Search

We present first results from James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and Keck Cosmic Webb Imager (KCWI) integral field spectroscopy of the powerful but highly obscured host-galaxy of the jetted radio source Cygnus A. We detect 169 infrared emission lines at 1.7--27 micron and explore the kinematics and physical properties of the extended narrow-line region (NLR) in unprecedented detail. The density-stratified NLR appears to be shaped by the initial blow-out and ongoing interaction of the radio jet with the interstellar medium, creating a multi-phase bicone with a layered structure composed of molecular and ionized gas. The NLR spectrum, with strong coronal emission at kpc-scale, is well-modeled by AGN photoionization. We find evidence that the NLR is rotating around the radio axis, perhaps mediated by magnetic fields and driven by angular momentum transfer from the radio jet. The overall velocity field of the NLR is well described by 250 km/s outflow along biconical spiral flow lines, combining both rotation and outflow signatures. There is particularly bright [Fe II] 1.644 micron emission from a dense, high-velocity dispersion, photoionized clump of clouds found near the projected radio axis. Outflows of 600--2000 km/s are found in bullets and streamers of ionized gas that may be ablated by the radio jet from these clouds, driving a local outflow rate of 40 Msun/yr., Comment: Submitted to Astrophysical Journal

This work introduces JPS4, a novel pathfinding algorithm for 4-connected grid maps. JPS4 builds upon the Jump Point Search (JPS8) algorithm, originally designed for 8-connected environments. To achieve efficient pathfinding on 4-connected grids, JPS4 employs a canonical ordering and a successor function that enable online graph pruning. This reduces the search space by minimizing unnecessary node expansions. The core concept of JPS4 as well as JPS8 lies in the utilization of jump points. Strategically placed at obstacle corners, jump points prevent the search from overlooking crucial sections of the state space. They essentially reinitialize the canonical ordering, allowing exploration beyond obstacles. This mechanism ensures JPS4 finds optimal paths even in complex environments. The paper further explores the optimality of JPS4 and compares its performance against the established A* algorithm on various grid maps. Benchmarking results demonstrate that JPS4 significantly outperforms A* in scenarios with high obstacle density. However, A* remains more efficient on open maps. Overall, JPS4 presents itself as a promising alternative to A* for pathfinding on 4-connected grids, particularly applicable in video game development.

We present radio polarimetric images of 12 Seyfert and Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-line Region (LINER) galaxies belonging to the Centre for Astrophysics (CfA)+12 micron sample exhibiting kiloparsec-scale radio outflows (KSRs). These observations have been carried out at 10 GHz with Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in D-array and at 1.4 GHz with the BnA$\rightarrow$A array configurations. We find signatures of organized magnetic (B-) field structures in the cores, jets and lobes of these galaxies. The linear polarization fraction varies from a few per cent in the cores to $47\pm18$ per cent in the lobes. The inferred B-fields are toroidal in the cores of several sources making them consistent with the presence of either a sheath-like or a wind-like component surrounding the jet. The in-band spectral index images typically show the presence of flat/inverted spectrum cores and steep spectrum lobes. Radio cores with flatter spectra are found to have lower Eddington ratios while the steeper ones have higher. A strong correlation is observed between the Seyfert/LINER radio outflow properties and the mass of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs); correlations with Eddington ratios are weaker. We find signatures of jet-medium interaction and both positive and negative AGN feedback in these sources. Overall, our study indicates that radio-quiet (RQ) AGN with KSRs possess radio outflows driven by magnetic fields anchored to their black holes - accretion disks, which significantly impact their environments., Comment: 36 pages, 20 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

The next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is intended to be the premier centimeter-wavelength facility for astronomy and astrophysics, building on the substantial scientific legacies of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The ngVLA would open a new window on the Universe through ultra-sensitive imaging of thermal line and continuum emission to milliarcsecond resolution, while delivering unprecedented broad-band continuum imaging and polarimetry of non-thermal emission. The ngVLA would provide a critical electromagnetic complement to a suite of particle detectors and gravitational-wave observatories, as well as space- and ground-based telescopes operating from infrared to gamma-ray wavelengths, hence enabling multi-messenger and multi-band astronomy and astrophysics. Current construction plans call for the ngVLA to leverage some of the physical infrastructure of both the VLA and the VLBA, potentially drawing on overlapping personnel and information infrastructure. Multiple options can be envisioned for a VLA+VLBA to ngVLA transition. In order to assess risks and benefits of possible transition plans, the ngVLA project established the VLA+VLBA to ngVLA Transition Advisory Group (TAG). The primary deliverable from the TAG is a ``VLA+VLBA to ngVLA Transition Option Concepts'' report (this report) that includes a prioritized list of transition options., Comment: This report reflects an initial set of recommendations by the Transition Advisory Group for the ngVLA Project and is distributed for the purposes of obtaining community comment. Modification of this report in response to community comment is expected. Please submit your feedback at ngvla-transition-feedback@listmgr.nrao.edu

Nontuition expenses--including housing, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses, in addition to books and supplies--constitute a significant financial burden for many students pursuing higher education, even if they receive grant aid to help them pay tuition and fees. Well-designed policy interventions at both the federal and state levels could effectively address the hardships some students face. A large increase in the maximum Pell grant to provide students additional funds for living expenses may seem like a straightforward solution, but that approach is not optimal. Doubling the maximum Pell grant would increase the aid most current full-time recipients receive by the same dollar amount, regardless of the size of their current Pell grant. In other words, it would double the grant for the lowest-income students, who currently receive the maximum, but would increase it by much larger proportions for those whose somewhat higher incomes qualify them for smaller grants. The program's cost would more than double. In this report, we propose alternative design options for a need-based basic living stipend. Awarding two Pell grants, with the second grant explicitly for nontuition expenses, would be less expensive and more targeted to the lowest-income students than doubling the maximum. Our preferred option would be a distinct need-based living stipend supplementing an increased Pell grant. The stipend would be standard, not based on individual cost of attendance, which is an inconsistent metric. The maximum stipend could be lower than the maximum Pell grant. The stipend would decline at a chosen rate as incomes increase. This approach would be most flexible and would be less expensive and better targeted than an increase in the maximum Pell grant that would give the same amount of funding to the lowest-income students. A federal matching program providing incentives to states to provide need-based living stipends would be a useful complement to this federal program and could tailor aid to local circumstances.

Angular momentum and torque are important principles for basic and applied physics on any spatial scales, for example, in elementary particles, cold gases, optical tweezers, quantum information technology, metamaterials, gyroscopes or astrophysical entities. Investigating or controlling angular momentum in atoms or sub-atomic structures requires torque on femtosecond and picometer scales, far below the capabilities of laser light. Here we shape the electrons in an electron microscope into wave packets with a time-dependent chirality and internal torque. We intersect the electron beam with chiral laser light to create discrete energy sidebands by multiple helical photon absorptions that create a correlation between orbital angular momentum and kinetic energy. Dispersion of these partial waves due to the electron rest mass then converts each single electron into a wave function with internal torque. Under our control, a left-handed matter wave becomes right-handed in femtosecond times. Such quantum objects will facilitate research on angular momentum and chirality on atomic and sub-atomic scales.

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)

A recent paper by Hui et al. (Ref. [1], Sci. Adv. 10, eadp5805 (2024)) claims the demonstration of 'Attosecond electron microscopy and diffraction' with laser-gated electron pulses. In this comment, we point out a series of physical and technical inconsistencies of the experiment and results. Beyond failing to show any microscopy, the reported concept does not produce properly gated electrons. Furthermore, the noise and signal levels of the presented data are statistically and quantitatively incompatible with the work's interpretation and attosecond dynamics in graphite. These inconsistencies render the claims and conclusions of Ref. [1] unsubstantiated and suggest that the data primarily show an interferometric artifact., Comment: Comment on doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp5805, originally posted as arXiv:2305.03014

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!

