@article{20867,
  abstract     = {We discuss the embeddability of subspaces of the Gromov–Hausdorff space, which consists of isometry classes of compact metric spaces endowed with the Gromov–Hausdorff distance, into Hilbert spaces. These embeddings are particularly valuable for applications to topological data analysis. We prove that its subspace consisting of metric spaces with at most n points has asymptotic dimension n(n−1)∕2. Thus, there exists a coarse embedding of that space into a Hilbert space. On the contrary, if the number of points is not bounded, then the subspace cannot be coarsely embedded into any uniformly convex Banach space and so, in particular, into any Hilbert space. Furthermore, we prove that, even if we restrict to finite metric spaces whose diameter is bounded by some constant, the subspace still cannot be bi-Lipschitz embedded into any finite-dimensional Hilbert space. We obtain both nonembeddability results by finding obstructions to coarse and bi-Lipschitz embeddings in families of isometry classes of finite subsets of the real line endowed with the Euclidean–Hausdorff distance.},
  author       = {Zava, Nicolò},
  issn         = {1472-2739},
  journal      = {Algebraic & Geometric Topology},
  number       = {8},
  pages        = {5153--5174},
  publisher    = {Mathematical Sciences Publishers},
  title        = {{Coarse and bi-Lipschitz embeddability of subspaces of the Gromov–Hausdorff space into Hilbert spaces}},
  doi          = {10.2140/agt.2025.25.5153},
  volume       = {25},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20868,
  abstract     = {Residents of low-latitude megacities face growing vulnerability to humid-heat stress under urbanization and global warming, yet limited research has assessed the morbidity burden of mental and behavioral disorders (MBDs) linked to humid-heat exposures in these cities. Here we quantify the hospital admissions of MBDs in Shanghai, a megacity of over 25 million inhabitants, attributable to humid heat, and project future burdens under various greenhouse gas (GHG)-emission and population scenarios. Humid heat drives a higher morbidity burden than high temperature alone, especially in humid-heat nights. Without population change, the humid-heat-related morbidity burden of MBDs would increase by 68.2% (95% empirical confidence interval 56.7%–81.6%) under the highest-GHG-emission scenario by the 2090s, while 8,465 (95% empirical confidence interval 6,928–10,053) cases would be avoided by reducing emissions to the lowest pathway. With projected population decline, the attributable hospital admissions will decrease toward century’s end. These findings highlight the benefit of GHG mitigation in reducing the growing MBD risks posed by extreme humid heat.},
  author       = {Liang, Chen and Yuan, Jiacan and Zhang, Renhe and Tang, Xu and Schumann, Gunter and Hitchen, Esther and Polemiti, Elli and Serin, Emin and Kebir, Hedi and Lett, Tristram A. and Vaidya, Nilakshi and Roy, Jean-Charles and Walter, Henrik and Heinz, Andreas and Ralser, Markus and Twardziok, Sven and Eils, Roland and Jentsch, Marcel and Taron, Ulrike-Helene and Schütz, Tatjana and Schepanski, Kerstin and Banaschewski, Tobias and Neidhart, Maja and Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas and Tost, Heike and Holz, Nathalie and Schwarz, Emanuel and Stringaris, Argyris and Christmann, Nina and Janson, Karina and Nees, Frauke and Neidhart, Maja and Seefried, Beke and Aden, Rieke and Andreassen, Ole A. and Westlye, Lars T. and van der Meer, Dennis and Fernández-Cabello, Sara and Kjelkenes, Rikka and Ask, Helga and Rapp, Michael and Tschorn, Mira and Böttger, Sarah Jane and Marquand, Andre and Bernas, Antoine and Novarino, Gaia and Slater, Mel and Gallego, Jaime and Pastor, Álvaro and Feixas, Guillem and Eiroa-Orosa, Francisco José and Nöthen, Markus M. and Forstner, Andreas J. and Claus, Isabelle and Mathey, Carina and Heilmann-Heimbach, Stefanie and Hoffmann, Per and Miller, Abigail and Sommer, Peter and Schmitt, Karen and Wilbertz, Johannes and Patraskaki, Myrto and Jirsa, Viktor and Petkoski, Spase and Athanasiadis, Anastasios-Polykarpos and Spanlang, Bernhard and Pearmund, Charlie and Hese, Sören and Renner, Paul and Jia, Tianye and Chang, Xiao and Dai, Yuxiang and Xia, Yunman and Li, Yuzhu and Zhang, Yanqing and Calhoun, Vince and Thompson, Paul and Clinton, Nicholas and Desrivières, Sylvane and Agunbiade, Kofoworola and Yu, Xinyang and Zhang, Zuo and Chen, Di and Young, Allan H. and Schwalber, Ameli and Köhler, Vanessa and Stahl, Bernd and Ogoh, George and Schikowski, Tamara and Brandlistuen, Ragnhild},
  issn         = {2731-6076},
  journal      = {Nature Mental Health},
  number       = {12},
  pages        = {1532--1544},
  publisher    = {Springer Nature},
  title        = {{Projecting the morbidity burden of mental and behavioral disorders associated with increasing humid heat in Shanghai}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s44220-025-00519-y},
  volume       = {3},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20869,
  abstract     = {Premise: What maintains trait divergence in the face of gene flow? Two varieties of wild snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) characterized by divergent flower color hybridize in their native range. Selection on flower color genes is indicated by sharp clines, but the selective agents have not been demonstrated. Although previous work has focused on pollinators, pigmentation genes can also contribute to abiotic stress tolerance. We hypothesized that pigmentation in A. majus mediates stress tolerance, which could contribute to hybrid zone maintenance through parental niche divergence or hybrid maladaptation. Specifically, we tested whether morphotype mediates drought tolerance in an experiment comparing magenta-flowered var. pseudomajus, yellow-flowered var. striatum, and their pink-flowered hybrid cross.
Methods: We experimentally compared drought tolerance of each morphotype from allopatric crosses within and between varieties using three greenhouse treatments. Control plants were watered as needed, while drought-treated plants were watered half as often, either from the transplant stage (“early” drought), or from flowering onset (“late” drought).
Results: Parental morphotypes responded identically to drought in fitness and most phenotypic traits. However, hybrids had lower survival (14%) under late drought stress than parental morphotypes (70%). All hybrids that flowered in the late drought treatment died, compared to ~20% of flowering parental morphotypes.
Conclusions: Hybrid maladaptation to abiotic stress could potentially contribute to flower color divergence in the face of gene flow in A. majus. Further research should test the relevance of our results to field conditions and explicitly probe the role of flower color genes in drought tolerance.},
  author       = {Fuster‐Calvo, Alexandre and Jaworski, Coline C. and Ellis, Thomas and Baskett, Carina},
  issn         = {1537-2197},
  journal      = {American Journal of Botany},
  number       = {12},
  publisher    = {Wiley},
  title        = {{Reduced fitness under drought stress in F1 hybrids of Antirrhinum majus varieties with divergent flower colors}},
  doi          = {10.1002/ajb2.70129},
  volume       = {112},
  year         = {2025},
}

@inbook{20870,
  abstract     = {RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) methodologies have evolved rapidly, offering powerful tools to study gene expression, transcriptome dynamics, and molecular mechanisms in various biological contexts. However, the complexity of these approaches poses challenges in data interpretation, sensitivity, and applicability. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of RNA-seq methodologies, highlighting their advantages, limitations, and applications, particularly in cardiovascular research. Bulk RNA sequencing enables high-throughput gene expression profiling but lacks the resolution to capture cellular heterogeneity and spatial context. Direct RNA sequencing preserves native RNA modifications, offering insights into post-transcriptional regulation, though it remains technically challenging. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics (ST) bridge these gaps by resolving transcriptomic complexity at the cellular level and within tissue architecture, providing crucial insights into disease mechanisms such as atherosclerosis. By summarizing the strengths and limitations of these methodologies, this chapter aims to guide researchers in selecting the most suitable transcriptomic approach for their studies, ultimately advancing precision medicine and biomarker discovery in cardiovascular disease.},
  author       = {Stopa, Victoria and Sopić, Miron and Li, Guanliang and Sluimer, Judith and Basílio, José and van der Laan, Sander W. and Kreil, David P. and Devaux, Yvan and Hochreiter, Bernhard},
  booktitle    = {Transcriptomics in Atherosclerosis},
  editor       = {Devaux, Yvan and Sopic, Miron},
  isbn         = {9780443330643},
  pages        = {131--172},
  publisher    = {Elsevier},
  title        = {{Essentials of transcriptomic methods: Navigating through RNA sequencing and beyond}},
  doi          = {10.1016/b978-0-443-33064-3.00016-5},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20928,
  abstract     = {The current work focuses on the performance of hydrodynamics and mass transfer in a microchannel. A hydrodynamic model is developed for a gas–liquid (CO2–water) system and slug flow pattern. For the first time in literature, a concept of pulsating velocity input is introduced in an enhanced cross-T-junction microchannel to study the mass transfer using the physical absorption mechanism in ANSYS FLUENT R2 2024. The mass transfer model is associated with the hydrodynamic model and some user-defined functions in FLUENT. This work demonstrates that incorporating obstructions and applying trapezoidal and sinusoidal wave inputs improve the CO2 absorption rate. The obtained data are further compared with the plain T-junction microchannel in terms of mass transfer coefficient. Solubility of CO2 in three different solvents (ethyl alcohol, water, and ethylene glycol) has been revealed in an enhanced cross T-junction microchannel at two different temperatures, i.e., 298.15 and 303.15 K. The numerical simulations illustrate that an increase in temperature has an adverse effect on the mass transfer rate.},
  author       = {Khatoon, Bushra and Chaudhary, Vikas K. and Kamil, Shoaib and Hasan, Shabih Ul and Alam, M. Siraj},
  issn         = {1089-7666},
  journal      = {Physics of Fluids},
  number       = {12},
  publisher    = {AIP Publishing},
  title        = {{Enhanced mass transfer in microgeometry using pulsating velocity inputs: Hydrodynamic analysis and numerical simulation}},
  doi          = {10.1063/5.0303132},
  volume       = {37},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20929,
  abstract     = {Insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling inhibits FOXO transcription factors to control development, homeostasis, and aging. Here, we use proximity labeling to identify proteins interacting with the C. elegans FOXO DAF-16. We show that in well-fed, unstressed animals harboring active insulin signaling, DAF-16 forms a complex with the PAR-1/MARK serine/threonine kinase, a key regulator of cell polarity. PAR-1 inhibits DAF-16 accumulation and promotes DAF-16 phosphorylation at S249, at a conserved motif that PAR-1/human MARK2 phosphorylates in vitro. DAF-2 insulin-like receptor signaling stimulates DAF-16 S249 phosphorylation, suggesting DAF-2 activates PAR-1. DAF-2 also promotes PAR-1 expression by inhibiting DAF-16. PAR-1 knockdown, or DAF-16 S249A, prolong lifespan, whereas phosphomimetic DAF-16 S249D suppresses the longevity of daf-2 mutants. At low insulin signaling, DAF-16 proximity labeling highlights transcription factors, chromatin regulators, and DNA repair proteins. One interactor, the zinc finger/homeobox protein ZFH-2/ZFHX3, forms a complex with DAF-16 and prolongs lifespan. Our work provides entry points for hypothesis-driven studies of FOXO function and longevity.},
  author       = {Artan, Murat and Schön, Hanna and De Bono, Mario},
  issn         = {2041-1723},
  journal      = {Nature Communications},
  publisher    = {Springer Nature},
  title        = {{Proximity labeling of DAF-16 FOXO highlights aging regulatory proteins}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41467-025-66409-0},
  volume       = {16},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20930,
  abstract     = {Context. Beta Pictoris is an A-type star that hosts a complex planetary system with two massive gas giants and a prominent debris disc. Variable absorption lines in its stellar spectrum have been interpreted as signatures of exocomets – comet-like bodies transiting the star. Stellar flybys can gravitationally perturb objects in the outer comet reservoir, altering their orbits and potentially injecting them into the inner system, thereby triggering exocomet showers.
Aims. We assessed the contribution of stellar flybys to the observed exocomet activity by reconstructing the stellar encounter history of β Pictoris in the past and future.
Methods. We used Gaia DR3 data, supplemented with radial velocities from complementary spectroscopic surveys, to compile a catalogue of stars currently within 80 pc of β Pictoris. Their orbits were integrated backwards and forwards in time in an axisymmetric Galactic potential (via the GALA package) to identify encounters within 2 pc of the system.
Results. We identified 99 416 stars currently within 80 pc of β Pictoris with resolved kinematics. Among these, 49 stars (including the eight components of five binaries) encounter β Pictoris within 2 pc between –1.5 Myr and +2 Myr. For four of the binaries, the centre-of-mass trajectories also pass within 2 pc. We estimated the sample to be more than 60% complete within 0.5 Myr of today.
Conclusions. Despite β Pictoris being the eponym of its famous moving group, none of the identified encounters involved its moving group members; all are unrelated field stars. We found no encounter capable of shaping the observed disc structures, although stellar flybys may contribute to the long-term evolution of an Oort Cloud-like structure. Our catalogue constitutes the most complete reconstruction of the β Pictoris encounter history to date and provides a robust foundation for future dynamical simulations.},
  author       = {Gragera-Más, J. L. and Torres Rodriguez, Santiago and Mustill, A. J. and Villaver, E.},
  issn         = {1432-0746},
  journal      = {Astronomy & Astrophysics},
  publisher    = {EDP Sciences},
  title        = {{A kinematic history of stellar encounters with Beta Pictoris}},
  doi          = {10.1051/0004-6361/202555940},
  volume       = {704},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20932,
  abstract     = {Identifying Lyman continuum (LyC) leakers at intermediate redshifts is crucial for understanding the properties of cosmic reionizers because the opacity of the intergalactic medium (IGM) prevents the direct detection of LyC emission from sources during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). In this study, we confirm two new LyC candidate leakers at z ∼ 3 in the Abell 2744 cluster field, with absolute escape fractions (fesc) of 0.83−0.80+0.15 and 0.74−0.70+0.23, respectively. The LyC emission was detected using HST/WFC3/F275W and F336W imaging. These two candidate leakers appear to be faint (MUV = −17.61 ± 0.06 and −18.22 ± 0.10), exhibit blue UV continuum slopes (β = −2.43 ± 0.05 and −1.92 ± 0.09), have low masses (M★ ∼ 107.51 ± 0.03 and 107.17 ± 0.15 M⊙) and Lyα equivalent widths of 90 ± 3 Å and 28 ± 12 Å, respectively. These two LyC candidate leakers were detected in a catalog of 91 spectroscopically confirmed sources using public spectra from the JWST and/or MUSE. We also analyzed properties that were proposed as indirect indicators of LyC emission, such as Lyα, the O32 ratio, and M★. We created a galaxy subsample that was selected according to these properties, stacked the LyC observations of this subsample, and assessed the limits of the escape fractions in the stacks. We aim to enhance our understanding of LyC escape mechanisms and improve our predictions of the LyC fesc during the EoR by analyzing the individual candidates and the stacks in the context of the currently limited sample of known LyC leakers at z ∼ 3.},
  author       = {Liu, Y. and Mascia, Sara and Pentericci, L. and Watson, P. and Alavi, A. and Bergamini, P. and Bradač, M. and Calabrò, A. and Glazebrook, K. and Henry, A. and Llerena, M. and Merlin, E. and Metha, B. and Nanayakkara, T. and Napolitano, L. and Roy, N. and Siana, B. and Vanzella, E. and Vulcani, B. and Wang, X.},
  issn         = {1432-0746},
  journal      = {Astronomy & Astrophysics},
  publisher    = {EDP Sciences},
  title        = {{A Lyman continuum analysis of ∼100 galaxies at z spec∼ 3 in the Abell 2744 cluster field}},
  doi          = {10.1051/0004-6361/202556410},
  volume       = {704},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20934,
  abstract     = { Supervised learning for causal discovery from observational data often achieves competitive performance despite seemingly avoiding the explicit assumptions that traditional methods require for identifiability. In this work, we analyze CSIvA (Ke et al., 2023) on bivariate causal models, a transformer architecture for amortized inference promising to train on synthetic data and transfer to real ones. First, we bridge the gap with identifiability theory, showing that the training distribution implicitly defines a prior on the causal model of the test observations: consistent with classical approaches, good performance is achieved when we have a good prior on the test data, and the underlying model is identifiable. Second, we find that CSIvA can not generalize to classes of causal models unseen during training: to overcome this limitation, we theoretically and empirically analyze \textit{when} training CSIvA on datasets generated by multiple identifiable causal models with different structural assumptions improves its generalization at test time. Overall, we find that amortized causal discovery still adheres to identifiability theory, violating the previous hypothesis from Lopez-Paz et al. (2015) that supervised learning methods could overcome its restrictions.},
  author       = {Montagna, Francesco and Cairney-Leeming, Maximilian T and Sridhar, Dhanya and Locatello, Francesco},
  issn         = {2835-8856},
  journal      = {Transactions on Machine Learning Research},
  publisher    = {ML Research Press},
  title        = {{Demystifying amortized causal discovery with transformers}},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20960,
  abstract     = {A linker unit was designed and synthesized that can serve both as a hairpin turn in a DNA duplex and anchor point for an aromatic helical foldamer mimicking the shape and surface properties of B‐DNA. Methods were developed to synthesize natural/non‐natural chimeric molecules combining foldamer and DNA segments. The ability of the linker to position the foldamer helix and the duplex DNA so that their rims and grooves are in register, despite their completely different chemical nature, was demonstrated using single crystal X‐ray diffraction, circular dichroism and molecular models. Bio‐layer interferometry confirmed that artificial hairpin DNA duplexes keep their ability to bind to DNA binding proteins. The chimeric molecules may pave the way to competitive inhibitors of protein‐DNA interactions involving sequence‐selective DNA‐binding proteins.},
  author       = {Loos, Manuel and Xu, Felix and Mandal, Pradeep K and Chakrabortty, Tulika and Douat, Céline and Konrad, David B. and Cabbar, Melis and Singer, Johannes and Corvaglia, Valentina and Carell, Thomas and Huc, Ivan},
  issn         = {1521-3773},
  journal      = {Angewandte Chemie International Edition},
  number       = {31},
  publisher    = {Wiley},
  title        = {{Interfacing B‐DNA and DNA mimic foldamers}},
  doi          = {10.1002/anie.202505273},
  volume       = {64},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20976,
  abstract     = {We present an experimental demonstration of an impedance-engineered Josephson parametric amplifier (IEJPA) fabricated in a single-step lithography process. Impedance-engineering is implemented using a lumped-element series LC circuit. We use a simpler lithography process where the entire device—impedance transformer and Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA)—is patterned in a single electron beam lithography step, followed by a double-angle Dolan-bridge technique for Al–AlOx–Al deposition. We observe amplification with 18 dB gain over a wide 400 MHz bandwidth centered around 5.3 GHz with added noise approaching the quantum limit, and a saturation power of −114 dBm. To accurately explain our experimental results, we extend existing theories for IEJPAs to incorporate the full sine nonlinearity of both the JPA and the transformer. Our work provides a route to simpler realization of broadband JPAs and a theoretical foundation for a regime of JPA operation that has been less explored in literature.},
  author       = {Patel, Lipi and Hawaldar, Samarth and Panikkar, Aditya and Shankar, Athreya and Suri, Baladitya},
  issn         = {1077-3118},
  journal      = {Applied Physics Letters},
  number       = {25},
  publisher    = {AIP Publishing},
  title        = {{Impedance-engineered Josephson parametric amplifier with single-step lithography}},
  doi          = {10.1063/5.0290636},
  volume       = {127},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{20977,
  abstract     = {Hippocampal sharp-wave ripples (SPW-Rs) are high-frequency oscillations critical for memory consolidation. Despite extensive characterization in rodents, their detection in humans is limited by coarse spatial sampling, interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs), and a lack of consensus on human ripple localization and morphology. Here, we demonstrate that mouse and human hippocampal ripples share spatial, spectral and temporal features, which are clearly distinct from IEDs. In recordings from male APP/PS1 mice, SPW-Rs were distinguishable from IEDs by multiple criteria. Hippocampal ripples recorded during NREM sleep in female and male surgical epilepsy patients exhibited similar narrowband frequency peaks and multiple ripple cycles in the CA1 and subiculum regions. Conversely, IEDs showed a broad spatial extent and wide-band frequency power. We developed a semi-automated, ripple curation toolbox (ripmap) to separate event waveforms by low-dimensional embedding to reduce false-positive rate in selected ripple channels. Our approach improves ripple detection and provides a firm foundation for future human memory research.},
  author       = {Maslarova, Anna and Shin, Jiyun N. and Navas Olivé, Andrea C and Vöröslakos, Mihály and Hamer, Hajo and Doerfler, Arnd and Henin, Simon and Buzsáki, György and Liu, Anli},
  issn         = {2041-1723},
  journal      = {Nature Communications},
  publisher    = {Springer Nature},
  title        = {{Spatiotemporal patterns differentiate hippocampal sharp-wave ripples from interictal epileptiform discharges in mice and humans}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41467-025-66562-6},
  volume       = {16},
  year         = {2025},
}

@unpublished{20982,
  abstract     = {Plant cells respond to a wide range of stimuli through intracellular calcium (Ca2+) signaling. Cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (CNGCs) are a major class of plant Ca2+ channels, with 20 homologs in Arabidopsis. These tetrameric plasma membrane proteins act downstream of diverse signals, such as phytohormones, extracellular damage, cell wall integrity or temperature. Here, we identify a class of plant-specific proteins, Armadillo Repeat Only (ARO), as essential regulators of possibly all plant CNGCs. Abrogation of functional sporophytic AROs results in a phenotypic pattern strongly reminiscent of CNGC dysfunction, including defects in root gravitropism, root hair growth and morphology, stomatal movement, and responses to extracellular ATP and the phytohormone auxin. aro2/3/4 mutants are fully resistant to the toxic effects caused by overexpression of CNGCs. AROs colocalize and physically interact with multiple CNGCs and modulate CNGC-dependent currents in Xenopus oocytes. Structural modeling and site-directed mutagenesis reveal AROs tetramer formation surrounding the CNGC channel, interacting via its IQ domain. Taken together, plant CNGC channels don’t act alone, but in a larger complex - channelosome, first of a kind in plants.},
  author       = {Kulich, Ivan and Oulehlová, Denisa and Vladimirtsev, Dmitrii and Zou, Minxia and Lileikyte, Edita and Bondar, Alexey and Kulichová, Katarína and Janda, Martin and Iakovenko, Oksana and Neubergerová, Michaela and Studtrucker, Tanja and Pleskot, Roman and Dietrich, Petra and Fendrych, Matyas and Friml, Jiří},
  booktitle    = {bioRxiv},
  title        = {{Armadillo repeat only proteins are required for the function of plant CNGC channels}},
  doi          = {10.1101/2025.01.06.631460},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{21007,
  abstract     = {Currently, the best known tradeoff between approximation ratio and complexity for the Sparsest Cut problem is achieved by the algorithm in [Sherman, FOCS 2009]: it computes O(√(log n)/ε)-approximation using O(nε logO(1) n) maxflows for any ε∈[Θ(1/log n),Θ(1)]. It works by solving the SDP relaxation of [Arora-Rao-Vazirani, STOC 2004] using the Multiplicative Weights Update algorithm (MW) of [Arora-Kale, JACM 2016]. To implement one MW step, Sherman approximately solves a multicommodity flow problem using another application of MW. Nested MW steps are solved via a certain "chaining" algorithm that combines results of multiple calls to the maxflow algorithm. We present an alternative approach that avoids solving the multicommodity flow problem and instead computes "violating paths". This simplifies Sherman's algorithm by removing a need for a nested application of MW, and also allows parallelization: we show how to compute O(√(log n)/ε)-approximation via O(logO(1) n) maxflows using O(nε) processors. We also revisit Sherman's chaining algorithm, and present a simpler version together with a new analysis.},
  author       = {Kolmogorov, Vladimir},
  issn         = {1549-6333},
  journal      = {ACM Transactions on Algorithms},
  number       = {4},
  pages        = {1--22},
  publisher    = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  title        = {{A simpler and parallelizable O(√log n)-approximation algorithm for SPARSEST CUT}},
  doi          = {10.1145/3748723},
  volume       = {21},
  year         = {2025},
}

@inproceedings{21020,
  abstract     = {Runtime verification offers scalable solutions to improve the safety and reliability of systems. However, systems that require verification or monitoring by a third party to ensure compliance with a specification might contain sensitive information, causing privacy concerns when usual runtime verification approaches are used. Privacy is compromised if protected information about the system, or sensitive data that is processed by the system, is revealed. In addition, revealing the specification being monitored may undermine the essence of third-party verification.
In this work, we propose two novel protocols for the privacy-preserving runtime verification of systems against formal sequential specifications. In our first protocol, the monitor verifies whether the system satisfies the specification without learning anything else, though both parties are aware of the specification. Our second protocol ensures that the system remains oblivious to the monitored specification, while the monitor learns only whether the system satisfies the specification and nothing more. Our protocols adapt and improve existing techniques used in cryptography, and more specifically, multi-party computation.
The sequential specification defines the observation step of the monitor, whose granularity depends on the situation (e.g., banks may be monitored on a daily basis). Our protocols exchange a single message per observation step, after an initialisation phase. This design minimises communication overhead, enabling relatively lightweight privacy-preserving monitoring. We implement our approach for monitoring specifications described by register automata and evaluate it experimentally.},
  author       = {Henzinger, Thomas A and Karimi, Mahyar and Thejaswini, K. S.},
  booktitle    = {Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security},
  isbn         = {9798400715259},
  location     = {Taipei, Taiwan},
  pages        = {2774--2787},
  publisher    = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  title        = {{Privacy-preserving runtime verification}},
  doi          = {10.1145/3719027.3765137},
  year         = {2025},
}

@inproceedings{21049,
  abstract     = {Post-hoc importance attribution methods are a popular tool for “explaining” Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) and are inherently based on the assumption that the explanations can be applied independently of how the models were trained. Contrarily, in this work we bring forward empirical evidence that challenges this very notion. Surprisingly, we discover a strong dependency on and demonstrate that the training details of a pre-trained model’s classification layer (<10% of model parameters) play a crucial role, much more than the pre-training scheme itself. This is of high practical relevance: (1) as techniques for pre-training models are becoming increasingly diverse, understanding the interplay between these techniques and attribution methods is critical; (2) it sheds light on an important yet overlooked assumption of post-hoc attribution methods which can drastically impact model explanations and how they are interpreted eventually. With this finding we also present simple yet effective adjustments to the classification layers, that can significantly enhance the quality of model explanations. We validate our findings across several visual pre-training frameworks (fully-supervised, self-supervised, contrastive vision-language training) and analyse how they impact explanations for a wide range of attribution methods on a diverse set of evaluation metrics.},
  author       = {Gairola, Siddhartha and Böhle, Moritz and Locatello, Francesco and Schiele, Bernt},
  booktitle    = {13th International Conference on Learning Representations},
  location     = {Singapore},
  publisher    = {ICLR},
  title        = {{How to probe: Simple yet effective techniques for improving post-hoc explanations}},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{21052,
  abstract     = {Program logics have proven a successful strategy for verification of complex programs. By providing local reasoning and means of abstraction and composition, they allow reasoning principles for individual components of a program to be combined to prove guarantees about a whole program. Crucially, these components and their proofs can be reused. However, this reuse is only available once the program logic has been defined. It is a frustrating fact of the status quo that whoever defines a new program logic must establish every part, both semantics and proof rules, from scratch. In spite of programming languages and program logics typically sharing many core features, reuse is generally not available across languages. Even inside one language, if the same underlying operation appears in multiple language primitives, reuse is typically not possible when establishing proof rules for the program logic.
To enable reuse across and inside languages when defining complex program logics (and proving them sound), we serve program logics à la carte by combining program logic fragments for the various effects of the language. Among other language features, the menu includes shared state, concurrency, and non-determinism as reusable, composable blocks that can be combined to define a program logic modularly. Our theory builds on ITrees as a framework to express language semantics and Iris as the underlying separation logic; the work has been mechanized in the Coq proof assistant.},
  author       = {Vistrup, Max and Sammler, Michael Joachim and Jung, Ralf},
  issn         = {2475-1421},
  journal      = {Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages},
  number       = {POPL},
  pages        = {300--331},
  publisher    = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  title        = {{Program logics à la Carte}},
  doi          = {10.1145/3704847},
  volume       = {9},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{21053,
  abstract     = {Program verification tools are often implemented as front-end translations of an input program into an intermediate verification language (IVL) such as Boogie, GIL, Viper, or Why3. The resulting IVL program is then verified using an existing back-end verifier. A soundness proof for such a translational verifier needs to relate the input program and verification logic to the semantics of the IVL, which in turn needs to be connected with the verification logic implemented in the back-end verifiers. Performing such proofs is challenging due to the large semantic gap between the input and output programs and logics, especially for complex verification logics such as separation logic.
This paper presents a formal framework for reasoning about translational separation logic verifiers. At its center is a generic core IVL that captures the essence of different separation logics. We define its operational semantics and formally connect it to two different back-end verifiers, which use symbolic execution and verification condition generation, resp. Crucially, this semantics uses angelic non-determinism to enable the application of different proof search algorithms and heuristics in the back-end verifiers. An axiomatic semantics for the core IVL simplifies reasoning about the front-end translation by performing essential proof steps once and for all in the equivalence proof with the operational semantics rather than for each concrete front-end translation.
We illustrate the usefulness of our formal framework by instantiating our core IVL with elements of Viper and connecting it to two Viper back-ends as well as a front-end for concurrent separation logic. All our technical results have been formalized in Isabelle/HOL, including the core IVL and its semantics, the semantics of two back-ends for a subset of Viper, and all proofs.},
  author       = {Dardinier, Thibault and Sammler, Michael Joachim and Parthasarathy, Gaurav and Summers, Alexander J. and Müller, Peter},
  issn         = {2475-1421},
  journal      = {Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages},
  number       = {POPL},
  pages        = {569--599},
  publisher    = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  title        = {{Formal foundations for translational separation logic verifiers}},
  doi          = {10.1145/3704856},
  volume       = {9},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{21057,
  abstract     = {Among the most puzzling early discoveries of JWST are “little red dots” (LRDs), compact red sources that host broad Balmer emission lines, and in many cases exhibit a “V-shaped” change in slope in the rest-optical. The physical properties of LRDs currently have order-of-magnitude uncertainties, because models to explain the continuum of these sources differ immensely. Here, we leverage the complete selection of red sources in the RUBIES program, supplemented with public PRISM spectra, to study the origin of this V shape. By fitting a broken power law with a flexible inflection point, we find that a large fraction of red Hα emitters at 2 < z < 6 exhibit a strong change in slope, and that all strong inflections appear associated with the Balmer limit (0.3645 μm). Using a simple model of a reddened active galactic nucleus (AGN) with an unobscured scattered-light component, we demonstrate that the observed V shape in LRDs is unlikely to occur at any specific wavelength if the entire continuum is dominated by light from a power-law AGN continuum. In contrast, models with an intrinsic feature at the Balmer limit, such as those that are dominated by an evolved stellar population, can produce the observed spectral shapes, provided that a reddened component picks up sufficiently redward of the break. While no model can comfortably explain the full LRD spectral energy distribution, the common inflection location suggests that a single component consistently dominates the rest-frame UV optical in LRDs, and that this component is associated with T ∼ 10^4 K hydrogen.},
  author       = {Setton, David J. and Greene, Jenny E. and de Graaff, Anna and Ma, Yilun 逸伦 and Leja, Joel and Matthee, Jorryt J and Bezanson, Rachel and Boogaard, Leindert A. and Cleri, Nikko J. and Katz, Harley and Labbe, Ivo and Maseda, Michael V. and McConachie, Ian and Miller, Tim B. and Price, Sedona H. and Suess, Katherine A. and van Dokkum, Pieter and Wang 王, Bingjie 冰洁 and Weibel, Andrea and Whitaker, Katherine E. and Williams, Christina C.},
  issn         = {1538-4357},
  journal      = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  number       = {1},
  publisher    = {IOP Publishing},
  title        = {{Little Red Dots at an inflection point: Ubiquitous v-shaped turnover consistently occurs at the Balmer limit}},
  doi          = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae1500},
  volume       = {995},
  year         = {2025},
}

@article{21058,
  abstract     = {Luminous broad Hα emission and red rest-optical spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are the hallmark of compact little red dots (LRDs), implying highly attenuated dusty starbursts and/or obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, the lack of observed far-infrared (FIR) emission has proved difficult to reconcile with the implied attenuated luminosity in these models. Here, we utilize deep new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array imaging, new and existing JWST/MIRI imaging, and archival Spitzer/Herschel imaging of two of the rest-optically brightest LRDs (z = 3.1 and z = 4.47) to place the strongest constraints on the IR luminosity in LRDs to date. The detections at λrest = 1–4 μm imply flat slopes in the rest-IR, ruling out a contribution from hot (T ≳ 500 K) dust. Similarly, FIR nondetections rule out any appreciable cold (T ≲ 75 K) dust component. Assuming energy balance, these observations are inconsistent with the typical FIR dust emission of dusty starbursts and quasar tori, which usually show a mixture of cold and hot dust. Additionally, our [C ii] nondetections rule out typical dusty starbursts. We compute empirical maximum IR SEDs and find that both LRDs must have log(LIR/L ) 12.2 at the 3σ level. These limits are in tension with the predictions of rest-optical spectrophotometric fits, be they galaxy-only, AGN-only, or composite. It is unlikely that LRDs are highly dust-reddened intrinsically blue sources with a dust temperature distribution that conspires to avoid current observing facilities. Rather, we favor an intrinsically redder LRD SED model that alleviates the need for strong dust attenuation.},
  author       = {Setton, David J. and Greene, Jenny E. and Spilker, Justin S. and Williams, Christina C. and Labbé, Ivo and Ma, Yilun 逸伦 and Wang, Bingjie 冰洁 and Whitaker, Katherine E. and Leja, Joel and de Graaff, Anna and Alberts, Stacey and Bezanson, Rachel and Boogaard, Leindert A. and Brammer, Gabriel and Cutler, Sam E. and Cleri, Nikko J. and Cooper, Olivia R. and Dayal, Pratika and Fujimoto, Seiji and Furtak, Lukas J. and Goulding, Andy D. and Hirschmann, Michaela and Kokorev, Vasily and Maseda, Michael V. and McConachie, Ian and Matthee, Jorryt J and Miller, Tim B. and Naidu, Rohan P. and Oesch, Pascal A. and Pan, Richard and Price, Sedona H. and Suess, Katherine A. and Weaver, John R. and Xiao, Mengyuan and Zhang, Yunchong and Zitrin, Adi},
  issn         = {2041-8213},
  journal      = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
  publisher    = {IOP Publishing},
  title        = {{A confirmed deficit of hot and cold dust emission in the most luminous Little Red Dots}},
  doi          = {10.3847/2041-8213/ade78b},
  volume       = {991},
  year         = {2025},
}