  A previously proposed all-loop-orders relation between the Regge limits of
four-point amplitudes of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and N=8
supergravity is established at the three-loop level. We show that the Regge
limit of known expressions for the amplitudes obtained using generalized
unitarity simplifies in both cases to a (modified) sum over three-loop ladder
and crossed-ladder scalar diagrams. This in turn is consistent with the result
obtained using the eikonal representation of the four-point gravity amplitude.
A possible exact three-loop relation between four-point amplitudes is also
considered.


  In this paper we present a complete and detailed analysis of the calculation
of both the Wightman function and the vacuum expectation value of the
energy-momentum tensor that arise from quantum vacuum fluctuations of massive
and massless scalar fields in the cosmic dispiration spacetime, which is formed
by the combination of two topological defects: a cosmic string and a screw
dislocation. This spacetime is obtained in the framework of the Einstein-Cartan
theory of gravity and is considered to be a chiral space-like cosmic string.
For completeness we perform the calculation in a high-dimensional spacetime,
with flat extra dimensions. We found closed expressions for the the
energy-momentum tensor and, in particular, in (3+1)-dimensions, we compare our
results with existing previous ones in the literature for the massless scalar
field case.


  In this article we present a simple theoretical framework where the origin of
the mu-term and the matter-parity violating interactions of the minimal
supersymmetric standard model can be understood from the spontaneous breaking
of new Abelian gauge symmetries. In this context the masses of the Z' gauge
bosons, the M-parity violating scale and the mu-term are determined by the
supersymmetry breaking scale. The full spectrum of the theory is discussed in
detail. We investigate the predictions for the Higgs masses in detail showing
that it is possible to satisfy the LEP2 bounds even with sub-TeV squark masses.
The model predicts the existence of light colored fields, lepton and baryon
number violation, and new neutral gauge bosons at the Large Hadron Collider.


  The low temperature correlation length and the static structure factor are
computed for bilayer antiferromagnets such as YBa_2Cu_3O_6. It is shown that
energy integrated two-axis scan in neutron scattering experiments can be
meaningfully interpreted to extract correlation length in such bilayer
antiferromagnets despite intensity modulation in the momentum perpendicular to
the layers. Thus, precise measurements of the spin-spin correlation length can
be performed in the future, and the theoretical predictions can be tested. It
is also shown how the same correlation length can be measured in nuclear
magnetic resonance experiments.


  We study how the herd immunity threshold and the expected epidemic size
depend on homophily with respect to vaccine adoption. We find that the presence
of homophily considerably increases the critical vaccine coverage needed for
herd immunity and that strong homophily can push the threshold entirely out of
reach. The epidemic size monotonically increases as a function of homophily
strength for a perfect vaccine, while it is maximized at a nontrivial level of
homophily when the vaccine efficacy is limited. Our results highlight the
importance of vaccination homophily in epidemic modeling.


  We solve Hilbert's fifth problem for local groups: every locally euclidean
local group is locally isomorphic to a Lie group. Jacoby claimed a proof of
this in 1957, but this proof is seriously flawed. We use methods from
nonstandard analysis and model our solution after a treatment of Hilbert's
fifth problem for global groups by Hirschfeld.


  Zero-shot sketch-based image retrieval (SBIR) is an emerging task in computer
vision, allowing to retrieve natural images relevant to sketch queries that
might not been seen in the training phase. Existing works either require
aligned sketch-image pairs or inefficient memory fusion layer for mapping the
visual information to a semantic space. In this work, we propose a semantically
aligned paired cycle-consistent generative (SEM-PCYC) model for zero-shot SBIR,
where each branch maps the visual information to a common semantic space via an
adversarial training. Each of these branches maintains a cycle consistency that
only requires supervision at category levels, and avoids the need of
highly-priced aligned sketch-image pairs. A classification criteria on the
generators' outputs ensures the visual to semantic space mapping to be
discriminating. Furthermore, we propose to combine textual and hierarchical
side information via a feature selection auto-encoder that selects
discriminating side information within a same end-to-end model. Our results
demonstrate a significant boost in zero-shot SBIR performance over the
state-of-the-art on the challenging Sketchy and TU-Berlin datasets.


  Self-propelled colloids (swimmers) in confining geometries follow
trajectories determined by hydrodynamic interactions with the bounding
surfaces. However, typically these interactions are ignored or truncated to
lowest order. We demonstrate that higher-order hydrodynamic moments cause
rod-like swimmers to follow oscillatory trajectories in quiescent fluid between
two parallel plates, using a combination of lattice-Boltzmann simulations and
far-field calculations. This behavior occurs even far from the confining walls
and does not require lubrication results. We show that a swimmer's hydrodynamic
quadrupole moment is crucial to the onset of the oscillatory trajectories. This
insight allows us to develop a simple model for the dynamics near the channel
center based on these higher hydrodynamic moments, and suggests opportunities
for trajectory-based experimental characterization of swimmers' hydrodynamic
properties.


  Recent charm results from Belle experiment are presented in this proceedings,
including (1) measurement of mixing parameter $y_{CP}=(0.96\pm0.91\pm
0.62^{+0.17}_{-0.00})\%$ in $CP$-odd decay for the first time, (2) the first
Dalitz-plot analysis of $D^0\to K^-\pi^+\eta$, (3) measurement of branching
fractions of $\Lambda_c^+\to\eta\Lambda^0\pi^+$ and $\eta\Sigma^0\pi^+$ and
intermediate processes $\Lambda_c^+\to[\Lambda(1670)\to\eta\Lambda^0]\pi^+$ and
$\Lambda_c^+\to\eta\Sigma(1385)^+$ relative to $\Lambda_c^+\to p K^-\pi^+$:
$0.293\pm0.003\pm0.014$, $0.120\pm0.006\pm0.006$,
$(5.54\pm0.29\pm0.73)\times10^{-2}$, and $0.192\pm 0.006\pm 0.016$,
respectively, and (4) first determination of the spin and parity of a
charmed-strange baryon $\Xi_c(2970)^+$ which is consistent with the HQSS
prediction for $J^P(s_l)=1/2^+(0)$.


  We present multi-scale dynamical simulations of voltage-induced
insulator-to-metal transition in the double exchange model, a canonical example
of itinerant magnet and correlated electron systems. By combining
nonequilibrium Green's function method with large-scale Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert
dynamics, we show that the transition from an antiferromagnetic insulator to
the low-resistance state is initiated by the nucleation of a thin ferromagnetic
conducting layer at the anode. The metal-insulator interface separating the two
phases is then driven toward the opposite electrode by the voltage stress,
giving rise to a growing metallic region. We further show that the initial
transformation kinetics is well described by the Kolmogorov-Avrami-Ishibashi
model with an effective spatial-dimension that depends on the applied voltage.
Implications of our findings for the resistive switching in colossal
magnetoresistant materials are also discussed.


  Efficient cargo packing and transport unit stacking play a vital role in
enhancing logistics efficiency and reducing costs in the field of logistics.
This article focuses on the challenging problem of loading transport units onto
pallets, which belongs to the class of NP-hard problems. We propose a novel
method for solving the pallet loading problem using a branch and bound
algorithm, where there is a loading order of transport units. The derived
algorithm considers only a heuristically favourable subset of possible
positions of the transport units, which has a positive effect on computability.
Furthermore, it is ensured that the pallet configuration meets real-world
constraints, such as the stability of the position of transport units under the
influence of transport inertial forces and gravity.


  We obtain a decomposition of the call option price for a very general
stochastic volatility diffusion model extending the decomposition obtained by
E. Al\`os in [2] for the Heston model. We realize that a new term arises when
the stock price does not follow an exponential model. The techniques used are
non anticipative. In particular, we see also that equivalent results can be
obtained using Functional It\^o Calculus. Using the same generalizing ideas we
also extend to non exponential models the alternative call option price
decompostion formula obtained in [1] and [3] written in terms of the Malliavin
derivative of the volatility process. Finally, we give a general expression for
the derivative of the implied volatility under both, the anticipative and the
non anticipative case.


  We consider diffusion on discrete measure spaces as encoded by Markovian
semigroups arising from weighted graphs. We study whether the graph is uniquely
determined if the diffusion is given up to order isomorphism. If the graph is
recurrent then the complete graph structure and the measure space are
determined (up to an overall scaling). As shown by counterexamples this result
is optimal. Without the recurrence assumption, the graph still turns out to be
determined in the case of normalized diffusion on graphs with standard weights
and in the case of arbitrary graphs over spaces in which each point has the
same mass. These investigations provide discrete counterparts to studies of
diffusion on Euclidean domains and manifolds initiated by Arendt and continued
by Arendt/Biegert/ter Elst and Arendt/ter Elst. A crucial step in our
considerations shows that order isomorphisms are actually unitary maps (up to a
scaling) in our context.


  Accurate prediction of thermodynamic properties requires an extremely
accurate representation of the free energy surface. Requirements are twofold --
first, the inclusion of the relevant finite-temperature mechanisms, and second,
a dense volume-temperature grid on which the calculations are performed. A
systematic workflow for such calculations requires computational efficiency and
reliability, and has not been available within an ab initio framework so far.
Here, we elucidate such a framework involving direct upsampling, thermodynamic
integration and machine-learning potentials, allowing us to incorporate, in
particular, the full effect of anharmonic vibrations. The improved methodology
has a five-times speed-up compared to state-of-the-art methods. We calculate
equilibrium thermodynamic properties up to the melting point for bcc Nb,
magnetic fcc Ni, fcc Al and hcp Mg, and find remarkable agreement with
experimental data. Strong impact of anharmonicity is observed specifically for
Nb. The introduced procedure paves the way for the development of ab initio
thermodynamic databases.


  We study the decays of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) in models
with spontaneously broken R-parity. We focus on the two cases that the LSP is
either a bino or a neutral singlet lepton. We work out the most important
phenomenological differences between these two scenarios and discuss also how
they might be distinguished from explicit R-Parity breaking models. In both
cases we find that certain ratios of decay branching ratios are correlated with
either the solar or the atmospheric (and reactor) neutrino angle. The
hypothesis that spontaneous R-Parity violation is the source of the observed
neutrino masses is therefore potentially testable at the LHC.


  We show how the observed hydrogen Balmer and Lyman emission lines constrain
the modeling of quiescent solar prominences. We compare space observations of
Lyman lines with ground-based observations of Balmer lines for quiescent solar
prominences of comparable brightness defined by their H-beta emission. The
effective number densities of hydrogen atoms emitting from the same upper level
u deduced from the corresponding emerging Lyman and Balmer line emissions show
large differences that diminish with increasing level number and converge at
the highest level numbers. Hydrogen atoms excited in u=5 contribute 250 times
less, and those in u=8 still contribute 65 times less to the Lyman than to the
corresponding Balmer emission, supporting the idea of distinct spatial origin
of the emissions of both series. This is also indicated by the line widths. The
high optical thickness of all Lyman members allows the brightness temperature
T_b to be estimated from the spectral radiance at line center, where T_b is
found to be largely independent of the upper level number, in contrast to the
(known) behavior of the Balmer lines.


  An n-tuple (n \geq 2), T = (T_1, \ldots, T_n), of commuting bounded linear
operators on a Hilbert space \mathcal{H} is doubly commuting if T_i T_j^* =
T_j^* T_i for all $1 \leq i < j \leq n$. If in addition, each T_i \in C_{\cdot
0}, then we say that T is a doubly commuting pure tuple. In this paper we prove
that a doubly commuting pure tuple $T$ can be dilated to a tuple of shift
operators on some suitable vector-valued Hardy space
H^2_{\mathcal{D}_{T^*}}(\mathbb{D}^n). As a consequence of the dilation
theorem, we prove that there exists a closed subspace \mathcal{S}_T of the form
\[\mathcal{H}_{T} := \sum_{i=1}^n \Phi_{T_i}
H^2_{\mathcal{E}_{T_i}}(\mathbb{D}^n),\] where \{\mathcal{E}_{T_i}\}_{i=1}^n
are Hilbert spaces, \Phi_{T_i} \in H^\infty_{\mathcal{B}(\mathcal{E}_{T_i},
\mathcal{D}_{T^*})}(\mathbb{D}^n) such that each \Phi_{T_i} (1 \leq i \leq n)
is either a one variable inner function in z_i, or the zero function. Moreover,
\mathcal{H} \cong \mathcal{S}_T^\perp and \[(T_1, \ldots, T_n) \cong
P_{\mathcal{S}_T^\perp} (M_{z_1}, \ldots, M_{z_n})|_{\mathcal{S}_T^\perp}.\]


  We present time-resolved J-band spectroscopy of the short period cataclysmic
variable SDSS J143317.78+101123.3. We detect absorption lines from the
sub-stellar donor star in this system, which contributes 38 +/- 5% to the
J-band light. From the relative strengths of the absorption lines in the
J-band, we estimate the spectral type of the donor star to be L2 +/- 1. These
data are the first spectroscopic detection of a confirmed sub-stellar donor in
a cataclysmic variable, and the spectral type is consistent with that expected
from semi-empirical evolutionary models.
  Using skew mapping, we have been able to derive an estimate for the radial
velocity of the donor of Kd = 520 +/- 60 km/s. This value is consistent with,
though much less precise than, predictions from mass determinations found via
photometric fitting of the eclipse light curves.


  Debris disks, comprised of planetsimal belts and the dust and gas produced by
their mutual collisions, are the longest-lived phase of circumstellar disks.
Typically much fainter in emission than protoplanetary disks, debris disks can
be found in associations in which some members still host protoplanetary disks
rich in gas as well as around main sequence stars of all ages. There are even
classes of debris disks around AGB stars and white dwarfs. Typically, these
disks have been studied through dust emission though an increasing number of
young disks are now found to host some gas which may be remnants of the
protoplanetary disks or second-generation gas. The ngVLA will have a particular
niche in the study of the dust population of these disks, since the size
distribution of the dust can be derived from the spectral index of the spectral
energy distribution from the far-infrared to the centimetre. With the longest
lever arms provided by ngVLA, the size distribution can be characterized,
testing models of collisional evolution. The ngVLA could also be capable of
measuring the quantities of HI and OH emission associated with the disks. HI
and OH are by-products of the dissociation of water, which is expected to be a
primary component of outgassed material from cometary collisions. A probe of
the water content of extrasolar systems has important implications for the
delivery of water to terrestrial, potentially Earth-like planets.


  Precise control is an essential and elusive quality of emerging self-driving
microscopes. It is widely understood these instruments must be capable of
performing rapid, high-volume, and arbitrary movements for practical
self-driving operation. However, stage movements are difficult to automate at
scale, owing to mechanical instability, hysteresis, and thermal drift. Such
difficulties pose major barriers to intelligent microscope designs that require
repeatable, precise movements. To guide design of emerging instruments, it is
necessary to understand the behavior of existing designs to identify rate
limiting steps for full autonomy. Here we describe a general framework to
evaluate stage motion in any electron microscope. We define metrics to evaluate
stage degrees of freedom, propose solutions to improve performance, and comment
on fundamental limits to automated experimentation using present hardware.


  We consider a (sub) critical Galton-Watson process with neutral mutations
(infinite alleles model), and decompose the entire population into clusters of
individuals carrying the same allele. We specify the law of this allelic
partition in terms of the distribution of the number of clone-children and the
number of mutant-children of a typical individual. The approach combines an
extension of Harris representation of Galton-Watson processes and a version of
the ballot theorem. Some limit theorems related to the distribution of the
allelic partition are also given.


  We show that over an algebraically closed field of characteristic not equal
to 2, homological projective duality for smooth quadric hypersurfaces and for
double covers of projective spaces branched over smooth quadric hypersurfaces
is a combination of two operations: one interchanges a quadric hypersurface
with its classical projective dual and the other interchanges a quadric
hypersurface with the double cover branched along it.


  Reconstructing urban areas in 3D out of satellite raster images has been a
long-standing and challenging goal of both academical and industrial research.
The rare methods today achieving this objective at a Level Of Details $2$ rely
on procedural approaches based on geometry, and need stereo images and/or LIDAR
data as input. We here propose a method for urban 3D reconstruction named
KIBS(\textit{Keypoints Inference By Segmentation}), which comprises two novel
features: i) a full deep learning approach for the 3D detection of the roof
sections, and ii) only one single (non-orthogonal) satellite raster image as
model input. This is achieved in two steps: i) by a Mask R-CNN model performing
a 2D segmentation of the buildings' roof sections, and after blending these
latter segmented pixels within the RGB satellite raster image, ii) by another
identical Mask R-CNN model inferring the heights-to-ground of the roof
sections' corners via panoptic segmentation, unto full 3D reconstruction of the
buildings and city. We demonstrate the potential of the KIBS method by
reconstructing different urban areas in a few minutes, with a Jaccard index for
the 2D segmentation of individual roof sections of $88.55\%$ and $75.21\%$ on
our two data sets resp., and a height's mean error of such correctly segmented
pixels for the 3D reconstruction of $1.60$ m and $2.06$ m on our two data sets
resp., hence within the LOD2 precision range.


  In Image Compression, the researchers' aim is to reduce the number of bits
required to represent an image by removing the spatial and spectral
redundancies. Recently discrete wavelet transform and wavelet packet has
emerged as popular techniques for image compression. The wavelet transform is
one of the major processing components of image compression. The result of the
compression changes as per the basis and tap of the wavelet used. It is
proposed that proper selection of mother wavelet on the basis of nature of
images, improve the quality as well as compression ratio remarkably. We suggest
the novel technique, which is based on wavelet packet best tree based on
Threshold Entropy with enhanced run-length encoding. This method reduces the
time complexity of wavelet packets decomposition as complete tree is not
decomposed. Our algorithm selects the sub-bands, which include significant
information based on threshold entropy. The enhanced run length encoding
technique is suggested provides better results than RLE. The result when
compared with JPEG-2000 proves to be better.


  Let $\mathcal A$ be a hyperplane arrangement in $\mathbb C^n$. We show that
the number of decomposition factors as a perverse sheaf of the direct image
$Rj_*\mathbb C_U $ of the constant sheaf on the complement $U$ to the
arrangement is given by the Poincar\'e polynomial of the arrangement.
Furthermore we describe the composition factors of $Rj_*\mathbb C_U $ as
certain local cohomology sheaves and give their multiplicity.


  For certain compactly supported metric and/or potential perturbations of the
Laplacian on $\mathbb{H}^{n+1}$, we establish an upper bound on the resonance
counting function with an explicit constant that depends only on the dimension,
the radius of the unperturbed region in $\mathbb{H}^{n+1}$, and the volume of
the metric perturbation. This constant is shown to be sharp in the case of
scattering by a spherical obstacle.


  We study the decay towards the extinction that pertains to local weak
solutions to fully anisotropic equations whose prototype is \[
  \partial_t u= \sum_{i=1}^N \partial_i (|\partial_i u|^{p_i-2} \partial_i u),
\qquad 1<p_i<2. \]
  Their rates of extinction are evaluated by means of several integral
Harnack-type inequalities which constitute the core of our analysis and that
are obtained for anisotropic operators having full quasilinear structure.
Different decays are obtained when considering different space geometries. The
approach is motivated by the research of new methods for strongly nonlinear
operators, hence dispensing with comparison principles, while exploiting an
intrinsic geometry that affects all the variables of the solution.


  Affective computing and cognitive theory are widely used in modern
human-computer interaction scenarios. Human faces, as the most prominent and
easily accessible features, have attracted great attention from researchers.
Since humans have rich emotions and developed musculature, there exist a lot of
fine-grained expressions in real-world applications. However, it is extremely
time-consuming to collect and annotate a large number of facial images, of
which may even require psychologists to correctly categorize them. To the best
of our knowledge, the existing expression datasets are only limited to several
basic facial expressions, which are not sufficient to support our ambitions in
developing successful human-computer interaction systems. To this end, a novel
Fine-grained Facial Expression Database - F2ED is contributed in this paper,
and it includes more than 200k images with 54 facial expressions from 119
persons. Considering the phenomenon of uneven data distribution and lack of
samples is common in real-world scenarios, we further evaluate several tasks of
few-shot expression learning by virtue of our F2ED, which are to recognize the
facial expressions given only few training instances. These tasks mimic human
performance to learn robust and general representation from few examples. To
address such few-shot tasks, we propose a unified task-driven framework -
Compositional Generative Adversarial Network (Comp-GAN) learning to synthesize
facial images and thus augmenting the instances of few-shot expression classes.
Extensive experiments are conducted on F2ED and existing facial expression
datasets, i.e., JAFFE and FER2013, to validate the efficacy of our F2ED in
pre-training facial expression recognition network and the effectiveness of our
proposed approach Comp-GAN to improve the performance of few-shot recognition
tasks.


  The algebra A(D-3)+++ dimensionally reduces to the E(D-1) symmetry algebra of
(12-D)-dimensional supergravity. An infinite set of five-dimensional
gravitational objects trivially embedded in D-dimensions is constructed by
identifying the null geodesic motion on cosets embedded in the generalised
Kac-Moody algebra A(D-3)+++. By analogy with supergravity these are bound
states of dual gravitons. The metric interpolates continuously between exotic
gravitational solutions generated by the action of the Geroch group but is not
a continuously transforming solution of the Einstein-Hilbert action. We
investigate mixed-symmetry fields in the brane sigma model, identify actions
for the full interpolating bound state and understand the obstruction to the
bound state being a solution of the Einstein-Hilbert action.


  In this paper we study a family of controllers that guarantees attitude
synchronization for a network of elements in the unit sphere domain, i.e.
$\mathcal{S}^2$. We propose distributed continuous controllers for elements
whose dynamics are controllable (i.e. control with torque as command), and
which can be implemented by each individual agent without the need of a common
global orientation frame among the network, i.e. it requires only local
information that can be measured by each individual agent from its own
orientation frame. The controllers are specified according to arbitrary
distance functions in $\mathcal{S}^2$, and we provide conditions on those
distance functions that guarantee that i) a synchronized network of agents is
locally asymptotically stable for an arbitrary network graph; ii) a
synchronized network can be achieved for almost all initial conditions in a
tree graph network. We also study the equilibria configurations that come with
specific types of network graphs. The proposed strategies can be used in
attitude synchronization of swarms of fully actuated rigid bodies, such as
satellites.


  We establish methods for quantum state tomography based on compressed
sensing. These methods are specialized for quantum states that are fairly pure,
and they offer a significant performance improvement on large quantum systems.
In particular, they are able to reconstruct an unknown density matrix of
dimension d and rank r using O(rd log^2 d) measurement settings, compared to
standard methods that require d^2 settings. Our methods have several features
that make them amenable to experimental implementation: they require only
simple Pauli measurements, use fast convex optimization, are stable against
noise, and can be applied to states that are only approximately low-rank. The
acquired data can be used to certify that the state is indeed close to pure, so
no a priori assumptions are needed. We present both theoretical bounds and
numerical simulations.


  We describe the results of a qualitative study on journalists' information
seeking behavior on social media. Based on interviews with eleven journalists
along with a study of a set of university level journalism modules, we
determined the categories of information need types that lead journalists to
social media. We also determined the ways that social media is exploited as a
tool to satisfy information needs and to define influential factors, which
impacted on journalists' information seeking behavior. We find that not only is
social media used as an information source, but it can also be a supplier of
stories found serendipitously. We find seven information need types that expand
the types found in previous work. We also find five categories of influential
factors that affect the way journalists seek information.


  While jets appear as a fundamental result of accretion processes onto compact
objects in X-ray binaries, there is as yet no standard model for their
underlying physics. The origin of the observed disk-jet coupling also remains
largely unknown. X-ray variability studies have revealed complex variability in
the accretion flow onto stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars, on
timescales as short as milliseconds. The detection of correlated broad-band
rapid time variability in the jet emission would provide valuable information
on how the variability is transferred along the jet and on the timescales of
physical processes operating in these jets, ultimately helping to constrain
internal jet physics, probe disk-jet coupling and infer accretion geometry. In
recent years there have been indirect evidences for optical fast variability
arising from a powerful jet. However, in optical light the emission from the
outer disk can strongly contaminate the jet signal, resulting in an ambiguous
identification of the source of the variability. On the other hand, at much
longer wavelengths the variability, coming from far out in the jet, will be
smeared out in time. Infrared variability studies are thus ideal for looking at
jet variability on the fastest possible timescales. Thanks to newly available
detectors and fast-readout modes, fast infrared and mid-infrared photometry is
now possible. This is opening a new exciting window to study the geometry and
the Physics of relativistic jets and their connection with the accretion flow.
Here we present the first results from a large ongoing fast-timing
multi-wavelength project, showing the first unambiguous evidence for sub-second
jet variable emission. We show how this type of data already allows us to put
quantitative constraints to the jet speed, geometry and physics, and discuss
the great potential of new observations in the near future.


  The oxygen 7771-4 A triplet is a good indicator of luminosity in A-G
supergiants. However, its strength also depends on other atmospheric
parameters. In this study, we present the luminosity calibrations, where, for
the first time, the effects of the effective temperature, microturbulent
velocity, surface gravity, and the abundance have been disentangled. The
calibrations are derived on the basis of a dataset of high-dispersion spectra
of 60 yellow supergiants with highly reliable luminosities and accurate
atmospheric parameters. This allowed to bring the uncertainty of the
triplet-based absolute magnitudes down to 0.26 mag. The calibrations are
suitable for spectral types F0-K0 and luminosity classes I-II, covering
absolute magnitudes Mv from -1.0 to -10 mag.


  Three of the most significant measured deviations from standard model
predictions, the enhanced decay rate for B $\to$ D$^{(*)}\tau\nu$, hints of
lepton universality violation in B $\to$ K$^{(*)}\ell\ell$ decays, and the
anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, can be explained by the existence of
leptoquarks (LQs) with large couplings to third-generation quarks and masses at
the TeV scale. The existence of these states can be probed at the LHC in high
energy proton-proton collisions. A novel search is presented for pair
production of LQs coupled to a top quark and a muon using data at a
center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of
35.9 fb$^{-1}$, recorded by the CMS experiment. No deviation from the standard
model prediction has been observed and scalar LQs decaying exclusively into
t$\mu$ are excluded up to masses of 1420 GeV. The results of this search are
combined with those from previous searches for LQ decays into t$\tau$ and
b$\nu$, which excluded scalar LQs below masses of 900 and 1080 GeV. Vector LQs
are excluded up to masses of 1190 GeV for all possible combinations of
branching fractions to t$\mu$, t$\tau$ and b$\nu$. With this analysis, all
relevant couplings of LQs with an electric charge of -1/3 to third-generation
quarks are probed for the first time.


  T2K is a long baseline neutrino experiment which exploits a neutrino and
antineutrino beam at JPARC to perform precision measurements of neutrino
oscillation parameters $\Delta {\rm m}^2_{\rm 32}$, $\sin^2 \theta_{23}$
(besides the CP-violating phase $\delta_{\rm CP}$). The latest results for the
measurement of PMNS parameters in the disappearance mode are presented here,
highlighting the main systematic uncertainties limiting the precision. The
future strategy to improve the precision on the measurement of PMNS parameters
are also discussed.


  Electrospraying is a widely-used technique for generating microspherical
droplets in biomedical and chemical applications and considered as an effective
approach for the deposition on substrate. However, studies on effects of
controllable parameters on deposition area of electrosprayed droplets have not
been reported yet. In this study, a simplified two-dimensional model is
developed to study the dynamic process of droplets and electrosprayed area. The
effects of distance between the needle tip and collector, and syringe feed rate
on the size of sprayed area are quantified. Experiments have been conducted to
validate the simulation results. Both modeling and experimental data
demonstrate that the diameter of sprayed area increases with increased distance
between the tip and collector as well as feed rate. This fundamental
understanding should contribute to a wise choice of controllable parameters to
achieve an efficient utilization of electrosparyed droplets or substrate for
real applications.


  There are two ways to describe the interaction between classical and quantum
information categorically: one based on completely positive maps between
Frobenius algebras, the other using symmetric monoidal 2-categories. This paper
makes a first step towards combining the two. The integrated approach allows a
unified description of quantum teleportation and classical encryption in a
single 2-category, as well as a universal security proof applicable
simultaneously to both scenarios.


  The concept of the partial osmotic pressure of ions in an electrolyte
solution is critically examined. In principle these can be defined by
introducing a solvent-permeable wall and measuring the force per unit area
which can certainly be attributed to individual ions. Here I demonstrate that
although the total wall force balances the bulk osmotic pressure as required by
mechanical equilibrium, the individual partial osmotic pressures are
extra-thermodynamic quantities dependent on the electrical structure at the
wall, and as such they resemble attempts to define individual ion activity
coefficients. The limiting case where the wall is a barrier to only one species
of ion is also considered, and with ions on both sides the classic Gibbs-Donnan
membrane equilibrium is recovered thus providing a unifying treatment. The
analysis can be extended to illustrate how the electrical state of the bulk is
affected by the nature of the walls and the sample handling history, thus
supporting the 'Gibbs-Guggenheim uncertainty principle' (the notion that the
electrical state is unmeasurable and usually accidentally determined). Since
this uncertainty is conferred also onto individual ion activities, it has
implications for the current (2002) IUPAC definition of pH.


  We prove that, under some generic non-degeneracy assumptions, real analytic,
centrally symmetric plane domains are determined by their Dirichlet (resp.
Neumann) spectra. We prove that the conditions are open-dense for real analytic
convex domains. The proof is parallel to the proof that up/down symmetric
domains are spectrally determined. One step is to use a Maslov index
calculation to show that the second derivative of the defining function of a
centrally symmetric domain at the endpoints of a bouncing ball orbit is a
spectral invariant. This is also true for up/down symmetric domains, removing
an assumption from the proof in that case.


  Standard interpolation techniques are implicitly based on the assumption that
the signal lies on a single homogeneous domain. In contrast, many naturally
occurring signals lie on an inhomogeneous domain, such as brain activity
associated to different brain tissue. We propose an interpolation method that
instead exploits prior information about domain inhomogeneity, characterized by
different, potentially overlapping, subdomains. As proof of concept, the focus
is put on extending conventional shift-invariant B-spline interpolation. Given
a known inhomogeneous domain, B-spline interpolation of a given order is
extended to a domain-informed, shift-variant interpolation. This is done by
constructing a domain-informed generating basis that satisfies stability
properties. We illustrate example constructions of domain-informed generating
basis, and show their property in increasing the coherence between the
generating basis and the given inhomogeneous domain. By advantageously
exploiting domain knowledge, we demonstrate the benefit of domain-informed
interpolation over standard B-spline interpolation through Monte Carlo
simulations across a range of B-spline orders. We also demonstrate the
feasibility of domain-informed interpolation in a neuroimaging application
where the domain information is available by a complementary image contrast.
The results show the benefit of incorporating domain knowledge so that an
interpolant consistent to the anatomy of the brain is obtained.


  The principal aim of this paper is to construct torsion cohomology classes in
the initial terms of a spectral sequence computing the cohomology of a
Kottwitz-Harris-Taylor Shimura variety. Beside we produce some global
congruences between automorphic representations.


  Monolayers (MLs) of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit unusual
electrical behavior under magnetic fields due to their intrinsic spin-orbit
coupling and lack of inversion symmetry. While recent experiments have also
identified the critical role of carrier interactions within these materials, a
complete mapping of the ambipolar Landau level (LL) sequence has remained
elusive. Here, we use single-electron transistors to perform LL spectroscopy in
ML WSe$_2$, for the first time providing a comprehensive picture of the
electronic structure of a ML TMD for both electrons and holes. We find that the
LLs differ notably between the two bands, and follow a unique sequence in the
valence band (VB) that is dominated by strong Zeeman effects. The Zeeman
splitting in the VB is several times higher than the cyclotron energy, far
exceeding the predictions of a single-particle model, and moreover tunes
significantly with doping. This implies exceptionally strong many-body
interactions, and suggests that ML WSe$_2$ can serve as a host for new
correlated-electron phenomena.


  The role of the delta isobar degrees of freedom in nucleon-nucleon scattering
is revisited. We attempt to understand why the dimensionally regularized
two-pion exchanges with the explicit delta isobar is much stronger than the
ones with spectral function regularization. When the cutoff value of spectral
function regularization is varied, the isoscalar central component exhibits a
rather large cutoff variation. This reveals a surprisingly large numerical
factor of the deltaful two-pion exchange potentials. The power counting is
adjusted accordingly and we discuss the results and how to improve upon this
finding.


  Motivated by recent surprising experimental results for the noise output of
superconducting microfabricated resonators used in quantum computing
applications and astronomy, we develop a fully quantum theoretical model to
describe quantum dynamics of these circuits. Building on theoretical techniques
from quantum optics, we calculate the noise in the output voltage due to
two-level system (TLS) defects. The theory predicts squeezing for the noise in
the amplitude quadrature with respect to the input noise, which qualitatively
reproduces the noise ellipse observed in experiment. We show that noise
enhancement along the phase direction persists for pump frequencies away from
resonance. Our results also suggest that intrinsic TLS fluctuations must be
incorporated in the model in order to describe the experimentally observed
dependence of the phase noise on input power.


  A reconstruction problem is formulated for multisets over commutative
groupoids. The cards of a multiset are obtained by replacing a pair of its
elements by their sum. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the
reconstructibility of multisets are determined. These results find an
application in a different kind of reconstruction problem for functions of
several arguments and identification minors: classes of linear or affine
functions over nonassociative semirings are shown to be weakly reconstructible.
Moreover, affine functions of sufficiently large arity over finite fields are
reconstructible.


  We study the Maker-Maker version of the domination game introduced in 2018 by
Duch\^ene et al. Given a graph, two players alternately claim vertices. The
first player to claim a dominating set of the graph wins. As the Maker-Breaker
version, this game is PSPACE-complete on split and bipartite graphs. Our main
result is a linear time algorithm to solve this game in forests. We also give a
characterization of the cycles where the first player has a winning strategy.


  The effect of annealing on the dynamical behavior of swelling for ultrathin
polyacrylamide films deposited on silicon substrates have been studied using
X-ray reflectivity technique. The spin coated polyacrylamide films of similar
thicknesses were annealed at various temperatures below and above the glass
transition temperature of the polymer. The electron density of the films was
found to increase systematically on annealing. The swelling dynamics of the
annealed films were found to have systematic dependence on the temperature of
annealing. The interaction between the substrate and the polymer molecules was
found to play important role in the swelling dynamics of the annealed films
unlike our earlier observation with as coated films. The chain segments
attached directly to the substrate were believed to have restricted freedom of
movements compared to the ones that are at a distance from the substrate and
relatively free. Accordingly, the dynamical behavior of swelling was modeled in
terms of the combination of a free and a restricted component and was found to
be in excellent agreement with the data. The diffusion coefficients
corresponding to the restricted polymer segments were an order of magnitude
smaller than those of the free segments and the fraction of the same was found
to increase with annealing at higher temperatures. The overall reduction of
swellability of the films was explained in terms of the increase of density of
the films and the segmental attachment to the substrate on annealing.


  We investigate a singly-charged quantum dot under a strong optical driving
field by probing the system with a weak optical field. When the driving field
is detuned from the trion transition, the probe absorption spectrum is shifted
from the trion resonance as a consequence of the dynamic Stark effect.
Simultaneously, a gain sideband is created, resulting from the coherent energy
transfer between the optical fields through the quantum dot nonlinearity. As
the pump detuning is moved from red to blue, we map out the anticrossing of
these two spectral lines. The optical Bloch equations for a stationary
two-level atom can be used to describe the numerous spectral features seen in
this nano solid state system.


  Stellar winds are thought to be the main process responsible for the spin
down of main-sequence stars. The extraction of angular momentum by a magnetized
wind has been studied for decades, leading to several formulations for the
resulting torque. However, previous studies generally consider simple dipole or
split monopole stellar magnetic topologies. Here we consider in addition to a
dipolar stellar magnetic field, both quadrupolar and octupolar configurations,
while also varying the rotation rate and the magnetic field strength. 60
simulations made with a 2.5D, cylindrical and axisymmetric set-up and computed
with the PLUTO code were used to find torque formulations for each topology. We
further succeed to give a unique law that fits the data for every topology by
formulating the torque in terms of the amount of open magnetic flux in the
wind. We also show that our formulation can be applied to even more realistic
magnetic topologies, with examples of the Sun in its minimum and maximum phase
as observed at the Wilcox Solar Observatory, and of a young K-star (TYC-0486-
4943-1) whose topology has been obtained by Zeeman-Doppler Imaging (ZDI).


  We argue that the Maldacena-Nunez no-go theorem excluding Minkowski and de
Sitter vacua in flux compactifications can be extended to exclude anti-de
Sitter (AdS) vacua for which the Kaluza-Klein scale is parametrically smaller
than the AdS length scale. As a practical application of this observation we
demonstrate that the mechanism to resolve O6 singularities in massive type IIA
at the classical level is likely not to occur in AdS compactifications with
scale separation. We furthermore remark that a compactification to four
observable dimensions implies a large cosmological hierarchy.


  Automatically evaluating vision-language tasks is challenging, especially
when it comes to reflecting human judgments due to limitations in accounting
for fine-grained details. Although GPT-4V has shown promising results in
various multi-modal tasks, leveraging GPT-4V as a generalist evaluator for
these tasks has not yet been systematically explored. We comprehensively
validate GPT-4V's capabilities for evaluation purposes, addressing tasks
ranging from foundational image-to-text and text-to-image synthesis to
high-level image-to-image translations and multi-images to text alignment. We
employ two evaluation methods, single-answer grading and pairwise comparison,
using GPT-4V. Notably, GPT-4V shows promising agreement with humans across
various tasks and evaluation methods, demonstrating immense potential for
multi-modal LLMs as evaluators. Despite limitations like restricted visual
clarity grading and real-world complex reasoning, its ability to provide
human-aligned scores enriched with detailed explanations is promising for
universal automatic evaluator.


  A significant fraction of the observing time with the two phase-I SKA
telescopes (SKA1-LOW and SKA1-MID) will be spent on Key Science Projects led by
member country scientists. The various SKA Science Working Groups, including
the VLBI Focus Group are in the process of defining KSPs that are aligned with
the High Priority Science Objectives of the SKA. At the moment it is not clear
how the special observing mode of SKA-VLBI - when the SKA1 components are
phased-up and included in VLBI networks - could be incorporated in KSPs. The
VLBI community needs to be prepared by the time the KSP proposal calls are
expected (mid-2020s). In this paper we outline the basic concept of SKA-VLBI,
and some possibilities for us to engage in SKA KSPs.


  Different change-point type models encountered in statistical inference for
stochastic processes give rise to different limiting likelihood ratio
processes. In this paper we consider two such likelihood ratios. The first one
is an exponential functional of a two-sided Poisson process driven by some
parameter, while the second one is an exponential functional of a two-sided
Brownian motion. We establish that for sufficiently small values of the
parameter, the Poisson type likelihood ratio can be approximated by the
Brownian type one. As a consequence, several statistically interesting
quantities (such as limiting variances of different estimators) related to the
first likelihood ratio can also be approximated by those related to the second
one. Finally, we discuss the asymptotics of the large values of the parameter
and illustrate the results by numerical simulations.


  We propose a framework to study the effect of local recovery requirements of
codeword symbols on the dimension of linear codes, based on a combinatorial
proxy that we call \emph{visible rank}. The locality constraints of a linear
code are stipulated by a matrix $H$ of $\star$'s and $0$'s (which we call a
"stencil"), whose rows correspond to the local parity checks (with the
$\star$'s indicating the support of the check). The visible rank of $H$ is the
largest $r$ for which there is a $r \times r$ submatrix in $H$ with a unique
generalized diagonal of $\star$'s. The visible rank yields a field-independent
combinatorial lower bound on the rank of $H$ and thus the co-dimension of the
code.
  We prove a rank-nullity type theorem relating visible rank to the rank of an
associated construct called \emph{symmetric spanoid}, which was introduced by
Dvir, Gopi, Gu, and Wigderson~\cite{DGGW20}. Using this connection and a
construction of appropriate stencils, we answer a question posed in
\cite{DGGW20} and demonstrate that symmetric spanoid rank cannot improve the
currently best known $\widetilde{O}(n^{(q-2)/(q-1)})$ upper bound on the
dimension of $q$-query locally correctable codes (LCCs) of length $n$.
  We also study the $t$-Disjoint Repair Group Property ($t$-DRGP) of codes
where each codeword symbol must belong to $t$ disjoint check equations. It is
known that linear $2$-DRGP codes must have co-dimension $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$. We
show that there are stencils corresponding to $2$-DRGP with visible rank as
small as $O(\log n)$. However, we show the second tensor of any $2$-DRGP
stencil has visible rank $\Omega(n)$, thus recovering the $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$
lower bound for $2$-DRGP. For $q$-LCC, however, the $k$'th tensor power for
$k\le n^{o(1)}$ is unable to improve the $\widetilde{O}(n^{(q-2)/(q-1)})$ upper
bound on the dimension of $q$-LCCs by a polynomial factor.


  The notion of a $U$-statistic for an $n$-tuple of identical quantum systems
is introduced in analogy to the classical (commutative) case: given a
selfadjoint `kernel' $K$ acting on $(\mathbb{C}^{d})^{\otimes r}$ with $r<n$,
we define the symmetric operator $U_{n}= {n \choose r} \sum_{\beta}K^{(\beta)}$
with $K^{(\beta)}$ being the kernel acting on the subset $\beta$ of $\{1,\dots
,n\}$. If the systems are prepared in the i.i.d state $\rho^{\otimes n}$ it is
shown that the sequence of properly normalised $U$-statistics converges in
moments to a linear combination of Hermite polynomials in canonical variables
of a CCR algebra defined through the Quantum Central Limit Theorem. In the
special cases of non-degenerate kernels and kernels of order $2$ it is shown
that the convergence holds in the stronger distribution sense. Two types of
applications in quantum statistics are described: testing beyond the two simple
hypotheses scenario, and quantum metrology with interacting hamiltonians.


  We consider the O(N) linear {\sigma} model and introduce an auxiliary field
to eliminate the scalar self-interaction. Using a suitable limiting process
this model can be continuously transformed into the nonlinear version of the
O(N) model. We demonstrate that, up to two-loop order in the CJT formalism, the
effective potential of the model with auxiliary field is identical to the one
of the standard O(N) linear {\sigma} model, if the auxiliary field is
eliminated using the stationary values for the corresponding one- and two-point
functions. We numerically compute the chiral condensate and the {\sigma}- and
{\pi}-meson masses at nonzero temperature in the one-loop approximation of the
CJT formalism. The order of the chiral phase transition depends sensitively on
the choice of the renormalization scheme. In the linear version of the model
and for explicitly broken chiral symmetry, it turns from crossover to first
order as the mass of the {\sigma} particle increases. In the nonlinear case,
the order of the phase transition turns out to be of first order. In the region
where the parameter space of the model allows for physical solutions,
Goldstone's theorem is always fulfilled.


  We develop a novel approach to partially identify causal estimands, such as
the average treatment effect (ATE), from observational data. To better satisfy
the stable unit treatment value assumption (SUTVA) we utilize stochastic
counterfactuals within a propensity-prognosis model of the data generating
process. For more precise identification we utilize knowledge of discordant
twin outcomes as evidence for randomness in the data generating process. Our
approach culminates with a constrained optimization problem; the solution gives
upper and lower bounds for the ATE. We demonstrate the applicability of our
introduced methodology with three example applications.


  Context: The presence of water in the wind of the extreme carbon star
IRC+10216 has been confirmed by the Herschel telescope. The regions where the
high-J H2O lines have been detected are close to the star at radii r \geq 15
R\ast. Aims: We investigate the formation of water and related molecules in the
periodically-shocked inner layers of IRC+10216 where dust also forms and
accelerates the wind. Methods: We describe the molecular formation by a
chemical kinetic network involving carbon-and oxygen-based molecules. We then
apply this network to the physical conditions pertaining to the dust-formation
zone which experiences the passage of pulsation- driven shocks between 1 and 5
R\ast. We solve for a system of stiff, coupled, ordinary, and differential
equations. Results: Non-equilibrium chemistry prevails in the dust-formation
zone. H2O forms quickly above the photosphere from the synthesis of hydroxyl OH
induced by the thermal fragmentation of CO in the hot post-shock gas. The
derived abundance with respect to H2 at 5 R\ast is 1.4\times10-7, which
excellently agrees the values derived from Herschel observations. The
non-equilibrium formation process of water will be active whatever the stellar
C/O ratio, and H2O should then be present in the wind acceleration zone of all
stars on the Asymptotic Giant Branch.


  Wireless sensor network has recently received much attention due to its broad
applicability and ease-of-installation. This paper is concerned with a
distributed state estimation problem, where all sensor nodes are required to
achieve a consensus estimation. The weighted least squares (WLS) estimator is
an appealing way to handle this problem since it does not need any prior
distribution information. To this end, we first exploit the equivalent relation
between the information filter and WLS estimator. Then, we establish an
optimization problem under the relation coupled with a consensus constraint.
Finally, the consensus-based distributed WLS problem is tackled by the
alternating direction method of multiplier (ADMM). Numerical simulation
together with theoretical analysis testify the convergence and consensus
estimations between nodes.


  A simple model for chaotic inflation in supergravity is proposed. The model
is N=1 supersymmetric massive U(1) gauge theory via the Stuckelberg superfield
and gives rise to D-term inflation with a quadratic term of inflaton in the
potential. The Fayet-Iliopoulos field plays a role of the inflaton.


  Bulges, often identified with the spheroidal component of a galaxy, have a
complex pedigree. Massive bulges are generally red and old, but lower mass
bulges have broader dispersions in color that may be correlated with disk
colors. This suggests different formation scenarios. I will review possible
formation sequences for bulges, describe the various signatures that
distinguish these scenarios, and discuss implications for the high redshift
universe.


  In the last few decades sociologists were trying to explain human behaviour
by analysing social networks, which requires access to data about interpersonal
relationships. This represented a big obstacle in this research field until the
emergence of online social networks (OSNs), which vastly facilitated the
process of collecting such data. Nowadays, by crawling public profiles on OSNs,
it is possible to build a social graph where "friends" on OSN become
represented as connected nodes. OSN connection does not necessarily indicate a
close real-life relationship, but using OSN interaction records may reveal
real-life relationship intensities, a topic which inspired a number of recent
researches. Still, published research currently lacks an extensive exploratory
analysis of OSN interaction records, i.e. a comprehensive overview of users'
interaction via different ways of OSN interaction. In this paper we provide
such an overview by leveraging results of conducted extensive social experiment
which managed to collect records for over 3,200 Facebook users interacting with
over 1,400,000 of their friends. Our exploratory analysis focuses on extracting
population distributions and correlation parameters for 13 interaction
parameters, providing valuable insight in online social network interaction for
future researches aimed at this field of study.


  Control and communication are often tightly coupled in motion planning of
networked mobile robots, due to the fact that robotic motions will affect the
overall communication quality, and the quality of service (QoS) of the
communication among the robots will in turn affect their coordination
performance. In this paper, we propose a control theoretical motion planning
framework for a team of networked mobile robots in order to accomplish
high-level spatial and temporal motion objectives while optimizing
communication QoS. Desired motion specifications are formulated as Signal
Temporal Logic (STL), whereas the communication performances to be optimized
are captured by recently proposed Spatial Temporal Reach and Escape Logic
(STREL) formulas. Both the STL and STREL specifications are encoded as mixed
integer linear constraints posed on the system and/or environment state
variables of the mobile robot network, where satisfactory control strategies
can be computed by exploiting a distributed model predictive control (MPC)
approach. To the best of the authors' knowledge, we are the first to study
controller synthesis for STREL specifications. A two-layer hierarchical MPC
procedure is proposed to efficiently solve the problem, whose soundness and
completeness are formally ensured. The effectiveness of the proposed framework
is validated by simulation examples.


  Manifest N=2 supersymmetric Toda systems are constructed from the $sl(n,n+1)$
superalgebras by taking into account their complex structure. In the $n\to
\infty$ continuum limit an N=2 extension of the $(2+1)$-dimensional heavenly
equation is obtained. The integrability is guaranteed by the existence of a
supersymmetric Lax pair. We further analyze the properties of the
$(1+1)$-dimensionally reduced system. Its bosonic sector is of hydrodynamical
type. This is not the case for the whole supersymmetric system which, however,
is super-hydrodynamical when properly expressed in terms of a supergeometry
involving superfields and fermionic derivatives.


  We consider a discrete dynamical system on a compact manifold M generated by
a homeomorphism f. Let C = {M(i)} be a finite covering of M by closed cells.
The symbolic image of a dynamical system is a directed graph G with vertices
corresponding to cells in which vertices i and j are joined by an arc i to j if
the image f(M(i)) intersects M(j). We show that the set of paths of the
symbolic image converges to the set of trajectories of the system in the
Tychonoff topology as the diameter of the covering tends to zero. For a cycle
on G going through different vertices, a simple flow is by definition a uniform
distribution on arcs of this cycle. We show that simple flows converge to
ergodic measures in the weak topology as the diameter of the covering tends to
zero.


  Basing upon the recent development of the Patterson-Sullivan measures with a
H\"older continuous nonzero potential function, we use tools of both dynamics
of geodesic flows and geometric properties of negatively curved manifolds to
present a new formula illustrating the relation between the exponential decay
rate of Patterson-Sullivan measures with a H\"older continuous potential
function and the corresponding critical exponent.


  Modelling growth in student achievement is a significant challenge in the
field of education. Understanding how interventions or experiences such as
part-time work can influence this growth is also important. Traditional methods
like difference-in-differences are effective for estimating causal effects from
longitudinal data. Meanwhile, Bayesian non-parametric methods have recently
become popular for estimating causal effects from single time point
observational studies. However, there remains a scarcity of methods capable of
combining the strengths of these two approaches to flexibly estimate
heterogeneous causal effects from longitudinal data. Motivated by two waves of
data from the High School Longitudinal Study, the NCES' most recent
longitudinal study which tracks a representative sample of over 20,000 students
in the US, our study introduces a longitudinal extension of Bayesian Causal
Forests. This model allows for the flexible identification of both individual
growth in mathematical ability and the effects of participation in part-time
work. Simulation studies demonstrate the predictive performance and reliable
uncertainty quantification of the proposed model. Results reveal the negative
impact of part time work for most students, but hint at potential benefits for
those students with an initially low sense of school belonging. Clear signs of
a widening achievement gap between students with high and low academic
achievement are also identified. Potential policy implications are discussed,
along with promising areas for future research.


  We investigate multi-agent epistemic modal logic with common knowledge
modalities for groups of agents and obtain van Benthem style model-theoretic
characterisations, in terms of bisimulation invariance of classical first-order
logic over the non-elementary classes of (finite or arbitrary) common knowledge
Kripke frames. The technical challenges posed by the reachability and
transitive closure features of the derived accessibility relations are dealt
with through passage to (finite) bisimilar coverings of epistemic frames by
Cayley graphs of permutation groups whose generators are associated with the
agents. Epistemic frame structure is here induced by an algebraic coset
structure. Cayley structures with specific acyclicity properties support a
locality analysis at different levels of granularity as induced by distance
measures w.r.t. various coalitions of agents.


  Understanding single pion production reactions on free nucleons is the first
step towards a correct description of these processes in nuclei, which are
important for signal and background contributions in current and near future
accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments. In this work, we reanalyze our
previous studies of neutrino-induced one-pion production on nucleons for
outgoing $\pi N$ invariant masses below 1.4 GeV. Our motivation is to get a
better description of the $\nu_\mu n\to\mu^- n\pi^+$ cross section, for which
current theoretical models give values significantly below data. This channel
is very sensitive to the crossed $\Delta (1232)$ contribution and thus to spin
1/2 components in the Rarita-Schwinger $\Delta$ propagator. We show how these
spin 1/2 components are nonpropagating and give rise to contact interactions.
In this context, we point out that the discrepancy with experiment might be
corrected by the addition of appropriate extra contact terms and argue that
this procedure will provide a natural solution to the $\nu_\mu n\to\mu^-
n\pi^+$ puzzle. To keep our model simple, in this work we propose to change the
strength of the spin 1/2 components in the $\Delta$ propagator and use the
$\nu_\mu n\to\mu^- n\pi^+$ data to constraint its value. With this
modification, we now find a good reproduction of the $\nu_\mu n\to\mu^- n\pi^+$
cross section without affecting the good results previously obtained for the
other channels. We also explore how this change in the $\Delta$ propagator
affects our predictions for pion photoproduction and find also a better
agreement with experiment than with the previous model.


  We have for the first time detected X-ray emission associated with a
proto-stellar jet, on the jet emanating from L1551 IRS5. The IRS5 proto-star is
hidden beyond a very large absorbing column density, making the direct
observation of the jet's emission possible. The observed X-ray emission is
likely associated with the shock ``working surface'', i.e. the interface
between the jet and the circumstellar medium. The X-ray luminosity emanating
from the jet is moderate, at LX ~ 3 times 10^29 erg/s, a significant fraction
of the luminosity normally associated with the coronal emission from young
stars. The spectrum of the X-ray emission is compatible with thermal emission
from a hot plasma, with T ~ 0.5 MK, fully compatible with the temperature
expected (on the basis of the jet's velocity) for the shock front produced by
the jet hitting the circumstellar medium.


  Probability measures supported on submanifolds can be sampled by adding an
extra momentum variable to the state of the system, and discretizing the
associated Hamiltonian dynamics with some stochastic perturbation in the extra
variable. In order to avoid biases in the invariant probability measures
sampled by discretizations of these stochastically perturbed Hamiltonian
dynamics, a Metropolis rejection procedure can be considered. The so-obtained
scheme belongs to the class of generalized Hybrid Monte Carlo (GHMC)
algorithms. We show here how to generalize to GHMC a procedure suggested by
Goodman, Holmes-Cerfon and Zappa for Metropolis random walks on submanifolds,
where a reverse projection check is performed to enforce the reversibility of
the algorithm for large timesteps and hence avoid biases in the invariant
measure. We also provide a full mathematical analysis of such procedures, as
well as numerical experiments demonstrating the importance of the reverse
projection check on simple toy examples.


  In the first part of this paper, we express the generalized Bessel function
associated with dihedral systems and a constant multiplicity function as a
infinite series of confluent Horn functions. The key ingredient leading to this
expression is an extension of an identity involving Gegenbauer polynomials
proved in a previous paper by the authors, together with the use of the Poisson
kernel for these polynomials. In particular, we derive an integral
representation of this generalized Bessel function over the standard simplex.
The second part of this paper is concerned with even dihedral systems and
boundary values of one of the variables. Still assuming that the multiplicity
function is constant, we obtain a Laplace-type integral representation of the
corresponding generalized Bessel function, which extends to all even dihedral
systems a special instance of the Laplace-type integral representation proved
in \cite{Amr-Dem}.


  Observations have revealed in the Kepler data a depleted region separating
smaller super-Earths from larger sub-Neptunes. This can be explained as an
evaporation valley between planets with and without H/He that is caused by
atmospheric escape. First, we conduct numerical simulations of the evolution of
close-in low-mass planets with H/He undergoing escape. Second, we develop an
analytical model for the valley locus. We find that the bottom of the valley
quantified by the radius of the largest stripped core $R_{\rm b}$ at a given
orbital distance depends only weakly on post-formation H/He mass. The reason is
that a high initial H/He mass means that there is more gas to evaporate, but
also that the planet density is lower, increasing loss. Regarding stellar
$L_{\rm XUV}$, $R_{\rm b}$ scales as $L_{\rm XUV}^{0.135}$. The same weak
dependency applies to the efficiency factor $\varepsilon$ of energy-limited
evaporation. As found numerically and analytically, $R_{\rm b}$ varies as
function of orbital period $P$ for a constant $\varepsilon$ as $P^{-2 p_{\rm
c}/3}\approx P^{-0.18}$ where $M \propto R^{p_{\rm c}}$ is the mass-radius
relation of solid cores. $R_{\rm b}$ is about 1.7 $R_{\oplus}$ at a 10-day
orbit for an Earth-like composition, increasing linearly with ice mass
fraction. The numerical results are explained very well with the analytical
model where complete evaporation occurs if the temporal integral over the
stellar XUV irradiation absorbed by the planet is larger than binding energy of
the envelope in the gravitational potential of the core. The weak dependency on
primordial H/He mass, $L_{\rm XUV}$ and $\varepsilon$ explains why
observationally the valley is visible, and why theoretically models find
similar results. At the same time, given the large observed spread of $L_{\rm
XUV}$, the dependency on it is still strong enough to explain why the valley is
not completely empty.


  It has recently been shown that a significant slowdown of many stars can be
attributed to the emergence of a strong magnetic field within the radiative
region, where heat is transferred through radiation in a stably stratified
layer. Here, we describe how this transition can be understood as a subcritical
bifurcation to small-scale turbulence in linearly stable flows. The turbulence
is sustained by a nonlinear mean-field dynamo and can be observed down to
relatively small differential rotation, arbitrarily far from the linear onset
of any hydrodynamic instability. In this regime, turbulent fluctuations provide
diffusivity-free transfer of angular momentum that increases the transport
generated by the magnetic field triggering the turbulence. Finally, we present
a simple nonlinear model that captures this scenario and can be used as a
general description of the transition to turbulence in astrophysical flows, as
long as it involves a competition between a large-scale dynamo, and a
small-scale magnetic instability.


  The CLEO Collaboration recently reported the observation of the $B^0\to
D^{*-}p\bar{n}$ mode at a rate only a factor of 4--5 lower than $B^0\to
D^{*-}\rho^+$ and $D^{*-}\pi^+$. We try to understand this with a factorization
approach of current produced nucleon pairs. The baryon weak vector current form
factors are related by isospin rotation to nucleon electromagnetic form
factors. By using $G^{p,n}_M$ measured from $e^+e^-\to \bar{N}N$ and
$p\bar{p}\to e^+e^-$ processes, assuming factorization of the $B^0\to D^{*-}$
transition and the $p\bar n$ pair production, we are able to account for up to
60% of the observed rate. The remainder is argued to arise from the axial
current. The model is then applied to B decays to other mesons plus $p\bar{n}$
modes and $D^{*-}$ plus strange baryon pairs.


  Using a conjecture that allows to approach separable-variables conductivity
functions, the elements of the Modern Pseudoanalytic Function Theory are used,
for the first time, to numerically solve the Dirichlet boundary value problem
of the two-dimensional Electrical Impedance Equation, when the conductivity
function arises from geometrical figures, located within bounded domains.


  While previously a nascent theoretical construct, decentralized autonomous
organizations have grown rapidly in recent years. DAOs typically emerge around
the management of decentralized financial applications and thus benefit from
the rapid growth of innovation in this sector. In response, global regulators
increasingly voice the intent to regulate these activities. This may impose an
excessive compliance burden on DAOs, unless they are deemed sufficiently
decentralized to be regulated. Yet, decentralization is an abstract concept
with scarce legal precedence. We investigate dimensions of decentralization
through thematic analysis, combining extant literature with a series of expert
interviews. We propose a definition of 'sufficient decentralization' and
present a general framework for the assessment of decentralization. We derive
five dimensions for the assessment of decentralization in DAOs: Token-weighted
voting, Infrastructure, Governance, Escalation and Reputation. We present a
discretionary sample application of the framework and five propositions on the
future regulation and supervision of DAOs. We contribute new practical insights
on the topic of compliance and decentralized organizations to the growing
discourse on the application of blockchain technology in information systems
and management disciplines


  The vertex cover problem is one of the most important and intensively studied
combinatorial optimization problems. Khot and Regev (2003) proved that the
problem is NP-hard to approximate within a factor $2 - \epsilon$, assuming the
Unique Games Conjecture (UGC). This is tight because the problem has an easy
2-approximation algorithm. Without resorting to the UGC, the best
inapproximability result for the problem is due to Dinur and Safra (2002):
vertex cover is NP-hard to approximate within a factor 1.3606. We prove the
following unconditional result about linear programming (LP) relaxations of the
problem: every LP relaxation that approximates vertex cover within a factor
$2-\epsilon$ has super-polynomially many inequalities. As a direct consequence
of our methods, we also establish that LP relaxations (as well as SDP
relaxations) that approximate the independent set problem within any constant
factor have super-polynomial size.


  Detecting disclosures of individuals' employment status on social media can
provide valuable information to match job seekers with suitable vacancies,
offer social protection, or measure labor market flows. However, identifying
such personal disclosures is a challenging task due to their rarity in a sea of
social media content and the variety of linguistic forms used to describe them.
Here, we examine three Active Learning (AL) strategies in real-world settings
of extreme class imbalance, and identify five types of disclosures about
individuals' employment status (e.g. job loss) in three languages using
BERT-based classification models. Our findings show that, even under extreme
imbalance settings, a small number of AL iterations is sufficient to obtain
large and significant gains in precision, recall, and diversity of results
compared to a supervised baseline with the same number of labels. We also find
that no AL strategy consistently outperforms the rest. Qualitative analysis
suggests that AL helps focus the attention mechanism of BERT on core terms and
adjust the boundaries of semantic expansion, highlighting the importance of
interpretable models to provide greater control and visibility into this
dynamic learning process.


  The generalization problem on KBQA has drawn considerable attention. Existing
research suffers from the generalization issue brought by the entanglement in
the coarse-grained modeling of the logical expression, or inexecutability
issues due to the fine-grained modeling of disconnected classes and relations
in real KBs. We propose a Fine-to-Coarse Composition framework for KBQA
(FC-KBQA) to both ensure the generalization ability and executability of the
logical expression. The main idea of FC-KBQA is to extract relevant
fine-grained knowledge components from KB and reformulate them into
middle-grained knowledge pairs for generating the final logical expressions.
FC-KBQA derives new state-of-the-art performance on GrailQA and WebQSP, and
runs 4 times faster than the baseline.


  In this paper, we consider the nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function
as the eigenvalues of the Dirac operator on a fractal manifold. From the heat
kernel expansion, we figure out that the fractal dimension of the manifold is
about 1.1-1.2. Also we compare this result to the random matrix theory and the
quantum chaos theory.


  We continue our presentation of VINE. We begin with a description of relevant
architectural properties of the serial and shared memory parallel computers on
which VINE is intended to run, and describe their influences on the design of
the code itself. We continue with a detailed description of a number of
optimizations made to the layout of the particle data in memory and to our
implementation of a binary tree used to access that data for use in
gravitational force calculations and searches for SPH neighbor particles. We
describe modifications to the code necessary to obtain forces efficiently from
special purpose `GRAPE' hardware. We conclude with an extensive series of
performance tests, which demonstrate that the code can be run efficiently and
without modification in serial on small workstations or in parallel using
OpenMP compiler directives on large scale, shared memory parallel machines. We
analyze the effects of the code optimizations and estimate that they improve
its overall performance by more than an order of magnitude over that obtained
by many other tree codes. Scaled parallel performance of the gravity and SPH
calculations, together the most costly components of most simulations, is
nearly linear up to maximum machine sizes available to us (120 processors on an
Origin~3000). At similar accuracy, performance of VINE, used in GRAPE-tree
mode, is approximately a factor two slower than that of VINE, used in host-only
mode. Optimizations of the GRAPE/host communications could improve the speed by
as much as a factor of three, but have not yet been implemented in VINE.


  For the first time we study the Eastern nucleus in greater detail and search
for the more extended emission in the molecular gas in different CO line
transitions of the famous ULIRG Arp 220. Furthermore we present a model of the
merger in Arp 220 on large scales with the help of the CO data and an optical
and near-infrared composite HST image of the prototypical ULIRG. Using the
Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) we obtained CO(2-1) and (1-0) data at
wavelengths of 1 and 3 mm in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2006 at different beam sizes
and spatial resolutions. The simulations of the merger in Arp 220 were
performed with the Identikit modeling tool. The model parameters that describe
the galaxy merger best give a mass ratio of 1:2 and result in a merger of
~6x10^8 yrs. The low resolution CO(1-0) PdBI observations suggest that there
are indications for emission ~10" towards the south, as well as to the north
and to the west of the two nuclei.


  A search for sleptons, neutralinos, charginos, sgoldstinos and heavy stable
charged sleptons in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric
particle is the gravitino, is presented. Data collected during 2000 with the
DELPHI detector at centre-of-mass energies from 204 to 208 GeV were analysed
and combined with all the data collected from 1995 to 1999 at lower energies.
No evidence for the production of sleptons, neutralinos and charginos has been
found, therefore new limits on the mass of these supersymmetric particles and
on the model parameter space are set. The search for heavy stable charged
sleptons also updates the stable sleptons mass limit. The absence of evidence
for sgoldstino production allows limits to be set on its mass and on the scale
of supersymmetry breaking.


  We present a pilot study of atmospheres of accreting magnetic white dwarfs
irradiated by intense fluxes at ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths. The model
uses a standard LTE stellar atmosphere code which is expanded by introducing an
angle-dependent external radiation source. The present results are obtained for
an external source with the spectral shape of a 10000K blackbody and a freely
adjustable spectral flux. The model provides an explanation for the observed
largely filled-up Lyman lines in the prototype polar AM Herculis during its
high states. It also confirms the hypotheses (i) that irradiation by cyclotron
radiation and other radiation sources is the principle cause for the large
heated polar caps surrounding the accretion spots on white dwarfs in polars and
(ii) that much of the reprocessed light appears in the far ultraviolet and not
in the soft X-ray regime as suggested in the original simple theories. We also
briefly discuss the role played by hard X-rays in heating the polar cap.


  We perform resistive MHD simulations of accretion disk with alpha-viscosity,
accreting onto a rotating star endowed with a magnetic dipole. We find backflow
in the presence of strong magnetic field and large resistivity, and probe for
the dependence on Prandtl number. We find that in the magnetic case the
distance from the star at which backflow begins, the stagnation radius, is
different than in the hydrodynamic case, and the backflow shows non-stationary
behavior. We compare the results with hydrodynamics simulations.


  We investigate quantum and temperature fluctuations of a vortex lattice in a
one-dimensional optical lattice. We discuss in particular the Bloch bands of
the Tkachenko modes and calculate the correlation function of the vortex
positions along the direction of the optical lattice. Because of the small
number of particles in the pancake Bose-Einstein condensates at every site of
the optical lattice, finite-size effects become very important. Moreover, the
fluctuations in the vortex positions are inhomogeneous due to the inhomogeneous
density. As a result, the melting of the lattice occurs from the outside
inwards. However, tunneling between neighboring pancakes substantially reduces
the inhomogeneity as well as the size of the fluctuations. On the other hand,
nonzero temperatures increase the size of the fluctuations dramatically. We
calculate the crossover temperature from quantum melting to classical melting.
We also investigate melting in the presence of a quartic radial potential,
where a liquid can form in the center instead of at the outer edge of the
pancake Bose-Einstein condensates.


  We introduce the notion of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of image
gradient orientations. As image data is typically noisy, but noise is
substantially different from Gaussian, traditional PCA of pixel intensities
very often fails to estimate reliably the low-dimensional subspace of a given
data population. We show that replacing intensities with gradient orientations
and the $\ell_2$ norm with a cosine-based distance measure offers, to some
extend, a remedy to this problem. Our scheme requires the eigen-decomposition
of a covariance matrix and is as computationally efficient as standard $\ell_2$
PCA. We demonstrate some of its favorable properties on robust subspace
estimation.


  We calculated the decay widths of the $1^3F_2$ and $1^3F_4$ $s\bar{s}$ mesons
and compared them to the measured properties of the $\xi(2220)$ (now known as
the $f_4(2220)$). Including previously neglected decay modes we found that the
width of the $^3F_2$ state $s\bar{s}$ meson is much larger than previously
believed making this explanation unlikely. On the other hand the predicted
width of the $^3F_4$ state, although broader than the observed width, is
consistent within the uncertainties of the model. This interpretation predicts
large partial widths to $K K^*(892)$ and $K^*(892) K^*(892)$ final states which
should be looked for. A second possibility that would account for the different
properties of the $\xi(2220)$ seen in different experiments is that two
hadronic states exist at this mass. The first would be a broader $^3F_4$
$s\bar{s}$ state which is seen in hadron beam experiments while the second
would be a narrow state with high glue content seen in the gluon rich $J/\psi$
radiative decay. Further experimental results are needed to sort this out.


  The detection of atmospheric fluorescence light from extensive air showers
has become a powerful tool for accurate measurements of the energy and mass of
ultra-high energy cosmic ray particles. Employing large area imaging telescopes
with mirror areas of 10m2 or more, showers out to distances of 30km and more
can be observed. Matrices of low-noise photomultipliers are used to detect the
faint light of the air showers against the ambient night-sky background noise.
The signal-to-noise ratio of such a system is found to be proportional to the
square root of the mirror area times the quantum efficiency of the phototube.
Thus, higher quantum efficiencies could potentially improve the quality of the
measurement and/or lead to the construction of more compact telescopes. In this
paper, we shall discuss such improvements to be expected from high quantum
efficiency phototubes that became available on the market only very recently. A
series of simulations has been performed with data of different types of
commercially available high quantum efficiency phototubes. The results suggest
a higher aperture and thus increased statistics for such telescopes.
Additionally, the quality of the reconstruction can be improved.


  We consider the numerical approximation of linear damped wave systems by
Galerkin approximations in space and appropriate time-stepping schemes. Based
on a dissipation estimate for a modified energy, we prove exponential decay of
the physical energy on the continuous level provided that the damping is
effective everywhere in the domain. The methods of proof allow us to analyze
also a class of Galerkin approximations based on a mixed variational
formulation of the problem. Uniform exponential stability can be guaranteed for
these approximations under a general compatibility condition on the
discretization spaces. As a particular example, we discuss the discretization
by mixed finite element methods for which we obtain convergence and uniform
error estimates under minimal regularity assumptions. We also prove
unconditional and uniform exponential stability for the time discretization by
certain one-step methods. The validity of the theoretical results as well as
the necessity of some of the conditions required for our analysis are
demonstrated in numerical tests.


  We study the representation theory of a conformal net A on the circle from a
K-theoretical point of view using its universal C*-algebra C*(A). We prove that
if A satisfies the split property then, for every representation \pi of A with
finite statistical dimension, \pi(C*(A)) is weakly closed and hence a finite
direct sum of type I_\infty factors. We define the more manageable locally
normal universal C*-algebra C*_ln(A) as the quotient of C*(A) by its largest
ideal vanishing in all locally normal representations and we investigate its
structure. In particular, if A is completely rational with n sectors, then
C*_ln(A) is a direct sum of n type I_\infty factors. Its ideal K_A of compact
operators has nontrivial K-theory, and we prove that the DHR endomorphisms of
C*(A) with finite statistical dimension act on K_A, giving rise to an action of
the fusion semiring of DHR sectors on K_0(K_A)$. Moreover, we show that this
action corresponds to the regular representation of the associated fusion
algebra.


  To study the effects of focusing distance on the characteristics of copper
plasma, a picosecond laser was utilized to ablate a pure copper plate to
generate a plasma spectrum. Following numerous experiments on the subject,
three significant factors have been determined: lens focal length, pulse energy
and the lens-to-sample distance. These factors were employed to analyze the
spectral intensity, plasma temperature and electron density in the local
thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and optically thin condition. Due to the
shielding effects of mixed plasma, the strongest spectral intensity can be
obtained in the pre-focused case rather than on the focus, no matter how much
beam irradiance was employed. The more intensive the beam irradiance is, the
more the optimal position is distant from the focal point. Similarly, the
evolution of plasma temperature and electron density was shown a peak in the
pre-focused case, which is consistent with the trend of spectral intensity. For
the case of extremely high irradiance (on the focus), the shielding effects
become more apparent and the resultant above three factors decreased sharply.
When a longer-focal-length lens was employed, the spectral intensity exhibited
an obvious bimodal trend. In the pre-focused case, a longer-focal-length lens
is helpful to eliminate the effects of the roughness of the target surface
compared with a shorter one. Finally, the assumed LTE was validated by
McWhirter relation, plasma relaxation time and diffusion length, and the
optically thin condition also validated by spectral intensity ratio. We hope
this work could be an important reference for the future design of highly
optimized experiments for Calibration-Free Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
(CF-LIBS).


  We investigate the effect of wave-eddy interaction and dissipation of
internal gravity waves propagating in a coherent meso-scale eddy simulated
using a novel numerical model called the Internal Wave Energy Model based on
the six-dimensional radiative transfer equation. We use an idealized mean flow
structure and stratification, motivated by observations of a coherent eddy in
the Canary Current System. In a spin-down simulation using the Garret-Munk
model spectrum as initial conditions, we find that wave energy decreases at the
eddy rim. Lateral shear leads to wave energy gain due to a developing
horizontal anisotropy outisde the eddy and at the rim, while vertical shear
leads to wave energy loss which is enhanced at the eddy rim. Wave energy loss
by wave dissipation due to vertical shear dominates over horizontal shear. Our
results show similar behaviour of the internal gravity wave in a cyclonic as
well as an anticyclonic eddy. Wave dissipation by vertical wave refraction
occurs predominantly at the eddy rim near the surface, where related vertical
diffusivities range from $\kappa \approx \mathcal{O}(10^{-7})$ to
$\mathcal{O}(10^{-5}) \, \rm m^2s^{-1}$.


  This study aimed at identifying the issue, challenges and opportunities from
the health consumers in Tanzania towards interoperability of electronic health
records. Recognizing that we conducted a study to identify the challenges,
issues and opportunities towards health information exchange. The study was
conducted in three major cities of Tanzania. This was in order to come up with
a clear picture of how to implement some EHRs that will be trusted by health
consumers. The participants (n=240) were surveyed on computer usage, EHRs
knowledge, demographics, security and privacy issues. A total of 200 surveys
were completed and returned (83.3% response rate). 67.5% were women, 62.6% had
not heard of EHRs, 73% highly concerned about privacy and security of their
information. 75% believed that introduction of various security mechanisms will
make EHRs more secure. A number of chi-square tests (p<0.05) showed there was a
strong relationship among the variable of age, computer use, EHRs knowledge and
concerns for privacy and security. The study showed that there was a small
difference of 8.5% between those who think EHRs are safer than paper records
and those who think otherwise. The general observation of the study was that in
order to make EHRs successful, then the issue of security, and health consumer
involvement were two key towards the road of successful EHRs in our hospitals
practices and that will make consumers more willing to allow their records to
be shared.


  A novel dynamical model for the study of operational risk in banks and
suitable for the calculation of the Value at Risk (VaR) is proposed. The
equation of motion takes into account the interactions among different bank's
processes, the spontaneous generation of losses via a noise term and the
efforts made by the bank to avoid their occurrence. Since the model is very
general, it can be tailored on the internal organizational structure of a
specific bank by estimating some of its parameters from historical operational
losses. The model is exactly solved in the case in which there are no causal
loops in the matrix of couplings and it is shown how the solution can be
exploited to estimate also the parameters of the noise. The forecasting power
of the model is investigated by using a fraction $f$ of simulated data to
estimate the parameters, showing that for $f = 0.75$ the VaR can be forecast
with an error $\simeq 10^{-3}$.


  This paper studies a multi-period demand response management problem in the
smart grid where multiple utility companies compete among themselves. The
user-utility interactions are modeled by a noncooperative game of a Stackelberg
type where the interactions among the utility companies are captured through a
Nash equilibrium. It is shown that this game has a unique Stackelberg
equilibrium at which the utility companies set prices to maximize their
revenues (within a Nash game) while the users respond accordingly to maximize
their utilities subject to their budget constraints. Closed-form expressions
are provided for the corresponding strategies of the users and the utility
companies. It is shown that the multi- period scheme, compared with the
single-period case, provides more incentives for the users to participate in
the game. A necessary and sufficient condition on the minimum budget needed for
a user to participate is provided.


  Quantum states of a spin $1/2$ (a qubit) are parametrized by the space $CP^1
\sim S^2$, the Bloch sphere. A spin j (a 2j+1 -state system) for generic j is
represented instead by a point of a larger space, $CP^{2j}$. Here we study the
angular momentum/spin in the limit, $j \to \infty$. The state, $(J \cdot n) |
j, n\rangle = j |j, n \rangle $, where $J$ is the angular momentum operator and
$n$ stands for a generic unit vector in $R^3$, is found to behave as a
classical angular momentum, $ j n $. We discuss this phenomenon, by analysing
the Stern-Gerlach experiments, the angular-momentum composition rule, and the
rotation matrix. This problem arose from the consideration of a macroscopic
body under an inhomogeneous magnetic field. Our observations help to explain
how classical mechanics (with unique particle trajectories) emerges naturally
from quantum mechanics in this context, and at the same time, make the
widespread idea that large spins somehow become classical, a more precise one.


  We investigate the generation of optical frequency combs through a cascade of
four-wave mixing processes in nonlinear fibres with optimised parameters. The
initial optical field consists of two continuous-wave lasers with frequency
separation larger than 40 GHz (312.7 pm at 1531 nm). It propagates through
three nonlinear fibres. The first fibre serves to pulse shape the initial
sinusoidal-square pulse, while a strong pulse compression down to sub-100 fs
takes place in the second fibre which is an amplifying erbium-doped fibre. The
last stage is a low-dispersion highly nonlinear fibre where the frequency comb
bandwidth is increased and the line intensity is equalised. We model this
system using the generalised nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and investigate
it in terms of fibre lengths, fibre dispersion, laser frequency separation and
input powers with the aim to minimise the frequency comb noise. With the
support of the numerical results, a frequency comb is experimentally generated,
first in the near infra-red and then it is frequency-doubled into the visible
spectral range. Using a MUSE-type spectrograph, we evaluate the comb
performance for astronomical wavelength calibration in terms of equidistancy of
the comb lines and their stability.


  The surge in popularity of machine learning (ML) has driven significant
investments in training Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). However, these models that
require resource-intensive training are vulnerable to theft and unauthorized
use. This paper addresses this challenge by introducing DNNShield, a novel
approach for DNN protection that integrates seamlessly before training.
DNNShield embeds unique identifiers within the model architecture using
specialized protection layers. These layers enable secure training and
deployment while offering high resilience against various attacks, including
fine-tuning, pruning, and adaptive adversarial attacks. Notably, our approach
achieves this security with minimal performance and computational overhead
(less than 5\% runtime increase). We validate the effectiveness and efficiency
of DNNShield through extensive evaluations across three datasets and four model
architectures. This practical solution empowers developers to protect their
DNNs and intellectual property rights.


  In this paper, we argue in favor of first-order homogeneous Lagrangians in
the velocities. The relevant form of such Lagrangians is discussed and
justified physically and geometrically. Such Lagrangian systems possess
Reparametrization Invariance (RI) and explain the observed common Arrow of Time
as related to the non-negative mass for physical particles. The extended
Hamiltonian formulation, which is generally covariant and applicable to
reparametrization-invariant systems, is emphasized. The connection between the
explicit form of the extended Hamiltonian $\boldsymbol{H}$ and the meaning of
the process parameter $\lambda$ is illustrated. The corresponding extended
Hamiltonian $\boldsymbol{H}$ defines the classical phase space-time of the
system via the Hamiltonian constraint $\boldsymbol{H}=0$ and guarantees that
the Classical Hamiltonian $H$ corresponds to $p_{0}$ -- the energy of the
particle when the coordinate time parametrization is chosen. The
Schr\"odinger's equation and the principle of superposition of quantum states
emerge naturally. A connection is demonstrated between the positivity of the
energy $E=cp_{0}>0$ and the normalizability of the wave function by using the
extended Hamiltonian that is relevant for the proper-time parametrization


  We derive a dispersion estimate for one-dimensional perturbed radial
Schr\"odinger operators where the angular momentum takes the critical value
$l=-\frac{1}{2}$. We also derive several new estimates for solutions of the
underlying differential equation and investigate the behavior of the Jost
function near the edge of the continuous spectrum.


  Linear perturbations of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes with any
curvature and cosmological constant are studied in a general gauge without
decomposition into harmonics. Desirable gauges are selected as those which
embody best Mach's principle: in these gauges local inertial frames can be
determined instantaneously via the perturbed Einstein field equations from the
distributions of energy and momentum in the universe. The inertial frames are
identified by their `accelerations and rotations' with respect to the
cosmological frames associated with the `Machian gauges'. In closed spherical
universes, integral gauge conditions are imposed to eliminate motions generated
by the conformal Killing vectors. The meaning of Traschen's integral constraint
vectors is thus elucidated. For all three types of FRW universes the Machian
gauges admit much less residual freedom than the synchronous or generalized
harmonic gauge. Mach's principle is best exhibited in the Machian gauges in
closed spherical universes. Independent of any Machian motivation the general
perturbation equations and discussion of gauges are useful for cosmological
perturbation theory.