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Online sex advertisements (sex ads) have been linked to many U.S. sex trafficking cases. However, since the closure of the dominant website, Backpage.com (Backpage), many competing sites have emerged that are hosted in countries where U.S. law enforcement organizations have no jurisdiction. Although the online ecosystem has changed significantly, very little research uses data from sites other than Backpage, and even less uses data from multiple sites. This paper presents an anonymized dataset derived from the text and image artifacts of more than 10 million sex ads. By making this dataset publicly available, we aim to reduce barriers to entry for researchers interested in conducting data-driven counter-trafficking research. The dataset can be used to test hypotheses related to sex ads and intersite connectivity, understand the posting processes employed by prominent sites in the current online sex ad ecosystem, and develop multidisciplinary approaches for estimating ad legitimacy. Progress in any of these areas can result in potentially lifesaving interventions for ST victims. 

Many biological processes involve transport and organization of inclusions in thin fluid interfaces. A key aspect of these assemblies is the active dissipative stresses applied from the inclusions to the fluid interface, resulting in long-range active interfacial flows. We study the effect of these active flows on the self-organization of rod-like inclusions in the interface. Specifically, we consider a di- lute suspension of Brownian rods of length L, embedded in a thin fluid interface of 2D viscosity ηm and surrounded on both sides with 3D fluid domains of viscosity ηf . The momentum transfer from the interfacial flows to the surrounding fluids occurs over length l0 = ηm/ηf , known as Saffman- Delbru ̈ck length. We use zeroth, first and second moments of Smoluchowski equation to obtain the conservation equations for concentration, polar order and nematic order fields, and use linear stability analysis and continuum simulations to study the dynamic variations of these fields as a function of L/l0, the ratio of active to thermal stresses, and the dimensionless self-propulsion velocity of the embedded particles. We find that at sufficiently large activities, the suspensions of active extensile stress (pusher) with no directed motion undergo a finite wavelength nematic ordering, with the length of the ordered domains decreasing with increasing L/l0. The ordering transition is hindered with further increases in L/l0. In contrast, the suspensions with active contractile stress (puller) remain uniform with variations of activity. We notice that the self-propulsion velocity results in significant concentration fluctuations and changes in the size of the order domains that depend on L/l0. Our re- search highlights the role of hydrodynamic interactions in the self-organization of active inclusions on biological interfaces. 

ABSTRACT Soft materials with unique nanostructures such as lamellar, hexagonal, and cubic morphologies can replicate complex structures that have potential in various fields, including biomedical and industrial applications. However, a key challenge in advancing the broader applications of 3D printing for these nanostructured soft materials is insufficient mechanical properties that hinder their printability and compromise structural stability in the final product. In this study, the suitability of a fatty acid‐based lamellar gel is evaluated for direct extrusion‐based 3D printing. The lamellar gel with varying water content is integrated with a photocurable hydrogel to preserve the shape and stability of the final prints. Complex 2D and 3D design patterns are used to assess extrusion behavior, structural stability, and print precision under varying pressures. Small‐angle X‐ray Scattering (SAXS) measurements reveal the formation of lamellar nanostructures and confirm their retention after photocuring in various gels. Rheological analysis confirms that these gels exhibit key properties suitable for extrusion‐based 3D printing, such as shear‐thinning behavior. Additionally, tensile testing is conducted to evaluate the mechanical properties across cured print samples. This study underscores the potential of nanostructured gels as a robust and versatile platform, facilitating the development of materials engineered for various applications. 

Globally, many species’ distributions are shifting in response to contemporary climate change. However, the direction and rate of shifts remain difficult to predict, impeding managers’ abilities to optimize resource allocation. Here, we developed a new approach for forecasting species range‐limit shifts that requires only abundance data along environmental (for example, elevational) gradients. We posited that the distribution of species’ abundances could offer insights into the potential for future range‐limit shifts. We then tested this prediction using data from several transect studies that compared historical and contemporary distributions. Consistent with our prediction, we found that strong asymmetry in abundance distributions (that is, “leaning” distributions) indeed preceded species’ lower‐limit range shifts. Accordingly, surveying abundances along environmental gradients may represent a promising, cost‐effective method for forecasting local shifts. Ideally, this approach will be incorporated by practitioners into species‐specific management planning and will inform on‐the‐ground conservation efforts. 

Integrating multimodal data such as RGB and LiDAR from multiple views significantly increases computational and communication demands, which can be challenging for resource-constrained autonomous agents while meeting the time-critical deadlines required for various mission-critical applications. To address this challenge, we propose CoOpTex, a collaborative task execution framework designed for cooperative perception in distributed autonomous systems (DAS). CoOpTex contribution is twofold: (a) CoOpTex fuses multiview RGB images to create a panoramic camera view for 2D object detection and utilizes 360° LiDAR for 3D object detection, improving accuracy with a lightweight Graph Neural Network (GNN) that integrates object coordinates from both perspectives, (b) To optimize task execution and meet the deadline, CoOpTex dynamically offloads computationally intensive image stitching tasks to auxiliary devices when available and adjusts frame capture rates for RGB frames based on device mobility and processing capabilities. We implement CoOpTex in real-time on static and mobile heterogeneous autonomous agents, which helps to significantly reduce deadline violations by 100% while improving frame rates for 2D detection by 2.2 times in stationary and 2 times in mobile conditions, demonstrating its effectiveness in enabling real-time cooperative perception. 

Abstract Studies of microbial interactions often emphasize interactions with large, easily measurable growth differences and short-term ecological outcomes spanning just a few generations. However, more subtle interactions, such as those without obvious phenotypes, may play a significant role in shaping both the short-term ecological dynamics and the long-term evolutionary trajectories of microbial species. We used the cheese rind model microbiome to examine how two fungal species, Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum, impact global gene expression and genome evolution of the bacterium Pseudomonas carnis LP. Even though fungi had limited impacts on the growth of P. carnis LP, approximately 4–40% of its genome was differentially expressed, depending on the specific fungal partner. When we evolved this Pseudomonas strain alone or in co-culture with each of the fungi, we observed frequent mutations in global regulators of nitrogen regulation, secondary metabolite production, and motility, depending on the fungus. Strikingly, many strains with mutations in the nitrogen regulatory gene ntrB emerged when evolved alone or with G. candidum, but not with P. camemberti. Metabolomic and fitness experiments demonstrate that release of free amino acids by P. camemberti removes the fitness advantages conferred by ntrB mutations. Collectively, these results demonstrate that even in the absence of major short-term growth effects, fungi can have substantial impacts on the transcriptome and genomic evolution of bacterial species.