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Anonymity is an important principle online. However, malicious actors have long used misleading identities to conduct fraud, spread disinformation, and carry out other deceptive schemes. With the advent of increasingly capable AI, bad actors can amplify the potential scale and effectiveness of their operations, intensifying the challenge of balancing anonymity and trustworthiness online. In this paper, we analyze the value of a new tool to address this challenge: "personhood credentials" (PHCs), digital credentials that empower users to demonstrate that they are real people -- not AIs -- to online services, without disclosing any personal information. Such credentials can be issued by a range of trusted institutions -- governments or otherwise. A PHC system, according to our definition, could be local or global, and does not need to be biometrics-based. Two trends in AI contribute to the urgency of the challenge: AI's increasing indistinguishability from people online (i.e., lifelike content and avatars, agentic activity), and AI's increasing scalability (i.e., cost-effectiveness, accessibility). Drawing on a long history of research into anonymous credentials and "proof-of-personhood" systems, personhood credentials give people a way to signal their trustworthiness on online platforms, and offer service providers new tools for reducing misuse by bad actors. In contrast, existing countermeasures to automated deception -- such as CAPTCHAs -- are inadequate against sophisticated AI, while stringent identity verification solutions are insufficiently private for many use-cases. After surveying the benefits of personhood credentials, we also examine deployment risks and design challenges. We conclude with actionable next steps for policymakers, technologists, and standards bodies to consider in consultation with the public., Comment: 63 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables; minor additions to acknowledgments and wording changes for clarity; corrected typo

Building large, cryogenic MKID arrays requires processing highly-multiplexed, wideband readout signals in real time; a task that has previously required large, heavy, and power-intensive custom electronics. In this work, we present the third-generation UVOIR MKID readout system (Gen3) which is capable of reading out twice as many detectors with a fifth the weight and power and an order of magnitude less volume and cost-per-pixel as compared to the previous system. Gen3 leverages the Xilinx RFSoC4x2 platform to read out 2048, 1 MHz MKID channels per board. The system takes a modern approach to FPGA design using Vitis High-Level Synthesis (HLS) to specify signal processing blocks in C/C++, Vivado ML Intelligent Design Runs (IDR) to inform implementation stragety and close timing, and Python Productivity for ZYNQ (PYNQ) to simplify interacting with and programming the FPGA using Python. This design suite and tool flow allows general users to contribute to and maintain the design and positions Gen3 to rapidly migrate to future platforms as they become available. In this work, we describe the system requirements, design, and implementation. We also provide performance characterization details and show that the system achieves detector-limited resolving power in the case of few readout tones and minimal degradation with all 2048 tones. Planned upgrades and future work are also discussed. The Gen3 MKID readout system is fully open-source and is expected to facilitate future array scaling to megapixel-sized formats and increase the feasibility of deploying UVOIR MKIDs in space.

The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds is meant to bolster state, local, territorial, and tribal government responses to the public health emergency and economic disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus. Different funding formulas allocate the funds to these entities, but provide significant discretion to state and local leaders in how to best deploy the funds to stabilize revenue, address budget shortfalls, support public health efforts, and address negative economic impacts of COVID-19. This report presents: (1) Overview of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Program; (2) Education recovery benefits for children; and (3) Considerations for establishing a direct cash assistance program for children.

By the end of March 2020, all public schools in the United States were closed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. More than 50.8 million children stayed home as school systems scrambled to transition to remote or hybrid learning platforms. While the decision to close schools was difficult, the debate over when and how to reopen safely and responsibly has grown increasingly complex and politically fraught. Within local communities, many teachers expressed grave concern over the health risks, and parents worried about their children's safety. As a result, many school system leaders opted to continue with remote learning while the path to reopening remained uncertain. One year later, however, a growing body of medical research and the firsthand experiences of school systems worldwide can provide a sound basis for determining a reopening strategy. This report examines the collective findings of more than 130 studies and considers their implications for adapting current policies. These studies cover a wide array of topics, including risks for children, transmissibility concerns, and the impact of school re-openings on community spread. This report provides an overview of the available scientific research and the experience of schools that have reopened in Europe and throughout the United States. It is intended to serve as a reference for leaders to ground their decisions in the scientific literature, deepen their understanding of the risks and trade-offs, and develop their own conclusions. [This report was produced with the Evidence Project at the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), United States of Care, and Opportunity Labs.]

This work presents the design and preliminary performance of a highly-multiplexed superconducting detector readout. The readout system is implemented on the Xilinx ZCU111 RFSoC Evaluation Board. The current design uses 12% of the DSPs, 60% of the LUTs, 20% of the FFs, and 30% of the BRAM and makes timing at 512 MHz. The system uses two integrated ADCs and DACs running at 4.096 GSPS to read out 2,048 superconducting detectors. This work targets a 2x increase in the number of superconducting detectors processed per board with 80% less power than previous readout schemes. The open-source design leverages modern FPGA productivity tools including Vivado High-Level Synthesis to create all custom IP blocks, PYNQ to test and verify individual IP and develop Python drivers, and Vivado ML Intelligent Design Runs to close timing. We emphasize strategies for achieving timing closure without custom HDL which we expect to be useful for superconducting device groups looking to utilize FPGAs in high-performance applications without specialized knowledge in FPGA design., Comment: 30th IEEE International Symposium On Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (accepted as poster)

This report evaluates the COVID-19 situation after the release of the report, "A Blueprint for Back to School," which offered a framework for safely reopening schools in the fall. The report reflected the insights from 20 former federal officials, state school chiefs, and superintendents, many drawing on their experiences leading education systems through times of crisis. Schools that have reopened across Europe offer important lessons for schools in the United States, including the need to accommodate parents who feel it is unsafe to send their children back to school. States are releasing their own guidance for reopening schools. Many plans include staggered schedules, social and emotional learning supports, and academic acceleration. Across income levels, racial demographics, and political ideology, parents believe their children are spending less time on schoolwork (40 percent) and are learning less (46 percent) than they normally would in school. [For the report, "A Blueprint for Back to School," see ED606266.]

The COVID-19 pandemic led governors to take unprecedented social distancing measures to protect the health and well-being of citizens. School closures were among the first state-mandated orders to help slow the spread of COVID-19. As schools plan to reopen in the fall, they are likely to confront another crisis--that many of their teachers will be unable to return to the classroom due to the risk of contracting COVID-19. Current guidance suggests that individuals with higher-risk profiles--including those over age 65--should remain at home. This poses a significant dilemma for education, as early estimates suggest that at least 18 percent of all teachers fall within an age range considered to be vulnerable. In fact, the numbers are likely to be higher given the full range of school personnel, including paraprofessionals, bus drivers, custodians, administrative staff, cafeteria staff, and counselors. There are wide-ranging implications for the nation's education system, given that it may not be safe for many teachers to return to a classroom until a vaccine is developed. With fewer than five months until the start of the 2020-21 academic year, leaders need to assess these risks now to make necessary preparations. The health and safety of their personnel must take paramount concern, requiring creative solutions that still leverage these teachers' expertise and experience while addressing the pipeline challenges.

We present orbits for 24 binaries in the field of open cluster NGC 2516 (~150 Myr) and 13 binaries in the field of open cluster NGC 2422 (~130 Myr) using results from a multi-year radial velocity survey of the cluster cores. Six of these systems are double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s). We fit these RV variable systems with orvara, a MCMC-based fitting program that models Keplerian orbits. We use precise stellar parallaxes and proper motions from Gaia EDR3 to determine cluster membership. We impose a barycentric radial velocity prior on all cluster members; this significantly improves our orbital constraints. Two of our systems have periods between 5 and 15 days, the critical window in which tides efficiently damp orbital eccentricity. These binaries should be included in future analyses of circularization across similarly-aged clusters. We also find a relatively flat distribution of binary mass ratios, consistent with previous work. With the inclusion of TESS lightcurves for all available targets, we identity target 378-036252 as a new eclipsing binary. We also identify a field star whose secondary has a mass in the brown dwarf range, as well as two cluster members whose RVs suggest the presence of an additional companion. Our orbital fits will help constrain the binary fraction and binary properties across stellar age and across stellar environment., Comment: 38 pages, 47 figures (incl. 37 Appendix figures), 4 tables. AJ accepted

