthermore, we report that the signal of the instantaneous transverse velocity difference between the fibre ends changes significantly from the signal produced by the flow in the fibre surroundings, although the two are statistically equivalent. These observations have twofold implications. On the one hand, they confirm the reliability of using the end-to-end velocity signal of rigid fibres to probe the two-point transverse statistics of the flow, even under realistic conditions: oceanographers could exploit this observation to measure transverse velocity differences through elongated floats in the field, where superdiffusion complicates collecting sufficient data to probe two-point turbulence statistics at a fixed separation effectively. On the other hand, by addressing the dynamics of inertial range particles floating in the coastal zone, these observations are crucial to improving our ability to predict the fate of meso- and macro-litter, a size class that is currently understudied.}, author = {De Leo, Annalisa and Brizzolara, Stefano and Cavaiola, Mattia and He, Junlin and Stocchino, Alessandro}, issn = {1469-7645}, journal = {Journal of Fluid Mechanics}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, title = {{Rigid fibre transport in a periodic non-homogeneous geophysical turbulent flow}}, doi = {10.1017/jfm.2025.362}, volume = {1011}, year = {2025}, } @article{19730, abstract = {Feigenbaum universality is shown to occur in subcritical shear flows. Our testing ground is the counter-rotation regime of the Taylor–Couette flow, where numerical calculations are performed within a small periodic domain. The accurate computation of up to the seventh period-doubling bifurcation, assisted by a purposely defined Poincaré section, has enabled us to reproduce the two Feigenbaum universal constants with unprecedented accuracy in a fluid flow problem. We have further devised a method to predict the bifurcation diagram up to the accumulation point of the cascade based on the detailed inspection of just the first few period-doubling bifurcations. Remarkably, the method is applicable beyond the accumulation point, with predictions remaining valid, in a statistical sense, for the chaotic dynamics that follows.}, author = {Wang, Baoying and Ayats López, Roger and Deguchi, K. and Meseguer, A. and Mellibovsky, F.}, issn = {1469-7645}, journal = {Journal of Fluid Mechanics}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, title = {{Feigenbaum universality in subcritical Taylor-Couette flow}}, doi = {10.1017/jfm.2025.278}, volume = {1010}, year = {2025}, } @article{19731, abstract = {In an era of high-resolution displays, powerful design software, and automated plotting tools, one would think that scientific figures would be clearer than ever. Yet, despite numerous editorials, guidelines, and workshops dedicated to improving figure design, poorly constructed figures remain a persistent issue. Editors and experienced researchers have repeatedly highlighted key pitfalls such as cluttered layouts, inconsistent formatting, poor color choices, and misleading visuals. (1−8) Yet, the aforementioned graphical shortcomings continue to plague even high-impact journals. Why? The problem is not a lack of technology; it is a combination of poor design habits, rushed deadlines, and a tendency to treat figures as mere “data dumps” rather than as essential storytelling tools. Many people process information more effectively through visuals, naturally associating concepts easily when presented graphically. A well-crafted figure serves as a narrative within the larger story, making complex ideas more accessible. Unfortunately, visual storytelling often takes a backseat in scientific communication. Scientists are trained to analyze and interpret data, but many default to software-generated plots without considering accessibility or how their figures will be perceived by readers outside their immediate field. Without thoughtful design, figures lose their power to enhance understanding, ultimately limiting the significance of the research itself. In this editorial, we examine the challenges that, in our view, hamper scientific figure design and discuss how thoughtful refinements driven by feedback, iteration, and design principles can enhance clarity and impact visual communication.}, author = {Rayaroth Puthiyaveettil, Aiswarya and Fiedler, Christine and Ibáñez, Maria}, issn = {2694-2461}, journal = {ACS Materials Au}, number = {3}, pages = {438--440}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Let us FIGURE it out: Why do scientists still make “bad” figures?}}, doi = {10.1021/acsmaterialsau.5c00037}, volume = {5}, year = {2025}, } @article{19732, abstract = {The transition to chaos in the subcritical regime of counter-rotating Taylor–Couette flow is investigated using a minimal periodic domain capable of sustaining coherent structures. Following a Feigenbaum cascade, the dynamics is found to be remarkably well approximated by a simple discrete map that admits rigorous proof of its chaotic nature. The chaotic set that arises for the map features densely distributed periodic points that are in one-to-one correspondence with unstable periodic orbits (UPOs) of the Navier–Stokes system. This supports the increasingly accepted view that UPOs may serve as the backbone of turbulence and, indeed, we demonstrate that it is possible to reconstruct every statistical property of chaotic fluid flow from UPOs.}, author = {Wang, Baoying and Ayats López, Roger and Deguchi, K. and Meseguer, A. and Mellibovsky, F.