  In this work we investigate the following isoperimetric problem: to find the
regions of prescribed volume with minimal boundary area between two parallel
horospheres in hyperbolic 3-space (the area of the part of the boundary
contained in the horospheres is not included). We reduce the problem to the
study of rotationally invariant regions and obtain the possible isoperimetric
solutions by studying the behaviour of the profile curves of the rotational
surfaces with constant mean curvature in the hyperbolic space.


  Malaria, a life-threatening disease, infects millions of people every year
throughout the world demanding faster diagnosis for proper treatment before any
damages occur. In this paper, an end-to-end deep learning-based approach is
proposed for faster diagnosis of malaria from thin blood smear images by making
efficient optimizations of features extracted from diversified receptive
fields. Firstly, an efficient, highly scalable deep neural network, named as
DilationNet, is proposed that incorporates features from a large spectrum by
varying dilation rates of convolutions to extract features from different
receptive areas. Next, the raw images are resampled to various resolutions to
introduce variations in the receptive fields that are used for independently
optimizing different forms of DilationNet scaled for different resolutions of
images. Afterward, a feature fusion scheme is introduced with the proposed
DeepFusionNet architecture for jointly optimizing the feature space of these
individually trained networks operating on different levels of observations.
All the convolutional layers of various forms of DilationNets that are
optimized to extract spatial features from different resolutions of images are
directly transferred to provide a variegated feature space from any image.
Later, joint optimization of these spatial features is carried out in the
DeepFusionNet to extract the most relevant representation of the sample image.
This scheme offers the opportunity to explore the feature space extensively by
varying the observation level to accurately diagnose the abnormality. Intense
experimentations on a publicly available dataset show outstanding performance
with accuracy over 99.5% outperforming other state-of-the-art approaches.


  We discuss leading isospin breaking effects in the hadronic vacuum
polarisation required for the investigation of the hadronic contribution to
$(g-2)_{\mu}$. The calculation proceeds by expanding the relevant correlation
functions around the isosymmetric limit. Isosymmetric observables are evaluated
on gauge ensembles with $N_{f}=2+1$, $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions and open
boundary conditions generated by the CLS effort. Particular emphasis is placed
on the relevant quark-disconnected diagrams required for a complete treatment
of leading isospin breaking effects in the valence quark sector. We provide a
detailed discussion of the renormalisation of the vector current in QCD+QED
taking operator mixing into account.


  In this paper we give an improved upper bound, as compared to the one given
in [3] for the number of extreme points of the convex set of all G-invariant
probability measures on X*Y with given marginals of full support.


  Mutually unbiased bases correspond to highly useful pairs of measurements in
quantum information theory. In the smallest composite dimension, six, it is
known that between three and seven mutually unbiased bases exist, with a
decades-old conjecture, known as Zauner's conjecture, stating that there exist
at most three. Here we tackle Zauner's conjecture numerically through the
construction of Bell inequalities for every pair of integers $n,d \ge 2$ that
can be maximally violated in dimension $d$ if and only if $n$ MUBs exist in
that dimension. Hence we turn Zauner's conjecture into an optimisation problem,
which we address by means of three numerical methods: see-saw optimisation,
non-linear semidefinite programming and Monte Carlo techniques. All three
methods correctly identify the known cases in low dimensions and all suggest
that there do not exist four mutually unbiased bases in dimension six, with all
finding the same bases that numerically optimise the corresponding Bell
inequality. Moreover, these numerical optimisers appear to coincide with the
"four most distant bases" in dimension six, found through numerically
optimising a distance measure in [P. Raynal, X. L\"u, B.-G. Englert, Phys. Rev.
A, 83 062303 (2011)]. Finally, the Monte Carlo results suggest that at most
three MUBs exist in dimension ten.


  It is widely assumed in the literature that the specularity parameters for
phonon transmission (forward scattering) and reflection (backward scattering)
at a boundary are identical, i.e., the statistical distributions of the
transition probabilities between an incident phonon and the range of outgoing
phonon modes are the same for both transmission and reflection. However, it is
hypothesized by Li and McGaughey that separate specularity parameters are
needed to describe the behavior of transmitted and reflected phonons in
superlattices and polycrystalline materials correctly. We test this hypothesis
by analyzing the mode-resolved specularity parameters computed separately for
transmission and reflection processes at a graphene grain boundary. Our results
show that backward scattering is considerably more diffuse than forward
scattering at most frequencies and polarizations, providing strong evidence for
Li and McGaughey's hypothesis, and shed new light on how surfaces and
interfaces modify phonon transport within and between domains in nanostructured
materials.


  Stellar magnetosphere and accretion disk interact, and a result should be
outflow launched from the innermost vicinity of a protostellar object. We
simulated physical conditions in this region by resistive MHD simulations.
Outflows resembling the observed ones do not happen in the closest vicinity,
except for quasi-stationary funnel flows onto the star, but could occur at few
tens of stellar radii above the star. Numerical simulations we performed using
our resistive version of ZEUS-3D code, ZEUS347.


  The problem of optimal control of power distribution systems is becoming
increasingly compelling due to the progressive penetration of distributed
energy resources in this specific layer of the electrical infrastructure.
Distribution systems are, indeed, experiencing significant changes in terms of
operation philosophies that are often based on optimal control strategies
relying on the computation of linearized dependencies between controlled (e.g.
voltages, frequency in case of islanding operation) and control variables (e.g.
power injections, transformers tap positions). As the implementation of these
strategies in real-time controllers imposes stringent time constraints, the
derivation of analytical dependency between controlled and control variables
becomes a non-trivial task to be solved. With reference to optimal voltage and
power flow controls, this paper aims at providing an analytical derivation of
node voltage and line current flows as a function of the nodal power injections
and transformers tap-changers positions. Compared to other approaches presented
in the literature, the one proposed here is based on the use of the [Y]
compound matrix of a generic multi-phase radial unbalanced network. In order to
estimate the computational benefits of the proposed approach, the relevant
improvements are also quantified versus traditional methods. The validation of
the proposed method is carried out by using both IEEE 13 and 34 node test
feeders. The paper finally shows the use of the proposed method for the problem
of optimal voltage control applied to the IEEE 34 node test feeder.


  In this paper we present a general method for generation of uniformly
continuous groups on abstract Fr\'{e}chet spaces (without appealing to spectral
theory) and apply it to a such space of distributions, namely ${\mathscr
F}L^{2}_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^{n})$, so that the linear evolution problem
\begin{equation*} \left\{\begin{array}{l} u_{t} = a(D)u, t \in \mathbb{R} \\
u(0) = u_0 \end{array} \right. \end{equation*}always has a unique solution in
such a space, for every pseudodifferential operator $a(D)$ with constant
coefficients. We also provide necessary and sufficient conditions so that the
spaces $L^{2}$ and ${\mathscr E}'$ are left invariant by this group; and we
conclude that the solution of the heat equation on ${\mathscr
F}L^{2}_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^{n})$ for all $t \in \mathbb{R}$ extends the standard
solution on Hilbert spaces for $t \geqslant 0$.


  Following QUIC protocol ratification on May 2021, the third major version of
the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, namely HTTP/3, was published around one year
later in RFC 9114. In light of these consequential advancements, the current
work aspires to provide a full-blown coverage of the following issues, which to
our knowledge have received feeble or no attention in the literature so far.
First, we provide a complete review of attacks against HTTP/2, and elaborate on
if and in which way they can be migrated to HTTP/3. Second, through the
creation of a testbed comprising the at present six most popular HTTP/3-enabled
servers, we examine the effectiveness of a quartet of attacks, either stemming
directly from the HTTP/2 relevant literature or being entirely new. This
scrutiny led to the assignment of at least one CVE ID with a critical base
score by MITRE. No less important, by capitalizing on a realistic, abundant in
devices testbed, we compiled a voluminous, labeled corpus containing traces of
ten diverse attacks against HTTP and QUIC services. An initial evaluation of
the dataset mainly by means of machine learning techniques is included as well.
Given that the 30 GB dataset is made available in both pcap and CSV formats,
forthcoming research can easily take advantage of any subset of features,
contingent upon the specific network topology and configuration.


  In this paper we develop scheduling policies that maximize the stability
region of a wireless network under the assumption that mutual information
accumulation is implemented at the physical layer. When the link quality
between nodes is not sufficiently high that a packet can be decoded within a
single slot, the system can accumulate information across multiple slots,
eventually decoding the packet. The result is an expanded stability region. The
accumulation process over weak links is temporally coupled and therefore does
not satisfy the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d) assumption that
underlies many previous analysis in this area. Therefore the problem setting
also poses new analytic challenges. We propose two dynamic scheduling
algorithms to cope with the non-i.i.d nature of the decoding. The first
performs scheduling every $T$ slots, and approaches the boundary of the
stability region as $T$ gets large, but at the cost of increased average delay.
The second introduces virtual queues for each link and constructs a virtual
system wherein two virtual nodes are introduced for each link. The constructed
virtual system is shown to have the same stability region as the original
system. Through controlling the virtual queues in the constructed system, we
avoid the non-i.i.d analysis difficulty and attain the full stability region.
We derive performance bounds for both algorithms and compare them through
simulation results.


  The soil seed bank is a major component of plant communities. However,
long-term analyses of the dynamics of the seed bank and the ensuing vegetation
are rare. Here, we studied the dynamics in plant communities with high
dominance of annuals in Mediterranean, semiarid, and arid ecosystems for nine
consecutive years. For annuals, we hypothesized that the density of the seed
bank would be more stable than the density of the standing herbaceous
vegetation. Moreover, we predicted that differences in temporal variability
between the seed bank and the vegetation would increase with aridity, where
year-to-year rainfall variability is higher. We found that the temporal
variability at the population level (assessed as the standard deviation of the
loge-transformed density) of the nine dominant annuals in each site did not
differ between the seed bank and the ensuing vegetation in any of the sites.
For the total density of annuals, patterns depended on aridity. In the
Mediterranean site, the temporal variability was similar in the seed bank and
the vegetation (0.40 vs. 0.40). Still, in the semiarid and arid sites,
variability in the seed bank was lower than in the vegetation (0.49 vs. 1.01
and 0.63 vs. 1.38, respectively). This difference between the population-level
patterns and the total density of annuals can be related to the lower
population synchrony in their seed bank. In contrast, for the herbaceous
perennials (all species combined), the seed bank variability was higher than in
the vegetation. Overall, our results highlight the role of the seed bank in
buffering the annual vegetation density with increasing climatic uncertainty
typical in aridity gradients. This role is crucial under the increasing
uncertainty imposed by climatic change in the region.


  We show that compounds in a family that possess time-reversal symmetry and
share a non-centrosymmetric cubic structure with the space group F-43m (No.
216) host robust ideal Weyl semi-metal fermions with desirable topologically
protected features. The candidates in this family are compounds with different
chemical formulas AB2, ABC, ABC2, and ABCD and their Fermi levels are
predominantly populated by nontrivial Weyl fermions. Symmetry of the system
requires that the Weyl nodes with opposite chirality are well separated in
momentum space. Adjacent Weyl points have the same chirality, thus these Weyl
nodes would not annihilate each other with respect to lattice perturbations. As
Fermi arcs and surface states connect Weyl nodes with opposite chirality, the
large separation of the latter in momentum space guarantees the appearance of
very long arcs and surface states. This work demonstrates the use of system
symmetry by first-principles calculations as a powerful recipe for discovering
new Weyl semi-metals with attractive features whose protected fermions may be
candidates of many applications.


  Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have great value with their ability to
execute hazardous and time-consuming missions over water surfaces. Recently,
USVs for inland waterways have attracted increasing attention for their
potential application in autonomous monitoring, transportation, and cleaning.
However, unlike sailing in open water, the challenges posed by scenes of inland
waterways, such as the complex distribution of obstacles, the global
positioning system (GPS) signal denial environment, the reflection of bank-side
structures, and the fog over the water surface, all impede USV application in
inland waterways. To address these problems and stimulate relevant research, we
introduce USVInland, a multisensor dataset for USVs in inland waterways. The
collection of USVInland spans a trajectory of more than 26 km in diverse
real-world scenes of inland waterways using various modalities, including
lidar, stereo cameras, millimeter-wave radar, GPS, and inertial measurement
units (IMUs). Based on the requirements and challenges in the perception and
navigation of USVs for inland waterways, we build benchmarks for simultaneous
localization and mapping (SLAM), stereo matching, and water segmentation. We
evaluate common algorithms for the above tasks to determine the influence of
unique inland waterway scenes on algorithm performance. Our dataset and the
development tools are available online at
https://www.orca-tech.cn/datasets.html.


  We report the first observation of diffractive $J/\psi(\to \mu^+\mu^-)$
production in $\bar pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=1.8 TeV. Diffractive events
are identified by their rapidity gap signature. In a sample of events with two
muons of transverse momentum $p_T^{\mu}>2$ GeV/$c$ within the pseudorapidity
region $|\eta|<$1.0, the ratio of diffractive to total $J/\psi$ production
rates is found to be $R_{J/\psi}= [1.45\pm 0.25]%$. The ratio $R_{J/\psi}(x)$
is presented as a function of $x$-Bjorken. By combining it with our previously
measured corresponding ratio $R_{jj}(x)$ for diffractive dijet production, we
extract a value of $0.59\pm 0.15$ for the gluon fraction of the diffractive
structure function of the proton.


  In bounded smooth domains $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N$, $N\in\{2,3\}$, we
consider the Keller-Segel-Stokes system \begin{align*}
  n_t + u\cdot \nabla n &= \Delta n - \chi \nabla \cdot(\frac{n}{c}\nabla c),\\
c_t + u\cdot \nabla c &= \Delta c - c + n,\\ u_t &= \Delta u + \nabla P +
n\nabla \phi, \qquad \nabla \cdot u=0, \end{align*} and prove global existence
of generalized solutions if \[
  \chi<\begin{cases}
  \infty,&N=2,\\ \frac{5}{3},&N=3.
  \end{cases} \] These solutions are such that blow-up into a persistent
Dirac-type singularity is excluded.


  A graph $G$ is said to have \textit{bandwidth} at most $b$, if there exists a
labeling of the vertices by $1,2,..., n$, so that $|i - j| \leq b$ whenever
$\{i,j\}$ is an edge of $G$. Recently, B\"{o}ttcher, Schacht, and Taraz
verified a conjecture of Bollob\'{a}s and Koml\'{o}s which says that for every
positive $r,\Delta,\gamma$, there exists $\beta$ such that if $H$ is an
$n$-vertex $r$-chromatic graph with maximum degree at most $\Delta$ which has
bandwidth at most $\beta n$, then any graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with minimum
degree at least $(1 - 1/r + \gamma)n$ contains a copy of $H$ for large enough
$n$. In this paper, we extend this theorem to dense random graphs. For
bipartite $H$, this answers an open question of B\"{o}ttcher, Kohayakawa, and
Taraz. It appears that for non-bipartite $H$ the direct extension is not
possible, and one needs in addition that some vertices of $H$ have independent
neighborhoods. We also obtain an asymptotically tight bound for the maximum
number of vertex disjoint copies of a fixed $r$-chromatic graph $H_0$ which one
can find in a spanning subgraph of $G(n,p)$ with minimum degree $(1-1/r +
\gamma)np$.


  This paper addresses a problem found within the construction of Service
Oriented Architecture: the adaptation of service protocols with respect to
functional redundancy and heterogeneity of global communication patterns. We
utilise the theory of Multiparty Session Types (MPST). Our approach is based
upon the notion of a multiparty session type isomorphism, utilising a novel
constructive realisation of service adapter code to establishing equivalence.
We achieve this by employing trace semantics over a collection of local types
and introducing meta abstractions over the syntax of global types. We develop a
corresponding equational theory for MPST isomorphisms. The main motivation for
this line of work is to define a type isomorphism that affords the assessment
of whether two components/services are substitutables, modulo adaptation code
given software components formalised as session types.


  In this work, we investigate $H$-recurrence which is defined by $H(n) =
H(n-H(n-2)) + H(n-H(n-3))$ thanks to a recent approach to certain recurrences
such as Conway and Hofstadter $Q$ recursions.


  3D numerical simulations of ferromagnetic materials can be compared with
experimental results via microwave susceptibility. In this paper, an optimised
computation of this microwave susceptibility for large meshes is proposed. The
microwave susceptibility is obtained by linearisation of the Landau and
Lifchitz equations near equilibrium states and the linear systems to be solved
are very ill-conditionned. Solutions are computed using the Conjugate Gradient
method for the Normal equation (CGN Method). An efficient preconditioner is
developed consisting of a projection and an approximation of an ``exact''
preconditioner in the set of circulant matrices. Control of the condition
number due to the preconditioning and evolution of the singular value
decomposition are shown in the results.


  Massive stars are expected to produce wind-blown bubbles in the interstellar
medium; however, ring nebulae, suggesting the existence of bubbles, are rarely
seen around main-sequence O stars. To search for wind-blown bubbles around
main-sequence O stars, we have obtained high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 images and high-dispersion echelle spectra of two pristine HII regions,
N11B and N180B, in the Large Magellanic Cloud. These HII regions are ionized by
OB associations that still contain O3 stars, suggesting that the HII regions
are young and have not hosted any supernova explosions. Our observations show
that wind-blown bubbles in these HII regions can be detected kinematically but
not morphologically because their expansion velocities are comparable to or
only slightly higher than the isothermal sound velocity in the HII regions.
Bubbles are detected around concentrations of massive stars, individual O
stars, and even an evolved red supergiant (a fossil bubble). Comparisons
between the observed bubble dynamics and model predictions show a large
discrepancy (1--2 orders of magnitude) between the stellar wind luminosity
derived from bubble observations and models and that derived from observations
of stellar winds. The number and distribution of bubbles in N11B differ from
those in N180B, which can be explained by the difference in the richness of
stellar content between these two HII regions. Most of the bubbles observed in
N11B and N180B show a blister-structure, indicating that the stars were formed
on the surfaces of dense clouds. Numerous small dust clouds, similar to Bok
globules or elephant trunks, are detected in these HII regions and at least one
of them hosts on-going star formation.


  Recently, various technologies have been introduced into digital pathology,
including artificial intelligence (AI) driven methods, in both areas of
pathological whole slide image (WSI) analysis and spatial transcriptomics (ST)
analysis. AI-driven WSI analysis utilizes the power of deep learning (DL),
expands the field of view for histopathological image analysis. On the other
hand, ST bridges the gap between tissue spatial analysis and biological
signals, offering the possibility to understand the spatial biology. However, a
major bottleneck in DL-based WSI analysis is the preparation of training
patterns, as hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) staining does not provide direct
biological evidence, such as gene expression, for determining the category of a
biological component. On the other hand, as of now, the resolution in ST is far
beyond that of WSI, resulting the challenge of further spatial analysis.
Although various WSI analysis tools, including QuPath, have cited the use of
WSI analysis tools in the context of ST analysis, its usage is primarily
focused on initial image analysis, with other tools being utilized for more
detailed transcriptomic analysis. As a result, the information hidden beneath
WSI has not yet been fully utilized to support ST analysis.
  To bridge this gap, we introduce QuST, a QuPath extension designed to bridge
the gap between H&E WSI and ST analyzing tasks. In this paper, we highlight the
importance of integrating DL-based WSI analysis and ST analysis in
understanding disease biology and the challenges in integrating these
modalities due to differences in data formats and analytical methods. The QuST
source code is hosted on GitHub and documentation is available at
(https://github.com/huangch/qust).


  We exploit gauge/gravity duality to study `thermal quenches' in a plasma of
the strongly coupled N=2* gauge theory. Specifically, we consider the response
of an initial thermal equilibrium state of the theory under variations of the
bosonic or fermionic mass, to leading order in m/T<<1. When the masses are made
to vary in time, novel new counterterms must be introduced to renormalize the
boundary theory. We consider transitions the conformal super-Yang-Mills theory
to the mass deformed gauge theory and also the reverse transitions. By
construction, these transitions are controlled by a characteristic time scale
\calt and we show how the response of the system depends on the ratio of this
time scale to the thermal time scale 1/T. The response shows interesting
scaling behaviour both in the limit of fast quenches with T\calt<<1 and slow
quenches with T\calt>>1. In the limit that T\calt\to\infty, we observe the
expected adiabatic response. For fast quenches, the relaxation to the final
equilibrium is controlled by the lowest quasinormal mode of the bulk scalar
dual to the quenched operator. For slow quenches, the system relaxes with a
(nearly) adiabatic response that is governed entirely by the late time profile
of the mass. We describe new renormalization scheme ambiguities in defining
gauge invariant observables for the theory with time dependant couplings.


  A Natural Language Interface (NLI) facilitates users to pose queries to
retrieve information from a database without using any artificial language such
as the Structured Query Language (SQL). Several applications in various domains
including healthcare, customer support and search engines, require elaborating
structured data having information on text. Moreover, many issues have been
explored including configuration complexity, processing of intensive
algorithms, and popularity of relational databases, due to which translating
natural language to database query has become a secondary area of
investigation. The emerging trend of querying systems and speech-enabled
interfaces revived natural language to database queries research area., The
last survey published on this topic was six years ago in 2013. To best of our
knowledge, there is no recent study found which discusses the current state of
the art translations frameworks for natural language for structured and
non-structured query languages. In this paper, we have reviewed 47 frameworks
from 2008 to 2018. Out of 47, 35 were closely relevant to our work. SQL based
frameworks have been categorized as statistical, symbolic and connectionist
approaches. Whereas, NoSQL based frameworks have been categorized as semantic
matching and pattern matching. These frameworks are then reviewed based on
their supporting language, scheme of their heuristic rule, interoperability
support, dataset scope and their overall performance score. The findings stated
that 70% of the work in natural language to database querying has been carried
out for SQL, and NoSQL share 15%, 10% and 5% of languages like SPAROL, CYPHER
and GREMLIN respectively. It has also been observed that most of the frameworks
support English language only.


  There is a stage in the GPU computing pipeline where a grid of thread-blocks,
in \textit{parallel space}, is mapped onto the problem domain, in \textit{data
space}. Since the parallel space is restricted to a box type geometry, the
mapping approach is typically a $k$-dimensional bounding box (BB) that covers a
$p$-dimensional data space. Threads that fall inside the domain perform
computations while threads that fall outside are discarded at runtime. In this
work we study the case of mapping threads efficiently onto triangular domain
problems and propose a block-space linear map $\lambda(\omega)$, based on the
properties of the lower triangular matrix, that reduces the number of
unnnecessary threads from $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$ to $\mathcal{O}(n)$. Performance
results for global memory accesses show an improvement of up to $18\%$ with
respect to the \textit{bounding-box} approach, placing $\lambda(\omega)$ on
second place below the \textit{rectangular-box} approach and above the
\textit{recursive-partition} and \textit{upper-triangular} approaches. For
shared memory scenarios $\lambda(\omega)$ was the fastest approach achieving
$7\%$ of performance improvement while preserving thread locality. The results
obtained in this work make $\lambda(\omega)$ an interesting map for efficient
GPU computing on parallel problems that define a triangular domain with or
without neighborhood interactions. The extension to tetrahedral domains is
analyzed, with applications to triplet-interaction n-body applications.


  Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) is an emerging technology paradigm that helps
reduce clinician workload by automated monitoring and raising intelligent alarm
signals. High sensitivity and intelligent data-processing algorithms used in
RPM devices result in frequent false-positive alarms, resulting in alarm
fatigue. This study aims to critically review the existing literature to
identify the causes of these false-positive alarms and categorize the various
interventions used in the literature to eliminate these causes. That act as a
catalog and helps in false alarm reduction algorithm design. A step-by-step
approach to building an effective alarm signal generator for clinical use has
been proposed in this work. Second, the possible causes of false-positive
alarms amongst RPM applications were analyzed from the literature. Third, a
critical review has been done of the various interventions used in the
literature depending on causes and classification based on four major
approaches: clinical knowledge, physiological data, medical sensor devices, and
clinical environments. A practical clinical alarm strategy could be developed
by following our pentagon approach. The first phase of this approach emphasizes
identifying the various causes for the high number of false-positive alarms.
Future research will focus on developing a false alarm reduction method using
data mining.


  Compressed sensing (CS) demonstrates that sparse signals can be estimated
from under-determined linear systems. Distributed CS (DCS) further reduces the
number of measurements by considering joint sparsity within signal ensembles.
DCS with jointly sparse signals has applications in multi-sensor acoustic
sensing, magnetic resonance imaging with multiple coils, remote sensing, and
array signal processing. Multi-measurement vector (MMV) problems consider the
estimation of jointly sparse signals under the DCS framework. Two related MMV
settings are studied. In the first setting, each signal vector is measured by a
different independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) measurement matrix,
while in the second setting, all signal vectors are measured by the same i.i.d.
matrix. Replica analysis is performed for these two MMV settings, and the
minimum mean squared error (MMSE), which turns out to be identical for both
settings, is obtained as a function of the noise variance and number of
measurements. To showcase the application of MMV models, the MMSE's of complex
CS problems with both real and complex measurement matrices are also analyzed.
Multiple performance regions for MMV are identified where the MMSE behaves
differently as a function of the noise variance and the number of measurements.
  Belief propagation (BP) is a CS signal estimation framework that often
achieves the MMSE asymptotically. A phase transition for BP is identified. This
phase transition, verified by numerical results, separates the regions where BP
achieves the MMSE and where it is suboptimal. Numerical results also illustrate
that more signal vectors in the jointly sparse signal ensemble lead to a better
phase transition.


  The Helicity Structure Functions in the Drell-Yan process are discussed in a
framework of Parton Reggeization Approach, which includes the transverse
momentum of initial-state partons in a way compatible with QED
gauge-invariance. Relationships with conventional Transverse Momentum Dependent
Parton Model formalism are clarified.


  The flow pattern and evolution of the medium created in ultrarelativistic
heavy ion collisions can have significant influence on the energy loss of hard
partons traversing the medium. We demonstrate that within a range of
assumptions for longitudinal and transverse flow which are all compatible with
the measured hadronic single particle distributions, the quenching power of the
medium can vary within almost a factor five. Thus, the choice of the medium
evolution is one of the biggest uncertainties in jet quenching calculations and
needs to be addressed with some care.


  An exact expression for the leading-order (LO) gluon distribution function
$G(x,Q^2)=xg(x,Q^2)$ from the DGLAP evolution equation for the proton structure
function $F_2^{\gamma p}(x,Q^2)$ for deep inelastic $\gamma^* p$ scattering has
recently been obtained [M. M. Block, L. Durand and D. W. McKay, Phys. Rev.
D{\bf 79}, 014031, (2009)] for massless quarks, using Laplace transformation
techniques. Here, we develop a fast and accurate numerical inverse Laplace
transformation algorithm, required to invert the Laplace transforms needed to
evaluate $G(x,Q^2)$, and compare it to the exact solution. We obtain accuracies
of less than 1 part in 1000 over the entire $x$ and $Q^2$ spectrum. Since no
analytic Laplace inversion is possible for next-to-leading order (NLO) and
higher orders, this numerical algorithm will enable one to obtain accurate NLO
(and NNLO) gluon distributions, using only experimental measurements of
$F_2^{\gamma p}(x,Q^2)$.


  Image anomaly detection is a popular research direction, with many methods
emerging in recent years due to rapid advancements in computing. The use of
artificial intelligence for image anomaly detection has been widely studied. By
analyzing images of athlete posture and movement, it is possible to predict
injury status and suggest necessary adjustments. Most existing methods rely on
convolutional networks to extract information from irrelevant pixel data,
limiting model accuracy. This paper introduces a network combining Residual
Network (ResNet) and Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (BiGRU), which can
predict potential injury types and provide early warnings by analyzing changes
in muscle and bone poses from video images. To address the high complexity of
this network, the Sparrow search algorithm was used for optimization.
Experiments conducted on four datasets demonstrated that our model has the
smallest error in image anomaly detection compared to other models, showing
strong adaptability. This provides a new approach for anomaly detection and
predictive analysis in images, contributing to the sustainable development of
human health and performance.


  We present a new approach for the $f(R,T)$ formalism, by exploring the extra
terms of its effective energy-momentum tensor $T_{\mu\nu}^{eff}$, namely
$\tilde{T}_{\mu\nu}$. Those arise from the consideration of quantum effects,
which are usually neglected in general relativity and $f(R)$ theories, and are
summed to the usual matter energy-momentum tensor, yielding
$T_{\mu\nu}^{eff}=T_{\mu\nu}+\tilde{T}_{\mu\nu}$. Purely from the Bianchi
identities, the conservation of both parts of the effective energy-momentum
tensor is obtained, rather than the non-conservation of the matter one,
originally approached in the $f(R,T)$ theories. In this way, the intriguing
scenario of matter-creation, which still lacks observational evidences, is
evaded. One is left, then, with two sets of cosmological equations to be
solved: the Friedmann-like equations along with the conservation of
$T_{\mu\nu}$ and along with the conservation of $\tilde{T}_{\mu\nu}$. We
present a physical interpretation for the conservation of the extra terms of
the effective energy-momentum tensor, which is related to the presence of stiff
matter in the universe. The cosmological features of this approach are
presented and discussed as well as the benefits of evading the matter
energy-momentum tensor non-conservation.


  Modern AI technology like Large language models (LLMs) has the potential to
pollute the public information sphere with made-up content, which poses a
significant threat to the cohesion of societies at large. A wide range of
research has shown that LLMs are capable of generating text of impressive
quality, including persuasive political speech, text with a pre-defined style,
and role-specific content. But there is a crucial gap in the literature: We
lack large-scale and systematic studies of how capable LLMs are in
impersonating political and societal representatives and how the general public
judges these impersonations in terms of authenticity, relevance and coherence.
We present the results of a study based on a cross-section of British society
that shows that LLMs are able to generate responses to debate questions that
were part of a broadcast political debate programme in the UK. The impersonated
responses are judged to be more authentic and relevant than the original
responses given by people who were impersonated. This shows two things: (1)
LLMs can be made to contribute meaningfully to the public political debate and
(2) there is a dire need to inform the general public of the potential harm
this can have on society.


  We address in this paper a new computational biology problem that aims at
understanding a mechanism that could potentially be used to genetically
manipulate natural insect populations infected by inherited, intra-cellular
parasitic bacteria. In this problem, that we denote by \textsc{Mod/Resc
Parsimony Inference}, we are given a boolean matrix and the goal is to find two
other boolean matrices with a minimum number of columns such that an
appropriately defined operation on these matrices gives back the input. We show
that this is formally equivalent to the \textsc{Bipartite Biclique Edge Cover}
problem and derive some complexity results for our problem using this
equivalence. We provide a new, fixed-parameter tractability approach for
solving both that slightly improves upon a previously published algorithm for
the \textsc{Bipartite Biclique Edge Cover}. Finally, we present experimental
results where we applied some of our techniques to a real-life data set.


  Gronwall's function $G$ is defined for $n>1$ by $G(n)=\frac{\sigma(n)}{n
\log\log n}$ where $\sigma(n)$ is the sum of the divisors of $n$. We call an
integer $N>1$ a \emph{GA1 number} if $N$ is composite and $G(N) \ge G(N/p)$ for
all prime factors $p$ of $N$. We say that $N$ is a \emph{GA2 number} if $G(N)
\ge G(aN)$ for all multiples $aN$ of $N$. In arXiv 1110.5078, we used Robin's
and Gronwall's theorems on $G$ to prove that the Riemann Hypothesis (RH) is
true if and only if 4 is the only number that is both GA1 and GA2. Here, we
study GA1 numbers and GA2 numbers separately. We compare them with
superabundant (SA) and colossally abundant (CA) numbers (first studied by
Ramanujan). We give algorithms for computing GA1 numbers; the smallest one with
more than two prime factors is 183783600, while the smallest odd one is
1058462574572984015114271643676625. We find nineteen GA2 numbers $\le 5040$,
and prove that a GA2 number $N>5040$ exists if and only if RH is false, in
which case $N$ is even and $>10^{8576}$.


  Spectrum denoising is an important procedure for large-scale spectroscopical
surveys. This work proposes a novel stellar spectrum denoising method based on
deep Bayesian modeling. The construction of our model includes a prior
distribution for each stellar subclass, a spectrum generator and a flow-based
noise model. Our method takes into account the noise correlation structure, and
it is not susceptible to strong sky emission lines and cosmic rays. Moreover,
it is able to naturally handle spectra with missing flux values without ad-hoc
imputation. The proposed method is evaluated on real stellar spectra from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with a comprehensive list of common stellar
subclasses and compared to the standard denoising auto-encoder. Our denoising
method demonstrates superior performance to the standard denoising
auto-encoder, in respect of denoising quality and missing flux imputation. It
may be potentially helpful in improving the accuracy of the classification and
physical parameter measurement of stars when applying our method during data
preprocessing.


  Device-free localization (DFL) is an emerging technology for estimating the
position of a human or object that is not equipped with any electronic tag, nor
participate actively in the localization process. Similar to device-based
localization, the initial phase in DFL is to build the fingerprint database
which is usually done manually using site surveying. This process is tedious,
time-consuming, and vulnerable to environmental dynamics. Motivated by the
recent advances in the Internet of Things (IoT), this paper introduces
RadioGrapher; a system that automates the process of device-free fingerprint
calibration in IoT environments. RadioGrapher leverages the device-based
locations of entities in the area of interest in a crowd-sensing manner, aided
with Fresnel zones of the wirelessly connected IoT devices to automatically
construct a device-free fingerprint. Experimental evaluation of RadioGrapher in
an IoT testbed using multiple entities shows that it can construct DFL
fingerprints with high accuracy. Moreover, its median localization accuracy is
comparable to that of manual fingerprinting. This comes with no calibration
overhead, highlighting the promise of RadioGrapher as a crowdsourcing
device-free fingerprint constructor in IoT environments.


  We derive an approximate dynamical equation for the form-factor of the
ghost-gluon vertex that contributes to the Schwinger-Dyson equation of the
ghost dressing function in the Landau gauge. In particular, we consider the
"one-loop dressed" approximation of the corresponding equation governing the
evolution of the ghost-gluon vertex, using fully dressed propagators and
tree-level vertices in the relevant diagrams. Within this approximation, we
then compute the aforementioned form factor for two special kinematic
configurations, namely the soft gluon limit, in which the momentum carried by
the gluon leg is zero, and the soft ghost limit, where the momentum of the
anti-ghost leg vanishes. The results obtained display a considerable departure
from the tree-level value, and are in rather good agreement with available
lattice data. We next solve numerically the coupled system formed by the
equation of the ghost dressing function and that of the the vertex form factor,
in the soft ghost limit. Our results demonstrate clearly that the
nonperturbative contribution from the ghost-gluon vertex accounts for the
missing strength in the kernel of the ghost equation, and allows for an
impressive coincidence with the lattice results, without the need to
artificially enhance the coupling constant of the theory.


  In this paper we solve several problems concerning joint similarity to
n-tuples of operators in noncommutative varieties in $[B(\cH)^n]_1$ associated
with positive regular free holomorphic functions in $n$ noncommuting variables
and with sets of noncommutative polynomials in $n$ indeterminates, where
$B(\cH)$ is the algebra of all bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space
$\cH$. In particular, if $f=X_1+...+X_n$ and $\cP=\{0\}$, the elements of the
corresponding variety can be seen as noncommutative multivariable analogues of
Agler's $m$-hypercontractions.


  Although solid helium-4 (4He) may be a supersolid it also exhibits many
phenomena unexpected in that context. We studied relaxation dynamics in the
resonance frequency f(T) and dissipation D(T) of a torsional oscillator
containing solid 4He. With the appearance of the "supersolid" state, the
relaxation times within f(T) and D(T) began to increase rapidly together. More
importantly, the relaxation processes in both D(T) and a component of f(T)
exhibited a complex synchronized ultraslow evolution towards equilibrium.
Analysis using a generalized rotational susceptibility revealed that, while
exhibiting these apparently glassy dynamics, the phenomena were quantitatively
inconsistent with a simple excitation freeze-out transition because the
variation in f was far too large. One possibility is that amorphous solid 4He
represents a new form of supersolid in which dynamical excitations within the
solid control the superfluid phase stiffness.


  IrTe$_2$ has been renewed as an interesting system showing competing
phenomenon between a questionable density-wave transition near 270 K followed
by superconductivity with doping of high atomic number materials. Higher atomic
numbers of Te and Ir supports strong spin-orbital coupling in this system.
Using dynamical mean field theory with LDA band structure I have introduced
Rashba spin orbit coupling in this system to get the interpretation for
anomalous resistivity and related transition in this system. While no
considerable changes are observed in DMFT results of Ir-5d band other than
orbital selective pseudogap pinned to Fermi level, Te-p band shows a van Hove
singularity at the Fermi level except low temperature. Finally I discuss the
implications of these results in theoretical understanding of ordering in
IrTe$_2$.


  We consider the following convolution equation or equivalently stochastic
difference equation $$\lam _k = \mu _k*\phi (\lam _{k-1}), k \in \Z \eqno (1)
$$ for a given bi-sequence $(\mu _k)$ of probability measures on $\R ^d$ and a
linear map $\phi $ on $\R ^d$. We study the solutions of equation (1) by
realizing the process $(\mu _k)$ as a measure on $(\R ^d)^\Z$ and rewriting the
stochastic difference equation as $\lam = \mu *\tau (\lam )$-any such measure
$\lam$ on $(\R ^d)^\Z$ is known as $\tau$-decomposable measure with co-factor
$\mu$-where $\tau$ is a suitable weighted shift operator on $(\R ^d)^\Z$. This
enables one to study the solutions of (1) in the settings of
$\tau$-decomposable measures. A solution $(\lam _k)$ of (1) will be called a
fundamental solution if any solution of (1) can be written as $\lam _k*\phi
^k(\rho )$ for some probability measure $\rho $ on $\R ^d$. Motivated by the
splitting/factorization theorems for operator decomposable measures, we address
the question of existence of fundamental solutions when a solution exists and
answer affirmatively via a one-one correspondence between fundamental solutions
of (1) and strongly $\tau$-decomposable measures on $(\R ^d)^\Z$ with co-factor
$\mu$. We also prove that fundamental solutions are extremal solutions and vice
versa. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition in terms of a
logarithmic moment condition for the existence of a (fundamental) solution when
the noise process is stationary and when the noise process has independent
$\ell _p$-paths.


  Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) is a well-known similarity measure for time
series. The standard dynamic programming approach to compute the DTW distance
of two length-$n$ time series, however, requires~$O(n^2)$ time, which is often
too slow for real-world applications. Therefore, many heuristics have been
proposed to speed up the DTW computation. These are often based on lower
bounding techniques, approximating the DTW distance, or considering special
input data such as binary or piecewise constant time series. In this paper, we
present a first exact algorithm to compute the DTW distance of two run-length
encoded time series whose running time only depends on the encoding lengths of
the inputs. The worst-case running time is cubic in the encoding length. In
experiments we show that our algorithm is indeed fast for time series with
short encoding lengths.


  Highly mismatched alloys (HMA's) are a class of semiconductor alloys with
large electronegativity differences between the alloying elements. We predict
the absorption spectrum due to transitions between the split bands of a doped
highly mismatched alloy with a conduction band anticrossing. We analyze the
joint densities of states for both direct and indirect transitions between the
split bands. The resulting spectrum has features that reveal the unusual state
distribution that is characteristic of HMAs, hence providing valuable insight
into their electronic structure. In particular, we predict a peak near the
absorption edge, which arises due to the suppression of direct transitions at
large momenta. We present analytic forms for the near-absorption-edge and
large-energy spectra, showing that they are qualitatively different from those
in standard parabolic semiconductors. In particular, as a result of suppressed
direct transitions, indirect transitions dominate the spectrum away from the
edge of absorption.


  In recent years, the wireless sensor network (WSN) is playing a key role in
sensing, collecting and disseminating information in various applications. An
important feature associated with WSN is to develop an efficient data
distribution and routing scheme to ensure better quality of service (QoS) that
reduces the power consumption and the end-to-end data delivery time. In this
work, we propose an adaptive framework to transmit data packets from a source
to the sink in WSN across multiples paths with strategically distributed data
packets so as to minimize the power consumption as well as the end-to-end data
delivery time.


  In this paper, we present a method for real-time multi-person human pose
estimation from video by utilizing convolutional neural networks. Our method is
aimed for use case specific applications, where good accuracy is essential and
variation of the background and poses is limited. This enables us to use a
generic network architecture, which is both accurate and fast. We divide the
problem into two phases: (1) pre-training and (2) finetuning. In pre-training,
the network is learned with highly diverse input data from publicly available
datasets, while in finetuning we train with application specific data, which we
record with Kinect. Our method differs from most of the state-of-the-art
methods in that we consider the whole system, including person detector, pose
estimator and an automatic way to record application specific training material
for finetuning. Our method is considerably faster than many of the
state-of-the-art methods. Our method can be thought of as a replacement for
Kinect, and it can be used for higher level tasks, such as gesture control,
games, person tracking, action recognition and action tracking. We achieved
accuracy of 96.8\%<EMAIL_ADDRESS>with application specific data.


  [THIS IS AN UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT] This paper discusses the effectiveness of
the bug finder based on "micro-grammar".


  Diffusion effect on chirality selection in a two-dimensional
reaction-diffusion model is studied by the Monte Carlo simulation. The model
consists of achiral reactants A which turn into either of the chiral products,
R or S, in a solvent of chemically inactive vacancies V. The reaction contains
the nonlinear autocatalysis as well as recycling process, and the chiral
symmetry breaking is monitored by an enantiomeric excess $\phi$.
  Without dilution a strong nonlinear autocatalysis ensures chiral symmetry
breaking. By dilution, the chiral order $\phi$ decreases, and the racemic state
is recovered below the critical concentration $c_c$. Diffusion effectively
enhances the concentration of chiral species, and $c_c$ decreases as the
diffusion coefficient $D$ increases. The relation between $\phi$ and $c$ for a
system with a finite $D$ fits rather well to an interpolation formula between
the diffusionless(D=0) and homogeneous ($D=\infty$) limits.


  In the classical setting, public-key encryption requires randomness in order
to be secure against a forward search attack, whereby an adversary compares the
encryption of a guess of the secret message with that of the actual secret
message. We show that this is also true in the information-theoretic setting --
where the public keys are quantum systems -- by defining and giving an example
of a forward search attack for any deterministic quantum-public-key
bit-encryption scheme. However, unlike in the classical setting, we show that
any such deterministic scheme can be used as a black box to build a randomized
bit-encryption scheme that is no longer susceptible to this attack.


  The electron waiting time is the time that passes between two subsequent
charge transfers in an electronic conductor. Recently, theories of electron
waiting times have been devised for quantum transport in Coulomb-blockade
structures and for mesoscopic conductors, however, so far a proper description
of a detector has been missing. Here we develop a quantum theory of a waiting
time clock capable of measuring the distribution of waiting times between
electrons above the Fermi sea in a mesoscopic conductor. The detector consists
of a mesoscopic capacitor coupled to a quantum two-level system whose coherent
precession we monitor. Under ideal operating conditions our waiting time clock
recovers the results of earlier theories without a detector. We investigate
possible deviations due to an imperfect waiting time clock. As specific
applications we consider a quantum point contact with a constant voltage and
lorentzian voltage pulses applied to an electrode.


  In this work we describe dicritical foliations in $(\mathbb{C}^2,0)$ at a
triple point of the resolution dual graph of an analytic plane branch
$\mathcal{C}$ using its semiroots. In particular, we obtain a constructive
method to present a one-parameter family $\mathcal{C}_{u}$ of separatrices for
such foliations. As a by-product we relate the contact order between a special
member of $\mathcal{C}_{u}$ and $\mathcal{C}$ with analytic discrete invariants
of plane branches.


  A pseudospin model for description of the influence of the electric field,
confined to the plane of sublattice polarization, on the two-dimensional
squaric acid antiferroelectrics is developed. The system behavior is analyzed
in terms of the parameters of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric ordering, as
well as the non-collinearity angle $\theta$, which is the angle between
sublattice polarizations. The temperature-electric field $T-E_1$ phase diagram
is constructed. Most of the field-induced transitions are found to be
associated with polarization rotation. The observed phases include the
collinear ferroelectric and non-collinear ferrielectric with almost
antiparallel and perpendicular polarizations of the sublattices, respectively.
The diagram also contains two regions, where the non-collinearity angle varies
continuously between, nominally, 0 and 90$^\circ$ and between 90$^\circ$ and
180$^\circ$. The first and second order transition lines, supercritical lines,
critical end points, and critical points on the $T-E_1$ phase diagram are
detected.


  We present a specific constant-amplitude periodic level-crossing model of the
semi-classical quantum time-dependent two-state problem that belongs to a
general Heun class of field configurations. The exact analytic solution for the
probability amplitude, generally written for this class in terms of the general
Heun functions, in this specific case admits series expansion in terms of the
incomplete Beta functions. Terminating this series results in an infinite
hierarchy of finite-sum closed-form solutions each standing for a particular
two-state model, which generally is only conditionally integrable in the sense
that for these field configurations the amplitude and phase modulation
functions are not varied independently. However, there exists at least one
exception when the model is unconditionally integrable, that is the Rabi
frequency and the detuning of the driving optical field are controlled
independently. This is a constant-amplitude periodic level-crossing model, for
which the detuning in a limit becomes a Dirac delta-comb configuration with
variable frequency of the level-crossings. We derive the exact solution for
this model, determine the Floquet exponents and study the population dynamics
in the system for various regions of the input parameters.


  The aim of this paper is to extend and generalise some work of Katona on the
existence of perfect matchings or Hamilton cycles in graphs subject to certain
constraints. The most general form of these constraints is that we are given a
family of sets of edges of our graph and are not allowed to use all the edges
of any member of this family. We consider two natural ways of expressing
constraints of this kind using graphs and using set systems.
  For the first version we ask for conditions on regular bipartite graphs $G$
and $H$ for there to exist a perfect matching in $G$, no two edges of which
form a $4$-cycle with two edges of $H$.
  In the second, we ask for conditions under which a Hamilton cycle in the
complete graph (or equivalently a cyclic permutation) exists, with the property
that it has no collection of intervals of prescribed lengths whose union is an
element of a given family of sets. For instance we prove that the smallest
family of $4$-sets with the property that every cyclic permutation of an
$n$-set contains two adjacent pairs of points has size between $(1/9+o(1))n^2$
and $(1/2-o(1))n^2$. We also give bounds on the general version of this problem
and on other natural special cases.
  We finish by raising numerous open problems and directions for further study.


  In a frequency range where a microwave resonator simulates a chaotic quantum
billiard, we have measured moduli and phases of reflection and transmission
amplitudes in the regimes of both isolated and of weakly overlapping resonances
and for resonators with and without time-reversal invariance. Statistical
measures for S-matrix fluctuations were determined from the data and compared
with extant and/or newly derived theoretical results obtained from the
random-matrix approach to quantum chaotic scattering. The latter contained a
small number of fit parameters. The large data sets taken made it possible to
test the theoretical expressions with unprecedented accuracy. The theory is
confirmed by both, a goodness-of-fit-test and the agreement of predicted values
for those statistical measures that were not used for the fits, with the data.


  This volume represents the proceedings of the International Workshop on
Reconfigurable and Communication-centric Cyber-Physical Systems (ReCoCyPS
2019), co-located with the 14th International Symposium on Reconfigurable
Communication-centric Systems-on-Chip (ReCoSoC 2019) on July 2-3 2019, York,
United Kingdom.
  The workshop is organised by the EU-funded SAFIRE project consortium.


  We present a thermal device based on the near-field interaction between two
substrates made of a polar and a metal-insulator-transition material. As a
result of the temperature dependence of the optical properties, this device
acts as a thermal rectifier, implying a strong asymmetry in the heat flux when
reversing the two temperatures. By covering both substrates with a graphene
sheet we show a significant enhancement of rectification coefficient. By
investigating the flux spectral properties along with its distance dependence,
we prove that this enhancement is associated to a change in the power-law
dependence of heat flux with respect to the separation distance in the
electrostatic regime due to the presence of graphene sheets. Our results
highlight the promising role of graphene-based hybrid structures in the domain
of nanoscale thermal management.


  We investigate the supports of extremal martingale measures with
pre-specified marginals in a two-period setting. First, we establish in full
generality the equivalence between the extremality of a given measure $Q$ and
the denseness in $L^1(Q)$ of a suitable linear subspace, which can be seen in a
financial context as the set of all semi-static trading strategies. Moreover,
when the supports of both marginals are countable, we focus on the slightly
stronger notion of weak exact predictable representation property (henceforth,
WEP) and provide two combinatorial sufficient conditions, called "2-link
property" and "full erasability", on how the points in the supports are linked
to each other for granting extremality. When the support of the first marginal
is a finite set, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the WEP to
hold in terms of the new concepts of $2$-net and deadlock. Finally, we study
the relation between cycles and extremality.


  We carry out a thorough survey of entropy for a large class of $p$-branes in
various dimensions. We find that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy may be given a
simple world volume interpretation only for the non-dilatonic $p$-branes, those
with the dilaton constant throughout spacetime. The entropy of extremal
non-dilatonic $p$-branes is non-vanishing only for the solutions preserving 1/8
of the original supersymmetries. Upon toroidal compactification these reduce to
dyonic black holes in 4 and 5 dimensions. For the self-dual string in 6
dimensions, which preserves 1/4 of the original supersymmetries, the
near-extremal entropy is found to agree with a world sheet calculation, in
support of the existing literature. The remaining 3 interesting cases preserve
1/2 of the original supersymmetries. These are the self-dual 3-brane in 10
dimensions, and the 2- and 5-branes in 11 dimensions. For all of them the
scaling of the near-extremal Bekenstein-Hawking entropy with the Hawking
temperature is in agreement with a statistical description in terms of free
massless fields on the world volume.


  We show how a fine, multiple-peak structure can arise in the off-resonance,
zero-bias conductance of Coulomb blockade systems. In order to understand how
this effect comes about one must abandon the orthodox, mean-field understanding
of the Coulomb blockade phenomenon and consider quantum fluctuations in the
occupation of the single-particle electronic levels. We illustrate such an
effect with a spinless Anderson-like model for multi-level systems and an
equation-of-motion method for calculating Green's functions that combines two
simple decoupling schemes.


  Recent research on formal verification for Collective Adaptive Systems (CAS)
pushed advancements in spatial and spatio-temporal model checking, and as a
side result provided novel image analysis methodologies, rooted in logical
methods for topological spaces. Medical Imaging (MI) is a field where such
technologies show potential for ground-breaking innovation. In this position
paper, we present a preliminary investigation centred on applications of
spatial model checking to MI. The focus is shifted from pure logics to a
mixture of logical, statistical and algorithmic approaches, driven by the
logical nature intrinsic to the specification of the properties of interest in
the field. As a result, novel operators are introduced, that could as well be
brought back to the setting of CAS.


  We prove that the pure state space is homogeneous under the action of the
group of asymptotically inner automorphisms for all the separable simple
nuclear C*-algebras. If simplicity is not assumed for the C*-algebras, the set
of pure states whose GNS representations are faithful is homogeneous for the
above action.


  J. Eells and L. Lemaire introduced k-harmonic maps, and Wang Shaobo showed
the first variational formula. When, k=2, it is called biharmonic maps
(2-harmonic maps). There have been extensive studies in the area. In this
paper, we consider the relationship between biharmonic maps and k-harmonic
maps, and show non-existence theorem of 3-harmonic maps. We also give the
definition of k-harmonic submanifolds of Euclidean spaces, and study k-harmonic
curve in Euclidean spaces. Futhermore, we give a conjecture for k-harmonic
submanifolds of Euclidean spaces.


  We generalize the Generic Vanishing theorem by Hacon and Patakfalvi in the
spirit of Pareschi and Popa. We give several examples illustrating the
pathologies appearing in the positive characteristic setting.


  In this paper we study uniform versions of two limit theorems in random left
truncation model (RLTM). The law of large numbers (LLN) and the central limit
theorem (CLT) have been obtained under the bracketing entropy conditions in
this setting. The uniform LLN and the uniform CLT of the present paper extend
the one dimensional LLN and the one dimensional CLT under RLTM respectively.


  We construct (generalized) logarithmic derivatives for general n-dimensional
local fields K of mixed characteristics (0,p) in which p is not necessarily a
prime element with residue field k such that [k:k^p]=p^{n-1}. For the
construction of the logarithmic derivative map, we define n-dimensional rings
of overconvergent series and show that - as in the 1-dimensional case - they
can be interpreted as functions converging on some annulus of the open unit
p-adic disc. Using the generalized logarithmic derivative, we give a new
construction of Kato's n-dimensional dual exponential map.


  We find an effective action for gravitational interactions with scalars in
$AdS_3$ to first order in $G_N$ at the conformal boundary. This action can be
understood as an action for the Brown-Henneaux modes and is given by the
square-root product of right and left moving Schwarzian derivatives for
conformal transformations of the boundary. We thus reproduce the result
$\lambda_L=\frac{2\pi}{\beta}$ for OTOC computed first in arXiv:1412.6087 for a
Schwarzchild black hole in $AdS_3$. Applying the same procedure to rotating BTZ
we find the Lyapunov index to be
$\lambda_L=\frac{2\pi}{\beta_+}>\frac{2\pi}{\beta}$ where
$\beta_+=\beta(1-\mu_L)$, with $\mu_L=\frac{r_-}{r_+}$ being the chemical
potential for angular momentum. We thus comment on a possible modification to a
part of the proof given in arXiv:1503.01409 to accommodate this result.


  In the presence of the primordial magnetic field, initial vector (vorticity)
perturbations produce cosmological Alfven waves and leave imprints on cosmic
microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropy. We have
investigated imprints of cosmological Alfven waves in CMB anisotropy. For data
constraints, we have used the power spectrum of the recent CMB observations,
and correlations estimated from WMAP Internal Linear Combination (ILC) maps.
Our analysis shows 3 sigma evidence of cosmological Alfven waves. Using the 3
sigma limit from our analysis and the Alfven velocity limit from the total
energy density constraint, we impose a lower bound on the amplitude of
primordial vector perturbation: 4*10^-12 at k_0=0.002/Mpc.


  Correlations in topological states of matter provide a rich phenomenology,
including a reduction in the topological classification of the interacting
system compared to its non-interacting counterpart. This happens when two
phases that are topologically distinct on the non-interacting level become
adiabatically connected once interactions are included. We use a quantum Monte
Carlo method to study such a reduction. We consider a 2D charge-conserving
analog of the Levin-Gu superconductor whose classification is reduced from
$\mathbb{Z}$ to $\mathbb{Z}_4$. We may expect any symmetry-preserving
interaction that leads to a symmetric gapped ground state at strong coupling,
and consequently a gapped symmetric surface, to be sufficient for such
reduction. Here, we provide a counter example by considering an interaction
which (i) leads to a symmetric gapped ground state at sufficient strength and
(ii) does not allow for any adiabatic path connecting the trivial phase to the
topological phase with $w=4$. The latter is established by numerically mapping
the phase diagram as a function of the interaction strength and a parameter
tuning the topological invariant. Instead of the adiabatic connection, the
system exhibits an extended region of spontaneous symmetry breaking separating
the topological sectors. Frustration reduces the size of this long-range
ordered region until it gives way to a first order phase transition. Within the
investigated range of parameters, there is no adiabatic path deforming the
formerly distinct free fermion states into each other. We conclude that an
interaction which trivializes the surface of a gapped topological phase is
necessary but not sufficient to establish an adiabatic path within the reduced
classification. In other words, the class of interactions which trivializes the
surface is different from the class which establishes an adiabatic connection
in the bulk.


  We describe the fabrication and characterization of solid 3-dimensional
electrodes in direct contact with microfluidic channels, implemented using a
single photolithography step, allowing operation in high-dielectric constant
media. Incorporation and self-alignment of electrodes is achieved by combining
microsolidic approaches with exploitation of the surface tension of low melting
point alloys. Thus the metal forms the walls flanking the channel. We show that
this approach yields electrodes with a well-defined, reproducible morphology
and stable electronic properties when in contact with biochemical buffers. By
combining calibration of the electric field with free-flow electrophoresis we
quantify the net solvated charges of small molecules.


  While not obvious from its initial motivation in linear algebra, there are
many context where iterated traces can be defined. In this paper we prove a
very general theorem about iterated 2-categorical traces. We show that many
Lefschetz-type theorems in the literature are consequences of this result and
the new perspective we provide allows for immediate spectral generalizations.


  Using a diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) technique, we calculated the phase
diagram of 3He adsorbed on a first solid layer of a molecular hydrogen isotope
(H2,HD and D2) on top of graphite. The results are qualitatively similar in all
cases: a two-dimensional gas spanning from the infinite dilution limit to a
second-layer helium density of 0.048 +/- 0.004 Ang^{-2}. That gas is in
equilibrium with a 7/12 commensurate structure, more stable than any
incommensurate triangular solid of similar density. These findings are in
reasonably good agreement with available experimental data.


  The Telescope Array (TA) has observed a statistically significant excess in
cosmic-rays with energies above 57 EeV in a region of approximately 1150 square
degrees centered on coordinates (R.A. = 146.7, Dec. = 43.2). We note that the
location of this excess correlates with two of the 28 extraterrestrial
neutrinos recently observed by IceCube. The overlap between the two IceCube
neutrinos and the TA excess is statistically significant at the 2$\sigma$
level. Furthermore, the spectrum and intensity of the IceCube neutrinos is
consistent with a single source which would also produce the TA excess.
Finally, we discuss possible source classes with the correct characteristics to
explain the cosmic-ray and neutrino fluxes with a single source.


  This paper focuses on multi-user downlink signal transmission in a wireless
system aided by multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). In such a
multi-RIS, multi-user, multi-antenna scenario, determining a set of RIS phase
shifts to maximize the sum throughput becomes intractable. Hence, we propose a
novel scheme that can substantially simplify the optimization of passive
beamforming. By opportunistically selecting a user with the best channel
condition as the only active transmitter in the system, it degrades to
single-user passive beamforming, where two methods, i.e., joint optimization
based on the semidefinite relaxation approach and alternating optimization, are
applicable. The superiority of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through
Monte-Carlo simulations.


  The luminosities of the optical afterglows of Gamma Ray Bursts, 12 hours
(rest frame time) after the trigger, show a surprising clustering, with a
minority of events being at a significant smaller luminosity. If real, this
dichotomy would be a crucial clue to understand the nature of optically dark
afterglows, i.e. bursts that are detected in the X-ray band, but not in the
optical. We investigate this issue by studying bursts of the pre-Swift era,
both detected and undetected in the optical. The limiting magnitudes of the
undetected ones are used to construct the probability that a generic bursts is
observed down to a given magnitude limit. Then, by simulating a large number of
bursts with pre-assigned characteristics, we can compare the properties of the
observed optical luminosity distribution with the simulated one. Our results
suggest that the hints of bimodality present in the observed distribution
reflects a real bimodality: either the optical luminosity distributions of
bursts is intrinsically bimodal, or there exists a population of bursts with a
quite significant grey absorption, i.e. wavelength independent extinction. This
population of intrinsically weak or grey-absorbed events can be associated to
dark bursts.


  Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in the power-domain has been recognized
as a promising technique to overcome the bandwidth limitations of current
visible light communication (VLC) systems. In this letter, we investigate the
power allocation (PA) problem in an NOMA-VLC system under high
signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) regime. A simple fair power allocation strategy
(SFPA) is proposed to ensure equitable allocation of transmission resources in
a multi-user scenario. SFPA requires minimal channel state information (CSI),
making it less prone to channel estimation errors. Results show that NOMA with
SFPA provides fairer and higher achievable rates per user (up to 79.5\% higher
in the studied setup), without significantly compromising the overall system
performance.


  We construct the holographic dictionary for both running and constant dilaton
solutions of the 2D Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory obtained by a circle
reduction from 3D gravity with negative cosmological constant. This specific
model ensures that the dual theory has a well defined ultraviolet completion in
terms of a 2D CFT, but our results apply qualitatively to a wider class of 2D
dilaton gravity theories. For each type of solutions we perform holographic
renormalization, compute the exact renormalized one-point functions in the
presence of arbitrary sources, and derive the asymptotic symmetries and
conserved charges. In both cases we find that the scalar operator dual to the
dilaton plays a crucial role in the description of the dynamics. Its source
gives rise to a matter conformal anomaly for the running dilaton solutions,
while its expectation value is the only non trivial observable for constant
dilaton solutions. The role of this operator has been largely overlooked in the
literature. We further show that the only non trivial conserved charges for
running dilaton solutions are the mass and the electric charge, while for
constant dilaton solutions only the electric charge is non zero. However, by
uplifting the solutions to three dimensions we show that constant dilaton
solutions can support non trivial extended symmetry algebras, including the one
found by Comp\`ere, Song and Strominger, in agreement with results by Castro
and Song. Finally, we demonstrate that any solution of this specific dilaton
gravity model can be uplifted to a family of asymptotically AdS$_2\times S^2$
or conformally AdS$_2\times S^2$ solutions of the STU model in four dimensions.
The four dimensional solutions obtained by uplifting the running dilaton
solutions coincide with the so called `subtracted geometries', while those
obtained from the uplift of the constant dilaton ones are new.


  We give a new proof of Quillen's conjecture for solvable groups via a
geometric and explicit method. For p-solvable groups, we provide both a new
proof using the Classification of Finite Simple Groups and an asymptotic
version without employing it.


  Fuzzing is a commonly used technique designed to test software by
automatically crafting program inputs. Currently, the most successful fuzzing
algorithms emphasize simple, low-overhead strategies with the ability to
efficiently monitor program state during execution. Through compile-time
instrumentation, these approaches have access to numerous aspects of program
state including coverage, data flow, and heterogeneous fault detection and
classification. However, existing approaches utilize blind random mutation
strategies when generating test inputs. We present a different approach that
uses this state information to optimize mutation operators using reinforcement
learning (RL). By integrating OpenAI Gym with libFuzzer we are able to
simultaneously leverage advancements in reinforcement learning as well as
fuzzing to achieve deeper coverage across several varied benchmarks. Our
technique connects the rich, efficient program monitors provided by LLVM
Santizers with a deep neural net to learn mutation selection strategies
directly from the input data. The cross-language, asynchronous architecture we
developed enables us to apply any OpenAI Gym compatible deep reinforcement
learning algorithm to any fuzzing problem with minimal slowdown.


  This paper develops and analyzes optimization models for rapid detection of
viruses in large contact networks. In the model, a virus spreads in a
stochastic manner over an undirected connected graph, under various assumptions
on the spread dynamics. A decision maker must place a limited number of
detectors on a subset of the nodes in the graph in order to rapidly detect
infection of the nodes by the virus. The objective is to determine the
placement of these detectors so as to either maximize the probability of
detection within a given time period or minimize the expected time to
detection. Previous work in this area assumed that the detectors are perfectly
reliable. In this work, it is assumed that the detectors may produce
false-negative results. In computational studies, the sample average
approximation method is applied to solving the problem using a mixed-integer
program and a greedy heuristic. The heuristic is shown to be highly efficient
and to produce high-quality solutions. In addition, it is shown that the
false-negative effect can sometimes be ignored, without significant loss of
solution quality, in the original optimization formulation.


  In proton-proton collisions at LHC energies, Z and low mass Higgs bosons
would be produced with high and predominantly longitudinal boost with respect
to the beam axis. This note describes a new analysis tool devised to handle
this situation in cases when such bosons decay to a pair of tau-leptons. The
tool reconstructs the rest frame of the tau+tau- pair by finding the boost that
minimises the acollinearity between the visible tau decay products. In most
cases this gives a reasonable approximation to the rest frame of the decaying
boson. It is shown how the reconstructed rest frame allows for a new method of
mass estimation. Also a considerable gain in sensitivity to helicity
correlations is obtained by analysing the tau-jets in the reconstructed frame
instead of using the laboratory momenta and energies, particularly when both
tau-leptons decay hadronically.


  The steady-state nucleation rate and flux of composite nucleus at the saddle
point is studied by extending the theory of binary nucleation. The
Fokker-Planck equation that describes the nucleation flux is derived using the
Master equation for the growth of the composite nucleus, which consists of the
core of the final stable phase surrounded by a wetting layer of the
intermediate metastable phase nucleated from a metastable parent phase recently
evaluated by the author [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 134}, 164508 (2011)]. The
Fokker-Planck equation is similar to that used in the theory of binary
nucleation, but the non-diagonal elements exist in the reaction rate matrix.
First, the general solution for the steady-state nucleation rate and the
direction of nucleation flux is derived. Next, this information is then used to
study the nucleation of composite nucleus at the saddle point. The dependence
of steady-state nucleation rate as well as the direction of nucleation flux on
the reaction rate in addition to the free-energy surface is studied using a
model free-energy surface. The direction of nucleation current deviates from
the steepest-descent direction of the free-energy surface. The results show the
importance of two reaction rate constants: one from the metastable environment
to the intermediate metastable phase and the other from the metastable
intermediate phase to the stable new phase. On the other hand, the gradient of
the potential $\Phi$ or the Kramers crossover function (the commitment or
splitting probability) is relatively insensitive to reaction rates or
free-energy surface.


  We establish that for PSR B0031-07 the orthogonal polarization modes switch
at a single pulse level synchronously with the periodic drifting subpulses seen
in total intensity. There are only four other pulsars known for which this
phenomenon is observed. PSR B0031-07 is unique as it is the only source in this
group which has multiple stable drift modes. For both drift modes visible at
our observing frequency centered at 1369 MHz, the modulation of polarization
modes is synchronous with the drifting subpulses. In one of the drift modes, a
discontinuity in the modulation pattern of polarization properties occurs
halfway through the pulse, coinciding with a slight change in the slope of the
intensity drift band. In contrast to what has been suggested for this pulsar in
the past, this, plus other differences in the polarization of the modulated
emission observed for the two drift modes, suggests that a drift mode change is
more than a change in the underlying carousel radius and that magnetospheric
propagation effects play an important role. The ellipticity evolves
asymmetrically in time during the modulation cycle, which in the framework of a
carousel model implies that the polarized sub-beams are asymmetric with respect
to the sense of circulation, something which is not observed for other pulsars.
Birefringence in the magnetosphere, resulting in the orthogonal polarization
modes to spatially separate, is not enough to explain these results. It is
argued that more complex magnetospheric processes, which possibly allow
conversion between orthogonal polarization modes, play a role.


  Odds ratios or p_values from individual observational studies can be combined
to examine a common cause_effect research question in meta_analysis. However,
reliability of individual studies used in meta_analysis should not be taken for
granted as claimed cause_effect associations may not reproduce. An evaluation
was undertaken on meta_analysis of base papers examining gas stove cooking,
including nitrogen dioxide, NO2, and childhood asthma and wheeze associations.
Numbers of hypotheses tested in 14 of 27 base papers, 52 percent, used in
meta_analysis of asthma and wheeze were counted. Test statistics used in the
meta_analysis, 40 odds ratios with 95 percent confidence limits, were converted
to p_values and presented in p_value plots. The median and interquartile range
of possible numbers of hypotheses tested in the 14 base papers was 15,360,
6,336_49,152. None of the 14 base papers made mention of correcting for
multiple testing, nor was any explanation offered if no multiple testing
procedure was used. Given large numbers of hypotheses available, statistics
drawn from base papers and used for meta-analysis are likely biased. Even so,
p-value plots for gas stove_current asthma and gas stove_current wheeze
associations show randomness consistent with unproven gas stove harms. The
meta-analysis fails to provide reliable evidence for public health policy
making on gas stove harms to children in North America. NO2 is not established
as a biologically plausible explanation of a causal link with childhood asthma.
Biases_multiple testing and p-hacking_cannot be ruled out as explanations for a
gas stove_current asthma association claim. Selective reporting is another bias
in published literature of gas stove_childhood respiratory health studies.
Keywords gas stove, asthma, meta-analysis, p-value plot, multiple testing,
p_hacking


  Yang-Baxter relations symmetric with respect to the ortho-symplectic
superalgebras are studied. We start from the formulation of graded algebras and
the linear superspace carrying the vector (fundamental) representation of the
ortho-symplectic supergroup. On this basis we study the analogy of the
Yang-Baxter operators considered earlier for the cases of orthogonal and
symplectic symmetries: the vector (fundamental) R matrix, the L operator
defining the Yangian algebra and its first and second order evaluations. We
investigate the condition for L(u) in the case of the truncated expansion in
inverse powers of u and give examples of Lie algebra representations obeying
these conditions. We construct the R operator intertwining two super-spinor
representations and study the fusion of L operators involving the tensor
product of such representations.


  In their reply arXiv:1408.2230, the authors corrected some inappropriate
sentences and clarified misleading descriptions in their original manuscript
arXiv:1407.5194v1.


  Many systems of different nature exhibit scale free behaviors. Economic
systems with power law distribution in the wealth is one of the examples. To
better understand the working behind the complexity, we undertook an empirical
study measuring the interactions between market participants. A Web server was
setup to administer the exchange of futures contracts whose liquidation prices
were coupled to event outcomes. After free registration, participants started
trading to compete for the money prizes upon maturity of the futures contracts
at the end of the experiment. The evolving `cash' flow network was
reconstructed from the transactions between players. We show that the network
topology is hierarchical, disassortative and scale-free with a power law
exponent of 1.02+-0.09 in the degree distribution. The small-world property
emerged early in the experiment while the number of participants was still
small. We also show power law distributions of the net incomes and
inter-transaction time intervals. Big winners and losers are associated with
high degree, high betweenness centrality, low clustering coefficient and low
degree-correlation. We identify communities in the network as groups of the
like-minded. The distribution of the community sizes is shown to be power-law
distributed with an exponent of 1.19+-0.16.


  We study $R^{2}$ corrections to five-dimensional asymptotically Lifshitz
spacetimes by adding Gauss-Bonnet terms in the effective action. For the
zero-temperature backgrounds we obtain exact solutions in both pure
Gauss-Bonnet gravity and Gauss-Bonnet gravity with non-trivial matter. The
dynamical exponent undergoes finite renormalization in the latter case. For the
finite-temperature backgrounds we obtain black brane solutions perturbatively
and calculate the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density $\eta/s$. The KSS
bound is still violated but unlike the relativistic counterparts, the causality
of the boundary field theory cannot be taken as a constraint.


  Lateral flow (LF) immunoassays are one of the most prevalent point-of-care
(POC) diagnostics due to their simplicity, low cost, and robust operation. A
common criticism of LF tests is that they have poor detection limits compared
to analytical techniques, like ELISA, which confines their application as a
diagnostic tool. The low detection limit of LF assays and associated long
equilibration times is due to kinetically limited surface reactions that result
from low target concentrations. Here we use isotachophoresis (ITP), a powerful
electrokinetic preconcentration and separation technique, to focus target
analytes into a thin band and transport them to the LF capture line resulting
is a dramatic increase in the surface reaction rate and equilibrium binding. We
show that ITP is able to improve limit of detection (LOD) of LF assays by
400-fold for 90 second assay time and by 160-fold for a longer 5 minutes time
scale. ITP-enhanced LF (ITP-LF) also shows up to 30% target extraction from 100
uL of the sample, while conventional LF captures less than 1% of the target.
ITP improves LF assay LOD to the level of some lab based immunoassays, such as
ELISA, and may provide sufficient analytical sensitivity for application to a
broader range of analytes and diseases that require higher sensitivity and
lower detection limits.


  An important use of private data is to build machine learning classifiers.
While there is a burgeoning literature on differentially private classification
algorithms, we find that they are not practical in real applications due to two
reasons. First, existing differentially private classifiers provide poor
accuracy on real world datasets. Second, there is no known differentially
private algorithm for empirically evaluating the private classifier on a
private test dataset.
  In this paper, we develop differentially private algorithms that mirror real
world empirical machine learning workflows. We consider the private classifier
training algorithm as a blackbox. We present private algorithms for selecting
features that are input to the classifier. Though adding a preprocessing step
takes away some of the privacy budget from the actual classification process
(thus potentially making it noisier and less accurate), we show that our novel
preprocessing techniques significantly increase classifier accuracy on three
real-world datasets. We also present the first private algorithms for
empirically constructing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves on a
private test set.


  We have analyzed long-term wind speed time-series from five field sites up to
a height of 300 m from the ground. Structure function-based scaling analysis
has revealed that the scaling exponents in the mesoscale regime systematically
depend on height. This anomalous behavior is likely caused by the buoyancy
effects. In the framework of the extended self-similarity, the relative scaling
exponents portray quasi-universal behavior.


  Recent work has explored solver strategies for the linear system of equations
arising from a spectral Galerkin approximation of the solution of PDEs with
parameterized (or stochastic) inputs. We consider the related problem of a
matrix equation whose matrix and right hand side depend on a set of parameters
(e.g. a PDE with stochastic inputs semidiscretized in space) and examine the
linear system arising from a similar Galerkin approximation of the solution. We
derive a useful factorization of this system of equations, which yields bounds
on the eigenvalues, clues to preconditioning, and a flexible implementation
method for a wide array of problems. We complement this analysis with (i) a
numerical study of preconditioners on a standard elliptic PDE test problem and
(ii) a fluids application using existing CFD codes; the MATLAB codes used in
the numerical studies are available online.


  This paper considers a dilute Ising ferromangnet with annealed vacancies and
attractive biquadratic interactions. Phase diagrams have been calculated while
varying the temperature and concentration of annealed vacancies in the system
while maintaining constant, attractive biquadratic couplings. These results
have been produced using renormalization group analysis with a hierarchical
lattice. Critical exponents have been calculated and each basin of attraction
interpreted.


  While the formation of the first black holes at high redshift is reasonably
well understood though debated, massive black hole formation at later cosmic
epochs has not been adequately explored. We present a gas accretion driven
mechanism that can build up black hole masses rapidly in dense, gas-rich
nuclear star clusters (NSCs). Wind-fed supra-exponential accretion of an
initially wandering black hole in NSCs can lead to extremely fast growth,
scaling stellar mass remnant seed black holes up to intermediate mass black
holes (IMBHs). Operating throughout cosmic time, growth via this new channel is
modulated by the gas supply, and premature termination results in the formation
of lower mass black holes with masses in the range of 50 - few 100 solar
masses, filling in the so-called mass gap. However, in most gas-rich NSCs,
growth is unimpeded, inevitably leading to the formation of IMBHs with masses
ranging from 100 - 100,000 solar masses. A spate of new detection spanning the
full range of the IMBH mass function - from the LIGO-VIRGO source GW190521 to
the emerging population of 10^5 solar mass black holes harbored in low-mass
dwarf galaxies - are revealing this elusive population. Naturally accounting
for the detected presence of off-center IMBHs in low-mass dwarfs, this new
pathway also predicts the existence of an extensive population of wandering
non-central black holes in more massive galaxies would be detectable via tidal
disruption events and as GW sources. Gas-rich NSCs serve as incubators for the
continual formation of black holes over a wide range in mass throughout cosmic
time.


  A recent paper by Moore and Witten explained that Ramond-Ramond fields in
Type II superstring theory have a global meaning in K-theory. In this note we
amplify and generalize some points raised in that paper. In particular, we
express the coupling of the Ramond-Ramond fields to D-branes in a K-theoretic
framework and show that the anomaly in this coupling exactly cancels the
anomaly from the fermions on the brane, both in Type IIA and Type IIB.


  This paper describes a serendipitous galaxy cluster survey that we plan to
conduct with the XMM X-ray satellite. We have modeled the expected properties
of such a survey for three different cosmological models, using an extended
Press-Schechter (Press & Schechter 1974) formalism, combined with a detailed
characterization of the expected capabilities of the EPIC camera on board XMM.
We estimate that, over the ten year design lifetime of XMM, the EPIC camera
will image a total of ~800 square degrees in fields suitable for the
serendipitous detection of clusters of galaxies. For the presently-favored
low-density model with a cosmological constant, our simulations predict that
this survey area would yield a catalogue of more than 8000 clusters, ranging
from poor to very rich systems, with around 750 detections above z=1. A
low-density open Universe yields similar numbers, though with a different
redshift distribution, while a critical-density Universe gives considerably
fewer clusters. This dependence of catalogue properties on cosmology means that
the proposed survey will place strong constraints on the values of Omega-Matter
and Omega-Lambda. The survey would also facilitate a variety of follow-up
projects, including the quantification of evolution in the cluster X-ray
luminosity-temperature relation, the study of high-redshift galaxies via
gravitational lensing, follow-up observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
and foreground analyses of cosmic microwave background maps.


  In this paper we investigate fair computations in the pi-calculus. Following
Costa and Stirling's approach for CCS-like languages, we consider a method to
label process actions in order to filter out unfair computations. We contrast
the existing fair-testing notion with those that naturally arise by imposing
weak and strong fairness. This comparison provides insight about the
expressiveness of the various `fair' testing semantics and about their
discriminating power.


  In the thesis we focus on designing an authentication system to authenticate
users over a network with a username and a password. The system uses the
zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) system as a password verification mechanism. The ZKP
protocol used is based on the quadratic residuosity problem. The authentication
system is defined as a method in the extensible authentication protocol (EAP).
Using a ZKP system yields interesting security properties that make the system
favourable to be used over insecure networks.


  We present the two- and three-pion exchange contributions to the
nucleon-nucleon interaction which occur at
next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N4LO, fifth order) of chiral
effective field theory, and calculate nucleon-nucleon scattering in peripheral
partial waves with L>=3 using low-energy constants that were extracted from
pi-N analysis at fourth order. While the net three-pion exchange contribution
is moderate, the two-pion exchanges turn out to be sizeable and prevailingly
repulsive, thus, compensating the excessive attraction characteristic for NNLO
and N3LO. As a result, the N4LO predictions for the phase shifts of peripheral
partial waves are in very good agreement with the data (with the only exception
of the 1F3 wave). We also discuss the issue of the order-by-order convergence
of the chiral expansion for the NN interaction.


  The Becke-Johnson exchange potential [J. Chem. Phys. 124, 221101 (2006)] has
been successfully used in electronic structure calculations within
density-functional theory. However, in its original form the potential may
dramatically fail in systems with non-Coulombic external potentials, or in the
presence of external magnetic or electric fields. Here, we provide a
system-independent correction to the Becke-Johnson approximation by (i)
enforcing its gauge invariance and (ii) making it exact for any single-electron
system. The resulting approximation is then better designed to deal with
current-carrying states, and recovers the correct asymptotic behavior for
systems with any number of electrons. Tests of the resulting corrected exchange
potential show very good results for a Hydrogen chain in an electric field and
for a four-electron harmonium in a magnetic field.


  The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) undermines the conventional
bulk-boundary correspondence (BBC) since it results in a distinct bulk spectrum
in open-boundary systems compared to the periodic counterpart. Using the
non-Hermitian (NH) Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model as an example, we propose
an intuitive approach, termed ``doubling and swapping" method, to restore the
BBC. Explicitly, we construct a modified system by swapping the asymmetric
intracell hoppings in every second primitive unit cell, such that it has
double-sized unit cells compared to the NH SSH model and is free of NHSE.
Importantly, the modified system and the NH SSH chain exhibit identical spectra
under open boundary conditions (OBC). As a result, the modified system can
serve as the valid bulk for defining topological invariants that correctly
predicts edge states and topological phase transitions. The basic principle is
applicable to many other systems such as the non-Hermitian Creutz ladder model.
Furthermore, we extend the study to disordered systems in which the asymmetric
hoppings are randomly swapped. We show that two types of winding numbers can be
defined to account for the NHSE and topological edge states, respectively.