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For decades, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms were processed electronically by the legacy Central Processing System. In 2021 the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) initiated a system development effort and in December 2023 deployed a new system to process forms for the 2024-2025 school year. However, student aid applicants reported that the new system had availability issues, recurring errors, and long wait times. This Government Accountability Office (GAO) testimony (1) describes the delays in delivering on the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) requirements; (2) describes the defects that were identified before and after FPS deployment; (3) assesses the extent to which disciplined systems acquisition practices were used to manage FPS requirements, conduct systems testing, and carry out independent acquisition reviews; and (4) assesses the extent to which Education and FSA IT leadership provided oversight of FPS development. This statement is a companion to GAO's related statement on the simplified FAFSA rollout (GAO-24-107407). In addressing the first two objectives, GAO summarized the preliminary results of its continuing ongoing work describing delays and defects. For the latter two objectives on requirements, testing, and independent reviews, GAO completed its audit work and is making recommendations to address weaknesses.

Over the past decade, the Table Union Search (TUS) task has aimed to identify unionable tables within data lakes to improve data integration and discovery. While numerous solutions and approaches have been introduced, they primarily rely on open data, making them not applicable to restricted access data, such as medical records or government statistics, due to privacy concerns. Restricted data can still be shared through metadata, which ensures confidentiality while supporting data reuse. This paper explores how TUS can be computed on restricted access data using metadata alone. We propose a method that achieves 81% accuracy in unionability and outperforms existing benchmarks in precision and recall. Our results highlight the potential of metadata-driven approaches for integrating restricted data, facilitating secure data discovery in privacy-sensitive domains. This aligns with the FAIR principles, by ensuring data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable while preserving confidentiality.

In this work, we present a new perspective on the origin and interpretation of adaptive filters. By applying Bayesian principles of recursive inference from the state-space model and using a series of simplifications regarding the structure of the solution, we can present, in a unified framework, derivations of many adaptive filters which depend on the probabilistic model of the observational noise. In particular, under a Gaussian model, we obtain solutions well-known in the literature (such as LMS, NLMS, or Kalman filter), while using non-Gaussian noise, we obtain new families of adaptive filter. Notably, under assumption of Laplacian noise, we obtain a family of robust filters of which the signed-error algorithm is a well-known member, while other algorithms, derived effortlessly in the proposed framework, are entirely new. Numerical examples are shown to illustrate the properties and provide a better insight into the performance of the derived adaptive filters.

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the community studying the effect of ultraviolet radiation environment, predominantly set by OB stars, on protoplanetary disc evolution and planet formation. This is important because a significant fraction of planetary systems, potentially including our own, formed in close proximity to OB stars. This is a rapidly developing field, with a broad range of observations across many regions recently obtained or recently scheduled. In this paper, stimulated by a series of workshops on the topic, we take stock of the current and upcoming observations. We discuss how the community can build on this recent success with future observations to make progress in answering the big questions of the field, with the broad goal of disentangling how external photoevaporation contributes to shaping the observed (exo)planet population. Both existing and future instruments offer numerous opportunities to make progress towards this goal., Comment: Submitted to the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Corresponding author Thomas Haworth

Recent research has suggested that the brain is more shallow than previously thought, challenging the traditionally assumed hierarchical structure of the ventral visual pathway. Here, we demonstrate that optimizing convolutional network architectures for brain-alignment via evolutionary neural architecture search results in models with clear representational hierarchies. Despite having random weights, the identified models achieve brain-alignment scores surpassing even those of pretrained classification models - as measured by both regression and representational similarity analysis. Furthermore, through traditional supervised training, architectures optimized for alignment with late ventral regions become competitive classification models. These findings suggest that hierarchical structure is a fundamental mechanism of primate visual processing. Finally, this work demonstrates the potential of neural architecture search as a framework for computational cognitive neuroscience research that could reduce the field's reliance on manually designed convolutional networks.

Previous research has shown that inquiry-based learning through hands-on experiments, as well as learning with multiple, external representations (MERs) can promote the understanding of complex phenomena in physics. In this context, augmented reality (AR) smartglasses make it possible to superimpose real experiments with virtually presented information while maintaining learners' freedom to interact with the experimental setup. This allows spatial and temporal contiguity to be established between the phenomenon and the supporting virtual visualizations which can help to reduce learners' cognitive load and to free up cognitive resources for learning. We introduce an AR learning environment for the investigation of the Lorentz force. By visualizing the fields relevant to the experiment in AR, a more direct investigation of the physical phenomenon can be achieved for the learner. Additionally, this setup can foster the acquisition of representational skills by providing the possibility to superimpose fields using various representations. This learning setting will be used in future studies to investigate how MERs should be combined in a guided inquiry-based learning environment to best promote learners' conceptual knowledge and representational skills. We present the system and report usability data that were collected from a sample of 188 secondary school students. The average score was 80.18 (SD: 12.06) which signals an excellent usability of the AR learning environment., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures

Automated code generation is gaining significant importance in intelligent computer programming and system deployment. However, current approaches often face challenges in computational efficiency and lack robust mechanisms for code parsing and error correction. In this work, we propose a novel framework, PyCapsule, with a simple yet effective two-agent pipeline and efficient self-debugging modules for Python code generation. PyCapsule features sophisticated prompt inference, iterative error handling, and case testing, ensuring high generation stability, safety, and correctness. Empirically, PyCapsule achieves up to 5.7% improvement of success rate on HumanEval, 10.3% on HumanEval-ET, and 24.4% on BigCodeBench compared to the state-of-art methods. We also observe a decrease in normalized success rate given more self-debugging attempts, potentially affected by limited and noisy error feedback in retention. PyCapsule demonstrates broader impacts on advancing lightweight and efficient code generation for artificial intelligence systems.

Drone-based beam measurements are a promising avenue to tackle the critical challenge of calibration for 21 cm cosmology telescopes. In this paper, we introduce a new drone-based calibration system for 400-800 MHz radio observatories, describing its instrumentation and first deployment. We discuss measurements of the TONE array, a CHIME/FRB outrigger pathfinder, and present results, including full 2D high spatial resolution beam maps in both co- and cross-polarization, as well as comparisons to simulations. The polarized beam maps cover a 70 degree by 70 degree grid, capturing the first two sidelobes and measuring the TONE main beam and first sidelobe with 7-9% statistical errors. We investigate polarization angle alignment with frequency, finding significant polarization leakage in the TONE antennas at frequencies above 600 MHz, and a polarization axis rotation with frequency. We describe statistical and systematic errors, as well as measurements of radio frequency interference from the drone and equipment. Our drone system is the first to incorporate a broad-band switched calibration source in the drone payload, enabling background subtraction and direct measurements of the RFI emitted by the drone. The results presented are the first drone-based 2D measurements of cross-polar beam structure and of polarization alignment of an array. The high frequency and spatial resolution achieved with this system have revealed the rich structure of the beam of each antenna, and enabled comparisons between individual dishes and to electromagnetic simulations., Comment: Submitted to ApJ

We show that reinforcement learning applied to large language models (LLMs) significantly boosts performance on complex coding and reasoning tasks. Additionally, we compare two general-purpose reasoning models - OpenAI o1 and an early checkpoint of o3 - with a domain-specific system, o1-ioi, which uses hand-engineered inference strategies designed for competing in the 2024 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). We competed live at IOI 2024 with o1-ioi and, using hand-crafted test-time strategies, placed in the 49th percentile. Under relaxed competition constraints, o1-ioi achieved a gold medal. However, when evaluating later models such as o3, we find that o3 achieves gold without hand-crafted domain-specific strategies or relaxed constraints. Our findings show that although specialized pipelines such as o1-ioi yield solid improvements, the scaled-up, general-purpose o3 model surpasses those results without relying on hand-crafted inference heuristics. Notably, o3 achieves a gold medal at the 2024 IOI and obtains a Codeforces rating on par with elite human competitors. Overall, these results indicate that scaling general-purpose reinforcement learning, rather than relying on domain-specific techniques, offers a robust path toward state-of-the-art AI in reasoning domains, such as competitive programming.

Digital-safety research with at-risk users is particularly urgent. At-risk users are more likely to be digitally attacked or targeted by surveillance and could be disproportionately harmed by attacks that facilitate physical assaults. One group of such at-risk users are activists and politically active individuals. For them, as for other at-risk users, the rise of smart environments harbors new risks. Since digitization and datafication are no longer limited to a series of personal devices that can be switched on and off, but increasingly and continuously surround users, granular geolocation poses new safety challenges. Drawing on eight exploratory qualitative interviews of an ongoing research project, this contribution highlights what activists with powerful adversaries think about evermore data traces, including location data, and how they intend to deal with emerging risks. Responses of activists include attempts to control one's immediate technological surroundings and to more carefully manage device-related location data. For some activists, threat modeling has also shaped provider choices based on geopolitical considerations. Since many activists have not enough digital-safety knowledge for effective protection, feelings of insecurity and paranoia are widespread. Channeling the concerns and fears of our interlocutors, we call for more research on how activists can protect themselves against evermore fine-grained location data tracking., Comment: 10 pages, incl. interview guide and codebook

Inclusive electron scattering cross sections off a hydrogen target at a beam energy of 10.6 GeV have been measured with data collected from the CLAS12 spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory. These first absolute cross sections from CLAS12 cover a wide kinematic area in invariant mass W of the final state hadrons from the pion threshold up to 2.5 GeV for each bin in virtual photon four-momentum transfer squared $Q^2$ from 2.55 to 10.4~GeV$^2$ owing to the large scattering angle acceptance of the CLAS12 detector. Comparison of the cross sections with the resonant contributions computed from the CLAS results on the nucleon resonance electroexcitation amplitudes has demonstrated a promising opportunity to extend the information on their $Q^2$ evolution up to 10 GeV$^2$. Together these results from CLAS and CLAS12 offer good prospects for probing the nucleon parton distributions at large fractional parton momenta $x$ for $W$ < 2.5 GeV, while covering the range of distances where the transition from the strongly coupled to the perturbative regimes is expected.

Quantum optimal control is concerned with the realisation of desired dynamics in quantum systems, serving as a linchpin for advancing quantum technologies and fundamental research. Analytic approaches and standard optimisation algorithms do not yield satisfactory solutions for large quantum systems, and especially not for real world quantum systems which are open and noisy. We devise a physics-informed Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm that restricts the space of possible solutions. We incorporate priors about the desired time scales of the quantum state dynamics - as well as realistic control signal limitations - as constraints to the RL algorithm. These physics-informed constraints additionally improve computational scalability by facilitating parallel optimisation. We evaluate our method on three broadly relevant quantum systems (multi-level $\Lambda$ system, Rydberg atom and superconducting transmon) and incorporate real-world complications, arising from dissipation and control signal perturbations. We achieve both higher fidelities - which exceed 0.999 across all systems - and better robustness to time-dependent perturbations and experimental imperfections than previous methods. Lastly, we demonstrate that incorporating multi-step feedback can yield solutions robust even to strong perturbations.

Recent research indicates that the use of multiple external representations MERs has the potential to support learning, especially in complex scientific areas, such as quantum physics. In particular, the provision of informationally redundant external representations can have advantageous effects on learning outcomes. This is of special relevance for quantum education, where various external representations are available and their effective use is recognised as crucial to student learning. However, research on the effects of informationally redundant external representations in quantum learning is limited. The present study aims to contribute to the development of effective learning materials by investigating the effects of learning with informationally redundant external representations on students' learning of quantum physics. Using a between-subjects design, 113 students were randomly assigned to one of four learning conditions. The control group learnt with a traditional multimedia learning unit on the behaviour of a single photon in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The three intervention groups received redundant essential information in the Dirac formalism, the Bloch sphere, or both. The use of eye tracking enabled insight into the learning process depending on the external representations provided. While the results indicate no effect of the study condition on learning outcomes (content knowledge and cognitive load), the analysis of visual behaviour reveals decreased learning efficiency with the addition of the Bloch sphere to the multimedia learning unit. The results are discussed based on current insight in learning with MERs. The study emphasises the need for careful instructional design to balance the associated cognitive load when learning with informationally redundant external representations., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, Eva Rexigel and Linda Qerimi contributed equally to this work

Reconfigurable arrays of trapped single atoms are an excellent platform for the simulation of many-body physics and the realisation of high-fidelity quantum gates. The confinement of atoms is often achieved with focussed laser beams acting as optical dipole-force traps that allow for both static and dynamic positioning of atoms. In these traps, light-assisted collisions -- enhancing the two-atom loss rate -- ensure that single atom occupation of traps can be realised. However, the time-averaged probability of trapping a single atom is limited to $0.5$ when loading directly from a surrounding cloud of laser-cooled atoms, preventing deterministic filling of large arrays. In this work, we demonstrate that increasing the depth of a static, optical dipole trap enables the transition from fast loading on a timescale of $2.1\,$s to an extended trap lifetime of $7.9\,$s. This method demonstrates an achievable filling ratio of $(79\pm2)\,\%$ without the need of rearranging atoms to fill vacant traps., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

The mass accretion process controls pre-main-sequence evolution, although its intrinsic instability has yet to be fully understood, especially towards the protostellar stage. In this work, we have undertaken a thorough examination of the mid-infrared variability of Spitzer-selected YSOs in the Cygnus-X star-forming region over the last decade, using the NEOWISE time series. This work compares two groups of young stars: embedded Class I objects, and the more evolved flat-spectrum/Class II sources. We report on 48 candidate eruptive variables within these groups, including 14 with characteristics that resemble the photometric behaviour of FUors. We also include an additional 20 YSOs, which are of a less certain categorisation. We find the candidate FUors to be an order of magnitude more common among the younger Class I systems than more evolved objects. A large number of the identified short-duration eruptive YSOs display mid-infrared colour behaviour that is redder-when-brighter, which contrasts with optically bright outbursts seen in YSOs. Finally, we note the unusual long-term rising behaviours of four Class I YSOs, with rise timescales longer than five years, which is far slower than 6-12 month timescale for the majority of optically discovered FUors. Additionally, our broader investigation of MIR variability for embedded class I YSOs shows that there is a higher incidence of high amplitude variability for these stars, than is seen in class II sources. This holds true for all variable class I YSOs, not just the eruptive sources., Comment: 20 Pages, 24 Figures and 3 Tables

Shortcut learning, i.e., a model's reliance on undesired features not directly relevant to the task, is a major challenge that severely limits the applications of machine learning algorithms, particularly when deploying them to assist in making sensitive decisions, such as in medical diagnostics. In this work, we leverage recent advancements in machine learning to create an unsupervised framework that is capable of both detecting and mitigating shortcut learning in transformers. We validate our method on multiple datasets. Results demonstrate that our framework significantly improves both worst-group accuracy (samples misclassified due to shortcuts) and average accuracy, while minimizing human annotation effort. Moreover, we demonstrate that the detected shortcuts are meaningful and informative to human experts, and that our framework is computationally efficient, allowing it to be run on consumer hardware.

The o1 model series is trained with large-scale reinforcement learning to reason using chain of thought. These advanced reasoning capabilities provide new avenues for improving the safety and robustness of our models. In particular, our models can reason about our safety policies in context when responding to potentially unsafe prompts, through deliberative alignment. This leads to state-of-the-art performance on certain benchmarks for risks such as generating illicit advice, choosing stereotyped responses, and succumbing to known jailbreaks. Training models to incorporate a chain of thought before answering has the potential to unlock substantial benefits, while also increasing potential risks that stem from heightened intelligence. Our results underscore the need for building robust alignment methods, extensively stress-testing their efficacy, and maintaining meticulous risk management protocols. This report outlines the safety work carried out for the OpenAI o1 and OpenAI o1-mini models, including safety evaluations, external red teaming, and Preparedness Framework evaluations.

The paper presents a micromechanical representation of deformation in 2D granular materials. The representation is a generalization of K. Bagi's work and is based upon the void-cell approach of M. Satake. The general representation applies to a material region partitioned into polygonal subregions. This representation possesses a certain consistency that allows for a unique assignment of the contribution that each contact displacement makes to the average deformation of an assembly. The paper addresses construction of the particle graph and appropriate data structures for use with the Discrete Element Method. The approach is applied in a numerical simulation of a two-dimensional assembly of disks. The author presents results of the distributions of deformation and particle-group rotation, with a resolution of about a single particle diameter. Deformation was very nonuniform, even at low strains. Micro-bands, thin linear zones of intense rotation, were also observed.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities across various tasks, yet they often struggle with spatial reasoning. This paper presents a novel neural-symbolic framework that enhances LLMs' spatial reasoning abilities through iterative feedback between LLMs and Answer Set Programming (ASP). We evaluate our approach on two benchmark datasets: StepGame and SparQA, implementing three distinct strategies: (1) direct prompting baseline, (2) Facts+Rules prompting, and (3) DSPy-based LLM+ASP pipeline with iterative refinement. Our experimental results demonstrate that the LLM+ASP pipeline significantly outperforms baseline methods, achieving an average 82% accuracy on StepGame and 69% on SparQA, marking improvements of 40-50% and 8-15% respectively over direct prompting. The success stems from three key innovations: (1) effective separation of semantic parsing and logical reasoning through a modular pipeline, (2) iterative feedback mechanism between LLMs and ASP solvers that improves program rate, and (3) robust error handling that addresses parsing, grounding, and solving failures. Additionally, we propose Facts+Rules as a lightweight alternative that achieves comparable performance on complex SparQA dataset, while reducing computational overhead.Our analysis across different LLM architectures (Deepseek, Llama3-70B, GPT-4.0 mini) demonstrates the framework's generalizability and provides insights into the trade-offs between implementation complexity and reasoning capability, contributing to the development of more interpretable and reliable AI systems.

In this paper we showcase the strengths of polarized neutron imaging as a magnetic imaging technique through a case study on field-cooled multifilamentary YBCO tape carrying a transport current while containing a trapped magnetic field. The measurements were done at J-PARC's RADEN beamline, measuring a radiograph of a single polarization component, to showcase the analysis potential with minimal acquisition time. Regions of internal damage are easily and accurately identified as the technique probes the internal magnetic field of the sample, thereby avoiding surface-smearing effects. Quantitative measurements of the integrated field strength in various regions are acquired using time-of-flight information. Finally, we estimate the strength of the screening currents in the superconductor during the experiment by simulating an experiment with a model sample and comparing it to the experimental data. With this, we show that polarized neutron imaging is not only a useful tool for investigating magnetic structures but also for investigating samples carrying currents., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures with total of 6 or 7 images (some bundles, some seperate)

Graphs are essential representations in the professions and education concerning the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Beyond their academic relevance, graphs find extensive utility in everyday scenarios, ranging from news media to educational materials. This underscores the importance of people's being able to understand graphs. However, the ability to understand graphs is connected to the ability to create graphs. Therefore, in school education, particularly in STEM subjects, not only the understanding but also the skill of constructing graphs from numerical data is emphasized. Although constructing graphs is a skill that most people do not require in their everyday lives and professions, it is a well-established student activity that has been empirically studied several times. Therefore, since a synthesis of the research findings on this topic has not yet been conducted, a summary of the studies investigating graphing via various viewpoints and differing methods could be a valuable contribution. To provide an overview of the empirical literature on this important topic, our systematic review identifies how the construction of convention-based graphical representations of numerical data, referred to as graphing, has been studied in previous research, how effective graphing is, and which types of difficulties are encountered by students. Based on these aspects, we defined inclusion criteria that led to 50 peer-reviewed empirical studies on graphing in K-12 STEM education found in SCOPUS, ERIC, and PsychInfo. Graphing instruction seemed to be beneficial for student learning, not only improving graph construction but also graph interpretation skills. However, the students experienced various difficulties during graphing, both during graph construction and the interpretation and usage of data., Comment: 63 pages, 9 figures

This document summarizes the prospective physics plans of the French QCD and Heavy-Ion community, including the experimental programs at the LHC Run 5 and beyond and future colliders at CERN, within the context of the French contribution to the update of the European Strategy in Particle Physics (ESPPU 2025), as discussed in the workshop on European Strategy for Particle Physics Update 2025 organised by the QCD GdR in Oct. 2024., Comment: 6.5 pages without title page and without references, no figures. Keywords: QCD, Heavy Ions, Quark Gluon Plasma, LHC, FCC

Energy efficient, safe and reliable Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are required for a wide range of applications. Charging capabilities of thick electrodes still holding their stored high-energy is a most desirable characteristic in future advanced LIBs. The introduction of ultra-thick graphite anode meets limitations in internal electrode transport properties, leading to Li-ion gradients with detrimental consequences for battery cell performance and lifetime. Yet, there is a lack of experimental tools capable of providing a complete view of local processes and evolving gradients within such thick electrodes. Here, we introduce a multi-modal operando measurement approach, enabling quantitative spatio-temporal observations of Li concentrations and intercalation phases in ultra-thick, graphite electrodes. Neutron imaging and diffraction concurrently provide correlated information from the macroscopic scale of the cell and electrode down to the crystallographic scale portraying the intercalation and deintercalation processes. In particular, the evolving formation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), observation of gradients in total lithium content, as well as in the formation of ordered LixC6 phases and trapped lithium have been mapped throughout the first charge-discharge cycle of the cell. Different lithiation stages co-exist during charging and discharging of an ultra-thick composite graphite-based electrode; delayed lithiation and delithiation processes are observed at the central region of the electrode, while the SEI formation, potential plating and dead lithium are predominantly found closer to the interface with the separator. The study furthermore emphasizes the potential of the method to study Li ion diffusion and the kinetics of lithiation phase formation in advanced ultra-thick electrodes.

We present the mission concept "Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet universE" (MAUVE), a wide-field spectrometer and imager conceived during the inaugural NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School. MAUVE responds to the 2023 Announcement of Opportunity for Probe-class missions, with a budget cap of \$1 billion, and would hypothetically launch in 2031. However, the formulation of MAUVE was an educational exercise and the mission is not being developed further. The Principal Investigator-led science of MAUVE aligns with the priorities outlined in the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, enabling new characterizations of exoplanet atmospheres, the early-time light curves of some of the universe's most explosive transients, and the poorly-understood extragalactic background light. Because the Principal Investigator science occupies 30% of the observing time available during the mission's 5 yr lifespan, we provide an observing plan that would allow for 70% of the observing time to be used for General Observer programs, with community-solicited proposals. The onboard detector (THISTLE) claims significant heritage from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on Hubble, but extends its wavelength range down to the extreme UV. We note that MAUVE would be the first satellite in decades with the ability to access this regime of the electromagnetic spectrum. MAUVE has a field of view of 900" x 900" a photometric sensitivity extending to $m_{UV}\leq 24$, and a resolving power of $R\sim1000$. This paper provides full science and mission traceability matrices for this concept, and also outlines cost and scheduling timelines aimed at enabling a within-budget mission and an on-time launch., Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures. Published by the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) studies decision problems under uncertainty where the probability distribution governing the uncertain problem parameters is itself uncertain. A key component of any DRO model is its ambiguity set, that is, a family of probability distributions consistent with any available structural or statistical information. DRO seeks decisions that perform best under the worst distribution in the ambiguity set. This worst case criterion is supported by findings in psychology and neuroscience, which indicate that many decision-makers have a low tolerance for distributional ambiguity. DRO is rooted in statistics, operations research and control theory, and recent research has uncovered its deep connections to regularization techniques and adversarial training in machine learning. This survey presents the key findings of the field in a unified and self-contained manner.

Quantum cryptography is a central topic in the quantum technology field that is particularly important for secure communication. The training of qualified experts in this field is necessary for continuous development. However, the abstract and complex nature of quantum physics makes the topic difficult to understand. Augmented reality (AR) allows otherwise invisible abstract concepts to be visualized and enables interactive learning, offering significant potential for improving quantum physics education in university lab courses. In addition, personalized feedback on challenging concepts can facilitate learning, and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can effectively deliver such feedback. This study combines these two aspects and explores the impact of an AR-based quantum cryptography experiment with integrated ChatGPT-based feedback on university students' learning outcomes and cognitive processes. The study involved 38 students in a physics laboratory course at a German university and used four open-ended questions to measure learning outcomes and gaze data as a learning process assessment. Statistical analysis was used to compare scores between feedback and non-feedback questions, and the effect of ChatGPT feedback on eye-tracking data was examined. The results show that ChatGPT feedback significantly improved learning outcomes and affected gaze data. While the feedback on conceptual questions tended to direct attention to the visualizations of the underlying model, the feedback on questions about experimental procedures increased visual attention to the real experimental materials. Overall, the results show that AI-based feedback draws visual attention towards task-relevant factors and increases learning performance in general.

The actuator line method (ALM) is an approach commonly used to represent lifting and dragging devices like wings and blades in large-eddy simulations (LES). The crux of the ALM is the projection of the actuator point forces onto the LES grid by means of a Gaussian regularisation kernel. The minimum width of the kernel is constrained by the grid size; however, for most practical applications like LES of wind turbines, this value is an order of magnitude larger than the optimal value which maximises accuracy. This discrepancy motivated the development of corrections for the actuator line, which, however, neglect the effect of unsteady spanwise shed vorticity. In this work, we develop a model for the impact of spanwise shed vorticity on the unsteady loading of an airfoil modelled as a Gaussian body force. The model solution is derived both in the time and frequency domain and features an explicit dependence on the Gaussian kernel width. We validate the model with LES within the linear regime of the lift curve for both pitch steps and periodic pitching with reduced frequencies of k=0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. The Gaussian kernel width affects, in particular, the amplitude of the unsteady lift, which can be up to 40% smaller than the quasi-steady amplitude within the considered range of reduced frequencies and kernel widths.

With the advent and development of real-world quantum technology applications, a practically-focused quantum education including student quantum experiments are gaining increasing importance in physics curricula. In this paper, using the DeFT framework, we present an analysis of the representations in our AR-enhanced quantum cryptography student experiment, in order to assess their potential for promoting conceptual learning. We also discuss learner visual attention with respect to the provided multiple representations based on the eye gaze data we have obtained from a pilot study where N=38 students carried out the tasks in our AR-enhanced quantum cryptography student experiment.

Regular remote sensing of the magnetic field embedded within the million-degree solar corona is severely lacking. This reality impedes fundamental investigations of the nature of coronal heating, the generation of solar and stellar winds, and the impulsive release of energy into the solar system via flares and other eruptive phenomena. Resulting from advancements in large aperture solar coronagraphy, we report unprecedented maps of polarized spectra emitted at 1074 nm by Fe+12 atoms in the active corona. We detect clear signatures of the Zeeman effect that are produced by the coronal magnetic field along the optically thin path length of its formation. Our comparisons with global magnetohydrodynamic models highlight the valuable constraints that these measurements provide for coronal modeling efforts, which are anticipated to yield subsequent benefits for space weather research and forecasting., Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, published in Science Advances

We define spin structures on perfect complexes outside of characteristic two, generalizing the usual notion for vector bundles. We give an explicit local characterization of spin structures, and show that for an oriented quadratic complex $E$ on an algebraic stack, spin structures on $E$ are parametrized by a degree $2$ gerbe. As an application, we show how to lift the K-theory class of Oh-Thomas in DT4 theory to a genuine (twisted) sheaf., Comment: 91 pages. Comments welcome

In the past few years, a successful line of research has lead to lower bounds for several fundamental local graph problems in the distributed setting. These results were obtained via a technique called round elimination. On a high level, the round elimination technique can be seen as a recursive application of a function that takes as input a problem $\Pi$ and outputs a problem $\Pi'$ that is one round easier than $\Pi$. Applying this function recursively to concrete problems of interest can be highly nontrivial, which is one of the reasons that has made the technique difficult to approach. The contribution of our paper is threefold. Firstly, we develop a new and fully automatic method for finding lower bounds of $\Omega(\log_\Delta n)$ and $\Omega(\log_\Delta \log n)$ rounds for deterministic and randomized algorithms, respectively, via round elimination. Secondly, we show that this automatic method is indeed useful, by obtaining lower bounds for defective coloring problems. We show that the problem of coloring the nodes of a graph with $3$ colors and defect at most $(\Delta - 3)/2$ requires $\Omega(\log_\Delta n)$ rounds for deterministic algorithms and $\Omega(\log_\Delta \log n)$ rounds for randomized ones. We note that lower bounds for coloring problems are notoriously challenging to obtain, both in general, and via the round elimination technique. Both the first and (indirectly) the second contribution build on our third contribution -- a new and conceptually simple way to compute the one-round easier problem $\Pi'$ in the round elimination framework. This new procedure provides a clear and easy recipe for applying round elimination, thereby making a substantial step towards the greater goal of having a fully automatic procedure for obtaining lower bounds in the distributed setting.

To further improve Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs), a profound understanding of complex battery processes is crucial. Physical models offer understanding but are difficult to validate and parameterize. Therefore, automated machine-learning methods (ML) are necessary to evaluate models with experimental data. Bayesian methods, e.g., Bayesian optimization for likelihood-free inference (EP-BOLFI), stand out as they capture uncertainties in models and data while granting meaningful parameterization. An important topic is prolonging battery lifetime, which is limited by degradation, such as the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth. As a case study, we apply EP-BOLFI to parametrize SEI growth models with synthetic and real degradation data. EP-BOLFI allows for incorporating human expertise in the form of suitable feature selection, which improves the parametrization. We show that even under impeded conditions, we achieve correct parameterization with reasonable uncertainty quantification, needing less computational effort than standard Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Additionally, the physically reliable summary statistics show if parameters are strongly correlated and not unambiguously identifiable. Further, we investigate Bayesian alternately subsampled quadrature (BASQ), which calculates model probabilities, to confirm electron diffusion as the best theoretical model to describe SEI growth during battery storage.

Effective models to describe the dynamics of an open cavity have been extensively discussed in the literature. In many of these models the cavity leakage to the outside is treated as a loss introduced phenomenologically. In contrast to these, we focus here on characterizing the outgoing photon using a novel approach where the outside is treated as part of the system. In such a global system, in order to separately characterize the photon inside and outside cavity, we demonstrate a first-principle derivation of a coherent cavity-reservoir coupling function for cavities with mirrors consisting of a stack of dielectric layers. In particular, we show that due to the effects induced by the multilayer nature of the cavity mirror, even in the standardly defined high-finesse cavity regime, the cavity-reservoir system description might differ from the one where the structure of the mirror is neglected. Based on this, we define a generalized cavity response function and a cavity-reservoir coupling function, which account for the longitudinal geometric structure of the cavity mirror. This allows us to define an effective reflectivity for the cavity with a multilayer mirror as if it was sitting in a well-defined effective mirror plane. We estimate the error of such a definition by considering cavities of different lengths and mirror structures. Finally, we apply this model to characterize the dynamics of a single photon produced in such a cavity and propagating outside.

If Com is the reduced commutative operad, the category of Com-algebras in spectra is the category of nounital commutative ring spectra. The theme of this survey is that many important constructions on Com-algebras are given by taking the derived circle product with well chosen right Com-modules. Examples of constructions arising this way include the tensor product of a based space K with such an algebra I, and TQ(I), the Topological Andre-Quillen homology spectrum of I. We then show how filtrations of right Com-modules can be used to filter such constructions. A natural decreasing filtration on right Com-modules, when specialized to the Com-bimodule Com, defines the augmentation ideal tower of I, built out of the extended powers of TQ(I). A natural increasing filtration on right Com-modules, when specialized to the right Com-module used to define TQ(I), defines a filtration on TQ(I) built out of I and the spaces in the Lie cooperad. There are two versions of this in the literature -- by the author and by Behrens and Rezk -- and our setting here makes it easy to prove that these agree. Much of this applies with Com replaced by a more general reduced operad, and we make a few remarks about this., Comment: 18 pages

Follow-The-Regularized-Leader (FTRL) algorithms often enjoy optimal regret for adversarial as well as stochastic bandit problems and allow for a streamlined analysis. Nonetheless, FTRL algorithms require the solution of an optimization problem in every iteration and are thus computationally challenging. In contrast, Follow-The-Perturbed-Leader (FTPL) algorithms achieve computational efficiency by perturbing the estimates of the rewards of the arms, but their regret analysis is cumbersome. We propose a new FTPL algorithm that generates optimal policies for both adversarial and stochastic multi-armed bandits. Like FTRL, our algorithm admits a unified regret analysis, and similar to FTPL, it offers low computational costs. Unlike existing FTPL algorithms that rely on independent additive disturbances governed by a \textit{known} distribution, we allow for disturbances governed by an \textit{ambiguous} distribution that is only known to belong to a given set and propose a principle of optimism in the face of ambiguity. Consequently, our framework generalizes existing FTPL algorithms. It also encapsulates a broad range of FTRL methods as special cases, including several optimal ones, which appears to be impossible with current FTPL methods. Finally, we use techniques from discrete choice theory to devise an efficient bisection algorithm for computing the optimistic arm sampling probabilities. This algorithm is up to $10^4$ times faster than standard FTRL algorithms that solve an optimization problem in every iteration. Our results not only settle existing conjectures but also provide new insights into the impact of perturbations by mapping FTRL to FTPL.

In quantum physics (QP) education, the use of representations such as diagrams and visual aids that connect to mathematical concepts is crucial. Research in representation theory indicates that combining symbolic-mathematical elements (e.g. formulae) with visual-graphical representations enhances conceptual understanding more effectively than representations that merely depict phenomena. However, common representations vary widely, and existing categorisation systems do not adequately distinguish between them in QP. To address this, we developed a new set of differentiation criteria based on insights from representation research, QP education, and specific aspects of the quantum sciences. We created a comprehensive category system for evaluating visual QP representations for educational use, grounded in Ainsworths (2006) DeFT Framework. Twenty-one experts from four countries evaluated this category system using four qubit representations: the Bloch sphere, Circle Notation, Quantum Bead, and the pie chart (Qake) model. This evaluation enabled us to assess the discriminative power of our criteria and the effectiveness of each representation in supporting the learning of QP concepts. It evaluated how well each representation conveyed quantum concepts such as quantum state, measurement, superposition, entanglement, and quantum technologies (X-, Z-, and H-gates) across 16 criteria. The results showed significant differences in the effectiveness of these representations, particularly in conveying key concepts like superposition and measurement. Additionally, expert ratings indicated notable variations in the potential of each representation to induce misconceptions, linked to differences in shape, measurement behaviour, and requirements for understanding entanglement. We also discuss considerations for developing new representations and suggest directions for future empirical studies.

In a previous paper, one of us interpreted mod 2 Dyer-Lashof operations as explicit A-module extensions between Brown-Gitler modules, and showed these A-modules can be topologically realized by finite spectra occurring as fibers of maps between 2-local dual Brown-Gitler spectra. Starting from these constructions, in this paper, we show that infinite families of these finite spectra are of chromatic type 2, with mod 2 cohomology that is free over A(1). Applications include classifying the dual Brown-Gitler spectra after localization with respect to K-theory., Comment: 26 pages. v2: minor revisions, with a much improved formulation of the main theorem