}, issn = {1469-7645}, journal = {Journal of Fluid Mechanics}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, title = {{Mathematically established chaos and forecast of statistics with recurrent patterns in Taylor-Couette flow}}, doi = {10.1017/jfm.2025.151}, volume = {1011}, year = {2025}, } @article{19736, abstract = {The phytohormone auxin is a major signal coordinating growth and development in plants. The variety of its effects arises from its ability to form local auxin maxima and gradients within tissues, generated through directional cell-to-cell transport and elaborate metabolic control. These auxin distribution patterns instruct cells in a context-dependent manner to undergo predefined developmental transitions. In this Review, we discuss advances in auxin action at the level of homeostasis and signalling. We highlight key insights into the structural basis of PIN-mediated intercellular auxin transport and explore two novel non-transcriptional auxin signalling mechanisms: one involving intracellular Ca2+ transients and another involving cell-surface auxin perception that mediates global, ultrafast phosphorylation. Furthermore, we examine emerging evidence indicating the involvement of cyclic adenosine monophosphate as a second messenger in the transcriptional auxin response. Together, these recent developments in auxin research have profoundly deepened our understanding of the complex and diverse activities of auxin in plant growth and development.}, author = {Vanneste, Steffen and Pei, Yuanrong and Friml, Jiří}, issn = {1471-0080}, journal = {Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Mechanisms of auxin action in plant growth and development}}, doi = {10.1038/s41580-025-00851-2}, year = {2025}, } @article{19737, abstract = {For general large non–Hermitian random matrices X and deterministic normal deformations A, we prove that the local eigenvalue statistics of A + X close to the critical edge points of its spectrum are universal. This concludes the proof of the third and last remaining typical universality class for non–Hermitian random matrices (for normal deformations), after bulk and sharp edge universalities have been established in recent years.}, author = {Cipolloni, Giorgio and Erdös, László and Ji, Hong Chang}, issn = {1432-2064}, journal = {Probability Theory and Related Fields}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Non–Hermitian spectral universality at critical points}}, doi = {10.1007/s00440-025-01384-7}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19738, abstract = {Garbling is a fundamental cryptographic primitive, with numerous theoretical and practical applications. Since the first construction by Yao (FOCS’82, ’86), a line of work has concerned itself with reducing the communication and computational complexity of that construction. One of the most efficient garbling schemes presently is the ‘Half Gates’ scheme by Zahur, Rosulek, and Evans (Eurocrypt’15). Despite its widespread adoption, the provable security of this scheme has been based on assumptions whose only instantiations are in idealized models. For example, in their original paper, Zahur, Rosulek, and Evans showed that hash functions satisfying a notion called circular correlation robustness (CCR) suffice for this task, and then proved that CCR secure hash functions can be instantiated in the random permutation model. In this work, we show how to securely instantiate the Half Gates scheme in the standard model. To this end, we first show how this scheme can be securely instantiated given a (family of) weak CCR hash function, a notion that we introduce. Furthermore, we show how a weak CCR hash function can be used to securely instantiate other efficient garbling schemes, namely the ones by Rosulek and Roy (Crypto’21) and Heath (Eurocrypt’24). Thus we believe this notion to be of independent interest. Finally, we construct such weak CCR hash functions using indistinguishability obfuscation and one-way functions. The security proof of this construction constitutes our main technical contribution. While our construction is not practical, it serves as a proof of concept supporting the soundness of these garbling schemes, which we regard to be particularly important given the recent initiative by NIST to standardize garbling, and the optimizations in Half Gates being potentially adopted.}, author = {Acharya, Anasuya and Azari, Karen and Baig, Mirza Ahad and Hofheinz, Dennis and Kamath, Chethan}, booktitle = {28th IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography}, isbn = {9783031918285}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Roros, Norway}, pages = {37--75}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Securely instantiating ‘Half Gates’ garbling in the standard model}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-91829-2_2}, volume = {15677}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19739, abstract = {Cooperative verification is gaining momentum in recent years. The usual setup in cooperative verification is that a verifier A is run with some pre-defined resources, and if it is not able to verify the program, the verification task is passed to a verifier B together with information learned about the program by verifier A, then the chain can continue to a verifier C, and so on. This scheme is static: tools run one after another in a fixed pre-defined order and fixed parameters and resource limits (the scheme may differ for properties to be analyzed, though). Bubaak is a program analysis tool that allows to run multiple program verifiers in a dynamically changing combination of parallel and sequential portfolios. Bubaak starts the verification process by invoking an initial set of tasks; every task, when it is done (e.g., because of hitting a time limit or finishing its job), rewrites itself into one or more successor tasks. New tasks can be also spawned upon events generated by other tasks. This all happens dynamically based on the information gathered by finished and running tasks. During their execution, tasks that run in parallel can exchange (partial) verification artifacts, either directly or with Bubaak as an intermediary.}, author = {Chalupa, Marek and Richter, Cedric}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906596}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {212--216}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{BUBAAK: Dynamic cooperative verification}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90660-2_14}, volume = {15698}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19740, abstract = {Two standard models for probabilistic systems are Markov chains (MCs) and Markov decision processes (MDPs). Classic objectives for such probabilistic models for control and planning problems are reachability and stochastic shortest path. The widely studied algorithmic approach for these problems is the Value Iteration (VI) algorithm which iteratively applies local updates called Bellman updates. There are many practical approaches for VI in the literature but they all require exponentially many Bellman updates for MCs in the worst case. A preprocessing step is an algorithm that is discrete, graph-theoretical, and requires linear space. An important open question is whether, after a polynomial-time preprocessing, VI can be achieved with sub-exponentially many Bellman updates. In this work, we present a new approach for VI based on guessing values. Our theoretical contributions are twofold. First, for MCs, we present an almost-linear-time preprocessing algorithm after which, along with guessing values, VI requires only subexponentially many Bellman updates. Second, we present an improved analysis of the speed of convergence of VI for MDPs. Finally, we present a practical algorithm for MDPs based on our new approach. Experimental results show that our approach provides a considerable improvement over existing VI-based approaches on several benchmark examples from the literature.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Jafariraviz, Mahdi and Saona Urmeneta, Raimundo J and Svoboda, Jakub}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906527}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {217--236}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Value iteration with guessing for Markov chains and Markov decision processes}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90653-4_11}, volume = {15697}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19742, abstract = {Statistical model checking estimates probabilities and expectations of interest in probabilistic system models by using random simulations. Its results come with statistical guarantees. However, many tools use unsound statistical methods that produce incorrect results more often than they claim. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of tools and their correctness, as well as of sound methods available for estimating probabilities from the literature. For expected rewards, we investigate how to bound the path reward distribution to apply sound statistical methods for bounded distributions, of which we recommend the Dvoretzky-Kiefer-Wolfowitz inequality that has not been used in SMC so far. We prove that even reachability rewards can be bounded in theory, and formalise the concept of limit-PAC procedures for a practical solution. The modes SMC tool implements our methods and recommendations, which we use to experimentally confirm our results.}, author = {Budde, Carlos E. and Hartmanns, Arnd and Meggendorfer, Tobias and Weininger, Maximilian and Wienhöft, Patrick}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906428}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {167--190}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Sound statistical model checking for probabilities and expected rewards}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90643-5_9}, volume = {15696}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19743, abstract = {The possibility of errors in human-engineered formal verification software, such as model checkers, poses a serious threat to the purpose of these tools. An established approach to mitigate this problem are certificates—lightweight, easy-to-check proofs of the verification results. In this paper, we develop novel certificates for model checking of Markov decision processes (MDPs) with quantitative reachability and expected reward properties. Our approach is conceptually simple and relies almost exclusively on elementary fixed point theory. Our certificates work for arbitrary finite MDPs and can be readily computed with little overhead using standard algorithms. We formalize the soundness of our certificates in Isabelle/HOL and provide a formally verified certificate checker. Moreover, we augment existing algorithms in the probabilistic model checker Storm with the ability to produce certificates and demonstrate practical applicability by conducting the first formal certification of the reference results in the Quantitative Verification Benchmark Set.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Quatmann, Tim and Schäffeler, Maximilian and Weininger, Maximilian and Winkler, Tobias and Zilken, Daniel}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906527}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {130--151}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Fixed point certificates for reachability and expected rewards in MDPs}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90653-4_7}, volume = {15697}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19744, abstract = {We consider the problem of refuting equivalence of probabilistic programs, i.e., the problem of proving that two probabilistic programs induce different output distributions. We study this problem in the context of programs with conditioning (i.e., with observe and score statements), where the output distribution is conditioned by the event that all the observe statements along a run evaluate to true, and where the probability densities of different runs may be updated via the score statements. Building on a recent work on programs without conditioning, we present a new equivalence refutation method for programs with conditioning. Our method is based on weighted restarting, a novel transformation of probabilistic programs with conditioning to the output equivalent probabilistic programs without conditioning that we introduce in this work. Our method is the first to be both a) fully automated, and b) providing provably correct answers. We demonstrate the applicability of our method on a set of programs from the probabilistic inference literature.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Kafshdar Goharshadi, Ehsan and Novotný, Petr and Zikelic, Dorde}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906527}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {279--300}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Refuting equivalence in probabilistic programs with conditioning}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90653-4_14}, volume = {15697}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19769, abstract = {Artifact to reproduce the experimental results presented in the article "Sound Statistical Model Checking for Probabilities and Expected Rewards" by Carlos E. Budde, Arnd Hartmanns, Tobias Meggendorfer, Maximilian Weininger, and Patrick Wienhöft (TACAS 2025). The contents include all data and software (formal models, software tools, Python & bash scripts) used in the experimental evaluation presented in sections 3, 4, and 6 of the article. Detailed instructions on how to reproduce the results are bundled in the artifact.}, author = {Budde, Carlos and Hartmanns, Arnd and Meggendorfer, Tobias and Weininger, Maximilian and Wienhöft, Patrick}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Sound statistical model checking for probabilities and expected rewards (experimental reproduction package)}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.14602066}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19771, abstract = {This artifact allows to review and reproduce the Isabelle proofs and practical experiments from the paper *Fixed Point Certificates for Reachability and Expected Rewards in MDPs*. The contents are two-fold: First, the artifact contains a formally verified certificate checker for the certificates presented in the paper. The formal Isabelle/HOL proofs of the background theory can be inspected, checked by Isabelle and the code extraction can be retraced. Second, the artifact contains a modified version of the model checking tool `Storm` with support for certificate generation. Together with the provided scripts and benchmark files, this allows to reproduce the experiments from the paper. An appropriate subset of the experiments is given to allow a review in a timely manner. In addition, original logfiles from our experiments are provided, allowing a detailed inspection. The package includes convenient installation scripts for [the TACAS 2023 VM](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7113223) (based on Ubuntu 22.04). A native installation on Linux or macOS systems (including the newer ARM-based machines) is also possible.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Quatmann, Tim and Schäffeler, Maximilian and Weininger, Maximilian and Winkler, Tobias and Zilken, Daniel}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Artifact: Fixed point certificates for reachability and expected rewards in MDPs}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.14626585}, year = {2025}, } @article{19777, abstract = {Snow cover is of key importance for water resources in high mountain Asia (HMA) and is expected to undergo extensive changes in a warming climate. Past studies have quantified snow cover changes with satellite products of relatively low spatial resolution (∼500 m) which are hindered by the steep topography of this mountain region. We derive snowlines from Sentinel-2 and Landsat 5, 7 and 8 images, which, thanks to their higher spatial resolution, are less sensitive to the local topography. We calculate the snow line altitude (SLA) and its seasonality for all glacierized catchments of HMA and link these patterns to climate variables corrected for topographic biases. As such, the snowline changes provide a clear proxy for climatic changes. Our results highlight a strong spatial variability in mean SLA and in its seasonal changes, including across mountain chains and between the monsoon-dominated and the westerlies-dominated catchments. Over the period 1999–2019, the western regions of HMA (Pamir, Karakoram, Western Himalaya) have undergone increased snow coverage, expressed as seasonal SLA decrease, in spring and summer. This change is opposed to a widespread increase in SLA in autumn across the region, and especially the southeastern regions of HMA (Nyainqentanglha, Hengduan Shan, South–East Himalaya). Our results indicate that the diversity of seasonal snow dynamics across the region is controlled not by temperature or precipitation directly but by the timing and partitioning of solid precipitation. Decadal snowline changes (1999–2009 vs 2009–2019) seasonally precede temperature changes, suggesting that seasonal temperature changes in the Karakoram–Pamir and Eastern Nyainqentanglha regions may have responded to snow cover changes, rather than driving them.