Abstract Vanadium dioxide (VO2), renowned for its reversible metal-to-insulator transition (MIT), has been widely used in configurable photonic and electronic devices. Precisely tailoring the MIT of VO2 on micro-/nano-scale is crucial for miniaturized and integrated devices. However, existing tailoring techniques like scanning probe microscopy, despite their precision, fall short in efficiency and adaptability, particularly on complex or curved surfaces. Herein, this work achieves the local engineering of the phase of VO2 films in high efficiency by employing laser writing to assist in the hydrogen doping or dedoping process. The laser doping and laser dedoping technique is also highly flexible, enabling the fabrication of reconfigurable, non-volatile, and multifunctional VO2 devices. This approach establishes a new paradigm for creating reconfigurable micro/nanophotonic and micro/nanoelectronic devices.
This paper presents CPL-IQA, a novel semi-supervised blind image quality assessment (BIQA) framework for authentic distortion scenarios. To address the challenge of limited labeled data in IQA area, our approach leverages confidence-quantifiable pseudo-label learning to effectively utilize unlabeled authentically distorted images. The framework operates through a preprocessing stage and two training phases: first converting MOS labels to vector labels via entropy minimization, followed by an iterative process that alternates between model training and label optimization. The key innovations of CPL-IQA include a manifold assumption-based label optimization strategy and a confidence learning method for pseudo-labels, which enhance reliability and mitigate outlier effects. Experimental results demonstrate the framework's superior performance on real-world distorted image datasets, offering a more standardized semi-supervised learning paradigm without requiring additional supervision or network complexity.
A few colonies in the Latin West (Augusta Emerita, Johnston 2017: 56-57 fn. 202-203; Abascal 2002: 284) and the Greek East (e.g. Philippi AE 1932, 21; briefly Samos IG XII,6 1:187 l. 8-11) used the annus coloniae, the year when the colony was founded, as their standard time-reckoning formula on inscriptions and perhaps other media as well. The list may include the Roman colony of Sinope, which coin issues carried legends such as C(olonia) F(elix) I(ulia) an(no) followed by (and later on simply with) Latin numerals (e.g. RPC I 2110, II 715). Curiously, since the 17th century, numismatists have observed two epochs on Sinope’s Roman period issues (e.g. Hardouin 1689: 140). There was the epoch of 45 BCE, likely the annus coloniae (e.g. RPC III 1229), as it coincided with reports of a Caesarian colony (Strab. 12.3.11). Then there was the epoch of 70 BCE (e.g. RPC VI 6501), seemingly replacing the earlier epoch, but only from the early third century onwards (Kubitschek 1908: 68-71; Magie 1950: 342 no. 42). Changing epochs was not a rare phenomenon in Anatolia, but known examples changed an earlier epoch for a later one, apparently to adapt to new circumstances, such as an imperial victory or visit (Leschhorn 1993: 439-541), and count years from a new beginning. Sinope, however, changed the epoch that was supposedly linked to the year of its colonial foundation to an earlier epoch that coincided with Lucullus’ “liberation” of Sinope from Mithridatid control. This suggests that Sinope was adapting to new circumstances that required the adaptation of an historical epoch. It is not the beginning per se, but a recaliberation of municipal history. While historical developments of Roman Sinope is not well documented in extant literary sources, and epigraphic evidence is scarce, this paper wishes to take two approaches to assess the problem of Sinope’s changing epochs. The first approach is to consider Sinope’s time-reckoning tradition. The era system that was prevalent in northern Anatolia and elsewhere during the first three centuries CE had a strong Hellenistic tradition. In this view, there may be more nuance – 45 BCE can be the annus coloniae, but it was reflecting a recent change in the city’s history, not an overhaul of the city’s established time-reckoning system, perhaps based on the Seleucid era (found on ceramic stamps, Saprykin & Fedoseev 1999: 135-143). This approach removes the Roman symbolism attached to the 45 BCE, and opens up additional possibilities for interpretation. The second approach considers the epoch of 70 BCE regionally. This epoch was primarily used at Amastris, but also attested at Abonuteichos. Both cities were described by Roman authors as prosperous in their own ways (e.g. Luc. Alex. 9, 25; Plin. Ep. 10.98). Both cities also began to issue 3 to 4 units of local bronze coinage from the reign of Trajan onwards, including the 6-assaria, associated with economic prosperity (Zajac 2023: 30-32, Tab. 1a). Epigraphic and numismatic evidence further suggest that Amastrians were mobile across the Black Sea and the Aegean, some even serving as koinon officials of Bithynian and other regional koina (Marek 2003: 63-67). There is the possibility that Sinope changed its epoch to adhere to regional time-reckoning norms set by more dominant peers. Since the 17th century, numismatists have observed two epochs on Sinope’s Roman period coin issues (e.g. Hardouin 1689: 140). There was the epoch of 45 BCE, perhaps the annus coloniae (e.g. RPC III 1229; cf. Augusta Emerita, Johnston 2017: 56-57 fn. 202-203; Abascal 2002: 284; Philippi AE 1932, 21; briefly Samos IG XII,6 1:187 l. 8-11), as it coincided with reports of a Caesarian colony (Strab. 12.3.11). Then there was the epoch of 70 BCE (e.g. RPC VI 6501), seemingly replacing the earlier epoch, but only from the early third century onwards (Kubitschek 1908: 68-71; Magie 1950: 342 no. 42). Neither changing epochs or the use of many epochs were rare phenomena. That said, known examples show cities replacing old epochs with those that commemorate new events and circumstances (Leschhorn 1993: 439-541). It is then odd for Sinope to abandon the epoch commemorating its colonial foundation in favor of an epoch 25 years earlier. Why? Leschhorn gave two potential scenarios: perhaps 70 BCE was the outcome a pro-Severan party defeating the old guard, or there was a “Gräzisierung" movement under which Sinope opted for a symbolically more acceptable epoch (Leschhorn 1993: 162), but these suggestions are limited by lack of evidence. This paper reassesses Sinope’s changing epochs with two approaches. First is a reframing of the Leschhorn’s assumed constitutional symbolism attached to the epoch of 45 BCE that leads to factionalism, and the “Roman” nature of Sinope’s so-called Kolonieära in Leschhorn’s alternative “Gräzisierung” thesis. The question asked here is whether Sinope had an established era system in place as part of its Hellenistic past. Sinope likely used the Pontic era while under Mithridatid control (Leschhorn 1993: 150). Recent discussions of stamped amphorae further indicates that the Seleucid era system was likely present if not also used at Sinope (Saprykin & Fedoseev 1999: 135-143). Further, we now have ceramic tiles time-stamped with a formula such as "s(aeculo) S(inopensis) (colonia) i(nducta) an(no) IV" (Fedoseev 2019: 16-17). If Fedoseev’s reading of the time-stamp is correct, we may consider the possibility that the saeculum Sinopensis was a system that could have accommodated multiple epochs, and the phenomenon in question was a symptom of an entrenched but adaptative time-reckoning mechanism at work. The second approach considers the epoch of 70 BCE regionally. This epoch was primarily used at Amastris, but also attested at Abonuteichos. Both cities were described by Roman authors as prosperous in their own ways (e.g. Luc. Alex. 9, 25; Plin. Ep. 10.98). Both cities also began to issue 3 to 4 units of local bronze coinage from the reign of Trajan onwards, including the 6-assaria, associated with economic prosperity (Zajac 2023: 30-32, Tab. 1a). Epigraphic and numismatic evidence further suggest that Amastrians were mobile across the Black Sea and the Aegean, some even serving as koinon officials of Bithynian and other regional koina (Marek 2003: 63-67). There is the possibility that Sinope changed its epoch to adhere to regional time-reckoning norms set by more dominant peers.
Zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge (zk-SNARK) serves as a powerful technique for proving the correctness of computations and has attracted significant interest from researchers. Numerous concrete schemes and implementations have been proposed in academia and industry. Unfortunately, the inherent complexity of zk-SNARK has created gaps between researchers, developers and users, as they focus differently on this technique. For example, researchers are dedicated to constructing new efficient proving systems with stronger security and new properties. At the same time, developers and users care more about the implementation's toolchains, usability and compatibility. This gap has hindered the development of zk-SNARK field.
In this work, we provide a comprehensive study of zk-SNARK, from theory to practice, pinpointing gaps and limitations. We first present a master recipe that unifies the main steps in converting a program into a zk-SNARK. We then classify existing zk-SNARKs according to their key techniques. Our classification addresses the main difference in practically valuable properties between existing zk-SNARK schemes. We survey over 40 zk-SNARKs since 2013 and provide a reference table listing their categories and properties. Following the steps in master recipe, we then survey 11 general-purpose popular used libraries. We elaborate on these libraries' usability, compatibility, efficiency and limitations. Since installing and executing these zk-SNARK systems is challenging, we also provide a completely virtual environment in which to run the compiler for each of them. We identify that the proving system is the primary focus in cryptography academia. In contrast, the constraint system presents a bottleneck in industry. To bridge this gap, we offer recommendations and advocate for the open-source community to enhance documentation, standardization and compatibility.
With the rapid development of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), spatial audio recording and reproductionhave gained increasing research interest. Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) stands out for its adaptabilityto various playback devices and its ability to integrate head orientation. However, current HOA recordings oftenrely on bulky spherical microphone arrays (SMA), and portable devices like smartphones are limited by arrayconfiguration and number of microphones. We propose SHB-AE, a spherical harmonic beamforming based methodfor Ambisonics encoding using a smartphone microphone array (SPMA). By designing beamformers for eachorder of spherical harmonic functions based on the array manifold, the method enables Ambisonics encoding andup-scaling. Validation on a real SPMA and its simulated free-field counterpart in noisy and reverberant conditionsshowed that the method successfully encodes and up-scales Ambisonics up to the fourth order with just fourirregularly arranged microphones.
This paper investigates whether a location's growth benefits or suffers from proximity to a big city and explores the underlying mechanisms. Using county-level data from China for 1990–2020, we find that an area's being close to a big city (in the 150–250 km range) reduces its decadal population growth rate by 2.9–3.6 percentage points relative to areas beyond 250 km, which we call the urban growth shadow effect. Initial agricultural employment share has the strongest power to explain whether the negative effect exists. The mechanism is consistent with lower opportunity costs of migration for people employed in agriculture, yet contrasts with core–periphery models that give transport costs a central role. Notably, this effect exhibits a temporal trend. Over time, being proximate to a big city becomes increasingly beneficial.
In response to the growing prevalence of online second language learning and the burgeoning field of international Chinese language education, this study examines the impact of multimodal inputs (MMI) on vocabulary acquisition within online environments among learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). A teaching intervention was conducted with 90 Mongolian CSL learners, who were grouped into audiovisual, audio, and visual groups. The findings indicate that the audiovisual condition significantly improved vocabulary retention compared to the single-modality conditions in a delayed post-test. Nevertheless, the efficacy of the MMI treatment was observed to vary with learners’ proficiency levels, with beginner-level CSL learners deriving greater benefit from MMI than intermediate-level learners. Furthermore, participants expressed both favorable and critical perspectives regarding the application of MMI in vocabulary instruction. These results highlight the potential of MMI interventions to enhance vocabulary learning in online second-language education, while also underscoring the necessity of considering learners’ target language proficiency and their attitudes when developing MMI-based instructional approaches.
Awe, a self-transcendent emotion, has been theoretically posited as a precursor to wise reasoning. However, direct empirical evidence supporting this relationship and the underlying mechanism has been limited. In four studies (N = 3700), we examined the relationship between awe and wise reasoning, as well as the mediating effect of self-transcendence, employing cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs. We consistently found that awe had a lagged effect on (Study 1), enhanced (Studies 2 & 3), and was associated with (Study 4) wise reasoning. Furthermore, self-transcendence mediated this relationship (Studies 3 & 4). The impact of awe on wise reasoning and mediating effect of self-transcendence could not solely be attributed to awe’s predominantly positive nature, and the mediation model was established beyond the influence of self-smallness (Studies 3–4). These findings contribute to understanding the emotional trigger of wise reasoning, the cognitive implications of awe, and its role in promoting wise conflict resolution.