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[Context and Motivation] Several studies have investigated attributes of great software practitioners. However, the investigation of such attributes is still missing in Requirements Engineering (RE). The current knowledge on attributes of great software practitioners might not be easily translated to the context of RE because its activities are, usually, less technical and more human-centered than other software engineering activities. [Question/Problem] This work aims to investigate which are the attributes of great requirements engineers, the relationship between them, and strategies that can be employed to obtain these attributes. We follow a method composed of a survey with 18 practitioners and follow up interviews with 11 of them. [Principal Ideas/Results] Investigative ability in talking to stakeholders, judicious, and understand the business are the most commonly mentioned attributes amongst the set of 22 attributes identified, which were grouped into four categories. We also found 38 strategies to improve RE skills. Examples are training, talking to all stakeholders, and acquiring domain knowledge. [Contribution] The attributes, their categories, and relationships are organized into a map. The relations between attributes and strategies are represented in a Sankey diagram. Software practitioners can use our findings to improve their understanding about the role and responsibilities of requirements engineers.

We present a 34-year timing solution of the redback pulsar system Terzan 5A (Ter5A). Ter5A, also known as B1744$-$24A or J1748$-$2446A, has a 11.56 ms pulse period, a $\sim$0.1 solar mass dwarf companion star, and an orbital period of 1.82 hours. Ter5A displays highly variable eclipses and orbital perturbations. Using new timing techniques, we have determined a phase-connected timing solution for this system over 34 years. This is the longest ever published for a redback pulsar. We find that the pulsar's spin variability is much larger than most globular cluster pulsars. In fact, of the nine redback pulsars with published or in preparation long-term timing solutions, Ter5A is by far the noisiest. We see no evidence of strong correlations between orbital and spin variability of the pulsar. We also find that long-term astrometric timing measurements are likely too contaminated by this variability to be usable, and therefore require careful short-term timing to determine reasonable positions. Finally, we measure an orbital period contraction of $-2.5(3) \times 10^{-13}$, which is likely dominated by the general relativistic orbital decay of the system. The effects of the orbital variability due to the redback nature of the pulsar are not needed to explain the observed orbital period derivative, but they are constrained to less than $\sim$30% of the observed value.

Banzhaf values offer a simple and interpretable alternative to the widely-used Shapley values. We introduce Kernel Banzhaf, a novel algorithm inspired by KernelSHAP, that leverages an elegant connection between Banzhaf values and linear regression. Through extensive experiments on feature attribution tasks, we demonstrate that Kernel Banzhaf substantially outperforms other algorithms for estimating Banzhaf values in both sample efficiency and robustness to noise. Furthermore, we prove theoretical guarantees on the algorithm's performance, establishing Kernel Banzhaf as a valuable tool for interpretable machine learning.

Recent experimental and computational studies have demonstrated that nanoconfinement profoundly alters the phase behavior of water, facilitating complex phase transitions at pressures and temperatures far lower than typically observed in bulk systems. When combined with adsorption, nanoconfinement substantially enhances water uptake, primarily due to condensation occurring at the onset of the isotherm curve-a phenomenon intimately related to the facilitated formation of hydrogen bond networks. In this study, we adopt a dual approach to investigate water confined within infinite graphene slits. Our Molecular Dynamics simulations reveal hysteresis across all investigated temperatures. Unlike in finite slits, where hysteresis arises due to surface tension effects at the edges, in the case of infinite slits, the hysteresis is the result of a genuine phase transition at the nanoscale. We analyze the spatial and orientational arrangements of the water molecules, demonstrating how the graphene surface promotes the formation of a hydrogen bond network in the adjacent water layers. The remarkably low pressure required for water uptake in this nano-environment is explained at the mean-field level using a simple interacting lattice model. This is attributed to the exponential dependence of the critical pressure on the adsorbate-adsorbent interaction., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, with supplementary information

In the shift towards human-centered manufacturing, our two-year longitudinal study investigates the real-world impact of deploying Cognitive Assistants (CAs) in factories. The CAs were designed to facilitate knowledge sharing among factory operators. Our investigation focused on smartphone-based voice assistants and LLM-powered chatbots, examining their usability and utility in a real-world factory setting. Based on the qualitative feedback we collected during the deployments of CAs at the factories, we conducted a thematic analysis to investigate the perceptions, challenges, and overall impact on workflow and knowledge sharing. Our results indicate that while CAs have the potential to significantly improve efficiency through knowledge sharing and quicker resolution of production issues, they also introduce concerns around workplace surveillance, the types of knowledge that can be shared, and shortcomings compared to human-to-human knowledge sharing. Additionally, our findings stress the importance of addressing privacy, knowledge contribution burdens, and tensions between factory operators and their managers., Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, under review

We investigate the efficacy of turbulent fountains as a tool for frost mitigation and pollution control in stratified ambient fluids. By examining the interaction between the ejected fountain fluid and the lower atmospheric layers, we develop predictive models to assess their impact on temperature distribution and the return of polluted ejected fluid to the ground. This analysis covers a range of fountain parameters, including $Fr^{-2}$ and $u^{\prime}/U$, where $Fr$ is the Froude number and $u^{\prime}/U$ represents the turbulent intensity at the inlet. Notably, we identify an optimal set of parameter values where the temperature rise is maximised, independent of the fountain's turbulence intensity. This optimal condition occurs in the so-called semi-collapse regime, as described by Saras\'ua et al. [Flow, Turbulence and Combustion, 112(4), 1009-1025 (2024)], where the returning fluid, mixed with warmer upper ambient layers, significantly increases local temperature. Our findings underscore the importance of carefully tuning fountain parameters to balance their effects on the surrounding environment, offering valuable insights for the practical use of turbulent fountains in environmental management., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures

This paper introduces a new machine learning-assisted chromatic dispersion compensation filter, demonstrating its superior power efficiency compared to conventional FFT-based filters for metro link distances. Validations on FPGA confirmed an energy efficiency gain of up to 63.5\% compared to the standard frequency-domain chromatic dispersion equalizer., Comment: Accepted to ECOC 2024 Conference , https://www.ecoc2024.org/

Atmosphere-skimming air showers are initiated by cosmic rays with incoming directions that allow the cascade to develop entirely within the atmosphere, without reaching the ground. Radio pulses induced by this type of showers have already been observed in balloon-borne experiments such as ANITA, but a detailed characterisation of their properties is lacking. The extreme range of densities in which these cascades can develop gives rise to a wide range of shower profiles, with radio emission characteristics that can differ significantly from those of regular downward-going showers. In this work, we have used the ZHAireS-RASPASS program to characterise the expected radio emission from atmosphere-skimming air showers and its properties. We have studied the interplay between the magnetic field and atmospheric density profile in the expected radio signal, focusing on its detection aboard balloon-borne experiments. The almost horizontal geometry of the events gives rise to a significant \textit{refractive} asymmetry in the spatial distribution of the electric field, due to the propagation of the radio signals across a gradient of index of refraction. In addition, a unique \textit{coherence} asymmetry appears in the intensity of the signals, as a consequence of the cumulative effect of the Earth's magnetic field over the very long distances that these particle cascades traverse. The implications of the peculiar characteristics of the emission are discussed regarding their impact both on the interpretation of collected data and in the exposure of balloon-borne experiments, Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, to be submitted to JCAP

We investigate some possible symmetries of the superconducting state that emerges in three-dimensional altermagnets in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. We demonstrate within a weak-coupling approach that altermagnetic fluctuations with form factor $\boldsymbol{g}_{\mathbf{k}}$ promote spin-triplet superconductivity described by gap functions $\boldsymbol{d}(\mathbf{k}) = \boldsymbol{u}(\mathbf{k}) \times \boldsymbol{g}_{\mathbf{k}}$, such that $\boldsymbol{u}(\mathbf{k}) = - \boldsymbol{u}(-\mathbf{k})$. Consequently, this singles out $f$-wave spin-triplet superconductivity as the most favorable pairing state to appear in the vicinity of $d$-wave altermagnetism. Furthermore, we obtain that the combination of spin-singlet superconducting states with altermagnetism gives rise to Bogoliubov-Fermi surfaces, which are protected by a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariant. Using a Ginzburg-Landau analysis, we show that, for a class of spin-orbit coupled altermagnetic models, a superconducting phase is expected to appear at low temperatures as an intertwined $d + if$ state, thus breaking time-reversal symmetry spontaneously., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; Supplemental Material: 9 pages, 3 figures

Power efficiency remains a significant challenge in modern optical fiber communication systems, driving efforts to reduce the computational complexity of digital signal processing, particularly in chromatic dispersion compensation (CDC) algorithms. While various strategies for complexity reduction have been proposed, many lack the necessary hardware implementation to validate their benefits. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the tap overlapping effect in CDC filters for coherent receivers, introduces a novel Time-Domain Clustered Equalizer (TDCE) technique based on this concept, and presents a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation for validation. We developed an innovative parallelization method for TDCE, implementing it in hardware for fiber lengths up to 640 km. A fair comparison with the state-of-the-art frequency domain equalizer (FDE) under identical conditions is also conducted. Our findings highlight that implementation strategies, including parallelization and memory management, are as crucial as computational complexity in determining hardware complexity and energy efficiency. The proposed TDCE hardware implementation achieves up to 70.7\% energy savings and 71.4\% multiplier usage savings compared to FDE, despite its higher computational complexity.

This work tackles the critical challenge of mitigating "hardware noise" in deep analog neural networks, a major obstacle in advancing analog signal processing devices. We propose a comprehensive, hardware-agnostic solution to address both correlated and uncorrelated noise affecting the activation layers of deep neural models. The novelty of our approach lies in its ability to demystify the "black box" nature of noise-resilient networks by revealing the underlying mechanisms that reduce sensitivity to noise. In doing so, we introduce a new explainable regularization framework that harnesses these mechanisms to significantly enhance noise robustness in deep neural architectures.

During a wildfire, the work of the aerial coordinator is crucial for the control of the wildfire and the minimization of the burned area and the damage caused. Since it could be very useful for the coordinator to have decision-making tools at his/her disposal, this framework deals with an optimization model to obtain the optimal planning of firefighting helicopters, deciding the points where the aircraft should load water, the areas of the wildfire where they should work, and the rest bases to which each helicopter should be assigned. It was developed a Mixed Integer Linear Programming model which takes into account the configuration of helicopters, in closed circuits, as well as the flight aerial regulations in Spain. Due to the complexity of the model, two algorithms are developed, based on the Simulated Annealing and Iterated Local Search metaheuristic techniques. Both algorithms are tested with real data instances, obtaining very promising results for future application in the planning of aircraft throughout a wildfire evolution., Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures

PSR J1618-3921 is one of five known millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in eccentric orbits (eMPSs) located in the Galactic plane, whose formation is poorly understood. Earlier studies of these objects revealed significant discrepancies between observation and predictions from standard binary evolution scenarios of pulsar-Helium white dwarf binaries. We conducted observations with the L-band receiver of the MeerKAT radio telescope and the UWL receiver of the Parkes Murriyang radio telescope between 2019 and 2021. These data were added to archival observations. We perform an analysis of this joint 23-year-dataset. We use the recent observations to give a brief account of the emission properties of J1618-3921, including a Rotating Vector model fit of the linear polarisation position angle of the pulsar. The long timing baseline allowed for a highly significant measurement of the rate of advance of periastron of $\dot{\omega}$. We can only report a low significance detection of the orthometric Shapiro delay parameters $h_3$ and $\varsigma$, leading to mass estimates of the total and individual binary masses. We detect an unexpected change in the orbital period of, which is an order of magnitude larger and carries an opposite sign to what is expected from Galactic acceleration and the Shklovskii effect. We also detect a significant second derivative of the spin frequency. Furthermore, we report an unexpected, abrupt change of the mean pulse profile in June 2021 with unknown origin. We propose that the anomalous $\dot{P_b}$ and $\ddot{f}$ indicate an additional varying acceleration due to a nearby mass, i.e., the J1618-3921 binary system is likely part of a hierarchical triple. This finding suggests that at least some eMSPs might have formed in triple star systems. Although the uncertainties are large, the binary companion mass is consistent with the $P_b$ - $M_{WD}$ relation., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables

We study an integrable equation whose solutions define a triad of one-forms describing a surface with Gaussian curvature -1. We identify a local group of diffeomorphisms that preserve these solutions and establish conserved quantities. From the symmetries, we obtain invariant solutions that provide explicit metrics for the surfaces. These solutions are unbounded and often appear in mirrored pairs. We introduce the ``collage'' method, which uses conserved quantities to remove unbounded parts and smoothly join the solutions, leading to weak solutions consistent with the conserved quantities. As a result we get pseudo-peakons, which are smoother than Camassa-Holm peakons. Additionally, we apply a Miura-type transformation to relate our equation to the Degasperis-Procesi equation, allowing us to recover peakon and shock-peakon solutions for it from the solutions of the other equation., Comment: Parts of the original version concerning shock-peakons have been update, whereas references [9] and [10] have been added as well. We thank Professor Hans Lundmark for his valuable comments and suggestions made on the earlier version of the manuscript

We present a computational approach for unfolding 3D shapes isometrically into the plane as a single patch without overlapping triangles. This is a hard, sometimes impossible, problem, which existing methods are forced to soften by allowing for map distortions or multiple patches. Instead, we propose a geometric relaxation of the problem: we modify the input shape until it admits an overlap-free unfolding. We achieve this by locally displacing vertices and collapsing edges, guided by the unfolding process. We validate our algorithm quantitatively and qualitatively on a large dataset of complex shapes and show its proficiency by fabricating real shapes from paper., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures

The electronic band structure of monolayer phosphorene is thoroughly studied by considering the presence of spin-orbit interaction. We employ a multiorbital Slater-Koster tight-binding approach to derive effective k.p-type Hamiltonians that describes the dominant spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects of the Rashba and intrinsic origin at the high {\Gamma} and S high symmetry points in phosphorene. In the absence of SOC effects a minimal admixture of pz and py atomic orbitals suffices to reproduce the well known anisotropy of highest valence and the lowest conduction bands at the {\Gamma}-point, consistent with density functional theory (DFT) and k.p methods. In contrast, the inclusion of the px and s atomic orbitals are rather crucial for an adequate description of the SOC effects in phosphorene at low energies, particularly at the S-point. We introduce useful analytical expressions for the Rashba and intrinsic SOC parameters in terms of the relevant Slater-Koster integrals. In addition, we report simple formulas for the interband dipole-strenghts, revealing the nature of the strong anisotropic behavior of its lower bands. Our findings can be useful for further studies of electronic and spin transport properties in monolayer phosphorene and its nanoribbons., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures

Results are presented for the measurement of large-scale anisotropies in the arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory during 19 years of operation, prior to AugerPrime, the upgrade of the Observatory. The 3D dipole amplitude and direction are reconstructed above $4\,$EeV in four energy bins. Besides the established dipolar anisotropy in right ascension above $8\,$EeV, the Fourier amplitude of the $8$ to $16\,$EeV energy bin is now also above the $5\sigma$ discovery level. No time variation of the dipole moment above $8\,$EeV is found, setting an upper limit to the rate of change of such variations of $0.3\%$ per year at the $95\%$ confidence level. Additionally, the results for the angular power spectrum are shown, demonstrating no other statistically significant multipoles. The results for the equatorial dipole component down to $0.03\,$EeV are presented, using for the first time a data set obtained with a trigger that has been optimized for lower energies. Finally, model predictions are discussed and compared with observations, based on two source emission scenarios obtained in the combined fit of spectrum and composition above $0.6\,$EeV., Comment: Minor modifications, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

This tutorial-review on applications of artificial neural networks in photonics targets a broad audience, ranging from optical research and engineering communities to computer science and applied mathematics. We focus here on the research areas at the interface between these disciplines, attempting to find the right balance between technical details specific to each domain and overall clarity. First, we briefly recall key properties and peculiarities of some core neural network types, which we believe are the most relevant to photonics, also linking the layer's theoretical design to some photonics hardware realizations. After that, we elucidate the question of how to fine-tune the selected model's design to perform the required task with optimized accuracy. Then, in the review part, we discuss recent developments and progress for several selected applications of neural networks in photonics, including multiple aspects relevant to optical communications, imaging, sensing, and the design of new materials and lasers. In the following section, we put a special emphasis on how to accurately evaluate the complexity of neural networks in the context of the transition from algorithms to hardware implementation. The introduced complexity characteristics are used to analyze the applications of neural networks in optical communications, as a specific, albeit highly important example, comparing those with some benchmark signal processing methods. We combine the description of the well-known model compression strategies used in machine learning, with some novel techniques introduced recently in optical applications of neural networks. It is important to stress that although our focus in this tutorial-review is on photonics, we believe that the methods and techniques presented here can be handy in a much wider range of scientific and engineering applications.

