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Engineering biology requires precise control of biomolecular circuits, and Cybergenetics is the field dedicated to achieving this goal. A significant challenge in developing controllers for cellular functions is designing systems that can effectively manage molecular noise. To address this, there has been increasing effort to develop model-based controllers for stochastic biomolecular systems, where a major difficulty lies in accurately solving the chemical master equation. In this work we develop a framework for optimal and Model Predictive Control of stochastic gene regulatory networks with three key advantageous features: high computational efficiency, the capacity to control the overall probability density function enabling the fine-tuning of the cell population to obtain complex shapes and behaviors (including bimodality and other emergent properties), and the capacity to handle high levels of intrinsic molecular noise. Our method exploits an efficient approximation of the Chemical Master Equation using Partial Integro-Differential Equations, which additionally enables the development of an effective adjoint-based optimization. We illustrate the performance of the methods presented through two relevant studies in Synthetic Biology: shaping bimodal cell populations and tracking moving target distributions via inducible gene regulatory circuits.

Aviation's non-CO$_2$ effects, especially the impact of aviation-induced contrails, drive atmospheric changes and can influence climate dynamics. Although contrails are believed to contribute to global warming through their net warming effect, uncertainties persist due to the challenges in accurately measuring their radiative impacts. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by investigating the relationship between aviation-induced contrails, as observed in Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite imagery, and their impact on radiative forcing (RF) over a two-week study. Results show that while daytime contrails generally have a cooling effect, the higher number of nighttime contrails results in a net warming effect over the entire day. Net RF values for detected contrails range approximately from -8 TW to 2.5 TW during the day and from 0 to 6 TW at night. Our findings also show a 41.03% increase in contrail coverage from January 24-30, 2023, to the same week in 2024, accompanied by a 128.7% rise in contrail radiative forcing (CRF), indicating greater warming from the added contrails. These findings highlight the necessity of considering temporal factors, such as the timing and duration of contrail formation, when assessing their overall warming impact. They also indicate a potential increase in contrail-induced warming from 2023 to 2024, attributable to the rise in contrail coverage. Further investigation into these trends is crucial for the development of effective mitigation strategies., Comment: SESAR Innovation Days 2024

Sewerage infrastructure is among the most expensive modern investments requiring time-intensive manual inspections by qualified personnel. Our study addresses the need for automated solutions without relying on large amounts of labeled data. We propose a novel application of Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) for sewer inspection that offers a scalable and cost-effective solution for defect detection. We achieve competitive results with a model that is at least 5 times smaller than other approaches found in the literature and obtain competitive performance with 10\% of the available data when training with a larger architecture. Our findings highlight the potential of SSL to revolutionize sewer maintenance in resource-limited settings., Comment: Poster at the LatinX in AI Workshop @ ICML 2024

Direct redshift determination of BL Lac objects is highly challenging as the emission in the optical and near-infrared (NIR) bands is largely dominated by the non-thermal emission from the relativistic jet that points very close to our line of sight. Therefore, their optical spectra often show no emission lines from the host galaxy. In this work, we aim to overcome this difficulty by attempting to detect the host galaxy and derive redshift constraints based on assumptions on the galaxy magnitude ("imaging redshifts"). Imaging redshifts are derived by obtaining deep optical images under good seeing conditions, so that it is possible to detect the host galaxy as weak extension of the point-like source. We then derive the imaging redshift by using the host galaxy as a standard candle using two different methods. We determine imaging redshift for 9 out of 17 blazars that we observed as part of this program. The redshift range of these targets is 0.28-0.60 and the two methods used to derive the redshift give very consistent results within the uncertainties. We also performed a detailed comparison of the imaging redshifts with those obtained by other methods, like direct spectroscopic constraints or looking for groups of galaxies close to the blazar. We show that the constraints from different methods are consistent and that for example in the case of J2156.0+1818, which is the most distant source for which we detect the host galaxy, combining the three constraints narrows down the redshift to $0.63

We present multiwavelength polarization measurements of the luminous blazar Mrk~501 over a 14-month period. The 2--8 keV X-ray polarization was measured with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) with six 100-ks observations spanning from 2022 March to 2023 April. Each IXPE observation was accompanied by simultaneous X-ray data from NuSTAR, Swift/XRT, and/or XMM-Newton. Complementary optical-infrared polarization measurements were also available in the B, V, R, I, and J bands, as were radio polarization measurements from 4.85 GHz to 225.5 GHz. Among the first five IXPE observations, we did not find significant variability in the X-ray polarization degree and angle with IXPE. However, the most recent sixth observation found an elevated polarization degree at $>3\sigma$ above the average of the other five observations. The optical and radio measurements show no apparent correlations with the X-ray polarization properties. Throughout the six IXPE observations, the X-ray polarization degree remained higher than, or similar to, the R-band optical polarization degree, which remained higher than the radio value. This is consistent with the energy-stratified shock scenario proposed to explain the first two IXPE observations, in which the polarized X-ray, optical, and radio emission arises from different regions., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

With the advent of next-generation AR/VR headsets, many of them with affordable prices, telecom operators have forecasted an explosive growth of traffic in their networks. Penetration of AR/VR services and applications is estimated to grow exponentially in the next few years. This work attempts to shed light on the bandwidth capacity requirements and latency of popular AR/VR applications with four different real experimental settings on the Meta Quest 3 headsets, and their potential impact on the network.