Recent observations have shown that a growing number of the most massive Galactic globular clusters contain multiple populations of stars with different [Fe/H] and neutron-capture element abundances. NGC 6273 has only recently been recognized as a member of this "iron-complex" cluster class, and we provide here a chemical and kinematic analysis of > 300 red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) member stars using high resolution spectra obtained with the Magellan-M2FS and VLT-FLAMES instruments. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that NGC 6273 possesses an intrinsic metallicity spread that ranges from about [Fe/H] = -2 to -1 dex, and may include at least three populations with different [Fe/H] values. The three populations identified here contain separate first (Na/Al-poor) and second (Na/Al-rich) generation stars, but a Mg-Al anti-correlation may only be present in stars with [Fe/H] > -1.65. The strong correlation between [La/Eu] and [Fe/H] suggests that the s-process must have dominated the heavy element enrichment at higher metallicities. A small group of stars with low [alpha/Fe] is identified and may have been accreted from a former surrounding field star population. The cluster's large abundance variations are coupled with a complex, extended, and multimodal blue horizontal branch (HB). The HB morphology and chemical abundances suggest that NGC 6273 may have an origin that is similar to omega Cen and M 54., Comment: Accepted for Publication in The Astrophysical Journal; 50 pages; 18 figures; 8 tables; higher resolution figures are available upon request or in the published journal article

Key Points * Broadband has become a fundamental enabling technology for nearly every aspect of our lives. It helps support online learning, remote work, telemedicine, and delivery of government services. [...]

For decades, for-profit educational provision has been merely tolerated, often grudgingly. In the world of charter schooling, for-profit providers are lambasted and sometimes prohibited. In higher education, for-profit institutions have grown rapidly, enrolling millions of nontraditional students and earning enmity, suspicion, and now investigative and regulatory actions from the federal government. When it comes to student lending, teacher quality, and school turnarounds, there is a profound preference for nonprofit or public alternatives. All of this is so familiar as to be unremarkable. The problem is that K-12 and higher education are desperately in need of the innovative thinking and nimble adaptation that for-profits can provide in a landscape characterized by healthy markets and well-designed incentives. As critics have noted, for-profits do indeed have incentives to cut corners, aggressively pursue customers, and seek profits. But these traits are the flip side of valuable characteristics: the inclination to grow rapidly, readily tap capital and talent, maximize cost effectiveness, and accommodate customer needs. Alongside nonprofit and public providers, for-profits have a crucial role to play in meeting America's twenty-first century educational challenges cost-effectively and at scale. In this paper, the author demonstrates how for-profit educational providers are singularly excluded from federal governmental efforts to engage private-sector actors. The authors notes that policymakers and government officials are comfortable with for-profits routinely playing a substantial role in addressing pressing social problems in areas like health care or green energy, but not in education. "When it comes to other crucial challenges our country faces--creating a more reliable health care system, finding efficient sources of clean energy, or improving space exploration--policymakers do not ask whether they should engage for-profit companies, but how they should," he writes, continuing, "It's time for education policymakers to follow suit." Given that the federal government is seeking to play a more catalytic role in promoting school improvement, it would seem a useful time to revisit this double standard. To be clear, the point is not to advocate for federal subsidies or a manipulation of the marketplace, but instead to encourage policymakers to regard for-profits in education as they do in other sensitive domestic policy areas. As the author writes, "[A]n entrepreneurial education landscape is not one in which the government or foundations simply pick winners and losers. Rather, it is one in which these entities help remove barriers to entry for quality providers and think deeply about the impact their policy or philanthropic decisions will have on the broader educational marketplace and potential investors or entrepreneurs in the field." (Contains 32 notes.) [For related reports, see "Beyond Good and Evil: Understanding the Role of For-Profits in Education through the Theories of Disruptive Innovation. Private Enterprise in American Education. Special Report 1" (ED521781); and "More than Meets the Eye: The Politics of For-Profits in Education. Private Enterprise in American Education. Special Report 2" (ED521780).]

We present the results of an infrared spectroscopic survey of 23 late-M dwarfs with the NIRSPEC echelle spectrometer on the Keck II telescope. Using telluric lines for wavelength calibration, we are able to achieve measurement precisions of down to 45 m/s for our late-M dwarfs over a one to four year-long baseline. Our sample contains two stars with RV variations of >1000 m/s. While we require more measurements to determine whether these RV variations are due to unseen planetary or stellar companions or are the result of starspots known to plague the surface of M dwarfs, we can place upper limits of <40 MJsini on the masses of any companions around those two M dwarfs with RV variations of <160 m/s at orbital periods of 10-100 days. We have also measured the rotational velocities for all the stars in our late-M dwarf sample and offer our multi-order, high-resolution spectra over 2.0 to 2.4 micron to the atmospheric modeling community to better understand the atmospheres of late-M dwarfs., Comment: Accepted to ApJ