Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-fidelity single-shot readout for a spin qubit via an enhanced latching mechanism

The readout of semiconductor spin qubits based on spin blockade is fast but suffers from a small charge signal. Previous work suggested large benefits from additional charge mapping processes, however uncertainties remain about the underlying mechanisms and achievable fidelity. In this work, we study the single-shot fidelity and limiting mechanisms for two variations of an enhanced latching readout. We achieve average single-shot readout fidelities > 99.3% and > 99.86% for the conventional and enhanced readout respectively, the latter being the highest to date for spin blockade. The signal amplitude is enhanced to a full one-electron signal while preserving the readout speed. Furthermore, layout constraints are relaxed because the charge sensor signal is no longer dependent on being aligned with the conventional (2, 0) - (1, 1) charge dipole. Silicon donor-quantum-dot qubits are used for this study, for which the dipole insensitivity substantially relaxes donor placement requirements. One of the readout variations also benefits from a parametric lifetime enhancement by replacing the spin-relaxation process with a charge-metastable one. This provides opportunities to further increase the fidelity. The relaxation mechanisms in the different regimes are investigated. This work demonstrates a readout that is fast, has one-electron signal and results in higher fidelity. It further predicts that going beyond 99.9% fidelity in a few microseconds of measurement time is within reach.
Eye tracking and visual arts. Introduction to the special thematic issue

There is no visual art without the eye, just like no music without the ear. Visual art does not happen in the eye, but it has to go through the eye. Even for artworks with little visual focus, as in Conceptual Art, we need eyes to create and receive them. In order to see we need to move our eyes. It is therefore not surprising that, for centuries, the eye and its movements have been a major topic of literature on art. It is equally unsurprising that along recent technological improvements of eye tracking, this technology has become prolific for studying visual arts. This special issue of the Journal of Eye Movement Research is the first platform that provides a broad picture of recent developments in this area. In this introduction we present a history of eye movement in art literature, followed by a sketch of some of the oculometric parameters used for studies of visual art. In the third section we showcase each contribution to this special issue.
Gravitational particle production in gravity theories with non-minimal derivative couplings

We study the gravitational production of heavy X-particles of mass of the order of the inflaton mass, produced after the end of inflation. We find that, in the presence of a derivative coupling of the inflaton field or of the X-field to the Einstein tensor, the number of gravitationally produced particles is suppressed as the strength of the coupling is increased.
122 The next generation of immunotherapy response signatures revealed by biophysical simulations

Background Although immunotherapy has become standard-ofcare for many cancers, the number of benefiting patients remains relatively small. Current biomarkers of response (e.g., PD-L1) have proven only modestly useful for distinguishing IO-responders vs. non-responders. Here, we present a proofof-concept approach for the rapid, non-invasive assessment of immunotherapy response prediction using biomarker imaging signatures. Methods We used publicly available datasets (ISPY1 and ISPY2 non-IO-treated patients) to calculate the expression levels of gene signatures across breast cancer subtypes. We analyzed these imaging datasets using TumorScope, a biophysical simulation engine, to identify biomarkers (features) present within IO-responsive tumors. We then correlated this response to biological processes and hallmark cancer gene signatures. TumorScope uses patient standard-of-care data, including high spatiotemporal resolution medical images (e.g., DCE-MRIs) to predict a patient‘s probability of achieving a pathological complete response (pCR). Next, we calculated the spatial distribution of these features across tumors. To specifically identify the IO-response signatures, we calculated the feature thresholds associated with pCR in response to IO using the ISPY2 IO-treated patient dataset (linear regression of the training set, n=63). This spatial biomarker-based approach, SimbIOScope, showed comparable predictive power as the traditional biopsybased transcriptomic approach. We further validated this approach in an independent cohort from a single center (n=12), and applied our method to a large IO-naïve population (n=292) to assess the model’s predictive capability. Results Spatially-resolved biomarkers of immune evasion in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and HR+/HER2tumors identified individuals with resistance to IO therapy, and had similar predictive power to transcriptomic analysis. We found that baseline (prior to therapy) high levels of immune evasion signatures in IO non-responders are associated with hypoxia (r=0.45, p<1x10–6) and autophagy in TNBC patients, and with low angiogenesis (r=-0.40, p=0.006) in HR+/HER2patients. When tested on an independent patient cohort (n=12), SimbIOScope correctly predicted pCR in over 91% of cases. In a larger reference cohort (n=292), SimbIOscope predictions of pCR were consistent with the empirical increase observed in clinical trials. Our analysis predicted a 14% increase in pCR for TNBC tumors over baseline with the addition of the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, as compared to the 13.6% pCR increase observed in clinical trials (Keynote 522). Conclusions SimbIOScope imaging biomarkers and analyses efficiently identify the cohort of patients likely to respond to immunotherapy. Its imaging analytic capabilities position SimbIOScope as a critical tool when planning cancer treatment options, and expands IO-response prediction beyond traditional biomarkers.
Probing general relativistic effects during active galactic nuclei X-ray eclipses

Long X-ray observations of bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) show that X-ray eclipses, with durations from a few hours to a few days, are rather common. This opens up a new window of opportunity in the search for signatures of relativistic effects in AGN: an obscuring cloud covers/uncovers different parts of the accretion disc at different times, allowing a direct check of the expected pattern of disc emission. In particular, the combination of gravitational redshift and relativistic Doppler boosting should imply strong differences between the receding and approaching parts of an inclined thin disc. At present, these effects may be already detectable with a ‘lucky’XMM–Newton or Suzaku observation of a complete eclipse by a Compton-thick cloud (a rare, but not impossible-to-see event). In the future, higher sensitivity observatories will be able to perform these tests easily on tens of AGN. This will provide a powerful and direct way to test extreme gravity, and to probe the structure of AGN in the close vicinity of the central black holes.
Branched-Chain Amino Acids Are Linked with Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Pathology and Cognitive Deficits

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible neurodegenerative disorder with a complex pathophysiology. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a strong risk factor for AD that shares similar abnormal features including metabolic dysregulation and brain pathology such as amyloid and/or Tau deposits. Emerging evidence suggests that circulating branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are associated with T2D. While excess BCAAs are shown to be harmful to neurons, its connection to AD is poorly understood. Here we show that individuals with AD have elevated circulating BCAAs and their metabolites compared to healthy individuals, and that a BCAA metabolite is correlated with the severity of dementia. APPSwe mouse model of AD also displayed higher plasma BCAAs compared to controls. In pursuit of understanding a potential causality, BCAA supplementation to HT-22 neurons was found to reduce genes critical for neuronal health while increasing phosphorylated Tau. Moreover, restricting BCAAs from diet delayed cognitive decline and lowered AD-related pathology in the cortex and hippocampus in APP/PS1 mice. BCAA restriction for two months was sufficient to correct glycemic control and increased/restored dopamine that were severely reduced in APP/PS1 controls. Treating 5xFAD mice that show early brain pathology with a BCAA-lowering compound recapitulated the beneficial effects of BCAA restriction on brain pathology and neurotransmitters including norepinephrine and serotonin. Collectively, this study reveals a positive association between circulating BCAAs and AD. Our findings suggest that BCAAs impair neuronal functions whereas BCAA-lowering alleviates AD-related pathology and cognitive decline, thus establishing a potential causal link between BCAAs and AD progression.
Long-term experimental data and crop modelling to inform the ecological intensification of irrigated wheat production in South Africa

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production is threatened by climate change and the decline in agricultural land available due to urbanisation, farmers switching to other crops, and environmental degradation. The aim of this study was to investigate the ecological intensification (EI) of irrigated wheat production in South Africa. Data from the long-term wheat trial at the University of Pretoria and an intensive growth analysis conducted in 2019 were used to calibrate and evaluate the APSIM model. Following adequate model performance, improved management scenarios including crop rotation, manure application, optimised inorganic nitrogen (N) fertiliser application rate, objectively scheduled irrigation, and a combination of all these improved management practices together, were tested. The adoption of all management practices simultaneously was shown to be the best practice, achieving an increase of 18% in yield and reducing deep drainage and N leaching by 31%. Whereas measured data indicated a decrease in soil organic matter (SOM) from 1.20% in 1950 to 0.58% in 2019, adopting EI measures could reduce the loss of SOM to only 0.68%. Farmers are encouraged to adopt one or more of these EI management practices as their site-specific situations allow.
Joint cluster reconstructions

Context. Galaxy clusters provide a multitude of observational data across wavelengths, and their structure and morphology are of considerable interest in cosmology as well as astrophysics. Aims. We develop a framework that allows the combination of lensing and non-lensing observations in a free-form and mesh-free approach to infer the projected mass distribution of individual galaxy clusters. This method can be used to test common assumptions on the morphology of clusters in parametric models. Methods. We make use of the lensing reconstruction code SAWLENS2, and expand its capabilities by incorporating an estimate of the projected gravitational potential based on X-ray data that are deprojected using the local Richardson–Lucy method and used to infer the Newtonian potential of the cluster. We discuss how potentially arising numerical artefacts can be treated. Results. We demonstrate the feasibility of our method on a simplified mock Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) halo and on a cluster from a realistic hydrodynamical simulation. We show how the combination of X-ray and weak lensing data can affect a free-form reconstruction, improving the accuracy in the central region in some cases by a factor of two.
Sensorless Force Estimator for Bilateral Control Systems Using Adaptive Sliding-Mode-Assisted Disturbance Observer

Superior transparency, which includes precise force feedback and position tracking, is the main objective of bilateral operating systems. Therefore, force information estimation or measurement plays a critical role in improving the transparency of bilateral operating systems. This article proposes a bilateral control scheme combined with an adaptive sliding-mode-assisted disturbance observer (ASMADO) for bilateral operating systems. First, ASMADO, comprising an adaptive disturbance observer and adaptive sliding-mode-assisted control law, is used as a force detector to estimate the time-varying force in bilateral control systems. The adaptive disturbance observer with a fixed-time convergent auxiliary dynamic variable is designed without the prior knowledge of the upper bound of the force information derivative, which drives the force estimation error into a small bounded set. Then, the adaptive sliding-mode-assisted control law is used to eliminate the estimated residuals of the adaptive disturbance observer in the inner loop of the force estimator. The stability analysis proves that the proposed ASMADO is practical finite-time stable. Subsequently, a bilateral control scheme based on the proposed ASMADO is developed to further improve the system transparency with force feedback and position tracking. Finally, comparative experimental studies are conducted to verify the superior performance of the proposed bilateral controller based on ASMADO.
High-velocity extended molecular outflow in the star-formation dominated luminous infrared galaxy ESO 320-G030

We analyze new high spatial resolution (~60 pc) ALMA CO(2-1) observations of the isolated luminous infrared galaxy ESO 320-G030 (d=48 Mpc) in combination with ancillary HST optical and near-IR imaging as well as VLT/SINFONI near-IR integral field spectroscopy. We detect a high-velocity (~450 km/s) spatially resolved (size~2.5 kpc; dynamical time ~3 Myr) massive (~10^7 Msun; mass rate~2-8 Msun/yr) molecular outflow originated in the central ~250 pc. We observe a clumpy structure in the outflowing cold molecular gas with clump sizes between 60 and 150 pc and masses between 10^5.5 and 10^6.4 Msun. The mass of the clumps decreases with increasing distance, while the velocity is approximately constant. Therefore, both the momentum and kinetic energy of the clumps decrease outwards. In the innermost (~100 pc) part of the outflow, we measure a hot-to-cold molecular gas ratio of 7x10^-5, which is similar to that measured in other resolved molecular outflows. We do not find evidence of an ionized phase in this outflow. The nuclear IR and radio properties are compatible with strong and highly obscured star-formation (A_k ~ 4.6 mag; SFR~15 Msun/yr). We do not find any evidence for the presence of an active galactic nucleus. We estimate that supernova explosions in the nuclear starburst (\nu(SN) ~ 0.2 yr^-1) can power the observed molecular outflow. The kinetic energy and radial momentum of the cold molecular phase of the outflow correspond to about 2% and 20%, respectively, of the supernovae output. The cold molecular outflow velocity is lower than the escape velocity, so the gas will likely return to the galaxy disk. The mass loading factor is ~0.1-0.5, so the negative feedback due to this star-formation powered molecular outflow is probably limited.
The coolest extremely low-mass white dwarfs

Context. Extremely low-mass white dwarf (ELM WD; M⋆ ≲ 0.18–0.20 M⊙) stars are thought to be formed in binary systems via stable or unstable mass transfer. Although stable mass transfer predicts the formation of ELM WDs with thick hydrogen (H) envelopes that are characterized by dominant residual nuclear burning along the cooling branch, the formation of ELM WDs with thinner H envelopes from unstable mass loss cannot be discarded. Aims. We compute new evolutionary sequences for helium (He) core WD stars with thin H envelopes with the main aim of assessing the lowest Teff that could be reached by this type of stars. Methods. We generate a new grid of evolutionary sequences of He-core WD stars with thin H envelopes in the mass range from 0.1554 to 0.2025 M⊙, and assess the changes in both the cooling times and surface gravity induced by a reduction of the H envelope. We also determine, taking into account the predictions of progenitor evolution, the lowest Teff reached by the resulting ELM WDs. Results. We find that a slight reduction in the H envelope yields a significant increase in the cooling rate of ELM WDs. Because of this, ELM WDs with thin H envelopes could cool down to ~2500 K, in contrast to their canonical counterparts that cool down to ~7000 K. In addition, we find that a reduction of the thickness of the H envelope markedly increases the surface gravity (g) of these stars. Conclusions. If ELM WDs are formed with thin H envelopes, they could be detected at very low Teff. The detection of such cool ELM WDs would be indicative that they were formed with thin H envelopes, thus opening the possibility of placing constraints on the possible mechanisms of formation of this type of star. Last but not least, the increase in g due to the reduction of the H envelope leads to consequences in the spectroscopic determinations of these stars.
Cosmological constraints on the velocity-dependent baryon-dark matter coupling

We present the cosmological constraints on the cross section of baryon-dark matter interactions for the dark matter mass below the MeV scale from the Planck CMB (cosmic microwave background) and SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) Lyman-α forest data. To explore the dark matter mass mχ≲ 1 MeV for which the dark matter's free-streaming effect can suppress the observable small scale density fluctuations, in addition to the acoustic oscillation damping in existence of the baryon-dark matter coupling, we apply the approximated treatment of dark matter free-streaming analogous to that of the conventional warm dark matter. We demonstrate the mass dependence of the baryon-dark matter cross section bounds (for the dark matter mass down to mχ ∼ 5 keV), in contrast to the dark matter mass independence of the cross section constraints for the light dark matter below the MeV scale claimed in the previous literature. We also investigate the degeneracy between the baryon-dark matter coupling and the running spectral index in the scalar primordial spectrum. We find that this degeneracy is weak and the constraint on the baryon-dark matter coupling is not affected by the inclusion of the running spectral index in our MCMC analysis.
On the Effect of Low Temperatures on the Maximum Output Power of a Coherent Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier

The influence of low temperatures on the performance of a high-power single-frequency fiber laser amplifier is evaluated with a numerical simulation. Cooling the fiber can allow to take advantage of both higher damping of the acoustic waves in the silica glass, and higher laser efficiency. We first report on the measurement of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) threshold in a silica fiber as a function of the temperature from 300 K down to 77 K. We then present the measurements of small-signal absorption and gain spectra of an erbium(Er) doped alumino-phosphosilicate fiber, at room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature. Based on these data, we derive a numerical study of the combined effects of cooling on the SBS threshold and the amplifier efficiency, and conclude on the interest of this technique for SBS limited high power Er-doped fiber amplifiers. The temperature increase caused by the pump laser in the fiber core is also addressed.
Beyond Cheerleading: Navigating the Boundaries of Science Journalism in South Africa

ABSTRACT Science journalism faces an issue that is part of a bigger picture of media change. The economic pressures which have seen shrinking resources available for reporting news are contrasted by the relentless rise of corporate communication and public relations. Institutional science communication has become a booming industry, operating, at least partially, by bypassing the traditional roles of journalists. To interrogate how science journalists perceive the impact of these changes on their professional roles, as well as how they navigate relationships with scientists and institutional science communicators, we conducted in-depth interviews with experienced South African science journalists. Our paper summarises the results of this study, including how journalists perceive changes in their professional identities and responsibilities. We analyse the interview data and explore the extent to which science journalists perceive themselves as “cheerleaders” for science, in contrast to critical investigators tasked with holding science and scientists to account, as well as how they operate in a world of well-endowed corporate science communication. We situate these interview findings against the theoretical background of boundary work and recent discussions about the blurring boundaries between science journalism and science communication.
MXene-Based Nucleic Acid Biosensors for Agricultural and Food Systems

MXene is a two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial that exhibits several superior properties suitable for fabricating biosensors. Likewise, the nucleic acid (NA) in oligomerization forms possesses highly specific biorecognition ability and other features amenable to biosensing. Hence the combined use of MXene and NA is becoming increasingly common in biosensor design and development. In this review, MXene- and NA-based biosensors are discussed in terms of their sensing mechanisms and fabrication details. MXenes are introduced from their definition and synthesis process to their characterization followed by their use in NA-mediated biosensor fabrication. The emphasis is placed on the detection of various targets relevant to agricultural and food systems, including microbial pathogens, chemical toxicants, heavy metals, organic pollutants, etc. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives are presented with an eye toward the development of advanced biosensors with improved detection performance.
Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Mechanism of Specific Color Formation in Phoebe zhennan Heartwood

Nanmu (Phoebe zhennan) is an extremely valuable tree plant that is the main source of famous “golden-thread nanmu” wood. The potential metabolites and gene regulation mechanisms involved in golden thread formation are poorly understood, even though the color change from sapwood to heartwood has been investigated in several tree plants. Here, five radial tissues from sapwood to heartwood were compared via integrative metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis to reveal the secondary metabolites and molecular mechanisms involved in golden thread formation. During heartwood formation, gradual starch grain loss is accompanied by the cell lumen deposition of lipids and color-related extractives. Extractives of 20 phenylpropanoids accumulated in heartwood, including cinnamic acids and derivatives, coumarin acid derivatives, and flavonoids, which were identified as being closely related to the golden thread. Phenylpropanoids co-occurring with abundant accumulated metabolites of prenol lipids, fatty acyls, steroids, and steroid derivatives may greatly contribute to the characteristics of golden thread formation. Additionally, the expression of nine genes whose products catalyze phenylpropanoid and flavonoids biosynthesis was upregulated in the transition zone, then accumulated and used to color the heartwood. The expression levels of transcription factors (e.g., MYB, bHLH, and WRKY) that act as the major regulatory factors in the synthesis and deposition of phenylpropanoid and flavonoids responsible for golden thread formation were also higher than in sapwood. Our results not only explain golden thread formation in nanmu, but also broaden current knowledge of special wood color formation mechanisms. This work provides a framework for future research focused on improving wood color.