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The Space Telescope Imaging Product Simulator (STIPS) is a Python-based package that can be used to simulate scenes from the upcoming \textit{Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope} (\nancy). STIPS is able to generate post-pipeline astronomical images of any number of sensor chip assembly (SCA) detectors, up to the entire 18-SCA Wide-Field Instrument array on \nancy. STIPS can inject either point spread functions generated with {\tt WebbPSF}, or extended sources in any of the \nancy filters. The output images can include flat field, dark current, and cosmic ray residuals. Additionally, STIPS includes an estimate of Poisson and readout noise, as well as an estimate of the zodiacal background and internal background from the telescope. However, STIPS does not include instrument saturation, non-linearity, or distortion effects. STIPS is provided as an open source repository on GitHub., Comment: Accepted to PASP. 10 pages, 11 figures

We have been developing a novel interferometer formed directly between a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio telescope and a Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) antenna/receiver. This interferometer is enabled by the High Rate Tracking Receiver (HRTR), a high-performance GNSS software-defined receiver that records baseband data similar to a VLBI receiving system. Of particular interest is the potential of the technique to produce precise local tie vectors directly between the geodetic reference points of VLBI and GNSS antennas for use in the determination of combination terrestrial reference frames. In this paper, we will describe the unique setup of this interferometer before discussing current developmental work in estimating local tie vectors from experimental data collected using this technique. In particular, much recent work has been in exploring the possibility of direct comparison of the GNSS and VLBI processing techniques. A significant advantage of GNSS-VLBI co-observation of GNSS satellites comes from the ability to cross-check position and clock estimates derived from differential measurements in VLBI-style processing with differential GNSS processing and absolute GNSS positioning with Precise Point Positioning (PPP). We show a preliminary VLBI analysis of interferometric data including a differential positioning solution using phase delays., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. International VLBI Service 2024 General Meeting Proceedings

The EdResearch for "Action Overview Series" summarizes the research on key topics to provide K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students. Authors -- leading experts from across the field of education research -- are charged with highlighting key findings from research that provide concrete, strategic insight on persistent challenges sourced from district and state leaders. The central question to this brief is: What evidence-based practices can schools and districts implement to identify and support students experiencing homelessness? Students experiencing homelessness tend to have lower attendance and academic achievement than similar low-income students, and academic outcomes vary widely based on residential context. Training school staff on students' legal and educational rights and signs of homelessness is crucial to identifying and supporting students experiencing homelessness and is required by McKinney-Vento. Regular communication with student-identified trusted adults allows schools to tailor practices to meet individual student needs and improve outcomes. The brief provides evidence-based practices and practices to avoid. [The University of Kentucky, Utah State University, and Simmons School of Education and Human Development are additional collaborators for this report.]

Through exposing items to users, implicit feedback recommender systems influence the logged interactions, and, ultimately, their own recommendations. This effect is called exposure bias and it can lead to issues such as filter bubbles and echo chambers. Previous research employed the multinomial logit model (MNL) with exposure information to reduce exposure bias on synthetic data. This extended abstract summarizes our previous study in which we investigated whether (i) these findings hold for human-generated choices, (ii) other discrete choice models mitigate bias better, and (iii) an item's estimated relevance can depend on the relevances of the other items that were presented with it. We collected a data set of biased and unbiased choices in a controlled online user study and measured the effects of overexposure and competition. We found that (i) the discrete choice models effectively mitigated exposure bias on human-generated choice data, (ii) there were no significant differences in robustness among the different discrete choice models, and (iii) only multivariate discrete choice models were robust to competition between items. We conclude that discrete choice models mitigate exposure bias effectively because they consider item-co-exposure. Moreover, exposing items alongside more or less popular items can bias future recommendations significantly and item exposure must be tracked for overcoming exposure bias. We consider our work vital for understanding what exposure bias it, how it forms, and how it can be mitigated., Comment: Accepted at the CONSEQUENCES '24 workshop, co-located with ACM RecSys '24

We present major progress towards the determination of the last missing piece for the pressure of a Yang-Mills plasma at high temperatures at order $g^6$ in the strong coupling constant. This order is of key importance due to its role in resolving the long-standing infrared problem of finite-temperature field theory within a dimensionally reduced effective field theory setup. By systematically applying linear transformations of integration variables, or momentum shifts, we resolve equivalences between different representations of Feynman sum-integrals. on the integrand level, transforming those into a canonical form. At the order $g^6$, this results in reducing a sum of O(100000) distinct sum-integrals which are produced from all four-loop vacuum diagrams down to merely 21. Furthermore, we succeed to map 11 of those onto known lower-loop structures. This leaves only 10 genuine 4-loop sum-integrals to be evaluated, thereby bringing the finalization of three decades of theoretical efforts within reach., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures; v2: some typos fixed, lower-loop results added

For each prime number $\ell$ and for each imaginary quadratic order of class number one or two, we determine all the possible $\ell$-adic Galois representations that occur for any elliptic curve with complex multiplication by such an order over its minimal field of definition, and then we determine all the isomorphism classes of elliptic curves that have a prescribed $\ell$-adic Galois representation., Comment: 38 pages; this version fixes some minor typos and includes a link in the introduction to a Github repository with code used in the paper

We report on recent progress on five-loop calculations in perturbative QCD. We discuss the computation of the perturbative quark condensate, decoupling in QCD, and the precision determination of charm and bottom quark masses. For the latter, we give some first results from a gauge-invariant subset of five-loop diagrams., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to proceedings of the Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory conference (LL2024)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation and impact of the Pack program. The Pack was developed by the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) and includes a digital game and set of curricular and professional development resources that aim to support computational thinking teaching and learning in middle school science and computer science classrooms. The evaluation of the Pack was funded with an Education Innovation and Research grant from the U.S. Department of Education and was carried out by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) during the 2022-23 school year in New York City middle schools. AIR examined the Pack intervention's classroom implementation by teachers and their Grade 6-8 students as well as outcomes related to students' computational thinking skills and their attitudes toward problem solving. Overall, the study yielded promising results about the feasibility and utility of implementing the Pack in middle school science and computer science classrooms. Based on teacher survey and interview responses, teachers reported that NYSCI's professional development was helpful to their teaching and reported that the Pack digital game and lessons were valuable for computational thinking teaching and learning. Using teacher survey and extant data, AIR found that teachers were able to implement the Pack program components with fidelity. To measure the relationship between students' use of the Pack and outcomes related to students' attitudes toward problem solving and computational thinking skills, AIR administered a pre- and posttest survey of student problem solving attitudes and a computational thinking knowledge assessment. AIR found that there were no significant associations between students' use of the Pack and their beliefs about their ability to apply their problem-solving skills to new situations or their beliefs about problem-solving ability as a fixed trait. Similarly, there were no significant associations between teachers' or students' reported use of the Pack and students' scores on a computational thinking assessment. There were also no significant associations between students' reported participation in computational thinking while using the Pack and their scores on a computational thinking assessment.