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The use of four-day school weeks (4dsw) in the United States has expanded rapidly over the past two decades. Previous work examines the impact of 4dsw on student outcomes, but little research to date examines the effect on school employees even though schools in some locales have adopted 4dsw to recruit and retain staff. This paper examines the effect of 4dsw adoption in Oregon, a state with widespread 4dsw use, on teacher and other school staff retention by leveraging a staggered roll-out of the schedule using a difference-in-differences design. We find that adopting a four-day week increased turnover among teachers, but that turnover among non-teaching staff was largely unaffected. The findings suggest that policymakers interested in implementing 4dsw for improved school employee retention should exercise caution and be attentive to the full set of incentives offered to staff.

Student service member/veteran (SSM/V) university enrollment has grown exponentially in recent years. In response, many U.S. universities have developed military-focused student services to address navigational and social challenges SSM/Vs face on campus. While research suggests these services are beneficial, few studies have empirically examined how often contemporary SSM/Vs engage with them across universities, how engagement connects to predictors of university success, or how SSM/Vs describe such connections. Using social capital theory, surveys (n=531), and interviews (n=59) of SSM/Vs across four universities, we analyze SSM/V military-focused service engagement levels, correlations between engagement and campus belonging and institutional satisfaction, and SSM/V perspectives on engagement. Findings suggest SSM/Vs very rarely engage in these services. Higher engagement, however, is significantly associated with more campus belonging and institutional satisfaction. Interviewees describe how the moral support military-focused service staff offer while providing reliable administrative assistance, as well as SSM/V-dedicated spaces and community building, foster belonging and satisfaction.

This brief continues ongoing research by NWEA® examining the degree to which the COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated school closures, influenced student learning. Prior research focused on math and reading and found that the pandemic's negative impact steadily accumulated during the 2020-2021 school year, with significant disparities in achievement and growth compared to prepandemic trends (Lewis, Kuhfeld, Ruzek, & McEachin, 2021). Although there were modest rebounds in reading and math during the 2021-2022 school year, progress toward pandemic recovery largely stalled in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, with achievement and growth trends still trailing behind prepandemic levels (Kuhfeld & Lewis, 2022; Lewis & Kuhfeld, 2023; Lewis & Kuhfeld, 2024). Building on previous research series focused on math and reading achievement, this brief explores how the pandemic influenced student achievement in science. It examines science test scores across seven school years to understand how COVID-19 influenced science achievement.

The completed WISC-R's (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised) of 76 white urban children with academic problems (6 years, 0 months to 15 years, 9 months) were rescored utilizing the Satz and Mogel criteria for an abbreviated intelligence measure. Extremely high correlations for IQ's (.96 - .98) and subtests (.66 - .95) were found. However, when mean differences between complete WISC-R and the shortened form were examined, significant differences between administrations were found. Furthermore, one third of the subjects showed changes in intelligence classification levels when the abbreviated form was used. Thus, two of the three criteria previously suggested for a valid abbreviated intelligence test of: (1) high correlation between administration forms; (2) non significant t-tests between the abbreviated and standard form mean IQ; and (3) low percentage of IQ classification change with the administration of the short form were not met. It was concluded, however, that the abbreviated WISC-R may be appropriate when intelligence is a question relative to candidacy for therapy or as a non-critical, general indication of intelligence when IQ classification is not important and/or assessment time is limited. (Author/RC)

A correlational study was conducted using ACT (American College Test) sub-test scores and actual grades earned in corresponding subject areas in order to determine if the ACT was an effective predictor for student's grades at Southern West Virginia Community College (SWVCC). Study subjects were all students (n= 241) who had ACT test scores on file and who were enrolled at SWVCC. Correlational analyses yielded coefficients of such low magnitude as to conclude that there is no significant relationship between ACT test scores and academic performance at SWVCC. Based on these findings, it was recommended that use of the ACT be discontinued and that a more suitable instrument such as the College Qualifying Test or the Comparative Guidance and Placement Test, both of which have been developed for and normed on community college students, be used. (Author/JDS)

A three-day seminar for nurses was conducted to improve their ability to communicate effectively with other people. The method used in this seminar was microteaching. The basic ingredients of the microteaching concept are the communication techniques dimension, the teach-reteach dimension, and the immediate feedback dimension. Under the direction of a supervisor and working with others in the seminar, each participant demonstrated and spoke on the topic of her choice, with the aim of instructing the listeners. Each demonstration was recorded on video tape. The tape was viewed and analysed, followed by direct question and answer sessions and suggestions for improvement by the supervisor. The benefit of immediate feedback and reaction was apparent, and each participant developed more self-confidence as the seminar progressed. The concensus of opinion at the end of the session was that microteaching is a valuable tool not only for improving communication skills but also for improving teaching techniques. (JD)

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of audiovisual aids in the instruction of junior-level preservice teachers. The tapes used were vignettes of persons demonstrating specific teaching skills in the areas of lesson organization, questioning, using student ideas, praise and corrective feedback, and variety and variation in teaching styles. Ninety-six subjects were assigned to one of four groups. All groups were pretested and posttested with identical measures. For each of the five topics, the treatment groups were: tapes only; tapes plus instruction; instruction only; and control. It was hypothesized that preservice teachers who receive instruction and view protocol tapes will score significantly higher on related posttests than teachers who only receive instruction or who only view tapes. An unexpected consequence of this study was the finding that the control group, which received neither verbal nor visual instruction related to the topics of the tapes, performed just as well on related posttests as groups that did receive such instruction. The results of this study support the contention that no generalizations can be made concerning the effectiveness of media in instruction and that each type of media must be evaluated individually. (JD)

The research question investigated was: What relationship, if any, exists between teacher personality characteristics associated with self-actualization and the test anxiety levels of their students. Teacher personality characteristics in 6 schools were assessed with the Shostrom Personal Orientation Inventory. The Sarason Test Anxiety Scale for Children was administered to their pupils. Students in grades 4 through 8 were the subjects of the research. At the junior high school level it was found that a significant relationship existed between teachers with high spontaneity in combination with high self-regard and relatively low test anxiety in their students. Results approached significance for elementary school students. The implications of these findings for education and selection of teachers for the junior high level are considered. (JD)

Most selective colleges implemented test-optional admissions during the pandemic, making college entrance exam scores optional for applicants. We draw on descriptive, two-way fixed effects, and event study methods to examine variation in test-optional implementation during the pandemic and how implementation relates to selectivity and enrollment. For "test-optional" colleges during the pandemic, we found substantial variation in policy type (e.g., test optional, test free) and whether the policy extended to all applicants and scholarship consideration. Findings suggest test-optional implementation related to increases in Black student enrollment, mostly at moderately selective colleges and when policies extended to all applicants and scholarships. At highly selective colleges, findings suggest test-optional implementation related to an increase in applications but not consistent gains in enrollment.

The fall 2023 and spring 2024 undergraduate enrollment increases, marking the first growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, show signs of a post-pandemic turnaround for higher education. However, a significant share of current undergraduates will eventually disengage from college before earning a degree or other credential. They will join tens of millions of other adult Americans who are Some College, No Credential (SCNC). The SCNC population has been consistently rising over time. Re-engaging those who stop out remains a persistent challenge and a priority for the forty states that have set ambitious postsecondary attainment goals. This report aims to provide timely insights into the SCNC population, offering state leaders and policymakers accurate data on its current status, along with tracking progress and outcome measures for SCNC students. The first section of this report describes who makes up the SCNC population and how it has changed since the last report. In this section, the authors pay particular attention to Recent Stopouts, who joined the SCNC population after being stopped out between January 2021 and July 2022. In the second section, the authors report on SCNC re-enrollment in the 2022-23 academic year as well as first-year credential earning for re-enrollees. The authors also provide new updates on continued enrollment and second-year credential earning for SCNC re-enrollees in the 2021-22 academic year, whom were first reported on last year.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation's leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation, and statistics. IES's National Center for Education Research (NCER) supports rigorous research that addresses the nation's most pressing education needs from early childhood to adult education. IES's National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) supports a comprehensive program of education research designed to expand knowledge and understanding of infants, toddlers, and youth with and at risk for disabilities to improve their developmental, education, transition, and postsecondary outcomes. This paper makes the case that IES Development and Innovation research can support the development of usable, feasible, and affordable approaches (practices, programs, or policies) to help schools meet the mental health needs of their students and staff. The goal of this research is to ensure that school-based interventions are contextually appropriate, implemented with high fidelity, and more likely to produce equitable outcomes than current practice. [This paper was published in the "School Mental Health".]

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Houston area, causing the homelessness of nearly 24,000 students in the Houston Independent School District (Houston ISD) alone. Additionally, nearly all Houston ISD schools sustained damage of some kind, resulting in school closures, campus relocations, and even the delaying of the start of classes for some students. In the first brief of this two-part series, the authors examine the characteristics of students who became homeless due to Harvey. They found that students who became temporarily homeless for a year or less due to Harvey tended to fare as well as or better on educational outcomes than even their never-homeless peers.

In August 2017, the Houston area was ravaged by one of the costliest natural disasters in history--Hurricane Harvey. In this brief, the first in a two-part series, the authors examine the effects of Harvey on student homelessness in the Houston Independent School District (Houston ISD). The authors find that student homelessness in Houston ISD quadrupled due to Harvey, and most students experiencing homelessness lived, at least temporarily, in unsheltered contexts, such as sleeping in a car or on the street. Unlike other high-profile storms such as Hurricane Katrina, students who became homeless due to Harvey tended to be broadly representative of the district in terms of their demographic characteristics. However, they differed systematically from students who experienced homelessness for conventional, economic reasons such as job loss and medical debt, who were particularly likely to be Black. The authors conclude with implications of these findings for educational stakeholders in preparation for both generational and "everyday" homelessness crises.

Asian Americans as a group are overrepresented among STEM college graduates and have the highest average college enrollment rate of any racial or ethnic category. Thus, Asian Americans are typically excluded from educational interventions directed at improving STEM education for Students of Color because they are not considered to be underrepresented minorities. However, statistics obscure the individual needs of the more than 20 ethnic subgroups that fall under the umbrella term Asian Americans. Using a participatory action research approach, this paper documents the institutional and sociocultural factors that push out HMoob (or Hmong) American college students from STEM programs at one large, predominantly White university; and the coordinate processes of gatekeeping and transactional advising that either redirect those students toward non-STEM programs or force them out of the university completely.

This article clarifies historical and sociocultural factors that impact the role of STEM in the racialization of Asian Americans. Drawing on critical race and other theories of Asian American racialization, and a review of empirical research on the experiences of Asian American college students in STEM, we develop a conceptual framework called "STEM Asianization" that highlights the role of STEM ideology in the model minority racialization of Asian Americans. Consequences for Asian American students include (1) erasure of the intersectional experiences of minoritized Asian American students; (2) dehumanization of Asian Americans and establishment of a bamboo ceiling; (3) representation of Asian Americans as a perpetual foreigner/Yellow Peril during times of cultural and political crisis; and (4) representation of Asian Americans who cannot or do not conform to the STEM achievement narrative as a failed minority. We argue that STEM Asianization reproduces White supremacy by ideologically reinforcing the colorblind meritocracy of STEM institutions in the United States. [Additional funding provided by the Wisconsin Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.]

There's a rise in the employment of uncertified teachers, driven by acute staffing shortages and the flexibility offered by Texas' District of Innovation plans. This reliance on uncertified educators is raising alarms among educators and policymakers alike. Concerns are mounting over whether these teachers, often entering the classroom having never worked in public schools, are equipped to meet the demands of today's classrooms. This brief presents new evidence showing that uncertified teachers are linked to declines in student achievement. The study examines the prevalence, backgrounds, and impacts of uncertified teachers on student achievement and draws attention to significant differences within this diverse group of educators. As schools continue to hire uncertified teachers to address staffing shortages, knowing the backgrounds of these teachers and how they shape student achievement helps stakeholders prioritize transition points, such as hiring individuals with previous classroom experience in non-teaching roles. This brief outlines findings from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years and provides recommendations for policymakers and stakeholder groups.

Utilizing course grade data from 22 four-year higher education institutions, this study highlights the trends in first-year grade point average (FYGPA) between the 2017-2018 and 2021-2022 academic years, the period immediately before and after the pandemic disrupted both K12 and higher education. Results showed that while FYGPAs generally increased at institutions with more selective admission standards, especially private, more selective institutions, FYGPAs remained relatively unchanged at the less selective institutions. Over these five years, high school grade point average (HSGPA) generally increased among incoming students at nearly every institution while SAT® scores generally decreased. The results of institution-level logistic regression analyses indicated that students with the same pre-college academic achievement levels as measured by SAT scores and HSGPA were more likely to earn a FYGPA of 3.0 or higher in later cohort years than were students in the 2017 cohort. Faculty survey results, based on more than 3,000 respondents from over 1,200 higher education institutions, complement the administrative data analyses in this study. The survey findings suggest college faculty believe that the characteristics of incoming students as well as their academic performance in college are weaker now than in the past. Implications for future higher education research and facilitating nuanced K12 and higher education conversations on more effectively preparing students for college are discussed.

In this paper we present the Advancing Racial Equity in Community College Model which maps out the organizational conditions shaping institutional transformation. Focused on two dimensions, the level of "organizational support" and "shared responsibility" to enact equity, we describe four quadrants with distinct organizational conditions that shape how equity advocates design, build, and sustain equity efforts. With well-documented racial inequities and renewed calls for racial justice across higher education, it demands new ways of exploring and understanding how institutional actors leading equity efforts are nested within differing organizational contexts that can enable as well as restrict the enactment and success of racial equity efforts. Our model helps equity advocates gain an "awareness" of known barriers to implementation in higher education, assess the readiness of their campus for racialized change, and take action to build the necessary institutional support and capacity to move the work forward.

The purpose of the addendum is to document the findings from the Year 2 student achievement analyses of a teacher-level randomized experiment, which was designed to examine the implementation and impact of a scalable version of the 2-year MyTeachingPartner Secondary (MTP-S) program as part of a federally-funded Education Innovation and Research (EIR) project. Due to COVID-caused delays, we were unable to include findings about the impact of MTP-S on Year 2 student achievement in the final report produced at the end of the EIR project (Wayne et al., 2023). With the support of a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation, we were able to complete the collection and analyses of Year 2 student achievement data presented in this addendum. Similar to the Year 1 student achievement findings presented in our EIR final project report, the Year 2 student achievement findings did not reveal any significant program impact on students' math or English language arts achievement at the end of the 2-year program. Findings from this study need to be interpreted with caution given study limitations resulting largely from the influence of the pandemic.

In order to assist higher education institutions and their students during the pandemic, the federal government established the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund, which directed over $75 billion to institutions of higher education--including nearly $25 billion to community colleges--over a three-year period. The U.S. Department of Education worked on a rapid timeline to distribute these funds to institutions, which they could use to provide direct aid to students facing financial challenges and cover institutional costs related to the pandemic. Drawing on a survey of community colleges in six states--California, Michigan, New York (State University of New York [SUNY] colleges), Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas--this report provides insight into the specific pandemic recovery activities colleges implemented, colleges' perceptions of how successful HEER funds were in addressing student and institutional needs during the pandemic, and colleges' views of unmet needs. The institutional survey was completed by 170 out of a total of 265 community colleges in the six states. Key findings from the report: (1) Colleges spent nearly all the HEER funds they received. Given the large amount of HEER funding and the fact that colleges did not need to submit a proposal and budget for how they would use the funds, it should not be assumed that colleges would have spent all the money they received. Yet colleges spent nearly all the funds they received by the time the HEER program ended in June 2023; (2) HEER funds met a variety of student and institutional needs during the pandemic. Colleges had relatively few problems using the funds and felt that the aid was successful in mitigating student and institutional hardships; (3) Colleges focused on retaining existing students; they employed a variety of methods to support students in need. Colleges used HEER funds to support and retain existing (pre-pandemic) students rather than to recruit new students. They focused on supporting students with financial exigencies, including those experiencing food and housing insecurity. They used institutional aid to forgive debt owed to the college and to provide food, housing, and childcare assistance; (4) Spending patterns suggest that colleges experienced similar challenges during the pandemic and often prioritized the same objectives. Despite differences in state contexts and institutional settings, colleges tended to allocate funds in similar ways. For example, most colleges used aid for campus safety and technology hardware. Expenditure patterns also shifted over time in similar ways, indicating that colleges were responsive to evolving needs; (5) Expenditures related to campus safety and technology remained strong but decreased in frequency over time; expenditures to support students' mental health increased in frequency. Mental health services was the only expenditure category that increased in frequency in each of the three years of funding, likely reflecting the toll the pandemic took on students' mental health; (6) Comparing pre- and post-pandemic spending, HEER funds had the most impact on increasing support for technology hardware, high-speed internet, and housing assistance. Colleges used HEER funds both to fund existing services and to begin offering new ones. Fewer than a third of colleges had services in place to provide technology hardware, high-speed internet, and housing assistance before the pandemic; many more did so afterward; (7) Concerns about the end of HEER funding and priorities for future funding expose a need for continued flexible resources to address students' financial needs. Colleges' main concern about the end of HEER funding was that it would limit their ability to support students during an emergency. Their top priority for using future funding was additional student aid; and (8) Rural and vocational/technical colleges (as defined by the Carnegie Classification) may have had fewer resources prior to the pandemic and may be in greater need of additional support. Colleges in towns and rural areas and colleges focused on technical training were less likely to offer a number of supports both pre- and post-pandemic. Rural colleges were also less likely to report having received additional funding for pandemic recovery from sources other than HEER funds. Overall, while the survey findings suggest that HEER largely met the goals for which it was intended, they also point to the importance of addressing systemic challenges facing community college students and the institutions that serve them. Now that the immediate crisis of the pandemic has passed and HEER funding has ended, there is an opportunity to think strategically about the investments that are needed to promote student success over the long term, particularly for underserved and financially vulnerable students who are the most at risk of stopping out or not enrolling in the first place.

This study addresses the burgeoning phenomenon of fully online alternative teacher certification programs (ACPs). In Texas where most teachers are prepared via ACPs, our research zeroes in on the proportion of teachers who are prepared fully online and the relative effectiveness of teacher preparation programs on student achievement and teacher retention. Using statewide longitudinal data from 2014-2023, our findings show that 1 in 4 of Texas students are being taught by teachers prepared fully online Students taught by teachers prepared online exhibit comparable levels of achievement to those taught by uncertified teachers, underperforming compared to students taught by teachers from other preparation pathways. Moreover, these teachers exhibit a markedly higher turnover rate. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on teacher preparation quality, offering insights for policymakers and stakeholders.

The $\sim$5 Myr PDS 70 is the only known system with protoplanets residing in the cavity of the circumstellar disk from which they formed, ideal for studying exoplanet formation and evolution within its natal environment. Here we report the first spin constraint and C/O measurement of PDS 70b from Keck/KPIC high-resolution spectroscopy. We detected CO (3.8 $\sigma$) and H$_2$O (3.5 $\sigma$) molecules in the PDS 70b atmosphere via cross-correlation, with a combined CO and H$_2$O template detection significance of 4.2 $\sigma$. Our forward model fits, using BT-Settl model grids, provide an upper limit for the spin-rate of PDS 70b ($<$29 km s$^{-1}$). The atmospheric retrievals constrain the PDS 70b C/O ratio to ${0.28}^{+0.20}_{-0.12}$ ($<$0.63 under 95$\%$ confidence level) and a metallicity [C/H] of ${-0.2}^{+0.8}_{-0.5}$ dex, consistent with that of its host star. The following scenarios can explain our measured C/O of PDS 70b in contrast with that of the gas-rich outer disk (for which C/O $\gtrsim$ 1). First, the bulk composition of PDS 70b might be dominated by dust+ice aggregates rather than disk gas. Another possible explanation is that the disk became carbon-enriched $\textit{after}$ PDS 70b was formed, as predicted in models of disk chemical evolution and as observed in both very low mass star and older disk systems with $\textit{JWST}$/MIRI. Because PDS 70b continues to accrete and its chemical evolution is not yet complete, more sophisticated modeling of the planet and the disk, and higher quality observations of PDS 70b (and possibly PDS 70c), are necessary to validate these scenarios., Comment: Accepted to ApJ Letters; 15 pages, 3 figures

The microwave-driven dynamics of the superconducting phase difference across a Josephson junction is now widely employed in superconducting qubits and quantum circuits. With the typical energy level separation frequency of several GHz, cooling these quantum devices to the ground state requires temperatures below 100 mK. Pushing the operation frequency of superconducting qubits up may allow for operation of superconducting qubits at 1 K and even higher temperatures. Here we present measurements of the switching currents of niobium/aluminum-aluminum oxide/niobium Josephson junctions in the presence of millimeter-wave radiation at frequencies above 100 GHz. The observed switching current distributions display clear double-peak structures, which result from the resonant escape of the Josephson phase from a stationary state. We show that the data can be well explained by the strong-driving model including the irradiation-induced suppression of the potential barrier. While still being measured in the quasi-classical regime, our results point towards a feasibility of operating phase qubits around 100 GHz.

In the last decade, the free energy principle (FEP) and active inference (AIF) have achieved many successes connecting conceptual models of learning and cognition to mathematical models of perception and action. This effort is driven by a multidisciplinary interest in understanding aspects of self-organizing complex adaptive systems, including elements of agency. Various reinforcement learning (RL) models performing active inference have been proposed and trained on standard RL tasks using deep neural networks. Recent work has focused on improving such agents' performance in complex environments by incorporating the latest machine learning techniques. In this paper, we take an alternative approach. Within the constraints imposed by the FEP and AIF, we attempt to model agents in an interpretable way without deep neural networks by introducing Free Energy Projective Simulation (FEPS). Using internal rewards only, FEPS agents build a representation of their partially observable environments with which they interact. Following AIF, the policy to achieve a given task is derived from this world model by minimizing the expected free energy. Leveraging the interpretability of the model, techniques are introduced to deal with long-term goals and reduce prediction errors caused by erroneous hidden state estimation. We test the FEPS model on two RL environments inspired from behavioral biology: a timed response task and a navigation task in a partially observable grid. Our results show that FEPS agents fully resolve the ambiguity of both environments by appropriately contextualizing their observations based on prediction accuracy only. In addition, they infer optimal policies flexibly for any target observation in the environment., Comment: 26 pages (including 5 pages appendix), 6 figures

The RVfpga course offers a solid introduction to computer architecture using the RISC-V instruction set and FPGA technology. It focuses on providing hands-on experience with real-world RISC-V cores, the VeeR EH1 and the VeeR EL2, developed by Western Digital a few years ago and currently hosted by ChipsAlliance. This course is particularly aimed at educators and students in computer science, computer engineering, and related fields, enabling them to integrate practical RISC-V knowledge into their curricula. The course materials, which include detailed labs and setup guides, are available for free through the Imagination University Programme website. We have used RVfpga in different teaching activities and we plan to continue using it in the future. Specifically, we have used RVfpga as the main experimental platform in several bachelor/master degree courses; we have completed several final bachelor/master degree projects based on this platform; we will conduct a microcredential about processor design based on RVfpga; we have adapted RVfpga to a MOOC in the edX platform; and we have shared RVfpga worldwide through one-day hands-on workshops and tutorials. This paper begins by discussing how the RVfpga course matches the latest IEEE/ACM/AAAI computing curriculum guidelines. It then details various teaching implementations we have conducted over recent years using these materials. Finally, the paper examines other courses similar to RVfpga, comparing their strengths and weaknesses.

The temperature-dependent phonons are a generalization of interatomic force constants varying in T, which as found widespread use in computing the thermal transport of materials. A formal justification for using this combination to access thermal conductivity in anharmonic crystals, beyond the harmonic approximation and perturbation theory, is still lacking. In this work, we derive a theory of heat transport of anharmonic crystals, using the mode-coupling theory of anharmonic lattice dynamics. Starting from the Green-Kubo formula, we develop the thermal conductivity tensor based on the system's dynamical susceptibility, or spectral function. Our results account for both the diagonal and off-diagonal contributions of the heat current, with and without collective effects. We implement our theory in the TDEP package, and have notably introduced a Monte Carlo scheme to compute phonon scattering due to third- and fourth-order interactions, achieving a substantial reduction in computational cost which enables full convergence of such calculations for the first time. We apply our methodology to systems with varying regimes of anharmonicity and thermal conductivity to demonstrate its universality. These applications highlight the importance of the phonon renormalizations and their interactions beyond the harmonic order. Overall, our work advances the understanding of thermal conductivity in anharmonic crystals and provides a theoretically robust framework for predicting heat transport in complex materials.

TOI-396 is an F6V star ($V\approx6.4$) orbited by three transiting planets. The orbital periods of the two innermost planets are close to the 5:3 commensurability ($P_b \sim3.6$ d and $P_c \sim6.0$ d). To measure the masses of the three planets, refine their radii, and investigate whether planets b and c are in MMR, we carried out HARPS RV observations and retrieved photometric data from TESS. We extracted the RVs via a skew-normal fit onto the HARPS CCFs and performed an MCMC joint analysis of the Doppler measurements and transit photometry, while employing the breakpoint method to remove stellar activity from the RV time series. We also performed a thorough TTV dynamical analysis of the system. Our analysis confirms that the three planets have similar sizes: $R_b=2.004_{-0.047}^{+0.045}R_{\oplus}$; $R_c=1.979_{-0.051}^{+0.054}R_{\oplus}$; $R_d=2.001_{-0.064}^{+0.063}R_{\oplus}$. For the first time, we determine RV masses for TOI-396b and d: $M_b=3.55_{-0.96}^{+0.94}M_{\oplus}$ ($\rho_b=2.44_{-0.68}^{+0.69}$ g cm$^{-3}$) and $M_d=7.1\pm1.6M_{\oplus}$ ($\rho_d=4.9_{-1.1}^{+1.2}$ g cm$^{-3}$). Our results suggest a quite unusual system architecture, with the outermost planet being the densest. The Doppler reflex motion induced by TOI-396c remains undetected in our RV time series, likely due to the proximity of $P_c$ to the star's rotation period ($P_{\mathrm{rot}}=6.7\pm1.3$ d). We also discovered that TOI-396b and c display significant TTVs. While the TTV dynamical analysis returns a formally precise mass for TOI-396c ($M_{c,\mathrm{dyn}}=2.24^{+0.13}_{-0.67}M_{\oplus}$), the result might not be accurate owing to the poor sampling of the TTV phase. We also conclude that TOI-396b and c are close to-, but out of- the 5:3 MMR. Our numerical simulation suggests TTV semi-amplitudes of up to 5 hours over a temporal baseline of $\sim$5.2 years., Comment: 24 pages (6 in the Appendix), 15 Figures (2 in the Appendix), 10 Tables (5 in the Appendix). Accepted for publication in A&A

This paper presents the results of a joint radio and gamma-ray timing campaign on the nine millisecond pulsars (MSPs) discovered as part of the L-band targeted survey of Fermi-LAT sources performed in the context of the Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT (TRAPUM) Large Survey Project. Out of these pulsars, eight are members of binary systems; of these eight, two exhibit extended eclipses of the radio emission. Using an initial radio timing solution, pulsations were found in the gamma rays for six of the targets. For these sources, a joint timing analysis of radio times of arrival and gamma-ray photons was performed, using a newly developed code that optimises the parameters through a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique. This approach has allowed us to precisely measure both the short- and long-term timing parameters. This study includes a proper motion measurement for four pulsars, which a gamma ray-only analysis would not have been sensitive to, despite the 15-year span of Fermi data., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures

Evidence has emerged for a stochastic signal correlated among 67 pulsars within the 15-year pulsar-timing data set compiled by the NANOGrav collaboration. Similar signals have been found in data from the European, Indian, Parkes, and Chinese PTAs. This signal has been interpreted as indicative of the presence of a nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background. To explore the internal consistency of this result we investigate how the recovered signal strength changes as we remove the pulsars one by one from the data set. We calculate the signal strength using the (noise-marginalized) optimal statistic, a frequentist metric designed to measure correlated excess power in the residuals of the arrival times of the radio pulses. We identify several features emerging from this analysis that were initially unexpected. The significance of these features, however, can only be assessed by comparing the real data to synthetic data sets. After conducting identical analyses on simulated data sets, we do not find anything inconsistent with the presence of a stochastic gravitational wave background in the NANOGrav 15-year data. The methodologies developed here can offer additional tools for application to future, more sensitive data sets. While this analysis provides an internal consistency check of the NANOGrav results, it does not eliminate the necessity for additional investigations that could identify potential systematics or uncover unmodeled physical phenomena in the data., Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables

BabyIAXO is the intermediate stage of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO) to be hosted at DESY. Its primary goal is the detection of solar axions following the axion helioscope technique. Axions are converted into photons in a large magnet that is pointing to the sun. The resulting X-rays are focused by appropriate X-ray optics and detected by sensitive low-background detectors placed at the focal spot. The aim of this article is to provide an accurate quantitative description of the different components (such as the magnet, optics, and X-ray detectors) involved in the detection of axions. Our efforts have focused on developing robust and integrated software tools to model these helioscope components, enabling future assessments of modifications or upgrades to any part of the IAXO axion helioscope and evaluating the potential impact on the experiment's sensitivity. In this manuscript, we demonstrate the application of these tools by presenting a precise signal calculation and response analysis of BabyIAXO's sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling. Though focusing on the Primakoff solar flux component, our virtual helioscope model can be used to test different production mechanisms, allowing for direct comparisons within a unified framework., Comment: 36 pages, 18 figures, 4 tables, Submitted to JHEP

The symbiosis of strong interactions, flat bands, topology and symmetry has led to the discovery of exotic phases of matter, including fractional Chern insulators, correlated moir\'e topological superconductors, and Dirac and Weyl semimetals. Correlated metals, such as those present in Kondo lattices, rely on the screening of local moments by a sea of non-magnetic conduction electrons. Here, we report on a unique topological Kondo lattice compound, CeCo2P2, where the Kondo effect - whose existence under the magnetic Co phase is protected by PT symmetry - coexists with antiferromagnetic order emerging from the flat bands associated with the Co atoms. Remarkably, this is the only known Kondo lattice compound where magnetic order occurs in non-heavy electrons, and puzzlingly, at a temperature significantly higher than that of the Kondo effect. Furthermore, at low temperatures, the emergence of the Kondo effect, in conjunction with a glide-mirror-z symmetry, results in a nodal line protected by bulk topology near the Fermi energy. These unusual properties, arising from the interplay between itinerant and correlated electrons from different constituent elements, lead to novel quantum phases beyond the celebrated topological Kondo insulators and Weyl Kondo semimetals. CeCo2P2 thus provides an ideal platform for investigating narrow bands, topology, magnetism, and the Kondo effect in strongly correlated electron systems., Comment: 17pages,4 figures

In this Technical Design Report (TDR) we describe the SABRE South detector to be built at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL). The SABRE South detector is designed to test the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA signal of an annually modulating rate consistent with dark matter by using the same target material. SABRE South uses seven ultra-high purity NaI(Tl) crystals (with a total target mass of either 35 kg or 50 kg), hermetically sealed in copper enclosures that are suspended within a liquid scintillator active veto. High quantum efficiency and low background Hamamatsu R11065 photomultiplier tubes are directly coupled to both ends of the crystal, and enclosed with the crystal in an oxygen free high thermal conductivity copper enclosure. The active veto system consists of 11.6 kL of linear alkylbenzene (LAB) doped with a mixture of fluorophores and contained in a steel vessel, which is instrumented with at least 18 Hamamatsu R5912 photomultipliers. The active veto tags key radiogenic backgrounds intrinsic to the crystals, such as ${^{40}}$K, and is expected to suppress the total background by 27% in the 1-6 keV region of interest. In addition to the liquid scintillator veto, a muon veto is positioned above the detector shielding. This muon veto consists of eight EJ-200 scintillator modules, with Hamamatsu R13089 photomultipliers coupled to both ends. With an expected total background of 0.72 cpd/kg/keV, SABRE South can test the DAMA/LIBRA signal with 5$\sigma$ discovery or 3$\sigma$ exclusion after two years of data taking.

On May 24th, 2023, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), joined by the Advanced Virgo and KAGRA detectors, began the fourth observing run for a two-year-long dedicated search for gravitational waves. The LIGO Hanford and Livingston detectors have achieved an unprecedented sensitivity to gravitational waves, with an angle-averaged median range to binary neutron star mergers of 152 Mpc and 160 Mpc, and duty cycles of 65.0% and 71.2%, respectively, with a coincident duty cycle of 52.6%. The maximum range achieved by the LIGO Hanford detector is 165 Mpc and the LIGO Livingston detector 177 Mpc, both achieved during the second part of the fourth observing run. For the fourth run, the quantum-limited sensitivity of the detectors was increased significantly due to the higher intracavity power from laser system upgrades and replacement of core optics, and from the addition of a 300 m filter cavity to provide the squeezed light with a frequency-dependent squeezing angle, part of the A+ upgrade program. Altogether, the A+ upgrades led to reduced detector-wide losses for the squeezed vacuum states of light which, alongside the filter cavity, enabled broadband quantum noise reduction of up to 5.2 dB at the Hanford observatory and 6.1 dB at the Livingston observatory. Improvements to sensors and actuators as well as significant controls commissioning increased low frequency sensitivity. This paper details these instrumental upgrades, analyzes the noise sources that limit detector sensitivity, and describes the commissioning challenges of the fourth observing run., Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures