#modeling da-cheng

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Zhèng YèChéng 鄭業成

Wb update 2024.12.14 (2/2)

📸 Wb @夏弃疾_回乡冲浪版

👘 Wb @MySs斐今

[accio-victuuri]

wait.. i’m literally on here or weibo almost 24/7 ( as you can tell lol ) but I feel like i missed something. i’m seeing clowning related to xz’s photos and how it looks like he is a groom and it’s a wedding photoshoot. the place is also famous for wedding shoots ( allegedly, idk. i’m not from there ) so turtles are imagining again. lol. freakin coincidence that wyb’s GRA photoshoot was done at a wedding shop. plus the “wedding outfits” for weibo night. which is all clowning and galaxy braining.🌌

now, we’re joking around, like where’s yibo? he should be taking photos with his partner.

then i see comments that there is this one song WYB recently listened to. meaning, as recent as when XZ flew to singapore which is called 超人不会飞 (superman can’t fly) by Jay Chou. i know WYB and everyone else is a big fan of Jay Chou but the clowning comes from the timing of when he listened to it. let me get to that first.

here is the song if you wanna listen to it. 🎶

turtles are interpreting it as WYB longing to “fly” to where XZ is and be with him but he can’t because of all his work commitments. he wants to take a breather. thinking about what his life is and the constraints, and at times like this, when they spent days in Beijing, but now they have to be apart, it affects him even more.

however when i read the lyrics, it could also be because he can relate to what jay chou is singing about. here’s the english translation i found here. i have bolded the ones i felt like WYB relates too. literally no need for explanation. just read it. It fits with his status in life so much that it’s almost scary.

妈妈说很多事别太计较

ma ma shuo heng duo shi bie tai ji jiao

Mum said one should not be too fussy over most matters

只是使命感找到了我 我睡不着

zhi shi shi ming gan zhao dao le wo wo shui bu zhao

But my sense of mission found me and i can't sleep over it

如果说骂人要有点技巧

ru guo shuo ma ren yao you diao ji qiao

If scolding someone requires some skills

我会加点旋律你会觉得 超屌

wo hui jia diao xuan lu ni hui jue de chao diao

I will add a tune and you will feel it's very cool (diao)

我的枪不会装弹药（弹药）

wo de qiang bu hui zhuang dan yao (dan yao)

My gun is not loaded with ammunition

所以放心不会有人倒（人倒）

suo yi fang xin bu hui you ren dao (ren dao)

So don't worry, nobody will collapse

我拍青蜂侠不需要替身 因为自信是我绘画的颜料

wo pai qing feng xia bu xu yao ti sheng yin wei zi xin shi wo hui hua de yan liao

I don't need a double for The Green Hornet because confidence is the coloring for my painting

我做很多事背后的意义远比你们想象

wo zuo heng duo shi bei hou de yi yi yuan bi ni men xiang xiang

The meaning behind the things I did is far beyond your imagination

拍个电视剧为了友情与十年前的梦想

pai le dian shi ju wei le you qing yu shi nian qian de meng xiang

Filming a tv drama is for friendship and a dream 10 years ago

收视率再高也难抗衡我的伟大理想

shou shi lv zai gao ye nan kang heng wo de wei da li xiang

No matter how high the rating is, it can't match my noble ideal

因为我的人生无需再多一笔那奖项

yin wei wo de ren sheng wo xu zai duo yi bi na jiang xiang

Because my life do not need another award

我不知道何时变成了社会的那榜样

wo bu zhi dao he shi bian cheng le se hui de na bang yang

I don't know when I have become a society's role model

被狗仔拍不能比中指要大器的模样（怎样）

bei gou zai pai bu neng bi zhong zhi yao da qi de mo yang (zen yang)

Can't show the paparazzi the finger and have to put on a magnanimous front

我唱的歌词要有点文化

wo chang de ge ci yao you dian wen hua

The lyrics I sing must have some degree of literacy

因为随时会被当教材

yin wei sui shi hui bei dan jiao cai

Because it might become teaching material anytime

CNN能不能等英文好一点再访

CNN neng bu neng deng ying wen hao yi dian zai fang

Can CNN interview me when my English gets a little better

时代杂志封面能不能重拍

shi dai za zhi feng mian neng bu neng chong pai

Can i reshoot the Time magazine cover

随时随地注意形象

sui shi sui di zhu yi xin xiang

I must take care of my image at all times

要控制饮食不然就跟杜莎夫人蜡像的我不像（本来就不像）

yao kong zhi yin shi bu ran jiu gen du sha fu ren la xiang de wo bu xiang (ben lai jiu bu xiang)

I must control my diet or i won't look like the "me" in Madame Tussauds (it doesn't look like me in the first place)

好莱坞的中国戏院地上有很多手印脚印

hao lai wu de zhong guo xi yuan di shang you heng duo shou yin jiao yin

There are many handprints and footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre

何时才能看见我的掌

he shi cai neng kan jian wo de zhang

When will mine be seen there?

如果超人会飞 那就让我在空中停一停歇

ru guo chao ren hui fei na jiu rang wo zai kong zhong ti yi ti xie

If Superman can fly then let me take a breather in the sky

再次俯瞰这个世界 会让我觉得好一些

zai ci fu kan zhe ge shi jie hui ran wo jue de hao yi xie

Overlooking this world again will let me feel better

拯救地球好累 虽然有些疲惫但我还是会

zheng jiu di qiu hao lei sui ran you xie pi bei dan wo hai shi hui

Saving the world is tiring, though I am a little tired, I still will

不要问我哭过了没

bu yao wen wo ku guo le mei

Don't ask me if I have cried

因为超人不能流眼泪

yin wei chao ren bu neng liu yan lei

Because Superman can't cry

唱歌要拿最佳男歌手

chang ge yao na zui jia nan ge shou

(You) must get best male singer award as a singer

拍电影也不能只拿个最佳新人

pai dian yin ye bu neng zhi na ge zui jia xin ren

A newcomer award is not enough if you act

你不参加颁奖典礼就是没礼貌

ni bu can jia ban jiang dian li jiu shi mei li mao

Not attending award ceremonies is considered rude

你去参加就是代表你很在乎

ni qu can jia jiu shi dai biao ni heng zai hu

And if you do, it means you are over-concerned about it

得奖时你感动落泪（落泪）人家就会觉得你夸张做作（做作）

de jia shi ni gan dong luo lei (luo lei) ren jia jiu hui jue de ni kuang zhang zuo zuo

When you won an award and teared, people will think you are fake and exaggerating

你没表情别人就会说太嚣张

ni mei biao qing bie ren jiu hui shuo tai xiao zhang

When you have no expression, others will say you are too arrogant

如果你天生这个表情 那些人甚至会怪你妈妈（妈妈）

ru guo ni tian sheng zhe ge biao qing na xie ren sheng zhi hui guai ni ma ma (ma ma)

And if you are born with that expression, they will even blame your mum

结果最后是别人在得奖 你也要给予充分的掌声与微笑

jie guo zui hou shi bie ren zai de jiang ni ye yao ge yu chong fen de zhang sheng yu wei xiao

In the end someone else gets the award, you also have to give ample applause and smile

开的车不能太好 住的楼不能太高

kai de che bu neng tai hao zhu de lou bu neng tai gao

The car you drive can't be too luxurious nor can you live too high up

我到底是一个创作歌手 还是好人好事代表

wo dao di shi yi ge chuang zuo ge shou hai shi hao ren hao shi dai biao

Am I a singer-songwriter or a representative of good men and good deeds?

专辑一出就必须是冠军

zhuan ji yi chu jiu bi xu shi guan jun

My album must be ranked top once released

拍了电影就必须要大卖

pai le dian yin jiu bi xu yao da mai

My movie must sell well

只能说当超人真的好难

zhi neng shuo dan chao ren zhen de hao nan

I can only say, being a Superman is difficult

如果超人会飞（���人会飞）那就让我在空中停一停歇（停一停歇）

ru guo chao ren hui fei (chao ren hui fei) na jiu rang wo zai kong zhong ti yi ti xie (ti yi ti xie)

If Superman can fly then let me take a breather in the sky

再次俯瞰这个世界 会让我觉得好一些

zai ci fu kan zhe ge shi jie hui ran wo jue de hao yi xie

Overlooking this world again will let me feel better

拯救地球好累（地球好累）虽然有些疲惫但我还是会（我还是会）

zheng jiu di qiu hao lei (di qiu hao lei) sui ran you xie pi bei dan wo hai shi hui (wo hai shi hui)

Saving the world is tiring, though I am a little tired, I still will

不要问我哭过了没

bu yao wen wo ku guo le mei

Don't ask me if I have cried

因为超人不能流眼泪

yin wei chao ren bu neng liu yan lei

Because Superman can't cry

=====

I don’t think there is anything wrong with how cpfs are relating this to cpn cause that’s just how it is. But sometimes, there are other reasons why they do what they do.

SO MY CONFUSION COMES FROM HOW THE HELL DO PEOPLE KNOW WHAT HE RECENTLY LISTENED TO. I can’t seem to dig up how or maybe it’s something we don’t talk about. I have never experienced this kind of tidbit related to them before so I wanna know the source. Or is this like the gaming cpn where certain people know and they will not divulge the boy’s account for privacy? if anyone knows, feel free to comment. If i find out in the future, I will share.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 37, 2024

Simple spike patterns and synaptic mechanisms encoding sensory and motor signals in Purkinje cells and the cerebellar nuclei. Brown, S. T., Medina-Pizarro, M., Holla, M., Vaaga, C. E., & Raman, I. M. (2024). Neuron, 112(11), 1848-1861.e4.

Disentangling the effects of metabolic cost and accuracy on movement speed. Bruening, G. W., Courter, R. J., Sukumar, S., O’Brien, M. K., & Ahmed, A. A. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(5), e1012169.

Two Prediction Error Systems in the Nonlemniscal Inferior Colliculus: “Spectral” and “Nonspectral”. Carbajal, G. V, Casado-Román, L., & Malmierca, M. S. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(23), e2327232024.

In and Out of Criticality? State-Dependent Scaling in the Rat Visual Cortex. Castro, D. M., Feliciano, T., de Vasconcelos, N. A. P., Soares-Cunha, C., Coimbra, B., Rodrigues, A. J., … Copelli, M. (2024). PRX Life, 2(2), 023008.

Visual working memories are abstractions of percepts. Duan, Z., & Curtis, C. E. (2024). eLife, 13, e94191.3.

A scalable spiking amygdala model that explains fear conditioning, extinction, renewal and generalization. Duggins, P., & Eliasmith, C. (2024). European Journal of Neuroscience, 59(11), 3093–3116.

Mesostriatal dopamine is sensitive to changes in specific cue-reward contingencies. Garr, E., Cheng, Y., Jeong, H., Brooke, S., Castell, L., Bal, A., … Janak, P. H. (2024). Science Advances, 10(22).

Astrocytes as a mechanism for contextually-guided network dynamics and function. Gong, L., Pasqualetti, F., Papouin, T., & Ching, S. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(5), e1012186.

Ventral Pallidum and Amygdala Cooperate to Restrain Reward Approach under Threat. Hernández-Jaramillo, A., Illescas-Huerta, E., & Sotres-Bayon, F. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(23), e2327232024.

Choice overload interferes with early processing and necessitates late compensation: Evidence from electroencephalogram. Hu, X., Meng, Z., & He, Q. (2024). European Journal of Neuroscience, 59(11), 2995–3008.

Decision-related activity and movement selection in primate visual cortex. Laamerad, P., Liu, L. D., & Pack, C. C. (2024). Science Advances, 10(22).

Intrinsic and synaptic determinants of receptive field plasticity in Purkinje cells of the mouse cerebellum. Lin, T.-F., Busch, S. E., & Hansel, C. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 4645.

Effects of post-saccadic oscillations on visual processing times. Llapashtica, E., Sun, T., Grattan, K. T. V., & Barbur, J. L. (2024). PLOS ONE, 19(5), e0302459.

Cholinergic Neuromodulation of Prefrontal Attractor Dynamics Controls Performance in Spatial Working Memory. Mahrach, A., Bestue, D., Qi, X.-L., Constantinidis, C., & Compte, A. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(23), e1225232024.

Binocular receptive-field construction in the primary visual cortex. Olianezhad, F., Jin, J., Najafian, S., Pons, C., Mazade, R., Kremkow, J., & Alonso, J.-M. (2024). Current Biology, 34(11), 2474-2486.e5.

Behavioral strategy shapes activation of the Vip-Sst disinhibitory circuit in visual cortex. Piet, A., Ponvert, N., Ollerenshaw, D., Garrett, M., Groblewski, P. A., Olsen, S., … Arkhipov, A. (2024). Neuron, 112(11), 1876-1890.e4.

Exact Distribution of the Quantal Content in Synaptic Transmission. Rijal, K., Müller, N. I. C., Friauf, E., Singh, A., Prasad, A., & Das, D. (2024). Physical Review Letters, 132(22), 228401.

Phase-dependent word perception emerges from region-specific sensitivity to the statistics of language. Ten Oever, S., Titone, L., te Rietmolen, N., & Martin, A. E. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(23), e2320489121.

Temporal interference stimulation disrupts spike timing in the primate brain. Vieira, P. G., Krause, M. R., & Pack, C. C. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 4558.

Theoretical principles explain the structure of the insect head direction circuit. Vilimelis Aceituno, P., Dall’Osto, D., & Pisokas, I. (2024). eLife, 13, e91533.

[theculturedmarxist]

SHANGHAI — Over the past generation, China’s most important relationships were with the more developed world, the one that used to be called the “first world.” Mao Zedong proclaimed China to be the leader of a “third” (non-aligned) world back in the 1970s, and the term later came to be a byword for deprivation. The notion of China as a developing country continues to this day, even as it has become a superpower; as the tech analyst Dan Wang has joked, China will always remain developing — once you’re developed, you’re done. 

Fueled by exports to the first world, China became something different — something not of any of the three worlds. We’re still trying to figure out what that new China is and how it now relates to the world of deprivation — what is now called the Global South, where the majority of human beings alive today reside. But amid that uncertainty, Chinese exports to the Global South now exceed those to the Global North considerably — and they’re growing. 

The International Monetary Fund expects Asian countries to account for 70% of growth globally this year. China must “shape a new international system that is conducive to hedging against the negative impacts of the West’s decoupling,” the scholar and former People’s Liberation Army theorist Cheng Yawen wrote recently. That plan starts with Southeast Asia and extends throughout the Global South, a terrain that many Chinese intellectuals see as being on their side in the widening divide between the West and the rest. 

“The idea is that what China is today, fast-growing countries from Bangladesh to Brazil could be tomorrow.”

China isn’t exporting plastic trinkets to these places but rather the infrastructure for telecommunications, transportation and digitally driven “smart cities.” In other words, China is selling the developmental model that raised its people out of obscurity and poverty to developed global superpower status in a few short decades to countries with people who have decided that they want that too. 

The world China is reorienting itself to is a world that, in many respects, looks like China did a generation ago. On offer are the basics of development — education, health care, clean drinking water, housing. But also more than that — technology, communication and transportation.

Back in April, on the eve of a trip to China, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sat down for an interview with Reuters. “I am going to invite Xi Jinping to come to Brazil,” he said, “to get to know Brazil, to show him the projects that we have of interest for Chinese investment. … What we want is for the Chinese to make investments to generate new jobs and generate new productive assets in Brazil.” After Lula and Xi had met, the Brazilian finance minister proclaimed that “President Lula wants a policy of reindustrialization. This visit starts a new challenge for Brazil: bringing direct investments from China.” Three months later, the battery and electric vehicle giant BYD announced a $624 million investment to build a factory in Brazil, its first outside Asia.

Across the Global South, fast-growing countries from Bangladesh to Brazil can send raw materials to China and get technological devices in exchange. The idea is that what China is today, they could be tomorrow.

At The Kunming Institute of Botany

In April, I went to Kunming to visit one of China’s most important environmental conservation outfits — the Kunming Institute of Botany. Like the British Museum’s antiquities collected from everywhere that the empire once extended, the seed bank here (China’s largest) aspires to acquire thousands of samples of various plant species and become a regional hub for future biotech research. 

From the Kunming train station, you can travel by Chinese high-speed rail to Vientiane; if all goes according to plan, the line will soon be extended to Bangkok. At Yunnan University across town, the economics department researches “frontier economics” with an eye to Southeast Asian neighboring states, while the international relations department focuses on trade pacts within the region and a community of anthropologists tries to figure out what it all means. 

Kunming is a bland, air-conditioned provincial capital in a province of startling ethnic and geographic diversity. In this respect, it is a template for Chinese development around Southeast Asia. Perhaps in the future, Dhaka, Naypyidaw and Phnom Penh will provide the reassuring boredom of a Kunming afternoon. 

Imagine you work at the consulate of Bangladesh in Kunming. Why are you in Kunming? What does Kunming have that you want?

The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore lyrically described Asia’s communities as organic and spiritual in contrast with the materialism of the West. As Tagore spoke of the liberatory powers of art, his Chinese listeners scoffed. The Chinese poet Wen Yiduo, who moved to Kunming during World War II and is commemorated with a statue at Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, wrote that Tagore’s work had no form: “The greatest fault in Tagore’s art is that he has no grasp of reality. Literature is an expression of life and even metaphysical poetry cannot be an exception. Everyday life is the basic stuff of literature, and the experiences of life are universal things.” 

“Xi Jinping famously said that China doesn’t export revolution. But what else do you call train lines, 5G connectivity and scientific research centers appearing in places that previously had none of these things?”

If Tagore’s Bengali modernism championed a spiritual lens for life rather than the materiality of Western colonialists, Chinese modernists decided that only by being more materialist than Westerners could they regain sovereignty. Mao had said rural deprivation was “一穷二白” — poor and empty; Wen accused Tagore’s poetry of being formless. Hegel sneered that Asia had no history, since the same phenomena simply repeated themselves again and again — the cycle of planting and harvest in agricultural societies. 

For modernists, such societies were devoid of historical meaning in addition to being poor and readily exploited. The amorphous realm of the spirit was for losers, the Chinese May 4th generation decided. Railroads, shipyards and electrification offered salvation.

Today, as Chinese roads, telecoms and entrepreneurs transform Bangladesh and its peers in the developing world, you could say that the argument has been won by the Chinese. Chinese infrastructure creates a new sort of blank generic urban template, one seen first in Shenzhen, then in Kunming and lately in Vientiane, Dhaka or Indonesian mining towns. 

The sleepy backwaters of Southeast Asia have seen previous waves of Chinese pollinators. Low Lan Pak, a tin miner from Guangdong, established a revolutionary state in Indonesia in the 18th century. Li Mi, a Kuomintang general, set up an independent republic in what is now northern Myanmar after World War II. 

New sorts of communities might walk on the new roads and make calls on the new telecom networks and find work in the new factories that have been built with Chinese technology and funded by Chinese money across Southeast Asia. One Bangladeshi investor told me that his government prefers direct investment to aid — aid organizations are incentivized to portray Bangladesh as eternally poor, while Huawei and Chinese investors play up the country’s development prospects and bright future. In the latter, Bangladeshis tend to agree.

“Is China a place, or is it a recipe for social structure that can be implemented generically anywhere?”

The majority of human beings alive today live in a world of not enough: not enough food; not enough security; not enough housing, education, health care; not enough rights for women; not enough potable water. They are desperate to get out of there, as China has. They might or might not like Chinese government policies or the transactional attitudes of Chinese entrepreneurs, but such concerns are usually of little importance to countries struggling to bootstrap their way out of poverty.

The first world tends to see the third as a rebuke and a threat. Most Southeast Asian countries have historically borne abuse in relationship to these American fears. Most American companies don’t tend to see Pakistan or Bangladesh or Sumatra as places they’d like invest money in. But opportunity beckons for Chinese companies seeking markets outside their nation’s borders and finding countries with rapidly growing populations and GDPs. Imagine a Huawei engineer in a rural Bangladeshi village, eating a bad lunch with the mayor, surrounded by rice paddies — he might remember the Hunan of his childhood.  

Xi Jinping famously said that China doesn’t export revolution. But what else do you call train lines, 5G connectivity and scientific research centers appearing in places that previously had none of these things? 

Across the vastness of a world that most first-worlders would not wish to visit, Chinese entrepreneurs are setting up electric vehicle and battery companies, installing broadband and building trains. The world that is looming into view on Huawei’s 2022 business report is one in which Asia is the center of the global economy and China sits at its core, the hub from which sophisticated and carbon-neutral technologies are distributed. Down the spokes the other way come soybeans, jute and nickel. Lenin’s term for this kind of political economy was imperialism. 

If the Chinese economy is the set of processes that created and create China, then its exports today are China — technologies, knowledge, communication networks, forms of organization. But is China a place, or is it a recipe for social structure that can be implemented generically anywhere?

Huawei Station

Huawei’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party remain unclear, but there is certainly a case of elective affinities. Huawei’s descriptions of selfless, nameless engineers working to bring telecoms to the countryside of Bangladesh is reminiscent of Party propaganda and “socialist realist” art. As a young man, Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s CEO, spent time in the Chongqing of Mao’s “third front,” where resources were redistributed to develop new urban centers; the logic of starting in rural areas and working your way to the center, using infrastructure to rappel your way up, is embedded within the Maoist ideas that he studied at the time. Today, it underpins Huawei’s business development throughout the Global South. 

I stopped by the Huawei Analyst Summit in April to see if I could connect the company’s history to today. The Bildungsroman of Huawei’s corporate development includes battles against entrenched state-owned monopolies in the more developed parts of the country. The story goes that Huawei couldn’t make inroads in established markets against state-owned competitors, so got started in benighted rural areas where the original leaders had to brainstorm what to do if rats ate the cables or rainstorms swept power stations away; this story is mobilized today to explain their work overseas. 

Perhaps at one point, Huawei could have been just another boring corporation selling plastic objects to consumers across the developed world, but that time ended definitively with Western sanctions in 2019, effectively banning the company from doing business in the U.S. The sanctions didn’t kill Huawei, obviously, and they may have made it stronger. They certainly made it weirder, more militant and more focused on the markets largely scorned by the Ericssons and Nokias of the world. Huawei retrenched to its core strength: providing rural and remote areas with access to connectivity across difficult terrain with the intention that these networks will fuel telehealth and digital education and rapidly scale the heights of development.

Huawei used to do this with dial-up modems in China, but now it is building 5G networks across the Global South. The Chinese government is supportive of these efforts; Huawei’s HQ has a subway station named for the company, and in 2022 the government offered the company massive subsidies.

“For many countries in the Global South, the model of development exemplified by Shenzhen seems plausible and attainable.”

For years, the notion of an ideological struggle between the U.S. and China was dismissed; China is capitalist, they said. Just look at the Louis Vuitton bags. This misses a central truth of the economy of the 21st century. The means of production now are internet servers, which are used for digital communication, for data farms and blockchain, for AI and telehealth. Capitalists control the means of production in the United States, but the state controls the means of production in China. In the U.S. and countries that implicitly accept its tech dominance, private businesspeople dictate the rules of the internet, often to the displeasure of elected politicians who accuse them of rigging elections, fueling inequality or colluding with communists. The difference with China, in which the state has maintained clear regulatory control over the internet since the early days, couldn’t be clearer. 

The capitalist system pursues frontier technologies and profits, but companies like Huawei pursue scalability to the forgotten people of the world. For better or worse, it’s San Francisco or Shenzhen. For many countries in the Global South, the model of development exemplified by Shenzhen seems more plausible and attainable. Nobody thinks they can replicate Silicon Valley, but many seem to think they can replicate Chinese infrastructure-driven middle-class consumerism.

As Deng Xiaoping said, it doesn’t matter if it is a black cat or a white cat, just get a cat that catches mice. Today, leaders of Global South countries complain about the ideological components of American aid; they just want a cat that can catch their mice. Chinese investment is blank — no ideological strings attached. But this begs the question: If China builds the future of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Laos, then is their future Chinese?

Telecommunications and 5G is at the heart of this because connectivity can enable rapid upgrades in health and education via digital technology such as telehealth, whereby people in remote villages are able to consult with doctors and hospitals in more developed regions. For example, Huawei has retrofitted Thailand’s biggest and oldest hospital with 5G to communicate with villages in Thailand’s poor interior — the sort of places a new Chinese high-speed train line could potentially provide links with the outside world — offering Thai villagers without the ability to travel into town the opportunity to get medical treatments and consultations remotely. 

The IMF has proposed that Asia’s developing belt “should prioritize reforms that boost innovation and digitalization while accelerating the green energy transition,” but there is little detail about who exactly ought to be doing all of that building and connecting. In many cases and places, it’s Chinese infrastructure and companies like Huawei that are enabling Thai villagers to live as they do in Guizhou.

Chinese Style Modernization?

The People’s Republic of China is “infinitely stronger than the Soviet Union ever was,” the U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, told Politico in April. This prowess “is based on the extraordinary strength of the Chinese economy — its science and technology research base, its innovative capacity and its ambitions in the Indo-Pacific to be the dominant power in the future.” This increasingly feels more like the official position of the U.S. government than a random comment.

Ten years ago, Xi Jinping proposed the notion of a “maritime Silk Road” to the Indonesian Parliament. Today, Indonesia is building an entirely new capital — Nusantara — for which China is providing “smart city” technologies. Indonesia has a complex history with ethnic Chinese merchants, who played an intermediary role between Indigenous people and Western colonists in the 19th century and have been seen as CCP proxies for the past half century or so. But the country is nevertheless moving decisively towards China’s pole, adopting Chinese developmental rhythms and using Chinese technology and infrastructure to unlock the door to the future. “The internet, roads, ports, logistics — most of these were built by Chinese companies,” observed a local scholar. 

The months since the 20th Communist Party Congress have seen the introduction of what Chinese diplomats call “Chinese-style modernization,” a clunky slogan that can evoke the worst and most boring agitprop of the Soviet era. But the concept just means exporting Chinese bones to other social bodies around the world. 

If every apartment decorated with IKEA furniture looks the same, prepare for every city in booming Asia to start looking like Shenzhen. If you like clean streets, bullet trains, public safety and fast Wi-Fi, this may not be a bad thing. 

Chinese trade with Southeast Asia is roughly double that between China and the U.S., and Chinese technology infrastructure is spreading out from places like the “Huawei University” at Indonesia’s Bandung Institute of Technology, which plans to train 100,000 telecom engineers in the next five years. We’re about to see a generation of “barefoot doctors” throughout Southeast Asia traveling by moped across landscapes of underdevelopment connected to hubs of medical data built by Chinese companies with Chinese technology. 

In 1955, the year of the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, the non-aligned world was almost entirely poor, cut off from the means of production in a world where nearly 50% of GDP globally was in the U.S. Today, the logic of that landmark conference is alive today in Chinese informal networks across the Global South, with the key difference that China can now offer these countries the possibility of building their own future without talking to anyone from the Global North. 

Welcome to the Sinosphere, where the tides of Chinese development lap over its borders into the remote forests of tropical Asia, and beyond.

[bitterflames]

我家大师兄脑子有坑 pit 502-503 spoilers (double update!!?!? aaaaaaa)

double update DONGFANG WUQIONG FLASHBACK?!?! backstory for my awful fave and his even more awful older brother figure??? thank you for my life, ling yumo (though it would also be nice to know if dfwq is still alive in the present day... 🥲)

it is so obvious the more time we spend with former xuanmingzong da-shixiong (WHOSE NAME WE KNOW NOW?! 岂程 QI CHENG?) that grown-up dfwq modelled his entire fucking personality after this guy. i'm obsessed. (if there's one thing about me it's that i love a Bad Role Model Figure.)

(two of them. TWO OF THEM. they're so cute help meeeeee)

also xuanmingzong/mysterious inscription sect continues to be the Literal Worst. i suppose when you're the biggest cultivation sect with more disciples than you can possibly manage, things get cutthroat, but lol. (regrettably, i'm obsessed with this awful sect also.)

baby dfwq really was the poorest little meow meow. no shifu, no mountain peak to belong to, getting beaten up on all the time, getting assassins sent after him by his OWN FAMILY (dongfang clan is also cutthroat as hell but we knew that). honestly it's no wonder he empathizes with yin feixing so well actually. (my weird little rarepair ship for those two grows stronger.)

i have to presume dfwq either killed his way to becoming patriarch in the present day (since he wasn't originally the heir) or just waited around for his rivals to die off with his extended cultivator lifespan. (either way, hot.)

baby!dfwq just being so starstruck here kills me tho like. me too. Oh No He's Heroic (and handsome?) howww did this guy end up becoming a slutty demonic cultivator with an evil eye in his cleavage. give me the DEETS. how did these two get from this to shixiong stabbing shidi and leaving him to bleed out on the cold hard ground !!!!!

finally i have a NAME to put to the man i've been cursing for the last almost half a year for almost (?) killing my fave. unfortunately, i love him. qi cheng, you menace (affectionate) (also derogatory).

[i-will-cry-you-a-river]

A thank you for @jaggededges123 for organizing the Niecest Weekend. Thank you, it was so much fun to write with them, and I'm sure it will be even more enjoyable to read what others came up with. 💕

Incoming call: Bane of Existence 💚

Of course, Nie Mingjue thought with fond annoyance, picking up his phone even though he was in the middle of a time-sensitive task.

“Daaa-geee,” the irritating voice of his spoiled didi sang. He could almost see him leaning against the locker, playing with his waist length hair, bringing attention to his gorgeous locks.

“What do you want,” he grunted. He knew what he wanted; he already closed the documents and powered off his laptop.

His didi needed him.

“Why are you like this with me?” Nie Huaisang pouted. “I could be in big trouble, I could have been kidnapped or hurt or on my deathbed! You would have been forever guilty if it would have been your last words to his beloved didi!”

“Didi.” The warning in his tone was obvious.

A put-out sigh, “You are no fun. Can you pick me up? Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng had to leave for some family stuff. It's cold outside. Pleeeeeeaseeeee, don't make your didi freeze to death!”

Nie Mingjue nodded to his secretary, leaving in a hurry. Of course, he didn't want Nie Huaisang to freeze; he never wanted his didi to experience any hardships in his life.

It didn't mean Nie Huaisang had to know he was already on his way. “I told you a thousand times that you should get your driver's license,” he grunted, falling into the argument like pulling up an old and faded shoes - shoes he didn't want to throw out even if it inconvenienced everybody. Nie Huaisang would never get his driver's license because Nie Mingjue would always drive the spoiled brat everywhere and anywhere, but his pride would never let himself acknowledge it. So, the argument stayed.

“But Daaa-geee,” Nie Huaisang whined. “You know I don't want to. You'd have me do something I don't want to? So cruel! I should run away from such a cruel da-ge…”

Nie Mingjue shook his head. His didi was so dramatic.

“Besides, you will always be there for me,” Nie Huaisang said, painfully truthful. Yes. Nie Mingjue would always be there for him.

“Ten minutes,” he noted as he pulled up the familiar address, noting the quickest route there, and hung up.

It took eight minutes and thirty-two seconds to get there. But who was counting?

He drove up to the familiar figure lounging around the entrance and rolled his window down.

“Your carriage awaits, Princess,” he teased his brother, who grinned mischievously. His didi was a sight for sore eyes. Always so pretty, only seventeen, but looking like the most gorgeous model ever existing. Nie Mingjue wasn't sure who that was, but he was sure that his didi was even prettier. His long hair fell like a waterfall over his shoulders, leaving his slender neck bare.

His didi was the prettiest.

“Come here,” he murmured. There was nobody around. Good.

Nie Huaisang stepped towards the open window, leaning against the car.

“How was school?” Nie Mingjue asked, already knowing the answer. His didi always got into trouble with his friends; if they wouldn't have been a godsend, finally helping Nie Huaisang to experience what a normal friendship was, he would have forbid him to be with them. Those boys were good boys, smart and from a good family, but they were Trouble with a big T.

“It was fine!” Nie Huaisang smiled innocently, his pale face flushed with lie. He was so good at lying and manipulating others, but Nie Mingjue could read him like an open book.

“Uh-huh,” Nie Mingjue snorted. “So, no trouble, right?”

“Yup, no trouble at all!”

Nie Mingjue raised a skeptical eyebrow, but nodded. “Good boy,” he said, and grinned. “You deserve a reward then, don't you?”

Nie Huaisang blushed bright red, looking around as if there would be somebody around them. Nie Mingjue was more careful than that. Nie Huaisang shuffled closer, leaning in to peck Nie Mingjue’s cheek, waiting for one in return. As if Nie Mingjue would be satisfied with a familiar little peck.

He cupped Nie Huaisang's cheek, who immediately leaned into it, his eyelashes fluttering closed. What a good didi he had. Pulling his precious jewel close, he pressed their lips together, sliding his tongue inside Nie Huaisang's mouth. His didi moaned shakily, yielding immediately, letting him explore the inside of his mouth. The kiss was quick, but scorching hot, wet, and tasted sweet like sugar and candy and everything nice.

“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang whispered, naked want in his voice.

“Later, didi,” Nie Mingjue promised. “Come, get inside,” he said, his eyes barely able to look away from those pink lips swollen and shiny after their stolen kiss.

“Yes, da-ge.”

The drive was uneventful; Nie Huaisang was never one to sit still when he was bored, but could be the most patient person when he wanted something.

They got home without any incident. His patient little didi pretended, he wanted nothing, that everything was fine. He dressed in comfy shorts as if it wasn't freezing cold outside, and his favorite see-through shirt he stole from Nie Mingjue, and chatted his brother's ear off.

Nie Mingjue hid his smirk, switching on the TV. If his didi wanted to play like this, he would indulge. He had and always would indulge his dramatic little brat.

“I'm not sure about football,” Nie Huaisang pouted, throwing a pale leg over Nie Mingjue's. It was another old argument between them.

“I never told you to choose football. I told you to do sport! You chose it because of the Jiang boy,” Nie Mingjue reminded his didi. All he wanted was his brother to do something, to move and not just laze around like the pampered princess he was.

“But Daaa-geee,” his didi whined, dramatically throwing himself into Nie Mingjue's lap. “I wanted to join to a team where I at least knew somebody!”

“I know,” Nie Mingjue patted his didi's head.

“I should just give up sport. I will never be good at anything.” Nie Huaisang took Nie Mingjue's hand away from his head, taking it into his palms to play with it. Nie Mingjue was always in awe of how smaller his didi was compared to him. He wasn't tiny, not exactly, but next to Nie Mingjue, his jewel was itty-bitty, perfectly bite-sized.

“You will do no such thing.” If there was one thing he wouldn't give, even for his didi - ESPECIALLY for his didi - was this. “What about self defense? Or dance? You always liked to dance,” he offered as a potentially fun alternative.

Nie Huaisang poundered, one perfectly manicured finger tapping his lower lip, bringing his brother's attention back to that perfect bow. “Maybe…”

“Uh-huh,” Nie Mingjue sighed. That was his brother's scheming face.

“Thank you, Da-ge! I know what I will do!” He sang, smacking a big kiss on Nie Mingjue's cheek.

“I'm already afraid,” he grunted, teasing.

“You are mean!”

The pout on Nie Huaisang's lips was begging to be kissed. Though, Nie Mingjue didn't want to give him the satisfaction yet, so he held himself back. His hands grabbed his tiny brother's tinier waists, pulling him properly to his lap. Their breath mixed, the touch of Nie Huaisang's tights around his drove him wild.

“Am I?” He asked, one hand pressing into soft skin.

“The meanest,” Nie Huaisang whispered, his eyes burning, teeth digging into his lips.

Nie Mingjue petted his jewel's back, caressing, until he released the tension in his body, until he was breathing heavily, squirming in his lap.

Nie Huaisang whined, hips rolling, seeking more friction. It was hellish to ignore his own hardness, but anything for his didi. “So, so mean to your beloved didi!”

“And how can this cruel da-ge prove that he can be nicer to you?”

���Oh!” Nie Huaisang breathed. “Touch me, da-ge! Touch me and tell me I'm pretty!”

Nie Huaisang's words were Nie Mingjue's orders. “The prettiest! So lean and gorgeous! Your skin is better than the softest silk,” he whispered, his ha da gripping Nie Huaisang's thighs. He knew he wasn't a poet, he wasn't the best with words unlike his brother, but if his didi needed compliments, compliments he got.

Nie Huaisang gasped, melting against his brother's body. “And?”

“And you are a miracle, such a smart boy wrapped in the prettiest package. You are everything anybody wants. My beloved didi… so soft and perfectly handful everywhere.” His hands settle on Nie Huaisang's hips, squeezing the lovely love handles he was obsessed with. His little didi was so soft, little chubby, and the extra meat on Nie Huaisang's stomach and thighs always made him lose his mind. They were so different - one huge and muscled, the other tiny and pleasantly plump -, yet they fit together perfectly.

Nie Huaisang made a small broken moan, rutting against Nie Mingjue's stomach.

“Da-geee!”

“Impatient little brat,” he grunted fondly. He touched and groped and caressed the beloved body. His didi was panting, horny beyond belief, and he could barely hold back himself anymore. His cock was straining against his pants, uncomfortable and aching, so hard for his perfect little jewel.

“I'm dyiiiing! Hurry uuup!” Demanded his beloved brat. He gave in; one hand slid under the shorts, finding his brother's hardness. Broken little sounds came from Nie Huaisang as Nie Mingjue worked on him, his palm engulfing his slender cock. Nie Mingjue hid his face into his didi's neck, pressing open-mouthed kisses on the soft skin.

Drunk on his didi, his hips moved on their own accord.

He wants to take Nie Huaisang, against the table, on the floor, thrown across the edge of the couch, it didn't matter, but he was too pent up for that. He was far too gone to be patient enough to prepare Nie Huaisang, and there was no way he would hurt him.

Next round, yes. But now he just wanted to come. He wanted to paint his pretty princess white with his cum, wanted to make him cry as his hand helped him through completion. Then, he would eat him out; lick him until he'd scream, taste him and spread him wide open. He would make him come on his tongue, then he would fuck him. He'd fuck a third orgasm out of his didi, maybe even a fourth, until he wouldn't be able to speak and move. He'd render his didi a mindless doll, just the way he craved it.

He gritted his teeth; the lightest touch of his didi's dainty little finger on his foreskin, and he almost ended then and there. Nie Huaisang nudged away his hand on himself, replacing it with his soft ones, barely covering part of it. His fingers were too small and his grip too loose, but it felt so deliciously sinful.

They worked on each other, their harsh breathing and the wet noises of their enjoyment loud in the silent room. His didi's little whining moans were the only music he needed in his life.

Nie Mingjue's muscles were straining from the pleasure he didn't allow himself to chase. Nie Huaisang was his priority - always.

One of his hands were around Nie Huaisang, the other gripping into his plump ass. His mouth couldn't part from his didi's delicious skin, covering his neck and throat with little bites and purple hickeys.

“So pretty, so delicious and all of this miracle, just for me.”

Their rhythm changed, both desperately chasing their orgasm.

“I'm coming! Da-ge, I'm coming!” Nie Huaisang whined. He already looked fucked out; saliva dripping from open lips, eyes rolling back. He was gorgeous. And only Nie Mingjue's.

His didi was addictive. His pretty little cock and tight hole, his soft belly and lovely neck, his desperate mewls and demanding orders - everything that made Nie Huaisang into Nie Huaisang was perfect.

At last, Nie Huaisang's orgasm shudders through him, eyes clenched and toe curled. His whimpering little sounds and delirious expression was enough to push him through the edge. Nie Huaisang's pleasure was his pleasure.

They cuddled close, panting and slowly going down from the high. He didn't want to move, and why would they? They had all the time in the world to be like that, legs and arms intertwined, hearts beating at the same rhythm, breathing each other in and closing anything else out.

“I meant what I said. You really are the prettiest, most perfect jewel. You are amazing didi,” Nie Mingjue confessed.

“And yours,” Nie Huaisang added, self-satisfaction and smugness coloring his voice.

“Mine.”

[league-of-skins]

K/DA ALL OUT Ahri

When Ahri steps onto the stage to perform with K/DA, she knows she's surrounded by the best of the best—different girls with different personalities, all at the top of their craft. As their leader and as their friend, Ahri is poised to guide these divas to even greater heights and leave their audiences breathless for more.

General Information:

Cost: 1350 RP Tier: Epic Release Date: October 29, 2020 Skinline: Riot Records, K/DA

Credits:

Concept: Rheekyo L Splash Art: Horace Hsu Model: Kylie Gage Animations: Einar Langfjord Tech Art: Isabella Cheng-Henehan VFX: Walker Paulsen SFX: Rachel Dziezynski Producer: Ambrielle Army Quality Assurance: Nathan Hales

Concept:

If you're counting Prestige K/DA, Ahri actually has four skins in this skinline with Popstar Ahri being the first and essentially the start of K/DA. Establishing Ahri as a K-pop princess, Popstar Ahri later (I believe it was with its Wild Rift release) added more depth to her character by giving her motivations and later (I'm not exactly sure when her bio changed again but I'm assuming it was with her ASU), doubts.

Design:

I really don’t have much to say about Ahri’s design. I find Evelynn’s and Kai’Sa’s outfits to be more interesting but the All Out skins are overall very coherent.

Splash Art:

Her splash art does a good job of highlighting certain aspects of her design like her dyed hair or gorgeous tails. I find it most excels at communicating her character as a pop princess turned queen using its perspective of being from below and looking up at her as well as her posing with her hand on her waist.

Model:

I think the model does a really great job of staying true to the concept and splash art. I especially love her hair and the textures are beautiful.

Chromas:

I love any skin whose chromas feature slight outfit changes and I appreciate how this extends to her dyed hair in this skin. Chromas for Ahri skins in particular are especially beautiful because of her tails.

Animations:

The recall animation is a highlight of this skin, even more so before her ASU. It must be mentioned that Ahri overall hugely benefitted from her ASU, making her animations—including in this skin—smoother, cleaner, and just better. Fittingly, Langfjord and Cheng also worked on Ahri’s ASU animations and rigging.

VFX:

One of my favorite parts of this skin is its visual effects. Speaking as someone who has no idea what kind of work goes into making skin effects, I find that Ahri has several opportunities to incorporate new visual effects, especially with her Orb of Deception (Q). I enjoy the crystal effects and I find that both the VFX and SFX work well together and elevates the other.

SFX:

My other favorite part of the skin is its sound effects. It's probably my most favorite out of all her skins (aside from, of course, Spirit Blossom). The K/DA skins in general all have very satisfying SFX with Evelynn’s Allure (W), Akali’s Shroud (W), and Kai’Sa’s Icathian Rain (Q) being some of my personal favorites.

Voice Over:

No new voice overs or voice filters.

Value:

I got this skin from a Hextech Chest, but if I’d had 1350 RP, I’d probably buy Elderwood Ahri or perhaps Coven Ahri (both from a skinline where Ahri, again, has multiple skins—Eclipse!). But I still love this skin's sound effects the most.

[drmikewatts]

IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence Volume 9, Issue 1, February 2025

1) A Survey of Human-Object Interaction Detection With Deep Learning

Author(s): Geng Han, Jiachen Zhao, Lele Zhang, Fang Deng

Pages: 3 - 26

2) Exploring the Horizons of Meta-Learning in Neural Networks: A Survey of the State-of-the-Art

Author(s): Asit Barman, Swalpa Kumar Roy, Swagatam Das, Paramartha Dutta

Pages: 27 - 42

3) Micro Many-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm With Knowledge Transfer

Author(s): Hu Peng, Zhongtian Luo, Tian Fang, Qingfu Zhang

Pages: 43 - 56

4) MoAR-CNN: Multi-Objective Adversarially Robust Convolutional Neural Network for SAR Image Classification

Author(s): Hai-Nan Wei, Guo-Qiang Zeng, Kang-Di Lu, Guang-Gang Geng, Jian Weng

Pages: 57 - 74

5) Prescribed-Time Optimal Consensus for Switched Stochastic Multiagent Systems: Reinforcement Learning Strategy

Author(s): Weiwei Guang, Xin Wang, Lihua Tan, Jian Sun, Tingwen Huang

Pages: 75 - 86

6) SR-ABR: Super Resolution Integrated ABR Algorithm for Cloud-Based Video Streaming

Author(s): Haiqiao Wu, Dapeng Oliver Wu, Peng Gong

Pages: 87 - 98

7) 3D-IMMC: Incomplete Multi-Modal 3D Shape Clustering via Cross Mapping and Dual Adaptive Fusion

Author(s): Tianyi Qin, Bo Peng, Jianjun Lei, Jiahui Song, Liying Xu, Qingming Huang

Pages: 99 - 108

8) A Co-Evolutionary Dual Niching Differential Evolution Algorithm for Nonlinear Equation Systems Optimization

Author(s): Shuijia Li, Rui Wang, Wenyin Gong, Zuowen Liao, Ling Wang

Pages: 109 - 118

9) A Collaborative Multi-Component Optimization Model Based on Pattern Sequence Similarity for Electricity Demand Prediction

Author(s): Xiaoyong Tang, Juan Zhang, Ronghui Cao, Wenzheng Liu

Pages: 119 - 130

10) A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search for Capacitated Electric Vehicle Routing Problems

Author(s): Chao Wang, Mengmeng Cao, Hao Jiang, Xiaoshu Xiang, Xingyi Zhang

Pages: 131 - 144

11) A Diversified Population Migration-Based Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm for Dynamic Community Detection

Author(s): Lei Zhang, Chaofan Qin, Haipeng Yang, Zishan Xiong, Renzhi Cao, Fan Cheng

Pages: 145 - 159

12) A Hub-Based Self-Organizing Algorithm for Feedforward Small-World Neural Network

Author(s): Wenjing Li, Can Chen, Junfei Qiao

Pages: 160 - 175

13) A New-Type Zeroing Neural Network Model and Its Application in Dynamic Cryptography

Author(s): Jingcan Zhu, Jie Jin, Chaoyang Chen, Lianghong Wu, Ming Lu, Aijia Ouyang

Pages: 176 - 191

14) FeaMix: Feature Mix With Memory Batch Based on Self-Consistency Learning for Code Generation and Code Translation

Author(s): Shuai Zhao, Jie Tian, Jie Fu, Jie Chen, Jinming Wen

Pages: 192 - 201

15) MUSTER: A Multi-Scale Transformer-Based Decoder for Semantic Segmentation

Author(s): Jing Xu, Wentao Shi, Pan Gao, Qizhu Li, Zhengwei Wang

Pages: 202 - 212

16) Feature Selection Using Generalized Multi-Granulation Dominance Neighborhood Rough Set Based on Weight Partition

Author(s): Weihua Xu, Qinyuan Bu

Pages: 213 - 227

17) A Collaborative Neurodynamic Algorithm for Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization

Author(s): Hongzong Li, Jun Wang

Pages: 228 - 239

18) Global Cross-Attention Network for Single-Sensor Multispectral Imaging

Author(s): Nianzeng Yuan, Junhuai Li, Bangyong Sun

Pages: 240 - 252

19) OccludedInst: An Efficient Instance Segmentation Network for Automatic Driving Occlusion Scenes

Author(s): Hai Wang, Shilin Zhu, Long Chen, Yicheng Li, Yingfeng Cai

Pages: 253 - 270

20) 3D Skeleton-Based Non-Autoregressive Human Motion Prediction Using Encoder-Decoder Attention-Based Model

Author(s): Mayank Lovanshi, Vivek Tiwari, Rajesh Ingle, Swati Jain

Pages: 271 - 280

21) GF-LRP: A Method for Explaining Predictions Made by Variational Graph Auto-Encoders

Author(s): Esther Rodrigo-Bonet, Nikos Deligiannis

Pages: 281 - 291

22) Neuromorphic Auditory Perception by Neural Spiketrum

Author(s): Huajin Tang, Pengjie Gu, Jayawan Wijekoon, MHD Anas Alsakkal, Ziming Wang, Jiangrong Shen, Rui Yan, Gang Pan

Pages: 292 - 303

23) Semi-Supervised Contrastive Learning for Time Series Classification in Healthcare

Author(s): Xiaofeng Liu, Zhihong Liu, Jie Li, Xiang Zhang

Pages: 318 - 331

24) Bi-Level Model Management Strategy for Solving Expensive Multi-Objective Optimization Problems

Author(s): Fei Li, Yujie Yang, Yuhao Liu, Yuanchao Liu, Muyun Qian

Pages: 332 - 346

25) Transfer Optimization for Heterogeneous Drone Delivery and Pickup Problem

Author(s): Xupeng Wen, Guohua Wu, Jiao Liu, Yew-Soon Ong

Pages: 347 - 364

26) Comprehensive Multisource Learning Network for Cross-Subject Multimodal Emotion Recognition

Author(s): Chuangquan Chen, Zhencheng Li, Kit Ian Kou, Jie Du, Chen Li, Hongtao Wang, Chi-Man Vong

Pages: 365 - 380

27) Graph Learning With Riemannian Optimization for Multi-View Integrative Clustering

Author(s): Aparajita Khan, Pradipta Maji

Pages: 381 - 393

28) Applying a Higher Number of Output Membership Functions to Enhance the Precision of a Fuzzy System

Author(s): Salah-ud-din Khokhar, Akif Nadeem, Arslan A. Rizvi, Muhammad Yasir Noor

Pages: 394 - 405

29) Tensorlized Multi-Kernel Clustering via Consensus Tensor Decomposition

Author(s): Fei Qi, Junyu Li, Yue Zhang, Weitian Huang, Bin Hu, Hongmin Cai

Pages: 406 - 418

30) Balancing Security and Correctness in Code Generation: An Empirical Study on Commercial Large Language Models

Author(s): Gavin S. Black, Bhaskar P. Rimal, Varghese Mathew Vaidyan

Pages: 419 - 430

31) Camouflage Is All You Need: Evaluating and Enhancing Transformer Models Robustness Against Camouflage Adversarial Attacks

Author(s): Álvaro Huertas-García, Alejandro Martín, Javier Huertas-Tato, David Camacho

Pages: 431 - 443

32) Deep Learning Surrogate Models of JULES-INFERNO for Wildfire Prediction on a Global Scale

Author(s): Sibo Cheng, Hector Chassagnon, Matthew Kasoar, Yike Guo, Rossella Arcucci

Pages: 444 - 454

33) Dual Completion Learning for Incomplete Multi-View Clustering

Author(s): Qiangqiang Shen, Xuanqi Zhang, Shuqin Wang, Yuanman Li, Yongsheng Liang, Yongyong Chen

Pages: 455 - 467

34) Active Learning-Based Backtracking Attack Against Source Location Privacy of Cyber-Physical System

Author(s): Zhen Hong, Minjie Chen, Rui Wang, Mingyuan Yan, Dehua Zheng, Changting Lin, Jie Su, Meng Han

Pages: 468 - 479

35) Hierarchical Encoding Method for Retinal Segmentation Evolutionary Architecture Search

Author(s): Huangxu Sheng, Hai-Lin Liu, Yutao Lai, Shaoda Zeng, Lei Chen

Pages: 480 - 493

36) CycleFusion: Automatic Annotation and Graph-to-Graph Transaction Based Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Network for Infrared and Visible Image Fusion

Author(s): Yueying Luo, Wenbo Liu, Kangjian He, Dan Xu, Hongzhen Shi, Hao Zhang

Pages: 494 - 508

37) Explicit and Implicit Box Equivariance Learning for Weakly-Supervised Rotated Object Detection

Author(s): Linfei Wang, Yibing Zhan, Xu Lin, Baosheng Yu, Liang Ding, Jianqing Zhu, Dapeng Tao

Pages: 509 - 521

38) Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Feature Extraction and Encoding for Finger-Vein Verification

Author(s): Yantao Li, Chao Fan, Huafeng Qin, Shaojiang Deng, Mounim A. El-Yacoubi, Gang Zhou

Pages: 522 - 536

39) Global Bipartite Exact Consensus of Unknown Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems With Switching Topologies: Iterative Learning Approach

Author(s): Mengdan Liang, Junmin Li

Pages: 537 - 551

40) APR-Net Tracker: Attention Pyramidal Residual Network for Visual Object Tracking

Author(s): Bing Liu, Di Yuan, Xiaofang Li

Pages: 552 - 564

41) Symmetric Regularized Sequential Latent Variable Models With Adversarial Neural Networks

Author(s): Jin Huang, Ming Xiao

Pages: 565 - 575

42) StreamSoNGv2: Online Classification of Data Streams Using Growing Neural Gas

Author(s): Jeffrey J. Dale, James M. Keller, Aquila P. A. Galusha

Pages: 576 - 589

43) FCPFS: Fuzzy Granular Ball Clustering-Based Partial Multilabel Feature Selection With Fuzzy Mutual Information

Author(s): Lin Sun, Qifeng Zhang, Weiping Ding, Tianxiang Wang, Jiucheng Xu

Pages: 590 - 606

44) An Automatic Paper-Reviewer Recommendation Algorithm Based on Depth and Breadth

Author(s): Xiulin Zheng, Peipei Li, Xindong Wu

Pages: 607 - 616

45) Efficient and Robust Sparse Linear Discriminant Analysis for Data Classification

Author(s): Jingjing Liu, Manlong Feng, Xianchao Xiu, Wanquan Liu, Xiaoyang Zeng

Pages: 617 - 629

46) Detail Reinforcement Diffusion Model: Augmentation Fine-Grained Visual Categorization in Few-Shot Conditions

Author(s): Tianxu Wu, Shuo Ye, Shuhuang Chen, Qinmu Peng, Xinge You

Pages: 630 - 640

47) Efficient Low-Light Light Field Enhancement With Progressive Feature Interaction

Author(s): Xin Luo, Gaosheng Liu, Zhi Lu, Kun Li, Jingyu Yang

Pages: 641 - 653

48) Circuit Implementation of Memristive Fuzzy Logic for Blood Pressure Grading Quantification

Author(s): Ya Li, Shaojun Ji, Qinghui Hong

Pages: 654 - 667

49) Learning From Pairwise Confidence Comparisons and Unlabeled Data

Author(s): Junpeng Li, Shuying Huang, Changchun Hua, Yana Yang

Pages: 668 - 680

50) Subspace Sequentially Iterative Leaning for Semi-Supervised SVM

Author(s): Jiajun Wen, Xi Chen, Heng Kong, Junhong Zhang, Zhihui Lai, Linlin Shen

Pages: 681 - 694

51) Clickbait Detection via Prompt-Tuning With Titles Only

Author(s): Ye Wang, Yi Zhu, Yun Li, Jipeng Qiang, Yunhao Yuan, Xindong Wu

Pages: 695 - 705

52) TROPE: Triplet-Guided Feature Refinement for Person Re-Identification

Author(s): Divya Singh, Jimson Mathew, Mayank Agarwal, Mahesh Govind

Pages: 706 - 716

53) Deep Spiking Neural Networks Driven by Adaptive Interval Membrane Potential for Temporal Credit Assignment Problem

Author(s): Jiaqiang Jiang, Haohui Ding, Haixia Wang, Rui Yan

Pages: 717 - 728

54) Transfer Learning-Based Region Statistical Data Completion via Double Graphs

Author(s): Shengwen Li, Suzhen Huang, Xuyang Cheng, Renyao Chen, Yi Zhou, Shunping Zhou, Hong Yao, Junfang Gong

Pages: 729 - 739

55) COT: A Generative Approach for Hate Speech Counter-Narratives via Contrastive Optimal Transport

Author(s): Linhao Zhang, Li Jin, Guangluan Xu, Xiaoyu Li, Xian Sun

Pages: 740 - 756

56) Least Information Spectral GAN With Time-Series Data Augmentation for Industrial IoT

Author(s): Joonho Seon, Seongwoo Lee, Young Ghyu Sun, Soo Hyun Kim, Dong In Kim, Jin Young Kim

Pages: 757 - 769

57) Gp3Former: Gaussian Prior Tri-Cascaded Transformer for Video Instance Segmentation in Livestreaming Scenarios

Author(s): Wensheng Li, Jing Zhang, Li Zhuo

Pages: 770 - 784

58) Open-Space Emergency Guiding With Individual Density Prediction Based on Internet of Things Localization

Author(s): Lien-Wu Chen, Hao-Wei Huang, Yi-Ju Chen, Ming-Fong Tsai

Pages: 785 - 797

59) Consistency and Diversity Induced Tensorized Multi-View Subspace Clustering

Author(s): Chunming Xiao, Yonghui Huang, Haonan Huang, Qibin Zhao, Guoxu Zhou

Pages: 798 - 809

60) Convert Cross-Domain Classification Into Few-Shot Learning: A Unified Prompt-Tuning Framework for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation

Author(s): Yi Zhu, Hui Shen, Yun Li, Jipeng Qiang, Yunhao Yuan, Xindong Wu

Pages: 810 - 821

61) Differentiable Collaborative Patches for Neural Scene Representations

Author(s): Heng Zhang, Lifeng Zhu

Pages: 822 - 831

62) Adaptive Neural Network Optimal Backstepping Control of Strict Feedback Nonlinear Systems via Reinforcement Learning

Author(s): Mei Zhong, Jinde Cao, Heng Liu

Pages: 832 - 847

63) ARC: A Layer Replacement Compression Method Based on Fine-Grained Self-Attention Distillation for Compressing Pre-Trained Language Models

Author(s): Daohan Yu, Liqing Qiu

Pages: 848 - 860

64) Generative Adversarial Network Based Image-Scaling Attack and Defense Modeling

Author(s): Junjian Li, Honglong Chen, Zhe Li, Anqing Zhang, Xiaomeng Wang, Xingang Wang, Feng Xia

Pages: 861 - 873

65) Global and Cluster Structural Balance via a Priority Strategy Based Memetic Algorithm

Author(s): Yifei Sun, Zhuo Liu, Yaochu Jin, Xin Sun, Yifei Cao, Jie Yang

Pages: 874 - 888

66) Efficient Message Passing Algorithm and Architecture Co-Design for Graph Neural Networks

Author(s): Xiaofeng Zou, Cen Chen, Luochuan Zhang, Shengyang Li, Joey Tianyi Zhou, Wei Wei, Kenli Li

Pages: 889 - 903

67) Targeted Mining Precise-Positioning Episode Rules

Author(s): Jian Zhu, Xiaoye Chen, Wensheng Gan, Zefeng Chen, Philip S. Yu

Pages: 904 - 917

68) Two-Stage Deep Feature Selection Method Using Voting Differential Evolution Algorithm for Pneumonia Detection From Chest X-Ray Images

Author(s): Haibin Ouyang, Dongmei Liu, Steven Li, Weiping Ding, Zhi-Hui Zhan

Pages: 918 - 932

69) Learning EEG Motor Characteristics via Temporal-Spatial Representations

Author(s): Tian-Yu Xiang, Xiao-Hu Zhou, Xiao-Liang Xie, Shi-Qi Liu, Hong-Jun Yang, Zhen-Qiu Feng, Mei-Jiang Gui, Hao Li, De-Xing Huang, Xiu-Ling Liu, Zeng-Guang Hou

Pages: 933 - 945

70) DualC: Drug-Drug Interaction Prediction Based on Dual Latent Feature Extractions

Author(s): Lin Guo, Xiujuan Lei, Lian Liu, Ming Chen, Yi Pan

Pages: 946 - 960

71) ESAI: Efficient Split Artificial Intelligence via Early Exiting Using Neural Architecture Search

Author(s): Behnam Zeinali, Di Zhuang, J. Morris Chang

Pages: 961 - 971

72) Early Time Series Anomaly Prediction With Multi-Objective Optimization

Author(s): Ting-En Chao, Yu Huang, Hao Dai, Gary G. Yen, Vincent S. Tseng

Pages: 972 - 987

73) Enhancing Accuracy-Privacy Trade-Off in Differentially Private Split Learning

Author(s): Ngoc Duy Pham, Khoa T. Phan, Naveen Chilamkurti

Pages: 988 - 1000

74) Evolutionary Optimization for Proactive and Dynamic Computing Resource Allocation in Open Radio Access Network

Author(s): Gan Ruan, Leandro L. Minku, Zhao Xu, Xin Yao

Pages: 1001 - 1018

75) Evolutionary Sequential Transfer Learning for Multi-Objective Feature Selection in Classification

Author(s): Jiabin Lin, Qi Chen, Bing Xue, Mengjie Zhang

Pages: 1019 - 1033

76) Feature Autonomous Screening and Sequence Integration Network for Medical Image Classification

Author(s): Hongfeng You, Xiaobing Chen, Kun Yu, Guangbo Fu, Fei Mao, Xin Ning, Xiao Bai, Weiwei Cai

Pages: 1034 - 1048

77) FedLaw: Value-Aware Federated Learning With Individual Fairness and Coalition Stability

Author(s): Jianfeng Lu, Hangjian Zhang, Pan Zhou, Xiong Wang, Chen Wang, Dapeng Oliver Wu

Pages: 1049 - 1062

78) From Bag-of-Words to Transformers: A Comparative Study for Text Classification in Healthcare Discussions in Social Media

Author(s): Enrico De Santis, Alessio Martino, Francesca Ronci, Antonello Rizzi

Pages: 1063 - 1077

79) Fuzzy Composite Learning Control of Uncertain Fractional-Order Nonlinear Systems Using Disturbance Observer

Author(s): Zhiye Bai, Shenggang Li, Heng Liu

Pages: 1078 - 1090

[blog-for-communications]

Erinnerungen Vinson Tan Pixabay

Erinnerungen speichern, ohne alte zu zerstören

Der erste Schultag: das erste Betreten des Klassenraums, das Kribbeln im Bauch und die Freude über die Schultüte – typische Beispiele für Erinnerungen aus dem episodischen Gedächtnis. Es speichert einmalige persönliche Erlebnisse zeitlich und räumlich geordnet ab und verknüpft sie mit subjektiven Erfahrungen. In einer Studie des Instituts für Neuroinformatik der Ruhr-Universität Bochum hat ein Team um Prof. Dr. Laurenz Wiskott ein neues Computermodell des episodischen Gedächtnisses entwickelt und damit bedeutende Fortschritte in Bezug auf das Verständnis des Hippocampus erzielt – der Region des Gehirns, die für die Bildung neuer episodischer Erinnerungen von entscheidender Bedeutung ist.

Die Arbeit wurde am 20. Juni 2024 in der Fachzeitschrift PLOS ONE veröffentlicht.

Sequenzen zuverlässig speichern, ohne alte Erinnerungen zu zerstören

Das episodische Gedächtnis bildet eine wichtige Grundlage für unsere persönliche Lebensgeschichte. Es hilft uns, unsere Identität zu formen, indem wir vergangene Erfahrungen und Erlebnisse in der richtigen Reihenfolge abspeichern und verknüpfen. „Das geschieht durch Veränderungen in den Verbindungen zwischen den Nervenzellen in unserem Gehirn“, erläutert Laurenz Wiskott. „Ein bisher unerklärtes Phänomen war, wie das menschliche Gehirn zu diesen Veränderungen in der Lage ist, ohne andere Erinnerungen zu vergessen – und das obwohl das Erlebte nur genau einmal gesehen wird und daher nicht langsam und vorsichtig in den Schaltplan der Nervenzellen integriert werden kann.“ Das innovative Computermodell der Bochumer Forschenden ermöglicht, genau diese natürliche Fähigkeit des menschlichen Gehirns nachzustellen: Sequenzen nach einmaliger Präsentation zuverlässig zu speichern, ohne dabei alte Erinnerungen zu zerstören.

Das Modell konzentriert sich auf die Prinzipien der Selbstorganisation im Hippocampus und basiert dabei auf der CRISP-Theorie von Prof. Dr. Sen Cheng, der ebenfalls an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum forscht. Die Abkürzung CRISP steht für Content Representation, Intrinsic Sequences, and Pattern Completion. Das Modell definiert insbesondere die Funktion der sogenannten CA3-Region im Hippocampus neu. „Herkömmlich herrschte die Annahme, dass die Speicherung der episodischen Erinnerungen direkt im CA3-Netzwerk erfolgt“, so Erstautor Dr. Jan Melchior. „Wir nutzen die CA3-Region nun allerdings nur als eine Art Ankerpunkt für das Gedächtnis. Gespeichert wird in den Regionen, die der CA3 vor- und nachgeschaltet sind.“

Ein neuronales Netzwerk wie eine gut organisierte Bibliothek

Um dies zu erreichen, trainierte das Forschungsteam die CA3-Region in seinem Modell mit Vorabinformationen und richtete so, bildlich gesprochen, eine gut organisierte Bibliothek in CA3 ein. „Wenn neue Bücher, also neue Erlebnisse, hinzukommen, muss die Bibliothek nicht komplett neu geordnet werden. Stattdessen werden die neuen Bücher in die vorhandene Struktur eingefügt und mit bestehenden Regalen und Kategorien verknüpft“, so Jan Melchior weiter. Dies spare Zeit und halte die Bibliothek gut organisiert.

Die CA3-Region bleibt im Modell stabil und kann effizient arbeiten, ohne ständig ihre interne Struktur anpassen zu müssen. So werden Verarbeitung und Speicherung der Informationen schneller und zuverlässiger. Die neuronalen Veränderungen im Zuge der Lernprozesse finden ausschließlich in benachbarten Regionen statt.

Die Ergebnisse der Simulation überzeugten die Forschenden. „Überraschend finde ich nach wie vor die Robustheit des Modells“, so Laurenz Wiskott. „Selbst bei unvollständigen oder fehlerhaften Hinweisreizen kann eine einzige Präsentation einer Mustersequenz zuverlässig abgespeichert, erinnert und abgerufen werden.“ „Das Modell funktioniert dabei nicht nur mit künstlich generierten Sequenzen, sondern auch mit handgeschriebenen Ziffern und natürlichen Bildern“, ergänzt Jan Melchior. „Zudem kann es sich ohne zusätzlichen Input selbst verbessern, indem es wiederholt abspielt, was es gelernt hat.“

Projekt ist Teil eines großen Konzepts

Die Studie ist Teil eines größeren Forschungsprojekts mit Fokus auf das episodische Gedächtnis. „Wir gehen davon aus, dass unvollständige persönliche Gedächtnisinhalte und generelles semantisches Wissen einander ergänzen und helfen, plausible Erinnerungen abzurufen – wenn auch nicht immer ganz korrekt“, erklärt Laurenz Wiskott, der bereits seit 2008 in den Bereichen Maschinelles Lernens und Computational Neuroscience an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum forscht und als Principal Investigator im Research Department of Neuroscience tätig ist. Dieses größere Konzept wird derzeit in der Forschungsgruppe 2812 „Szenarien der Vergangenheit: Ein neuer theoretischer Rahmen für das generative episodische Gedächtnis“ erforscht, welche die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft fördert.

Förderung

Die Publikation wurde durch den Sonderforschungsbereich 874 sowie die Forschergruppe 2812 der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft gefördert.

Redaktion: Anke Maes

Originalpublikation:

Jan Melchior, Aya Altamimi, Mehdi Bayati, Sen Cheng, Laurenz Wiskott: A Neural Network Model for Online One-shot Storage of Pattern Sequences, in: PLOS ONE, 2024, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304076, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0304076

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Zhèng YèChéng 鄭業成

Wb update 2024.12.14 (1/2)

📸 Wb @夏弃疾_回乡冲浪版

👘 Wb @MySs斐今

[mehmetkali]

Sichuan Airlines İGA İstanbul Havalimanı uçuşlarına yeniden başladı

Sichuan Airlines, İGA İstanbul Havalimanı uçuşlarına yeniden başladı

  Çin merkezli hava yolu şirketi Sichuan Airlines, Covid-19 pandemisi nedeniyle üç yıl süren aranın ardından İstanbul uçuşlarına yeniden başladı. Çin’in Chengdu şehrinden havalanan Sichuan Airlines seferi, İGA İstanbul Havalimanı’nda Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti İstanbul Başkonsolosu Wei Xiaodong, Sichuan Airlines Genel Müdürü Cheng Xiaobo ve İGA İstanbul Havalimanı Kurumsal İlişkiler Direktörü Turgay Yaman’ın katıldığı törenle karşılandı.

Çin’in Chengdu merkezli önde gelen hava yolu şirketlerinden Sichuan Airlines, pandemi döneminde ara verdiği İstanbul seferlerine yeniden başladı. İlk uçuş, 21 Haziran 2023 Çarşamba günü İGA İstanbul Havalimanı’na gerçekleştirildi. Sichuan Airlines’ın Chengdu-İstanbul seferlerinin, Pazartesi ve Çarşamba günleri olmak üzere haftada iki kez Airbus A330-200/A330-300 model uçaklarla yapılacağı belirtildi.

  Sichuan eyaletine bağlı Chengdu şehrinden kalkış yapan uçak, İGA İstanbul Havalimanı Dış Hatlar’da törenle karşılandı. Etkinliğe, İGA yöneticilerinin yanı sıra Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti İstanbul Başkonsolosu Wei Xiaodong ve Yardımcısı Wu Jian, Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti İstanbul Başkonsolosluğu Ekonomi ve Ticaret Müşaviri Meng Fanwei ve Sichuan Airlines Genel Müdürü Cheng Xiaobo da katıldı.

    Etkinlikte konuşan İGA Kurumsal İlişkiler Direktörü Turgay Yaman “Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin Çin’deki beşinci diplomatik temsilciliği olan Chengdu Başkonsolosluğu’nun yakın zamandaki açılışını takiben yeniden başlayan Chengdu-İstanbul uçuşlarının iki ülke arasındaki yakın iş birliğini daha da ileri seviyelere taşımaya katkı sağlayacağına inanıyoruz”  ifadelerini kullandı.

    İGA İstanbul Havalimanı’na Uçan 91. Hava Yolu Oldu

  İGA İstanbul Havalimanı’nın 2023 yılı hedefleri arasında havalimanına operasyon gerçekleştiren hava yolu şirketlerinin sayısının 100’e çıkarılması da yer alıyor. Sichuan Airlines, 2023 yılı içerisinde İGA İstanbul Havalimanı uçuşlarına başlayan 11. hava yolu şirketi olurken, İGA İstanbul Havalimanı tarafından uçuşlarına ev sahipliği yapılan toplam hava yolu şirketi sayısı 91’e ulaştı. Çin ile Türkiye arasında faaliyet gösteren hava yolu şirketi sayısı ise ikiye yükseldi.

    The post Sichuan Airlines, İGA İstanbul Havalimanı uçuşlarına yeniden başladı first appeared on 0 554 1730000 I info@aeroportist.com / Güncel Havacılık Haberleri.

source https://www.aeroportist.com/sichuan-airlines-iga-istanbul-havalimani-ucus/

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 6, 2023

Visual evoked feedforward–feedback traveling waves organize neural activity across the cortical hierarchy in mice. Aggarwal, A., Brennan, C., Luo, J., Chung, H., Contreras, D., Kelz, M. B., & Proekt, A. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 4754.

Model-based characterization of the selectivity of neurons in primary visual cortex. Bartsch, F., Cumming, B. G., & Butts, D. A. (2022). Journal of Neurophysiology, 128(2), 350–363.

Rational use of cognitive resources in human planning. Callaway, F., van Opheusden, B., Gul, S., Das, P., Krueger, P. M., Griffiths, T. L., & Lieder, F. (2022). Nature Human Behaviour, 6(8), 1112–1125.

Explicit knowledge of task structure is a primary determinant of human model-based action. Castro-Rodrigues, P., Akam, T., Snorasson, I., Camacho, M., Paixão, V., Maia, A., … Oliveira-Maia, A. J. (2022). Nature Human Behaviour, 6(8), 1126–1141.

Novelty and uncertainty regulate the balance between exploration and exploitation through distinct mechanisms in the human brain. Cockburn, J., Man, V., Cunningham, W. A., & O’Doherty, J. P. (2022). Neuron, 110(16), 2691-2702.e8.

Expansion and contraction of resource allocation in sensory bottlenecks. Edmondson, L. R., Jiménez Rodríguez, A., & Saal, H. P. (2022). eLife, 11, e70777.

Long-term memory retrieval bypasses working memory. Liu, B., Li, X., Theeuwes, J., & Wang, B. (2022). NeuroImage, 261, 119513.

Rational arbitration between statistics and rules in human sequence processing. Maheu, M., Meyniel, F., & Dehaene, S. (2022). Nature Human Behaviour, 6(8), 1087–1103.

Modular strategy for development of the hierarchical visual network in mice. Murakami, T., Matsui, T., Uemura, M., & Ohki, K. (2022). Nature, 608(7923), 578–585.

Efficient coding of numbers explains decision bias and noise. Prat-Carrabin, A., & Woodford, M. (2022). Nature Human Behaviour, 6(8), 1142–1152.

Learning shifts the preferred theta phase of gamma oscillations in CA1. Rayan, A., Donoso, J. R., Mendez‐Couz, M., Dolón, L., Cheng, S., & Manahan‐Vaughan, D. (2022). Hippocampus, 32(9), 695–704.

Two distinct ways to form long-term object recognition memory during sleep and wakefulness. Sawangjit, A., Harkotte, M., Oyanedel, C. N., Niethard, N., Born, J., & Inostroza, M. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(34), e2203165119.

Strategy updating mediated by specific retrosplenial-parafascicular-basal ganglia networks. Serrano, M., Tripodi, M., & Caroni, P. (2022). Current Biology, 32(16), 3477-3492.e5.

State transitions in the statistically stable place cell population correspond to rate of perceptual change. Tanni, S., de Cothi, W., & Barry, C. (2022). Current Biology, 32(16), 3505-3514.e7.

Human inference reflects a normative balance of complexity and accuracy. Tavoni, G., Doi, T., Pizzica, C., Balasubramanian, V., & Gold, J. I. (2022). Nature Human Behaviour, 6(8), 1153–1168.

Understanding implicit sensorimotor adaptation as a process of proprioceptive re-alignment. Tsay, J. S., Kim, H., Haith, A. M., & Ivry, R. B. (2022). eLife, 11, e76639.

A neuro-metabolic account of why daylong cognitive work alters the control of economic decisions. Wiehler, A., Branzoli, F., Adanyeguh, I., Mochel, F., & Pessiglione, M. (2022). Current Biology, 32(16), 3564-3575.e5.

Neural mechanisms of credit assignment for inferred relationships in a structured world. Witkowski, P. P., Park, S. A., & Boorman, E. D. (2022). Neuron, 110(16), 2680-2690.e9.

It’s in the timing: reduced temporal precision in neural activity of schizophrenia. Wolff, A., Gomez-Pilar, J., Zhang, J., Choueiry, J., de la Salle, S., Knott, V., & Northoff, G. (2022). Cerebral Cortex, 32(16), 3441–3456.

Neuronal congruency effects in macaque prefrontal cortex. Yao, T., & Vanduffel, W. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 4702.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng start hooking up post-canon and Wei Wuxian assumes it's part of a scheme on Nie Huaisang's part. Possibly it was actually a scheme but Nie Huaisang got into it anyway. Or if sadness is more your thing, he didn't, and Wei Wuxian is left being like "see Jiang Cheng? I knew he couldn't have been hanging around with you for fun!"

ao3 (short)

“You need to stop,” Wei Wuxian said, his eyes narrow and expression fierce.

It was a lot less effective on Mo Xuanyu’s face than it had been on his original features. No one had yet told him, presumably out of a desire to avoid being murdered by Lan Wangji for making his lover sad.

Nie Huaisang frowned at him. “Stop…what?”

“Whatever it is you’re up to!”

Oh, were they doing this again?

Nie Huaisang opened up a fan and hid his face behind it in a single movement – he’d gotten really good at it over the years – and started idly fanning himself. “Wei-xiong, really, you’ll need to be more specific. I’m up to so many things, don’t you know…?”

Normally Nie Huaisang wouldn’t bother playing along, but he could see Jiang Cheng coming down the hallway at an angle that put him directly in Wei Wuxian’s blind spot – if there was one thing Jinlin Tower was good for, it was not seeing people – and he could already see Jiang Cheng starting to smile at his nonsense, which was obviously far more important than whatever it was that Wei Wuxian thought he’d figured out.

Hmm. Maybe Nie Huaisang was being too hasty in judging Lan Wangji’s rudeness ��� love really did make you do the stupidest things…

“I meant in relation to Jiang Cheng.”

Nie Huaisang stopped fanning and stared blankly at him. A few steps away from the turn, he saw Jiang Cheng come to a halt as well, already scowling.

“Jiang – Cheng?” he said hesitantly. “What exactly does Wei-xiong think I’m doing with Jiang-xiong?”

Wei Wuxian crossed his arms. “I’m not sure,” he said. “What are you doing?”

Nie Huaisang blinked at him. “But if I knew that, Wei-xiong, I wouldn’t have asked you, would I?”

The main problem Wei Wuxian had with confronting Nie Huaisang about anything, really, was that he genuinely found Nie Huaisang terribly funny. The twitching lips made the glaring more difficult.

(Behind him, Jiang Cheng was rolling his eyes, a full-body production that involved a great deal of heaving of shoulders and clutching at his head at the rampant stupidity on display. Nie Huaisang appreciated his lover's dedication to the art.)

Still – and this part was worrisome – Wei Wuxian’s smile faded away soon enough, replaced by a solemn expression.

“We may not be on the best of terms right now,” he said. “But he’s still very dear to me. I won’t put up with you using him as part of one of your schemes.”

“I don’t actually have any schemes,” Nie Huaisang said, mostly because Jiang Cheng was frowning now and Nie Huaisang did not want Wei Wuxian to mess up his budding relationship. “Really, Wei-xiong! I had one scheme, and it took me over a decade – I’m hardly the shadowy puppet-master mastermind you seem to sometimes seem to take me as. Why would you think that I’m using Jiang-xiong?”

“You’re deceitful,” Wei Wuxian said. “You made Jin Guangyao think that you were weak and dependent on him for years even as you plotted to bring him down. And now you’re pulling the same thing on Jiang Cheng – what am I supposed to think?”

Wei Wuxian must have seen them in the market, Nie Huaisang thought. He’d been carping around, playing up his good-for-nothing self – Jiang Cheng liked it when he did that. Mostly because Nie Huaisang really was a bit of a good-for-nothing, his one scheme claim to fame being firmly in the past; his cultivation was weak, his achievements few, his personality…questionable…

(Jin Ling had, upon discovering them spending time together, told Nie Huaisang that he fit everyone one of the criteria that Jiang Cheng had set out for a wife, right down to the weaker level of cultivation and the proper family background. Nie Huaisang had bought him some candy on the basis that ‘be nice to Jin Ling’ was on the list, and told him to think about the type of mileage he could get out of something like that. Jin Ling had looked appropriately thoughtful, after.

Nie Huaisang was a very good influence – or possibly a bad one, he wasn’t sure.)

At any rate, Jiang Cheng liked indulging him, liked and was reassured by the contrast between them. No one looking at them would ever put Jiang Cheng second – Nie Huaisang wasn’t even prettier! – except maybe in terms of insults, and even Jiang Cheng had to admit that he didn’t really want the privilege of being called the worst Great Sect leader, even if it was a superlative.

Wei Wuxian must have seen.

Wei Wuxian must have totally misunderstood.

“Jiang-xiong was at the Guanyin temple as well,” Nie Huaisang pointed out. “It’s not like er-ge at all.”

Wei Wuxian frowned. “Do you really have the right to call Lan-da-ge that?”

“My brother’s no less my brother because he’s dead, and he kept his oath to the end,” Nie Huaisang pointed out. “Why should the other two be released from the obligations of their oath just because they chose to foreswear their side of it?”

“Stop getting away from the point,” Wei Wuxian said, probably because Nie Huaisang was right. Bitter and mean and resentful, but right. “Whatever you’re scheming that involves Jiang Cheng, stop it.”

“No.”

Wei Wuxian blinked.

“I’m not scheming, but even if I was, the target would be Jiang Cheng,” Nie Huaisang explained. “You don’t understand, Wei-xiong. You see, I like Jiang Cheng.”

“I’m sure you do,” Wei Wuxian said. “But I also think you liked Jin Guangyao, a bit.”

Maybe he had. A bit.

But it wasn’t the same at all!

“I especially won’t tolerate you using him for sex while also –”

“Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng bellowed, and Wei Wuxian jumped a chi into the air.

Nie Huaisang fanned himself. “Oh good,” he said. “I was about to be worried that you’d misunderstand, Jiang-xiong, but luckily Wei-xiong decided to take all the awkwardness onto himself.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jiang Cheng snarled at Wei Wuxian, who blanched but scowled back.

“I was just trying to help –”

“By embarrassing me?”

“How is it embarrassing to you?!”

“You think I’d be – what – led around by my dick like some new model Jin Guangshan –”

“Oh, that’s a good insult,” Nie Huaisnag said approvingly. “I’m going to need to use that in the future. What do you think the odds are for Lan Wangji biting me if I said it to him?”

That got both of them to stop fighting and turn to look at him.

“What? Does he only bite people he likes now? He used to bite everybody.”

Blank staring.

“That was back when he was five,” Nie Huaisang allowed. “It’s been a while.”

“You have stories about baby Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian said at once, as one might’ve expected. “I want them. All of them. Now.”

“Weren’t you threatening him a moment ago?!”

“That’s different! That was for you!”

“Right, because you don’t think anyone would actually like me,” Jiang Cheng said.

He sounded hurt.

Unacceptable.

“I’m sure Wei-xiong just meant that you were so unbearably attractive that people would compete for the opportunity to manipulate them into your bed,” Nie Huaisang assured him while Wei Wuxian was still trying to find words. “And since Wei-xiong thinks I’m the best schemer, obviously I won hands down, and secretly eliminated all my love rivals to boot. It's all my fault. Alas! I've been caught red-handed!”

“Are you actually capable of saying a single word that isn’t complete nonsense?” Jiang Cheng asked him, his tone having returned to exasperated and fond, which was worlds better than hurt.

Nie Huaisang considered the question seriously and then shook his head.

“You…! Good-for-nothing!”

Nie Huaisang nodded happily. “Your good-for-nothing,” he said cheerfully. “I’m going to make you do everything for me from now on.”

He was, too.

Wei Wuxian looked between them. “Wait,” he said. “Is this – a thing?”

“If you mean Jiang-xiong and I, yes,” Nie Huaisang said. “He’s been courting me for years, and I refused.”

“Only on the basis of a secret murder plot which you didn’t want to get me involved in.”

“How was I to know that everything would turn out well in the end? I thought there was every chance san-ge would find a way to drag me down with him. I couldn’t let that happen to you, of course.”

“Of course,” Jiang Cheng jeered, but he looked pleased and smug the way he always did when Nie Huaisang admitted to having been won over by the very first day of his courtship, years ago. He liked being successful at things.

“No,” Wei Wuxian said. “Not that. The – good-for-nothing thing. It’s a thing. For you two.”

“Fighting words,” Nie Huaisang remarked, even as Jiang Cheng flushed red. “Coming from the dreadful Yiling Patriarch that needs to be defeated by the mighty and righteous Hanguang-jun and then taken away for a good ravishing –”

“Wei Wuxian!”

“Uh - listen – I can explain – actually, no, I can’t. Nie-xiong, you have my blessing, just don’t break his heart, bye.”

“Come back here you -!”

Yes, Nie Huaisang decided, watching Jiang Cheng chase Wei Wuxian. This was the best possible result.

[bloody-bee-tea]

Poses

Jiang Cheng knows what’s going to happen a moment before Lan Xichen steps away from the camera.

Lan Xichen gives him a reassuring smile, but Jiang Cheng can tell that he’s annoyed and he clenches his teeth.

It wasn’t his idea to come here and pretend to be a model. He told Lan Xichen over and over again that he couldn’t do this, that he might have the looks of a model—even that is debatable—but he sure as fuck can’t work as one, and now it’s going to prove Wei Wuxian right.

Instead of going over to Lan Xichen and ask what he did wrong, how he can do better, Jiang Cheng goes to get something to drink.

He knows what his problem is; he’s stiff and unnatural as soon as a camera lens is pointed at him, and he told Wei Wuxian and Lan Xichen just that, but it’s not like anyone is ever listening to him.

“I don’t think this is going to work,” he hears Lan Xichen say to Wei Wuxian. “He has the looks, but apart from that—” Lan Xichen trails off with a wince and Jiang Cheng wants to shake Wei Wuxian when he starts to shake his head.

“No, no, Xichen-ge, come on! You’re the best photographer I know! If you can’t make it work, how am I ever going to convince Jiang Cheng that he could work in this profession?”

Jiang Cheng fights the urge to yell over that he doesn’t even want to work in this profession, that this is just some new bullshit Wei Wuxian got into his head, but before he can do so, Nie Huaisang speaks up.

“Actually, I might have an idea,” he says, hiding behind his fan as per usual and Jiang Cheng sighs.

He doesn’t want to try something else. He just wants to go home. It’s never going to work anyway; he feels uncomfortable the moment the photographer directs him into his first pose, and it doesn’t matter who’s behind the lens.

Jiang Cheng simply can’t deal with that kind of focus on him.

Before he can go over and tell them that, Nie Huaisang goes on.

“I called my da-ge, he’s going to take the pictures.”

Jiang Cheng goes ice-cold.

Nie Mingjue is well known in these circles for being one of the toughest but also one of the most accomplished photographers.

He’s going to snap Jiang Cheng clean in half if he can’t pose like Nie Mingjue wants him to.

“I think I’ll be leaving,” Jiang Cheng hears himself saying and every head turns around to him.

“Jiang Cheng!” Wei Wuxian cries. “You can’t just do that!”

“I can. I told you I didn’t want to be here in the first place. I told you that it never works out. I don’t see why we should trouble someone else over this when it’s so clearly pointless.”

“I wouldn’t call it pointless,” Lan Xichen says, but going by his face he doesn’t even believe himself.

“It is, let’s not pretend,” Jiang Cheng scoffs and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

He always feels strangely vulnerable in the clothes he’s supposed to model when he’s not in front of a camera. Not that he fares any better when he is in front of a camera.

Jiang Cheng is just simply completely useless when it comes to this kind of thing.

“You should really rather spend your time on finding a suitable model, instead of wasting more time and resources on me,” Jiang Cheng tries again.

He’s just a stand-in for a model that dropped out anyway, and he can’t believe that there are no easier solutions to this than to not only get someone completely inexperienced into this but to also trouble another photographer.

Who will despair with Jiang Cheng just like Lan Xichen did just a few minutes ago.

“There is no more suitable than you, Jiang Wanyin,” Nie Huaisang says. “The clothes fit you perfectly and they suit you so well, too, and I can’t bear to see anyone else in these.”

“Well, you’ll have to, cause I’m leaving!”

“No one is leaving,” a new voice suddenly says and Jiang Cheng goes still.

He has never heard that voice before but he goes warm all over and something in him thinks that this must be what home feels like.

Jiang Cheng can’t bring himself to move, still too shocked by how comforting and familiar that voice sounds, but Nie Mingjue steps up right next to him.

Nie Mingjue is just as imposing as he always seemed from the pictures, but the pictures did not accurately convey just how goddamn gorgeous he is.

He should be in front of a camera and not behind it, Jiang Cheng thinks, and then doesn’t get to think much of anything else when Nie Huaisang starts to explain how stiff Jiang Cheng is behind a camera, Lan Xichen helpfully chiming in with his crushing disappointment, too, and then Nie Mingjue is already sweeping Jiang Cheng away.

It’s only when Jiang Cheng is being pushed into the bright light that his brain comes online again.

It’s silent in the studio, and Jiang Cheng tries his best to see past the light if the others have left, but when he squints Nie Mingjue makes a disapproving noise.

“Stand up straight, Wanyin,” he instructs, and his voice is gentler than Jiang Cheng expected it to be.

He doesn’t even take offence at the familiar address.

“Chin up, shoulders back, angle yourself towards me,” Nie Mingjue says, gently directing him into different poses and Jiang Cheng follows along without a second thought.

He still feels stiff and uncomfortable but the knowledge that Nie Mingjue is watching him through the camera burns hot inside him.

With every twist and every turn Nie Mingjue guides him into it feels like his gaze is brushing all over him and for the first time since Wei Wuxian picked up modelling and started to force Jiang Cheng in front of the camera again and again it feels normal.

It feels like Jiang Cheng can do it and like it’s something he could come to like.

Nie Mingjue’s voice continues to float over to him, directing his body into new positions and Jiang Cheng wonders if he could do it forever, if only Nie Mingjue keeps speaking to him.

The thought makes him blush, because he just met the other man, and they haven’t so much as exchanged greetings with each other, but Jiang Cheng can’t make it stop.

“Whatever you’re thinking about, keep doing it,” Nie Mingjue suddenly says, which of course only prompts Jiang Cheng’s face to burn hotter.

There’s a brief moment of defiance, where he tries to think about anything else but Nie Mingjue, but then Jiang Cheng reminds himself that he has permission, no matter if Nie Mingjue knows what he’s thinking about or not, and so he goes on.

Jiang Cheng wonders if Nie Mingjue likes what he sees, if there’s a pose or a face he can make that would please Nie Mingjue and over that Jiang Cheng forgets to be self-conscious and he starts to move much more fluidly.

There’s only him and Nie Mingjue’s steady gaze and gentle voice.

Jiang Cheng is almost disappointed when Nie Mingjue calls an end to it.

“We’re done, thank you, Wanyin,” he says and Jiang Cheng immediately tenses again, brought out of his head-space.

The bright light is turned off and Jiang Cheng realizes with horror that everyone else is still there, they were just being quiet, which is a feat, considering that Wei Wuxian is there as well.

“A-Cheng, that was amazing!” Wei Wuxian immediately yells and throws himself at Jiang Cheng, who is too dazed to dodge him.

“Get off me,” he grunts out, Wei Wuxian hanging around his neck and it takes him way too long to push Wei Wuxian away.

“That was—really good,” Lan Xichen haltingly says, clearly not happy with the fact that he and Jiang Cheng didn’t work together.

“That wasn’t just good,” Nie Huaisang says, an excited glint in his eyes. “That was perfect. Amazing. Breath-taking.”

“All of you, shut the hell up,” Jiang Cheng groans out. “It was alright, I guess.”

“Now, please don’t insult me like this. I just took some of the best photos of my career,” Nie Mingjue says, stepping close to their circle, but his eyes are on the tablet where he’s clearly going through the pictures.

“Alright, I’m out,” Jiang Cheng decides, because if Nie Mingjue looks at him without the lens between them, Jiang Cheng is going to combust.

And he doesn’t actually want to see himself in the photos, either, so he runs away.

At least he has the excuse of wanting to change out of Nie Huaisang’s no doubt expensive designer clothes.

Jiang Cheng is back in his clothes faster than he really expected to be but he doesn’t feel ready at all to go back.

“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters, scrubbing a hand down his face.

He never felt like this before with anyone; he had an ill-fated crush on Wen Qing because of his competence kink, but what happened today with Nie Mingjue—that’s new and scary and Jiang Cheng doesn’t know what he wants to do about it at all.

If he’s being honest, he’s not going to do anything. He’ll probably never see Nie Mingjue again after this, so worrying doesn’t even make sense.

“Go out for coffee with me,” Nie Mingjue suddenly says and a shudder runs down Jiang Cheng’s spine.

He whirls around and Nie Mingjue is just there, inside the room, and Jiang Cheng hadn’t even heard him come in.

“What?” he asks, but everything inside him screams to say yes immediately.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t understand it, but he wants to reach out for Nie Mingjue, wants to fold himself into his embrace and never let him go again and fighting that urge gets increasingly harder the longer Nie Mingjue simply stares at him.

Why did it take so long to find you? Something inside of him screams and Jiang Cheng tries to push that thought away, because it makes no sense.

It seems like Jiang Cheng is not the only one affected, though, because it only takes a second longer before Nie Mingjue curses softly under his breath and purposefully walks up to Jiang Cheng.

He moves close, cupping Jiang Cheng’s cheek in his hand and pressing his nose to Jiang Cheng’s temple.

Jiang Cheng hates to admit it, but just that makes his knees go weak and his stomach do somersaults.

“Wanyin, go out for coffee with me,” Nie Mingjue breathes out and Jiang Cheng manages to bring his hands up to cling to Nie Mingjue’s shirt.

“Only if you go for dinner with me afterwards,” he says, his voice shaking just the slightest bit and Nie Mingjue chuckles.

“Deal,” he immediately agrees and Jiang Cheng feels like he might start crying out of happiness.

It doesn’t seem like Nie Mingjue fares any better, though, so Jiang Cheng decides not to feel bad about it. Instead he’s going to enjoy every second with Nie Mingjue.

(The photos truly are the best Nie Mingjue has taken thus far in his career. Jiang Cheng gets into modelling, but only for Nie Huiasang’s clothes, and only with Nie Mingjue behind the camera. Nie Mingjue kept the very first ones where Jiang Cheng blushes to himself for years, and he only shows them to the public on their wedding day.)

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

[guqin-and-flute]

Sorry for the wall of text ahead n.n'

Nonsense Headcanon Corner:

Wuxian is ambidextrous, but a Da Vinci ambidextrous, what means that depending on which hand he uses to write he writes backwards. AND he has spelling mistakes because I headcanon he has ADHD. That's why his demonic cultivation notes were nearly illegible. Surprisingly enough the handwritting itself is not terrible.

Xichen and Wangji have perfect calligraphy, to the point that It looks almost the same. Only Qiren can tell the two handwrittings apart.

Jiang Cheng has a surprisingly flowery handwritting, because Yanli was the one that helped him when he was learning, so he modeled his own handwritting after hers.

Wen Qing has terrible handwritting, but no one knows because she always painstakenly writes everything again in another paper. It takes her twice the time but her notes need to be legible (When she's short on time she asks for Wen Ning to clean up her notes because his handwritting is MUCH better than hers. Or she dictates and he takes notes, what cuts time even more).

Huaisang has so many different handwrittings that not even he knows what is supposed to be his original one. It changes depending on his mood.

Mingjue writes in the mandarin equivalent of bold typeface.

Meng Yao had a flowery handwritting, originaly, but he trained himself to have a more sober/classic handwritting to "be taken seriously".

Zizhen is the one that writes with the hearts on the dots. Jin Ling has flowery handwritting because Jiang Cheng was the one to teach him. Jingyi had terrible handwritting but Qiren forced him out of It through repetition. Sizhui has a surprisingly artistic but legible handwritting.

Zixuan's handwritting has no personality whatsoever. He died before Yanli could unearth the personality buried under years of Lanling's teachers boring and restrictive work.

NEVER BE SORRY, I LOVE THESE

OOOOH I love the idea of Wuxian writing his notes backwards as a sort of stop gap code--or just because he was doing whatever with his other hand. And YES spelling mistakes

Aww Twin Jades twinning ;u;

You're the second person that has maintained that Jiang Cheng has very flowery handwriting and I love that contrast

WEN QING BAD HANDWRITING SUPREMACY!!

Pfff I love all this, and poor Zixuan :((

[heavymetalchemist]

From this @mingcheng-prompts prompt.

“Wei-xiong,” Nie Huaisang said earnestly, leaning forward with his closed fan clutched tightly in his hands. “Our brothers… are together.”

Wei Wuxian blinked back at him, then poured himself another cup of wine. “Yeah, Jiang Cheng told me they were going to the hockey game tonight. That’s why he’s not here with us. But we don’t need him, Nie-xiong! Let me tell you what my Lan Zhan did the other day, he actually spent five hours on the broth for—“

“Wei Wuxian!” The closed fan hit the table. “I don’t mean they’re together right now, I mean they’re together romantically! Our brothers are dating!”

Wei Wuxian burst into bright, cheerful laughter. “Those two? No way! They’ve never so much as held hands! Besides they’re both so, y’know, grr,” Wei Wuxian made a frowny face. “They’re too alike, it would never work. And don’t you remember? I’ve told you about Jiang Cheng’s little list. Nie Mingjue? Gentle and obedient? Please!”

Huffing in irritation, Nie Huaisang tried again. “You know as well as I do that a list someone makes when they’re thirteen is bullshit. I live with my brother, you think I don’t know?”

“Ah, Nie-xiong, you always say you don’t know anything! Here, have some more wine and pass me those peanuts.”

“I’ll prove it,” Nie Huaisang said, but he passed the peanuts over and let it drop.

He’d just have to get evidence.

— ��

The plan was simple. Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue spent plenty of time together. All Nie Huaisang had to do was get someone — Wei Wuxian ideally, but Lan Wangji or Jin Zixuan would do in a pinch — to witness them holding hands or something. Even Lan Xichen or Jin Guangyao, after all, they were friends of his Da-ge, right? Although they were still in that very early stage of the relationship where they only thought about dating each other.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were disgustingly wrapped up in each other all of the time, but their relationship had at least progressed to remembering other people existed.

It was with a heavy heart that Nie Huaisang put his plan into action. Sacrifices had to be made. But he knew his brother.

“Huaisang!” Nie Mingjue yelled from the kitchen.

“Yes, Da-ge?” he replied innocently, not moving from his slump on the couch.

Nie Mingjue clomped into the living room. “Do you know why the coffee maker isn’t working?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It’s not?” Nie Huaisang said, all wide-eyed surprise. “I just had tea this morning, Da-ge. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be working.” He gestured towards his teacup, artfully placed so it would be obvious there were no other beverages.

Nie Mingjue scowled. “Don’t you usually have coffee in the morning?”

“Usually isn’t always. I really didn’t know it was broken!”

“It was working fine yesterday.”

“Da-geeee,” Nie Huaisang whined. “Do you really think I wouldn’t complain right away if it wasn’t working? How is it even broken?”

Nie Mingjue narrowed his eyes. “I’m not sure. It’s plugged in and everything looks okay, but it’s not turning on.”

That’s because last night I took it apart and cut the wires, Nie Huaisang thought. “If you don’t know, then how would I know?” he said.

Clenching his jaw in irritation, Nie Mingjue finally admitted defeat. “Okay, fine. But if it’s not working then I guess we have to get a new one. Let’s go this afternoon.”

“Oh, I’m busy today, Da-ge. Why don’t you go with Jiang Cheng? He has coffee here a lot too, after all,” Nie Huaisang said airily, deftly maneuvering Nie Mingjue into his trap.

“Hmph. Fine,” Nie Mingjue grunted, then stalked off. He was always extra-grumpy before he had his coffee.

Once his brother was out of sight, Nie Huaisang allowed himself a smug smile. Everything was going according to plan.

— —

Of course Nie Huaisang already knew which store that they would go to for a new coffee maker, because Jiang Cheng only bought kitchen items from a certain specialty kitchen store. So there was no need to worry about them deciding to go to a department store — once Nie Mingjue asked Jiang Cheng to help him buy the coffee maker, their fate was sealed.

And of course Nie Huaisang had already made plans to meet Wei Wuxian (and by extension, Lan Wangji) at the clothing store right next to the kitchen store for a fun afternoon of shopping.

How would he know when Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng arrived at the kitchen store? Simple! Nie Huaisang had already asked his Da-ge if they could pick him up a new set of wine cups, since they were going to the fancy store anyway. And since he obviously didn’t know what the store had in stock, Nie Mingjue could just text him some pictures! Nie Mingjue had grumbled, but agreed — after Nie Huaisang had assured him he’d pay him back.

Wei Wuxian was posing in a slinky red silk blouse with far too many buttons undone, looking coyly over his shoulder at a red-eared Lan Wangji, when Nie Huaisang’s phone finally chimed.

“Yes, yes, Wei-xiong, I think it looks great. And Lan Wangji agrees, don’t you?” Nie Huaisang said, trying to keep his tone even.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, moving forward to grab Wei Wuxian by the waist. “It looks great,” he said lowly, before burying his face in the crook of Wei Wuxian’s neck where the shoulder was exposed.

Wei Wuxian squealed in delight. “Oh my! Lan Zhan!”

Closing his eyes, Nie Huaisang took a breath, held it a second, then let it out. “Guys. Listen to me. Let’s buy the shirt, I just remembered that I have something I need to get next door.” There was another squeal of delight. Nie Huaisang keenly felt the pain of being in public with Wangxian and bravely throttled down his desire to just leave them there next to the changing rooms and quickly distance himself so that he wouldn’t also be banned from the clothing store. “Wei-xiong, come on, you promised you’d shop with me!” he tried desperately.

“Ahaha, oh, right, yes,” Wei Wuxian managed. “Come on Lan Zhan, we can go home and, you know…”

Lan Wangji finally lifted his head away from Wei Wuxian’s neck, eyes bright. “Mn. I will buy the shirt for you.”

It seemed to take forever for them to get Wei Wuxian back into his own clothes and make their purchases — of course Huaisang also had to buy his own beautiful hand-painted silk shirt, it would have been suspicious if he didn’t! — but by forcing Nie Mingjue to send him pictures of every possible option he managed to stall long enough to get them out of the store while Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng were still in the kitchen store.

“Okay, listen,” Nie Huaisang said, once they were outside. “My Da-ge and Jiang Cheng are in there.”

“What? Chengcheng is here?” Wei Wuxian said, delighted.

“Yes, they are shopping for a new coffee maker. Together. Because they’re dating!” Nie Huaisang said. “And I’ll prove it to you now! Be quiet when we go in and you’ll see!”

Both of them looked skeptical, but Wei Wuxian shrugged and nodded in agreement. Lan Wangji, of course, would have been quiet either way.

Nie Huaisang cautiously led them inside. They snuck around the shelves until they could found Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng.

“That’s all of them, he just has to pick one now,” Jiang Cheng said with a scowl.

Crap! Nie Huaisang thought, fumbling his phone out. He scrolled through the pictures and sent back a request for the ones he actually really liked, a set of porcelain cups painted with small birds.

Nie Mingjue looked down at his phone and huffed. “I knew it was going to be the birds. It’s always the birds. All right, let’s look at the coffee makers.”

Nie Huaisang frowned — he wasn’t that predictable! — but waved Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to follow them anyway.

However, no matter how closely they watched (and Nie Huaisang had to keep reminding Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to watch because they kept trying to grope each other) Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng never touched. They discussed the pros and cons of the coffee makers with no mention whatsoever of the time that Nie Huaisang came home after a night out and Jiang Cheng was somehow already in their apartment with suspiciously rumpled clothes, drinking coffee at the table with Nie Mingjue as if it were perfectly normal. No flirting about what Jiang Cheng would like best first thing in the morning. Just a boring conversation about how much the different models cost and their features.

Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue made their purchases and left. Wei Wuxian looked at Nie Huaisang with that mildly condescending look he got. “Ah, Nie-xiong. It looks like your Da-ge just wanted Jiang Cheng’s advice. I don’t think it’s that deep. After all, look at me and Lan Zhan! They’re nothing like that. And neither of them was all flustered and trying too hard like how that stupid peacock gets. I think you’re overthinking it. There was nothing between them at all!”

“But, Wei-xiong, they hang out all the time and Jiang Cheng comes over when I’m not there and—!”

“Nie-xiong, people can have friends! Besides, for some reason Jiang Cheng doesn’t want to hang out with me when Lan Zhan is there. It’s good that he’s branched out and gotten new friends!”

Nie Huaisang glared at him. “He doesn’t want to hang out with you two because you’re shameless. Lan Wangji’s hands are in your back pockets right now.”

Wei Wuxian just laughed.

— —

“Are they still watching?” Nie Mingjue asked once they were outside.

Jiang Cheng casually glanced over his shoulder. “Nope. Huaisang is hitting Wei Wuxian with his fan and Lan Wangji is glaring at him.”

“Good,” Nie Mingjue said, and led Jiang Cheng around the side of the building to a sheltered corner. Once out of sight, he cupped Jiang Cheng’s cheek in his hand and tilted his face up for a kiss.