The spin structure functions of the proton and the deuteron were measured during the EG4 experiment at Jefferson Lab in 2006. Data were collected for longitudinally polarized electron scattering off longitudinally polarized NH$_3$ and ND$_3$ targets, for $Q^2$ values as small as 0.012 and 0.02 GeV$^2$, respectively, using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS). This is the archival paper of the EG4 experiment that summaries the previously reported results of the polarized structure functions $g_1$, $A_1F_1$, and their moments $\overline \Gamma_1$, $\overline \gamma_0$, and $\overline I_{TT}$, for both the proton and the deuteron. In addition, we report on new results on the neutron $g_1$ extracted by combining proton and deuteron data and correcting for Fermi smearing, and on the neutron moments $\overline \Gamma_1$, $\overline \gamma_0$, and $\overline I_{TT}$ formed directly from those of the proton and the deuteron. Our data are in good agreement with the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule for the proton, deuteron, and neutron. Furthermore, the isovector combination was formed for $g_1$ and the Bjorken integral $\overline \Gamma_1^{p-n}$, and compared to available theoretical predictions. All of our results provide for the first time extensive tests of spin observable predictions from chiral effective field theory ($\chi$EFT) in a $Q^2$ range commensurate with the pion mass. They motivate further improvement in $\chi$EFT calculations from other approaches such as the lattice gauge method., Comment: 33 pages. 26 figures. Data table provided as supplementary material (30 pages latex and csv tables)

Traditional Semantic Table Interpretation (STI) methods rely primarily on the underlying table data to create semantic annotations. This year's SemTab challenge introduced the ``Metadata to KG'' track, which focuses on performing STI by using only metadata information, without access to the underlying data. In response to this new challenge, we introduce a new term: Column Vocabulary Association (CVA). This term refers to the task of semantic annotation of column headers solely based on metadata information. In this study, we evaluate the performance of various methods in executing the CVA task, including a Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) approach, as well as a more traditional similarity approach with SemanticBERT. Our methodology uses a zero-shot setting, with no pretraining or examples passed to the Large Language Models (LLMs), as we aim to avoid a domain-specific setting. We investigate a total of 7 different LLMs, of which three commercial GPT models (i.e. gpt-3.5-turbo-0.125, gpt-4o and gpt-4-turbo) and four open source models (i.e. llama3-80b, llama3-7b, gemma-7b and mixtral-8x7b). We integrate this models with RAG systems, and we explore how variations in temperature settings affect performances. Moreover, we continue our investigation by performing the CVA task utilizing SemanticBERT, analyzing how various metadata information influence its performance. Initial findings indicate that LLMs generally perform well at temperatures below 1.0, achieving an accuracy of 100\% in certain cases. Nevertheless, our investigation also reveal that the nature of the data significantly influences CVA task outcomes. In fact, in cases where the input data and glossary are related (for example by being created by the same organizations) traditional methods appear to surpass the performance of LLMs.

We present the first homogeneous release of several thousand Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), all having spectroscopic classification, and spectroscopic redshifts for half the sample. This release, named the "DR2", contains 3628 nearby (z < 0.3) SNe Ia discovered, followed and classified by the Zwicky Transient Facility survey between March 2018 and December 2020. Of these, 3000 have good-to-excellent sampling and 2667 pass standard cosmology light-curve quality cuts. This release is thus the largest SN Ia release to date, increasing by an order of magnitude the number of well characterized low-redshift objects. With the "DR2", we also provide a volume-limited (z < 0.06) sample of nearly a thousand SNe Ia. With such a large, homogeneous and well controlled dataset, we are studying key current questions on SN cosmology, such as the linearity SNe Ia standardization, the SN and host dependencies, the diversity of the SN Ia population, and the accuracy of the current light-curve modeling. These, and more, are studied in detail in a series of articles associated with this release. Alongside the SN Ia parameters, we publish our force-photometry gri-band light curves, 5138 spectra, local and global host properties, observing logs, and a python tool to ease use and access of these data. The photometric accuracy of the "DR2" is not yet suited for cosmological parameter inference, which will follow as "DR2.5" release. We nonetheless demonstrate that the multi-thousand SN Ia Hubble Diagram has a typical 0.15 mag scatter., Comment: ZTF SN Ia DR2 release paper. Accepted for publication (Astronomy and Astrophysics). Reference paper for the ZTF SN Ia DR2 A&A Special Issue

The extraction of keypoints in images is at the basis of many computer vision applications, from localization to 3D reconstruction. Keypoints come with a score permitting to rank them according to their quality. While learned keypoints often exhibit better properties than handcrafted ones, their scores are not easily interpretable, making it virtually impossible to compare the quality of individual keypoints across methods. We propose a framework that can refine, and at the same time characterize with an interpretable score, the keypoints extracted by any method. Our approach leverages a modified robust Gaussian Mixture Model fit designed to both reject non-robust keypoints and refine the remaining ones. Our score comprises two components: one relates to the probability of extracting the same keypoint in an image captured from another viewpoint, the other relates to the localization accuracy of the keypoint. These two interpretable components permit a comparison of individual keypoints extracted across different methods. Through extensive experiments we demonstrate that, when applied to popular keypoint detectors, our framework consistently improves the repeatability of keypoints as well as their performance in homography and two/multiple-view pose recovery tasks., Comment: Accepted at ECCV 2024

For d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people, captioning is an essential accessibility tool. Significant developments in artificial intelligence (AI) mean that Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is now a part of many popular applications. This makes creating captions easy and broadly available - but transcription needs high levels of accuracy to be accessible. Scientific publications and industry report very low error rates, claiming AI has reached human parity or even outperforms manual transcription. At the same time the DHH community reports serious issues with the accuracy and reliability of ASR. There seems to be a mismatch between technical innovations and the real-life experience for people who depend on transcription. Independent and comprehensive data is needed to capture the state of ASR. We measured the performance of eleven common ASR services with recordings of Higher Education lectures. We evaluated the influence of technical conditions like streaming, the use of vocabularies, and differences between languages. Our results show that accuracy ranges widely between vendors and for the individual audio samples. We also measured a significant lower quality for streaming ASR, which is used for live events. Our study shows that despite the recent improvements of ASR, common services lack reliability in accuracy.

The Word Error Rate (WER) is the common measure of accuracy for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). Transcripts are usually pre-processed by substituting specific characters to account for non-semantic differences. As a result of this normalisation, information on the accuracy of punctuation or capitalisation is lost. We present a non-destructive, token-based approach using an extended Levenshtein distance algorithm to compute a robust WER and additional orthographic metrics. Transcription errors are also classified more granularly by existing string similarity and phonetic algorithms. An evaluation on several datasets demonstrates the practical equivalence of our approach compared to common WER computations. We also provide an exemplary analysis of derived use cases, such as a punctuation error rate, and a web application for interactive use and visualisation of our implementation. The code is available open-source., Comment: Accepted in INTERSPEECH 2024

Computing ratios of normalizing constants plays an important role in statistical modeling. Two important examples are hypothesis testing in latent variables models, and model comparison in Bayesian statistics. In both examples, the likelihood ratio and the Bayes factor are defined as the ratio of the normalizing constants of posterior distributions. We propose in this article a novel methodology that estimates this ratio using stochastic approximation principle. Our estimator is consistent and asymptotically Gaussian. Its asymptotic variance is smaller than the one of the popular optimal bridge sampling estimator. Furthermore, it is much more robust to little overlap between the two unnormalized distributions considered. Thanks to its online definition, our procedure can be integrated in an estimation process in latent variables model, and therefore reduce the computational effort. The performances of the estimator are illustrated through a simulation study and compared to two other estimators : the ratio importance sampling and the optimal bridge sampling estimators.

In this study, we present an innovative fusion of language models and query analysis techniques to unlock cognition in artificial intelligence. The introduced open-source AI system seamlessly integrates a Chess engine with a language model, enabling it to predict moves and provide strategic explanations. Leveraging a vector database to achieve retrievable answer generation, our AI system elucidates its decision-making process, bridging the gap between raw computation and human-like understanding. Our choice of Chess as the demonstration environment underscores the versatility of our approach. Beyond Chess, our system holds promise for diverse applications, from medical diagnostics to financial forecasting. Our AI system is available at https://github.com/TheOpenSI/CoSMIC.git, Comment: This paper is accepted to Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2024

We present a resonant-mode, transverse-field, radio-frequency (rf) neutron spin flipper design that uses high-temperature superconducting films to ensure sharp transitions between uniform magnetic field regions. Resonant mode allows for low power, high frequency operation but requires strict homogeneity of the magnetic fields inside the device. This design was found to efficiently flip neutrons at 96.6$\pm 0.6\%$ at an effective frequency of 4 MHz with a beam size of $2.5~\times~2.5$~cm and a wavelength of 0.4 nm. The high frequency and efficiency enable this device to perform high-resolution neutron spectroscopy with comparable performance to currently implemented rf flipper designs. The limitation of the maximum frequency was found due to the field homogeneity of the device. We numerically analyze the maximum possible efficiency of this design using a Bloch solver simulation with magnetic fields generated from finite-element simulations. We also discuss future improvements of the efficiency and frequency to the design based on the experimental and simulation results.

Silicon presents itself as a high-capacity anode material for lithium-ion batteries with a promising future. The high ability for lithiation comes along with massive volume changes and a problematic voltage hysteresis, causing reduced efficiency, detrimental heat generation, and a complicated state-of-charge estimation. During slow cycling, amorphous silicon nanoparticles show a larger voltage hysteresis than after relaxation periods. Interestingly, the voltage relaxes for at least several days, which has not been physically explained so far. We apply a chemo-mechanical continuum model in a core-shell geometry interpreted as a silicon particle covered by the solid-electrolyte interphase to account for the hysteresis phenomena. The silicon core (de)lithiates during every cycle while the covering shell is chemically inactive. The visco-elastoplastic behavior of the shell explains the voltage hysteresis during cycling and after relaxation. We identify a logarithmic voltage relaxation, which fits with the established Garofalo law for viscosity. Our chemo-mechanical model describes the observed voltage hysteresis phenomena and outperforms the empirical Plett model. In addition to our full model, we present a reduced model to allow for easy voltage profile estimations. The presented results support the mechanical explanation of the silicon voltage hysteresis with a core-shell model and encourage further efforts into the investigation of the silicon anode mechanics.

We study decision problems under uncertainty, where the decision-maker has access to $K$ data sources that carry {\em biased} information about the underlying risk factors. The biases are measured by the mismatch between the risk factor distribution and the $K$ data-generating distributions with respect to an optimal transport (OT) distance. In this situation the decision-maker can exploit the information contained in the biased samples by solving a distributionally robust optimization (DRO) problem, where the ambiguity set is defined as the intersection of $K$ OT neighborhoods, each of which is centered at the empirical distribution on the samples generated by a biased data source. We show that if the decision-maker has a prior belief about the biases, then the out-of-sample performance of the DRO solution can improve with $K$ -- irrespective of the magnitude of the biases. We also show that, under standard convexity assumptions, the proposed DRO problem is computationally tractable if either $K$ or the dimension of the risk factors is kept constant.

Accurate segmentation of prostate tumours from PET images presents a formidable challenge in medical image analysis. Despite considerable work and improvement in delineating organs from CT and MR modalities, the existing standards do not transfer well and produce quality results in PET related tasks. Particularly, contemporary methods fail to accurately consider the intensity-based scaling applied by the physicians during manual annotation of tumour contours. In this paper, we observe that the prostate-localised uptake threshold ranges are beneficial for suppressing outliers. Therefore, we utilize the intensity threshold values, to implement a new custom-feature-clipping normalisation technique. We evaluate multiple, established U-Net variants under different normalisation schemes, using the nnU-Net framework. All models were trained and tested on multiple datasets, obtained with two radioactive tracers: [68-Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 and [18-F]PSMA-1007. Our results show that the U-Net models achieve much better performance when the PET scans are preprocessed with our novel clipping technique.

The Large Binocular Telescope, with its expansive collecting area, angular resolving power, and advanced optical design, provides a robust platform for development and operation of advanced instrumentation for astronomical research. The LBT currently hosts a mature suite of instruments for spectroscopy and imaging at optical through mid-infrared wavelengths, supported by sophisticated adaptive optics systems. This contribution summarizes the current state of instrumentation, including upgrades to existing instruments and commissioning of second generation instruments now in progress. The LBT is soliciting proposals for next generation instrument concepts, with participation open to consortium members and others interested in participation in the Observatory., Comment: 6 pages, Proc. SPIE 13096-4, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X, Yokohama 2024