title:
Calculations of gamma-ray spectral profiles of linear alkanes in the
  positron annihilation process

abstract:
  The positron-electron annihilation gamma-ray spectra of linear alkanes
CnH2n+2 (n=1-12) have been studied systematically. A profile quality (PQ)
parameter, is introduced to assess the agreement between the obtained
theoretical profiles and the experimental measurements in the entire region of
energy shift of the spectra. Together with the Doppler shift of the gamma-ray
spectra, the two parameters,PQ and Doppler shift, are able to provide a more
comprehensive assessment of the calculated gamma-ray spectra with respect to
available experiment. Applying the recently developed docking model, the
present study determines the positrophilic electrons for individual alkanes
from which the gamma-ray spectral profiles are calculated. The results achieve
an excellent agreement with experiment, not only with respect to the Doppler
shift, but also with respect to the gamma-ray profiles in the photon energy
region up to 5 keV. The study further calculates the gamma-ray spectra of other
linear alkanes in the series without available experimental measurements, such
as heptane (C7H16), octane (C8H18), decane (C10H22) and undecane (C11H24). The
results obtained show a dominance of the positrophilic electrons in the lowest
occupied valence orbital (LOVO) in the positron-electron annihilation process,
in agreement with previous studies.


title:
Eigenvalue, Quadratic Programming, and Semidefinite Programming Bounds
  for a Cut Minimization Problem

abstract:
  We consider the problem of partitioning the node set of a graph into $k$ sets
of given sizes in order to \emph{minimize the cut} obtained using (removing)
the $k$-th set. If the resulting cut has value $0$, then we have obtained a
vertex separator. This problem is closely related to the graph partitioning
problem. In fact, the model we use is the same as that for the graph
partitioning problem except for a different \emph{quadratic} objective
function. We look at known and new bounds obtained from various relaxations for
this NP-hard problem. This includes: the standard eigenvalue bound, projected
eigenvalue bounds using both the adjacency matrix and the Laplacian, quadratic
programming (QP) bounds based on recent successful QP bounds for the quadratic
assignment problems, and semidefinite programming bounds. We include numerical
tests for large and \emph{huge} problems that illustrate the efficiency of the
bounds in terms of strength and time.


title: Stability Analysis of QR factorization in an Oblique Inner Product

abstract:
  In this paper we consider the stability of the QR factorization in an oblique
inner product. The oblique inner product is defined by a symmetric positive
definite matrix A. We analyze two algorithm that are based a factorization of A
and converting the problem to the Euclidean case. The two algorithms we
consider use the Cholesky decomposition and the eigenvalue decomposition. We
also analyze algorithms that are based on computing the Cholesky factor of the
normal equa- tion. We present numerical experiments to show the error bounds
are tight. Finally we present performance results for these algorithms as well
as Gram-Schmidt methods on parallel architecture. The performance experiments
demonstrate the benefit of the communication avoiding algorithms.


title: Quantum Gates with Controlled Adiabatic Evolutions

abstract:
  We introduce a class of quantum adiabatic evolutions that we claim may be
interpreted as the equivalents of the unitary gates of the quantum gate model.
We argue that these gates form a universal set and may therefore be used as
building blocks in the construction of arbitrary `adiabatic circuits',
analogously to the manner in which gates are used in the circuit model. One
implication of the above construction is that arbitrary classical boolean
circuits as well as gate model circuits may be directly translated to adiabatic
algorithms with no additional resources or complexities. We show that while
these adiabatic algorithms fail to exhibit certain aspects of the inherent
fault tolerance of traditional quantum adiabatic algorithms, they may have
certain other experimental advantages acting as quantum gates.


title:
Soft x-ray photoemission study of new BiS$_{2}$-layered superconductor
  LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$

abstract:
  We use core level and valence band soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy
(SXPES) to investigate electronic structure of new BiS$_{2}$ layered
superconductor LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$. Core level spectra of doped samples
show a new spectral feature at the lower binding energy side of the Bi 4${f}$
main peak, which may be explained by core-hole screening with metallic states
near the Fermi level ($E_{\rm F}$). Experimental electronic structure and its
${x}$ dependence (higher binding energy shift of the valence band as well as
appearance of new states near $E_{\rm F}$ having dominant Bi 6${p}$ character)
were found to be consistent with the predictions of band structure calculations
in general. Noticeable deviation of the spectral shape of the states near
$E_{\rm F}$ from that of calculations might give insight into the interesting
physical properties. These results provide first experimental electronic
structure of the new BiS$_{2}$ layered superconductors.


title: Streaming Video over HTTP with Consistent Quality

abstract:
  In conventional HTTP-based adaptive streaming (HAS), a video source is
encoded at multiple levels of constant bitrate representations, and a client
makes its representation selections according to the measured network
bandwidth. While greatly simplifying adaptation to the varying network
conditions, this strategy is not the best for optimizing the video quality
experienced by end users. Quality fluctuation can be reduced if the natural
variability of video content is taken into consideration. In this work, we
study the design of a client rate adaptation algorithm to yield consistent
video quality. We assume that clients have visibility into incoming video
within a finite horizon. We also take advantage of the client-side video
buffer, by using it as a breathing room for not only network bandwidth
variability, but also video bitrate variability. The challenge, however, lies
in how to balance these two variabilities to yield consistent video quality
without risking a buffer underrun. We propose an optimization solution that
uses an online algorithm to adapt the video bitrate step-by-step, while
applying dynamic programming at each step. We incorporate our solution into
PANDA -- a practical rate adaptation algorithm designed for HAS deployment at
scale.