We present a detailed analysis of jet activity in the radio galaxy 3C348 at the center of the galaxy cluster Hercules A. We use archival Chandra data to investigate the jet-driven shock front, the radio-faint X-ray cavities, the eastern jet, and the presence of extended Inverse Compton (IC) X-ray emission from the radio lobes. We detect two pairs of shocks: one in the north-south direction at 150 kpc from the center, and another in the east-west direction at 280 kpc. These shocks have Mach numbers of $\mathcal{M} = 1.65\pm0.05$ and $\mathcal{M} = 1.9\pm0.3$, respectively. Together, they form a complete cocoon around the large radio lobes. Based on the distance of the shocks from the center, we estimate that the corresponding jet outburst is 90-150 Myr old. We confirm the presence of two radio-faint cavities within the cocoon, misaligned from the lobes, each $\sim$100 kpc wide and 40-60 Myr old. A backflow from the radio lobes might explain why the cavities are dynamically younger than the cocoon shock front. We also detect non-thermal X-ray emission from the eastern jet and from the large radio lobes. The X-ray emission from the jet is visible at 80 kpc from the AGN and can be accounted for by an IC model with a mild Doppler boosting ($\delta\sim2.7$). A synchrotron model could explain the radio-to-X-ray spectrum only for very high Lorentz factors $\gamma\geq10^{8}$ of the electrons in the jet. For the large radio lobes, we argue that the X-ray emission has an IC origin, with a 1 keV flux density of $21.7\pm1.4\text{(statistical)}\pm1.3\text{(systematic)}$ nJy. A thermal model is unlikely, as it would require unrealistically high gas temperature, density, and pressure, along with a strong depolarization of the radio lobes, which are instead highly polarized. The IC detection, combined with the synchrotron flux density, suggests a magnetic field of $12\pm3\mu$G in the lobes., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Global food production and trade networks are highly dynamic, especially in response to shortages when countries adjust their supply strategies. In this study, we examine adjustments across 123 agri-food products from 192 countries resulting in 23616 individual scenarios of food shortage, and calibrate a multi-layer network model to understand the propagation of the shocks. We analyze shock mitigation actions, such as increasing imports, boosting production, or substituting food items. Our findings indicate that these lead to spillover effects potentially exacerbating food inequality: an Indian rice shock resulted in a 5.8 % increase in rice losses in countries with a low Human Development Index (HDI) and a 14.2 % decrease in those with a high HDI. Considering multiple interacting shocks leads to super-additive losses of up to 12 % of the total available food volume across the global food production network. This framework allows us to identify combinations of shocks that pose substantial systemic risks and reduce the resilience of the global food supply.

Many real-world networks evolve dynamically over time and present different types of connections between nodes, often called layers. In this work, we propose a latent position model for these objects, called the dynamic multiplex random dot product graph (DMPRDPG), which uses an inner product between layer-specific and time-specific latent representations of the nodes to obtain edge probabilities. We further introduce a computationally efficient spectral embedding method for estimation of DMPRDPG parameters, called doubly unfolded adjacency spectral embedding (DUASE). The DUASE estimates are proved to be consistent and asymptotically normally distributed, demonstrating the optimality properties of the proposed estimator. A key strength of our method is the encoding of time-specific node representations and layer-specific effects in separate latent spaces, which allows the model to capture complex behaviours while maintaining relatively low dimensionality. The embedding method we propose can also be efficiently used for subsequent inference tasks. In particular, we highlight the use of the ISOMAP algorithm in conjunction with DUASE as a way to efficiently capture trends and global changepoints within a network, and the use of DUASE for graph clustering. Applications on real-world networks describing geopolitical interactions between countries and financial news reporting demonstrate practical uses of our method., Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures

We propose an extension of the reinforcement learning architecture that enables moral decision-making of reinforcement learning agents based on normative reasons. Central to this approach is a reason-based shield generator yielding a moral shield that binds the agent to actions that conform with recognized normative reasons so that our overall architecture restricts the agent to actions that are (internally) morally justified. In addition, we describe an algorithm that allows to iteratively improve the reason-based shield generator through case-based feedback from a moral judge., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Workshop paper accepted to FEAR24 (IFM Workshop)

