The advent of time-domain sky surveys has generated a vast amount of light variation data, enabling astronomers to investigate variable stars with large-scale samples. However, this also poses new opportunities and challenges for the time-domain research. In this paper, we focus on the classification of variable stars from the Catalina Surveys Data Release 2 and propose an imbalanced learning classifier based on Self-paced Ensemble (SPE) method. Compared with the work of Hosenie et al. (2020), our approach significantly enhances the classification Recall of Blazhko RR Lyrae stars from 12% to 85%, mixed-mode RR Lyrae variables from 29% to 64%, detached binaries from 68% to 97%, and LPV from 87% to 99%. SPE demonstrates a rather good performance on most of the variable classes except RRab, RRc, and contact and semi-detached binary. Moreover, the results suggest that SPE tends to target the minority classes of objects, while Random Forest is more effective in finding the majority classes. To balance the overall classification accuracy, we construct a Voting Classifier that combines the strengths of SPE and Random Forest. The results show that the Voting Classifier can achieve a balanced performance across all classes with minimal loss of accuracy. In summary, the SPE algorithm and Voting Classifier are superior to traditional machine learning methods and can be well applied to classify the periodic variable stars. This paper contributes to the current research on imbalanced learning in astronomy and can also be extended to the time-domain data of other larger sky survey projects (LSST, etc.).

Northeastern China is a region of high tick abundance, multiple tick-borne pathogens and likely human infections. The spectrum of diseases caused by tick-borne pathogens has not been objectively evaluated in this region for clinical management and for comparison with other regions globally where tick-transmitted diseases are common. Based on clinical symptoms, PCR, indirect immunofluorescent assay and (or) blood smear, we identified and described tick-borne diseases from patients with recent tick bite seen at Mudanjiang Forestry Central Hospital. From May 2010 to September 2011, 42% (75/180) of patients were diagnosed with a specific tick-borne disease, including Lyme borreliosis, tick-borne encephalitis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, human babesiosis and spotted fever group rickettsiosis. When we compared clinical and laboratory features to identify factors that might discriminate tick-transmitted infections from those lacking that evidence, we revealed that erythema migrans and neurological manifestations were statistically significantly differently presented between those with and without documented aetiologies (P < 0.001, P = 0.003). Twelve patients (6.7%, 12/180) were co-infected with two tick-borne pathogens. We demonstrated the poor ability of clinicians to identify the specific tick-borne disease. In addition, it is necessary to develop specific laboratory assays for optimal diagnosis of tick-borne diseases.

The existence of black holes with masses of about one billion solar masses in quasars at redshifts z > 6 presents significant challenges to theories of the formation and growth of black holes and the black hole/galaxy co-evolution in the early Universe. Here we report a recent discovery of an ultra-luminous quasar at redshift z = 6.30, which has an observed optical and near-infrared luminosity a few times greater than those of previously known z > 6 quasars. With near-infrared spectroscopy, we obtain a black hole mass of about 12 billion solar masses, which is well consistent with the mass derived by assuming an Eddington-limited accretion. This ultra-luminous quasar with at z > 6 provides a unique laboratory to the study of the mass assembly and galaxy formation around the most massive black holes at cosmic dawn. It raises further challenges to the black hole/galaxy co-evolution in the epoch of cosmic reionization because the black hole needs to grow much faster than the host galaxy.

We match the XMM-Newton 3XMMi-DR4 catalog with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 10 and the United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Data Release 9. Based on this X-ray/optical/infrared catalog, we probe the distribution of various types of X-ray emitters in the multidimensional parameter space. It is found that quasars, galaxies and stars have some kind distribution rule, especially for stars. The result shows that only using the X-ray/optical features, stars are difficult to discriminate from galaxies and quasars, the added information from infrared band is very helpful to improve the classification result of any classifier. Comparing the classification accuracy of random forests with that of rotation forests, rotation forests show better performance.

Recently, the detection of non-bulk superconductivity with unexpectedly high onset-Tcs up to 49 K in Pr-doped CaFe2As2 [(Ca,Pr)122] single crystals and the report of a Tc up to 65 K in one-unit-cell (1UC) FeSe epi-films, offer an unusual opportunity to seek an answer to the question posed in the title. Through systematic compositional, structural, resistive, and magnetic investigations on (Ca,Pr)122 single crystals, we have observed a doping-level-independent Tc, the simultaneous appearance of superparamagnetism and superconductivity, large magnetic anisotropy, and the existence of mesoscopic-2D structures in these crystals, thus providing clear evidence consistent with the proposed interface-enhanced Tc in these naturally occurring rareearth-doped Fe-based superconductors, (Ca,R)122. Similar resistive and magnetic measurements were also made on the 3–4UC FeSe ultrathin epi-films. We have detected weak links in the Meissner state below 20 K, weakly coupled small superconducting patches between 20–45 K, and collective excitations of spin and/or superconducting nature between 45–80 K. The unusual frequency dependences of the diamagnetic moment observed in the films in different temperature ranges will be presented and their implications discussed.

It has been suggested that the CO line width (FWHM(CO)) is a surrogate for the bulge velocity dispersion (σ) of the host galaxies of high-redshift quasars, and the black hole – bulge (M−σ) relation obtained with this assumption departs significantly from the M−σ relation in the local universe. Based on an investigation of the correlation between the CO line width and the bulge velocity dispersion using a sample of 33 nearby Seyfert galaxies, we find that the formula adopted in previous studies, σ=FWHM(CO)/2.35, is generally not a good approximation. By involving the galactic inclination angle i as an additional parameter, we obtain a tight correlation between the inclination-corrected CO line width and the bulge velocity dispersion, namely, FWHM(CO)/sin i=−67.16±80.18+(3.62±0.68)σ. Using this new relation, we can better estimate the bulge velocity dispersion from the CO line width if the galactic inclination is known. We apply this new relation to nine high-redshift quasars with CO line detections and find that they are consistent with the local M−σ relation if their inclination angles are around 15°. The possible smaller inclinations of the high-redshift quasars are preferred because of their relatively greater likelihood of detection, and are also consistent with their relatively smaller CO line widths compared to the submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at high redshift having a similar total amount of molecular gas.

Targeting quasar candidates is always an important task for large spectroscopic sky survey projects. Astronomers never give up thinking out effective approaches to separate quasars from stars. The previous methods on this issue almost belong to supervised methods or color-color cut. In this work, we compare the performance of a supervised method – Support Vector Machine (SVM)– with that of an unsupervised method one-class SVM. The performance of SVM is better than that of one-class SVM. But one-class SVM is an unsupervised algorithm which is helpful to recognize rare or mysterious objects. Combining supervised methods with unsupervised methods is effective to improve the performance of a single classifier.

We investigate the optical variability of 7658 quasars from SDSS Stripe 82. Taking advantage of a larger sample and relatively more data points for each quasar, we estimate variability amplitudes and divide the sample into small bins of redshift, rest-frame wavelength, black hole mass, Eddington ratio, and bolometric luminosity, respectively, to investigate the relationships between variability and these parameters. An anti-correlation between variability and rest-frame wavelength is found. The variability amplitude of radio-quiet quasars shows almost no cosmological evolution, but that of radio-loud ones may weakly anti-correlate with redshift. In addition, variability increases as either luminosity or Eddington ratio decreases. However, the relationship between variability and black hole mass is uncertain; it is negative when the influence of Eddington ratio is excluded, but positive when the influence of luminosity is excluded. The intrinsic distribution of variability amplitudes for radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars are different. Both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars exhibit a bluer-when-brighter chromatism. Assuming that quasar variability is caused by variations of accretion rate, the Shakura–Sunyaev disk model can reproduce the tendencies of observed correlations between variability and rest-frame wavelength, luminosity as well as Eddington ratio, supporting that changes of accretion rate play an important role in producing the observed optical variability. However, the predicted positive correlation between variability and black hole mass seems to be inconsistent with the observed negative correlation between them in small bins of Eddington ratio, which suggests that other physical mechanisms may still need to be considered in modifying the simple accretion disk model.

We solve the set of hydrodynamic equations for accretion disks in the spherical coordinates (rθφ) to obtain the explicit structure along the θ direction. The results display thinner, quasi-Keplerian disks for Shakura-Sunyaev Disks (SSDs) and thicker, sub-Keplerian disks for Advection Dominated Accretion Flows (ADAFs) and slim disks, which are consistent with previous popular analytical models, while an inflow region and an outflow region always exist, which supports the results of some recent numerical simulation works. Our results indicate that the outflows should be common in various accretion disks and stronger in slim disks and ADAFs.

Gravity is nearly a universal constant in the cusp of an NFW galaxy halo. Inside this external field an isothermal gas sphere will collapse and trigger a starburst if above a critical central pressure. Thus formed spheroidal stellar systems have Sersic-profile and satisfy the Faber-Jackson relation. The process is consistent with observed starbursts. We also recover the MBH − σ* relation, if the gas collapse is regulated or resisted by the feedback from radiation from the central BH.

The observed quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in low-mass X-ray binaries have been suggested to be probably related to the characteristic oscillation modes in the inner part of a relativistic accretion disk. Here we study the non-damping oscillation modes in the disk by considering the local perturbations and viscosity effects. We find that the trapped oscillations are amplified significantly when the viscosity parameter increases and the trapped size varies when the radial wavenumber and Mach number change. Our results support that the hundred-hertz QPOs and their low fractional rms amplitudes found in some black hole X-ray binaries may be explained by the trapped non-damping oscillation modes in the inner part of an accretion disk around a rapidly rotating black hole.