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Recent active rifting on Venus revealed by wide rift flank uplifts
Item type: Journal Article
Yang, Xi; Gerya, Taras V.; Gülcher, Anna J. P. (2026)
Rifts are prominent tectonic features on Venus, yet their formation, evolution and tectonic activity remain debatable. Here we conducted 3D numerical thermomechanical experiments with visco-elasto-plastic compressible rock rheology to systematically investigate the rifting dynamics and topography under Venusian conditions. To compare active and inactive rift morphologies, the relaxation of rift topography after extension ceases was also investigated. Our modelling results suggest a relatively thick thermal lithosphere and a strong crust with dry diabase or mafic granulite rheology in rifted regions and demonstrate that wide rift flank uplifts strongly indicate either presently ongoing Venusian rifting or activity within the past few tens of millions of years. The rift valleys in the Ganis, Dali and Devana Chasmata have wide rift flank uplifts, and their characteristic topographic features are comparable to the modelled early-stage active rifts undergoing relatively high extension rates of 3-10 cm yr-1. This suggests that the Venus rifts in these regions are still active or were active very recently. Their morphology also indicates faster extension rates than commonly assumed for Venusian rifting, potentially associated with recent vigorous mantle plume activity.
A decade of Cybathlon: impact on public visibility, scientific dissemination and technology transfer
Item type: Journal Article
Riener, Robert; Vassella, Luca; Wolf, Peter (2026)
The Cybathlon is an international competition in which individuals with physical disabilities complete activities of daily living using advanced assistive technologies, including robotic devices. International championships were held in Zurich in 2016, 2020, and 2024, with up to eight disciplines that included races using powered prosthetic limbs, exoskeletons, and wheelchairs. Between 2015 and 2024, more than 120 teams from over 30 countries participated in Cybathlon competitions and affiliated events. The aim of this work is to systematically assess the Cybathlon's broader impact over its first decade, with particular attention to public visibility, scientific dissemination, and the translation of assistive technologies toward academic, clinical, and industrial application. To this end, we combine a longitudinal analysis of media coverage (2014-2025), a bibliometric review of scientific publications, and a survey of participating teams. A total of 6,944 media items were identified, predominantly from online sources (73.6%), with the highest coverage originating from Switzerland (26%), followed by the USA, Italy, and Germany. By January 2025, 297 scientific publications referred to the Cybathlon, with author affiliations most frequently from Switzerland, Italy, the USA, and China. Among participating teams, 79% reported accelerated prototype development due to Cybathlon participation, and over one-third attributed new educational materials, clinical methods, or collaborations to their involvement. These effects were frequently linked to early and sustained user integration, iterative testing under realistic conditions, and close interaction between engineers, clinicians, and end users. Participation directly contributed to the founding of three companies and supported five additional ventures. Additionally, at least 21 established companies participated during the various editions. Overall, the Cybathlon emerges as a unique, competition-driven innovation ecosystem that not only increase public awareness of assistive technologies but also shapes research priorities, support user-centered design practices, and facilitates pathways toward clinical adaptation and commercialization.
MotionPyramid: Controllable Motion Synthesis via Stylized Phase Manifolds
Item type: Conference Paper
Li, Jingyuan; Li, Peizhuo; Aristidou, Andreas; et al. (2026)
We introduce stylized phase manifolds-a compact, interpretable latent representation that disentangles motion content (e.g. "jumping", "walking"), the temporal structure (e.g. motion cycle frequency, gait timing), and style (i.e. how the motion is performed). Learned in an unsupervised manner and inherently low-dimensional, the manifold offers intuitive and flexible editing. Building on this representation, we develop a diffusion-based motion generator that enables fine-grained control over semantic, temporal, and stylistic aspects of motion. To connect high-level intent with low-level motion, we treat the stylized manifold as an intermediate representation-a structured bridge between natural language and motion. By first mapping text into this manifold, our two-stage pipeline improves the control over for text-based motion generation, while producing high-quality, diverse motion outputs.
Machine-learning techniques for model-independent searches in dijet final states
Item type: Journal Article
CMS Collaboration; Hayrapetyan, Arsen; Aarrestad, Thea; et al. (2026)
Anomaly detection methods used in a recent search for new phenomena by CMS at the CERN LHC are presented. The methods use machine learning to detect anomalous jets produced in the decay of new massive particles without depending on a specific theory model. The effectiveness of these approaches in enhancing sensitivity to various simulated signal samples is studied and compared using data collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. In an example analysis, the capabilities of anomaly detection methods are further demonstrated by identifying large-radius jets consistent with Lorentz-boosted hadronically decaying top quarks in a model-agnostic framework.
Morphologically annotated single-cell images of human PBMCs
Item type: Dataset
Severin, Yannik (2026)