Long-term adherence to medication is a critical factor in preventing chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. To address poor adherence, physicians may recommend adherence-improving interventions; however, such interventions are costly and limited in their availability. Knowing which patients will stop adhering helps distribute the available resources more effectively. We developed a binary integer program (BIP) model to select patients for adherence-improving intervention under budget constraints. We further studied a long-term adherence prediction model using dynamic logistic regression (DLR) model that uses patients' claim data, medical health factors, demographics, and monitoring frequencies to predict the risk of future non-adherence. We trained and tested our predictive model to longitudinal data for cardiovascular disease in a large cohort of patients taking medication for cholesterol control seen in the national Veterans Affairs health system. Our study shows the importance of including past adherence to increase prediction accuracy. Finally, we assess the potential benefits of using the prediction model by proposing an algorithm that combines the DLR and BIP models to decrease the number of CVD events in a population.

Experimentally obtained X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns can be difficult to solve, precluding the full characterization of materials, pharmaceuticals, and geological compounds. Herein, we propose a method based upon a multi-objective evolutionary search that uses both a structure's enthalpy and similarity to a reference XRD pattern (constituted by a list of peak positions and their intensities) to facilitate structure solution of inorganic systems. Because the similarity index is computed for locally optimized cells that are subsequently distorted to find the best match with the reference, this process transcends both computational (e.g. choice of theoretical method, and 0 K approximation) and experimental (e.g. external stimuli, and metastability) limitations. We illustrate how the proposed methodology can be employed to successfully uncover complex crystal structures by applying it to a range of test cases, including inorganic minerals, pure elements ramp-compressed to extreme conditions, and molecular crystals. The results demonstrate that our approach not only improves the accuracy of structure prediction but also significantly reduces the time required to achieve reliable solutions, thus providing a powerful tool for the advancement of materials science and related fields.

Context: There are currently three pulsars firmly detected by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs), two of them reaching TeV energies, challenging models of very-high-energy (VHE) emission in pulsars. More precise observations are needed to better characterize pulsar emission at these energies. The LST-1 is the prototype of the Large-Sized Telescope, that will be part of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). Its improved performance over previous IACTs makes it well suited for studying pulsars. Aims: To study the Crab pulsar emission with the LST-1, improving and complementing the results from other telescopes. These observations can also be used to characterize the potential of the LST-1 to study other pulsars and detect new ones. Methods: We analyzed a total of $\sim$103 hours of gamma-ray observations of the Crab pulsar conducted with the LST-1 in the period from September 2020 to January 2023. The observations were carried out at zenith angles less than 50 degrees. A new analysis of the Fermi-LAT data was also performed, including $\sim$14 years of observations. Results: The Crab pulsar phaseogram, long-term light-curve, and phase-resolved spectra are reconstructed with the LST-1 from 20 GeV to 450 GeV for P1 and up to 700 GeV for P2. The pulsed emission is detected with a significance of 15.2$\sigma$. The two characteristic emission peaks of the Crab pulsar are clearly detected (>10$\sigma$), as well as the so-called bridge emission (5.7$\sigma$). We find that both peaks are well described by power laws, with spectral indices of $\sim$3.44 and $\sim$3.03 respectively. The joint analysis of Fermi-LAT and LST-1 data shows a good agreement between both instruments in the overlapping energy range. The detailed results obtained in the first observations of the Crab pulsar with LST-1 show the potential that CTAO will have to study this type of sources., Comment: Accepted by A&A

New technologies such as Machine Learning (ML) gave great potential for evaluating industry workflows and automatically generating key performance indicators (KPIs). However, despite established standards for measuring the efficiency of industrial machinery, there is no precise equivalent for workers' productivity, which would be highly desirable given the lack of a skilled workforce for the next generation of industry workflows. Therefore, an ML solution combining data from manufacturing processes and workers' performance for that goal is required. Additionally, in recent times intense effort has been devoted to explainable ML approaches that can automatically explain their decisions to a human operator, thus increasing their trustworthiness. We propose to apply explainable ML solutions to differentiate between expert and inexpert workers in industrial workflows, which we validate at a quality assessment industrial workstation. Regarding the methodology used, input data are captured by a manufacturing machine and stored in a NoSQL database. Data are processed to engineer features used in automatic classification and to compute workers' KPIs to predict their level of expertise (with all classification metrics exceeding 90 %). These KPIs, and the relevant features in the decisions are textually explained by natural language expansion on an explainability dashboard. These automatic explanations made it possible to infer knowledge from expert workers for inexpert workers. The latter illustrates the interest of research in self-explainable ML for automatically generating insights to improve productivity in industrial workflows., Comment: IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine (2023)

We report a colloidal synthesis of blue emissive, stable cube-shaped CsPbBr3 quantum dots (QDs) in the strong quantum confinement regime via a dissolution-recrystallization starting from pre-synthesized (KxCs1-x)4PbBr6 nanocrystals which are then reacted with PbBr2. This is markedly different from the known case of Cs4PbBr6 nanocrystals that react within seconds with PbBr2 and get transformed into much larger, green emitting CsPbBr3 nanocrystals. Here, instead, the conversion of (KxCs1-x)4PbBr6 nanocrystals to CsPbBr3 QDs occurs in a time span of hours, and tuning of the QDs size is achieved by adjusting the concentration of precursors. The QDs exhibit excitonic features in optical absorption that are tunable in the 420 - 452 nm range, accompanied by blue photoluminescence with quantum yield around 60%. Detailed spectroscopic investigations in both the single and multi-exciton regime reveal the exciton fine structure and the effect of Auger recombination of these CsPbBr3 QDs, confirming theoretical predictions for this system.

This paper describes our experience implementing a Hypervisor extension for a 64-bit RISC-V processor. We describe the design process and the main required parts with a brief explanation of each one., Comment: RISC-V Summit Europe 2023, June 5-9, 2023

The Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV), a proposed consequence of certain quantum gravity (QG) scenarios, could instigate an energy-dependent group velocity for ultra-relativistic particles. This energy dependence, although suppressed by the massive QG energy scale $E_\mathrm{QG}$, expected to be on the level of the Planck energy $1.22 \times 10^{19}$ GeV, is potentially detectable in astrophysical observations. In this scenario, the cosmological distances traversed by photons act as an amplifier for this effect. By leveraging the observation of a remarkable flare from the blazar Mrk\,421, recorded at energies above 100 GeV by the MAGIC telescopes on the night of April 25 to 26, 2014, we look for time delays scaling linearly and quadratically with the photon energies. Using for the first time in LIV studies a binned-likelihood approach we set constraints on the QG energy scale. For the linear scenario, we set $95\%$ lower limits $E_\mathrm{QG}>2.7\times10^{17}$ GeV for the subluminal case and $E_\mathrm{QG}> 3.6 \times10^{17}$ GeV for the superluminal case. For the quadratic scenario, the $95\%$ lower limits for the subluminal and superluminal cases are $E_\mathrm{QG}>2.6 \times10^{10}$ GeV and $E_\mathrm{QG}>2.5\times10^{10}$ GeV, respectively.

We report the X-ray polarization properties of the high-synchrotron-peaked (HSP) blazar PKS 2155$-$304 based on observations with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). We observed the source between Oct 27 and Nov 7, 2023. We also conducted an extensive contemporaneous multiwavelength (MW) campaign. We find that during the first half ($T_1$) of the IXPE pointing, the source exhibited the highest X-ray polarization degree detected for an HSP blazar thus far, (30.7$\pm$2.0)%, which dropped to (15.3$\pm$2.1)% during the second half ($T_2$). The X-ray polarization angle remained stable during the IXPE pointing at 129.4$^\circ$$\pm$1.8$^\circ$ and 125.4$^\circ$$\pm$3.9$^\circ$ during $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively. Meanwhile, the optical polarization degree remained stable during the IXPE pointing, with average host-galaxy-corrected values of (4.3$\pm$0.7)% and (3.8$\pm$0.9)% during the $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively. During the IXPE pointing, the optical polarization angle changed achromatically from $\sim$140$^\circ$ to $\sim$90$^\circ$ and back to $\sim$130$^\circ$. Despite several attempts, we only detected (99.7% conf.) the radio polarization once (during $T_2$, at 225.5 GHz): with degree (1.7$\pm$0.4)% and angle 112.5$^\circ$$\pm$5.5$^\circ$. The direction of the broad pc-scale jet is rather ambiguous and has been found to point to the east and south at different epochs; however, on larger scales (> 1.5 pc) the jet points toward the southeast ($\sim$135$^\circ$), similar to all of the MW polarization angles. Moreover, the X-ray to optical polarization degree ratios of $\sim$7 and $\sim$4 during $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively, are similar to previous IXPE results for several HSP blazars. These findings, combined with the lack of correlation of temporal variability between the MW polarization properties, agree with an energy-stratified shock-acceleration scenario in HSP blazars., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in A&A

IOP4 is a pipeline to perform photometry and polarimetry analysis of optical data from Calar Alto (CAHA) and Sierra Nevada (OSN) observatories. IOP4 implements Object Relational Mapping (ORM) to seamlessly integrate all information about the reduction and results in a database which can be used to query and plot results, flag data and inspect the reduction process in an integrated fashion with the whole pipeline. It also ships with an already built-in web interface which can be used out of the box to browse the database and supervise all pipeline processes. It is built to ease debugging and inspection of data. Reduction from five different instruments are already implemented: RoperT90, AndorT90 and DIPOL (at OSN 0.9m telescope), AndorT150 (OSN 1.5m telescope) and CAFOS (CAHA 2.2m telescope). IOP4's modular design allows for easy integration of new observatories and instruments, and its results have already featured in several high-impact refereed publications. In this paper we describe the implementation and characteristics of IOP4., Comment: Submitted April 23, 2024

Surface-adsorbed rare-earth nanostructures are ideal platforms to investigate the interplay between intra-atomic interactions and multi-orbital spin configurations. However, addressing these properties has posed severe experimental and theoretical challenges. Here, we use the orbital selectivity offered by X-ray absorption spectroscopy to quantify the Coulomb integrals of Nd atoms on conductive surfaces, as well as the variation of individual orbital occupation upon cluster nucleation. Using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism we identify magnetic moments of the order of \MK{few tens of}~$\mu_{\rm{B}}$ at the $5d$ orbitals and their magnetic coupling with the $4f$ spins. Our results validate orbital-resolved X-ray spectroscopy as a reliable method for quantifying complex multi-orbital interactions in surface-adsorbed lanthanides.

In this paper we study networks of nodes characterised by binary traits that change both endogenously and through nearest-neighbour interaction. Our analytical results show that those traits can be ranked according to the noisiness of their transmission using only measures of order in the stationary state. Crucially, this ranking is independent of network topology. As an example, we explain why, in line with a long-standing hypothesis, the relative stability of the structural traits of languages can be estimated from their geospatial distribution. We conjecture that similar inferences may be possible in a more general class of Markovian systems. Consequently, in many empirical domains where longitudinal information is not easily available the propensities of traits to change could be estimated from spatial data alone., Comment: 6+78 pages, 4+23 figures

Context. The blazar AO 0235+164, located at redshift $z=0.94$, has displayed interesting and repeating flaring activity in the past, the latest episodes occurring in 2008 and 2015. In 2020, the source brightened again, starting a new flaring episode that peaked in 2021. Aims. We study the origin and properties of the 2021 flare in relation to previous studies and the historical behavior of the source, in particular to the 2008 and 2015 flaring episodes. Methods. We analyze the multi-wavelength photo-polarimetric evolution of the source. From Very Long Baseline Array images, we derive the kinematic parameters of new components associated with the 2021 flare. We use this information to constrain a model for the spectral energy distribution of the emission during the flaring period. We propose an analytical geometric model to test whether the observed wobbling of the jet is consistent with precession. Results. We report the appearance of two new components that are ejected in a different direction than previously, confirming the wobbling of the jet. We find that the direction of ejection is consistent with that of a precessing jet.The derived period independently agrees with the values commonly found in the literature. Modeling of the spectral energy distribution further confirm that the differences between flares can be attributed to geometrical effects., Comment: Accepted 15 May 2024

A CubeSat with a prototype scintillating detector with a sensitive volume of GAGG crystal is being developed with a possible launch date of 2025. Its purpose is to characterize the background signals that mimic the neutrino interaction that the nuSOL team is looking for. An important part of the characterization of the backgrounds and the expected real signal is understanding the gamma ray detection efficiency of the prototype detector. To this end we have used and developed three techniques to do an absolute measurement of gamma ray efficiency. The first is using EC sources that emit an X-ray before prompt emission of a de-excitation gamma ray, specifically Zn-65 and Mn-54. The second is using a beta + decay source wherein a positron annihilates on an atomic shell electron producing two back-to-back 511 keV gammas followed promptly by a de-excitation gamma, specifically Na-22. The third is using a gamma cascade of two near-simultaneous de-excitation gammas from the same nucleus, specifically from Co-60 decay., Comment: 27 pages. 29 Figures. This is soon to be a Nuclear Instruments and Methods Article

Methods.We applied distinct selection criteria to attain an SFG sample with minimal AGN contamination. Multiple approaches were used to estimate the intrinsic extinction, SFR and gas-phase metallicity for the SFGs. In conjunction with findings in the literature, we examined the correlation between SFRs and stellar masses ($M_*$), as well as the metallicity evolution depending on $M_*$. Finally, the 3D relationship between $M_*$, SFR and metallicity, is also studied.} Results. From the initial spectroscopic sample of 409 FIR-selected objects from the Lockman--SpReSO catalogue, 69 (17\%) AGNs have been identified and excluded, which is nearly double the percentage found in local studies, leaving a sample of 340 SFGs. The analysis of the $M_*$--SFR relationship revealed that Lockman--SpReSO IR-selected SFGs show signs of evolution at redshifts $z>0.4$, shifting above the main sequence, with a mean value of $\sim0.4$ dex. They are located within the starburst galaxy region since 78\% of the galaxies fall into this category. In addition, no evident flattening was found in the relation to specific SFR with redshift for $\log M_* (M_\odot) \gtrsim 10.5$. In line with the $M_*$--metallicity relation (MZR) outcomes published in previous studies for optically selected SFGs, however, during the analysis of the MZR, it was found that IR-selected SFGs exhibit lower metallicities than those anticipated on the basis of their $M_*$ and redshift. During the investigation of the 3D $M_*$--SFR--metallicity relation (FP), it was established that the research sample is consistent with relations in the existing literature, with an average scatter of $\sim0.2$ dex. However, a re-calibration of the FP when using the SFR obtained from the IR luminosity is required and, in this case, no attenuation in the correlation for $\log M_* (M_\odot) \gtrsim 10.5$ is observed., Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted in A&A

Reconfigurable computing offers a good balance between flexibility and energy efficiency. When combined with software-programmable devices such as CPUs, it is possible to obtain higher performance by spatially distributing the parallelizable sections of an application throughout the reconfigurable device while the CPU is in charge of control-intensive sections. This work introduces an elastic Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architecture (CGRA) integrated into an energy-efficient RISC-V-based SoC designed for the embedded domain. The microarchitecture of CGRA supports conditionals and irregular loops, making it adaptable to domain-specific applications. Additionally, we propose specific mapping strategies that enable the efficient utilization of the CGRA for both simple applications, where the fabric is only reconfigured once (one-shot kernel), and more complex ones, where it is necessary to reconfigure the CGRA multiple times to complete them (multi-shot kernels). Large kernels also benefit from the independent memory nodes incorporated to streamline data accesses. Due to the integration of CGRA as an accelerator of the RISC-V processor enables a versatile and efficient framework, providing adaptability, processing capacity, and overall performance across various applications. The design has been implemented in TSMC 65 nm, achieving a maximum frequency of 250 MHz. It achieves a peak performance of 1.22 GOPs computing one-shot kernels and 1.17 GOPs computing multi-shot kernels. The best energy efficiency is 72.68 MOPs/mW for one-shot kernels and 115.96 MOPs/mW for multi-shot kernels. The design integrates power and clock-gating techniques to tailor the architecture to the embedded domain while maintaining performance. The best speed-ups are 17.63x and 18.61x for one-shot and multi-shot kernels. The best energy savings in the SoC are 9.05x and 11.10x for one-shot and multi-shot kernels., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures

Defect tolerance is a critical enabling factor for efficient lead-halide perovskite materials, but the current understanding is primarily on band-edge (cold) carriers, with significant debate over whether hot carriers (HCs) can also exhibit defect tolerance. Here, this important gap in the field is addressed by investigating how internationally-introduced traps affect HC relaxation in CsPbX3 nanocrystals (X = Br, I, or mixture). Using femtosecond interband and intraband spectroscopy, along with energy-dependent photoluminescence measurements and kinetic modelling, it is found that HCs are not universally defect tolerant in CsPbX3, but are strongly correlated to the defect tolerance of cold carriers, requiring shallow traps to be present (as in CsPbI3). It is found that HCs are directly captured by traps, instead of going through an intermediate cold carrier, and deeper traps cause faster HC cooling, reducing the effects of the hot phonon bottleneck and Auger reheating. This work provides important insights into how defects influence HCs, which will be important for designing materials for hot carrier solar cells, multiexciton generation, and optical gain media., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures

The aim of this article is to solve the system $XA=Y$ where $A=(a_{ij})\in M_{m\times n}(S)$, $Y\in S^{m}$ and $X$ is an unknown vector of size $n$, being $S$ an additively idempotent semiring. If the system has solutions then we completely characterize its maximal one, and in the particular case where $S$ is a generalized tropical semiring a complete characterization of its solutions is provided as well as an explicit bound of the computational cost associated to its computation. Finally, when $S$ is finite, we give a cryptographic application by presenting an attack to the key exchange protocol proposed by Maze, Monico and Rosenthal., Comment: 24 pages

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are ubiquitous in almost all levels of education since they are easy to administer, grade, and are a reliable format in assessments and practices. One of the most important aspects of MCQs is the distractors, i.e., incorrect options that are designed to target common errors or misconceptions among real students. To date, the task of crafting high-quality distractors largely remains a labor and time-intensive process for teachers and learning content designers, which has limited scalability. In this work, we study the task of automated distractor generation in the domain of math MCQs and explore a wide variety of large language model (LLM)-based approaches, from in-context learning to fine-tuning. We conduct extensive experiments using a real-world math MCQ dataset and find that although LLMs can generate some mathematically valid distractors, they are less adept at anticipating common errors or misconceptions among real students., Comment: NAACL 2024 findings

In this work, we investigate methods to reduce the noise in deep saliency maps coming from convolutional downsampling. Those methods make the investigated models more interpretable for gradient-based saliency maps, computed in hidden layers. We evaluate the faithfulness of those methods using insertion and deletion metrics, finding that saliency maps computed in hidden layers perform better compared to both the input layer and GradCAM. We test our approach on different models trained for image classification on ImageNet1K, and models trained for tumor detection on Camelyon16 and in-house real-world digital pathology scans of stained tissue samples. Our results show that the checkerboard noise in the gradient gets reduced, resulting in smoother and therefore easier to interpret saliency maps.

This paper explores the application of Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) strategies in training machine learning models in the medical domain. In this case a doctor-in-the-loop approach is proposed to leverage human expertise in dealing with large and complex data. Specifically, the paper deals with the integration of genomic data and Whole Slide Imaging (WSI) analysis of breast cancer. Three different tasks were developed: segmentation of histopathological images, classification of this images regarding the genomic subtype of the cancer and, finally, interpretation of the machine learning results. The involvement of a pathologist helped us to develop a better segmentation model and to enhance the explainatory capabilities of the models, but the classification results were suboptimal, highlighting the limitations of this approach: despite involving human experts, complex domains can still pose challenges, and a HITL approach may not always be effective.

The BL Lac object 3C 371 has been observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (\textit{TESS}) for approximately a year, between July 2019 and July 2020, with an unmatched 2-minute observing cadence. In parallel, the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) Collaboration organized an extensive observing campaign, providing three years of continuous optical monitoring between 2018 and 2020. These datasets allow for a thorough investigation of the variability of the source. The goal of this study is evaluating the optical variability of 3C 371. Taking advantage of the remarkable cadence of \textit{TESS} data, we aim to characterize the intra-day variability (IDV) displayed by the source and identify its shortest variability timescale. With this estimate, constraints on the size of the emitting region and black hole mass can be calculated. Moreover, WEBT data is used to investigate long-term variability (LTV), including understanding spectral behaviour of the source and the polarization variability. Based on the derived characteristics, information on the origin of the variability on different timescales is extracted. We evaluated the variability applying the variability amplitude tool that quantifies how variable the emission is. Moreover, we employed common tools like ANOVA (ANalysis Of VAariance) tests, wavelet and power spectral density (PSD) analyses to characterize the shortest variability timescales present in the emission and the underlying noise affecting the data. Short- and long-term colour behaviours have been evaluated to understand the spectral behaviour of the source. The polarized emission was analyzed, studying its variability and possible rotation patterns of the electric vector position angle (EVPA). Flux distributions of IDV and LTV were also studied with the aim of linking the flux variations to turbulent and/or accretion disc related processes., Comment: Accepted in A&A, 20 pages, 19 figures

In this paper, we revisit the data for the galaxy cluster ZwCl 0024.0+1652 provided by the GLACE survey and study the mass--metallicity function and its relationship with the environment. Here we describe an alternative way to reduce the data from OSIRIS tunable filters. This method gives us better uncertainties in the fluxes of the emission lines and the derived quantities. We present an updated catalogue of cluster galaxies with emission in H$\alpha$ and [N\,{\sc{ii}}] $\lambda\lambda$6548,6583. We also discuss the biases of these new fluxes and describe the way in which we calculated the mass--metallicity relationship and its uncertainties. We generated a new catalogue of 84 emission-line galaxies with reliable fluxes in [N\,{\sc{ii}}] and H$\alpha$ lines from a list of 174 galaxies. We find a relationship between the clustercentric radius and the density of galaxies. We derived the mass--metallicity relationship for ZwCl 0024.0+1652 and compared it with clusters and field galaxies from the literature. We find a difference in the mass--metallicity relationship when compared to more massive clusters, with the latter showing on average higher values of abundance. This could be an effect of the quenching of the star formation, which seems to be more prevalent in low-mass galaxies in more massive clusters. We find little to no difference between ZwCl 0024.0+1652 galaxies and field galaxies located at the same redshift., Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We build on the concept of eigenvector continuation to develop an efficient multi-state method for the rigorous and smooth interpolation of a small training set of many-body wavefunctions through chemical space at mean-field cost. The inferred states are represented as variationally optimal linear combinations of the training states transferred between the many-body basis of different nuclear geometries. We show that analytic multi-state forces and nonadiabatic couplings from the model enable application to nonadiabatic molecular dynamics, developing an active learning scheme to ensure a compact and systematically improvable training set. This culminates in application to the nonadiabatic molecular dynamics of a photoexcited 28-atom hydrogen chain, with surprising complexity in the resulting nuclear motion. With just 22 DMRG calculations of training states from the low-energy correlated electronic structure at different geometries, we infer the multi-state energies, forces and nonadiabatic coupling vectors at 12,000 geometries with provable convergence to high accuracy along an ensemble of molecular trajectories, which would not be feasible with a brute force approach. This opens up a route to bridge the timescales between accurate single-point correlated electronic structure methods and timescales of relevance for photo-induced molecular dynamics.

Monochromatic gamma-ray signals constitute a potential smoking gun signature for annihilating or decaying dark matter particles that could relatively easily be distinguished from astrophysical or instrumental backgrounds. We provide an updated assessment of the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to such signals, based on observations of the Galactic centre region as well as of selected dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We find that current limits and detection prospects for dark matter masses above 300 GeV will be significantly improved, by up to an order of magnitude in the multi-TeV range. This demonstrates that CTA will set a new standard for gamma-ray astronomy also in this respect, as the world's largest and most sensitive high-energy gamma-ray observatory, in particular due to its exquisite energy resolution at TeV energies and the adopted observational strategy focussing on regions with large dark matter densities. Throughout our analysis, we use up-to-date instrument response functions, and we thoroughly model the effect of instrumental systematic uncertainties in our statistical treatment. We further present results for other potential signatures with sharp spectral features, e.g.~box-shaped spectra, that would likewise very clearly point to a particle dark matter origin., Comment: 44 pages JCAP style (excluding author list and references), 19 figures; minor changes to match published version

PG 1553+113 is one of the few blazars with a convincing quasi-periodic emission in the gamma-ray band. The source is also a very high-energy (VHE; >100 GeV) gamma-ray emitter. To better understand its properties and identify the underlying physical processes driving its variability, the MAGIC Collaboration initiated a multiyear, multiwavelength monitoring campaign in 2015 involving the OVRO 40-m and Medicina radio telescopes, REM, KVA, and the MAGIC telescopes, Swift and Fermi satellites, and the WEBT network. The analysis presented in this paper uses data until 2017 and focuses on the characterization of the variability. The gamma-ray data show a (hint of a) periodic signal compatible with literature, but the X-ray and VHE gamma-ray data do not show statistical evidence for a periodic signal. In other bands, the data are compatible with the gamma-ray period, but with a relatively high p-value. The complex connection between the low and high-energy emission and the non-monochromatic modulation and changes in flux suggests that a simple one-zone model is unable to explain all the variability. Instead, a model including a periodic component along with multiple emission zones is required., Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 19 pages, 9 figures. Corresponding authors: Elisa Prandini, Antonio Stamerra, Talvikki Hovatta

