Ecological connectivity models commonly derive resistance surfaces from habitat suitability; however, it remains unclear how two-dimensional (2D) versus three-dimensional (3D) representations of landscape propagate through this modeling pipeline, particularly in urban environments. This study evaluated the sensitivity of habitat suitability and connectivity outputs derived from these models to the inclusion of 3D landscape structure for two bird species with contrasting habitat associations, the Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) and Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), in Los Angeles, California, USA. Species distribution models were developed in Maxent using 2D variables and compared to models incorporating 3D variables derived from LiDAR, with connectivity modeled using Omniscape under identical parameterization. Across both species, 2D and 3D Maxent models exhibited similar performance and high niche overlap, indicating limited sensitivity of overall habitat suitability patterns to the inclusion of 3D variables. Likewise, connectivity outputs were highly correlated with high-connectivity values consistently concentrated in protected open spaces, mirroring the patterns seen in the Maxent models. However, the inclusion of 3D variables altered variable importance in the models and produced discernible shifts in spatial configuration of some suitability and high connectivity values, with species-specific differences. The results suggest that even when overall habitat suitability and downstream connectivity outputs are similar, the inclusion of 3D variables still produced discernible differences in the spatial configuration of high connectivity values, having implications for conservation management decisions. More broadly, these results underscore the importance of evaluating how upstream modeling choices related to the dimensional characterization of landscape propagate through connectivity workflows.
A growing body of criminological research centers on the "future self," examining how young people link their present behavior to who they would like to become. Within juvenile justice, evidence suggests that the more clearly youth can imagine their futures, the more likely they are to make thoughtful, goal-directed choices that reduce delinquency. However, little is known about how justice-involved youth envision their future selves. This study draws on narrative stories written by 277 youth in a short-term juvenile detention facility in the southwestern United States, collected through the social learning platform Journey.do. Leveraging the lens of narrative criminology, an inductive thematic analysis identified four main recurring theme categories from youth responses: (1) Values That Guide Career Choices; (2) Personal Improvement Goals; (3) Family Participation; and (4) Educational Goals. The findings indicate that youth in detention hold optimistic future aspirations in several spheres of life that the system should utilize to promote desistance and positive outcomes. Areas for future research and policy, such as elevating youths' voices and redesigning system opportunities to support their idealized and individualized future selves, are discussed.
We present PhysInOne , a large-scale synthetic dataset addressing the critical scarcity of physically-grounded training data for AI systems. Unlike existing datasets limited to merely hundreds or thousands of examples, PhysInOne provides 1.4 million videos across 129,400 dynamic 3D scenes, covering 68 basic physical phenomena in mechanics, optics, fluid dynamics, and magnetism. Distinct from previous works, our scenes feature multiobject interactions against complex backgrounds, with comprehensive ground-truth annotations including 3D geometry, semantics, dynamic motion, physical properties, and text descriptions. We demonstrate PhysInOne’s efficacy across four emerging applications: physics-aware video generation, long-/short-term future frame prediction, physical property estimation, and motion transfer. Experiments show that fine-tuning foundation models on PhysInOne significantly enhances physical plausibility, while also exposing critical gaps in modeling complex physical dynamics and estimating intrinsic properties. As the largest dataset of its kind, orders of magnitude beyond prior works, PhysInOne establishes a new benchmark for advancing physics-grounded world models in generation, simulation, and embodied AI.
To reproduce observed galaxy properties, cosmological simulations require that massive galaxies experience feedback from active galactic nuclei, which regulates star formation within those galaxies. However, the energetics and timescales of these feedback processes are poorly constrained. We combined optical, infrared, submillimeter, and radio observations of the active galaxy VV 340a, which is hosting a low-power jet launched from a supermassive black hole at its center. We found that the jet undergoes precession, with a period of (8.2 ± 5.5) × 105 years, and drives an outflow of gas at a rate of 19.4 ± 7.9 solar masses per year. The jet shocks the gas, producing highly ionized plasma that extends several kiloparsecs from the nucleus. The outflow ejects sufficient gas from the galaxy to influence its star-formation rate.
In 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States effectively ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions with their decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Asian Americans were featured prominently in the case and broader discourse, even though a majority (69%) of Asian Americans support such policies. Here, a socio-historical approach helps to understand how Asian Americans have been positioned against affirmative action according to Racial Triangulation Theory and stereotypes rooted in the model minority myth. Two areas of research and theory (privilege and inter-minority group relations) suggest social psychologically informed policy recommendations and areas of advocacy. Ultimately, racial justice and equity can be achieved through an inter-minority group coalition built on an understanding of history, development of critical race consciousness, and informed community engagement.
