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Optimizing Districting Plans to Maximize Majority-Minority Districts via IPs and Local Search
Daniel Brous, David Shmoys
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.07446 https://

Optimizing Districting Plans to Maximize Majority-Minority Districts via IPs and Local Search
In redistricting litigation, effective enforcement of the Voting Rights Act has often involved providing the court with districting plans that display a larger number of majority-minority districts than the current proposal (as was true, for example, in what followed Allen v. Milligan concerning the congressional districting plan for Alabama in 2023). Recent work by Cannon et al. proposed a heuristic algorithm for generating plans to optimize majority-minority districts, which they called short…

A look at Allen Control Systems, maker of AI-powered gun turrets designed to shoot down drones, co-founded by Steven Simoni, who sold Bbot to DoorDash for $125M (David Jeans/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-silicon-valley-warlo…

JWST-TST DREAMS: NIRSpec/PRISM Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Planet TRAPPIST-1 e
N\'estor Espinoza, Natalie H. Allen, Ana Glidden, Nikole K. Lewis, Sara Seager, Caleb I. Ca\~nas, David Grant, Am\'elie Gressier, Shelby Courreges, Kevin B. Stevenson, Sukrit Ranjan, Knicole Col\'on, Brett M. Morris, Ryan J. MacDonald, Douglas Long, Hannah R. Wakeford, Jeff A. Valenti, Lili Alderson, Natasha E. Batalha, Ryan C. Challener, Jingcheng Huang, Zifan Lin, Dana R. Lo…

JWST-TST DREAMS: NIRSpec/PRISM Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Planet TRAPPIST-1 e
TRAPPIST-1 e is one of the very few rocky exoplanets that is both amenable to atmospheric characterization and that resides in the habitable zone of its star -- located at a distance from its star such that it might, with the right atmosphere, sustain liquid water on its surface. Here, we present a set of 4 JWST/NIRSpec PRISM transmission spectra of TRAPPIST-1 e obtained from mid to late 2023. Our transmission spectra exhibit similar levels of stellar contamination as observed in prior works fo…

JWST-TST DREAMS: Secondary Atmosphere Constraints for the Habitable Zone Planet TRAPPIST-1 e
Ana Glidden, Sukrit Ranjan, Sara Seager, N\'estor Espinoza, Ryan J. MacDonald, Natalie H. Allen, Caleb I. Ca\~nas, David Grant, Am\'elie Gressier, Kevin B. Stevenson, Natasha E. Batalha, Nikole K. Lewis, Douglas Long, Hannah R. Wakeford, Lili Alderson, Ryan C. Challener, Knicole Col\'on, Jingcheng Huang, Zifan Lin, Dana R. Louie, Elijah Mullens, Kristin S. Sotzen, Jeff A. Valenti, D…

JWST-TST DREAMS: Secondary Atmosphere Constraints for the Habitable Zone Planet TRAPPIST-1 e
The TRAPPIST-1 system offers one of the best opportunities to characterize temperate terrestrial planets beyond our own solar system. Within the TRAPPIST-1 system, planet e stands out as highly likely to sustain surface liquid water if it possesses an atmosphere. Recently, we reported the first JWST/NIRSpec PRISM transmission spectra of TRAPPIST-1 e, revealing significant stellar contamination, which varied between the four visits. Here, we assess the range of planetary atmospheres consistent w…

Fundamental Mechanisms of Human Learning
Scott E. Allen, A. David Redish, Ren\'e F. Kizilcec
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17202 https://arxiv.org/pdf/250…

Fundamental Mechanisms of Human Learning
Learning underlies nearly all human behavior and is central to education and education reform. Although recent advances in neuroscience have revealed the fundamental structure of learning processes, these insights have yet to be integrated into research and practice. Specifically, neuroscience has found that decision-making is governed by a structured process of perception, action-selection, and execution, supported by multiple neural systems with distinct memory stores and learning mechanisms.…

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #ThroughTheNight
Charles Tomlinson Griffes & David Allen Wehr:
🎵 Three Tone Pictures, Op 5
#CharlesTomlinsonGriffes #DavidAllenWehr

Overcast mornings and clear evenings in hot Jupiter exoplanet atmospheres
Guangwei Fu, Sagnick Mukherjee, Kevin B. Stevenson, David K. Sing, Reza Ashtari, Nathan Mayne, Joshua D. Lothringer, Maria Zamyatina, Stephen P. Schmidt, Carlos Gasc\'on, Natalie H. Allen, Katherine A. Bennett, Mercedes L\'opez-Morales
https://arxi…

Overcast mornings and clear evenings in hot Jupiter exoplanet atmospheres
Aerosols is an old topic in the young field of exoplanet atmospheres. Understanding what they are, how they form, and where they go has long provided a fertile playground for theorists. For observers, however, aerosols have been a multi-decade migraine, as their chronic presence hides atmospheric features. For hot Jupiters, the large day-night temperature contrast drives inhomogeneous thermal structures and aerosol distribution, leading to different limb properties probed by transit spectra. We…