科研成果

Linguistic communication requires interlocutors to consider differences in each other’s knowledge (perspective-taking). However, perspective-taking might either be spontaneous or strategic. We monitored listeners’ eye movements in a referential communication task. A virtual speaker gave temporally ambiguous instructions with scalar adjectives (“big” in “big cubic block”). Scalar adjectives assume a contrasting object (a small cubic block). We manipulated whether the contrasting object (a small triangle) for a competitor object (a big triangle) was in common ground (visible to both speaker and listener) or was occluded so it was in the listener’s privileged ground, in which case perspective-taking would allow earlier reference-resolution. We used a complex visual context with multiple objects, making strategic perspective-taking unlikely when all objects are in the listener’s referential domain. A turn-taking, puzzle-solving task manipulated whether participants could anticipate a more restricted referential domain. Pieces were either confined to a small area (requiring fine-grained coordination) or distributed across spatially distinct regions (requiring only coarse-grained coordination). Results strongly supported spontaneous perspective-taking: Although comprehension was less time-locked in the coarse-grained condition, participants in both conditions used perspective information to identify the target referent earlier when the competitor contrast was in privileged ground, even when participants believed instructions were computer-generated.

The influence and mechanisms of starvation on the bacterial mobile performance in porous media with different nutrition conditions are not well understood. The present study systematically investigated the impacts of starvation on the mobility and attachment of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive strains in porous media without and with nutrients on surfaces in both simulated and real water samples. We found that regardless of strain types and water chemistries, starvation would greatly inhibit bacterial attachment onto bare porous media without nutrients yet could significantly enhance cell attachment onto porous media with nutrients on their surfaces. The mechanisms driving the opposite transport behaviors induced by starvation in porous media without and with nutrients were totally different. We found that the starvation process decreased cell motility and increased repulsive force between bacteria and porous media via decreasing cell sizes and zeta potentials, reducing EPS secretion and cell hydrophobicity, thus increasing transport/inhibiting attachment of bacteria in porous media without nutrients on sand surfaces. In contrast, through strengthening the positive chemotactic response of bacteria to nutrients, the starvation process greatly enhanced bacterial attachment onto porous media with nutrients on sand surfaces. Clearly, via modification of the nutrient conditions in porous media, the mobility/attachment performance of bacteria could be regulated.

This study reassesses an inscribed victory catalogue from Sinope (IK Sinope 105) that is often discussed in scholarship concerning agonistic culture in the Roman world. One particularly curious element of this inscription is the empty nature of the penultimate line, which bears only the numerals rho-nu. In the existing scholarship, this is usually interpreted as the sum of all the athlete’s victories. This paper challenges the orthodox interpretation, using a combination of David French’s squeezes housed at the British Institute at Ankara, supported by autopsy and recent photographs of the stone itself. It goes on to reconsider the practice of summing athletic victories in honorific inscriptions more generally, examining a specially compiled dossier of 207 inscriptions of comparable date to IK Sinope 105, and concluding that the practice was relatively rare. Finally, this paper considers other possible interpretations of the rho-nu in IK Sinope 105, among which is the suggestion that rho-nu could be a chronographic feature. While the interpretation of the rho-nu in IK Sinope 105 remains open, the combination of a close analysis of the stone with a wider contextual consideration of the genre demonstrates how much more remains to be said about even a well-known and often cited inscription. Özet Bu çalışma, Roma dünyasındaki agonistik kültürle ilgili araştırmalarda sıklıkla tartışılan, Sinop’dan ele geçen bir zafer kataloğu yazıtını (IK Sinope 105) yeniden değerlendirmektedir. Bu yazıtın özellikle merak uyandıran unsurlarından biri, sadece rho-nu rakamlarını taşıyan, sondan bir önceki satırın boş olmasıdır. Mevcut akademik çalışmalarda bu rakamlar genellikle atletin tüm zaferlerinin toplam sayısı olarak yorumlanmaktadır. Bu makale, taşın yakından incelenmesi ile son zamanda çekilmiş fotoğraflarıyla desteklenen, British Institute at Ankara’da bulunan French’in yazıt mülajlarını birlikte değerlendirerek bu geleneksel yorumu sorgulamaktadır. Daha genel olarak, onurlandırma yazıtlarında atletik zafer sayılarının toplanması uygulamasını yeniden gözden geçirerek, IK Sinope 105 ile karşılaştırılabilir tarihe sahip 207 yazıttan oluşan özel olarak derlenmiş bir dosyayı incelemekte ve uygulamanın nispeten nadir olduğu sonucuna varmaktadır. Son olarak, bu makale IK Sinope 105’teki rho-nu hakkındaki diğer olası yorumları da ele almaktadır; bunların arasında rho-nu’nun kronografik bir özellik olabileceği önerisi de bulunmaktadır. IK Sinope 105’teki rho-nu’nun yorumu açık kalmaya devam ederken, taşın yakından bir analizi ile bu çeşit yazıtların daha geniş bir bağlamsal değer- lendirmesinin birleşimi, iyi bilinen ve sıklıkla atıfta bulunulan bir yazıt hakkında bile söylenecek daha ne kadar çok şey olduğunu göstermektedir.

During the 1960 campaign of the Corinth Excavations, a Tang Dynasty coin was found in an ash and charcoal layer with deposits from the mid- to late 13th century ce and earlier. Considering similar coin finds from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, and the Chui Region, Kyrgyzstan, this article argues that the Corinth Tang coin is likely an Anxi Protectorate issue, though a Chui valley origin cannot be ruled out. This article discusses the origins, survival, and mobility of this minimal-value cash coin in a web of Eurasian connections, with particular focus on the connectivity of the Church of the East and the Jewish merchant network from the 8th to the 13th century ce.

International food trade reshapes regional water scarcity through virtual water transfers (VWT), influencing water use equality and equity. This study examines eight populous yet impoverished countries in Africa and Asia, representing 30 % of the global poor population and contributing 20 % to agricultural VWT. Despite their significant role, these countries have been understudied due to a lack of data or attention. By integrating multiple datasets and models, we assess how international food trade impacts water scarcity, inequality, and inequity within these countries and identify the driving factors. Our findings reveal varied outcomes: Uganda and Ethiopia benefit from reduced water scarcity (∼40 % and ∼7 %) and improved equality and equity (∼90 % and ∼68 %), while India and Pakistan face exacerbated scarcity (∼4 % and ∼2 %) and widening inequality and inequity (∼4 % and ∼7 %). The effects are largely driven by critical trade flows of staple and cash crops like rice, sugar cane, and cotton among developing countries, propelled by comparative advantages in agricultural production, econo-geography, food demand, and water endowment between importers and exporters. Addressing these water challenges involves diversifying import channels to reduce reliance on detrimental trade flows, such as India's rice exports to Iran, while promoting beneficial flows, like Bangladesh's cotton imports from India, through trade agreements. Additionally, implementing pro-poor water policies (e.g., providing water subsidies) and water-saving techniques (e.g., adopting drip irrigation) is crucial, though caution is needed to avoid unintendedly marginalizing vulnerable groups through large-scale water projects.

The heat energy resource in the deep earth (3 ∼10 km), which is carried by Hot Dry Rocks (HDR), has a huge capacity for geothermal power generation. As a type of conductive geothermal energy, HDR has low rock permeability, so that Enhanced/Engineered Geothermal System (EGS) is developed to artificially increase the heat exchange area and further extract the deep geothermal energy with the connected natural fractures and hydraulic stimulated fracture network. The coupled Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical (THM) processes largely control the heat recovery efficiency from HDR, and thus real 3D reservoir scale investigations that account for the multiphysics coupling mechanisms are needed to inform geothermal energy recovery from HDR.In this work, we built a three-dimensional THM model for the EGS of Qiabuqia HDR (Zhang et al. 2018, Gonghe Basin, China) by taking advantage of the novel simulation framework, GEOSX (Settgast et al. 2022). As a rapidly growing open-source multi-physics simulator, GEOSX has highly scalable algorithms for solving complex fluid flow, thermal, and geomechanical coupled systems. Preliminary geological data of the targetarea has been acquired by exploratory wells (e.g., GR1, GR2, DR3, DR4). There is also a trial production well GH-01. In our model, we considered a dual-well utilization system. Our 3D model focuses on reservoir-scale THM coupling, and takes into consideration the geostress directions in configuring the faults and (hydraulic)fractures, which are explicitly handled with EDFM (Embedded Discrete Fracture Model) method. The simulated results of heat recovery efficiency under different production scenarios provide guidance information for engineering practices.

Physical activity is universally acknowledged for its benefits to mental health; however, the specific intensities and timings that best benefit adolescents’ mental health, crucial due to their significant influence on daily schedules, have not been thoroughly investigated. This study addresses the substantive research gap by exploring the varied effects of physical activity intensity (light versus moderate to vigorous) and timing (weekdays versus weekends and holidays) on adolescent mental health. Utilizing a large-scale longitudinal dataset (NT1 = 84,054; NT2 = 44,623) from 158 schools, this research describes the current state of adolescent physical activity and investigates the effects of physical activity on mental health outcomes, including positive (i.e., life satisfaction, positive mental health) and negative indicators (depression, anxiety), over a 6-month period. Participants were adolescents aged 9–19 years (mean age = 12.73 ± 2.43 years, 48.9% female), with the analysis adjusted for potential confounding factors. Results showed that as adolescents grow older, their engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during both weekdays and weekends/holidays tends to decrease, while light physical activity during weekdays increases. Multilevel regression analysis indicated that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during weekends/holidays at Time 1 positively correlated with better mental health outcomes at Time 2 (six months later), featuring enhanced positive indicators and reduced negative ones. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on weekdays at Time 1 was positively linked to mental health at Time 2. Light physical activity during weekends/holidays at Time 1 positively predicted life satisfaction and positive mental health at Time 2. In contrast, light physical activity on weekdays at Time 1 negatively correlated with life satisfaction at Time 2. The study underscores the importance of promoting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, particularly on weekends and holidays, to improve mental health outcomes among adolescents.