Wildlife traffickers are increasingly carrying out their activities in cyberspace. As they advertise and sell wildlife products in online marketplaces, they leave digital traces of their activity. This creates a new opportunity: by analyzing these traces, we can obtain insights into how trafficking networks work as well as how they can be disrupted. However, collecting such information is difficult. Online marketplaces sell a very large number of products and identifying ads that actually involve wildlife is a complex task that is hard to automate. Furthermore, given that the volume of data is staggering, we need scalable mechanisms to acquire, filter, and store the ads, as well as to make them available for analysis. In this paper, we present a new approach to collect wildlife trafficking data at scale. We propose a data collection pipeline that combines scoped crawlers for data discovery and acquisition with foundational models and machine learning classifiers to identify relevant ads. We describe a dataset we created using this pipeline which is, to the best of our knowledge, the largest of its kind: it contains almost a million ads obtained from 41 marketplaces, covering 235 species and 20 languages. The source code is publicly available at \url{https://github.com/VIDA-NYU/wildlife_pipeline}.

The discovery of the first pulsar in a binary star system, the Hulse--Taylor pulsar, 50 years ago opened up an entirely new field of experimental gravity. For the first time it was possible to investigate strong-field and radiative aspects of the gravitational interaction. Continued observations of the Hulse--Taylor pulsar eventually led, among other confirmations of the predictions of general relativity (GR), to the first evidence for the reality of gravitational waves. In the meantime, many more radio pulsars have been discovered that are suitable for testing GR and its alternatives. One particularly remarkable binary system is the Double Pulsar, which has far surpassed the Hulse--Taylor pulsar in several respects. In addition, binary pulsar-white dwarf systems have been shown to be particularly suitable for testing alternative gravitational theories, as they often predict strong dipolar gravitational radiation for such asymmetric systems. A rather unique pulsar laboratory is the pulsar in a hierarchical stellar triple, that led to by far the most precise confirmation of the strong-field version of the universality of free fall. Using radio pulsars, it could be shown that additional aspects of the Strong Equivalence Principle apply to the dynamics of strongly self-gravitating bodies, like the local position and local Lorentz invariance of the gravitational interaction. So far, GR has passed all pulsar tests with flying colours, while at the same time many alternative gravity theories have either been strongly constrained or even falsified. New telescopes, instrumentation, timing and search algorithms promise a significant improvement of the existing tests and the discovery of (qualitatively) new, more relativistic binary systems., Comment: Invited review article for Living Reviews in Relativity

Background: The use of gray literature (GL) has grown in software engineering research, especially in studies that consider Questions and Answers (Q&A) sites, since software development professionals widely use them. Though snowballing (SB) techniques are standard in systematic literature reviews, little is known about how to apply them to gray literature reviews. Aims: This paper investigates how to use SB approaches on Q&A sites during gray literature reviews to identify new valid discussions for analysis. Method: In previous studies, we compiled and analyzed a set of Stack Exchange Project Management (SEPM) discussions related to software engineering technical debt (TD). Those studies used a data set consisting of 108 valid discussions extracted from SEPM. Based on this start data set, we perform forward and backward SB using two different approaches: link-based and similarity-based SB. We then compare the precision and recall of those two SB approaches against the search-based approach of the original study. Results: In just one snowballing iteration, the approaches yielded 291 new discussions for analysis, 130 of which were considered valid for our study. That is an increase of about 120% over the original data set (recall). The SB process also yielded a similar rate of valid discussion retrieval when compared to the search-based approach (precision). Conclusion: This paper provides guidelines on how to apply two SB approaches to find new valid discussions for review. To our knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the use of SB on Q&A websites. By applying SB, it was possible to identify new discussions, significantly increasing the relevant data set for a gray literature review., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

The probabilities for gamma-ray and particle emission as a function of the excitation energy of a decaying nucleus are valuable observables for constraining the ingredients of the models that describe the de-excitation of nuclei near the particle emission threshold. These models are essential in nuclear astrophysics and applications. In this work, we have for the first time simultaneously measured the gamma-ray and neutron emission probabilities of 208Pb. The measurement was performed in inverse kinematics at the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) of the GSI/FAIR facility, where a 208Pb beam interacted through the 208Pb(p,p') reaction with a hydrogen gas jet target. Instead of detecting the gamma-rays and neutrons emitted by 208Pb, we detected the heavy beam-like residues produced after gamma and neutron emission. These heavy residues were fully separated by a dipole magnet of the ESR and were detected with outstanding efficiencies. The comparison of the measured probabilities with model calculations has allowed us to test and select different descriptions of the gamma-ray strength function and the nuclear level density available in the literature., Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures

PSR J1227$-$6208 is a 34.53-ms recycled pulsar with a massive companion. This system has long been suspected to belong to the emerging class of massive recycled pulsar-ONeMg white dwarf systems such as PSR J2222$-$0137, PSR J1528$-$3146 and J1439$-$5501. Here we present an updated emission and timing analysis with more than 11 years of combined Parkes and MeerKAT data, including 19 hours of high-frequency data from the newly installed MeerKAT S-band receivers. We measure a scattering timescale of 1.22 ms at 1 GHz with a flat scattering index 3.33<$\beta$<3.62, and a mean flux density of 0.53-0.62 mJy at 1 GHz with a steep spectral index 2.06<$\alpha$<2.35. Around 15% of the emission is linearly and circularly polarised, but the polarisation angle does not follow the rotating vector model. Thanks to the sensitivity of MeerKAT, we successfully measure a rate of periastron advance of 0.0171(11) deg/yr, and a Shapiro delay with an orthometric amplitude of 3.6$\pm$0.5 $\mu$s and an orthometric shape of 0.85$\pm$0.05. The main source of uncertainty in our timing analysis is chromatic correlated dispersion measure noise, which we model as a power law in the Fourier space thanks to the large frequency coverage provided by the Parkes UWL receiver. Assuming general relativity and accounting for the measurements across all the implemented timing noise models, the total mass, companion mass, pulsar mass and inclination angle are constrained at 2.3

