Search

The landscape of educational research necessitates sophisticated approaches to scholarly communication, demanding researchers to adeptly navigate diverse methodological traditions. This article provides systematic guidelines for academic writing that transcend methodological boundaries, offering practical strategies for crafting clear, ethical, and impactful scholarly work. Emphasizing the importance of structure, style, and scholarly conventions, the article addresses the complexities of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research. Key guidelines include adherence to ethical standards, clarity and conciseness in communication, and proper citation practices to maintain academic integrity. The article also offers insights into adapting dissertations and theses into journal articles, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for early-career researchers. As educational research evolves, the need for effective academic writing remains paramount, ensuring that valuable insights are shared and built upon within the scholarly community. By fostering excellence in academic writing, researchers can significantly contribute to the advancement of educational theory and practice.

The global status of English as a lingua franca necessitates effective English language teaching (TEFL) to meet the demands of the global economy and social development. This article explores key principles for effective TEFL, grounded in a sophisticated theoretical framework that integrates cognitive, sociocultural, and constructivist perspectives. It emphasizes the importance of understanding learner needs, focusing on meaningful communication, and implementing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). Differentiated instruction and technology integration are highlighted as essential strategies to cater to diverse learner profiles and enhance engagement. The article also underscores the significance of cultural awareness in language instruction, advocating for the inclusion of cultural elements to prepare students for real-world interactions. Effective assessment practices, combining formative and summative approaches, are crucial for monitoring progress and informing instruction. Continuous professional development (CPD) is emphasized as vital for teachers to remain current and effective, involving action research, participation in professional learning communities, and reflective teaching practices. By adhering to these principles, educators can create dynamic and inclusive classrooms that promote successful language acquisition.

Dr Mahmoud M. S. Abdallah's article, "The New Territory of Educational Research in TESOL/TEFL: What Novice Researchers Should Know", provides a comprehensive guide for novice researchers in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). It emphasises the importance of research in enhancing teaching practices, informing educational policies, and understanding second language acquisition (SLA). It defines research as a systematic, cyclical process aimed at discovering new knowledge or validating existing knowledge. The article explores various research approaches, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and action research. Qualitative research is highlighted for its ability to explore human experiences through methods like ethnography, case studies, and discourse analysis. Quantitative research is presented for testing hypotheses and generalising findings through experimental, quasi-experimental, and survey research. Mixed methods research combines both approaches for a holistic understanding, while action research empowers teachers to become researchers in their own classrooms. The article introduces essential research terminologies, such as variables, hypotheses, data, reliability, validity, and generalisability. It outlines the research process, from identifying a problem to writing the report, emphasising the importance of thorough literature reviews, clear research questions, appropriate research designs, data collection and analysis, and findings interpretation. The article encourages TESOL/TEFL educators to embrace research as part of their professional identity, becoming informed consumers and producers of knowledge. It provides criteria for selecting research topics, including relevance, originality, feasibility, personal interest, potential impact, alignment with current educational contexts, and interdisciplinary potential. In conclusion, the article equips novice researchers with the knowledge and tools necessary to engage in rigorous and impactful research, contributing to the continuous improvement of language education.

The literature review is a pivotal component in educational research studies, serving as a bridge between existing knowledge and the research being undertaken. This article examines the multifaceted role and function of the literature review from a pragmatic perspective, highlighting its significance in advancing knowledge and informing educational practice. A comprehensive literature review establishes the research territory by situating the study within a broader intellectual context, demonstrating the researcher's command of the field, and illuminating the path for their own investigation. It justifies the research undertaking by identifying gaps, inconsistencies, or unanswered questions in the existing literature, thereby establishing the rationale for the study. Moreover, the literature review shapes the research problem and questions by critically evaluating previous studies and refining research focus. It informs methodological choices by showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of different research designs and analytical approaches. Even after data collection and analysis, the literature review provides a framework for interpreting the study's findings, placing them in dialogue with existing knowledge. By embracing a pragmatic lens, researchers can harness the power of the literature review to produce impactful and relevant research that contributes to both theoretical understanding and practical application in educational contexts. The article concludes by emphasizing the dynamic and essential nature of the literature review, which evolves throughout the research process and enhances the relevance, rigour, and potential impact of the study on educational practice and policy.

This article explores the concept of the post-methods era in language teaching, which advocates for moving beyond rigid, prescriptive methodologies. The author argues that no single method can address the diverse needs of all learners and contexts. Instead, teachers should adopt an eclectic and context-sensitive approach, drawing on a range of methods to suit specific situations. Key characteristics of this era include a focus on the learner, the importance of context, authenticity in language use, and the teacher as a reflective practitioner. The article highlights the limitations of traditional methods and the influence of sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics in shaping modern language teaching. Practical implications for teachers include informed eclecticism, needs analysis, materials development, action research, and continuous professional development. While the post-methods approach offers flexibility and adaptability, it also presents challenges, particularly for novice teachers and in systems reliant on traditional methods. The article concludes that ongoing research and dialogue are essential for refining effective language teaching practices in this era.

The pivotal role of Algebra in the educational trajectories of U.S. students continues to motivate controversial, high-profile policies focused on when students access the course, their classroom peers, and how the course is taught. This random-assignment partnership study examines an innovative district-level reform--the Algebra I Initiative--that placed 9th-grade students with prior math scores well below grade level into Algebra I classes coupled with teacher training instead of a remedial pre-Algebra class. We find that this reform significantly increased grade-11 math achievement (ES = 0.2 SD) without lowering the achievement of classroom peers eligible for conventional Algebra I classes. This initiative also increased attendance, district retention, and overall math credits. These results suggest that higher expectations for the lowest-performing students coupled with aligned teacher supports is a promising model for realizing students' mathematical potential. [The Stanford Sequoia K-12 Research Collaborative provided support for this paper.]

The field of English Language Teaching (ELT) and Learning is constantly evolving, influenced by advancements in educational theory, technology, and global trends. This article aims to explore several key issues and concepts in ELT, focusing on modern approaches and challenges faced by educators and learners alike. I will examine topics such as contextualised teaching and learning, functional linguistics, web-based new literacies and new literacy practices, situated language learning, lifelong learning, cognitive apprenticeship, online professional development, and the challenges specific to teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the Egyptian context.

This research study explores the potential of a pedagogical model of self-regulated learning supported with Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots to enhance self-expression and reflective writing skills for novice EFL student teachers at Faculty of Education, Assiut University. The study adopted a pre-post quasi-experimental design, that starts with the identification of the necessary self-expression and reflective writing skills for the target participants (50 fresh EFL student teachers at Assiut University who were purposively selected using a screening questionnaire based on their basic IT literacy skills). A pre-test was administered to assess their initial skill levels in self-expression and reflective writing. Then, an intervention was implemented in the form of a pedagogical model designed around the principles of self-regulated learning and situated language learning, which guided the use of AI chatbots (Bing, ChatGPT, and Google Bard). This model was initially piloted on a small sample (n = 10) of EFL student teachers to check validity and reliability and then experimented with the research participants for 8 weeks during the first semester of the academic year 2023/24. Following the intervention, a post-test was conducted to measure the participants' levels of self-expression and reflective writing skills after being exposed to the interventional model, aiming to identify any improvements gained from the intervention. The results indicated a positive effect with noticeable enhancements in the EFL student teachers' skills. This suggests the potential effectiveness of the model in fostering self-expression and reflective writing skills and developing EFL student teachers' general language proficiency and IT literacy. [This paper was published in "Academic Journal of Faculty of Education, Assiut University" v40 n9 p1-50 2024.]

This research was designed to develop and test a model of the Air Force manpower market. The study indicates that previous manpower supply studies failed to account for simultaneous determination of enlistments and retentions and misinterpreted regressions as supply equations. They are, instead, reduced form equations resulting from joint interaction of Air Force demand and enlistment supply activity. A stochastic process model is used to represent the Air Force manpower market. Variables determining manpower inventory levels, personnel turnover, and new enlistment flows are the mandated force level requirement, Air Force and civilian wages, the unemployment rate, and perceived civilian returns to Air Force-provided training. In the model it is possible to trace the impact of changes in the determining variables upon retention and enlistments. The empirical work supports the simultaneous demand and supply approach developed in the study. The results indicate that (1) changes in force level account for most enlistment rate changes during the all-volunteer force period, (2) higher Air Force wages have improved retention and reduce demand for new enlistments, (3) accessions show lower Air Force Qualifications Test scores, and (4) previous estimates of military manpower supply elasticities are biased downward from true elasticity. (Author/CSS)

The Partnership for College Completion (PCC) was founded to "advance equity in higher education" by supporting colleges and universities to improve college completion for Black, Latinx, and Pell-eligible students--those groups that experience persistent disparities in completion. Simultaneously, PCC engages in state policy reform to bring about systems-wide change. Begun in 2018, the Illinois Equity in Attainment Initiative (ILEA) is its flagship initiative, designed to partner with Illinois colleges and universities to assist them in narrowing their college completion gaps. Promising new research suggests improving equity in college completion requires an explicit focus on race, attention to organizational change, commitment to equity-focused policies and plans, and cross-institutional partnerships to help manifest change. Drawing from this research, ILEA and its partner institutions developed and implemented public-facing equity plans to improve graduation rates for their Black, Latinx, and Pell-eligible students. This study examines how the ILEA collaborative institutions confronted and negotiated structural barriers inhibiting graduation for these historically marginalized groups. The report aims to: (1) Provide study partners, including the Partnership for College Completion, with program feedback; (2) Inform readers about equity plan development and implementation, policy, and practice collaboratives; (3) Identify strengths and growth opportunities about PCC's efforts to bring colleges and universities together to jointly improve college completion for Black, Latinx, and Pell-eligible students; and (4) Reflect on implementation successes and challenges.

Although the use of social networks, especially Facebook, has become a common practice among educational communities in Egypt, studies have yet to explore the online practices of in-service (language) teachers as part of Continuing Professional Development (hereafter CPD). Therefore, this study investigated English language teachers' informal online professional development that may include some types of language learning for improving their pedagogical content knowledge. It also explored differences between teachers' perceived use of Facebook as a venue of CPD. This study employed a mixed-method design, collecting qualitative and quantitative data via content analysis and a questionnaire. The participants were 180 English-language Egyptian in-service teachers. The qualitative analysis of teacher's posts demonstrates that CPD informal groups, as maintained by Egyptian EFL teachers, display different aspects of professional knowledge. Results showed that the data yielded seven main categories: General Pedagogical Knowledge (PK), Content Knowledge (CK), L2 Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Knowledge of L2 Learners, Knowledge of Educational context and Knowledge of (professional) self and miscellaneous topics. Besides, ANOVA's Welch test indicated significant differences in the means of the sum scores of the questionnaire as well as two sub-domains (PK and CK) among primary, preparatory and secondary teachers in some aspects, such as pronunciation and vocabulary. This study concludes that CPD Facebook groups provide wide options and spaces for continuous learning and informal study for EFL teachers. Pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research were suggested. [This paper was published in "CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education" v87 2024.]

This report examines the evolving landscape of English language arts (ELA) curriculum and instructional support in Michigan elementary schools from the 2019-20 to the 2022-23 school years. Recognizing the pivotal role instruction plays in shaping students' literacy development, this report explores which curriculum resources teachers are using to provide ELA instruction and the infrastructure of support surrounding curriculum implementation. Relying on statewide survey data, we find that: (1) Districts made many changes to their ELA curriculum resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic but few due to the Read by Grade Three Law; (2) Variability remains a feature of Michigan's ELA curriculum resource landscape; (3) Elementary classroom teachers are more likely to use only one core curriculum resource than they were in 2019-20; (4) Elementary classroom teachers are more likely to supplement their core curriculum with additional writing, phonics, or spelling resources than they were in 2019-20; (5) More teachers are using curriculum resources that EdReports rates as "Meets Expectations" than they were in 2019-20, particularly in districts serving higher proportions of students from historically underserved populations; (6) The majority of the most-used core ELA curriculum resources are not rated by What Works Clearinghouse or Evidence for ESSA; and (7) Teachers reported increased access to curriculum-aligned professional development compared to 2019-20.

Students in the foster care system tend to have lower educational outcomes than their peers, including more frequent disciplinary events. However, few studies have explored how transitions into and out of foster care placements are associated with educational outcomes. Using longitudinal data from four California school districts, this study investigated the dynamics of entering versus exiting foster care to predict school discipline and how this relationship ultimately influences absenteeism. Our findings suggest that students in foster care are more likely than their peers to face disciplinary action, especially exclusionary discipline, particularly when entering foster care. We also find suggestive evidence that disciplinary actions upon entry increase student absenteeism for students in foster care.

The article presents a blended dialogic socio-constructivist pedagogy for language learning, emphasizing the importance of both individual and social aspects of learning. It argues that technology alone does not transform pedagogy; rather, it is the approach to technology that matters. The pedagogy combines personal freedom for reflection and individual assignments with social interactions like pair work and group discussions for collaborative knowledge construction. The progression from controlled, face-to-face activities to freer, online ones aids in consolidating new ideas and mastering language skills. The article supports its approach with literature on socio-constructivism, highlighting the synergy between individual constructivism and socio-culturalism. It draws on theories by Vygotsky and Piaget, advocating for a dialogic approach that extends learning beyond the classroom through web-mediated environments. This approach is particularly beneficial for English Language Learners (ELL), moving language learning from isolated mental functioning to real-world communication and fostering a participatory metaphor for language learning. The article concludes that blended learning, which combines web technologies with traditional pedagogies, is crucial for engaging learners in meaningful dialogue and practice.

School districts have historically operated summer programs to give students extra learning and enrichment opportunities to promote positive academic and behavioral outcomes. Despite the potential benefits and policymakers' endorsement of summer programming, recent research suggests that summer programs have a limited impact on post-pandemic academic recovery, with modest gains in math test scores and no impact in reading. This may be partly due to the challenges districts face in implementing academic recovery programs at the scale needed to impact student outcomes. This brief highlights the efficacy of summer programs for literacy, math and social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes, showing that well-designed summer programs can meaningfully boost student achievement. The report also provides recommendations for district leaders to use as a framework for planning and implementing effective summer programming.

West central Georgia has become a burgeoning center for advanced manufacturing and logistics. With facilities for global brands across automotive, agriculture, tech, and biotech industries, the region (which includes Carroll, Coweta, Douglas, Haralson, Heard, Meriwether, and Troup counties) has experienced a 100+ percent surge in job demand for manufacturing engineers, machine operators, and material assembly shift technicians alone. This case study explores a cross-sector response to upskilling and reskilling talent in the region through West Georgia Technical College's establishment of a Regional Workforce Training Center, which has fostered impactful employer partnerships to drive skill acquisition for entry-level talent and incumbent workforces, enhance workforce diversity, and meet the evolving needs of both businesses and the community at large.

This manuscript explores the argument for lower student-to-school counselor ratios in U.S. public education. Drawing upon a comprehensive historical review and existing research, we establish the integral role of school counselors and the notable benefits of reduced student-to-counselor ratios. Our analysis of national data exposes marked disparities across states and districts, with the most underfunded often serving higher percentages of low-income students and students of color. This situation raises significant ethical concerns, prompting a call for conscientious policy reform and targeted investment. Informed by emerging best practices, we propose recommendations for enhancing counselor staffing and ultimately student outcomes. This ethical argument underscores the need for proactive actions and provides a basis for future research to further delineate the impact of school counselor ratios on educational equity and student success.

Budget constraints and limited supplies of local tutors have caused many K-12 school districts to pivot from individual tutoring in-person toward small-group tutoring online to expand access to personalized instruction. We conduct a field experiment to explore the effect of increasing student-tutor ratios on middle school students' math achievement and growth during an online tutoring program. We leverage a novel feature of the program where tutors often taught individual and small-group tutoring sessions, allowing them to directly compare their experiences across these settings. Both experimental estimates and tutor survey responses suggest 1:1 tutoring is more effective than 3:1 tutoring online. Tutoring small groups in an online format presents additional challenges for personalizing instruction, developing relationships, fostering participation, and managing student behavior.

Many operations related optimization problems involve repeatedly solving similar mixed integer linear programming (MILP) instances with the same constraint matrix but differing objective coefficients and right-hand-side values. The goal of this paper is to generate good cutting-planes for such instances using historical data. Gomory mixed integer cuts (GMIC) for a general MILP can be parameterized by a vector of weights to aggregate the constraints into a single equality constraint, where each such equality constraint in turn yields a unique GMIC. In this paper, we prove that for a family of MILP instances, where the right-hand-side of the instances belongs to a lattice, the GMIC closure for every instance in this infinite family can be obtained using the same finite list of aggregation weights. This result motivates us to build a simple heuristic to efficiently select aggregations for generating GMICs from historical data of similar instances with varying right-hand-sides and objective function coefficients. For testing our method, we generated families of instances by perturbing the right-hand-side and objective functions of MIPLIB 2017 instances. The proposed heuristic can significantly accelerate the performance of Gurobi for many benchmark instances, even when taking into account the time required to predict aggregation multipliers and compute the cut coefficients. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work in the literature of data-driven cutting plane generation that is able to significantly accelerate the performance of a commercial state-of-the-art MILP solver, using default solver settings, on large-scale benchmark instances.

The interplay between atomic gas, the star-formation history of a galaxy and its environment are intrinsically linked, and we need to decouple these dependencies to understand their role in galaxy formation and evolution. In this paper, we analyse the star formation histories (SFHs) of 187 galaxies from the MIGHTEE-HI Survey Early Science Release data, focusing on the relationships between HI properties and star formation. A strong correlation emerges between a galaxy's HI-to-stellar mass ratio and the time of formation, alongside an inverse correlation between stellar mass and time of formation, regardless of the inferred SFH. Additionally, galaxies with lower stellar masses and higher HI-to-stellar mass ratios exhibit longer gas depletion times compared to more massive galaxies, which appear to have depleted their gas and formed stars more efficiently. This suggests that smaller, gas-rich galaxies have higher depletion times due to shallower potential wells and less efficient star formation. Furthermore, we explore the connection between spin-filament alignment and HI content. We find no significant correlation between peak star formation activity and proximity to filaments. However, we do find that the two galaxies in our sample within 1 Mpc of a filament have very low gas-depletion timescales and have their spin axis misaligned with the filament, suggestive of a link between the galaxy properties and proximity to a filament., Comment: submitted to MNRAS; 14 pages, 14 figures

TOI-396 is an F6V star ($V\approx6.4$) orbited by three transiting planets. The orbital periods of the two innermost planets are close to the 5:3 commensurability ($P_b \sim3.6$ d and $P_c \sim6.0$ d). To measure the masses of the three planets, refine their radii, and investigate whether planets b and c are in MMR, we carried out HARPS RV observations and retrieved photometric data from TESS. We extracted the RVs via a skew-normal fit onto the HARPS CCFs and performed an MCMC joint analysis of the Doppler measurements and transit photometry, while employing the breakpoint method to remove stellar activity from the RV time series. We also performed a thorough TTV dynamical analysis of the system. Our analysis confirms that the three planets have similar sizes: $R_b=2.004_{-0.047}^{+0.045}R_{\oplus}$; $R_c=1.979_{-0.051}^{+0.054}R_{\oplus}$; $R_d=2.001_{-0.064}^{+0.063}R_{\oplus}$. For the first time, we determine RV masses for TOI-396b and d: $M_b=3.55_{-0.96}^{+0.94}M_{\oplus}$ ($\rho_b=2.44_{-0.68}^{+0.69}$ g cm$^{-3}$) and $M_d=7.1\pm1.6M_{\oplus}$ ($\rho_d=4.9_{-1.1}^{+1.2}$ g cm$^{-3}$). Our results suggest a quite unusual system architecture, with the outermost planet being the densest. The Doppler reflex motion induced by TOI-396c remains undetected in our RV time series, likely due to the proximity of $P_c$ to the star's rotation period ($P_{\mathrm{rot}}=6.7\pm1.3$ d). We also discovered that TOI-396b and c display significant TTVs. While the TTV dynamical analysis returns a formally precise mass for TOI-396c ($M_{c,\mathrm{dyn}}=2.24^{+0.13}_{-0.67}M_{\oplus}$), the result might not be accurate owing to the poor sampling of the TTV phase. We also conclude that TOI-396b and c are close to-, but out of- the 5:3 MMR. Our numerical simulation suggests TTV semi-amplitudes of up to 5 hours over a temporal baseline of $\sim$5.2 years., Comment: 24 pages (6 in the Appendix), 15 Figures (2 in the Appendix), 10 Tables (5 in the Appendix). Accepted for publication in A&A

This paper presents the results of a joint radio and gamma-ray timing campaign on the nine millisecond pulsars (MSPs) discovered as part of the L-band targeted survey of Fermi-LAT sources performed in the context of the Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT (TRAPUM) Large Survey Project. Out of these pulsars, eight are members of binary systems; of these eight, two exhibit extended eclipses of the radio emission. Using an initial radio timing solution, pulsations were found in the gamma rays for six of the targets. For these sources, a joint timing analysis of radio times of arrival and gamma-ray photons was performed, using a newly developed code that optimises the parameters through a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique. This approach has allowed us to precisely measure both the short- and long-term timing parameters. This study includes a proper motion measurement for four pulsars, which a gamma ray-only analysis would not have been sensitive to, despite the 15-year span of Fermi data., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures

Evidence has emerged for a stochastic signal correlated among 67 pulsars within the 15-year pulsar-timing data set compiled by the NANOGrav collaboration. Similar signals have been found in data from the European, Indian, Parkes, and Chinese PTAs. This signal has been interpreted as indicative of the presence of a nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background. To explore the internal consistency of this result we investigate how the recovered signal strength changes as we remove the pulsars one by one from the data set. We calculate the signal strength using the (noise-marginalized) optimal statistic, a frequentist metric designed to measure correlated excess power in the residuals of the arrival times of the radio pulses. We identify several features emerging from this analysis that were initially unexpected. The significance of these features, however, can only be assessed by comparing the real data to synthetic data sets. After conducting identical analyses on simulated data sets, we do not find anything inconsistent with the presence of a stochastic gravitational wave background in the NANOGrav 15-year data. The methodologies developed here can offer additional tools for application to future, more sensitive data sets. While this analysis provides an internal consistency check of the NANOGrav results, it does not eliminate the necessity for additional investigations that could identify potential systematics or uncover unmodeled physical phenomena in the data., Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables

The uncertainty of the nature of the normal state and superconducting condensate of unconventional superconductors continues to stimulate considerable speculation about the mechanism of superconductivity in these materials. Of particular interest are the type of symmetry of the order parameter and the basic electronic characteristics of the superconducting and normal states. We report the derivation of temperature dependences of the superconducting condensate plasma frequency, superfluid density, and London penetration depth by measuring terahertz spectra of conductivity and dielectric permittivity of the Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Ni$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ thin films with different Ni concentrations. A comprehensive analysis of the experimental data was performed in the framework of the simple three-band Eliashberg model under the assumption that the superconducting coupling mechanism is mediated by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations. The results of independent experiments support the choice of model parameters. Based on calculations of the temperature dependences of superconducting gaps, we may conclude that the obtained results are compatible with the scenario, in which Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Ni$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ is a multiband superconductor with s$_\pm $-wave pairing symmetry., Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2006.00522

BabyIAXO is the intermediate stage of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO) to be hosted at DESY. Its primary goal is the detection of solar axions following the axion helioscope technique. Axions are converted into photons in a large magnet that is pointing to the sun. The resulting X-rays are focused by appropriate X-ray optics and detected by sensitive low-background detectors placed at the focal spot. The aim of this article is to provide an accurate quantitative description of the different components (such as the magnet, optics, and X-ray detectors) involved in the detection of axions. Our efforts have focused on developing robust and integrated software tools to model these helioscope components, enabling future assessments of modifications or upgrades to any part of the IAXO axion helioscope and evaluating the potential impact on the experiment's sensitivity. In this manuscript, we demonstrate the application of these tools by presenting a precise signal calculation and response analysis of BabyIAXO's sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling. Though focusing on the Primakoff solar flux component, our virtual helioscope model can be used to test different production mechanisms, allowing for direct comparisons within a unified framework., Comment: 36 pages, 18 figures, 4 tables, Submitted to JHEP

In this Technical Design Report (TDR) we describe the SABRE South detector to be built at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL). The SABRE South detector is designed to test the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA signal of an annually modulating rate consistent with dark matter by using the same target material. SABRE South uses seven ultra-high purity NaI(Tl) crystals (with a total target mass of either 35 kg or 50 kg), hermetically sealed in copper enclosures that are suspended within a liquid scintillator active veto. High quantum efficiency and low background Hamamatsu R11065 photomultiplier tubes are directly coupled to both ends of the crystal, and enclosed with the crystal in an oxygen free high thermal conductivity copper enclosure. The active veto system consists of 11.6 kL of linear alkylbenzene (LAB) doped with a mixture of fluorophores and contained in a steel vessel, which is instrumented with at least 18 Hamamatsu R5912 photomultipliers. The active veto tags key radiogenic backgrounds intrinsic to the crystals, such as ${^{40}}$K, and is expected to suppress the total background by 27% in the 1-6 keV region of interest. In addition to the liquid scintillator veto, a muon veto is positioned above the detector shielding. This muon veto consists of eight EJ-200 scintillator modules, with Hamamatsu R13089 photomultipliers coupled to both ends. With an expected total background of 0.72 cpd/kg/keV, SABRE South can test the DAMA/LIBRA signal with 5$\sigma$ discovery or 3$\sigma$ exclusion after two years of data taking.

The resource overhead required to achieve net computational benefits from quantum error correction (QEC) limits its utility while current systems remain constrained in size, despite exceptional progress in experimental demonstrations. In this paper, we demonstrate that the strategic application of QEC primitives without logical encoding can yield significant advantages on superconducting processors--relative to any alternative error-reduction strategy--while only requiring modest overhead. We first present a novel protocol for implementing long-range CNOT gates that relies on a unitarily-prepared Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state as well as a unitary disentangling step; the protocol natively introduces an error-detection process using the disentangled qubits as flags. We demonstrate that it achieves state-of-the-art gate fidelities of over 85% across up to 40 lattice sites, significantly and consistently outperforming the best alternative measurement-based protocol without introducing any additional ancilla qubits. We then apply sparse stabilizer measurements to generate large GHZ states by detecting bit-flip and amplitude-damping errors. Employing this technique in combination with deterministic error suppression, we generate a 75-qubit GHZ state exhibiting genuine multipartite entanglement, the largest reported to date. The generation requires no more than 9 ancilla qubits and the fraction of samples discarded due to errors grows no higher than 78%, far lower than previous discard fractions required for tests using comparable numbers of fully encoded qubits. This work in total represents compelling evidence that adopting QEC primitives on current-generation devices can deliver substantial net benefits., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures (main text) + 9 pages, 10 figures (supplementary)

On May 24th, 2023, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), joined by the Advanced Virgo and KAGRA detectors, began the fourth observing run for a two-year-long dedicated search for gravitational waves. The LIGO Hanford and Livingston detectors have achieved an unprecedented sensitivity to gravitational waves, with an angle-averaged median range to binary neutron star mergers of 152 Mpc and 160 Mpc, and duty cycles of 65.0% and 71.2%, respectively, with a coincident duty cycle of 52.6%. The maximum range achieved by the LIGO Hanford detector is 165 Mpc and the LIGO Livingston detector 177 Mpc, both achieved during the second part of the fourth observing run. For the fourth run, the quantum-limited sensitivity of the detectors was increased significantly due to the higher intracavity power from laser system upgrades and replacement of core optics, and from the addition of a 300 m filter cavity to provide the squeezed light with a frequency-dependent squeezing angle, part of the A+ upgrade program. Altogether, the A+ upgrades led to reduced detector-wide losses for the squeezed vacuum states of light which, alongside the filter cavity, enabled broadband quantum noise reduction of up to 5.2 dB at the Hanford observatory and 6.1 dB at the Livingston observatory. Improvements to sensors and actuators as well as significant controls commissioning increased low frequency sensitivity. This paper details these instrumental upgrades, analyzes the noise sources that limit detector sensitivity, and describes the commissioning challenges of the fourth observing run., Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures

Deuterium fractionation is a well-established evolutionary tracer in low-mass star formation, but its applicability to the high-mass regime remains an open question. The abundances and ratios of deuterated species have often been proposed as reliable evolutionary indicators for different stages of the high-mass star formation. We investigate the role of N$_2$H$^+$ and key deuterated molecules as tracers of the different stages of the high-mass star formation, and test whether their abundance ratios can serve as reliable evolutionary indicators. We conducted APEX observations of o-H$_2$D$^+$ (1$_{10}$-1$_{11}$), N$_2$H$^+$ (4-3), and N$_2$d$^+$ (3-2) in 40 high-mass clumps at different evolutionary stages, selected from the ATLASGAL survey. Molecular column densities ($N$) and abundances ($X$), were derived through spectral line modelling, both under local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and non-LTE conditions. The $N$(o-H$_2$D$^+$) show the smallest deviation from LTE results when derived under non-LTE assumptions. In contrast, N$_2$D$^+$ shows the largest discrepancy between the $N$ derived from LTE and non-LTE. In all the cases discussed, we found that $X$(o-H$_2$D$^+$) decreases more significantly with time than in the case of $X$(N$_2$D$^+$); whereas $X$(N$_2$H$^+$) increases slightly. Therefore, the validity of the recently proposed $X$(o-H$_2$D$^+$)/$X$(N$_2$D$^+$) ratio as a reliable evolutionary indicator was not observed for this sample. While the deuteration fraction derived from N$_2$D$^+$ and N$_2$H$^+$ clearly decreases with clump evolution, the interpretation of this trend is complex, given the different distribution of the two tracers. Our results suggest that a careful consideration of the observational biases and beam-dilution effects are crucial for an accurate interpretation of the evolution of the deuteration process during the high-mass star formation process., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A

We analyze 99 photometrically selected Little Red Dots (LRDs) at z ~ 4-8 in the GOODS fields, leveraging ultra-deep JADES NIRCam short-wavelength (SW) data. We examine the morphology of 30 LRDs; the remaining 69 are predominantly compact, i.e. are strongly dominated by sources < 400 pc in diameter and lack extended components even in stacked SW band images. Among the LRDs selected for morphological analysis, 50% show at least two distinct, associated sources or galaxy components, while the others appear as single sources with highly asymmetric structures. We find median stellar masses of log10(M*/Msun) = 9.07(-0.08)(+0.11) for pure stellar models with Av ~ 1.16(+0.11)(-0.21) mag, and log10(M*/Msun) = 9.67(+0.17)(-0.27) for models including AGNs, where Av ~ 2.74(+0.55)(-0.71) mag, consistent with recent results showing LRDs tend to have high stellar masses and dust content when fitted with AGN models. NIRSpec spectra are available for 15 sources, 6 of which fall within the morphological analysis sample and show multiple components. Among these 15, broad H-alpha emission is detected in 40%, with full-width half-maximum (FWHM) ranging from 1200 to 2900 km/s. One source exhibits broad H-beta emission with FWHM = 2000 +/- 500 km/s. Analysis of line ratios probing the interstellar medium (ISM) reveals a composite nature, indicating AGN activity combined with stellar processes. These findings suggest LRDs have a mixed nature, with AGN signatures in some cases linked to disturbed morphologies observed at rest-frame UV wavelengths., Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to ApJ. Comments are welcome!

Cooperative Distributed Model Predictive Control (DiMPC) architecture employs local MPC controllers to control different subsystems, exchanging information with each other through an iterative procedure to enhance overall control performance compared to the decentralized architecture. However, this method can result in high communication between the controllers and computational costs. In this work, the amount of information exchanged and the computational costs of DiMPC are reduced significantly by developing novel iteration-free solution algorithms based on multiparametric (mp) programming. These algorithms replace the iterative procedure with simultaneous solutions of explicit mpDiMPC control law functions. The reduced communication among local controllers decreases system latency, which is crucial for real-time control applications. The effectiveness of the proposed iteration-free mpDiMPC algorithms is demonstrated through comprehensive numerical simulations involving groups of coupled linear subsystems, which are interconnected through their inputs and a cooperative plant-wide cost function.

Massive stars lead the ionization and mechanical feedback within young star-forming regions. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is an ideal galaxy for studying individual massive stars and quantifying their feedback contribution to the environment. We analyze eight exemplary targets in LMC N11 B from the Hubble UV Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards (ULLYSES) program, using novel spectra from HST (COS and STIS) in the UV, and from VLT (X-shooter) in the optical. We model the spectra of early to late O-type stars by using state-of-the-art PoWR atmosphere models. We determine the stellar and wind parameters (e.g., $T_\star$, $\log g$, $L_{\star}$, $\dot{M}$, $v_\infty$) of the analyzed objects, chemical abundances (C, N, O), ionizing and mechanical feedback ($Q_\mathrm{H}$, $Q_\mathrm{He{\small{I}}}$, $Q_\mathrm{He{\small{II}}}$, $L_\mathrm{mec}$) and X-rays. We report ages of $2-4.5$ Myr and masses of $30-60$ $M_\odot$ for the analyzed stars in N11 B, consistent with a scenario of sequential star formation. We note that the observed wind-momentum luminosity relation is consistent with theoretical predictions. We detect nitrogen enrichment in most of the stars, up to a factor of seven. However, we do not find a correlation between nitrogen enrichment and projected rotational velocity. Finally, based on their spectral type, we estimate the total ionizing photons injected from the O-type stars in N11 B into its environment. We report $\log$ ($\sum$ $Q_\mathrm{H}$)$=50.5$ ph s$^{-1}$, $\log$ ($\sum$ $Q_\mathrm{He{\small{I}}}$)$=49.6$ ph s$^{-1}$ and $\log$ ($\sum$ $Q_\mathrm{He{\small{II}}}$)$=44.4$ ph s$^{-1}$, consistent with the total ionizing budget in N11., Comment: Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We report measurements of the absolute branching fractions $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D_s^{\pm} X)$, $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D^0/\bar{D}^0 X)$, and $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D^{\pm} X)$, where the latter is measured for the first time. The results are based on a 121.4\,fb$^{-1}$ data sample collected at the $\Upsilon(10860)$ resonance by the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. We reconstruct one $B_s^0$ meson in $e^+e^- \to \Upsilon(10860) \to B_s^{*} \bar{B}_s^{*}$ events and measure yields of $D_s^+$, $D^0$, and $D^+$ mesons in the rest of the event. We obtain $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D_s^{\pm} X) = (68.6 \pm 7.2 \pm 4.0)\%$, $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D^0/\bar{D}^0 X) = (21.5 \pm 6.1 \pm 1.8)\%$, and $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D^{\pm} X) = (12.6 \pm 4.6 \pm 1.3)\%$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. Averaging with previous Belle measurements gives $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D_s^{\pm} X) = (63.4 \pm 4.5 \pm 2.2)\%$ and $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to D^0/\bar{D}^0 X) = (23.9 \pm 4.1 \pm 1.8)\%$. For the $B_s^0$ production fraction at the $\Upsilon(10860)$, we find $f_s = (21.4^{+1.5}_{-1.7})\%$., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JHEP

So far, the striking sign reversal in the near-ambient slope of the gap temperature dependence of colloidal CsPbCl3 perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) compared to its Br counterpart, remains unresolved. Pure bromide NCs exhibit a linear gap increase with increasing temperature, to which thermal expansion and electron-phonon interaction equally contribute. In contrast, the temperature slope for the chlorine compound gap is outspoken negative. By combining temperature and pressure-dependent photoluminescence on a series of CsPb(Br1-xClx)3 NCs, we unravel the origin of such inversion. Responsible is solely the electron-phonon interaction, undergoing a sudden change in sign and magnitude due to activation of an anomalous electron-phonon coupling mechanism linked to vibrational modes characterized by synchronous octahedral tilting and Cs rattling. This takes place in the shrunken orthorhombic NC lattice for Cl concentrations exceeding ca. 40%. We have thus clarified a puzzling result directly impacting the optoelectronic properties of lead halide perovskite NCs., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

We present a detailed study of the large-scale shock front in Stephan's Quintet, a byproduct of past and ongoing interactions. Using integral-field spectroscopy from the new William Herschel Telescope Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE), recent 144 MHz observations from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS), and archival data from the Very Large Array and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we obtain new measurements of key shock properties and determine its impact on the system. Harnessing the WEAVE large integral field unit's (LIFU) field of view (90 $\times$ 78 arcsec$^{2}$), spectral resolution ($R\sim2500$) and continuous wavelength coverage across the optical band, we perform robust emission line modeling and dynamically locate the shock within the multi-phase intergalactic medium (IGM) with higher precision than previously possible. The shocking of the cold gas phase is hypersonic, and comparisons with shock models show that it can readily account for the observed emission line ratios. In contrast, we demonstrate that the shock is relatively weak in the hot plasma visible in X-rays (with Mach number of $\mathcal{M} \sim 2 - 4$), making it inefficient at producing the relativistic particles needed to explain the observed synchrotron emission. Instead, we propose that it has led to an adiabatic compression of the medium, which has increased the radio luminosity ten-fold. Comparison of the Balmer line-derived extinction map with the molecular gas and hot dust observed with JWST suggests that pre-existing dust may have survived the collision, allowing the condensation of H$_{2}$ - a key channel for dissipating the shock energy., Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS