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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".]

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.

We present a systematic derivation of three mathematical models of increasing complexity for optical design, based on Hamilton's characteristic functions and conservation of luminous flux, and briefly explain the connection with the mathematical theory of optimal transport. We outline several iterative least-squares solvers for our models and demonstrate their performance for a few challenging problems., Comment: 23 pages

In this paper, we discuss a mathematical model for inverse freeform design of an optical system with two reflectors in which light transfers from a point source to a point target. In this model, the angular light intensity emitted from the point source and illuminance arriving at the point target are specified by distributions. To determine the optical mapping and the shape of the reflectors, we use the optical path length and take energy conservation into account, through which we obtain a generated Jacobian equation. We express the system in both spherical and stereographic coordinates, and solve it using a sophisticated least-squares algorithm. Several examples illustrate the algorithm's capabilities to tackle complicated light distributions., Comment: 12 pages

Tracking the development of living cells in live-cell time-lapses reveals crucial insights into single-cell behavior and presents tremendous potential for biomedical and biotechnological applications. In microbial live-cell imaging (MLCI), a few to thousands of cells have to be detected and tracked within dozens of growing cell colonies. The challenge of tracking cells is heavily influenced by the experiment parameters, namely the imaging interval and maximal cell number. For now, tracking benchmarks are not widely available in MLCI and the effect of these parameters on the tracking performance are not yet known. Therefore, we present the largest publicly available and annotated dataset for MLCI, containing more than 1.4 million cell instances, 29k cell tracks, and 14k cell divisions. With this dataset at hand, we generalize existing tracking metrics to incorporate relevant imaging and experiment parameters into experiment-aware metrics. These metrics reveal that current cell tracking methods crucially depend on the choice of the experiment parameters, where their performance deteriorates at high imaging intervals and large cell colonies. Thus, our new benchmark quantifies the influence of experiment parameters on the tracking quality, and gives the opportunity to develop new data-driven methods that generalize across imaging and experiment parameters. The benchmark dataset is publicly available at https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.7260136., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, BioImage Computing @ ECCV 2024

Isospin symmetry is a fundamental concept in nuclear physics. Even though isospin symmetry is partially broken, it holds approximately for most nuclear systems, which makes exceptions very interesting from the nuclear structure perspective. In this framework, it is expected that the spins and parities of the ground states of mirror nuclei should be the same, in particular for the simplest systems where a proton is exchanged with a neutron or vice versa. In this work, we present evidence that this assumption is broken in the mirror pair $^{71}$Br and $^{71}$Kr system. Our conclusions are based on a high-statistics $\beta$ decay study of $^{71}$Kr and on state-of-the-art shell model calculations. In our work, we also found evidence of a new state in $^{70}$Se, populated in the $\beta$-delayed proton emission process which can be interpreted as the long sought coexisting 0$^+$ state., Comment: 8 pages with references, 3 figures. Supplemental material 4 pages (1 table, 3 figures)

We measure the time-integrated CP asymmetry in $D^{0} \rightarrow K^{0}_{S}K^{0}_{S}$ decays reconstructed in $e^{+}e^{-} \rightarrow c\overline{c}$ events collected by the Belle and Belle II experiments. The corresponding data samples have integrated luminosities of 980 fb$^{-1}$ and 427 fb$^{-1}$, respectively. The D$^{0}$ decays are required to originate from the $D^{*+} \rightarrow D^{0}\pi^{+}$ decay, which determines the charm flavor at production time. A control sample of $D^{0} \rightarrow K^{+}K^{-}$ decays is used to correct for production and detection asymmetries.The result, ($-$1.4 $\pm$ 1.3(\text{stat.})$\pm$ 0.1(\text{syst.}))\%, is consistent with previous determinations and with CP symmetry., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2410.22961

The insulating mixed-valent Ir$^{+3.66}$ compound Ba$_4$NbIr$_3$O$_{12}$ hosts two holes per Ir$_3$O$_{12}$ trimer unit. We address the electronic structure via resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Ir $L_3$ edge and exact diagonalization. The holes occupy quasimolecular orbitals that are delocalized over a trimer. This gives rise to a rich intra-$t_{2g}$ excitation spectrum that extends from 0.5 eV to energies larger than 2 eV. Furthermore, it yields a strong modulation of the RIXS intensity as a function of the transferred momentum q. A clear fingerprint of the quasimolecular trimer character is the observation of two modulation periods, $2\pi/d$ and $2\pi/2d$, where d and 2d denote the intratrimer Ir-Ir distances. We discuss how the specific modulation reflects the character of the wavefunction of an excited state. Our quantitative analysis shows that spin-orbit coupling $\lambda$ of about 0.4 eV is decisive for the character of the electronic states, despite a large hopping $t_{a_{1g}}$ of about 0.8 eV. The ground state of a single trimer is described very well by both holes occupying the bonding j=1/2 orbital, forming a vanishing quasimolecular moment with J=0., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures

Using early data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, we search for AGN signatures in 410,757 line-emitting galaxies. By employing the BPT emission-line ratio diagnostic diagram, we identify AGN in 75,928/296,261 ($\approx$25.6%) high-mass ($\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) >$ 9.5) and 2,444/114,496 ($\approx$2.1%) dwarf ($\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) \leq$ 9.5) galaxies. Of these AGN candidates, 4,181 sources exhibit a broad H$\alpha$ component, allowing us to estimate their BH masses via virial techniques. This study more than triples the census of dwarf AGN as well as that of intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; $M_{\rm BH} \le 10^6~\rm M_{\odot}$) candidates, spanning a broad discovery space in stellar mass (7 $< \log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) <$ 12) and redshift (0.001 $< \rm z <$ 0.45). The observed AGN fraction in dwarf galaxies ($\approx$2.1%) is nearly four times higher than prior estimates, primarily due to DESI's smaller fiber size, which enables the detection of lower luminosity dwarf AGN candidates. We also extend the $M_{\rm BH}$ - $M_{\star}$ scaling relation down to $\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) \approx$ 8.5 and $\log (M_{\rm BH}/M_{\odot}) \approx$ 4.4, with our results aligning well with previous low-redshift studies. The large statistical sample of dwarf AGN candidates from current and future DESI releases will be invaluable for enhancing our understanding of galaxy evolution at the low-mass end of the galaxy mass function., Comment: 35 pages, 22 figures, Submitted to AAS Journals, Comments are welcome

The Lyman-$\alpha$ (Lya) line of hydrogen is a well-known tracer of galaxies at high-z. However, the connection between Lya observables and galaxy properties has not fully been established, limiting the use of the line to probe the physics of galaxies. Here, we derive global neutral hydrogen gas (HI) properties of nearby Lya-emitting galaxies to assess the impact of HI on the Lya output of galaxies. We observed 21cm line emission using the VLA in D-array configuration (~55" resolution, ~38 kpc) for 37 star-forming galaxies with available Lya imaging from the Lyman Alpha Reference Samples (LARS and eLARS). We detect 21cm emission for 33/37 galaxies observed. We find no significant correlation of global HI properties with Lya luminosity, escape fraction or equivalent width derived with HST photometry. Additionally, both Lya-emitters and weak or non-emitters are distributed evenly along the HI parameter space of optically-selected z=0 galaxies. Around 74% of the sample is undergoing galaxy interaction, this fraction is higher for Lya-emitters (83% for galaxies with EW$\geq$20\r{A}) than for non or weak emitters (70%). Nevertheless, galaxies identified as interacting have Lya and HI properties statistically consistent with those of non-interacting galaxies. Our results show that global HI properties (on scales > 30kpc) have little direct impact on the Lya output from galaxies. Instead, HI likely regulates Lya emission on small scales: statistical comparisons of Lya and high angular resolution 21cm observations are required to fully assess the role of HI in Lya radiative transfer. While our study indicates that galaxy mergers could play a role in the emission of Lya photons in the local universe, especially for galaxies with high HI fractions, the line-of-sight through which a system is observed ultimately determines Lya observables., Comment: 15+35 pages, 5+33 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

Musculoskeletal (MSK) models offer a non-invasive way to understand biomechanical loads on joints and tendons, which are difficult to measure directly. Variations in muscle strength, especially relative differences between muscles, significantly impact model outcomes. Typically, scaled generic MSK models use maximum isometric forces that are not adjusted for different demographics, raising concerns about their accuracy. This review provides an overview on experimentally derived strength parameters, including physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA), muscle mass (Mm), and relative muscle mass (%Mm), which is the relative distribution of muscle mass across the leg. We analysed differences by age and sex, and compared open-source lower limb MSK model parameters with experimental data from 57 studies. Our dataset, with records dating back to 1884, shows that uniformly increasing all maximum isometric forces in MSK models does not capture key muscle ratio differences due to age and sex. Males have a higher proportion of muscle mass in the rectus femoris and semimembranosus muscles, while females have a greater relative muscle mass in the pelvic (gluteus maximus and medius) and ankle muscles (tibialis anterior, tibialis posterior, and extensor digitorum longus). Older adults have a higher relative muscle mass in the gluteus medius, while younger individuals show more in the gastrocnemius. Current MSK models do not accurately represent muscle mass distribution for specific age or sex groups, and none of them accurately reflect female muscle mass distribution. Further research is needed to explore musculotendon age- and sex differences.

We revisit the classic Joule-expansion experiments, now with a quantum-degenerate atomic Bose gas. In contrast to the classical-gas experiments, where no temperature change was measured, here we observe both cooling and heating effects, which arise, respectively, due to quantum statistics and inter-particle interactions. Our observations are reproduced in numerical calculations within the Hartree-Fock approximation., Comment: Main text: 3 pages, 3 figures. Supplemental Information: 2 pages, 2 figures

Beyond the well-known fermions and bosons, anyons-an exotic class of particles-emerge in the fractional quantum Hall effect and exhibit fractional quantum statistics. Anyons can be categorized by their charge, with extensive research focused on those carrying fractional charge, while charge-neutral anyons in 2D electron liquids remain largely unexplored. Here, we introduce bilayer excitons as a new pathway to realizing charge-neutral anyons. By pairing quasiparticles and quasiholes from Laughlin states, we report bilayer excitons that obey fractional quantum statistics. Through layer-asymmetric field-effect doping, we achieve precise control of the anyon population, stabilizing anyonic dipoles at temperatures below the charge gap. Furthermore, we investigate neutral anyons in even-denominator FQHE states, which are likely described by non-Abelian wavefunctions. These findings open the door to exploring non-Abelian statistics in neutral anyons, with the potential to reshape future research in topological quantum phases., Comment: 9 pages for main text, 4 main figures, total of 16 pages, total of 6 figures

The KM3NeT Collaboration has tackled a common challenge faced by the astroparticle physics community, namely adapting the experiment-specific simulation software to work with the CORSIKA air shower simulation output. The proposed solution is an extension of the open-source code gSeaGen, allowing for the transport of muons generated by CORSIKA to a detector of any size at an arbitrary depth. The gSeaGen code was not only extended in terms of functionalities but also underwent a thorough redesign of the muon propagation routine, resulting in a more accurate and efficient simulation. This paper presents the capabilities of the new gSeaGen code as well as prospects for further developments., Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures

The magnetised near detector (ND280) of the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment has been recently upgraded aiming to satisfy the requirement of reducing the systematic uncertainty from measuring the neutrinonucleus interaction cross section, which is the largest systematic uncertainty in the search for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation. A key component of the upgrade is SuperFGD, a 3D segmented plastic scintillator detector made of approximately 2,000,000 optically-isolated 1 cm3 cubes. It will provide a 3D image of GeV neutrino interactions by combining tracking and stopping power measurements of final state particles with sub-nanosecond time resolution. The performance of SuperFGD is characterized by the precision of its response to charged particles as well as the systematic effects that might affect the physics measurements. Hence, a detailed Geant4 based optical simulation of the SuperFGD building block, i.e. a plastic scintillating cube read out by three wavelength shifting fibers, has been developed and validated with the different datasets collected in various beam tests. In this manuscript the description of the optical model as well as the comparison with data are reported., Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures

We experimentally investigate on-chip control and analysis of spatially multimode nonlinear interactions in silicon nitride waveguide circuits. Using widely different dispersion of transverse supermodes in a strongly coupled dual-core waveguide section, and using integrated pairs of input and output single-mode waveguides, we enable controlled excitation of nonlinear processes in multiple supermodes, while a basic physical mode decomposition aids the identification of parallel and cascaded processes. Pumping with ultrashort pulses at 1.5-$\mu$m wavelength (around 195-THz light frequency), we observe simultaneous dual-supermode, near-infrared supercontinuum generation having different spectral widths, in parallel with third-harmonic generation at around 515 nm (582 THz). Cascaded four-wave mixing with supercontinuum components upconverts the third-harmonic radiation toward a set of four shorter blue wavelengths emitted in the range between 485 and 450 nm (617 to 661 THz). The approach taken here, i.e., using chip-integrated spatial multiplexing and demultiplexing for excitation and analysis of broadband transverse nonlinear conversion, can be an advanced tool for better understanding and control in multimode nonlinear optics, such as for extending frequency conversion to wider spectral ranges via extra phase matching paths.

Interplanetary shocks are fundamental constituents of the heliosphere, where they form as a result of solar activity. We use previously unavailable measurements of interplanetary shocks in the inner heliosphere provided by Solar Orbiter, and present a survey of the first 100 shocks observed in situ at different heliocentric distances during the rising phase of solar cycle 25. The fundamental shock parameters (shock normals, shock normal angles, shock speeds, compression ratios, Mach numbers) have been estimated and studied as a function of heliocentric distance, revealing a rich scenario of configurations. Comparison with large surveys of shocks at 1~au show that shocks in the quasi-parallel regime and with high speed are more commonly observed in the inner heliosphere. The wave environment of the shocks has also been addressed, with about 50\% of the events exhibiting clear shock-induced upstream fluctuations. We characterize energetic particle responses to the passage of IP shocks at different energies, often revealing complex features arising from the interaction between IP shocks and pre-existing fluctuations, including solar wind structures being processed upon shock crossing. Finally, we give details and guidance on the access use of the present survey, available on the EU-project ``solar energetic particle analysis platform for the inner heliosphere'' (SERPENTINE) website. The algorithm used to identify shocks in large datasets, now publicly available, is also described.

We outline plans to use plasma light emitted as atomic lines radiation as a diagnostic for wakefields driven in plasma by a self-modulating, long proton bunch. This diagnostic is built into the design of a new vapor/plasma source that will also allow for imposing a plasma density step of various height at various locations. Such a step of a few percent in relative density placed at a location where the self-modulation process grows is predicted by numerical simulations to make the bunch drive wakefields with GV/m amplitude over hundreds of meters of plasma., Comment: five figures, six pages, submitted to Proceeding of the Advanced Accelerator Concepts workshop 2022 (AAC 22)

Snoring, an acoustic biomarker commonly observed in individuals with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome (OSAS), holds significant potential for diagnosing and monitoring this recognized clinical disorder. Irrespective of snoring types, most snoring instances exhibit identifiable harmonic patterns manifested through distinctive energy distributions over time. In this work, we propose a novel method to differentiate monaural snoring from non-snoring sounds by analyzing the harmonic content of the input sound using harmonic/percussive sound source separation (HPSS). The resulting feature, based on the harmonic spectrogram from HPSS, is employed as input data for conventional neural network architectures, aiming to enhance snoring detection performance even under a limited data learning framework. To evaluate the performance of our proposal, we studied two different scenarios: 1) using a large dataset of snoring and interfering sounds, and 2) using a reduced training set composed of around 1% of the data material. In the former scenario, the proposed HPSS-based feature provides competitive results compared to other input features from the literature. However, the key advantage of the proposed method lies in the superior performance of the harmonic spectrogram derived from HPSS in a limited data learning context. In this particular scenario, using the proposed harmonic feature significantly enhances the performance of all the studied architectures in comparison to the classical input features documented in the existing literature. This finding clearly demonstrates that incorporating harmonic content enables more reliable learning of the essential time-frequency characteristics that are prevalent in most snoring sounds, even in scenarios where the amount of training data is limited.

The Raman active G mode in graphene exhibits strong coupling to electrons, yet the comprehensive treatment of this interaction in the calculation of its temperature-dependent Raman spectrum remains incomplete. In this study, we calculate the temperature dependence of the G mode frequency and linewidth, and successfully explain the experimental trend, by accounting for the contributions arising from the first-order electron-phonon coupling, electron-mediated phonon-phonon coupling, and standard lattice anharmonicity. The generality of our approach enables its broad applicability to study phonon dynamics in materials where both electron-phonon coupling and anharmonicity are important., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, SI included in "anc" folder

The idea of fractional derivatives has a long history that dates back centuries. Apart from their intriguing mathematical properties, fractional derivatives have been studied widely in physics, for example in quantum mechanics and generally in systems with nonlocal temporal or spatial interactions. However, systematic experiments have been rare due to challenges associated with the physical implementation. Here we report the observation and full characterization of a family of temporal optical solitons that are governed by a nonlinear wave equation with a fractional Laplacian. This equation has solutions with unique properties such as non-exponential tails and a very small time-bandwidth product.

We present $[OIII]/H_{\rm \beta}$ emision line flux ratio predictions for galaxies at $z \sim 7-9$ using the MAPPINGS V v5.2.0 photoionization modelling code combined with an analytic galaxy formation model. Properties such as pressure and ionization parameter that determine emission line properties are thought to evolve towards high redshift. In order to determine the range of expected interstellar conditions we extend previous modelling of the Star Formation Rate Density (SFRD) function to calculate the metallicity and ionization parameter, and incorporate the potential impact of turbulence on the density of the ISM. To validate our emission line predictions we calculate the [OIII] line luminosity and its dependence on UV luminosity, as well as the flux ratio $[OIII]/H_{\rm \beta}$ and its variation with the line luminosity, finding that both reproduce recent JWST observations from the FRESCO survey. We also use our model to predict the number counts of emission line galaxies across a range of redshift as well as the dependence of $[OIII]/H_{\rm \beta}$ on ionization parameter and metallicity. Finally, we show that the dependence of flux ratio on luminosity may provide a diagnostic of turbulent motion in galactic discs., Comment: 12 pages, 17 figures, Submitted to MNRAS