In this work, we propose an algorithm for a filter based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), which, due to its characteristics, allows for an efficient computational implementation, ease of use, and minimizes amplitude variation in the filtered signal. The algorithm was implemented using the programming languages Python, R, and MATLAB. Initial results led to the conclusion that there was less amplitude loss in the filtered signal compared to the FIR filter. Future work may address a more rigorous methodology and comparative assessment of computational cost., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, code examples, 1 table

Precise millisecond pulsar (MSP) positions determined with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) hold the key to building the connection between the kinematic and dynamic reference frames respectively used by VLBI and pulsar timing. The frame connection would provide an important pathway to examining the planetary ephemerides used in pulsar timing, and potentially enhancing the sensitivities of pulsar timing arrays used to detect stochastic gravitational-wave background at nano-Hz regime. We aim at significantly improving the VLBI-based MSP position from its current $\gtrsim1\,$mas precision level by reducing the two dominant components in the positional uncertainty -- the propagation-related uncertainty and the uncertainty resulting from the frequency-dependent core shifts of the reference sources. We introduce a new differential astrometry strategy of using multiple calibrators observed at several widely separated frequencies, which we call PINPT (Phase-screen Interpolation plus frequeNcy-dePendent core shifT correction; read as "pinpoint") for brevity. The strategy allows determination of the core-shift and mitigates the impact of residual delay in the atmosphere. We implemented the strategy on PSR J2222-0137, an MSP well constrained astrometrically with VLBI and pulsar timing. Using the PINPT strategy, we determined core shifts for 4 AGNs around PSR J2222-0137, and derived a VLBI-based pulsar position with uncertainty of 0.17 mas and 0.32 mas in right ascension and declination, respectively, approaching the uncertainty level of the best-determined timing-based MSP positions. The realization of the PINPT strategy promises a factor-of-5 positional precision enhancement (over conventional VLBI astrometry) for all kinds of compact radio sources observed at $\lesssim2$ GHz, including most fast radio bursts., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are known to be mainly of extragalactic origin, and their propagation is limited by energy losses, so their arrival directions are expected to correlate with the large-scale structure of the local Universe. In this work, we investigate the possible presence of intermediate-scale excesses in the flux of the most energetic cosmic rays from the direction of the supergalactic plane region using events with energies above 20 EeV recorded with the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory up to 31 December 2022, with a total exposure of 135,000 km^2 sr yr. The strongest indication for an excess that we find, with a post-trial significance of 3.1{\sigma}, is in the Centaurus region, as in our previous reports, and it extends down to lower energies than previously studied. We do not find any strong hints of excesses from any other region of the supergalactic plane at the same angular scale. In particular, our results do not confirm the reports by the Telescope Array collaboration of excesses from two regions in the Northern Hemisphere at the edge of the field of view of the Pierre Auger Observatory. With a comparable exposure, our results in those regions are in good agreement with the expectations from an isotropic distribution., Comment: submitted to ApJ

Millisecond pulsars are subject to accelerations in globular clusters (GCs) that manifest themselves in both the first and second spin period time derivatives, and can be used to explore the mass distribution of the potentials they inhabit. Here we report on over 20 yr of pulsar timing observations of five millisecond radio pulsars in the core of the core-collapse GC NGC 6752 with the Parkes (Murriyang) and MeerKAT radio telescopes, which have allowed us to measure the proper motions, positions, and first and second time derivatives of the pulsars. The pulsar timing parameters indicate that all the pulsars in the core experience accelerations and jerks that can be explained only if an amount of nonluminous mass of at least 2.56x10^3 M_SUN is present in the core of NGC 6752. On the other hand, our studies highly disfavor the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole at the center of the cluster, with a mass equal to or greater than ~3000M_SUN., Comment: Published in ApJ. Replaced with the final published version

Modern NLP tasks increasingly rely on dense retrieval methods to access up-to-date and relevant contextual information. We are motivated by the premise that retrieval benefits from segments that can vary in size such that a content's semantic independence is better captured. We propose LumberChunker, a method leveraging an LLM to dynamically segment documents, which iteratively prompts the LLM to identify the point within a group of sequential passages where the content begins to shift. To evaluate our method, we introduce GutenQA, a benchmark with 3000 "needle in a haystack" type of question-answer pairs derived from 100 public domain narrative books available on Project Gutenberg. Our experiments show that LumberChunker not only outperforms the most competitive baseline by 7.37% in retrieval performance (DCG@20) but also that, when integrated into a RAG pipeline, LumberChunker proves to be more effective than other chunking methods and competitive baselines, such as the Gemini 1.5M Pro. Our Code and Data are available at https://github.com/joaodsmarques/LumberChunker

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the most sensitive instrument to detect photons with energies above $10^{17}$ eV. It measures extensive air showers generated by ultra high energy cosmic rays using a hybrid technique that exploits the combination of a fluorescence detector with a ground array of particle detectors. The signatures of a photon-induced air shower are a larger atmospheric depth of the shower maximum ($X_{max}$) and a steeper lateral distribution function, along with a lower number of muons with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced cascades. In this work, a new analysis technique in the energy interval between 1 and 30 EeV (1 EeV = $10^{18}$ eV) has been developed by combining the fluorescence detector-based measurement of $X_{max}$ with the specific features of the surface detector signal through a parameter related to the air shower muon content, derived from the universality of the air shower development. No evidence of a statistically significant signal due to photon primaries was found using data collected in about 12 years of operation. Thus, upper bounds to the integral photon flux have been set using a detailed calculation of the detector exposure, in combination with a data-driven background estimation. The derived 95% confidence level upper limits are 0.0403, 0.01113, 0.0035, 0.0023, and 0.0021 km$^{-2}$ sr$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$ above 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 EeV, respectively, leading to the most stringent upper limits on the photon flux in the EeV range. Compared with past results, the upper limits were improved by about 40% for the lowest energy threshold and by a factor 3 above 3 EeV, where no candidates were found and the expected background is negligible. The presented limits can be used to probe the assumptions on chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and allow for the constraint of the mass and lifetime phase space of super-heavy dark matter particles., Comment: 19 pages, 22 figures

We report an investigation of the mass composition of cosmic rays with energies from 3 to 100 EeV (1 EeV=$10^{18}$ eV) using the distributions of the depth of shower maximum $X_\mathrm{max}$. The analysis relies on ${\sim}50,000$ events recorded by the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory and a deep-learning-based reconstruction algorithm. Above energies of 5 EeV, the data set offers a 10-fold increase in statistics with respect to fluorescence measurements at the Observatory. After cross-calibration using the Fluorescence Detector, this enables the first measurement of the evolution of the mean and the standard deviation of the $X_\mathrm{max}$ distributions up to 100 EeV. Our findings are threefold: (1.) The evolution of the mean logarithmic mass towards a heavier composition with increasing energy can be confirmed and is extended to 100 EeV. (2.) The evolution of the fluctuations of $X_\mathrm{max}$ towards a heavier and purer composition with increasing energy can be confirmed with high statistics. We report a rather heavy composition and small fluctuations in $X_\mathrm{max}$ at the highest energies. (3.) We find indications for a characteristic structure beyond a constant change in the mean logarithmic mass, featuring three breaks that are observed in proximity to the ankle, instep, and suppression features in the energy spectrum., Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. D, 28 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables

We present measurements of the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum $X_\mathrm{max}$, inferred for the first time on an event-by-event level using the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Using deep learning, we were able to extend measurements of the $X_\mathrm{max}$ distributions up to energies of 100 EeV ($10^{20}$ eV), not yet revealed by current measurements, providing new insights into the mass composition of cosmic rays at extreme energies. Gaining a 10-fold increase in statistics compared to the Fluorescence Detector data, we find evidence that the rate of change of the average $X_\mathrm{max}$ with the logarithm of energy features three breaks at $6.5\pm0.6~(\mathrm{stat})\pm1~(\mathrm{sys})$ EeV, $11\pm 2~(\mathrm{stat})\pm1~(\mathrm{sys})$ EeV, and $31\pm5~(\mathrm{stat})\pm3~(\mathrm{sys})$ EeV, in the vicinity to the three prominent features (ankle, instep, suppression) of the cosmic-ray flux. The energy evolution of the mean and standard deviation of the measured $X_\mathrm{max}$ distributions indicates that the mass composition becomes increasingly heavier and purer, thus being incompatible with a large fraction of light nuclei between 50 EeV and 100 EeV., Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

This paper presents a multiobjective Home Care Scheduling Problem (from now on multiobjective HCSP) related to a home care company for elderly and dependent people located in the North of Spain. In particular, a biobjective problem is considered, with the following two conflicting objectives: the welfare of users and the cost of schedules. To tackle the problem, a custom metaheuristic algorithm based on the Multi-Directional Local Search (MDLS) was designed, obtaining good approximations of the Pareto frontier in efficient computational times. This biobjective algorithm can be divided into three steps: initializing the set of non dominated solutions, generating solutions composed by different routes and obtaining non dominated solutions. The performance of the biobjective algorithm was analyzed by implementing two other well known methods in the literature: the exact method AUGMECON2, which is just an improved version of the Epsilon Constraint approach, and an NSGA-II-based algorithm. Finally, an extensive computational study was developed to compare the three methods over a set of instances from the literature, where the biobjective algorithm exhibited a superior behaviour. Furthermore, the algorithm was also applied to real instances providing solutions to the company with a good trade-off between the two objectives.

The hippocampus has been associated with both spatial cognition and episodic memory formation, but integrating these functions into a unified framework remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate that forming discrete memories of visual events in sparse autoencoder neurons can produce spatial tuning similar to hippocampal place cells. We then show that the resulting very high-dimensional code enables neurons to discretize and tile the underlying image space with minimal overlap. Additionally, we extend our results to the auditory domain, showing that neurons similarly tile the frequency space in an experience-dependent manner. Lastly, we show that reinforcement learning agents can effectively perform various visuo-spatial cognitive tasks using these sparse, very high-dimensional representations.

