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The Baade-Wesselink method allows us to estimate distances to individual pulsating stars. Accurate geometric parallaxes obtained by the Gaia mission serve us in the calibration of the method and in the determination of its precision. The method also provides a way of determining mean radii of pulsating stars. The main aim of this work is to determine the scatter and possible dependence of p- factors of RR Lyrae stars on their pulsation periods. The secondary objective is to determine mean radius - period relations for these stars. Our calibrations for RR Lyrae stars are based on photometric data gathered at the Cerro Murphy Observatory. We obtained spectroscopic data specifically for this project using high resolution spectrographs. We use the Infrared Surface Brightness (IRSB) version of the method that relies on a surface brightness - color relation dependent on the (V-K) color. We obtain the spread of p- factors of around 0.07-0.08 for our sample of 9 RR Lyrae stars from the solar neighborhood. However, we also find relations between the p-factor and the pulsation period for RRab stars with the rms scatter around the relation of around 0.05, but with relatively large uncertainty of relations' parameters. We present relations between the mean radius and period for RR Lyrae pulsating in the fundamental mode with the rms scatter around the relation of $0.012R_{\odot}$. We observe a clear offset between p- factors obtained using the IRSB technique (with mean p between 1.39 and 1.45) and values inferred by Bras et al. (2024) using the SPIPS tool (M\'erand et al. 2015). On the other hand, we obtain a similar scatter of p of as observed by Bras et al. (2024). Our period-radius relations are in a good agreement with both the inference of Bras et al. (2024) based on SPIPS and theoretical predictions of Marconi et al. (2005, 2015), Comment: accepted for publication in A&A

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has made breakthrough discoveries in gravitational-wave astronomy, a new field that provides a different means of observing our Universe. Gravitational-wave discoveries are possible thanks to the work of thousands of people from across the globe working together. In this article, we discuss the range of engagement activities used to communicate LVK gravitational-wave discoveries and the stories of the people behind the science, using the activities surrounding the release of the third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog as a case study., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, published in JCOM: https://doi.org/10.22323/2.23070803

Pediatric central nervous system tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children. The five-year survival rate for high-grade glioma in children is less than 20%. The development of new treatments is dependent upon multi-institutional collaborative clinical trials requiring reproducible and accurate centralized response assessment. We present the results of the BraTS-PEDs 2023 challenge, the first Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) challenge focused on pediatric brain tumors. This challenge utilized data acquired from multiple international consortia dedicated to pediatric neuro-oncology and clinical trials. BraTS-PEDs 2023 aimed to evaluate volumetric segmentation algorithms for pediatric brain gliomas from magnetic resonance imaging using standardized quantitative performance evaluation metrics employed across the BraTS 2023 challenges. The top-performing AI approaches for pediatric tumor analysis included ensembles of nnU-Net and Swin UNETR, Auto3DSeg, or nnU-Net with a self-supervised framework. The BraTSPEDs 2023 challenge fostered collaboration between clinicians (neuro-oncologists, neuroradiologists) and AI/imaging scientists, promoting faster data sharing and the development of automated volumetric analysis techniques. These advancements could significantly benefit clinical trials and improve the care of children with brain tumors.

Type II Cepheids are old pulsating stars that can be used to trace the distribution of an old stellar population and to measure distances to globular clusters and galaxies within several megaparsecs. One method that can be used to measure the distances of Type II Cepheids relies on period-luminosity relations, which are quite widely explored in the literature. The semi-geometrical Baade-Wesselink technique is another method that allows distances of radially pulsating stars, such as Type II Cepheids, to be measured if the so-called projection factor is known. Using the surface brightness-colour relation version of the Baade-Wesselink technique, we determined the projection factors and radii of eight nearby BL Her type stars. We adopted accurate distances of target stars from Gaia Data Release 3. Time series photometry in the V and K bands have been collected with two telescopes located at the Rolf Chini Cerro Murphy Observatory, while spectroscopic data have been obtained with instruments hosted by the European Southern Observatory. The measured projection factors for the stars with good quality data are in the range between 1.21 and 1.36. The typical uncertainty of projection factors is 0.1. The mean value is 1.330$\pm$0.058, which gives the uncertainty of $\sim$4%. The main sources of uncertainty on the p-factors are statistical errors of the Baade-Wesselink fit and parallax. In the case of radii, the biggest contribution to the error budget comes from the K band photometry systematic uncertainty and parallax. The determined radii allowed us to construct the period-radius relation for BL Her stars. Our period-radius relation is in good agreement with the previous empirical calibration, while two theoretical calibrations found in the literature agree with our relation within 2$\sigma$. We also confirm that BL Her and RR Lyr stars obey an apparent common period-radius relation., Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables, Accepted for publication in A&A

Circulating tumor cell clusters play an important role in the metastatic cascade. These clusters can acquire a migratory and more invasive phenotype, and coordinate their motion to migrate as a collective. Before such clusters can form by collectively detaching from a primary tumor, however, the cluster must first aggregate in the tumor interior. The mechanism of this cluster formation process is still poorly understood. One of the possible ways for cells to cluster is by aligning their direction of motion with their neighboring cells. This work aims to investigate the role of this cell-cell alignment interaction on the formation of motile cell clusters inside the bulk of a tumor using computer simulations. We employ a Cellular Potts model in which we model a two-dimensional heterogeneous confluent layer containing both motile and non-motile cells. Our results indicate that the degree of clustering is governed by two distinct processes: the formation of clusters due to the presence of cell-cell alignment interactions among motile cells, and the suppression of clustering due to the presence of the dynamic cellular environment (comprised of the non-motile cells). We find that the largest motile clusters are formed for intermediate alignment strengths, contrary to what is observed for motile cells in free space (that is, unimpeded by a dense cellular environment), in which case stronger cell-cell alignment always leads to larger clustering. Our findings suggest that the presence of a densely-packed cellular environment and strong cell-cell alignment inhibits the formation of large migratory clusters within the primary tumor, providing physical insight into potential factors at play during the early stages of metastasis., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

We examine the power spectrum $P_n$ of the $n$th harmonic for Garfinkle-Vachaspati cosmic strings, which correspond to planar rectangular loops. While these loop tractories are self-intersecting, a slightly perturbed non-self-intersecting form of these trajectories has been suggested as a generic end state of cosmic string loop fragmentation. We find that $P_n$ scales as $n^{-2} \ln n$, rather than the expected $n^{-2}$ for kink-kink collisions. This result is demonstrated analytically for even $n$ in square loops and numerically for all other cases. At lowest order, the effect of loop decays is to further enhance $P_n$ at large $n$ relative to its value at small $n$. The consequences for relic stochastic background radiation along with the caveats pertaining to our results are discussed., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) is a modern technique for high-precision energy spectroscopy, in which the energy of a charged particle in a magnetic field is measured via the frequency of the emitted cyclotron radiation. The He6-CRES collaboration aims to use CRES to probe beyond the standard model physics at the TeV scale by performing high-resolution and low-background beta-decay spectroscopy of ${}^6\textrm{He}$ and ${}^{19}\textrm{Ne}$. Having demonstrated the first observation of individual, high-energy (0.1 -- 2.5 MeV) positrons and electrons via their cyclotron radiation, the experiment provides a novel window into the radiation of relativistic charged particles in a waveguide via the time-derivative (slope) of the cyclotron radiation frequency, $\mathrm{d}f_\textrm{c}/\mathrm{d}t$. We show that analytic predictions for the total cyclotron radiation power emitted by a charged particle in circular and rectangular waveguides are approximately consistent with the Larmor formula, each scaling with the Lorentz factor of the underlying $e^\pm$ as $\gamma^4$. This hypothesis is corroborated with experimental CRES slope data., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures

Stellar mergers and accretion events have been crucial in shaping the evolution of the Milky Way (MW). These events have been dynamically identified and chemically characterised using red giants and main-sequence stars. RR Lyrae (RRL) variables can play a crucial role in tracing the early formation of the MW since they are ubiquitous, old (t$\ge$10 Gyr) low-mass stars and accurate distance indicators. We exploited Data Release 3 of the GALAH survey to identify 78 field RRLs suitable for chemical analysis. Using synthetic spectra calculations, we determined atmospheric parameters and abundances of Fe, Mg, Ca, Y, and Ba. Most of our stars exhibit halo-like chemical compositions, with an iron peak around [Fe/H]$\approx -$1.40, and enhanced Ca and Mg content. Notably, we discovered a metal-rich tail, with [Fe/H] values ranging from $-$1 to approximately solar metallicity. This sub-group includes almost ~1/4 of the sample, it is characterised by thin disc kinematics and displays sub-solar $\alpha$-element abundances, marginally consistent with the majority of the MW stars. Surprisingly, they differ distinctly from typical MW disc stars in terms of the s-process elements Y and Ba. We took advantage of similar data available in the literature and built a total sample of 535 field RRLs for which we estimated kinematical and dynamical properties. We found that metal-rich RRLs (1/3 of the sample) likely represent an old component of the MW thin disc. We also detected RRLs with retrograde orbits and provided preliminary associations with the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus, Helmi, Sequoia, Sagittarius, and Thamnos stellar streams., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 29 pages, 20 figures

Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) are crucial for calibrating the extragalactic distance ladder, ultimately enabling the determination of the Hubble constant through the PL and PW relations they exhibit. Hence it's vital to understand how the PL and PW relations depend on metallicity. This is the purpose of the C-MetaLL survey within which this work is situated. DCEPs are also very important tracers of the young populations placed along the Galactic disc. We aim to enlarge the sample of DCEPs with accurate abundances from high-resolution spectroscopy. Our goal is to extend the range of measured metallicities towards the metal-poor regime to better cover the parameter space. We observed objects in a wide range of Galactocentric radii, allowing us to study in detail the abundance gradients present in the Galactic disc. We present the results of the analysis of 331 spectra obtained for 180 individual DCEPs with a variety of high-resolution spectrographs. We derived accurate atmospheric parameters, radial velocities, and abundances for up to 29 different species. The iron abundances range between 0.5 and -1 dex with a rather homogeneous distribution in metallicity. The sample presented in this paper was complemented with that already published in the context of the C-MetaLL survey, resulting in a total of 292 pulsators whose spectra have been analysed in a homogeneous way. These data were used to study the abundance gradients of the Galactic disc in a range of Galactocentric radii spanning the range 5-20 kpc. For most of the elements we found a clear negative gradient, with a slope of -0.071\pm0.003 dex kpc^-1 for [Fe/H] case. Through a qualitative fit with the Galactic spiral arms we shown how our farthest targets (R_GC>10 kpc) trace both the Outer and OSC arms. The homogeneity of the sample will be of pivotal importance for the study of the metallicity dependance of the DCEP PL relations., Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, 4 tables, accepted to be published in A&A, version post layout and language editor corrections

An inner companion has recently been discovered orbiting the prototype of classical Cepheids, delta Cep, whose orbital parameters are still not fully constrained. We collected new precise radial velocity measurements of delta Cep in 2019 using the HARPS-N spectrograph mounted at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. Using these radial velocity measurements, we aimed to improve the orbital parameters of the system. We considered a template available in the literature as a reference for the radial velocity curve of the pulsation of the star. We then calculated the residuals between our global dataset (composed of the new 2019 observations plus data from the literature) and the template as a function of the pulsation phase and the barycentric Julian date. This provides the orbital velocity of the Cepheid component. Using a Bayesian tool, we derived the orbital parameters of the system. Considering priors based on already published Gaia constraints, we find for the orbital period a maximum a posteriori probability of Porb=9.32+/-0.03 years (uncertainties correspond to the 95% highest density probability interval), and we obtain an eccentricity e=0.71+/-0.02, a semimajor axis a=0.029 +/-0.003 arcsecond, and a center-of-mass velocity V0=-17.28+/-0.08 km/s, among other parameters. In this short analysis we derive the orbital parameters of the delta Cep inner binary system and provide a cleaned radial velocity curve of the pulsation of the star, which will be used to study its Baade-Wesselink projection factor in a future publication., Comment: accepted for publication in A&A Letters

Context: In the first part of his 2012 presentation "Inventing on Principle", Bret Victor gives a demo of a live code editor for Javascript which shows the dynamic history of values of variables in real time. This form of live programming has become known as "probes". Probes provide the programmer with permanent and continuous insight into the dynamic evolution of function or method variables, thus improving feedback and developer experience. Inquiry: Although Victor shows a working prototype of live probes in the context of Javascript, he does not discuss strategies for implementing them. Later work provides an implementation approach, but this requires a programming language to be implemented on top of the GraalVM runtime. In this paper we present **LiveRec**, a generic approach for implementing probes which can be applied in the context of many programming languages, without requiring the modification of compilers or run-time systems. Approach: **LiveRec** is based on reusing existing debug protocols to implement probes. Methods or functions are compiled after every code change and executed inside the debugger. During execution the evolution of all local variables in the current stack frame are recorded and communicated back to the editor or IDE for display to the user. Knowledge: It turns out that mainstream debug protocols are rich enough for implementing live probes. Step-wise execution, code hot swapping, and stack frame inspection provide the right granularity and sufficient information to realize live probes, without modifying compilers or language runtimes. Furthermore, it turns out that the recently proposed Debugger Adapter Protocol (DAP) provides an even more generic approach of implementing live probes, but, in some cases, at the cost of a significant performance penalty. Grounding: We have applied **LiveRec** to implement probes using stack recording natively for Java through the Java Debug Interface (JDI), and through the DAP for Java, Python, C, and Javascript, all requiring just modest amounts of configuration code. We evaluate the run-time performance of all four probes prototypes, decomposed into: compile-after-change, hot swap, single step overhead, and stack recording overhead. Our initial results show that live probes on top of native debug APIs can be performant enough for interactive use. In the case of DAP, however, it highly depends on characteristics of the programming language implementation and its associated debugging infrastructure. Importance: Live programming improves the programmer experience by providing immediate feedback about a program's execution and eliminating disruptive edit-compile-restart sequences. Probes are one way to shorten the programmer feedback loop at the level of functions and methods. Although probes are not new, and have been implemented in (prototype) systems, **LiveRec**'s approach of building live probes on top of existing and generic debug protocols promises a path towards probes for a host of mainstream programming languages, with reasonable effort.

The hardware for data archiving has expanded capacities for digital storage enormously in the past decade or more. This article charts the efforts of IUCr to facilitate discussions and plans relating to raw data archiving and reuse within the various communities of crystallography, diffraction, and scattering., Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables

Simulating the mechanical response of advanced materials can be done more accurately using concurrent multiscale models than with single-scale simulations. However, the computational costs stand in the way of the practical application of this approach. The costs originate from microscale Finite Element (FE) models that must be solved at every macroscopic integration point. A plethora of surrogate modeling strategies attempt to alleviate this cost by learning to predict macroscopic stresses from macroscopic strains, completely replacing the microscale models. In this work, we introduce an alternative surrogate modeling strategy that allows for keeping the multiscale nature of the problem, allowing it to be used interchangeably with an FE solver for any time step. Our surrogate provides all microscopic quantities, which are then homogenized to obtain macroscopic quantities of interest. We achieve this for an elasto-plastic material by predicting full-field microscopic strains using a graph neural network (GNN) while retaining the microscopic constitutive material model to obtain the stresses. This hybrid data-physics graph-based approach avoids the high dimensionality originating from predicting full-field responses while allowing non-locality to arise. By training the GNN on a variety of meshes, it learns to generalize to unseen meshes, allowing a single model to be used for a range of microstructures. The embedded microscopic constitutive model in the GNN implicitly tracks history-dependent variables and leads to improved accuracy. We demonstrate for several challenging scenarios that the surrogate can predict complex macroscopic stress-strain paths. As the computation time of our method scales favorably with the number of elements in the microstructure compared to the FE method, our method can significantly accelerate FE2 simulations.

Context. Abundances of s- and r-process elements in Sun-like stars constrain nucleosynthesis in extreme astrophysical events, such as compact binary mergers and explosions of highly magnetised rapidly rotating massive stars. Aims. We measure solar abundances of yttrium (Y) and europium (Eu) using 3D non-local thermal equilibrium (NLTE) models. We use the model to determine the abundance of Y, and also explore the model's ability to reproduce the solar centre-to-limb variation of its lines. In addition, we determine the Eu abundance using solar disc-centre and integrated flux spectra. Methods. We developed an NLTE model of Eu and updated our model of Y with collisional data from detailed quantum-mechanical calculations. We used the IAG spatially resolved high-resolution solar spectra to derive the solar abundances of Y across the solar disc and of Eu for integrated flux and at disc centre using a set of carefully selected lines and a 3D radiation-hydrodynamics model of the solar atmosphere. Results. We find 3D NLTE solar abundances of A(Y)$_{\textrm{3D NLTE}}$=$2.30 \pm 0.03_{\textrm{stat}} \pm 0.07_{\textrm{syst}}$ dex based on observations at all angles and A(Eu)$_{\textrm{3D NLTE}}$=$0.57 \pm 0.01_{\textrm{stat}} \pm 0.06_{\textrm{syst}}$ dex based on the integrated flux and disc-centre intensity. 3D NLTE modelling offers the most consistent abundances across the solar disc, and resolves the problem of severe systematic bias in Y and Eu abundances inherent to 1D LTE, 1D NLTE, and 3D LTE modelling., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by A&A

Type II Cepheids (T2C) are less frequently used counterparts of classical Cepheids which provide the primary calibration of the distance ladder for measuring $H_0$ in the local Universe. In the era of the Hubble Tension, T2C variables with the RR Lyrae stars (RRL) and the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) can potentially provide classical Cepheid independent calibration of the cosmic distance ladder. Our goal is to provide an absolute calibration of the Period-Luminosity, Period-Luminosity-Color and Period-Wesenheit relations(PL,PLC and PW) of T2Cs in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We exploited time-series photometry in the near-infrared (NIR) bands for a sample of more than 320 T2Cs in the Magellanic Clouds (MC). These observations were acquired during 2009-2018 in the context of the VMC ESO public survey (The VISTA near-infrared YJKs survey of the Magellanic System). The NIR photometry was supplemented with well-sampled optical light curves and accurate pulsation periods from the OGLE IV survey and the Gaia mission. We used the best-quality NIR light curves to generate custom templates for modelling sparsely sampled light curves in YJKs bands; in turn, we derived accurate and precise intensity-averaged mean magnitudes and pulsation amplitudes of 339 T2Cs in the MC. We used optical and NIR mean magnitudes to derive PL/PLC/PW relations for T2Cs in multiple bands, which were calibrated with the geometric distance to the LMC and with the Gaia parallaxes. We used our new empirical calibrations of PL/PW relations to obtain distances to 22 T2C-host Galactic globular clusters, which were found to be systematically smaller by 0.1 mag and 0.03-0.06 mag compared with the literature. A better agreement is found between our distances and those based on RRLs in globular clusters, providing strong support for using these population II stars with the TRGB for future distance scale studies.

Brain tumors are the most common solid tumors and the leading cause of cancer-related death among children. Tumor segmentation is essential in surgical and treatment planning, and response assessment and monitoring. However, manual segmentation is time-consuming and has high inter-operator variability, underscoring the need for more efficient methods. We compared two deep learning-based 3D segmentation models, DeepMedic and nnU-Net, after training with pediatric-specific multi-institutional brain tumor data using based on multi-parametric MRI scans.Multi-parametric preoperative MRI scans of 339 pediatric patients (n=293 internal and n=46 external cohorts) with a variety of tumor subtypes, were preprocessed and manually segmented into four tumor subregions, i.e., enhancing tumor (ET), non-enhancing tumor (NET), cystic components (CC), and peritumoral edema (ED). After training, performance of the two models on internal and external test sets was evaluated using Dice scores, sensitivity, and Hausdorff distance with reference to ground truth manual segmentations. Dice score for nnU-Net internal test sets was (mean +/- SD (median)) 0.9+/-0.07 (0.94) for WT, 0.77+/-0.29 for ET, 0.66+/-0.32 for NET, 0.71+/-0.33 for CC, and 0.71+/-0.40 for ED, respectively. For DeepMedic the Dice scores were 0.82+/-0.16 for WT, 0.66+/-0.32 for ET, 0.48+/-0.27, for NET, 0.48+/-0.36 for CC, and 0.19+/-0.33 for ED, respectively. Dice scores were significantly higher for nnU-Net (p<=0.01). External validation of the trained nnU-Net model on the multi-institutional BraTS-PEDs 2023 dataset revealed high generalization capability in segmentation of whole tumor and tumor core with Dice scores of 0.87+/-0.13 (0.91) and 0.83+/-0.18 (0.89), respectively. Pediatric-specific data trained nnU-Net model is superior to DeepMedic for whole tumor and subregion segmentation of pediatric brain tumors.

We present homogeneous multiband (grizJHKs) time-series observations of 78 Cepheids including 49 fundamental mode variables and 29 first-overtone mode variables. These observations were collected simultaneously using the ROS2 and REMIR instruments at the Rapid Eye Mount telescope. The Cepheid sample covers a large range of distances (0.5 - 19.7 kpc) with varying precision of parallaxes, and thus astrometry-based luminosity fits were used to derive PL and PW relations in optical Sloan (griz) and near-infrared (JHKs) filters. These empirically calibrated relations exhibit large scatter primarily due to larger uncertainties in parallaxes of distant Cepheids, but their slopes agree well with those previously determined in the literature. Using homogeneous high-resolution spectroscopic metallicities of 61 Cepheids covering -1.1 < [Fe/H] < 0.6 dex, we quantified the metallicity dependence of PL and PW relations which varies between $-0.30\pm0.11$ (in Ks) and $-0.55\pm0.12$ (in z) mag/dex in grizJHKs bands. However, the metallicity dependence in the residuals of the PL and PW relations is predominantly seen for metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] < -0.3 dex), which also have larger parallax uncertainties. The modest sample size precludes us from separating the contribution to the residuals due to parallax uncertainties, metallicity effects, and reddening errors. While this Cepheid sample is not optimal for calibrating the Leavitt law, upcoming photometric and spectroscopic datasets of the C-MetaLL survey will allow the accurate derivation of PL and PW relations in the Sloan and near-infrared bandpasses, which will be useful for the distance measurements in the era of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time and upcoming extremely large telescopes., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics (abridged abstract)

Stars formed with initial mass over 50 Msun are very rare today, but they are thought to be more common in the early universe. The fates of those early, metal-poor, massive stars are highly uncertain. Most are expected to directly collapse to black holes, while some may explode as a result of rotationally powered engines or the pair-creation instability. We present the chemical abundances of J0931+0038, a nearby low-mass star identified in early followup of SDSS-V Milky Way Mapper, which preserves the signature of unusual nucleosynthesis from a massive star in the early universe. J0931+0038 has relatively high metallicity ([Fe/H] = -1.76 +/- 0.13) but an extreme odd-even abundance pattern, with some of the lowest known abundance ratios of [N/Fe], [Na/Fe], [K/Fe], [Sc/Fe], and [Ba/Fe]. The implication is that a majority of its metals originated in a single extremely metal-poor nucleosynthetic source. An extensive search through nucleosynthesis predictions finds a clear preference for progenitors with initial mass > 50 Msun, making J0931+0038 one of the first observational constraints on nucleosynthesis in this mass range. However the full abundance pattern is not matched by any models in the literature. J0931+0038 thus presents a challenge for the next generation of nucleosynthesis models and motivates study of high-mass progenitor stars impacted by convection, rotation, jets, and/or binary companions. Though rare, more examples of unusual early nucleosynthesis in metal-poor stars should be found in upcoming large spectroscopic surveys., Comment: 11 pages + 22 page appendix, accepted to ApJL

This research explores the application of a genetic algorithm metaheuristic enriched by the wisdom of crowds in order to address the NP-Complete matrix domination problem (henceforth: TMDP) which is itself a constraint on related problems applied in graphs. Matrix domination involves accurately placing a subset of cells, referred to as dominators, within a matrix with the goal of their dominating the remainder of the cells. This research integrates the exploratory nature of a genetic algorithm with the wisdom of crowds to find more optimal solutions with user-defined parameters to work within computational complexity considerations and gauge performance mainly with a fitness evaluation function and a constraining function to combat the stochastic nature of genetic algorithms. With this, I propose a novel approach to MDP with a genetic algorithm that incorporates the wisdom of crowds, emphasizing collective decision-making in the selection process, and by exploring concepts of matrix permutations and their relevance in finding optimal solutions. Results demonstrate the potential of this convergence to generate efficient solutions, optimizing the trade-off between the number of dominators and their strategic placements within the matrices while efficiently ensuring consistent and complete matrix domination., Comment: 8 pages

The open-source publishing of large language models (LLMs) has created many possibilities for how anyone who understands language and has access to a computer can interact with significant tools of artificial intelligence, particularly in the context of learning and knowledge dissemination. However, the utility of these models in specialized fields like Classics is still largely unexplored. This project is an attempt to merge the knowledge of Classics with the capabilities of artificial intelligence by finetuning an LLM to cater to the specific needs of learners and professionals. The goal of this project is to develop an LLM that not only reproduces contextual knowledge accurately but also exhibits a consistent "personality" - and, indeed, has consistent propriety - to appeal to a diverse audience who possess differing levels of knowledge. A significant portion of this project was dedicated to refining the dataset, following the principle of "garbage in, garbage out," to ensure the model generates relevant, useful, and creative responses when given a prompt (a statement, question, or single word). After training and evaluation, my model's ability to handle a vast array of different types of inputs and prompting exceeded expectations for a 355M parameter model, though its occasional hallucinations (especially when set with a high temperature), particularly in its assertions about historical events or its own identity, make it seem somewhat capricious and more work in the form of continuous finetuning will be undertaken., Comment: 10 pages

Mounting experimental evidence suggests that brain-state-specific neural mechanisms, supported by connectomic architectures, play a crucial role in integrating past and contextual knowledge with the current, incoming flow of evidence (e.g., from sensory systems). These mechanisms operate across multiple spatial and temporal scales, necessitating dedicated support at the levels of individual neurons and synapses. A notable feature within the neocortex is the structure of large, deep pyramidal neurons, which exhibit a distinctive separation between an apical dendritic compartment and a basal dendritic/perisomatic compartment. This separation is characterized by distinct patterns of incoming connections and brain-state-specific activation mechanisms, namely, apical amplification, isolation, and drive, which are associated with wakefulness, deeper NREM sleep stages, and REM sleep, respectively. The cognitive roles of apical mechanisms have been demonstrated in behaving animals. In contrast, classical models of learning in spiking networks are based on single-compartment neurons, lacking the ability to describe the integration of apical and basal/somatic information. This work aims to provide the computational community with a two-compartment spiking neuron model that incorporates features essential for supporting brain-state-specific learning. This model includes a piece-wise linear transfer function (ThetaPlanes) at the highest abstraction level, making it suitable for use in large-scale bio-inspired artificial intelligence systems. A machine learning evolutionary algorithm, guided by a set of fitness functions, selected the parameters that define neurons expressing the desired apical mechanisms., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures (29 single images), 4 tables, paper

Recently Lian et al. (2023), thanks to Gaia-ESO data, studied the chemical evolution of neutron-capture elements in the regime [Fe/H]>-1. We aim here to complement this study down to [Fe/H]=-3, and focus on Ba, Y, Sr, and abundance ratios of [Ba/Y] and [Sr/Y], which give comprehensive views on s-process nucleosynthesis channels. We measured LTE and NLTE abundances of Ba, Y, and Sr in 323 Galactic metal-poor stars using high-resolution optical spectra with high S/N. We used the spectral fitting code TSFitPy, together with 1D model atmospheres using previously determined LTE and NLTE atmospheric parameters. The NLTE effects are on the order of -0.1 to ~0.2dex depending on the element. T he ratio between heavy and light s-process elements [Ba/Y] varies weakly with [Fe/H] even in the metal-poor regime, consistently with the behavior in the metal-rich regime. The [Ba/Y] scatter at a given metallicity is larger than the abundance measurement uncertainties. Homogeneous chemical evolution models with different yields prescriptions are unable to accurately reproduce the [Ba/Y] scatter at low-[Fe/H]. Adopting the stochastic chemical evolution model by Cescutti & Chaippini (2014) allows to reproduce the observed scatter in the abundance pattern of [Ba/Y] and [Ba/Sr]. With our observations, we rule out the need for an arbitrary scaling of the r-process contribution as previously suggested by the model authors. We have showed how important it is to properly include NLTE effects when measuring chemical abundances, especially in the metal-poor regime. This work shows that the choice of the Galactic chemical evolution model (stochastic vs. 1-zone) is key when comparing models to observations. The upcoming surveys such as 4MOST and WEAVE will deliver high quality spectra of many thousands of metal-poor stars, and this work gives a typical case study of what could be achieved with such surveys., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, submitted to A&A, comments welcome

Early quantum mechanical models suggested that pressure drives solids towards free-electron metal behavior where the ions are locked into simple close-packed structures. The prediction and subsequent discovery of high-pressure electrides (HPEs), compounds assuming open structures where the valence electrons are localized in interstitial voids, required a paradigm shift. Our quantum chemical calculations on the iconic insulating Na-hP4 HPE show that increasing density causes a 3s -> 3pd electronic transition due to Coulomb repulsion between the 1s2s and 3s states, and orthogonality of the 3pd states to the core. The large lobes of the resulting Na-pd hybrid orbitals point towards the center of an 11-membered penta-capped trigonal prism and overlap constructively, forming multi-centered bonds, which are responsible for the emergence of the interstitial charge localization in Na-hP4. These multi-centered bonds facilitate the increased density of this phase, which is key for its stabilization under pressure.

Anomalous Cepheids (ACEPs) are intermediate mass metal-poor pulsators mostly discovered in dwarf galaxies of the Local Group. However, recent Galactic surveys, including the Gaia DR3, found a few hundreds of ACEPs in the Milky Way. Their origin is not well understood. We aim to investigate the origin and evolution of Galactic ACEPs by studying for the first time the chemical composition of their atmospheres. We used UVES@VLT to obtain high-resolution spectra for a sample of 9 ACEPs belonging to the Galactic halo. We derived the abundances of 12 elements, including C, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Y, and Ba. We complemented these data with literature abundances for an additional three ACEPs that were previously incorrectly classified as type II Cepheids, thus increasing the sample to a total of 12 stars. All the investigated ACEPs have an iron abundance [Fe/H]$<-1.5$ dex as expected from theoretical predictions for these pulsators. The abundance ratios of the different elements to iron show that the ACEP's chemical composition is generally consistent with that of the Galactic halo field stars, except the Sodium, which is found overabundant in 9 out of the 11 ACEPs where it was measured, in close similarity with second-generation stars in the Galactic Globular Clusters. The same comparison with dwarf and ultra-faint satellites of the Milky Way reveals more differences than similarities so it is unlikely that the bulk of Galactic ACEPs originated in such a kind of galaxies which subsequently dissolved in the Galactic halo. The principal finding of this work is the unexpected overabundance of Sodium in ACEPs. We explored several hypotheses to explain this feature, finding that the most promising scenario is the evolution of low-mass stars in a binary system with either mass transfer or merging. Detailed modelling is needed to confirm this hypothesis., Comment: 15 Figures, 4 Tables, Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics

Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) play a fundamental role in the calibration of the extra-galactic distance ladder which eventually leads to the determination of the Hubble constant($H_0$) thanks to the period-luminosity ($PL$) and period-Wesenheit ($PW$) relations exhibited by these pulsating variables. Therefore, it is of great importance to establish the dependence of $PL/PW$ relations on metallicity. We aim at quantifying the metallicity dependence of the Galactic DCEPs' $PL/PW$ relations for a variety of photometric bands ranging from optical to near-infrared. We gathered a literature sample of 910 DCEPs with available [Fe/H] values from high-resolution spectroscopy or metallicities from \gaia\ Radial Velocity Spectrometer. For all these stars, we collected photometry in the $G_{BP},G_{RP},G,I,V,J,H,K_S$ bands and astrometry from the \gaia\ DR3. These data have been used to investigate the metal dependence of both intercepts and slopes of a variety of $PL/PW$ relations at multiple wavelengths. We find a large negative metallicity effect on the intercept ($\gamma$ coefficient) of all the $PL/PW$ relations investigated in this work, while present data still do not allow us to draw firm conclusions regarding the metal dependence of the slope ($\delta$ coefficient). The typical values of $\gamma$ are around $-0.4:-0.5$ mag/dex, i.e. larger than most of the recent determinations present in the literature. We carried out several tests which confirm the robustness of our results. As in our previous works, we find that the inclusion of global zero point offset of \gaia\ parallaxes provides smaller values of $\gamma$ (in an absolute sense). However, the assumption of the geometric distance of the LMC seems to indicate that larger values of $\gamma$ (in an absolute sense) would be preferred., Comment: 20 pages, 26 figures. Accepted for publication on A&A. This new version contains corrections from the language editor and a revision of the analysis due to a typo found in the literature

Pediatric brain and spinal cancers remain the leading cause of cancer-related death in children. Advancements in clinical decision-support in pediatric neuro-oncology utilizing the wealth of radiology imaging data collected through standard care, however, has significantly lagged other domains. Such data is ripe for use with predictive analytics such as artificial intelligence (AI) methods, which require large datasets. To address this unmet need, we provide a multi-institutional, large-scale pediatric dataset of 23,101 multi-parametric MRI exams acquired through routine care for 1,526 brain tumor patients, as part of the Children's Brain Tumor Network. This includes longitudinal MRIs across various cancer diagnoses, with associated patient-level clinical information, digital pathology slides, as well as tissue genotype and omics data. To facilitate downstream analysis, treatment-na\"ive images for 370 subjects were processed and released through the NCI Childhood Cancer Data Initiative via the Cancer Data Service. Through ongoing efforts to continuously build these imaging repositories, our aim is to accelerate discovery and translational AI models with real-world data, to ultimately empower precision medicine for children.

We present a simple yet accurate method to compute the adjoint double layer potential, which is used to solve the Neumann boundary value problem for Laplace's equation in three dimensions. An expansion in curvilinear coordinates leads us to modify the expression for the adjoint double layer so that the singularity is reduced when evaluating the integral on the surface. We then regularize the Green's function, with a radial parameter $\delta$. We show that a natural regularization has error $O(\delta^3)$, and a simple modification improves the error to $O(\delta^5)$. The integral is evaluated numerically without the need of special coordinates. We use this treatment of the adjoint double layer to solve the classical integral equation for the interior Neumann problem and evaluate the solution on the boundary. Choosing $\delta = ch^{4/5}$, we find about $O(h^4)$ convergence in our examples, where $h$ is the spacing in a background grid.

Wind speed and direction variations across the rotor affect power production. As utility-scale turbines extend higher into the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) with larger rotor diameters and hub heights, they increasingly encounter more complex wind speed and direction variations. We assess three models for power production that account for wind speed and direction shear. Two are based on actuator disc representations and the third is a blade element representation. We also evaluate the predictions from a standard power curve model that has no knowledge of wind shear. The predictions from each model, driven by wind profile measurements from a profiling LiDAR, are compared to concurrent power measurements from an adjacent utility-scale wind turbine. In the field measurements of the utility-scale turbine, discrete combinations of speed and direction shear induce changes in power production of -19% to +34% relative to the turbine power curve for a given hub height wind speed. Positive speed shear generally corresponds to over-performance and positive direction shear to under-performance, relative to the power curve. Overall, the blade element model produces both higher correlation and lower error relative to the other models, but its quantitative accuracy depends on induction and controller sub-models. To further assess the influence of complex, non-monotonic wind profiles, we also drive the models with best-fit power law wind speed profiles and linear wind direction profiles. These idealized inputs produce qualitative and quantitative differences in power predictions from each model, demonstrating that time-varying, non-monotonic wind shear affects wind power production., Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures in main body, 1 figure in Appendix A, to be published in Wiley Wind Energy

Schema change is an unsolved problem in both live programming and local-first software. We include in schema change any change to the expected shape of data, whether that is expressed explicitly in a database schema or type system, or whether those expectations are implicit in the behavior of the code. Schema changes during live programming can create a mismatch between the code and data in the running environment. Similarly, schema changes in local-first programming can create mismatches between data in different replicas, and between data in a replica and the code colocated with it. In all of these situations the problem of schema change is to migrate or translate existing data in coordination with changes to the code. This paper contributes a set of concrete scenarios involving schema change that are offered as challenge problems to the live programming and local-first communities. We hope that these problems will spur progress by providing concrete objectives and a basis for comparing alternative solutions., Comment: To appear at LIVE Programming Workshop, October 24, 2023, ACM SIGPLAN conference on Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications (SPLASH) Cascais, Portugal

Morse complexes and Morse-Smale complexes are topological descriptors popular in topology-based visualization. Comparing these complexes plays an important role in their applications in feature correspondences, feature tracking, symmetry detection, and uncertainty visualization. Leveraging recent advances in optimal transport, we apply a class of optimal transport distances to the comparative analysis of Morse complexes. Contrasting with existing comparative measures, such distances are easy and efficient to compute, and naturally provide structural matching between Morse complexes. We perform an experimental study involving scientific simulation datasets and discuss the effectiveness of these distances as comparative measures for Morse complexes. We also provide an initial guideline for choosing the optimal transport distances under various data assumptions., Comment: IEEE Visualization Conference (IEEE VIS) Short Paper, accepted, 2023; supplementary materials: http://www.sci.utah.edu/~beiwang/publications/GWMC_VIS_Short_BeiWang_2023_Supplement.pdf