  Extented Reality (XR) refers to a class of contemporary services that are
intertwined with a plethora of rather demanding Quality of Service (QoS) and
functional requirements. Despite Kubernetes being the de-facto standard in
terms of deploying and managing contemporary containerized microservices, it
lacks adequate support for cross-cluster networking, hindering
service-to-service communication across diverse cloud domains. Although there
are tools that may be leveraged alongside Kubernetes in order to establish
multi-cluster deployments, each one of them comes with its drawbacks and
limitations. The purpose of this article is to explore the various potential
technologies that may facilitate multi-cluster deployments and to propose how
they may be leveraged to provide a cross-cluster connectivity solution that
caters to the intricacies of XR services. The proposed solution is based on the
use of two open source frameworks, namely Cluster API for multi-cluster
management, and Liqo for multi-cluster interconnectivity. The efficiency of
this approach is evaluated in the context of two experiments. This work is the
first attempt at proposing a solution for supporting multi-cluster deployments
in a manner that is aligned with the requirements of XR services


  This paper introduces a draft open standard for the robot equivalent of an
aircraft flight data recorder, which we call an ethical black box. This is a
device, or software module, capable of securely recording operational data
(sensor, actuator and control decisions) for a social robot, in order to
support the investigation of accidents or near-miss incidents. The open
standard, presented as an annex to this paper, is offered as a first draft for
discussion within the robot ethics community. Our intention is to publish
further drafts following feedback, in the hope that the standard will become a
useful reference for social robot designers, operators and robot
accident/incident investigators.


  This paper introduces a novel method for predicting tool wear in CNC turning
operations, combining ultrasonic microphone arrays and convolutional neural
networks (CNNs). High-frequency acoustic emissions between 0 kHz and 60 kHz are
enhanced using beamforming techniques to improve the signal- to-noise ratio.
The processed acoustic data is then analyzed by a CNN, which predicts the
Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of cutting tools. Trained on data from 350
workpieces machined with a single carbide insert, the model can accurately
predict the RUL of the carbide insert. Our results demonstrate the potential
gained by integrating advanced ultrasonic sensors with deep learning for
accurate predictive maintenance tasks in CNC machining.


  We develop a general theory for irreducible homogeneous spaces $M= G/H$, in
relation to the nullity $\nu$ of their curvature tensor. We construct natural
invariant (different and increasing) distributions associated with the nullity,
that give a deep insight of such spaces. In particular, there must exist an
order-two transvection, not in the nullity, with null Jacobi operator. This
fact was very important for finding out the first homogeneous examples with
non-trivial nullity, i.e. where the nullity distribution is not parallel.
Moreover, we construct irreducible examples of conullity $k=3$, the smallest
possible, in any dimension. None of our examples admit a quotient of finite
volume. We also proved that $H$ is trivial and $G$ is solvable if $k=3$.
  Another of our main results is that the leaves of the nullity are closed (we
used a rather delicate argument). This implies that $M$ is a Euclidean affine
bundle over the quotient by the leaves of $\nu$. Moreover, we prove that $\nu
^\perp$ defines a metric connection on this bundle with transitive holonomy or,
equivalently, $\nu ^\perp$ is completely non-integrable (this is not in general
true for an arbitrary autoparallel and flat invariant distribution).
  We also found some general obstruction for the existence of non-trivial
nullity: e.g., if $G$ is reductive (in particular, if $M$ is compact), or if
$G$ is two-step nilpotent.


  We consider one-dimensional Mott variable-range hopping with a bias, and
prove the linear response as well as the Einstein relation, under an assumption
on the exponential moments of the distances between neighboring points. In a
previous paper \cite{FGS} we gave conditions on ballisticity, and proved that
in the ballistic case the environment viewed from the particle approaches, for
almost any initial environment, a given steady state which is absolutely
continuous with respect to the original law of the environment. Here, we show
that this bias--dependent steady state has a derivative at zero in terms of the
bias (linear response), and use this result to get the Einstein relation. Our
approach is new: instead of using e.g. perturbation theory or regeneration
times, we show that the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the bias--dependent steady
state with respect to the equilibrium state in the unbiased case satisfies an
$L^p$-bound, $p>2$, uniformly for small bias. This $L^p$-bound yields, by a
general argument not involving our specific model, the statement about the
linear response.


  Predictive business process monitoring aims at providing predictions about
running instances by analyzing logs of completed cases in a business process.
Recently, a lot of research focuses on increasing productivity and efficiency
in a business process by forecasting potential problems during its executions.
However, most of the studies lack suggesting concrete actions to improve the
process. They leave it up to the subjective judgment of a user. In this paper,
we propose a novel method to connect the results from predictive business
process monitoring to actual business process improvements. More in detail, we
optimize the resource allocation in a non-clairvoyant online environment, where
we have limited information required for scheduling, by exploiting the
predictions. The proposed method integrates the offline prediction model
construction that predicts the processing time and the next activity of an
ongoing instance using Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs) with the online resource
allocation that is extended from the minimum cost and maximum flow algorithm.
To validate the proposed method, we performed experiments using an artificial
event log and a real-life event log from a global financial organization.


  We show that positive $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology is a contact
invariant for a subclass of contact manifolds which are boundaries of Liouville
domains. In nice cases, when the set of Conley-Zehnder indices of all good
periodic Reeb orbits on the boundary of the Liouville domain is lacunary, the
positive $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology can be computed; it is generated
by those orbits. We prove a "Viterbo functoriality" property: when one
Liouville domain is embedded into an other one, there is a morphism (reversing
arrows) between their positive $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homologies and
morphisms compose nicely. These properties allow us to give a proof of
Ustilovsky's result on the number of non isomorphic contact structures on the
spheres $S^{4m+1}$. They also give a new proof of a Theorem by Ekeland and
Lasry on the minimal number of periodic Reeb orbits on some hypersurfaces in
$\mathbb{R}^{2n}$. We extend this result to some hypersurfaces in some negative
line bundles.


  An $n$-ary quasigroup $f$ of order $q$ is an $n$-ary operation over a set of
cardinality $q$ such that the Cayley table of the operation is an
$n$-dimensional latin hypercube of order $q$. A transversal in a quasigroup $f$
(or in the corresponding latin hypercube) is a collection of $q$ $(n+1)$-tuples
from the Cayley table of $f$, each pair of tuples differing at each position.
The problem of transversals in latin hypercubes was posed by Wanless in 2011.
  An $n$-ary quasigroup $f$ is called reducible if it can be obtained as a
composition of two quasigroups whose arity is at least 2, and it is completely
reducible if it can be decomposed into binary quasigroups.
  In this paper we investigate transversals in reducible quasigroups and in
quasigroups of order 4. We find a lower bound on the number of transversals for
a vast class of completely reducible quasigroups. Next we prove that, except
for the iterated group $\mathbb{Z}_4$ of even arity, every $n$-ary quasigroup
of order 4 has a transversal. Also we obtain a lower bound on the number of
transversals in quasigroups of order 4 and odd arity and count transversals in
the iterated group $\mathbb{Z}_4$ of odd arity and in the iterated group
$\mathbb{Z}_2^2.$
  All results of this paper can be regarded as those concerning latin
hypercubes.


  We present the complete classification of smooth toric Fano threefolds, known
to the algebraic geometry literature, and perform some preliminary analyses in
the context of brane-tilings and Chern-Simons theory on M2-branes probing
Calabi-Yau fourfold singularities. We emphasise that these 18 spaces should be
as intensely studied as their well-known counter-parts: the del Pezzo surfaces.


  The transverse mass of semi-invisibly decaying particles, calculated from the
transverse momenta of their decay products, has been used in a broad range of
searches and measurements at hadron colliders, such as the LHC. This variable
is invariant by construction under Lorentz boosts purely in the longitudinal
(beam) direction, thereby minimising sensitivity to fluctuations in the
fractions of the proton momentum carried by the colliding partons. In this
paper we examine, by contrast, the properties of the transverse mass under
boosts with a component also in the transverse plane perpendicular to the beam
direction. We show that this variable is invariant under such boosts in cases
where the boost is purely transverse and (a) the momenta of the decay products
are confined to the transverse plane in the rest frame of the parent particle
and/or (b) the transverse momenta of the decay products are perpendicular to
the boost direction. We discuss the transformation properties of the transverse
mass in the case of combined transverse and longitudinal boosts and identify
the criteria under which the transverse mass in the laboratory frame can equal
the rest mass of the parent particle, irrespective of its value in the rest
frame of the parent.


  We have investigated the two rare-earth intermetallic compounds
PrPd$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ and PrPt$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ by means of magnetization, electrical
resistivity and heat capacity measurements. While PrPd$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ exhibits
an antiferromagnetic ordering at 3 K, no magnetic ordering is observed in
PrPt$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ down to 2 K. The different magnetic behaviors of these two
compounnds are due to different crystalline electric field (CEF) level schemes.
The specific heat data suggest a quasi-quartet ground state in PrPd$_2$Si$_2$
in contrast to a nonmagnetic singlet ground state in PrPt$_2$Si$_2$. This
difference is attributed to the loss of a mirror plane upon changing the
crystal structure from the ThCr$_2$Si$_2$ type (PrPd$_2$Si$_2$) to the
CaBe$_2$Ge$_2$ type (PrPt$_2$Si$_2$). Further on, a large magnetoresistance is
also observed in the magnetically ordered state of PrPd$_2$Si$_2$.


  Biologically inspired model (BIM) for image recognition is a robust
computational architecture, which has attracted widespread attention. BIM can
be described as a four-layer structure based on the mechanisms of the visual
cortex. Although the performance of BIM for image recognition is robust, it
takes the randomly selected ways for the patch selection, which is sightless,
and results in heavy computing burden. To address this issue, we propose a
novel patch selection method with oriented Gaussian-Hermite moment (PSGHM), and
we enhanced the BIM based on the proposed PSGHM, named as PBIM. In contrast to
the conventional BIM which adopts the random method to select patches within
the feature representation layers processed by multi-scale Gabor filter banks,
the proposed PBIM takes the PSGHM way to extract a small number of
representation features while offering promising distinctiveness. To show the
effectiveness of the proposed PBIM, experimental studies on object
categorization are conducted on the CalTech05, TU Darmstadt (TUD), and GRAZ01
databases. Experimental results demonstrate that the performance of PBIM is a
significant improvement on that of the conventional BIM.


  We demonstrate the application of the efficient semi-inverse asymptotic
method to resonant interaction of the nonlinear normal modes belonging to
different branches of the CNT vibration spectrum. Under condition of the 1:1
resonance of the beam and circumferential flexure modes we obtain the dynamical
equations, the solutions of which describe the coupled stationary states. The
latter are characterized by the non-uniform distribution of the energy along
the circumferential coordinate. The non-stationary solutions for obtained
equations correspond to the slow change of the energy distribution. It is shown
that adequate description of considered resonance processes can be achieved in
the domain variables. They are the linear combinations of the shell- and
beam-type normal modes. Using such variables we have analyzed not only
nonlinear normal modes but also the limiting phase trajectories describing the
strongly non-stationary dynamics. The evolution of the considered resonance
processes with the oscillation amplitude growth is analyzed by the phase
portrait method and verified by the numerical integration of the respective
dynamical equations.


  In an extended Falicov-Kimball model, an excitonic insulator phase can be
stabilised at zero temperature. With increasing temperature, the excitonic
order parameter (interaction-induced hybridisation on-site, characterised by
the absolute value and phase) eventually becomes disordered, which involves
fluctuations of both its phase and (at higher T) its absolute value. In order
to build an adequate mean field description, it is important to clarify the
nature of degrees of freedom associated with the phase and absolute value of
the induced hybridisation, and the corresponding phase space volume. We show
that a possible description is provided by the SU(4) parametrisation on-site.
In principle, this allows to describe both the lower-temperature regime where
phase fluctuations destroy the long-range order, and the higher temperature
crossover corresponding to a decrease of absolute value of the hybridisation
relative to the fluctuations level. This picture is also expected to be
relevant in other contexts, including the Kondo lattice model.


  Mapping out the populations of thick disk and halo brown dwarfs is important
for understanding the metallicity dependence of low-temperature atmospheres and
the substellar mass function. Recently, a new population of cold and metal-poor
brown dwarfs has been discovered, with $T_{\rm{eff}}$ $\lesssim$ 1400 K and
metallicity $\lesssim$ $-$1 dex. This population includes what may be the first
known "extreme T-type subdwarfs" and possibly the first Y-type subdwarf, WISEA
J153429.75$-$104303.3. We have conducted a Gemini YJHK/Ks photometric follow-up
campaign targeting potentially metal-poor T and Y dwarfs, utilizing the GNIRS
and Flamingos-2 instruments. We present 14 near-infrared photometric detections
of 8 unique targets: six T subdwarf candidates, one moderately metal poor Y
dwarf candidate, and one Y subdwarf candidate. We have obtained the first ever
ground-based detection of the highly anomalous object WISEA
J153429.75$-$104303.3. The F110W$-$$J$ color of WISEA J153429.75$-$104303.3 is
significantly bluer than that of other late-T and Y dwarfs, indicating that
WISEA J153429.75$-$104303.3 has an unusual spectrum in the 0.9-1.4 $\mu$m
wavelength range which encompasses the $J$-band peak. Our $J$-band detection of
WISEA J153429.75$-$104303.3 and corresponding model comparisons suggest a
subsolar metallicity and temperature of 400-550 K for this object. JWST
spectroscopic follow-up at near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths would
allow us to better understand the spectral peculiarities of WISEA
J153429.75$-$104303.3, assess its physical properties, and conclusively
determine whether or not it is the first Y-type subdwarf.


  The static region outside the event horizon of an asymptotically anti de
Sitter black hole has a conformal timelike boundary $\mathscr{I}$ on which
boundary conditions have to be imposed for the evolution of linear fields from
initial data to be a well posed problem. Only homogeneous Dirichlet, Neumann or
Robin conditions preserve the action of the background isometry group on the
solution space. We study the case in which the modal decomposition of the
linear field leads to potentials not diverging at the conformal timelike
boundary. We prove that there is always an instability if Robin boundary
conditions with large enough $\gamma$ (the quotient between the values of the
derivative of the field and the field at the boundary) are allowed. We explain
the origin of this instability, show that for modes with nonnegative potentials
there is a single unstable state and prove a number of properties of this
state. Although our results apply in general to 1+1 wave equations on a half
infinite domain with a potential that is not singular at the boundary, our
motivation is to analyze the gravitational stability of the four dimensional
Schwarzschild anti de Sitter black holes (SAdS${}_4$) in the context of the
black hole non modal linear stability program initiated in Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.\
{\bf 112}, 191101 (2014), and the related supersymmetric type of duality
exchanging odd and even modes. We prove that this symmetry is broken except
when a combination of Dirichlet conditions in the even sector and a particular
Robin condition in the odd sector is enforced, or viceversa, and that only the
first of these two choices leads to a stable dynamics.


  The LASSO is an attractive regularisation method for linear regression that
combines variable selection with an efficient computation procedure. This paper
is concerned with enhancing the performance of LASSO for square-free
hierarchical polynomial models when combining validation error with a measure
of model complexity. The measure of the complexity is the sum of Betti numbers
of the model which is seen as a simplicial complex, and we describe the model
in terms of components and cycles, borrowing from recent developments in
computational topology. We study and propose an algorithm which combines
statistical and topological criteria. This compound criterion would allow us to
deal with model selection problems in polynomial regression models containing
higher-order interactions. Simulation results demonstrate that the compound
criteria produce sparser models with lower prediction errors than the
estimators of several other statistical methods for higher order interaction
models.


  We investigate synchronization of coupled organ pipes. Synchronization and
reflection in the organ lead to undesired weakening of the sound in special
cases. Recent experiments have shown that sound interaction is highly complex
and nonlinear, however, we show that two delay-coupled Van-der-Pol oscillators
appear to be a good model for the occurring dynamical phenomena. Here the
coupling is realized as distance-dependent, or time-delayed, equivalently.
Analytically, we investigate the synchronization frequency and bifurcation
scenarios which occur at the boundaries of the Arnold tongues. We successfully
compare our results to experimental data.


  In this paper, our goal is to efficiently solve the Vlasov equation on GPUs.
A semi-Lagrangian discontinuous Galerkin scheme is used for the discretization.
Such kinetic computations are extremely expensive due to the high-dimensional
phase space. The SLDG code, which is publicly available under the MIT license
abstracts the number of dimensions and uses a shared codebase for both GPU and
CPU based simulations. We investigate the performance of the implementation on
a range of both Tesla (V100, Titan V, K80) and consumer (GTX 1080 Ti) GPUs. Our
implementation is typically able to achieve a performance of approximately 470
GB/s on a single GPU and 1600 GB/s on four V100 GPUs connected via NVLink. This
results in a speedup of about a factor of ten (comparing a single GPU with a
dual socket Intel Xeon Gold node) and approximately a factor of 35 (comparing a
single node with and without GPUs). In addition, we investigate the effect of
single precision computation on the performance of the SLDG code and
demonstrate that a template based dimension independent implementation can
achieve good performance regardless of the dimensionality of the problem.


  In this paper, we propose and study a multi-functional reconfigurable
intelligent surface (MF-RIS) architecture. In contrast to conventional
single-functional RIS (SF-RIS) that only reflects signals, the proposed MF-RIS
simultaneously supports multiple functions with one surface, including
reflection, refraction, amplification, and energy harvesting of wireless
signals. As such, the proposed MF-RIS is capable of significantly enhancing RIS
signal coverage by amplifying the signal reflected/refracted by the RIS with
the energy harvested. We present the signal model of the proposed MF-RIS, and
formulate an optimization problem to maximize the sum-rate of multiple users in
an MF-RIS-aided non-orthogonal multiple access network. We jointly optimize the
transmit beamforming, power allocations as well as the operating modes and
parameters for different elements of the MF-RIS and its deployment location,
via an efficient iterative algorithm. Simulation results are provided which
show significant performance gains of the MF-RIS over SF-RISs with only some of
its functions available. Moreover, we demonstrate that there exists a
fundamental trade-off between sum-rate maximization and harvested energy
maximization. In contrast to SF-RISs which can be deployed near either the
transmitter or receiver, the proposed MF-RIS should be deployed closer to the
transmitter for maximizing its communication throughput with more energy
harvested.


  The decays $\Xi_b \to \Lambda_b \pi$ are strangeness changing weak
transitions involving only the light diquark in the baryon. Thus these decays
can test the properties of such diquarks, in particular the suggestions
existing in the literature of enhanced correlations in $J^P=0^+$ light
diquarks. We revisit the estimates of the rates of these decays and point out
that with the enhanced correlation their branching fraction can reach a few
percent and may become visible in the measurements of differences of the
lifetimes of $b$ baryons.


  Objective: This study aimed at investigating through Monte Carlo simulations
the limitations of a novel hybrid Cerenkov-scintillation detector and the
associated method for irradiation angle measurements. Approach: Using Monte
Carlo simulations, previous experimental irradiations of the hybrid detector
with a linear accelerator were replicated to evaluate its general performances
and limitations. Cerenkov angular calibration curves and irradiation angle
measurements were then compared. Furthermore, the impact of the Cerenkov light
energy dependency on the detector accuracy was investigated using the energy
spectra of electrons travelling through the detector. Main results: Monte Carlo
simulations were found to be in good agreement with experimental values. The
irradiation angle absolute mean error was found to be lesser than what was
obtained experimentally, with a maximum value of 1.12 degree for the 9 MeV
beam. A 0.4% increase of the ratio of electrons having an energy below 1 MeV to
the total electrons was found to impact the Cerenkov light intensity collected
as a function of the incident angle. The effect of the Cerenkov intensity
variation on the measured angle was determined to vary according to the slope
of the angular calibration curve. While the contribution of scattered electrons
with a lower energy affects the detector accuracy, greatest discrepancies
result from the limitations of the calculation method and the calibration curve
itself. Significance: A precise knowledge of the limitations of the hybrid
detector and the irradiation angle calculation method is crucial for a clinical
implementation. Moreover, the simulations performed in this study also
corroborates hypotheses made regarding the relations between multiple Cerenkov
dependencies and observations from the experimental measurements.


  We propose a physically based analytical compact model to calculate Eigen
energies and Wave functions which incorporates penetration effect. The model is
applicable for a quantum well structure that frequently appears in modern
nano-scale devices. This model is equally applicable for both silicon and III-V
devices. Unlike other models already available in the literature, our model can
accurately predict all the eigen energies without the inclusion of any fitting
parameters. The validity of our model has been checked with numerical
simulations and the results show significantly better agreement compared to the
available methods.


  When an asymmetric bubble collapses it generally produces a well defined high
velocity jet. This is remarkable because one might expect such a collapse to
produce a complex or chaotic flow rather than an ordered one. I present a
dimensional argument for the ubiquity of jets from collapsing bubbles, and
model the aspherical collapse of a bubble with pieces of Rayleigh's solution
for spherical collapse and its cylindrical analogue. This model explains the
ubiquity of jet formation in aspherical collapse, and predicts the shape and
velocity profile of the resulting jet. These predictions may be tested in the
laboratory or by numerical calculation. An application to solid spall is
suggested.


  The Coma cluster of galaxies was observed with XMM-Newton in 12 partially
overlapping pointings. We present here the resulting X-ray map in different
energy bands and discuss the large scale structure of this cluster. Many point
sources were found throughout the observed area, at least 11 of them are
coincident with bright galaxies. We also give a hardness ratio map at the so
far highest angular resolution obtained for a cluster of galaxies. In this map
we found soft regions at the position of bright galaxies, little variation in
the central 15 arcmin, but some harder regions north of the line NGC 4874 - NGC
4889.


  The perturbative expression of the running strong coupling constant
\alpha_{\rm s}(Q^{2}) has an unphysical singularity for Q^{2} =
\Lambda^{2}_{\rm QCD}. Various modification have been proposed for the infrared
region. The effect of some of such proposals on the quark-antiquark spectrum is
tested on a Bethe-Salpeter (second order) formalism which was successfully
applied in previous papers to an overall evaluation of the spectrum in the
light-light, light-heavy and heavy-heavy sectors (the only serious discrepancy
with data being for the light pseudoscalar meson masses). In this paper only
the {\rm c} \bar{\rm c}, {\rm b} \bar{\rm b} and {\rm q} \bar{\rm q} (q = u or
d) cases are considered and fine structure is neglected. It is found that in
the {\rm b} \bar{\rm b} and {\rm c} \bar{\rm c} cases the results are little
sensitive to the specific choice. In the light-light case the Dokshitzer et al.
prescription is again essentially equivalent to the truncation prescription
used in the previous calculation and it is consistent with the same a priori
fixing of the quark light masses on the typical current values m_{\rm u} =
m_{\rm d} = 10 MeV (only the pion mass resulting completely out of scale of
about 500 MeV). With the Shirkov-Solovtsov prescription, on the contrary, a
reasonable agreement with the data is obtained only at the price of using a
phenomenological momentum dependent effective mass for the quark. The use of
such an effective mass should amount to a correction of the free quark
propagator. It is remarkable that this has also the effect of bringing the pion
mass in the correct range.


  We have investigated the electronic structure of electron-doped
Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$FeMoO$_6$ ($x$=0.0 and 0.2) by photoemission spectroscopy and
band-structure calculations within the local-density approximation+$U$
(LDA+$U$) scheme. A characteristic double-peak feature near the Fermi level
($E_{\rm F}$) has been observed in the valence-band photoemission spectra of
both $x$=0.0 and 0.2 samples.
  A photon-energy dependence of the spectra in the Mo 4$d$ Cooper minimum
region compared with the band-structure calculations has shown that the first
peak crossing $E_{\rm F}$ consists of the (Fe+Mo) $t_{2g\downarrow}$ states
(feature A) and the second peak well below $E_{\rm F}$ is dominated by the Fe
$e_{g\uparrow}$ states (feature B).
  Upon La substitution, the feature A moves away from $E_{\rm F}$ by $\sim$50
meV which is smaller than the prediction of our band theory, 112 meV. In
addition, an intensity enhancement of $both$ A and B has been observed,
although B is not crossing $E_{\rm F}$. Those two facts are apparently
incompatible with the simple rigid-band shift due to electron doping. We point
out that such phenomena can be understood in terms of the strong Hund's rule
energy stabilization in the 3$d^5$ configuration at the Fe sites in this
compound.
  From an observed band-narrowing, we have also deduced a mass enhancement of
$\sim$2.5 with respect to the band theory, in good agreement with a specific
heat measurement.


  The sdB star KPD 0422+5421 was discovered to be a single-lined spectroscopic
binary with a period of P=0.0901795 +/- (3\times 10^{-7}) days (2 hours, 10
minutes). The U and B light curves display an ellipsoidal modulation with
amplitudes of about 0.02 magnitudes. The sdB star contributes nearly all of the
observed flux. This and the absence of any reflection effect suggest that the
unseen companion star is small (i.e. R_comp ~ 0.01 solar radii) and therefore
degenerate. We modeled the U and B light curves and derived i = 78.05 +/- 0.50
degrees and a mass ratio of q = M_comp/M_sdB = 0.87 +/- 0.15. The sdB star
fills 69% of its Roche lobe. These quantities may be combined with the mass
function of the companion (f(M) = 0.126 +/- 0.028 solar masses) to derive M_sdB
= 0.72 +/- 0.26 solar masses and M_comp = 0.62 +/- 0.18 solar masses. We used
model spectra to derive the effective temperature, surface gravity, and helium
abundance of the sdB star. We found T_eff = 25,000 +/- 1500K, log g = 5.4 +/-
0.1, and [He/H] = -1.0. With a period of 2 hours and 10 minutes, KPD 0422+5421
has one of the shortest known orbital periods of a detached binary. This system
is also one of only a few known binaries which contain a subdwarf B star and a
white dwarf. Thus KPD 0422+5421 represents a relatively unobserved, and
short-lived, stage of binary star evolution.


  Asymptotic expansions of series $\sum_{k=0}^\infty \epsilon^k(k+a)^\gamma
e^{-(k+a)^\alpha x}$ and $\sum_{k=0}^\infty \epsilon^k(k+a)^\gamma /
(x(k+a)^\alpha+1)^\mu}$ in powers of $x$ as $x\to+0$ are found, where
$\epsilon=1$ or $\epsilon=-1$. These expansions are applied to obtain precise
inequalities for Mathieu series.
  Keywords: Asymptotic expansion, residues, generalized Mathieu series,
inequalities.


  We give a survey of some of the recent progress made in deploying quantum and
classical communications over a shared fiber, focusing in particular on results
obtained using continuous-variable QKD.


  PDDLStream solvers have recently emerged as viable solutions for Task and
Motion Planning (TAMP) problems, extending PDDL to problems with continuous
action spaces. Prior work has shown how PDDLStream problems can be reduced to a
sequence of PDDL planning problems, which can then be solved using
off-the-shelf planners. However, this approach can suffer from long runtimes.
In this paper we propose LAZY, a solver for PDDLStream problems that maintains
a single integrated search over action skeletons, which gets progressively more
geometrically informed, as samples of possible motions are lazily drawn during
motion planning. We explore how learned models of goal-directed policies and
current motion sampling data can be incorporated in LAZY to adaptively guide
the task planner. We show that this leads to significant speed-ups in the
search for a feasible solution evaluated over unseen test environments of
varying numbers of objects, goals, and initial conditions. We evaluate our TAMP
approach by comparing to existing solvers for PDDLStream problems on a range of
simulated 7DoF rearrangement/manipulation problems.


  Time series data usually contains local and global patterns. Most of the
existing feature networks pay more attention to local features rather than the
relationships among them. The latter is, however, also important yet more
difficult to explore. To obtain sufficient representations by a feature network
is still challenging. To this end, we propose a novel robust temporal feature
network (RTFN) for feature extraction in time series classification, containing
a temporal feature network (TFN) and an LSTM-based attention network (LSTMaN).
TFN is a residual structure with multiple convolutional layers. It functions as
a local-feature extraction network to mine sufficient local features from data.
LSTMaN is composed of two identical layers, where attention and long short-term
memory (LSTM) networks are hybridized. This network acts as a relation
extraction network to discover the intrinsic relationships among the extracted
features at different positions in sequential data. In experiments, we embed
RTFN into a supervised structure as a feature extractor and into an
unsupervised structure as an encoder, respectively. The results show that the
RTFN-based structures achieve excellent supervised and unsupervised performance
on a large number of UCR2018 and UEA2018 datasets.


  A novel model of reversible computing, the $\aleph$-calculus, is introduced.
It is declarative, reversible-Turing complete, and has a local term-rewriting
semantics. Unlike previously demonstrated reversible term-rewriting systems, it
does not require the accumulation of history data. Terms in the
$\aleph$-calculus, in combination with the program definitions, encapsulate all
program state. An interpreter was also written.


  The vertical warp in the debris disk Beta Pictoris -- an inclined inner disk
extending into a flat outer disk -- has long been interpreted as the signpost
of a planet on an inclined orbit. Direct images spanning 2004-2010 have
revealed Beta Pictoris b, a planet with a mass and orbital distance consistent
with this picture. However, it was recently reported that the orbit of planet b
is aligned with the flat outer disk, not the inclined inner disk, and thus
lacks the inclination to warp the disk. We explore three scenarios for
reconciling the apparent misalignment of the directly imaged planet Beta
Pictoris b with the warped inner disk of Beta Pictoris: observational
uncertainty, an additional planet, and damping of planet b's inclination. We
find that, at the extremes of the uncertainties, the orbit of Beta Pictoris b
has the inclination necessary to produce the observed warp. We also find that
if planet b were aligned with the flat outer disk, it would prevent another
planet from creating a warp with the observed properties; therefore planet b
itself must be responsible for the warp. Finally, planet b's inclination could
have been damped by dynamical friction and still produce the observed disk
morphology, but the feasibility of damping depends on disk properties and the
presence of other planets. More precise observations of the orbit of planet b
and the position angle of the outer disk will allow us to distinguish between
the first and third scenario.


  The Jeffreys prior for a constrained part of a parameter space is the same as
that for the unconstrained space, contrary to the assertions of Hannestad and
Tram.


  We discuss an alternative version of the electroweak standard model, in which
only the heavy t quark, not the light fermions, couples to the Higgs boson with
a strength given by the standard model. The Higgs particle decays dominantly
into two gluons jets. The branching ratio for the 2 gamma decay is about 3.5%.
The Higgs particle would be a narrow object (width about 60 KeV), and its mass
might be consistent with the value given by typical estimates of radiative
effects measured by the LEP experiments.


  The analysis of an INTEGRAL AO2 observation of the error contours of the
EGRET source 3EG J1621+8203 is presented. The only source found inside the
error contours for energies between 20 and 30 keV at 5 sigma detection
significance is the FR I radio galaxy NGC 6251. This supports the
identification of NGC 6251 with 3EG J1621+8203. The observed flux is higher and
softer than observed in the past, but consistent with a variable blazar-like
spectral energy distribution.


  Lightcurve observations of asteroids and bare cometary nuclei are the most
widely used observational tool to derive the rotational parameters. Therefore,
an in-depth understanding of how component periods of dynamically excited
non-principal axis (NPA) rotators manifest in lightcurves is a crucial step in
this process. We investigated this with the help of numerically generated
lightcurves of NPA rotators with component periods known a priori. The
component periods of NPA rotation were defined in terms of two widely used yet
complementary conventions. We derive the relationships correlating the
component rotation periods in the two conventions. These relationships were
then used to interpret the periodicity signatures present in the simulated
lightcurves and rationalize them in either convention.


  Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) aims to accelerate
optimal design of complex material systems by integrating material science and
design automation. For tractable ICME, it is required that (1) a structural
feature space be identified to allow reconstruction of new designs, and (2) the
reconstruction process be property-preserving. The majority of existing
structural presentation schemes rely on the designer's understanding of
specific material systems to identify geometric and statistical features, which
could be biased and insufficient for reconstructing physically meaningful
microstructures of complex material systems. In this paper, we develop a
feature learning mechanism based on convolutional deep belief network to
automate a two-way conversion between microstructures and their
lower-dimensional feature representations, and to achieves a 1000-fold
dimension reduction from the microstructure space. The proposed model is
applied to a wide spectrum of heterogeneous material systems with distinct
microstructural features including Ti-6Al-4V alloy, Pb63-Sn37 alloy,
Fontainebleau sandstone, and Spherical colloids, to produce material
reconstructions that are close to the original samples with respect to 2-point
correlation functions and mean critical fracture strength. This capability is
not achieved by existing synthesis methods that rely on the Markovian
assumption of material microstructures.


  We define the singular Hecke algebra ${\mathcal H} (SB_n)$ as the quotient of
the singular braid monoid algebra ${\mathbb C} (q) [SB_n]$ by the Hecke
relations $\sigma_k^2 = (q-1) \sigma_k +q$, $1 \le k\le n-1$, and define the
Markov traces on the sequence $\{{\mathcal H}(SB_n)\}_{n=1}^{+\infty}$ in the
same way as for the Markov traces on the tower of (non-singular) Hecke algebras
of the symmetric groups. We prove that the Markov traces are in one-to-one
correspondance with the invariants that satisfies some skein relation, and
compute an explicit classification of the Markov traces. Thanks to this
classification, we define some universal HOMFLY-type invariant which has the
property that it distinguishes all the pairs of singular links that can be
distinguished by an invariant which satisfies the required skein relation.


  Social media platforms have had considerable impact on the real world
especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Misinformation related to Covid-19
might have caused significant impact on the population specifically due to its
association with dangerous beliefs such as anti-vaccination and Covid denial.
In this work, we study a unique dataset of Facebook posts by users who shared
and believed in Covid-19 misinformation before succumbing to Covid-19 often
resulting in death. We aim to characterize the dominant themes and sources
present in the victim's posts along with identifying the role of the platform
in handling deadly narratives. Our analysis reveals the overwhelming
politicization of Covid-19 through the prevalence of anti-government themes
propagated by right-wing political and media ecosystem. Furthermore, we
highlight the failures of Facebook's implementation and completeness of soft
moderation actions intended to warn users of misinformation. Results from this
study bring insights into the responsibility of political elites in shaping
public discourse and the platform's role in dampening the reach of harmful
misinformation.


  We report the discovery of a new cataclysmic variable in MASTER database
which is identical to the faint ROSAT X-ray source 1RXS J015017.0+375614. The
object was observed in outbursts to 14.9m on 2012 Nov. 28 and to 14.3m on 2013
Jan. 07, but not detected in course of the routine real-time search. Analysis
of the archival MASTER data and CRTS light curve shows the large-amplitude
variability from 19.1m at quiescence to 15.4-14.8m in outbursts. The new
variable is most likely a dwarf nova of SU UMa subtype with rather frequent
normal outbursts and occasional superoutbursts.


  We present one of the deepest radio continuum surveys to date at a wavelength
~1 meter, at 324.5 MHz. The data reduction and analysis are described and an
electronic catalog of the sources detected above 5 sigma is presented. We also
discuss the observed angular size distribution for the sample. Using our deeper
20cm survey of the same field, we calculate spectral indices for sources
detected in both surveys. The spectral indices for 90cm-selected sources,
defined as S ~nu^(-alpha}, shows a peak near 0.7 and only a few sources with
very steep spectra. Thus no large population of very steep spectrum microJy
sources seems to exist down to the limit of our survey.
  For 20cm-selected sources, we find similar mean spectral indices for sources
with S_20>1 mJy. For weaker sources, below the detection limit for individual
sources at 90cm, we use stacking to study the radio spectra. We find that the
spectral indices of small (<3") 20cm-selected sources with S_20< 10 mJy have
mean and median alpha(90,20)~0.3-0.5. This is flatter than the spectral indices
of the stronger source population.
  We report log N-log S counts at 90cm which show a flattening below 5 mJy.
Given the median redshift of the population, z~1, the spectral flattening and
the flattening of the log N-log S counts occurs at radio luminosities normally
associated with AGN rather than with galaxies dominated by star-formation.


  We present new sets of fragmentation functions for protons and inclusive
charged hadrons obtained in combined NLO QCD analyses of single-inclusive
hadron production in electron-positron annihilation, proton-proton collisions,
and deep-inelastic lepton-proton scattering. These analyses complement previous
results for pion and kaon fragmentation functions with charge and flavor
discrimination. The Lagrange multiplier technique is used to assess the
uncertainties in the extraction of the new sets of fragmentation functions.


  Diffusive shock acceleration operating at expanding supernova remnant shells
is by far the most popular model for the origin of galactic cosmic rays.
Despite the general consensus received by this model, an unambiguous and
conclusive proof of the supernova remnant hypothesis is still missing. In this
context, the recent developments in gamma ray astronomy provide us with
precious insights into the problem of the origin of galactic cosmic rays, since
production of gamma rays is expected both during the acceleration of cosmic
rays at supernova remnant shocks and during their subsequent propagation in the
interstellar medium. In particular, the recent detection of a number of
supernova remnants at TeV energies nicely fits with the model, but it still
does not constitute a conclusive proof of it, mainly due to the difficulty of
disentangling the hadronic and leptonic contributions to the observed gamma ray
emission. In this paper, the most relevant cosmic-ray-related results of gamma
ray astronomy are briefly summarized, and the foreseeable contribution of
future gamma ray observations to the final solution of the problem of cosmic
ray origin is discussed.


  Understanding the magnetic connections from the Sun to interplanetary space
is crucial for linking in situ particle observations with the solar source
regions of the particles. A simple connection along the large-scale Parker
spiral magnetic field is made complex by the turbulent random-walk of field
lines. In this paper, we present the first analytical model of heliospheric
magnetic fields where the dominant 2D component of the turbulence is transverse
to the Parker spiral. The 2D wave field is supplemented with a minor wave field
component that has asymptotically slab geometry at small and large heliocentric
distances. We show that turbulence spreads field lines from a small source
region at the Sun to a 60$^\circ$ heliolongitudinal and -latitudinal range at
1~au, with standard deviation of the angular spread of the field lines
$14^\circ$. Small source regions map to an intermittent range of longitudes and
latitudes at 1~au, consistent with dropouts in solar energetic particle
intensities. The lengths of the field lines are significantly extended from the
nominal Parker spiral length of 1.17~au up to 1.6~au, with field lines from
sources at and behind the west limb considerably longer than those closer to
the solar disk centre. We discuss the implications of our findings on
understanding charged particle propagation, and the importance of understanding
the turbulence properties close to the Sun.


  We present a simple approach to high-accuracy calculations of critical
properties for the three-dimensional Ising model, without prior knowledge of
the critical temperature. The iterative method uses a modified block-spin
transformation with a tunable parameter to improve convergence in the Monte
Carlo renormalization group trajectory. We found experimentally that the
iterative method enables the calculation of the critical temperature
simultaneously with a critical exponent.


  OAO 1657-415 is an accreting pulsar in an eclipsing binary system. We
analyzed the INTEGRAL core program observations of this object and obtained the
eclipse light curve in the soft gamma-ray band between 15 and 40 keV. We note
that the gamma rays from the pulsar allow to probe the density profile of the
outer layers of the B supergiant companion. We find that the density profile of
the outer layer can be described by a power law with the index
  $\alpha = 8.5$. We also note that the fit hints toward smaller inclinations
of the system within the allowed range 60-90 degrees.


  We report a magnetotransport study of spin relaxation in 1.4-21.2 nm
epitaxial SrIrO$_3$ thin films coherently strained on SrTiO$_3$ substrates.
Fully charge compensated semimetallic transport has been observed in SrIrO$_3$
films thicker than 1.6 nm, where the charge mobility at 10 K increases from 45
cm$^2$/Vs to 150 cm$^2$/Vs with decreasing film thickness. In the
two-dimensional regime, the charge dephasing and spin-orbit scattering lengths
extracted from the weak localization/anti-localization effects show power-law
dependence on temperature, pointing to the important role of electron-electron
interaction. The spin-orbit scattering time $\tau_\text{so}$ exhibits an
Elliott-Yafet mechanism dominated quasi-linear dependence on the momentum
relaxation time $\tau_\text{p}$. Ultrathin films approaching the critical
thickness of metal-insulator transition show an abrupt enhancement in
$\tau_\text{so}$, with the corresponding $\tau_\text{so}/\tau_\text{p}$ about
7.6 times of the value for thicker films. A likely origin for such unusual
enhancement is the onset of strong electron correlation, which leads to charge
gap formation and suppresses spin scattering.


  Time-lapse fluorescent microscopy (TLFM) combined with predictive
mathematical modelling is a powerful tool to study the inherently dynamic
processes of life on the single-cell level. Such experiments are costly,
complex and labour intensive. A complimentary approach and a step towards in
silico experimentation, is to synthesise the imagery itself. Here, we propose
Multi-StyleGAN as a descriptive approach to simulate time-lapse fluorescence
microscopy imagery of living cells, based on a past experiment. This novel
generative adversarial network synthesises a multi-domain sequence of
consecutive timesteps. We showcase Multi-StyleGAN on imagery of multiple live
yeast cells in microstructured environments and train on a dataset recorded in
our laboratory. The simulation captures underlying biophysical factors and time
dependencies, such as cell morphology, growth, physical interactions, as well
as the intensity of a fluorescent reporter protein. An immediate application is
to generate additional training and validation data for feature extraction
algorithms or to aid and expedite development of advanced experimental
techniques such as online monitoring or control of cells.
  Code and dataset is available at
https://git.rwth-aachen.de/bcs/projects/tp/multi-stylegan.


  Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is more and more widely used in various
fileds, and its computation and memory-demand are also increasing
significantly. In order to make it applicable to limited conditions such as
embedded application, network compression comes out. Among them, researchers
pay more attention to network pruning. In this paper, we encode the convolution
network to obtain the similarity of different encoding nodes, and evaluate the
connectivity-power among convolutional kernels on the basis of the similarity.
Then impose different level of penalty according to different
connectivity-power. Meanwhile, we propose Channel Pruning base on the
Dissimilarity of Angle (DACP). Firstly, we train a sparse model by GL penalty,
and impose an angle dissimilarity constraint on the channels and filters of
convolutional network to obtain a more sparse structure. Eventually, the
effectiveness of our method is demonstrated in the section of experiment. On
CIFAR-10, we reduce 66.86% FLOPs on VGG-16 with 93.31% accuracy after pruning,
where FLOPs represents the number of floating-point operations per second of
the model. Moreover, on ResNet-32, we reduce FLOPs by 58.46%, which makes the
accuracy after pruning reach 91.76%.


  We give two constructions of surfaces in simply-connected 4-manifolds with
non simply-connected complements. One is an iteration of the twisted rim
surgery introduced by the first author. We also construct, for any group G
satisfying some simple conditions, a simply-connected symplectic manifold
containing a symplectic surface whose complement has fundamental group G. In
each case, we produce infinitely many smoothly inequivalent surfaces that are
equivalent up to smooth s-cobordism and hence are topologically equivalent for
good groups.


  Accurately determining the star formation history in NGC 4038/4039 -- ``The
Antennae'' is hampered by extinction. We therefore used near infrared images
obtained with ISAAC at the VLT and with SOFI at the NTT to determine the recent
star formation history in this merger. In combination with archival HST data,
we determined ages, extinction and other parameters for single star clusters,
and properties of the cluster population as a whole. About 70% of the K_s-band
detected star clusters with masses >= 10^5 M_sun are younger than 10 Myrs
(approximately an e-folding time for cluster ages), which we interpret as
evidence for rapid dissolution but not free expansion. The total mass of K-band
selected clusters is about 5-10x10^8 M_sun and represents about 3-6% of the
total molecular gas. This takes into account only the detected clusters and in
view of the rapid dissolution means that this is only a lower limit to the
total mass of stars produced in clusters during the burst. Studies of cluster
formation in other galaxies recently suggested short cluster dissolution
timescales, too, which means that star formation rates may have been severely
underestimated in the past. Extinction is strongly variable and very high in
some regions, but around A_V=1.3 mag on average. Even though most clusters are
detected at least in I-band, only the information about individual cluster ages
and extinction allows to avoid uncertainties of orders of magnitude in star
formation rate estimates determined from optical fluxes. From the distribution
of individual cluster extinction vs. age, which is significantly higher for
clusters below 8-9 Myr than for older clusters, we infer that this is the time
by which a typical cluster blows free of its native dust cocoon.


  We have observed the J=3-2 transition of N2H+ and N2D+ to investigate the
trend of deuterium fractionation with evolutionary stage in three selected
regions in the Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G28.34+0.06 with the Submillimeter
Telescope (SMT) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA). A comprehensible enhancement
of roughly 3 orders of magnitude in deuterium fractionation over the local
interstellar D/H ratio is observed in all sources. In particular, our sample of
massive star-forming cores in G28.34+0.06 shows a moderate decreasing trend
over a factor of 3 in the N(N2D+)/N(N2H+) ratio with evolutionary stage, a
behavior resembling what previously found in low-mass protostellar cores. This
suggests a possible extension for the use of the N(N2D+)/N(N2H+) ratio as an
evolutionary tracer to high-mass protostellar candidates. In the most evolved
core, MM1, the N2H+ (3-2) emission appears to avoid the warm region traced by
dust continuum emission and emission of 13CO sublimated from grain mantles,
indicating an instant release of gas-phase CO. The majority of the N2H+ and
N2D+ emission is associated with extended structures larger than 8" (~ 0.2 pc).


  The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has released high-precision data for cosmic
rays, and has verified an excess of positrons relative to expectations from
cosmic ray interactions in the interstellar medium. An exciting and well-known
possibility for the excess is production of electron-positron pairs by
annihilating dark matter particles in the halo of the Galaxy. We have
constructed a new scenario for propagation of cosmic rays, based on the 2000
SMILI results and various other astrophysics observations and measurements, in
which the positron excess is due to secondary production. The scenario is
studied from a simple heuristic perspective, and also within the constraints of
a diffusion-reacceleration model using GALPROP. The conclusions of each
approach agree with one another, showing that the scenario agrees well with the
observed positron flux, without any need for dark matter or other exotic
production mechanisms.


  Kink-like flapping motions of current sheets are commonly observed in the
magnetotail. Such oscillations have periods of a few minutes down to a few
seconds and they propagate toward the flanks of the plasma sheet. Here, we
report a short-period ($T\approx25$ s) flapping event of a thin current sheet
observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft in the dusk-side
plasma sheet following a fast Earthward plasma flow. We characterize the
flapping structure using the multi-spacecraft spatiotemporal derivative and
timing methods, and we find that the wave-like structure is propagating along
the average current direction with a phase velocity comparable to the ion
velocity. We show that the wavelength of the oscillating current sheet scales
with its thickness as expected for a drift-kink mode. The decoupling of the ion
bulk motion from the electron bulk motion suggests that the current sheet is
thin. We discuss the presence of the lower hybrid waves associated with
gradients of density as a broadening process of the thin current sheet.


  We show how the looming threat of bad actors using AI/GPT to generate harms
across social media, can be addressed at scale by exploiting the intrinsic
dynamics of the social media multiverse. We combine a uniquely detailed
description of the current bad-actor-mainstream battlefield with a mathematical
description of its behavior, to show what bad-actor-AI activity will likely
dominate, where, and when. A dynamical Red Queen analysis predicts an
escalation to daily bad-actor-AI activity by early 2024, just ahead of U.S. and
other global elections. We provide a Policy Matrix that quantifies outcomes and
trade-offs mathematically for the policy options of containment vs. removal. We
give explicit plug-and-play formulae for risk measures.


  Accurate diagnostics of a skin lesion is a critical task in classification
dermoscopic images. In this research, we form a new type of image features,
called hybrid features, which has stronger discrimination ability than single
method features. This study involves a new technique where we inject the
handcrafted features or feature transfer into the fully connected layer of
Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model during the training process. Based on
our literature review until now, no study has examined or investigated the
impact on classification performance by injecting the handcrafted features into
the CNN model during the training process. In addition, we also investigated
the impact of segmentation mask and its effect on the overall classification
performance. Our model achieves an 92.3% balanced multiclass accuracy, which is
6.8% better than the typical single method classifier architecture for deep
learning.


  The high-energy (> 100MeV) emission observed by Fermi-LAT during the prompt
phase of some luminous gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) could arise from the cascade
induced by interactions between accelerated protons and the radiation field of
GRBs. The photomeson process, which is usually suggested to operate in such a
hadronic explanation, requires a rather high proton energy (> 10^17eV) for an
efficient interaction. However, whether GRBs can accelerate protons to such a
high energy is far from guaranteed, although they have been suggested as the
candidate source for ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. In this work, we revisit the
hadronic model for the prompt high-energy emission of GRBs with a smaller
maximum proton energy than the usually adopted value estimated from the Bohm
condition. In this case, the Bethe-Heitler pair production process becomes
comparably important or even dominates over the photomeson process. We show
that with a relatively low maximum proton energy with a Lorentz factor of 10^5
in the comoving frame, the cascade emission can still reproduce various types
of high-energy spectrum of GRBs. For most GRBs without high-energy emission
detected, the maximum proton energy could be even lower and relax the
constraints on the parameters of GRB jet resulting from the fact of
non-detection of GRB neutrinos by IceCube.


  We numerically investigated the mixing-demixing transition of the
boson-fermion mixture on a 1D lattice at an incommensurate filling with the
fermion density being kept below the boson density. The phase diagram we
obtained suggested that the decrease of the number of the fermions drove the
system into the demixing phase.


  Quantum coherence and entanglement are two key features in quantum mechanics
and play important roles in quantum information processing and quantum
computation. We provide a general triangle-like inequality satisfied by the
$l_1$-norm measure of coherence for convex combination of arbitrary $n$ pure
states of a quantum state $\rho$. Furthermore, we present triangle-like
inequality for the convex-roof extended negativity for any states of rank 2,
which gives a positive answer to a conjecture raised in [Phys. Rev. A 96,
062308 (2017)]. Detailed examples are given to illustrate the relations
characterized by the triangle-like inequalities.


  Current standard protocols used in the clinic for diagnosing COVID-19 include
molecular or antigen tests, generally complemented by a plain chest X-Ray. The
combined analysis aims to reduce the significant number of false negatives of
these tests, but also to provide complementary evidence about the presence and
severity of the disease. However, the procedure is not free of errors, and the
interpretation of the chest X-Ray is only restricted to radiologists due to its
complexity. With the long term goal to provide new evidence for the diagnosis,
this paper presents an evaluation of different methods based on a deep neural
network. These are the first steps to develop an automatic COVID-19 diagnosis
tool using chest X-Ray images, that would additionally differentiate between
controls, pneumonia or COVID-19 groups. The paper describes the process
followed to train a Convolutional Neural Network with a dataset of more than
79,500 X-Ray images compiled from different sources, including more than 8,500
COVID-19 examples. For the sake of evaluation and comparison of the models
developed, three different experiments were carried out following three
preprocessing schemes. The aim is to evaluate how preprocessing the data
affects the results and improves its explainability. Likewise, a critical
analysis is carried out about different variability issues that might
compromise the system and the effects on the performance. With the employed
methodology, a 91.5% classification accuracy is obtained, with a 87.4% average
recall for the worst but most explainable experiment, which requires a previous
automatic segmentation of the lungs region.


  Mean-field games arise in various fields including economics, engineering,
and machine learning. They study strategic decision making in large populations
where the individuals interact via certain mean-field quantities. The ground
metrics and running costs of the games are of essential importance but are
often unknown or only partially known. In this paper, we propose mean-field
game inverse-problem models to reconstruct the ground metrics and interaction
kernels in the running costs. The observations are the macro motions, to be
specific, the density distribution, and the velocity field of the agents. They
can be corrupted by noise to some extent. Our models are PDE constrained
optimization problems, which are solvable by first-order primal-dual methods.
Besides, we apply Bregman iterations to find the optimal model parameters. We
numerically demonstrate that our model is both efficient and robust to noise.


  In this paper, we mainly show that generalized hyperharmonic number sums with
reciprocal binomial coefficients can be expressed in terms of classical
(alternating) Euler sums, zeta values and generalized (alternating) harmonic
numbers.


  We extend the recent improvement of Roth's theorem on three term arithmetic
progressions by Sanders to obtain similar results for the problem of locating
non-trivial solutions to translation invariant linear equations in many
variables in both $\bbz/N\bbz$ and $\bbf_q[t]$.


  Periodically driven (Floquet) systems are said to prethermalize when their
energy absorption is very slow for long time. This effect was first discovered
in quantum spin models, where the heating rate is exponentially small in the
ratio between the driving frequency and the spin bandwidth. Recently, it was
shown that prethermalization occurs also in classical systems with an infinite
bandwidth. Here, we address the open question of which small parameter controls
the lifetime of the prethermal state in these systems. We, first, numerically
study the dependence of the lifetime on the initial conditions and on the
connectivity in a system of periodically driven coupled rotors. We find that
the lifetime is controlled by the temperature of the prethermal state, which is
quasi-conserved when the heating is slow. This finding allows us to develop a
simple analytical model that describes the crossover from prethermalization to
chaos in many-body classical systems.


  We present the four-dimensional equations on a brane with a scalar field
non-minimally coupled to the induced Ricci curvature, embedded in a
five-dimensional bulk with a cosmological constant. This is a natural extension
to a brane-world context of scalar-tensor (Brans-Dicke) gravity. In particular
we consider the cosmological evolution of a homogeneous and isotropic (FRW)
brane. We identify low-energy and strong-coupling limits in which we recover
effectively four-dimensional evolution. We find de Sitter brane solutions with
both constant and evolving scalar field. We also consider the special case of a
conformally coupled scalar field for which it is possible (when the conformal
energy density exactly cancels the effect of the bulk black hole) to recover a
conventional four-dimensional Friedmann equation for all energy densities.


  The recent trend in 2D multiple object tracking (MOT) is jointly solving
detection and tracking, where object detection and appearance feature (or
motion) are learned simultaneously. Despite competitive performance, in crowded
scenes, joint detection and tracking usually fail to find accurate object
associations due to missed or false detections. In this paper, we jointly model
counting, detection and re-identification in an end-to-end framework, named
CountingMOT, tailored for crowded scenes. By imposing mutual object-count
constraints between detection and counting, the CountingMOT tries to find a
balance between object detection and crowd density map estimation, which can
help it to recover missed detections or reject false detections. Our approach
is an attempt to bridge the gap of object detection, counting, and
re-Identification. This is in contrast to prior MOT methods that either ignore
the crowd density and thus are prone to failure in crowded scenes,or depend on
local correlations to build a graphical relationship for matching targets. The
proposed MOT tracker can perform online and real-time tracking, and achieves
the state-of-the-art results on public benchmarks MOT16 (MOTA of 79.7), MOT17
(MOTA of 81.3%) and MOT20 (MOTA of 78.9%).


  The linear optical absorption spectra in neutral boron cluster B$_{6}$ and
cationic B$_{6}^{+}$ are calculated using a first principles correlated
electron approach. The geometries of several low-lying isomers of these
clusters were optimized at the coupled-cluster singles doubles (CCSD) level of
theory. With these optimized ground-state geometries, excited states of
different isomers were computed using the singles configuration-interaction
(SCI) approach. The many body wavefunctions of various excited states have been
analysed and the nature of optical excitation involved are found to be of
collective, plasmonic type.


  We construct two superalgebras associated to a punctured Riemann surface. One
of them is a Lie superalgebra of Krichever-Novikov type, the other one is a
Jordan superalgebra. The constructed algebras are related in several ways
(algebraic, geometric, representation theoretic). In particular, the Lie
superalgebra is the algebra of derivations of the Jordan superalgebra.


  Experience Sampling has been considered the golden standard of in-situ
measurement, yet, at the expense of high burden to participants. In this paper
we propose Technology-Assisted Reconstruction (TAR), a methodological approach
that combines passive logging of users' behaviors with use of these data in
assisting the reconstruction of behaviors and experiences. Through a number of
recent and ongoing projects we will discuss how TAR may be employed for the
evaluation of personal informatics systems, but also, conversely, how ideas
from the field of personal informatics may contribute towards the development
of new methodologies for in-situ evaluation.


  We introduce a new method for applying an inflationary prior to a
cosmological dataset that includes relations between observables at arbitrary
order in the slow roll expansion. The process is based on the inflationary flow
equations, and the slow roll parameters appear explicitly in the cosmological
parameter set. We contrast our method to other ways of imposing an inflationary
prior on a cosmological dataset, and argue that this method is ideal for use
with heterogeneous datasets. In particular, it would be well suited to
exploiting any direct detection of fundamental tensor modes by a BBO-style
mission. To demonstrate the practical use of this method we apply it to the
WMAPI+All dataset, and the newly released WMAPII dataset on its own and
together with the SDSS data. We find that all basic classes of single field
inflationary models are still allowed at the 1-2sigma level, but the overall
parameter space is sharply constrained. In particular, we find evidence that
the combination of WMAPII+SDSS is sensitive to effects arising from terms that
are quadratic in the two leading-order slow roll parameters.


  The task of Text-to-SQL enables anyone to retrieve information from SQL
databases using natural language. Despite several challenges, recent models
have made remarkable advancements in this task using large language models
(LLMs). Interestingly, we find that LLM-based models without fine-tuning
exhibit distinct natures compared to their fine-tuned counterparts, leading to
inadequacies in current evaluation metrics to accurately convey their
performance. Thus, we analyze the two primary metrics, Test Suite Execution
Accuracy (EXE) and Exact Set Matching Accuracy (ESM), to examine their
robustness for this task and address shortcomings. We compare the performance
of 9 LLM-based models using EXE, the original ESM, and our improved ESM (called
ESM+). Our results show that EXE and ESM have high false positive and negative
rates of 11.3% and 13.9%, while ESM+ gives those of 0.1% and 2.6% respectively,
providing a significantly more stable evaluation. We release the ESM+ script as
open-source for the community to contribute, while enjoying a more reliable
assessment of Text-to-SQL.


  Let $G$ be an infinite abelian group with $|2G|=|G|$. We show that if $G$ is
not the direct sum of a group of exponent 3 and the group of order 2, then $G$
possesses a perfect additive basis; that is, there is a subset $S\subseteq G$
such that every element of $G$ is uniquely representable as a sum of two
elements of $S$. Moreover, if $G$ \emph{is} the direct sum of a group of
exponent 3 and the group of order 2, then it does not have a perfect additive
basis; however, in this case there is a subset $S\subseteq G$ such that every
element of $G$ has at most two representations (distinct under permuting the
summands) as a sum of two elements of $S$. This solves completely the
Erdos-Turan problem for infinite groups.
  It is also shown that if $G$ is an abelian group of exponent 2, then there is
a subset $S\subseteq G$ such that every element of $G$ has a representation as
a sum of two elements of $S$, and the number of representations of non-zero
elements is bounded by an absolute constant.


  XML is based on two essential aspects: the modelization of data in a tree
like structure and the separation between the information itself and the way it
is displayed. XML structures are easily serializable. The separation between an
abstract representation and one or several views on it allows the elaboration
of specialized interfaces to visualize or modify data. A lot of developments
were made to interact with XML data but the use of these applications over the
Internet is just starting. This paper presents a prototype of a distributed
editing environment over the Internet. The key point of our system is the way
user interactions are handled. Selections and modifications made by a user are
not directly reflected on the concrete view, they are serialized in XML and
transmitted to a server which applies them to the document and broadcasts
updates to the views. This organization has several advantages. XML documents
coding selection and modification operations are usually smaller than the
edited document and can be directly processed with a transformation engine
which can adapt them to different representations. In addition, several
selections or modifications can be combined into an unique XML document. This
allows one to update multiple views with different frequencies and fits the
requirement of an asynchronous communication mode like HTTP.


  Massive black holes (MBHs) inhabit galaxy centers, power luminous quasars and
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and shape their cosmic environment with the energy
they produce. The origins of MBHs remain a mystery and the recent detection by
LIGO/Virgo of an almost 150 solar mass black hole has revitalized the question
of whether there is a continuum between "stellar" and "massive" black holes and
what the seeds of MBHs are. Seeds could have formed in the first galaxies, or
could be also related to the collapse of horizon-sized regions in the early
Universe. Understanding the origins of MBHs straddles fundamental physics,
cosmology and astrophysics and it bridges the fields of gravitational wave
physics and traditional astronomy. With several facilities in the next 10-15
years we foresee the possibility of discovering MBHs' avenues of formation. In
this article we link three main topics: the channels of black hole seed
formation, the journey from seeds to massive black holes, the diagnostics on
the origins of MBHs. We highlight and critically discuss current unsolved
problems and touch on recent developments that stirred the community.


  We provide a data-driven framework for optimal control of a continuous-time
stochastic dynamical system. The proposed framework relies on the linear
operator theory involving linear Perron-Frobenius (P-F) and Koopman operators.
Our first results involving the P-F operator provide a convex formulation to
the optimal control problem in the dual space of densities. This convex
formulation of the stochastic optimal control problem leads to an
infinite-dimensional convex program. The finite-dimensional approximation of
the convex program is obtained using a data-driven approximation of the P-F
operator. Our second results demonstrate the use of the Koopman operator, which
is dual to the P-F operator, for the stochastic optimal control design. We show
that the Hamilton Jacobi Bellman (HJB) equation can be expressed using the
Koopman operator. We provide an iterative procedure along the lines of a
popular policy iteration algorithm based on the data-driven approximation of
the Koopman operator for solving the HJB equation. The two formulations, namely
the convex formulation involving P-F operator and Koopman based formulation
using HJB equation, can be viewed as dual to each other where the duality
follows due to the dual nature of P-F and Koopman operators. Finally, we
present several numerical examples to demonstrate the efficacy of the developed
framework.


  We present a number of complete sets of series expansion formulas for
neutrino oscillation probabilities in matter of constant density for three
flavors. In particular, we study expansions in the mass hierarchy parameter
$\alpha \equiv \Delta m_{21}^2/\Delta m_{31}^2$ and mixing parameter $s_{13}
\equiv \sin \theta_{13}$ up to second order and expansions only in $\alpha$ and
only in $s_{13}$ up to first order. For each type of expansion we also present
the corresponding formulas for neutrino oscillations in vacuum.We perform a
detailed analysis of the accuracy of the different sets of series expansion
formulas and investigate which type of expansion is most accurate in different
regions of the parameter space spanned by the neutrino energy E, the baseline
length L, and the expansion parameters $\alpha$ and $s_{13}$.We also present
the formulas for series expansions in $\alpha$ and in $s_{13}$ up to first
order for the case of arbitrary matter density profiles. Furthermore, it is
shown that in general all the 18 neutrino and antineutrino oscillation
probabilities can be expressed through just two independent probabilites.


  In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital content creation, the demand for
fast, convenient, and autonomous methods of crafting detailed 3D
reconstructions of humans has grown significantly. Addressing this pressing
need, our AirNeRF system presents an innovative pathway to the creation of a
realistic 3D human avatar. Our approach leverages Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF)
with an automated drone-based video capturing method. The acquired data
provides a swift and precise way to create high-quality human body
reconstructions following several stages of our system. The rigged mesh derived
from our system proves to be an excellent foundation for free-view synthesis of
dynamic humans, particularly well-suited for the immersive experiences within
gaming and virtual reality.


  We study decoherence induced on a two-level system coupled to a
one-dimensional quantum spin chain. We consider the cases where the dynamics of
the chain is determined by the Ising, XY, or Heisenberg exchange Hamiltonian.
This model of quantum baths can be of fundamental importance for the
understanding of decoherence in open quantum systems, since it can be
experimentally engineered by using atoms in optical lattices. As an example,
here we show how to implement a pure dephasing model for a qubit system coupled
to an interacting spin bath. We provide results that go beyond the case of a
central spin coupled uniformly to all the spins of the bath, in particular
showing what happens when the bath enters different phases, or becomes
critical; we also study the dependence of the coherence loss on the number of
bath spins to which the system is coupled and we describe a
coupling-independent regime in which decoherence exhibits universal features,
irrespective of the system-environment coupling strength. Finally, we establish
a relation between decoherence and entanglement inside the bath. For the Ising
and the XY models we are able to give an exact expression for the decay of
coherences, while for the Heisenberg bath we resort to the numerical
time-dependent Density Matrix Renormalization Group.


  Identification of the reference set for each decision making unit (DMU) is a
main concern in the data envelopment analysis (DEA). All of the methods
developed to date have been focused on finding the furthest reference DMUs. In
this paper, we introduce the new notion of maximal closest reference set (MCRS)
containing the maximum number of closest reference DMUs to the assessed DMU.
Then, we develop a linear programming (LP) model for determining the MCRS for
each inefficient DMU. We illustrate our method through a numerical example.


  Analysis of quantum dot structures is a current topic with important
applications in solid-state digital logic design, quantum information
technology and quantum optics. In this work, we show a variational formulation
for the solution of the effective two-level approach of the analysis of
electron localization in two coupled quantum dots. Numerical results are
presented as well the use of electron localization in the realization of a
configurable logic circuit using quantum-dot cellular automata.


  We consider the impact of disorder on the spectrum of three-dimensional
nodal-line semimetals. We show that the combination of disorder and a tilted
spectrum naturally leads to a non-Hermitian self-energy contribution that can
split a nodal line into a pair of exceptional lines. These exceptional lines
form the boundary of an open and orientable bulk Fermi ribbon in reciprocal
space on which the energy gap vanishes. We find that the orientation and shape
of such a disorder-induced bulk Fermi ribbon is controlled by the tilt
direction and the disorder properties, which can also be exploited to realize a
twisted bulk Fermi ribbon with nontrivial winding number. Our results put
forward a paradigm for the exploration of non-Hermitian topological phases of
matter.


  Demand response (DR) programs aim to engage distributed small-scale flexible
loads, such as thermostatically controllable loads (TCLs), to provide various
grid support services. Linearly Solvable Markov Decision Process (LS-MDP), a
variant of the traditional MDP, is used to model aggregated TCLs. Then, a
model-free reinforcement learning technique called Z-learning is applied to
learn the value function and derive the optimal policy for the DR aggregator to
control TCLs. The learning process is robust against uncertainty that arises
from estimating the passive dynamics of the aggregated TCLs. The efficiency of
this data-driven learning is demonstrated through simulations on Heating,
Cooling & Ventilation (HVAC) units in a testbed neighborhood of residential
houses.


  A locally-primitive design is a block design $(\mathcal{P},\mathcal{B})$
which admits an automorphism group $G$ with primitive local actions. It is
proved that $G$ is primitive on the points $\mathcal{P}$, and either $G$ is an
almost simple group, or $G$ acting on $\mathcal{P}$ is an affine group.


  X-Ray transition energies and isotope shifts in heavy atoms are evaluated.
The energy levels with vacancies in the inner shells are calculated within the
approximation of the average of nonrelativistic configuration employing the
Dirac-Fock-Sturm method. The obtained results are compared with other
configuration-interaction theoretical calculations and with experimental data.


  The production of gluons in a jet is considered in limited phase space,
either with a cut in transverse momentum with respect to the jet axis
$k_\perp<k_\perp^{cut}$ or with a cut in absolute momentum $|\vec{k} |
<k^{cut}$. It is shown in the perturbative QCD calculations that in the soft
limit $k_\perp^{cut} \to 0$ the multiplicity distribution becomes Poissonian,
whereas for $k^{cut} \to 0$ the distribution remains non-Poissonian. The
Poissonian limit is a consequence of the soft gluon coherence in the genuine
multiparticle correlations. We also investigate how incoherent hadronization
processes could possibly modify the predictions for small cut-off parameters.


  The inclusive A(gamma,pi+ pi-)X reaction is studied theoretically. A sizeable
enhancement of the cross section is found, in comparison with the scaling of
the deuteron cross section (sigma_deuteron * A/2). This enhancement is due to
the modifications in the nuclear medium of the gamma N ----> pi pi N amplitude
and the pion dispersion relation. The enhancement is found to be bigger than
the one already observed in the (pi,pi pi) reaction in nuclei.


  A method is presented for automatically augmenting the bilingual lexicon of
an existing Machine Translation system, by extracting bilingual entries from
aligned bilingual text. The proposed method only relies on the resources
already available in the MT system itself. It is based on the use of bilingual
lexical templates to match the terminal symbols in the parses of the aligned
sentences.


  There are multiple mappings that can be used to generate what we call the
'edge geometry' of a regular N-gon, but they are all based on piecewise
isometries acting on the extended edges of N to form a 'singularity' set W.
This singularity set is also known as the 'web' because it is connected and
consists of rays or line segments, with possible accumulation points in the
limit. We will use three such maps here, all of which appear to share the same
local geometry of W. These mappings are the outer-billiards map Tau, the
digital-filter map Df and the 'dual-center' map Dc. In 'Outer-billiards,
digital filters and kicked Hamiltonians' (arXiv:1206.5223) we show that the Df
and Dc maps are equivalent to a 'shear and rotation' in a toral space and the
complex plane respectively, and in 'First Families of Regular Polygons and
their Mutations' (arXiv:1612.09295) we show that the Tau-web W can also be
reduced to a shear and rotation. This equivalence of maps supports the premise
that this web geometry is inherent in the N-gon. Since the topology of W is
complex, we hope to make some progress by studying the region local to N. The
edges of every regular N-gon are part of a Tau-invariant region that should
include at least 1/4 of the 'First Family' S[k] tiles defined by N. The
emphasis here are the S[1] and S[2] tiles adjacent to N, but we will also study
their interaction with neighboring tiles. Since all S[k] tiles evolve in a
multi-step fashion, it is possible to make predictions about the
'next-generation' tiles which survive in the web. The Edge Conjecture defines
just 8 classes of N-gons so there is an 'Eightfold Way' for regular polygons.


  We study the topology of the configuration spaces $C(n,w)$ of $n$ hard disks
of unit diameter in an infinite strip of width $w$. We describe ranges of
parameter or "regimes", where homology $H_j [C(n,w)]$ behaves in qualitatively
different ways.
  We show that if $w \ge j+2$, then the homology $H_j[C(n, w)]$ is isomorphic
to the homology of the configuration space of points in the plane, $H_j[C(n,
\mathbb{R}^2)]$. The Betti numbers of $C(n, \mathbb{R}^2) $ were computed by
Arnold, and so as a corollary of the isomorphism, $\beta_j[C(n,w)]$ is a
polynomial in $n$ of degree $2j$.
  On the other hand, we show that if $2 \le w \le j+1$, then $\beta_j [ C(n,w)
]$ grows exponentially with $n$. Most of our work is in carefully estimating
$\beta_j [ C(n,w) ]$ in this regime.
  We also illustrate, for every $n$, the homological "phase portrait" in the
$(w,j)$-plane--- the parameter values where homology $H_j [C(n,w)]$ is trivial,
nontrivial, and isomorphic with $H_j [C(n, \mathbb{R}^2)]$. Motivated by the
notion of phase transitions for hard-spheres systems, we discuss these as the
"homological solid, liquid, and gas" regimes.


  We determine the fundamental limit of the microresonator field uniformity. It
can be achieved in a specially designed microresonator, called a bat
microresonator, fabricated at the optical fiber surface. We show that the
relative nonuniformity of an eigenmode amplitude along the axial length $L$ of
an ideal bat microresonator cannot be smaller than ${{\frac{1}{3}}}{\pi
}^2n^4_r{\lambda }^{-4}Q^{-2}L^4$, where $n_r,\ \lambda $ and $Q$ are its
refractive index, the eigenmode wavelength and Q-factor. In the absence of
losses ($Q=\infty $), this eigenmode has the amplitude independent of axial
coordinate and zero axial speed (i.e., is stopped) within the length $L$. For a
silica microresonator with $Q={10}^8$ this eigenmode has the axial speed
$\mathrm{\sim}$ 10${}^{-4}$c, where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and its
nonuniformity along the length 100 micron at wavelength $\lambda =1.5$ micron
is $\mathrm{\sim}$ 10${}^{-7}$. For a realistic fiber with diameter 100 micron
and surface roughness 0.2 nm, the smallest eigenmode nonuniformity is
$\mathrm{\sim}$ 0.0003. As an application, we consider a bat microresonator
evanescently coupled to high Q-factor silica microspheres which serves as a
reference supporting the angstrom-precise straight-line translation over the
distance $L$ exceeding a hundred microns.


  In clinical practice, regions of interest in medical imaging often need to be
identified through a process of precise image segmentation. The quality of this
image segmentation step critically affects the subsequent clinical assessment
of the patient status. To enable high accuracy, automatic image segmentation,
we introduce a novel deep neural network architecture that exploits the
inherent spatial coherence of anatomical structures and is well equipped to
capture long-range spatial dependencies in the segmented pixel/voxel space. In
contrast to the state-of-the-art solutions based on convolutional layers, our
approach leverages on recently introduced spatial dependency layers that have
an unbounded receptive field and explicitly model the inductive bias of spatial
coherence. Our method performs favourably to commonly used U-Net and U-Net++
architectures as demonstrated by improved Dice and Jaccardscore in three
different medical segmentation tasks: nuclei segmentation in microscopy images,
polyp segmentation in colonoscopy videos, and liver segmentation in abdominal
CT scans.


  The two-chain model of correlated fermions, appropriate e.g. for doped spin
ladders or carbon nanotubes, is investigated in the weak-interaction limit. It
is shown that the model scales to situations with high internal symmetries,
generically SO(6), whereas on critical lines there is SO(5) or SO(3) symmetry.
Consequences for the level spectroscopy of the model are discussed. In
particular, the ``pi-mode'' is shown to be sixfold degenerate and contains both
spin and charge excitations.


  There is an extensive literature on methods for meta-analysis of diagnostic
studies, but it mainly focuses on a single test. However, the better
understanding of a particular disease has led to the development of multiple
tests. A multinomial generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) is recently proposed
for the joint meta-analysis of studies comparing multiple tests. We propose a
novel model for the joint meta-analysis of multiple tests, which assumes
independent multinomial distributions for the counts of each combination of
test results in diseased and non-diseased patients, conditional on the latent
vector of probabilities of each combination of test results in diseased and
non-diseased patients. For the random effects distribution of the latent
proportions, we employ a truncated drawable vine copula that can cover flexible
dependence structures. The proposed model includes the multinomial GLMM as a
special case, but can also operate on the original scale of the latent
proportions. Our methodology is demonstrated with a simulation study and using
a meta-analysis of screening for Down syndrome with two tests: shortened
humerus and shortened femur. The comparison of our method with the multinomial
GLMM yields findings in the real data meta-analysis that change the current
conclusions.


  We develop the formalism for calculating arbitrary expectation values for any
extensive lattice Hamiltonian system using a new analytic Lanczos expansion, or
plaquette expansion, and a recently proved exact theorem for ground state
energies. The ground state energy, staggered magnetisation and the excited
state gap of the 2D anisotropic antiferromagnetic Heisenberg Model are then
calculated using this expansion for a range of anisotropy parameters and
compared to other moment based techniques, such as the "t"-expansion, and
spin-wave theory and series expansion methods. We find that far from the
isotropic point all moment methods give essentially very similar results, but
near the isotropic point the plaquette expansion is generally better than the
others.


  Spherical microphone arrays (SMAs) and spherical loudspeaker arrays (SLAs)
facilitate the study of room acoustics due to the three-dimensional analysis
they provide. More recently, systems that combine both arrays, referred to as
multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, have been proposed due to the
added spatial diversity they facilitate. The literature provides frameworks for
designing SMAs and SLAs separately, including error analysis from which the
operating frequency range (OFR) of an array is defined. However, such a
framework does not exist for the joint design of a SMA and a SLA that comprise
a MIMO system. This paper develops a design framework for MIMO systems based on
a model that addresses errors and highlights the importance of a matched
design. Expanding on a free-field assumption, errors are incorporated
separately for each array and error bounds are defined, facilitating error
analysis for the system. The dependency of the error bounds on the SLA and SMA
parameters is studied and it is recommended that parameters should be chosen to
assure matched OFRs of the arrays in MIMO system design. A design example is
provided, demonstrating the superiority of a matched system over an unmatched
system in the synthesis of directional room impulse responses.


  We present the various constructions of new symplectic $4$-manifolds with
non-negative signatures using the complex surfaces on the BMY line $c_1^2 =
9\chi_h$, the Cartwright-Steger surfaces, the quotients of Hirzebruch's certain
line-arrangement surfaces, along with the exotic symplectic $4$-manifolds
constructed in \cite{AP2, AS}. In particular, our constructions yield to (i) an
irreducible symplectic and infinitely many non-symplectic $4$-manifolds that
are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $(2n-1)CP^{2}\#(2n-1)\bar{CP}^{2}$
for each integer $n \geq 9$, (ii) the families of simply connected irreducible
nonspin symplectic $4$-manifolds that have the smallest Euler characteristics
among the all known simply connected $4$-manifolds with positive signatures and
with more than one smooth structure. We also construct a complex surface with
positive signature from the Hirzebruch's line-arrangement surfaces, which is a
ball quotient.


  We provide the solution for a fundamental problem of geometric optimization
by giving a complete characterization of worst-case optimal disk coverings of
rectangles: For any $\lambda\geq 1$, the critical covering area $A^*(\lambda)$
is the minimum value for which any set of disks with total area at least
$A^*(\lambda)$ can cover a rectangle of dimensions $\lambda\times 1$.
  We show that there is a threshold value $\lambda_2 = \sqrt{\sqrt{7}/2 - 1/4}
\approx 1.035797\ldots$, such that for $\lambda<\lambda_2$ the critical
covering area $A^*(\lambda)$ is $A^*(\lambda)=3\pi\left(\frac{\lambda^2}{16}
+\frac{5}{32} + \frac{9}{256\lambda^2}\right)$, and for $\lambda\geq
\lambda_2$, the critical area is $A^*(\lambda)=\pi(\lambda^2+2)/4$; these
values are tight.
  For the special case $\lambda=1$, i.e., for covering a unit square, the
critical covering area is $\frac{195\pi}{256}\approx 2.39301\ldots$. The proof
uses a careful combination of manual and automatic analysis, demonstrating the
power of the employed interval arithmetic technique.


  The MHD version of the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code, MG, has been
employed to study the interaction of thermal instability, magnetic fields and
gravity through 3D simulations of the formation of collapsing cold clumps on
the scale of a few parsecs, inside a larger molecular cloud. The diffuse atomic
initial condition consists of a stationary, thermally unstable, spherical cloud
in pressure equilibrium with lower density surroundings and threaded by a
uniform magnetic field. This cloud was seeded with 10% density perturbations at
the finest initial grid level around n=1.1 cm^{-3} and evolved with
self-gravity included from the outset. Several cloud diameters were considered
(100 pc, 200 pc and 400 pc) equating to several cloud masses (17,000 Msun,
136,000 Msun and 1.1x10^6 Msun). Low-density magnetic-field-aligned striations
were observed as the clouds collapse along the field lines into disc-like
structures. The induced flow along field lines leads to oscillations of the
sheet about the gravitational minimum and an integral-shaped appearance. When
magnetically supercritical, the clouds then collapse and generate hourglass
magnetic field configurations with strongly intensified magnetic fields,
reproducing observational behaviour. Resimulation of a region of the highest
mass cloud at higher resolution forms gravitationally-bound collapsing clumps
within the sheet that contain clump-frame supersonic (M~5) and super-Alfvenic
(M_A~4) velocities. Observationally realistic density and velocity power
spectra of the cloud and densest clump are obtained. Future work will use these
realistic initial conditions to study individual star and cluster feedback.


  We briefly review some selected topics gravitating around large scale
structures. We derive from inflation the evolution of dark matter
perturbations. The stress is put on the non-linear regime of structures
formation, with a particular emphasis on relativistic effects, the Effective
Field Theory approach, the role of dark energy and the possibility of
inhomogeneous universes.


  Thickenings of a metric space capture local geometric properties of the
space. Here we exhibit applications of lower bounding the topology of
thickenings of the circle and more generally the sphere. We explain
interconnections with the geometry of circle actions on Euclidean space, the
structure of zeros of trigonometric polynomials, and theorems of Borsuk-Ulam
type. We use the combinatorial and geometric structure of the convex hull of
orbits of circle actions on Euclidean space to give geometric proofs of the
homotopy type of metric thickenings of the circle.
  Homotopical connectivity bounds of thickenings of the sphere allow us to
prove that a weighted average of function values of odd maps $S^n \to
\mathbb{R}^{n+2}$ on a small diameter set is zero. We prove an additional
generalization of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem for odd maps $S^{2n-1} \to
\mathbb{R}^{2kn+2n-1}$. We prove such results for odd maps from the circle to
any Euclidean space with optimal quantitative bounds. This in turn implies that
any raked homogeneous trigonometric polynomial has a zero on a subset of the
circle of a specific diameter; these results are optimal.


  In this paper, we give a generalization of Hicks type contractions and Golet
type contractions on fuzzy metric spaces. We prove some fixed point theorems
for this new type contractions mappings on fuzzy metric spaces.


  The fixed kernel function-based Cohen's class time-frequency distributions
(CCTFDs) allow flexibility in denoising for some specific polluted signals. Due
to the limitation of fixed kernel functions, however, from the view point of
filtering they fail to automatically adjust the response according to the
change of signal to adapt to different signal characteristics. In this letter,
we integrate Wiener filter principle and the time-frequency filtering mechanism
of CCTFD to design the least-squares adaptive filter method in the Wigner-Ville
distribution (WVD) domain, giving birth to the least-squares adaptive
filter-based CCTFD whose kernel function can be adjusted with the input signal
automatically to achieve the minimum mean-square error denoising in the WVD
domain. Some examples are also carried out to demonstrate that the proposed
adaptive CCTFD outperforms some state-of-the-arts in noise suppression.


  An invariant of three-dimensional orientable manifolds is built on the base
of a solution of pentagon equation expressed in terms of metric characteristics
of Euclidean tetrahedra.