Blazars present highly variable $\gamma$-ray emission. This variability, which can range from a few minutes to several years, is also observed at other wavelengths across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. We make use of the first 12 years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), complemented with multiwavelength (MWL) archival data from different observatories and facilities in radio, infrared and optical bands, to study the possible periodic emission from 19 blazars previously claimed as periodic candidates. A periodicity analysis is performed with a pipeline for periodicity searches. Moreover, we study the cross-correlations between the $\gamma$-ray and MWL light curves. Additionally, we use the fractional variability and the structure function to evaluate the variability timescales. We find five blazars showing hints of periodic modulation with $\geq$3.0$\sigma$ ($\approx$0$\sigma$ post-trials), with periods ranging from 1.2 to 4 years, both in their $\gamma$-ray and MWL emission. The results provide clues for understanding the physical mechanisms generating the observed periodicity., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures

We show that a previously introduced key exchange based on a congruence-simple semiring action is not secure by providing an attack that reveals the shared key from the distributed public information for any of such semirings

In this fourth paper from the AGORA Collaboration, we study the evolution down to redshift $z=2$ and below of a set of cosmological zoom-in simulations of a Milky Way mass galaxy by eight of the leading hydrodynamic simulation codes. We also compare this CosmoRun suite of simulations with dark matter-only simulations by the same eight codes. We analyze general properties of the halo and galaxy at $z=4$ and 3, and before the last major merger, focusing on the formation of well-defined rotationally-supported disks, the mass-metallicity relation, the specific star formation rate, the gas metallicity gradients, and the non-axisymmetric structures in the stellar disks. Codes generally converge well to the stellar-to-halo mass ratios predicted by semi-analytic models at $z\sim$2. We see that almost all the hydro codes develop rotationally-supported structures at low redshifts. Most agree within 0.5 dex with the observed MZR at high and intermediate redshifts, and reproduce the gas metallicity gradients obtained from analytical models and low-redshift observations. We confirm that the inter-code differences in the halo assembly history reported in the first paper of the collaboration also exist in CosmoRun, making the code-to-code comparison more difficult. We show that such differences are mainly due to variations in code-dependent parameters that control the time-stepping strategy of the gravity solver. We find that variations in the early stellar feedback can also result in differences in the timing of the low-redshift mergers. All the simulation data down to $z=2$ and the auxiliary data will be made publicly available., Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Visit the AGORA Collaboration website (www.agorasimulations.org ) for more information

In recent years, a new generation of optical intensity interferometers has emerged, leveraging the existing infrastructure of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). The MAGIC telescopes host the MAGIC-SII system (Stellar Intensity Interferometer), implemented to investigate the feasibility and potential of this technique on IACTs. After the first successful measurements in 2019, the system was upgraded and now features a real-time, dead-time-free, 4-channel, GPU-based correlator. These hardware modifications allow seamless transitions between MAGIC's standard very-high-energy gamma-ray observations and optical interferometry measurements within seconds. We establish the feasibility and potential of employing IACTs as competitive optical Intensity Interferometers with minimal hardware adjustments. The measurement of a total of 22 stellar diameters are reported, 9 corresponding to reference stars with previous comparable measurements, and 13 with no prior measurements. A prospective implementation involving telescopes from the forthcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory's northern hemisphere array, such as the first prototype of its Large-Sized Telescopes, LST-1, is technically viable. This integration would significantly enhance the sensitivity of the current system and broaden the UV-plane coverage. This advancement would enable the system to achieve competitive sensitivity with the current generation of long-baseline optical interferometers over blue wavelengths., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS

In this paper, we use jointly a model of narrow band interference and a congestion model to model and implement an interference simulator for the whole HF band. The result is a model to generate interfering signals that could be found in a given frequency allocation, at a given time (past, present, or future) and for a given location. Our model does not require measurements and it is characterized by its ease of use and the freedom it offers to choose scene (modulation, location, week, year, etc.). In addition, we have defined a generic modulating function and the conditions to model a contact continuous wave (CW)-Morse, which meets the usual standards of contest. Consequently, our interference model in conjunction with the CW-Morse modulating function designed results in a specific CW-Morse model for amateur contests. As an example of the simulation model, we simulate the CW-Morse communications on the contest ARR ARRL Field Day 2011., Comment: copyright 2023 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works

This paper presents a new procedure for phase detector measurements that allows the use of generators that share a 10 MHz reference oscillator but do not synchronize in phase, in other words, quasi-synchronized RF generators. The objectives are taking advantage of the benefits of using two generators but recovering lower-cost generators that have worse synchronization performance and opening the door to the possibility of using a very simple control element based in Arduino Uno and cheaper instruments. The new procedure is characterized by continuously alternating calibration and measurement sequences to make up for the phase drift of quasisynchronized generators and guarantee a maximum phase error specification (+-1 grade in this paper). Data acquisition has been divided in two stages: measurement of detector curves without phase reference (in-phase and phase-shifted) and measurement of reference data. All the data is later combined to obtain correctly referenced in-phase detector curves. The technique can be reproduced with other equivalent instrumentation. The novel procedure that allows compensation for errors (amplitude, phase shift, mismatching, etc.) is detailed, and its relation to the required measurement accuracy is amply discussed. The proposed technique is applied to characterize a phase detector based on in-phase and phase-shifted multiplication from 3 to 8 GHz with 1 GHz step. Measurements have a final maximum error of +-2 grade for both frequency and calibrated input power, according to the accuracy specifications of the VNA used to calibrate the signal distribution network, added to the +-1 grade specified in this new procedure., Comment: copyright 2023 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works

Plasmonic nanoantennas, metallodielectric structures with engineered size and shape, have attracted much attention lately as they make the control of the directionality and temporal characteristics of light emitted by fluorophores possible. Nanoantennas exploit light-matter interactions mediated by Localized Surface Plasmon Resonances and, so far, have been demonstrated using metallic nanoparticles or other metallic nanostructures. Plasmonic picocavities, i.e., plasmonic cavities with mode volumes below 1 cubic nanometer, could act as antennas to mediate light-matter interaction even more efficiently than their nanoscale counterparts due to their extreme field confinement, but the directionality on their emission is difficult to control. In this work, we show that the plasmonic picocavity formed between the tip of a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope and a metal surface with a monoatomic step shows directional emission profiles and, thus, can be considered as a realization of a picoantenna. Comparison with electromagnetic calculations demonstrates that the observed directionality arises from light emission tilting of the picocavity plasmons. Our results, thus, pave the way to exploiting picoantennas as an efficient way to control light-matter interaction at the nanoscale.

The wake topology developing behind a wall-mounted square cylinder in a turbulent boundary layer has been investigated using a high-resolution large-eddy simulation (LES). The boundary-layer thickness at the obstacle location is fixed, the Reynolds number based on the cylinder h and the incoming free-stream velocity $u_\infty$ is 10,000 while the aspect ratio (AR), defined as obstacle height divided by its width, ranges from 1 to 4. The Reynolds stresses, anisotropy-invariant maps (AIM) and the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget are analyzed to investigate the influence of AR on the wake structures and on the turbulence production and transport. In particular, the transition from a dipole configuration for low AR to a quadrupole wake is extensively discussed and examined. The necessity of more data to express this critical AR as a function of the momentum-thickness-based Reynolds number $Re_{\theta}$ is thus highlighted. As an effect of the AR, the wake is deformed in both streamwise and spanwise directions. This contraction of the wake, attributed to the occurrence of the base vortices for the cases AR = 3 and 4, impacts the size of the positive production region that stretches from the roof and the flank of the obstacle to the wake core. The AIMs confirm the wake three-dimensionality and are used to describe the redistribution of the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) along the three normal directions, in agreement with the literature [A. J. Simonsen and P. Krogstad, Phys. Fluids 17, 088103, (2005)]. The present analysis on the TKE budget displays a stronger turbulence production for the cases AR = 3 and 4, demonstrating the strong influence of the tip and base vortices in generating turbulence at the wall location behind the cylinder.

Axion-like particles (ALPs) are pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons that emerge in various theories beyond the standard model. These particles can interact with high-energy photons in external magnetic fields, influencing the observed gamma-ray spectrum. This study analyzes 41.3 hrs of observational data from the Perseus Galaxy Cluster collected with the MAGIC telescopes. We focused on the spectra the radio galaxy in the center of the cluster: NGC 1275. By modeling the magnetic field surrounding this target, we searched for spectral indications of ALP presence. Despite finding no statistical evidence of ALP signatures, we were able to exclude ALP models in the sub-micro electronvolt range. Our analysis improved upon previous work by calculating the full likelihood and statistical coverage for all considered models across the parameter space. Consequently, we achieved the most stringent limits to date for ALP masses around 50 neV, with cross sections down to $g_{a\gamma} = 3 \times 10^{-12}$ GeV$^{-1}$., Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of the Dark Universe

Methods. We performed measurements of the \MgII, \MgI, \FeIIa, \FeIIb, and \FeIIc\ spectral lines present in the spectra of the selected sample to determine the EW and velocity of the flows observed in the star-forming galaxies. Subsequently, we conducted $10^7$ bootstrap simulations using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient ($\rho_s$) to explore correlations with galaxy properties. Furthermore, we calculated the covering factor, gas density, and optical depth for the measured \ion{Fe}{II} doublets. Results. Our analysis revealed strong correlations between the EW of \ion{Mg}{II} lines and both $M_{*}$ ($\rho_s=0.43$, 4.5$\sigma$) and SFR ($\rho_s=0.42$, 4.4$\sigma$). For the \ion{Fe}{II} lines, we observed strong correlations between the EW and SFR ($\rho_s\sim0.65$, $>3.9\sigma$), with a weaker correlation for $M_{*}$ ($\rho_s\sim0.35$, $>1.9\sigma$). No notable correlations were found between velocity measurements of \ion{Mg}{II} line and $M_{*}$, SFR, or sSFR of the objects ($\rho_s\sim0.1)$. However, a negative strong correlation was found between the velocity of the \ion{Fe}{II} lines and the SFR of the galaxies ($\rho_s\sim-0.45$, $\sim3\sigma$). Our results align with previous studies but studying FIR-selected objects. Finally, we detected a candidate \textit{loitering outflow}, a recently discovered subtype of FeLoBAL quasar, at redshift of $z=1.4399$, exhibiting emission in \ion{C}{III}] and low line velocities ($|v|\lesssim$ 200 km/s)., Comment: 25 pages, 31 figures