High-efficient low-cost characterization of materials properties using domain-knowledge-guided self-supervised learning

Modern AI-assisted approaches have helped material scientists revolutionize their abilities to better understand the properties of materials. However, current machine learning (ML) models would perform awful for materials with a lengthy production window and a complex testing procedure because only a limited amount of data can be produced to feed the model. Here, we introduce self-supervised learning (SSL) to address the issue of lacking labeled data in material characterization. We propose a generalized SSL-based framework with domain knowledge and demonstrate its robustness to predict the properties of a candidate material with the fewest data. Our numerical results show that the performance of the proposed SSL model can match the commonly-used supervised learning (SL) model with only 5 % of data, and the SSL model is also proven with ease of implementation. Our study paves the way to expand further the usability of ML tools for a broader material science community.

Scientific journals must be alert to potential manipulation in citations and referencing

Citation is an essential practice in scientific publishing. However, it is mandatory that citing the sources in a scientific work is performed in a proper manner. Manipulating citations in research articles is one form of academic research misconduct that violates publication ethics. Citation manipulation simply occurs for the purpose of increasing the number of citations of a researcher or a journal. Unfortunately, there has been a growing trend for this type of misconduct recently and this has not received much attention from the science community. The most effective solution to prevent the growth of such unethical practices is for reputable journals to impose stricter rules on reference evaluation criteria in order to emphasize on the appropriateness of the citations.

In-situ Lu – Hf geochronology of calcite

The ability to constrain the age of calcite formation is of great utility to the Earth Science community, due to the ubiquity of calcite across a wide spectrum of geological systems. Here, we present the first in-situ laser ablation inductively coupled tandem mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS/MS) Lu–Hf ages for calcite, demonstrating geologically meaningful ages for IOCG and skarn mineralisation, carbonatite intrusion and low grade metamorphism. The analysed samples range in age between ca. 0.9 Ga and ca. 2 Ga with uncertainties between 1.4 % and 0.5 % obtained from calcite with Lu concentrations as low as ca. 0.5 ppm. The Lu–Hf system in calcite appears to be able to preserve primary precipitation ages over a significant amount of geological time, although further research is required to constrain the closure temperature. The in-situ approach allows calcite to be rapidly dated while maintaining its petrogenetic context with mineralization and other associated mineral processes. Therefore, LA-ICP-MS/MS Lu–Hf dating of calcite can be used to resolve the timing of complex mineral paragenetic sequences that are a feature of many ancient rock systems.

A satellite based study of pre-monsoon thunderstorms (Nor’westers) over eastern India and their organization into mesoscale convective complexes

Nor’wester studies have a long history of climatological, synoptic and radar observations. These studies have been briefly mentioned and the field programs for the study of Nor’westers implemented in India Meteorological Department (IMD) from 1931-1941 have been touched upon. Indian atmospheric science community organized a multi-year STORM program during 2007-2010 to understand the formation of these severe local storms and also understand their dynamics through modeling. An attempt is made to use INSAT Infrared and Visible imageries to document the convective cells which developed over Eastern and North-East (NE) Indian states and adjoining countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal for the year 2009. Also convective cells which organized themselves into Mesoscale Convective Complexes (MCCs) for the four years period 2007-2010 have been studied. It is found that by and large Eastern India (Jharkhand, Orissa, Sub Himalayan West Bengal and Bangladesh) is responsible for the initiation of convection. Development occurs as the cells propagate over the neighbouring areas of Bangladesh and NE India. Important observations with regard to initiation, maturity and dissipation etc. of the MCCs are provided. It is suggested that half hourly to hourly monitoring of convection can be accomplished by using INSAT imagery, along with multiple overlapping radar coverages, which could help in nowcasting of convective cells. Synoptic and thermodynamic forcing can help as broad guidance. The only effective way for effective warning is nowcasting using satellite and multiple radar coverage.

Examining the Effect of the Ratio of Biomedical Domain to General Domain Data in Corpus in Biomedical Literature Mining

Biomedical terms extracted using Word2vec, the most popular word embedding model in recent years, serve as the foundation for various natural language processing (NLP) applications, such as biomedical information retrieval, relation extraction, and recommendation systems. The objective of this study is to examine how changes in the ratio of the biomedical domain to general domain data in the corpus affect the extraction of similar biomedical terms using Word2vec. We downloaded abstracts of 214,892 articles from PubMed Central (PMC) and the 3.9 GB Billion Word (BW) benchmark corpus from the computer science community. The datasets were preprocessed and grouped into 11 corpora based on the ratio of BW to PMC, ranging from 0:10 to 10:0, and then Word2vec models were trained on these corpora. The cosine similarities between the biomedical terms obtained from the Word2vec models were then compared in each model. The results indicated that the models trained with both BW and PMC data outperformed the model trained only with medical data. The similarity between the biomedical terms extracted by the Word2vec model increased when the ratio of the biomedical domain to general domain data was 3:7 to 5:5. This study allows NLP researchers to apply Word2vec based on more information and increase the similarity of extracted biomedical terms to improve their effectiveness in NLP applications, such as biomedical information extraction.

Connecting Implementation Science, Community-Engaged Research, and Health Promotion to Address Cancer Inequities in Massachusetts: The UMB/DF-HCC U54 Outreach Core

The Outreach Core of the U54 Partnership between the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the University of Massachusetts Boston created a new model for addressing cancer inequities that integrates implementation science, community-engaged research, and health promotion. Key elements of the approach include engaging a Community Advisory Board, supporting students from underrepresented minority backgrounds to conduct health promotion and community-engaged research, increasing the delivery of evidence-based cancer prevention programs to underserved communities (directly and by training local organizations), supporting research-practice partnerships, and disseminating findings. Our model highlights the need for long-term investments to connect underserved communities with evidence-based cancer prevention.

Evolution of Japan's flood control planning and policy in response to climate change risks and social changes

Building a sustainable society by strengthening disaster resilience is a common goal in the world. It is crucial to promote cooperation between the general public and the science community by sharing data, information, knowledge, experiences, and ideas. Japan has routinely been beset by catastrophic floods caused mainly by destructive typhoons and critically active seasonal fronts. With the turn of the 21st century, changes in climate and society required additional realignment into the standardized procedures that had evolved over the previous half-century. Japan's new policy, ‘River Basin Disaster Resilience and Sustainability by All,’ takes comprehensive measures, mainly consisting of flood prevention, exposure reduction, and appropriate evacuation, response and recovery, aiming to strengthen disaster resilience and achieve sustainability through concerted efforts among all stakeholders. The policy can play a key role in the achievement of the common global goal.

Open science practices and risks arising from misuse of biological research

The proliferation of open science may inadvertently increase the chance of deliberate or accidental misuse of research. Here, we examine the interaction between open science practices and biosecurity and biosafety to identify risks and opportunities for risk mitigation. We argue that open data, code, and materials may increase risks from research with misuse potential, despite their general importance. For instance, increased access to protocols, datasets, and computational methods for viral engineering may increase the risk of release of enhanced pathogens. For this dangerous subset of research, both open science and biosecurity goals may be achieved by using access-controlled repositories or application programming interfaces. The increased use of preprints could challenge any strategy for risk mitigation that relies on assessment at the publication stage, emphasising the need for earlier oversight in the research lifecycle. Preregistration of research, a practice promoted by the open science community, provides an opportunity for achieving biosecurity risk assessment at the conception of research. Open science and biosecurity experts have an important role to play in enabling responsible research with maximal societal benefit.

COVID-19 Impacts Highlight the Need for Holistic Evaluation of Research and in the Hydrologic Sciences

As we reckon with the effect of COVID-19 on the research enterprise in hydrologic science, it is important to acknowledge that disruptions will be persistent and that institutional-level adjustments, while helpful, are not sufficient to mitigate all impacts on hydrologic scientists. Here, we describe the breadth of research contributions in the hydrologic sciences, consider how the pandemic has impacted this portfolio of contributions, document one impact that is already being realized in publication of research, and suggest guidance to the hydrologic science community, institutions, review panels, and funding organizations in considering these impacts at various stages of hiring and promotion in our community. Acknowledging the diversity of contributions to research is particularly valuable because it provides a more objective, transparent, and holistic basis for evaluating individuals within the context of norms of the hydrologic science community. With clearly established values, it is easier to identify impacts of life events, such as those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as they are manifested in individuals under a diversity of circumstances.