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This study investigates the relationship between eye-tracking metrics and emotional experiences in the context of cultural landscapes and tourism-related visual stimuli. Fifty-three participants were involved in two experiments: forty-three in the data collection phase and ten in the model validation phase. Eye movements were recorded and the data were analyzed to identify correlations between four eye-tracking metrics—average number of saccades (ANS), total dwell fixation (TDF), fixation count (FC), and average pupil dilation (APD)—and 19 distinct emotional experiences, which were subsequently grouped into three categories: positive, neutral, and negative. The study examined the variations in eye-tracking metrics across architectural, historic, economic, and life landscapes, as well as the three primary phases of a tour: entry, core, and departure. Findings revealed that architectural and historic landscapes demanded higher levels of visual and cognitive engagement, especially during the core phase. Stepwise regression analysis identified four key eye-tracking predictors for emotional experiences, enabling the development of a prediction model. This research underscores the effectiveness of eye-tracking technology in capturing and predicting emotional responses to different landscape types, offering valuable insights for optimizing rural tourism environments and enhancing visitors' emotional experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) remain an open matter of debate within the scientific community. While various theoretical scenarios have been proposed, each with specific observational signatures, the lack of sufficiently sensitive X-ray observations hinders the progress of observational tests. In this white paper, we present how AXIS will contribute to solving this issue. With an angular resolution of 1.5″ on-axis and minimal off-axis degradation, we designed a deep survey capable of reaching flux limits in the [0.5–2] keV range of approximately 2 × 10−18 erg s−1 cm−2 over an area of 0.13 deg2 in approximately 7 million seconds (7 Ms). Furthermore, we planned an intermediate depth survey covering approximately 2 deg2 and reaching flux limits of about 2 × 10−17 erg s−1 cm−2 in order to detect a significant number of SMBHs with X-ray luminosities (LX) of approximately 1042 erg s−1 up to z∼10. These observations will enable AXIS to detect SMBHs with masses smaller than 105 M⊙, assuming Eddington-limited accretion and a typical bolometric correction for Type II AGN. AXIS will provide valuable information on the seeding and population synthesis models of SMBHs, allowing for more accurate constraints on their initial mass function (IMF) and accretion history from z∼0–10. To accomplish this, AXIS will leverage the unique synergy of survey telescopes such as the JWST, Roman, Euclid, Vera Rubin Telescope, and the new generation of 30 m class telescopes. These instruments will provide optical identification and redshift measurements, while AXIS will discover the smoking gun of nuclear activity, particularly in the case of highly obscured AGN or peculiar UV spectra as predicted and recently observed by the JWST in the early Universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relaxing the temporal constancy constraint on coupling constants in an expanding universe results in Friedmann equations containing terms that may be interpreted as dark energy and dark matter. When tired light (TL) was considered to complement the redshift due to the expanding universe, the resulting covarying coupling constants (CCC+TL) model not only fit the Type Ia supernovae data as precisely as the ΛCDM model, but also resolved concerns about the angular size of cosmic dawn galaxies observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The model was recently shown to be compliant with the baryon acoustic oscillation features in the galaxy distribution and the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This paper demonstrates that dark energy and dark matter of the standard ΛCDM model are not arbitrary but can be derived from the CCC approach based on Dirac's 1937 hypothesis. The energy densities associated with dark matter and dark energy turn out to be about the same in the ΛCDM and the CCC+TL models. However, the critical density in the new model can only account for the baryonic matter in the universe, raising concerns about how to account for observations requiring dark matter. We therefore analyze some key parameters of structure formation and show how they are affected in the absence of dark matter in the CCC+TL scenario. It requires reconsidering alternatives to dark matter to explain observations on gravitationally bound structures. Incidentally, since the CCC models inherently have no dark energy, it has no coincidence problem. The model's consistency with the CMB power spectrum, BBN element abundances, and other critical observations is yet to be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing supermassive black holes (Active Galactic Nuclei; AGN) release energy with the potential to alter their host galaxies and larger-scale environment; a process named "AGN feedback". Feedback is a required component of galaxy formation models and simulations to explain the observed properties of galaxy populations. We provide a broad overview of observational approaches that are designed to establish the physical processes that couple AGN energy to the multi-phase gas, or to find evidence that AGN impact upon galaxy evolution. The orders-of-magnitude range in spatial, temporal, and temperature scales, requires a diverse set of observational studies. For example, studying individual targets in detail sheds light on coupling mechanisms; however, evidence for the long-term impact of AGN is better established within galaxy populations that are not necessarily currently active. We emphasise how modern surveys have revealed the importance of radio emission for identifying and characterising feedback mechanisms. At the achieved sensitivities, the detected radio emission can trace a range of processes, including a shocked interstellar medium caused by AGN outflows (driven by various mechanisms including radiation pressure, accretion disc winds, and jets). We also describe how interpreting observations in the context of theoretical work can be challenging, in part, due to some of the adopted terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]