title: Supporting MOOC Instruction with Social Network Analysis

abstract:
  With an expansive and ubiquitously available gold mine of educational data,
Massive Open Online courses (MOOCs) have become the an important foci of
learning analytics research. In this paper, we investigate potential reasons as
to why are these digitalized learning repositories being plagued with huge
attrition rates. We analyze an ongoing online course offered in Coursera using
a social network perspective, with an objective to identify students who are
actively participating in course discussions and those who are potentially at a
risk of dropping off. We additionally perform extensive forum analysis to
visualize student's posting patterns longitudinally. Our results provide
insights that can assist educational designers in establishing a pedagogical
basis for decision-making while designing MOOCs. We infer prominent
characteristics about the participation patterns of distinct groups of students
in the networked learning community, and effectively discover important
discussion threads. These methods can, despite the otherwise prohibitive number
of students involved, allow an instructor to leverage forum behavior to
identify opportunities for support.


title:
Compressible Hydrodynamic Mean-Field Equations in Spherical Geometry and
  their Application to Turbulent Stellar Convection Data

abstract:
  We present a statistical analysis of turbulent convection in stars within our
Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) framework in spherical geometry which we
derived from first principles. The primary results reported in this document
include: (1) an extensive set of mean-field equations for compressible,
multi-species hydrodynamics, and (2) corresponding mean-field data computed
from various simulation models. Some supplementary scale analysis data is also
presented.
  The simulation data which is presented includes: (1) shell convection during
oxygen burning in a 23 solar mass supernova progenitor, (2) envelope convection
in a 5 solar mass red giant, (3) shell convection during the helium flash, and
(4) a hydrogen injection flash in a 1.25 solar mass star. These simulations
have been partially described previously in Meakin [2006], Meakin and Arnett
[2007a,b, 2010], Arnett et al. [2009, 2010], Viallet et al. [2011, 2013a,b] and
Mocak et al. [2009, 2011]. New data is also included in this document with
several new domain and resolution configurations as well as some variations in
the physical model such as convection zone depth and driving source term.
  The long term goal of this work is to aid in the development of more
sophisticated models for treating hydrodynamic phenomena (e.g., turbulent
convection) in the field of stellar evolution by providing a direct link
between 3D simulation data and the mean fields which are modeled by 1D stellar
evolution codes. As such, this data can be used to test previously proposed
turbulence models found in the literature and sometimes used in stellar
modeling. This data can also serve to test basic physical principles for model
building and inspire new prescriptions for use in 1D evolution codes.


title: Testing coupled dark energy with large scale structure observation

abstract:
  The coupling between the dark components provides a new approach to mitigate
the coincidence problem of cosmological standard model. In this paper, dark
energy is treated as a fluid with a constant equation of state, whose coupling
with dark matter is $\bar{Q}=3H\xi_x\bar{\rho}_x$. In the frame of dark energy,
we derive the evolution equations for the density and velocity perturbations.
According to the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we constrain the model by
currently available cosmic observations which include cosmic microwave
background radiation, baryon acoustic oscillation, type Ia supernovae, and
$f\sigma_8(z)$ data points from redshift-space distortion. The results show the
interaction rate in 3$\sigma$ regions:
$\xi_x=0.00328_{-0.00328-0.00328-0.00328}^{+0.000736+0.00549+0.00816}$, which
means that the recently cosmic observations favor a small interaction rate
which is up to the order of $10^{-2}$, meanwhile, the measurement of
redshift-space distortion could rule out the large interaction rate in the
1$\sigma$ region.


title: Analysis of Increasing Malwares and Cyber Crimes Using Economic Approach

abstract:
  The economics of an internet crime has newly developed into a field of
controlling black money. This economic approach not only provides estimated
technique of analyzing internet crimes but also gives details to analyzers of
system dependability and divergence. This paper will highlight on the subject
of online crime, which has formed its industry since. It all started from
amateur hackers who cracked websites and wrote malicious software in pursuit of
fun or achieving limited objectives to professional hacking. In the past days,
electronic fraud was main objective but now it has been changed into electronic
hacking. This study focuses the issue through an economic analysis of available
web forum to deals in malware and private information. The findings of this
survey research provide considerable in-depth sight into the functions of
malware economy spinning around computer impositions and compromise. In this
regard, the survey research paper may benefit particularly computer security
officials, the law enforcement agencies, and in general prospective anyone
involved in better understanding cybercrime from the offender standpoint.


title: Southern class I methanol masers at 36 and 44 GHz

abstract:
  The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) has been used for high angular
resolution imaging of 71 southern class I methanol maser sources
quasi-simultaneously at 36 and 44 GHz. The data reveal a high level of
morphological and kinematical complexity, and allow us to demonstrate
associations, at arcsecond precision, of the class I maser emission with
outflows, expanding HII regions, dark clouds, shocks traced by the 4.5-micron
emission and 8.0-micron filaments. More than 700 maser component features were
found at each of the two methanol transitions, but with only 23 per cent
recognisable at both transitions; the morphology of class I emission is much
better revealed by our survey of both transitions, compared with either one
alone. We found that the number of masers falls exponentially with the
projected linear distance from the associated class II 6.7-GHz methanol maser.
This distribution has a scale of 263+/-15 mpc, irrespective of the transition.
The class I masers associated with OH masers were found to have a tendency to
be more spread out, both spatially and in the velocity domain. This is
consistent with the expectation that such sources are more evolved. Apart from
a small number of high-velocity components (which are largely blue-shifted and
predominantly seen at 36 GHz), the velocity distribution was found to be
Gaussian, peaking near the systemic velocity of the region, which had been
estimated as the middle of the velocity interval of the associated class II
methanol maser at 6.7 GHz. The mean indicated a small, but significant blue
shift asymmetry of -0.57 km/s (uncertainties are 0.06 and 0.07 km/s for the 36-
and 44-GHz masers, respectively) with respect to the 6.7-GHz masers. The
standard deviation of the velocity distribution was found to be 3.65+/-0.05 and
3.32+/-0.07 km/s for the 36- and 44-GHz masers, respectively.


title: A Note on Entropy Relations of Black Hole Horizons

abstract:
  We focus on the entropy relations of black holes in three, four and higher
dimensions. These entropy relations include entropy product, "part" entropy
product and entropy sum. We also discuss their differences and similarities, in
order to make a further study on understanding the origin of black hole entropy
at the microscopic level.


title:
Automation of Prosthetic Upper Limbs for Transhumeral Amputees Using
  Switch-controlled Motors

abstract:
  The issues of research required in the field of bio medical engineering and
externally-powered prostheses are attracting attention of regulatory bodies and
the common people in various parts of the globe. Today, 90 percent of
prostheses used are conventional body powered cable-controlled ones which are
very uncomfortable to the amputees as fairly large amount of forces and
excursions have to be generated by the amputee. Additionally, its amount of
rotation is limited. Alternatively, prosthetic limbs driven using electrical
motors might deliver added functionality and improved control, accompanied by
better cosmesis, however,it could be bulky and costly. Presently existing
proposals usually require fewer bodily response and need additional upkeep than
the cable operated prosthetic limbs. Due to the motives mentioned, proposal for
mechanization of body-powered prostheses, with ease of maintenance and cost in
mind, is presented in this paper. The prosthetic upper limb which is being
automated is for Transhumeral type of amputees that is amputated from above
elbow. The study consists of two main portions: one is lifting mechanism of the
limb and the other is gripping mechanism for the hand using switch controls,
which is the most cost effective and optimized solution, rather than using
complex and expensive myoelectric control signals.


title:
A matched alternating direction implicit (ADI) method for solving the
  heat equation with interfaces

abstract:
  A novel Douglas alternating direction implicit (ADI) method is proposed in
this work to solve a two-dimensional (2D) heat equation with interfaces. The
ADI scheme is a powerful finite difference method for solving parabolic
equations, due to its unconditional stability and high efficiency. However, it
suffers from a serious accuracy reduction in space for interface problems with
different materials and nonsmooth solutions. If the jumps in a function and its
derivatives are known across the interface, rigorous ADI schemes have been
successfully constructed in the literature based on the immersed interface
method (IIM) so that the spatial accuracy can be restored. Nevertheless, the
development of accurate and stable ADI methods for general parabolic interface
problems with physical interface conditions that describe jumps of a function
and its flux, remains unsolved. To overcome this difficulty, a novel tensor
product decomposition is proposed in this paper to decouple 2D jump conditions
into essentially one-dimensional (1D) ones. These 1D conditions can then be
incorporated into the ADI central difference discretization, using the matched
interface and boundary (MIB) technique. Fast algebraic solvers for perturbed
tridiagonal systems are developed to maintain the computational efficiency.
Stability analysis is conducted through eigenvalue spectrum analysis, which
numerically demonstrates the unconditional stability of the proposed ADI
method. The matched ADI scheme achieves the first order of accuracy in time and
second order of accuracy in space in all tested parabolic interface problems
with complex geometries and spatial-temporal dependent jump conditions.


title:
Transition from Analysis to Software Design: A Review and New
  Perspective

abstract:
  Analysis and design phases are the most crucial part of the software
development life-cycle. Reusing the artifacts of these early phases is very
beneficial to improve the productivity and software quality. In this paper we
analyze the literature on the automatic transformation of artifacts from the
problem space (i.e., requirement analysis models) into artifacts in the
solution space (i.e., architecture, design and implementation code). The goal
is to assess the current state of the art with regard to the ability of
automatically reusing previously developed software designs in synthesizing a
new design for a given requirement. We surveyed various related areas such as
model-driven development and model transformation techniques. Our analysis
revealed that this topic has not been satisfactorily covered yet. Accordingly,
we propose a framework consists of three stages to address uncovered
limitations in current approaches.


title:
High fidelity single-shot readout of a transmon qubit using a SLUG
  {\mu}wave amplifier

abstract:
  We report high-fidelity, quantum nondemolition, single-shot readout of a
superconducting transmon qubit using a DC-biased superconducting low-inductance
undulatory galvanometer(SLUG) amplifier. The SLUG improves the system
signal-to-noise ratio by 7 dB in a 20 MHz window compared with a bare HEMT
amplifier. An optimal cavity drive pulse is chosen using a genetic search
algorithm, leading to a maximum combined readout and preparation fidelity of
91.9% with a measurement time of Tmeas = 200ns. Using post-selection to remove
preparation errors caused by heating, we realize a combined preparation and
readout fidelity of 94.3%.


title:
Numerical study on a canonized Hamiltonian system representing reduced
  magnetohydrodynamics and its comparison with two-dimensional Euler system

abstract:
  Introducing a Clebsch-like parameterization, we have formulated a canonical
Hamiltonian system on a symplectic leaf of reduced magnetohydrodynamics. An
interesting structure of the equations is in that the Lorentz-force, which is a
quadratic nonlinear term in the conventional formulation, appears as a linear
term -{\Delta}Q, just representing the current density (Q is a Clebsch
variable, and {\Delta} is the two-dimensional Laplacian); omitting this term
reduces the system into the two-dimensional Euler vorticity equation of a
neutral fluid. A heuristic estimate shows that current sheets grow
exponentially (even in a fully nonlinear regime) together with the action
variable P that is conjugate to Q. By numerical simulation, the predicted
behavior of the canonical variables, yielding exponential growth of current
sheets, has been demonstrated.


title: Bursting transition in a linear self-exciting point process

abstract:
  Self-exciting point processes describe the manner in which every event
facilitates the occurrence of succeeding events. By increasing excitability,
the event occurrences start to exhibit bursts even in the absence of external
stimuli. We revealed that the transition is uniquely determined by the average
number of events added by a single event, $1-1/\sqrt{2} \approx 0.2929$,
independently of the temporal excitation profile. We further extended the
theory to multi-dimensional processes, to be able to incite or inhibit bursting
in networks of agents.


title: Inequalities for the Bayes Risk

abstract:
  Several inequalities are presented which, in part, generalize inequalities by
Weinstein and Weiss, giving rise to new lower bounds for the Bayes risk under
squared error loss.


title: Fitting magnetic field gradient with Heisenberg-scaling accuracy

abstract:
  We propose a quantum fitting scheme to estimate the magnetic field gradient
with $N$-atom spins preparing in W state, which attains the Heisenberg-scaling
accuracy. Our scheme combines the quantum multi-parameter estimation and the
least square linear fitting method to achieve the quantum Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound
(QCRB). We show that the estimated quantity achieves the Heisenberg-scaling
accuracy. In single parameter estimation with assumption that the magnetic
field is strictly linear, two optimal measurements can achieve the identical
Heisenberg-scaling accuracy. Proper interpretation of the
super-Heisenberg-scaling accuracy is presented. The scheme of quantum metrology
combined with data fitting provides a new method in fast high precision
measurements.


title:
On the smoothness of multi center coplanar black hole and membrane
  horizons

abstract:
  We study the differentiability of the metric and other fields at any of the
horizons of multi center Reissner-Nordstrom black hole solutions in $d \ge 5$
and of multi center $M2$ brane solutions. The centers are distributed in a
plane in transverse space, hence termed coplanar. We construct the Gaussian
null co-ordinate system for the neighborhood of a horizon by solving the
geodesic equations in expansions of (appropriate powers of) the affine
parameter. Organizing the harmonic functions that appear in the solution in
terms of what can be called generalized Gegenbauer polynomials is key to
obtaining the solution to the geodesic equations in a compact and manageable
form. We then compute the metric and other fields in the Gaussian null
co-ordinate system and find that the differentiability of the coplanar solution
is \emph{identical to} the differentiability of the collinear solution (centers
distributed on a line in transverse space). The results of this paper thus run
counter to a suggestion in the literature that posits reduction in the degree
of smoothness to accompany reduction in symmetries. We end the paper with a
conjecture on the degree of smoothness of the most general multi center
solution, the one with centers distributed arbitrarily and hence possessing no
transverse spatial isometries.


title:
Dynamics of clumps embedded in a hot accretion flow with toroidal
  magnetic field

abstract:
  Dynamics of clumps within a magnetized advection dominated accretion flow is
investigated by solving the collisionless Boltzmann equation and considering
the drag force due to the relative velocity between the clumps and the gas.
Toroidal component of the magnetic field is assumed to be dominant. Dynamical
properties of the hot gaseous component such as the radial and the rotational
velocities are affected by the magnetic effects, and so, drag force varies
depending on the strength of magnetic field and the velocity dispersion of the
clumps is then modified significantly. We show that when magnetic pressure is
less than the gas pressure, the root of the averaged radial velocity square of
the clumps decreases at the inner parts of the hot flow and increases slightly
at its outer edge.


title: Goal-Oriented Setup and Usage of Custom-Tailored Software Cockpits

abstract:
  Software Cockpits, also known as Software Project Control Centers, support
the management and controlling of software and system development projects and
provide means for quantitative measurement-based project control. Currently,
many companies are developing simple control dashboards that are mainly based
on Spreadsheet applications. Alternatively, they use solutions providing a
fixed set of project control functionality that cannot be sufficiently
customized to their specific needs and goals. Specula is a systematic approach
for defining reusable, customizable control components and instantiate them
according to different organizational goals and characteristics based on the
Quality Improvement Paradigm (QIP) and GQM. This article gives an overview of
the Specula approach, including the basic conceptual model, goal-oriented
measurement, and the composition of control components based on explicitly
stated measurement goals. Related approaches are discussed and the use of
Specula as part of industrial case studies is described.


title:
Majorana Fermions and Multiple Topological Phase Transition in Kitaev
  Ladder Topological Superconductors

abstract:
  Motivated by the InSb nanowire superconductor system, we investigate a system
where one-dimensional topological superconductors are placed in parallel. It
would be simulated well by a ladder of the Kitaev chains. The system undergoes
multiple topological phase transitions, where the number of Majorana fermions
changes as a function of the interchain superconducting pairings. We
analytically determine the topological phase diagram by explicitly calculating
the topological number and the band structure. They show even-odd effects with
respect to the number of legs of the ladder. When the relative phase between
the inter- and intrachain superconducting pairings is 0 or $\pi$, the system
belongs to the class BDI characterized by the $\mathbb{Z}$ index, and otherwise
it belongs to the class D characterized by the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ index. This
topological class change would be caused by applying the Josephson current or
an external magnetic field, and could be observed by measuring the zero-bias
differential conductance.


title:
Scalable Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing Methodology for Genome-Wide
  Association Studies

abstract:
  The protection of privacy of individual-level information in genome-wide
association study (GWAS) databases has been a major concern of researchers
following the publication of "an attack" on GWAS data by Homer et al. (2008)
Traditional statistical methods for confidentiality and privacy protection of
statistical databases do not scale well to deal with GWAS data, especially in
terms of guarantees regarding protection from linkage to external information.
The more recent concept of differential privacy, introduced by the
cryptographic community, is an approach that provides a rigorous definition of
privacy with meaningful privacy guarantees in the presence of arbitrary
external information, although the guarantees may come at a serious price in
terms of data utility. Building on such notions, Uhler et al. (2013) proposed
new methods to release aggregate GWAS data without compromising an individual's
privacy. We extend the methods developed in Uhler et al. (2013) for releasing
differentially-private $\chi^2$-statistics by allowing for arbitrary number of
cases and controls, and for releasing differentially-private allelic test
statistics. We also provide a new interpretation by assuming the controls' data
are known, which is a realistic assumption because some GWAS use publicly
available data as controls. We assess the performance of the proposed methods
through a risk-utility analysis on a real data set consisting of DNA samples
collected by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium and compare the methods
with the differentially-private release mechanism proposed by Johnson and
Shmatikov (2013).


title:
Fundamental Finite Key Limits for One-Way Information Reconciliation in
  Quantum Key Distribution

abstract:
  The security of quantum key distribution protocols is guaranteed by the laws
of quantum mechanics. However, a precise analysis of the security properties
requires tools from both classical cryptography and information theory. Here,
we employ recent results in non-asymptotic classical information theory to show
that one-way information reconciliation imposes fundamental limitations on the
amount of secret key that can be extracted in the finite key regime. In
particular, we find that an often used approximation for the information
leakage during information reconciliation is not generally valid. We propose an
improved approximation that takes into account finite key effects and
numerically test it against codes for two probability distributions, that we
call binary-binary and binary-Gaussian, that typically appear in quantum key
distribution protocols.


title: On Diophantine quintuple Conjecture

abstract:
  In this note, we prove that if $\{a,b,c,d,e\}$ with $a<b<c<d<e$ is a
Diophantine quintuple, then $d<10^{76}$.


title: Survival of water ice in Jupiter Trojans

abstract:
  Jupiter Trojans appear to be a key population of small bodies to study and
test the models of the Solar System formation and evolution. Because
understanding the evolution of Trojans can bring strong and unique constraints
on the origins of our planetary system, a significant observational effort has
been undertaken to unveil their physical characteristics. The data gathered so
far are consistent with Trojans having volatile-rich interiors (possibly water
ice) and volatile-poor surfaces (fine grained silicates). Since water ice is
not thermodynamically stable against sublimation at the surface of an object
located at ~5 AU, such layering seems consistent with past outgassing. In this
work, we study the thermal history of Trojans after the formation of a dust
mantle by possible past outgassing, so as to constrain the depth at which water
ice could be stable. We find that it could have survived 100 m below the
surface, even if Trojans orbited close to the Sun for ~10,000 years, as
suggested by the most recent dynamical models. Water ice should be found ~10 m
below the surface in most cases, and below 10 cm in the polar regions in some
cases.


title:
A user-friendly nano-CT image alignment and 3D reconstruction platform
  based on LabVIEW

abstract:
  X-ray computed tomography at the nanometer scale (nano-CT) offers a wide
range of applications in scientific and industrial areas. Here we describe a
reliable, user-friendly and fast software package based on LabVIEW that may
allow to perform all procedures after the acquisition of raw projection images
in order to obtain the inner structure of the investigated sample. A suitable
image alignment process to address misalignment problems among image series due
to mechanical manufacturing errors, thermal expansion and other external
factors has been considered together with a novel fast parallel beam 3D
reconstruction procedure, developed ad hoc to perform the tomographic
reconstruction. Remarkably improved reconstruction results obtained at the
Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility after the image calibration confirmed
the fundamental role of this image alignment procedure that minimizes unwanted
blurs and additional streaking artifacts always present in reconstructed
slices. Moreover, this nano-CT image alignment and its associated 3D
reconstruction procedure fully based on LabVIEW routines, significantly reduce
the data post-processing cycle, thus making faster and easier the activity of
the users during experimental runs.


title:
Detecting Requirements Defects Utilizing A Mathematical Framework for
  Behavior Engineering

abstract:
  Behavior Engineering (BE) provides a rigorous way to derive a formal
specification of a software system from the requirements written in natural
language. Its graphical specification language, Behavior Tree (BT), has been
used with success in industry to systematically translate large, complex, and
often erroneous requirements into an integrated model of the software system.
BE's process, the Behavior Modeling Process (BMP), allows requirements to be
translated into individual requirement BTs one at a time, which are then
integrated to form a holistic view of the system. The integrated BT then goes
through a series of modifications to construct a specification BT, which is
used for validation and verification. The BMP also addresses different types of
defects in the requirements throughout its process. However, BT itself is a
graphical modeling notation, and the types of integration relations, how they
correspond to particular issues, how they should be integrated and how to get
formal specification have not been clearly defined. As a result, the BMP is
informal, and provides guidelines to perform all these tasks on an ad-hoc
basis. In this paper, we first introduce a mathematical framework which defines
the graphical form of BTs which we use to define the integration relationships
of BTs and to formalize the integration strategy of the BMP. We then formulate
semi-automated requirements defects detection techniques by utilizing this
underlying mathematical framework, which may be extended to formalize the BMP,
develop change management framework for it, build techniques for round-trip
engineering and so on.


title: Geometric phase at graphene edge

abstract:
  We study the scattering phase shift of Dirac fermions at graphene edge. We
find that when a plane wave of a Dirac fermion is reflected at an edge of
graphene, its reflection phase is shifted by the geometric phase resulting from
the change of the pseudospin of the Dirac fermion in the reflection. The
geometric phase is the Pancharatnam-Berry phase that equals the half of the
solid angle on Bloch sphere determined by the propagation direction of the
incident wave and also by the orientation angle of the graphene edge. The
geometric phase is finite at zigzag edge in general, while it always vanishes
at armchair edge because of intervalley mixing. To demonstrate its physical
effects, we first connect the geometric phase with the energy band structure of
graphene nanoribbon with zigzag edge. The magnitude of the band gap of the
nanoribbon, that opens in the presence of the staggered sublattice potential
induced by edge magnetization, is related to the geometric phase. Second, we
numerically study the effect of the geometric phase on the Veselago lens formed
in a graphene nanoribbon. The interference pattern of the lens is distinguished
between armchair and zigzag nanoribbons, which is useful for detecting the
geometric phase.


title: Conformance Testing as Falsification for Cyber-Physical Systems

abstract:
  In Model-Based Design of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), it is often desirable
to develop several models of varying fidelity. Models of different fidelity
levels can enable mathematical analysis of the model, control synthesis, faster
simulation etc. Furthermore, when (automatically or manually) transitioning
from a model to its implementation on an actual computational platform, then
again two different versions of the same system are being developed. In all
previous cases, it is necessary to define a rigorous notion of conformance
between different models and between models and their implementations. This
paper argues that conformance should be a measure of distance between systems.
Albeit a range of theoretical distance notions exists, a way to compute such
distances for industrial size systems and models has not been proposed yet.
This paper addresses exactly this problem. A universal notion of conformance as
closeness between systems is rigorously defined, and evidence is presented that
this implies a number of other application-dependent conformance notions. An
algorithm for detecting that two systems are not conformant is then proposed,
which uses existing proven tools. A method is also proposed to measure the
degree of conformance between two systems. The results are demonstrated on a
range of models.


title:
Hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy of a Mars analogue environment at the
  North Pole Dome, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia

abstract:
  A visible and near infrared (VNIR) to shortwave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral
dataset of the Early Archaean North Pole Dome, Pilbara Craton, Western
Australia, has been analysed for indications of hydrothermal alteration.
Occurrence maps of hydrothermal alteration minerals were produced. It was found
that using a spatial resolution on the ground of approximately 5 m and spectral
coverage from 0.4 to 2.5 mm was sufficient to delineate several hydrothermal
alteration zones and associated veins, including phyllic, serpentinitic and
chloritic alteration. These results suggest this level of spectral and spatial
resolution would be ideal for localising shallow epithermal activity, should
such activity have existed, on the surface of Mars.


title: Uniform WKB, Multi-instantons, and Resurgent Trans-Series

abstract:
  We illustrate the physical significance and mathematical origin of resurgent
trans-series expansions for energy eigenvalues in quantum mechanical problems
with degenerate harmonic minima, by using the uniform WKB approach. We provide
evidence that the perturbative expansion, combined with a global eigenvalue
condition, contains all information needed to generate all orders of the
non-perturbative multi-instanton expansion. This provides a dramatic
realization of the concept of resurgence, whose structure is naturally encoded
in the resurgence triangle. We explain the relation between the uniform WKB
approach, multi-instantons, and resurgence theory. The essential idea applies
to any perturbative expansion, and so is also relevant for quantum field
theories with degenerate minima which can be continuously connected to quantum
mechanical systems.

categories: hep-th cond-mat.other math-ph math.MP quant-ph


title:
Superconducting proximity effect on a two-dimensional Dirac electron
  system

abstract:
  The superconducting proximity effect on two-dimensional massless Dirac
electrons is usually analyzed using a simple model consisting of the Dirac
Hamiltonian and an energy-independent pair potential. Although this
conventional model is plausible, it is questionable whether it can fully
describe the proximity effect from a superconductor. Here, we derive a more
general proximity model starting from an appropriate microscopic model for the
Dirac electron system in planar contact with a superconductor. The resulting
model describes the proximity effect in terms of the energy-dependent pair
potential and renormalization term. Within this framework, we analyze the
density of states, the quasiparticle wave function, and the charge conservation
of Dirac electrons. The result reveals several characteristic features of the
proximity effect, which cannot be captured within the conventional model.


title:
Overweight deformations of affine toric varieties and local
  uniformization

abstract:
  We study Abhyankar valuations of excellent equicharacteristic local domains
with an algebraically closed residue field. For zero dimensional valuations we
prove that whenever the ring is complete and the semigroup of values taken by
the valuation is finitely generated (which implies that the valuation is
Abhyankar) the valuation can be uniformized in an embedded way by a birational
map which is monomial with respect to a suitable system of generators of the
maximal ideal. We prove that conversely if a valuation is Abhyankar after a
birational modification and localization at the point picked by the valuation
one obtains a ring whose semigroup of values is finitely generated. Combining
the two results and using the good behavior of Abhyankar valuations with
respect to composition and completion gives local uniformization for all
Abhyankar valuations of excellent equicharacteristic local domains with an
algebraically closed residue field. Some general results on Abhyankar
valuations are by-products of the method of proof.


title: Light-to-matter entanglement transfer in optomechanics

abstract:
  We analyze a scheme to entangle the movable mirrors of two spatially
separated nanoresonators via a broadband squeezed light. We show that it is
possible to transfer the EPR-type continuous-variable entanglement from the
squeezed light to the mechanical motion of the movable mirrors. An optimal
entanglement transfer is achieved when the nanoresonators are tuned at
resonance with the vibrational frequencies of the movable mirrors and when
strong optomechanical coupling is attained. Stationary entanglement of the
states of the movable mirrors as strong as that of the input squeezed light can
be obtained for sufficiently large optomechanical cooperativity, achievable in
currently available optomechanical systems. The scheme can be used to implement
long distance quantum state transfer provided that the squeezed light interacts
with the nanoresonators.


title:
Computation of Minimal Graded Free Resolutions over $\mathbb{N}$-Graded
  Solvable Polynomial Algebras

abstract:
  It is shown that the methods and algorithms, developed in (A. Capani et al.,
Computing minimal finite free resolutions, {\it Journal of Pure and Applied
Algebra}, (117& 118)(1997), 105 -- 117; M. Kreuzer and L. Robbiano, {\it
Computational Commutative Algebra 2}, Springer, 2005.) for computing minimal
homogeneous generating sets of graded submodules and graded quotient modules of
free modules over a commutative polynomial algebra, can be adapted for
computing minimal homogeneous generating sets of graded submodules and graded
quotient modules of free modules over a weighted $\mathbb{N}$-graded solvable
polynomial algebra, where solvable polynomial algebras are in the sense of (A.
Kandri-Rody and V. Weispfenning, Non-commutative Gr\"obner bases in algebras of
solvable type. {\it J. Symbolic Comput.}, 9(1990), 1--26). Consequently,
algorithmic procedures for computing minimal finite graded free resolutions
over weighted $\mathbb{N}$-graded solvable polynomial algebras are achieved.


title:
Heralded linear optical quantum Fredkin gate based on one auxiliary
  qubit and one single photon detector

abstract:
  Linear optical quantum Fredkin gate can be applied to quantum computing and
quantum multi-user communication network. In the existing linear optical
scheme, two single photon detectors (SPDs) are used to heralding the success of
the quantum Fredkin gate while they have no photon count. But analysis results
show that for non-perfect SPD the lower the detector efficiency, the higher the
heralded success rate by this scheme. We propose an improved linear optical
quantum Fredkin gate by designing a new heralding scheme with an auxiliary
qubit and only one SPD, in which the higher the detection efficiency of the
heralding detector, the higher the success rate of the gate. The new heralding
scheme can also work efficiently under non-ideal single photon source. Based on
this quantum Fredkin gate, large-scale quantum switching networks can be built.
As an example, a quantum Benes network in which only one SPD is used is shown.


title:
ShAppliT: A Novel Broker-mediated Solution to Generic Application
  Sharing in a Cluster of Closed Operating Systems

abstract:
  With advances in hardware and networking technologies and mass manufacturing,
the cost of high end hardware had fall dramatically in recent years. However,
software cost still remains high and is the dominant fraction of the overall
computing budget. Application sharing is a promising solution to reduce the
overall IT cost. Currently software licenses are still based on the number of
copies installed. An organization can thus reduce the IT cost if the users are
able to remotely access the software that is installed on certain computer
servers instead of running the software on every local computer. In this paper,
we propose a generic application sharing architecture for users' application
sharing in a cluster of closed operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. We
also propose a broker-mediated solution where we allow multiple users to access
a single user software license on a time multiplex basis through a single
logged in user. An application sharing tool called ShAppliT has been introduced
and implemented in Microsoft Windows operating system. We evaluated their
performance on CPU usage and memory consumption when a computer is hosting
multiple concurrent shared application sessions.


title: Simulating Behaviours to face up an Emergency Evacuation

abstract:
  Computer based models describing pedestrian behavior in an emergency
evacuation play a vital role in the development of active strategies that
minimize the evacuation time when a closed area must be evacuated. The
reference model has a hybrid structure where the dynamics of fire and smoke
propagation are modeled by means of Cellular Automata and for simulating
people's behavior we are using Intelligent Agents. The model consists of two
sub-models, called environmental and pedestrian ones. As part of the pedestrian
model, this paper concentrates in a methodology that is able to model some of
the frequently observed human's behaviors in evacuation exercises. Each agent
will perceive what is happening around, select the options that exist in that
context and then it makes a decision that will reflect its ability to cope with
an emergency evacuation, called in this work, behavior. We also developed
simple exercises where the model is applied to the simulation of an evacuation
due to a potential hazard, such as fire, smoke or some kind of collapse.


title: Viscosity Solutions of Fully Nonlinear Elliptic Path Dependent PDEs

abstract:
  This paper introduces a convenient solution space for the uniformly elliptic
fully nonlinear path dependent PDEs. It provides a wellposedness result under
standard Lipschitz-type assumptions on the nonlinearity and an additional
assumption formulated on some partial differential equation defined locally by
freezing the path.


title:
Systematic of isovector and isoscalar giant quadrupole resonances in
  normal and superfluid deformed nuclei

abstract:
  The systematic study of isoscalar (IS) and isovector (IV) giant quadrupole
responses (GQR) in normal and superfluid nuclei presented in [G. Scamps and D.
Lacroix, Phys. Rev. 88, 044310 (2013)] is extended to the case of axially
deformed and triaxial nuclei. The static and dynamical energy density
functional based on Skyrme effective interaction are used to study static
properties and dynamical response functions over the whole nuclear chart. Among
the 749 nuclei that are considered, 301 and 65 are respectively found to be
prolate and oblate while 54 do not present any symmetry axis. For these nuclei,
the IS- and IV-GQR response functions are systematically obtained. In these
nuclei, different aspects related to the interplay between deformation and
collective motion are studied. We show that some aspects like the fragmentation
of the response induced by deformation effects in axially symmetric and
triaxial nuclei can be rather well understood using simple arguments. Besides
this simplicity, more complex effects show up like the appearance of
non-trivial deformation effects on the collective motion damping or the
influence of hexadecapole or higher-orders effects. A specific study is made on
the triaxial nuclei where the absence of symmetry axis adds further complexity
to the nuclear response. The relative importance of geometric deformation
effects and coupling to other vibrational modes are discussed.


title: Multi-Natural Inflation

abstract:
  We propose a multi-natural inflation model in which the single-field inflaton
potential consists of two or more sinusoidal potentials that are comparable in
size, but have different periodicity with a possible non-zero relative phase.
The model is versatile enough to realize both large-field and small-field
inflation. We show that, in a model with two sinusoidal potentials, the
predicted values of the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio lie within
the $1\sigma$ region of the Planck data. In particular, there is no lower bound
on the decay constants in contrast to the original natural inflation. We also
show that, in a certain limit, multi-natural inflation can be approximated by a
hilltop quartic inflation model.


title: Group Theoretical Construction of Planar Noncommutative Systems

abstract:
  In this thesis, we construct and classify planar noncommutative phase spaces
by the coadjoint orbit method on the anisotropic and absolute time kinematical
groups. We show that noncommutative symplectic structures can be generated in
the framework of centrally extended anisotropic kinematical groups as well as
in the framework of noncentrally abelian extended absolute time kinematical
groups. However, noncommutative phase spaces realized with noncentral abelian
extensions of the kinematical groups are algebraically more general than those
constructed on their central extensions. As the coadjoint orbit construction
has not been carried through some of these planar kinematical groups before,
physical interpretations of new generators of those extended structures are
given. Furthermore, in all the cases discussed here, the noncommutativity is
measured by naturally introduced fields, each corresponding to a minimal
coupling. This approach allows to not only construct directly a dynamical
system when of course the symmetry group is known but also permits to eliminate
the non minimal couplings in that system. Hence, we show also that the planar
noncommutative phase spaces arise naturally by introducing minimal coupling. We
introduce here new kinds of couplings. A coupling of position with a dual
potential and a mixing model (that is minimal coupling of the momentum with a
magnetic potential and of position with a dual potential). Finally we show that
this group theoretical discussion can be recovered by a linear deformation of
the Poisson bracket. The reason why linear deformation of Poisson bracket is
required here is that the noncommutative parameters (which are fields) are
constant (they are coming from central and noncentral abelian extensions of
kinematical groups).


title: A remark on the approximation of plurisubharmonic functions

abstract:
  We show by an example that the Demailly approximation sequence of a
plurisubharmonic function, constructed via Bergman kernels, is not a decreasing
sequence in general.


title:
Twisted homological stability for extensions and automorphism groups of
  free nilpotent groups

abstract:
  We prove twisted homological stability with polynomial coefficients for
automorphism groups of free nilpotent groups of any given class. These groups
interpolate between two extremes for which homological stability was known
before, the general linear groups over the integers and the automorphism groups
of free groups. The proof presented here uses a general result that applies to
arbitrary extensions of groups, and that has other applications as well.


title:
Multi-GPU parallel memetic algorithm for capacitated vehicle routing
  problem

abstract:
  The goal of this paper is to propose and test a new memetic algorithm for the
capacitated vehicle routing problem in parallel computing environment. In this
paper we consider simple variation of vehicle routing problem in which the only
parameter is the capacity of the vehicle and each client only needs one
package. We present simple reduction to prove the existence of polynomial-time
algorithm for capacity 2. We analyze the efficiency of the algorithm using
hierarchical Parallel Random Access Machine (PRAM) model and run experiments
with code written in CUDA (for capacities larger than 2).


title: A cosmological bound on $e^+ e^-$ mass difference

abstract:
  We demonstrate that CPT-violation due to $e^+ e^-$ mass difference generates
a non-zero photon mass. As a result the cosmological bounds on the photon mass
lead to the bounds on $e^+ e^-$ mass difference which are at least by 10 orders
of magnitude stronger than the direct experimental bound.


title: Percolation diffusion into self-assembled mesoporous silica microfibres

abstract:
  Percolation diffusion into long (11.5 cm) self-assembled, ordered mesoporous
microfibres is studied using optical transmission and laser ablation inductive
coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Optical transmission based diffusion
studies reveal rapid penetration (< 5 s, D > 80 um2.s-1) of Rhodamine B with
very little percolation of larger molecules such as zinc tetraphenylporphyrin
(ZnTPP) observed under similar loading conditions. The failure of ZnTPP to
enter the microfibre was confirmed, in higher resolution, using LA-ICP-MS. In
the latter case, LA-ICP-MS was used to determine the diffusion of zinc acetate
dihydrate, D ~ 3 x 10-4 nm2.s-1. The large differences between the molecules
are accounted for by proposing ordered solvent and structure assisted
accelerated diffusion of the Rhodamine B based on its hydrophilicity relative
to the zinc compounds. The broader implications and applications for
filtration, molecular sieves and a range of devices and uses are described.


title:
The evolution of moment generating functions for the Wright Fisher model
  of population genetics

abstract:
  We derive and apply a partial differential equation for the moment generating
function of the Wright-Fisher model of population genetics.


title:
Coexistence of grass, saplings and trees in the Staver-Levin forest
  model

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider two attractive stochastic spatial models in which
each site can be in state 0, 1 or 2: Krone's model in which 0${}={}$vacant,
1${}={}$juvenile and 2${}={}$a mature individual capable of giving birth, and
the Staver-Levin forest model in which 0${}={}$grass, 1${}={}$sapling and
2${}={}$tree. Our first result shows that if $(0,0)$ is an unstable fixed point
of the mean-field ODE for densities of 1's and 2's then when the range of
interaction is large, there is positive probability of survival starting from a
finite set and a stationary distribution in which all three types are present.
The result we obtain in this way is asymptotically sharp for Krone's model.
However, in the Staver-Levin forest model, if $(0,0)$ is attracting then there
may also be another stable fixed point for the ODE, and in some of these cases
there is a nontrivial stationary distribution.


title:
Optimal Intelligent Control for Wind Turbulence Rejection in WECS Using
  ANNs and Genetic Fuzzy Approach

abstract:
  One of the disadvantages in Connection of wind energy conversion systems
(WECSs) to transmission networks is plentiful turbulence of wind speed.
Therefore effects of this problem must be controlled. