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1. Chicxulub: Drilling the K-Pg Impact Crater

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.364.2017  

   Morgan, J.; Gulick, S.; Mellett, C.L.; Green, S.L. (December 2017, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program)

   null (Ed.)

   The Chicxulub impact crater, on the Yucatán Peninsula of México, is unique. It is the only known terrestrial impact structure that has been directly linked to a mass extinction event and the only terrestrial impact with a global ejecta layer. Of the three largest impact structures on Earth, Chicxulub is the best preserved. Chicxulub is also the only known terrestrial impact structure with an intact, unequivocal topographic peak ring. Chicxulub’s role in the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction and its exceptional state of preservation make it an important natural laboratory for the study of both large impact crater formation on Earth and other planets and the effects of large impacts on the Earth’s environment and ecology. Our understanding of the impact process is far from complete, and despite more than 30 years of intense debate, we are still striving to answer the question as to why this impact was so catastrophic. During International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Expedition 364, Paleogene sedimentary rocks and lithologies that make up the Chicxulub peak ring were cored to investigate (1) the nature and formational mechanism of peak rings, (2) how rocks are weakened during large impacts, (3) the nature and extent of post-impact hydrothermal circulation, (4) the deep biosphere and habitability of the peak ring, and (5) the recovery of life in a sterile zone. Other key targets included sampling the transition through a rare midlatitude Paleogene sedimentary succession that might include Eocene and Paleocene hyperthermals and/or the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM); the composition and character of suevite, impact melt rock, and basement rocks in the peak ring; the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Paleocene–Eocene Chicxulub impact basin infill; the geo- and thermochronology of the rocks forming the peak ring; and any observations from the core that may help constrain the volume of dust and climatically active gases released into the stratosphere by this impact. Petrophysical properties measurements on the core and wireline logs acquired during Expedition 364 will be used to calibrate geophysical models, including seismic reflection and potential field data, and the integration of all the data will calibrate models for impact crater formation and environmental effects. The drilling directly contributes to IODP Science Plan goals: Climate and Ocean Change: How does Earth’s climate system respond to elevated levels of atmospheric CO2? How resilient is the ocean to chemical perturbations? The Chicxulub impact represents an external forcing event that caused a 75% species level mass extinction. The impact basin may also record key hyperthermals within the Paleogene. Biosphere Frontiers: What are the origin, composition, and global significance of subseafloor communities? What are the limits of life in the subseafloor? How sensitive are ecosystems and biodiversity to environmental change? Impact craters can create habitats for subsurface life, and Chicxulub may provide information on potential habitats for life, including extremophiles, on the early Earth and other planetary bodies. Paleontological and geochemical studies at ground zero will document how large impacts affect ecosystems and biodiversity. Earth Connections/Earth in Motion: What mechanisms control the occurrence of destructive earthquakes, landslides, and tsunami? Drilling into the uplifted rocks that form the peak ring will be used to groundtruth numerical simulations and model impact-generated tsunami, and deposits on top of the peak ring and around the Gulf of México will inform us about earthquakes, landslides, and tsunami generated by Chicxulub. These data will collectively help us understand how impact processes are recorded in the geologic record and their potential hazards. IODP Expedition 364 was a Mission Specific Platform expedition designed to obtain subseabed samples and downhole logging measurements from the post-impact sedimentary succession and the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact crater. A single borehole (Hole M0077A) was drilled into the Chicxulub impact crater on the Yucatán continental shelf, recovering core from 505.70 to 1334.69 meters below seafloor (mbsf) with ~99% core recovery. Downhole logs were acquired for the entire depth of the borehole. 

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2. Kepler and TESS Observations of PG 1159-035

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac8871  

   Oliveira da Rosa, Gabriela; Kepler, S. O.; Córsico, Alejandro H.; Costa, J. E.; Hermes, J. J.; Kawaler, S. D.; Bell, Keaton J.; Montgomery, M. H.; Provencal, J. L.; Winget, D. E.; et al (September 2022, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract PG 1159-035 is the prototype of the PG 1159 hot (pre-)white dwarf pulsators. This important object was observed during the Kepler satellite K2 mission for 69 days in 59 s cadence mode and by the TESS satellite for 25 days in 20 s cadence mode. We present a detailed asteroseismic analysis of those data. We identify a total of 107 frequencies representing 32 ℓ = 1 modes, 27 frequencies representing 12 ℓ = 2 modes, and eight combination frequencies. The combination frequencies and the modes with very high k values represent new detections. The multiplet structure reveals an average splitting of 4.0 ± 0.4 μ Hz for ℓ = 1 and 6.8 ± 0.2 μ Hz for ℓ = 2, indicating a rotation period of 1.4 ± 0.1 days in the region of period formation. In the Fourier transform of the light curve, we find a significant peak at 8.904 ± 0.003 μ Hz suggesting a surface rotation period of 1.299 ± 0.002 days. We also present evidence that the observed periods change on timescales shorter than those predicted by current evolutionary models. Our asteroseismic analysis finds an average period spacing for ℓ = 1 of 21.28 ± 0.02 s. The ℓ = 2 modes have a mean spacing of 12.97 ± 0.4 s. We performed a detailed asteroseismic fit by comparing the observed periods with those of evolutionary models. The best-fit model has T eff = 129, 600 ± 11 100 K, M * = 0.565 ± 0.024 M ⊙ , and log g = 7.41 − 0.54 + 0.38 , within the uncertainties of the spectroscopic determinations. We argue for future improvements in the current models, e.g., on the overshooting in the He-burning stage, as the best-fit model does not predict excitation for all of the pulsations detected in PG 1159-035. 

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3. PG-TS: Improved Thompson Sampling for Logistic Contextual Bandits

   Dumitrascu, Bianca; Feng, Karen; Engelhardt, Barbara E. (January 2018, Neural Information Processing - Letters and Reviews)

   We address the problem of regret minimization in logistic contextual bandits, where a learner decides among sequential actions or arms given their respective contexts to maximize binary rewards. Using a fast inference procedure with Pólya-Gamma distributed augmentation variables, we propose an improved version of Thompson Sampling, a Bayesian formulation of contextual bandits with near-optimal performance. Our approach, Pólya-Gamma augmented Thompson Sampling (PG-TS), achieves state-of-the-art performance on simulated and real data. PG-TS explores the action space efficiently and exploits high-reward arms, quickly converging to solutions of low regret. Its explicit estimation of the posterior distribution of the context feature covariance leads to substantial empirical gains over approximate approaches. PG-TS is the first approach to demonstrate the benefits of Pólya Gamma augmentation in bandits and to propose an efficient Gibbs sampler for approximating the analytically unsolvable integral of logistic contextual bandits. 

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4. 2025 PG&E Energy Analytics Challenge: Electric Load Forecasting Datasets

   https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17085273  

   Yildirim, Murat; Mansouri, Mahan; Aziz_Ezzat, Ahmed; Yildirim, Murat; Mansouri, Mahan; Aziz_Ezzat, Ahmed (January 2025, Zenodo)

   Summary:   This repository contains the datasets used in the 2025 PG&E Energy Analytics Challenge on Electricity Load Forecasting, co-organized by the IISE Energy Systems Division and the INFORMS Quality, Statistics, and Reliability Section, and graciously sponsored by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E).  The repository contains two files: Train.xlsx: Contains three years of hourly electric loads from San Diego, California (Years 2020-2022), as well as exogenous weather information at five neighboring sites within the San Diego area.    Test.xlsx: Contains one year of hourly electric loads from San Diego, California (Year 2023), as as well as exogenous weather information at five neighboring sites within the San Diego area.    Background:  This competition aimed to predict electricity loads for a specific location within the CAISO system. Accurate load forecasting is critical for managing electricity distribution within California’s diverse and dynamic energy market. Load patterns can vary significantly due to factors such as weather conditions, local supply and demand, and the mix of nearby energy generation sources.   During the competition, the specific location and the actual years were not disclosed to the participants. Participants were then asked to generate a year’s worth of load forecasts using historical load values and exogeneous weather information. Predictor data were not allowed to be taken from future time periods: When predicting the load values at a particular day, the model was allowed to only use predictor variable information from that time period or before. For example, if a team is predicting the load for Day 5 Hour 3 in Year 3, the model can only take in predictor values from Day 5 Hour 3 in Year 3, or before. Furthermore, during the competition, the load information for the test set (highlighted in yellow in the test data file) was reserved from all participants, who were asked to submit their predictions for the full year.    This is the second offering of the PG&E Energy Analytics challenge, complementing the first offering in 2024 which focused on electricity price forecasting [Results of the 2024 challenge: Aziz Ezzat, A., Mansouri, M., Yildirim, M., & Fang, X. (2025). IISE PG&E Energy Analytics Challenge 2024: Forecasting day-ahead electricity prices. IISE Transactions, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/24725854.2024.2447049].  

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5. Asteroseismology of PG 1541 + 651 and BPM 31594 with TESS

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3113  

   Romero, Alejandra D; da Rosa, Gabriela Oliveira; Kepler, S O; Bradley, Paul A; Uzundag, Murat; Bell, Keaton J; Hermes, J J; Lauffer, G R (November 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   ABSTRACT We present the photometric data from TESS for two known ZZ Ceti stars, PG 1541 + 651 and BPM 31594. Before TESS, both objects only had observations from short runs from ground-based facilities, with three and one period detected, respectively. The TESS data allowed the detection of multiple periodicities, 12 for PG 1541 + 651, and six for BPM 31594, which enables us to perform a detailed asteroseismological study. For both objects, we found a representative asteroseismic model with canonical stellar mass ∼0.61M⊙ and thick hydrogen envelopes, thicker than 10−5.3M*. The detection of triplets in the Fourier transform also allowed us to estimate mean rotation periods, being ∼22 h for PG 1541 + 651 and 11.6 h for BPM 31594, which is consistent with a range of values reported for other ZZ Ceti stars. 

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