The COVID-19 outbreak implied many changes in the daily life of most of the world's population for a long time, prompting severe restrictions on sociality. The Behavioral Immune System (BIS) suggests that when facing pathogens, a psychological mechanism would be activated that, among other things, would generate an increase in prejudice and discrimination towards marginalized groups, including immigrants. This study aimed to test if people tend to enhance their rejection of minorities and foreign groups under the threat of contagious diseases, using the users' attitudes towards migrants in Twitter data from Chile, for pre-pandemic and pandemic contexts. Our results only partially support the BIS hypothesis, since threatened users increased their tweet production in the pandemic period, compared to empathetic users, but the latter grew in number and also increased the reach of their tweets between the two periods. We also found differences in the use of language between these types of users. Alternative explanations for these results may be context-dependent., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, under review

The discovery of the quantum spin Hall effect led to the exploration of the electronic transport for spintronic devices. Here, we theoretically investigated the electronic conductance in large-gap realistic quantum spin Hall system, Pt$_2$HgSe$_3$ nanoribbons. By an ab initio approach, we found that the edge states present a penetration depth of about $0.9$\,{nm}, which is much smaller than those predicted in other 2D topological systems. Thus, suggesting that Pt$_2$HgSe$_3$ allows the exploitation of topological transport properties in narrow ribbons. Using non-equilibrium Green's functions calculations, we have examined the electron conductivity upon the presence of Se\,$\leftrightarrow$\,Hg antistructure defects randomly distributed in the Pt$_2$HgSe$_3$ scattering region. By considering scattering lengths up to $109$\,nm, we found localization lengths that can surpass $\mu$m sizes for narrow nanoribbons ($<9$\,nm). These findings can contribute to further understanding the behavior of topological insulators under realistic conditions and their integration within electronic, spintronic devices.

The spread of valence band Wannier functions in semiconductors and insulators is a characteristic property that gives a rough estimation of how insulating is the material. We elaborate that the gauge-invariant part of the spread can be extracted experimentally from optical conductivity and absorbance, owing to their equivalence to the quantum metric of the valence band states integrated over momentum. Because the quantum metric enters the matrix element of optical conductivity, the spread of valence band Wannier functions in the gapped 3D materials can be obtained from the frequency-integration of the imaginary part of the dielectric function. We demonstrate this practically for typical semiconductors like Si and Ge, and for topological insulators like Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$. In 2D materials, the spread of Wannier functions in the valence bands can be obtained from the absorbance divided by frequency and then integrated over frequency. Applying this method to graphene reveals a finite spread caused by intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, which may be detected by absorbance in the microwave range. The absorbance of twisted bilayer graphene in the millimeter wave range can be used to detect the formation of the flat bands and quantify their quantum metric. Finally, we apply our method to hexagonal transition metal dichalcogenides MX$_{2}$ (M = Mo, W; X = S, Se, Te) and demonstrate how other effects like substrate, excitons, and higher energy bands can affect the spread of Wannier function., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

As software systems continue to play a significant role in modern society, ensuring their fairness has become a critical concern in software engineering. Motivated by this scenario, this paper focused on exploring the multifaceted nature of bias in software systems, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of its origins, manifestations, and impacts. Through a scoping study, we identified the primary causes of fairness deficiency in software development and highlighted their adverse effects on individuals and communities, including instances of discrimination and the perpetuation of inequalities. Our investigation culminated in the introduction of the concept of software fairness debt, which complements the notions of technical and social debt, encapsulating the accumulation of biases in software engineering practices while emphasizing the societal ramifications of bias embedded within software systems. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of fairness in software engineering and paves the way for the development of more equitable and socially responsible software systems.

This paper reports how CdSe core-only nanoplatelets coupled with plasmonic Al nanoparticle lattices can exhibit exciton-polariton lasing. By improving a procedure to synthesize monodisperse 4-monolayer CdSe nanoplatelets, we could resolve polariton decay dynamics and pathways. Experiment and theory confirmed that the system is in the strong coupling regime based on anti-crossings in the dispersion diagrams and magnitude of the Rabi splitting values. Notably, polariton lasing is observed only for cavity lattice periodicities that exhibit specific dispersive characteristics that enable polariton accumulation. The threshold of polariton lasing is 25-fold lower than reported photon lasing values from CdSe nanoplatelets in similar cavity designs. This open-cavity platform offers a simple approach to control exciton polaritons anticipated to benefit quantum information processing, optoelectronics, and chemical reactions.

In this review, we survey the current progress in computing transport properties in semimetals which harbour non-Fermi liquid phases. We first discuss the widely-used Kubo formalism, which can be applied to the effective theory describing the stable non-Fermi liquid phase obtained via a renormalization group procedure and, hence, is applicable for temperatures close to zero (e.g., optical conductivity). For finite-temperature regimes, which apply to the computations of the generalized DC conductivity tensors, we elucidate the memory matrix approach. This approach is based on an effective hydrodynamic description of the system, and is especially suited for tackling transport calculations in strongly-interacting quantum field theories, because it does not rely on the existence of long-lived quasiparticles. As a concrete example, we apply these two approaches to find the response of the so-called Luttinger-Abrikosov-Benelavskii phase of isotropic three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals, which arises under the effects of long-ranged (unscreened) Coulomb interactions, with the chemical potential fine-tuned to cut exactly the nodal point. In particular, we focus on the electric conductivity tensors, thermal and thermoelectric response, Raman response, free energy, entropy density, and shear viscosity., Comment: typos fixed; contains results obtained in arXiv:2012.07866, arXiv:2104.07459, and arXiv:2201.04045

Emotion classification through EEG signals plays a significant role in psychology, neuroscience, and human-computer interaction. This paper addresses the challenge of mapping human emotions using EEG data in the Mapping Human Emotions through EEG Signals FG24 competition. Subjects mimic the facial expressions of an avatar, displaying fear, joy, anger, sadness, disgust, and surprise in a VR setting. EEG data is captured using a multi-channel sensor system to discern brain activity patterns. We propose a novel two-stream neural network employing a Bi-Hemispheric approach for emotion inference, surpassing baseline methods and enhancing emotion recognition accuracy. Additionally, we conduct a temporal analysis revealing that specific signal intervals at the beginning and end of the emotion stimulus sequence contribute significantly to improve accuracy. Leveraging insights gained from this temporal analysis, our approach offers enhanced performance in capturing subtle variations in the states of emotions., Comment: Second place award at the Brain Responses to Emotional Avatars Challenge held by the 18th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition(FG2024)

The flux of ultra-high energy cosmic rays reaching Earth above the ankle energy (5 EeV) can be described as a mixture of nuclei injected by extragalactic sources with very hard spectra and a low rigidity cutoff. Extragalactic magnetic fields existing between the Earth and the closest sources can affect the observed CR spectrum by reducing the flux of low-rigidity particles reaching Earth. We perform a combined fit of the spectrum and distributions of depth of shower maximum measured with the Pierre Auger Observatory including the effect of this magnetic horizon in the propagation of UHECRs in the intergalactic space. We find that, within a specific range of the various experimental and phenomenological systematics, the magnetic horizon effect can be relevant for turbulent magnetic field strengths in the local neighbourhood of order $B_{\rm rms}\simeq (50-100)\,{\rm nG}\,(20\rm{Mpc}/{d_{\rm s})( 100\,\rm{kpc}/L_{\rm coh}})^{1/2}$, with $d_{\rm s}$ the typical intersource separation and $L_{\rm coh}$ the magnetic field coherence length. When this is the case, the inferred slope of the source spectrum becomes softer and can be closer to the expectations of diffusive shock acceleration, i.e., $\propto E^{-2}$. An additional cosmic-ray population with higher source density and softer spectra, presumably also extragalactic and dominating the cosmic-ray flux at EeV energies, is also required to reproduce the overall spectrum and composition results for all energies down to 0.6~EeV., Comment: Matches published version

This paper provides an approach to design control barrier functions (CBFs) using the notion of dynamic safety margins (DSMs). In particular, it is shown that DSMs are CBFs for an augmented system. The proposed approach can handle multiple state and input constraints using the control-sharing property of CBFs. Moreover, it makes no assumption on the relative degree of the constraints. Numerical simulations show that the method outperforms existing DSM-based approaches, while also guaranteeing safety and recursive feasibility., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

Atmosphere-skimming showers are initiated by cosmic rays with incoming directions such that the full development of the cascade occurs inside the atmosphere without ever reaching the ground. This new class of showers has been observed in balloon-borne experiments such as ANITA, but a characterisation of their properties is lacking. The interplay between the Earth's magnetic field, the long distances over which atmosphere-skimming showers develop, and the low density of the atmosphere they traverse gives rise to several effects that are not seen in downward-going cascades, and require detailed modeling. In this article, we used the latest version of the ZHAireS-RASPASS shower simulation program to tackle this problem, and dwell on the particular phenomena that arises from the peculiar environment on which these showers develop. We focus in particular on the properties of the longitudinal profile of the shower and its fluctuations as a function of cosmic-ray energy, direction and primary mass. We have also studied the phase-space of cosmic-ray arrival directions where detection in high-altitude experiments is more likely, and have found that only in a small range of directions the showers are sufficiently developed before reaching the altitude of the detector. Our results are relevant for the design of high-altitude and in particular balloon-borne experiments, and for the interpretation of the data they collect., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. Submited to JCAP

Is artificial consciousness theoretically possible? Is it plausible? If so, is it technically feasible? To make progress on these questions, it is necessary to lay some groundwork clarifying the logical and empirical conditions for artificial consciousness to arise and the meaning of relevant terms involved. Consciousness is a polysemic word: researchers from different fields, including neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and philosophy, among others, sometimes use different terms in order to refer to the same phenomena or the same terms to refer to different phenomena. In fact, if we want to pursue artificial consciousness, a proper definition of the key concepts is required. Here, after some logical and conceptual preliminaries, we argue for the necessity of using dimensions and profiles of consciousness for a balanced discussion about their possible instantiation or realisation in artificial systems. Our primary goal in this paper is to review the main theoretical questions that arise in the domain of artificial consciousness. On the basis of this review, we propose to assess the issue of artificial consciousness within a multidimensional account. The theoretical possibility of artificial consciousness is already presumed within some theoretical frameworks; however, empirical possibility cannot simply be deduced from these frameworks but needs independent empirical validation. We break down the complexity of consciousness by identifying constituents, components, and dimensions, and reflect pragmatically about the general challenges confronting the creation of artificial consciousness. Despite these challenges, we outline a research strategy for showing how "awareness" as we propose to understand it could plausibly be realised in artificial systems.

Neutron stars (NSs) are compact objects that host the densest forms of matter in the observable universe, providing unique opportunities to study the behaviour of matter at extreme densities. While precision measurements of NS masses through pulsar timing have imposed effective constraints on the equation of state (EoS) of dense matter, accurately determining the radius or moment of inertia (MoI) of a NS remains a major challenge. This article presents a detailed review on measuring the Lense-Thirring (LT) precession effect in the orbit of binary pulsars, which would give access to the MoI of NSs and offer further constraints on the EoS. We discuss the suitability of certain classes of binary pulsars for measuring the LT precession from the perspective of binary star evolution, and highlight five pulsars that exhibit properties promising to realise these goals in the near future. Finally, discoveries of compact binaries with shorter orbital periods hold the potential to greatly enhance measurements of the MoI of NSs. The MoI measurements of binary pulsars are pivotal to advancing our understanding of matter at supranuclear densities as well as improving the precision of gravity tests, such as the orbital decay due to gravitational wave emission and of tests of alternative gravity theories., Comment: Invited review for special issue of Universe on "Studies in Neutron Stars" (accepted); 24 pages, 9 figures and 1 table