}, author = {Bernat, M. and Miles, E. S. and Kneib, M. and Fujita, K. and Sasaki, O. and Shaw, Thomas and Pellicciotti, Francesca}, issn = {1748-9326}, journal = {Environmental Research Letters}, number = {6}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{Precipitation phase drives seasonal and decadal snowline changes in high mountain Asia}}, doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/adcf39}, volume = {20}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19778, abstract = {A verifiable delay function VDF(x, T)->(y, π) maps an input x and time parameter T to an output y together with an efficiently verifiable proof π certifying that y was correctly computed. The function runs in T sequential steps, and it should not be possible to compute y much faster than that. The only known practical VDFs use sequential squaring in groups of unknown order as the sequential function, i.e., y = x^2^T. There are two constructions for the proof of exponentiation (PoE) certifying that y = x^2^T, with Wesolowski (Eurocrypt’19) having very short proofs, but they are more expensive to compute and the soundness relies on stronger assumptions than the PoE proposed by Pietrzak (ITCS’19). A recent application of VDFs by Arun, Bonneau and Clark (Asiacrypt’22) are short-lived proofs and signatures, which are proofs and signatures that are only sound for some time t, but after that can be forged by anyone. For this they rely on “watermarkable VDFs”, where the proof embeds a prover chosen watermark. To achieve stronger notions of proofs/signatures with reusable forgeability, they rely on “zero-knowledge VDFs”, where instead of the output y, one just proves knowledge of this output. The existing proposals for watermarkable and zero-knowledge VDFs all build on Wesolowski’s PoE, for the watermarkable VDFs there’s currently no security proof. In this work we give the first constructions that transform any PoEs in hidden order groups into watermarkable VDFs and into zkVDFs, solving an open question by Arun et al. Unlike our watermarkable VDF, the zkVDF (required for reusable forgeability) is not very practical as the number of group elements in the proof is a security parameter. To address this, we introduce the notion of zero-knowledge proofs of sequential work (zkPoSW), a notion that relaxes zkVDFs by not requiring that the output is unique. We show that zkPoSW are sufficient to construct proofs or signatures with reusable forgeability, and construct efficient zkPoSW from any PoE, ultimately achieving short lived proofs and signatures that improve upon Arun et al.’s construction in several dimensions (faster forging times, arguably weaker assumptions). A key idea underlying our constructions is to not directly construct a (watermarked or zk) proof for y = x^2^T, but instead give a (watermarked or zk) proof for the more basic statement that x^l, y^l satisfy x^l = x ^r, y^l = y^r for some r, together with a normal PoE for y^l = (x^l)^2^T.}, author = {Hoffmann, Charlotte and Pietrzak, Krzysztof Z}, booktitle = {28th IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography}, isbn = {9783031918193}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Roros, Norway}, pages = {36--66}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Watermarkable and zero-knowledge Verifiable Delay Functions from any proof of exponentiation}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-91820-9_2}, volume = {15674}, year = {2025}, } @article{19779, abstract = {The transverse thermoelectric (Nernst) effect is a powerful probe for studying the electronic and structural properties of materials. In this study, we employ transverse thermoelectric measurements to investigate the ferroelectric distortion in the topological crystalline insulator (TCI) Pb0.60Sn0.40Te, a compound derived from PbTe and SnTe, known for their exceptional thermoelectric performance and distinct ferroelectric properties. By leveraging Nernst measurements, we provide direct evidence of ferroelectric distortion in this TCI, corroborated by Shubnikov–de Haas quantum oscillations that confirm the presence of two topologically nontrivial Fermi pockets. Density functional theory calculations show that these pockets originate from the L and T points in the Brillouin zone of the distorted structure within the TCI phase. Raman spectroscopy further identifies a structural phase transition below 50 K, consistent with the quantum oscillation observations. This observation is further substantiated by temperature-dependent synchrotron X-ray pair distribution function analysis and transmission electron microscopy, which confirm the local off-centering of cations at low temperature. These findings underscore the potential of transverse thermoelectric measurements in unveiling ferroelectric distortions and their role in modulating topological quantum states, opening new directions for research into the synergy between ferroelectricity and topological phases.}, author = {Negi, Pranav and He, Bin and Ukolov, Denis and Horta, Sharona and Maji, Krishnendu and Mao, Ning and Peshcherenko, Nikolai and Yanda, Premakumar and Yao, Mengyu and Dutta, Moinak and Robredo, Iñigo and Iraola, Mikel and Vergniory, Maia G. and Lemmens, Peter and Zhang, Yang and Shekhar, Chandra and Ibáñez, Maria and Felser, Claudia and Roychowdhury, Subhajit}, issn = {1520-5126}, journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society}, number = {22}, pages = {18704--18711}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Evidence of ferroelectric distortions in topological crystalline insulators via transverse thermoelectric measurements}}, doi = {10.1021/jacs.5c01700}, volume = {147}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19780, abstract = {This repository contains the data used for the study Precipitation phase drives seasonal and decadal snowline changes in high mountain Asia. This study focuses on 4776 glacierized catchments across high mountain Asia (HMA). They are numbered from 0 to 4775. This code number is then used in all the products as their unique ID. }, author = {Bernat, M}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Snow line altitude in high mountain Asia derived from satellite imagery (LS5, LS7, LS8 & S2) between 1999 and 2019}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.15223343}, year = {2025}, }