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1. The pill millipedes of Vietnam: a key to genera and descriptions of five new species (Diplopoda: Glomerida: Glomeridae)

   https://doi.org/10.26107/RBZ-2019-0020  

   Nguyen, Anh D; Sierwald, Petra; Marek, Paul E. (April 2019, The Raffles bulletin of zoology)

   A new genus and five new species of glomerid millipedes are described from Vietnam: Tonkinomeris napoensis, new genus & new species, from Ha Giang Province; Hyleoglomeris coloratoides, new species from Huong Son District, Ha Tinh Province; Hyleoglomeris lobus, new species from Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Province; Hyperglomeris simplex, new species from Vinh Phuc Province; and Rhopalomeris sauda, new species from Bac Kan and Vinh Phuc Provinces. New distributional records and detailed morphological data are provided for Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983. A key to the genera of the family Glomeridae is provided for the Vietnamese fauna. The current status of glomerid systematics is discussed. 

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2. Cursed? Why one does not simply add new data sets to supervised geothermal machine learning models

   Mordensky, Stanley Paul; Burns, Erick; Lipor, John; DeAngelo, Jacob (October 2023, 2023 Geothermal Rising Conference)

   Recent advances in machine learning (ML) identifying areas favorable to hydrothermal systems indicate that the resolution of feature data remains a subject of necessary improvement before ML can reliably produce better models. Herein, we consider the value of adding new features or replacing other, low-value features with new input features in existing ML pipelines. Our previous work identified stress and seismicity as having less value than the other feature types (i.e., heat flow, distance to faults, and distance to magmatic activity) for the 2008 USGS hydrothermal energy assessment; hence, a fundamental question regards if the addition of new but partially correlated features will improve resulting models for hydrothermal favorability. Therefore, we add new maps for shear strain rate and dilation strain rate to fit logistic regression and XGBoost models, resulting in new 7-feature models that are compared to the old 5-feature models. Because these new features share a degree of correlation with the original relatively uninformative stress and seismicity features, we also consider replacement of the two lower-value features with the two new features, creating new 5-feature models. Adding the new features improves the predictive skill of the new 7-feature model over that of the old 5-feature model; albeit, that improvement is not statistically significant because the new features are correlated with the old features and, consequently, the new features do not present considerable new information. However, the new 5-feature XGBoost model has a statistically significant increase in predictive skill for known positives over the old 5-feature model at p = 0.06. This improved performance is due to the lower-dimensional feature space of the former than that of the latter. In higher-dimensional feature space, relationships between features and the presence or absence of hydrothermal systems are harder to discern (i.e., the 7-feature model likely suffers from the “curse of dimensionality”). 

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3. Embodied prototyping in VR: Ideation and bodystorming within a custom VR sandbox

   https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1193  

   Robin_McVeigh-Schultz, Joshua; Márquez_Segura, Elena; Isbister, Katherine (June 2024, DRS Digital Library)

   Social virtual reality platforms present new opportunities for embodied de- sign processes. This paper illustrates a range of embodied design techniques made possible through social engagement with VR/XR technology. Drawing from a case study involving the prototyping of a conversation visualization system for VR meetings, we present several novel embodied design methods in VR (also applicable to XR). These include: new techniques for supporting embodied ideation; new ways of acting out and improvising scenarios together; and new opportunities for preparing and ma- nipulating assets, environments, and low fidelity interactions for embodied design pro- cesses. These novel techniques and approaches point to exciting new opportunities for expanding the repertoire of embodied design practice more broadly. 

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4. THE NEOTROPICAL SPECIES OF SMALL CARPENTER BEES OF THE SUBGENUS CERATINA (ZADONTOMERUS) ASHMEAD, 1899 (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE)

   https://doi.org/10.11646/ZOOTAXA.5214.2.3  

   FLÓREZ-GÓMEZ, NATHALIA; AYALA, RICARDO; HINOJOSA-DÍAZ, ISMAEL; MORRONE, JUAN J. (December 2022, Zootaxa)

   The Neotropical species of the subgenus Ceratina (Zadontomerus) Ashmead are revised. We recognize seven new species, giving a total of 10 species for the region: Ceratina (Zadontomerus) capitosa Smith, C. (Z.) ignara Cresson, C. (Z.) nautlana Cockerell, C. (Z.) kopili new species, C. (Z.) basaltica new species, C. sapphira new species, C. (Z.) indigovirens new species, C. (Z.) rehanae new species, C. (Z.) raquelitae new species, and C. (Z.) tepetlana new species. We propose the following synonymies: C. abdominalis Smith, C. tehuacana Strand, and C. parignara Cockerell under C. (Z.) ignara; and C. bakeri Smith and C. nigriventris Friese under C. (Z.) nautlana. Also, we describe the previously unknown male of C. capitosa, and provide a key to the species, diagnoses, descriptions and illustrations of the new species. 

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5. New insights into crustal and mantle structure beneath the New England Appalachians from temporary broadband seismic deployments and integration with geological constraints

   Long, M.D. (October 2022, AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts)

   The New England Appalachians provide a fascinating window into a host of fundamental geological problems. These include the modification of crustal and mantle lithospheric structure via orogenesis, terrane accretion, and continental rifting, the evolution of individual terranes through processes such as channel flow and ductile extrusion, and the causes and consequences of the Northern Appalachian Anomaly (NAA), a prominent geophysical anomaly in the upper mantle. Recent and ongoing deployments of dense seismic arrays in New England are providing new images of the crust and upper mantle in unprecedented detail, allowing us to address both new and longstanding science questions. These deployments include the Seismic Experiment for Imaging Structure beneath Connecticut (SEISConn, 2016-2019), the New England Seismic Transects (NEST, 2018-present), and the GEology of New England via Seismic Imaging Studies (GENESIS, 2022-present) arrays. Here we present initial results from the SEISConn and NEST experiments and discuss science targets and hypothesis testing for the GENESIS experiment. In combination with constraints from geological investigations (including structural studies and geochronology work), our new seismic investigations are shedding new light on the tectonic evolution of New England and the ways in which upper mantle processes can affect the structure of the overlying lithosphere. 

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