Merge `RC_v1.5.x` into `RC_v1.6.0`

[freemansw1]

Catches up RC_v1.6.0 to the changes made in RC_v1.5.x.

• [ ] Have you followed our guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md?
• [ ] Have you self-reviewed your code and corrected any misspellings?
• [ ] Have you written documentation that is easy to understand?
• [ ] Have you written descriptive commit messages?
• [ ] Have you added NumPy docstrings for newly added functions?
• [ ] Have you formatted your code using black?
• [ ] If you have introduced a new functionality, have you added adequate unit tests?
• [ ] Have all tests passed in your local clone?
• [ ] If you have introduced a new functionality, have you added an example notebook?
• [ ] Have you kept your pull request small and limited so that it is easy to review?
• [ ] Have the newest changes from this branch been merged?

[github-actions[bot]]

Linting results by Pylint:

Your code has been rated at 8.69/10 (previous run: 8.69/10, +0.00) _{The linting score is an indicator that reflects how well your code version follows Pylint’s coding standards and quality metrics with respect to the RC_v1.6.0 branch. A decrease usually indicates your new code does not fully meet style guidelines or has potential errors.}