We introduce and implement GraphDD: an efficient method for real-time, circuit-specific, optimal embedding of dynamical decoupling (DD) into executable quantum algorithms. We demonstrate that for an arbitrary quantum circuit, GraphDD exactly refocuses both quasi-static single-qubit dephasing and crosstalk idling errors over the entire circuit, while using a minimal number of additional single-qubit gates embedded into idle periods. The method relies on a graph representation of the embedding problem, where the optimal decoupling sequence can be efficiently calculated using an algebraic computation that scales linearly with the number of idles. This allows optimal DD to be embedded during circuit compilation, without any calibration overhead, additional circuit execution, or numerical optimization. The method is generic and applicable to any arbitrary circuit; in compiler runtime the specific pulse-sequence solutions are tailored to the individual circuit, and consider a range of contextual information on circuit structure and device connectivity. We verify the ability of GraphDD to deliver enhanced circuit-level error suppression on 127-qubit IBM devices, showing that the optimal circuit-specific DD embedding resulting from GraphDD provides orders of magnitude improvements to measured circuit fidelities compared with standard embedding approaches available in Qiskit., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures

With advancements in computer vision and deep learning, video-based human action recognition (HAR) has become practical. However, due to the complexity of the computation pipeline, running HAR on live video streams incurs excessive delays on embedded platforms. This work tackles the real-time performance challenges of HAR with four contributions: 1) an experimental study identifying a standard Optical Flow (OF) extraction technique as the latency bottleneck in a state-of-the-art HAR pipeline, 2) an exploration of the latency-accuracy tradeoff between the standard and deep learning approaches to OF extraction, which highlights the need for a novel, efficient motion feature extractor, 3) the design of Integrated Motion Feature Extractor (IMFE), a novel single-shot neural network architecture for motion feature extraction with drastic improvement in latency, 4) the development of RT-HARE, a real-time HAR system tailored for embedded platforms. Experimental results on an Nvidia Jetson Xavier NX platform demonstrated that RT-HARE realizes real-time HAR at a video frame rate of 30 frames per second while delivering high levels of recognition accuracy.

Materials with switchable nanostructured surfaces enable optical and electronic functionalities beyond those of natural materials. Here we report the creation of self-organized, re-writable, laser-induced surface structures in single-crystalline vanadium dioxide. We discover anisotropic features caused by canalized surface plasmon polaritons that can only propagate along one crystal axis. The nanostructures remain single-crystalline and preserve the raw material's metal-to-insulator transition, enabling femtosecond switching by temperature or light., Comment: {\dag}These authors contributed equally to this work

Research continues to accumulate evidence that Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) can solve wide sets of mechanical problems, such as tool use, tool manufacture, and solving mechanical puzzles. However, the proximate mechanisms underlying this adaptive behavior are largely unknown. In this study, we analyze how three Goffin's cockatoos learn to solve a specific mechanical puzzle, a lockbox. The observed behavior results from the interaction between a complex environment (the lockbox) and different processes that jointly govern the animals' behavior. We thus jointly analyze the parrots' (1) engagement, (2) sensorimotor skill learning, and (3) action selection. We find that neither of these aspects could solely explain the animals' behavioral adaptation and that a plausible model of proximate mechanisms (including adaptation) should thus also jointly address these aspects. We accompany this analysis with a discussion of methods that may be used to identify such mechanisms. A major point we want to make is, that it is implausible to reliably identify a detailed model from the limited data of one or a few studies. Instead, we advocate for a more coarse approach that first establishes constraints on proximate mechanisms before specific, detailed models are formulated. We exercise this idea on the data we present in this study., Comment: Accepted for publication at journal Adaptive Behavior with SAGE publishing

While modern physics and biology satisfactorily explain the passage from the Big Bang to the formation of Earth and the first cells to present-day life, respectively, the origins of biochemical life still remain an open question. Since life, as we know it, requires extremely long genetic polymers, any answer to the question must explain how an evolving system of polymers of ever-increasing length could come about on a planet that otherwise consisted only of small molecular building blocks. In this work, we show that, under realistic constraints, an abstract polymer model can exhibit dynamics such that attractors in the polymer population space with a higher average polymer length are also more probable. We generalize from the model and formalize the notions of complexity and evolution for chemical reaction networks with multiple attractors. The complexity of a species is defined as the minimum number of reactions needed to produce it from a set of building blocks, which in turn is used to define a measure of complexity for an attractor. A transition between attractors is considered to be a progressive evolution if the attractor with the higher probability also has a higher complexity. In an environment where only monomers are readily available, the attractor with a higher average polymer length is more complex. Thus, our abstract polymer model can exhibit progressive evolution for a range of thermodynamically plausible rate constants. We also formalize criteria for open-ended and historically-contingent evolution and explain the role of autocatalysis in obtaining them. Our work provides a basis for searching for prebiotically plausible scenarios in which long polymers can emerge and yield populations with even longer polymers., Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures

Prompt injection (both direct and indirect) and jailbreaking are now recognized as significant issues for large language models (LLMs), particularly due to their potential for harm in application-integrated contexts. This extended abstract explores a novel approach to protecting LLMs from such attacks, termed "soft begging." This method involves training soft prompts to counteract the effects of corrupted prompts on the LLM's output. We provide an overview of prompt injections and jailbreaking, introduce the theoretical basis of the "soft begging" technique, and discuss an evaluation of its effectiveness.

This paper investigates both biomechanical-constrained non-rigid medical image registrations and accurate identifications of material properties for soft tissues, using physics-informed neural networks (PINNs). The complex nonlinear elasticity theory is leveraged to formally establish the partial differential equations (PDEs) representing physics laws of biomechanical constraints that need to be satisfied, with which registration and identification tasks are treated as forward (i.e., data-driven solutions of PDEs) and inverse (i.e., parameter estimation) problems under PINNs respectively. Two net configurations (i.e., Cfg1 and Cfg2) have also been compared for both linear and nonlinear physics model. Two sets of experiments have been conducted, using pairs of undeformed and deformed MR images from clinical cases of prostate cancer biopsy. Our contributions are summarised as follows. 1) We developed a learning-based biomechanical-constrained non-rigid registration algorithm using PINNs, where linear elasticity is generalised to the nonlinear version. 2) We demonstrated extensively that nonlinear elasticity shows no statistical significance against linear models in computing point-wise displacement vectors but their respective benefits may depend on specific patients, with finite-element (FE) computed ground-truth. 3) We formulated and solved the inverse parameter estimation problem, under the joint optimisation scheme of registration and parameter identification using PINNs, whose solutions can be accurately found by locating saddle points., Comment: Accepted at MICCAI 2024

Context: The long-standing question concerning jetted subgalactic-size (JSS) radio sources is whether they will evolve into large radio galaxies, die before escaping the host galaxy, or remain indefinitely confined to their compact size. Aims: Our main goal is to propose a scenario that explains the relative number of JSS radio sources and their general properties. Methods: We studied the parsec-scale radio morphology of a complete sample of 21 objects using Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations at various frequencies and analyzed the morphological characteristics of their optical hosts. Results: Many of these radio sources exhibit radio morphologies consistent with transverse motions of their bright edges and are found in dynamically disturbed galaxies. VLBA images suggest the possible presence of large-angle, short-period precessing jets, and an orbital motion of the radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN) in a dual or binary system. The majority of JSS radio sources appear to be in systems in different stages of their merging evolution. Conclusions: We propose a scenario where rapid jet redirection, through precession or orbital motion, prevents the jet from penetrating the interstellar medium (ISM) sufficiently to escape the host galaxy. Most JSS radio sources remain compact due to their occurrence in merging galaxies., Comment: 35 pages, 24 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Carbon dioxide will likely need to be removed from the atmosphere to avoid significant future warming and climate change. Technologies are being developed to remove large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere. Enhanced rock weathering (ERW), where fine-grained silicate minerals are spread on soil, is a promising carbon removal method that can also support crop yields and maintain overall soil health. Quantifying the amount of carbon removed by ERW is crucial for understanding the potential of ERW globally and for building trust in commercial operations. However, reliable and scalable quantification in complex media like soil is challenging and there is not yet a consensus on the best method of doing so. Here we discuss mass-balance methods, where stocks of base cations in soil are monitored over time to infer the amount of inorganic carbon brought into solution by weathering reactions. First, we review the fundamental concepts of mass-balance methods and explain different ways of approaching the mass-balance problem. Then we discuss experimental planning and data collection, suggesting some best practices. Next, we present a software package designed to facilitate a range of tasks in ERW like uncertainty analysis, planning field trials, and validating statistical methods. Finally, we briefly review ways of estimating carbon removal using mass balance before discussing some advantages of Bayesian inference in this context and presenting an example Bayesian model. The model is fit to simulated data and recovers the correct answer with a clear representation of uncertainty.

Funding for community colleges varies significantly, even within the same state. Several factors account for these differences, including more generous funding for smaller institutions to compensate for their higher costs per student, unequal local funding from property tax revenues, and political forces. In theory, this variation could lead to systemic inequities in funding levels by race, ethnicity, and economic status. Such inequities could arise if students from historically underserved groups are concentrated in community colleges that receive the lowest levels of funding from state and local appropriations. This analysis finds no such consistent patterns across the nation but does find concerning patterns in a few states. Significant differences in funding levels across states are likely to be the result of differences in state and local postsecondary support at all levels, priorities attached to two-year versus four-year institutions, and methods of allocating resources among eligible institutions. In addition, allocation systems, combined with demographic differences among community college students, can create sizeable differences in funding levels among the institutions within a state. This analysis focuses on these funding differences across community colleges within states, investigating the prevalence of differences in state and local funding levels between Black students and all other students, Hispanic students and all other students, and low-income students (proxied by the receipt of Pell grants) and higher-income students.

Discussions about college affordability often revolve around helping students pay their tuition and fees. But nontuition expenses, including food, housing, and other living expenses, make up a large portion of student budgets and contribute to increased student debt. These expenses can be a barrier to student enrollment and completion. Lack of information about the true full cost of attendance, stringent requirements to qualify for income support benefits, and limited grant aid make it hard for many students to access enough resources to cover their basic needs. In this report, we summarize our findings emerging from research and a convening we hosted on nontuition expenses. Currently, there is no standardized way to measure cost of attendance at institutions, making it difficult for students to compare nontuition costs across schools. Providing students personalized information about what their food, housing, and other living expenses may look like allows them to plan for the school year but is distinct from practical solutions for measuring student need for financial aid purposes. Doubling the Pell grant is a common suggestion when discussing the cost of education, and incorporating some level of basic living expenses, in addition to the costs of books and supplies, into estimates of adequate grant aid would be constructive. But increasing the Pell grant is insufficient, as using it explicitly to cover living expenses could lack political support and may lead to unintended consequences, such as tuition increases. Based on these findings, state and federal policymakers can do more to support students who cannot afford nontuition expenses through changes to federal, state, and institution-level policies. Both enabling students to have access to income support benefits and more generous grant aid are central to policy efforts for addressing financial barriers to student access and success. Increases in need-based financial aid from federal and state governments, as well as institutions, are important. But we should not view low-income students as entirely distinct from other low-income adults, and education policy alone cannot be responsible for meeting students' basic needs.

Herein, we present CoDA, the Coral Dendroid structure Analyzer, a visual analytics suite that allows for the first time to investigate the ontogenetic morphological development of complex dendroid coral colonies, exemplified on three important framework-forming dendroid cold-water corals: Lophelia pertusa (Linnaeus, 1758), Madrepora oculata (Linnaeus, 1758), and Goniocorella dumosa (Alcock, 1902). Input to CoDA is an initial instance segmentation of the coral polyp cavities (calices), from which it estimates the skeleton tree of the colony and extracts classical morphological measurements and advanced shape features of the individual corallites. CoDA also works as a proofreading and error correction tool by helping to identify wrong parts in the skeleton tree and providing tools to quickly correct these errors. The final skeleton tree enables the derivation of additional information about the calices/corallite instances that otherwise could not be obtained, including their ontogenetic generation and branching patterns - the basis of a fully quantitative statistical analysis of the coral colony morphology. Part of CoDA is CoDAGraph, a feature-rich link-and-brush user interface for visualizing the extracted features and 2D graph layouts of the skeleton tree, enabling the real-time exploration of complex coral colonies and their building blocks, the individual corallites and branches. In the future, we expect CoDA to greatly facilitate the analysis of large stony corals of different species and morphotypes, as well as other dendroid structures, enabling new insights into the influence of genetic and environmental factors on their ontogenetic morphological development.

Optical continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems are emerging for personalized glucose management owing to their lower cost and prolonged durability compared to conventional electrochemical CGMs. Here, we report a computational CGM system, which integrates a biocompatible phosphorescence-based insertable biosensor and a custom-designed phosphorescence lifetime imager (PLI). This compact and cost-effective PLI is designed to capture phosphorescence lifetime images of an insertable sensor through the skin, where the lifetime of the emitted phosphorescence signal is modulated by the local concentration of glucose. Because this phosphorescence signal has a very long lifetime compared to tissue autofluorescence or excitation leakage processes, it completely bypasses these noise sources by measuring the sensor emission over several tens of microseconds after the excitation light is turned off. The lifetime images acquired through the skin are processed by neural network-based models for misalignment-tolerant inference of glucose levels, accurately revealing normal, low (hypoglycemia) and high (hyperglycemia) concentration ranges. Using a 1-mm thick skin phantom mimicking the optical properties of human skin, we performed in vitro testing of the PLI using glucose-spiked samples, yielding 88.8% inference accuracy, also showing resilience to random and unknown misalignments within a lateral distance of ~4.7 mm with respect to the position of the insertable sensor underneath the skin phantom. Furthermore, the PLI accurately identified larger lateral misalignments beyond 5 mm, prompting user intervention for re-alignment. The misalignment-resilient glucose concentration inference capability of this compact and cost-effective phosphorescence lifetime imager makes it an appealing wearable diagnostics tool for real-time tracking of glucose and other biomarkers., Comment: 24 Pages, 4 Figures

We introduce a comprehensive quantum solver for binary combinatorial optimization problems on gate-model quantum computers that outperforms any published alternative and consistently delivers correct solutions for problems with up to 127 qubits. We provide an overview of the internal workflow, describing the integration of a customized ansatz and variational parameter update strategy, efficient error suppression in hardware execution, and QPU-overhead-free post-processing to correct for bit-flip errors. We benchmark this solver on IBM quantum computers for several classically nontrivial unconstrained binary optimization problems -- the entire optimization is conducted on hardware with no use of classical simulation or prior knowledge of the solution. First, we demonstrate the ability to correctly solve Max-Cut instances for random regular graphs with a variety of densities using up to 120 qubits, where the graph topologies are not matched to device connectivity. Next, we apply the solver to higher-order binary optimization and successfully search for the ground state energy of a 127-qubit spin-glass model with linear, quadratic, and cubic interaction terms. Use of this new quantum solver increases the likelihood of finding the minimum energy by up to $\sim1,500\times$ relative to published results using a DWave annealer, and it can find the correct solution when the annealer fails. Furthermore, for both problem types, the Q-CTRL solver outperforms a heuristic local solver used to indicate the relative difficulty of the problems pursued. Overall, these results represent the largest quantum optimizations successfully solved on hardware to date, and demonstrate the first time a gate-model quantum computer has been able to outperform an annealer for a class of binary optimization problems., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures

We present a novel experimental concept to search for proton decay. Using paleo-detectors, ancient minerals acquired from deep underground which can hold traces of charged particles, it may be possible to conduct a search for $p \to \bar{\nu} K^+$ via the track produced at the endpoint of the kaon. Such a search is not possible on Earth due to large atmospheric-neutrino-induced backgrounds. However, the Moon offers a reprieve from this background, since the conventional component of the cosmic-ray-induced neutrino flux at the Moon is significantly suppressed due to the Moon's lack of atmosphere. For a 100 g, $10^9$ year old (100 kton$\cdot$year exposure) sample of olivine extracted from the Moon, we expect about 0.5 kaon endpoints due to neutrino backgrounds, including secondary interactions. If such a lunar paleo-detector sample can be acquired and efficiently analyzed, proton decay sensitivity exceeding $\tau_p\sim10^{34}$ years may be achieved, competitive with Super-Kamiokande's current published limit ($\tau_p>5.9\times 10^{33}$ years at 90% CL) and the projected reach of DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande in the $p \to \bar{\nu} K^+$ channel. This concept is clearly futuristic, not least since it relies on extracting mineral samples from a few kilometers below the surface of the Moon and then efficiently scanning them for kaon endpoint induced crystal defects with sub-micron-scale resolution. However, the search for proton decay is in urgent need of a paradigm shift, and paleo-detectors could provide a promising alternative to conventional experiments., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures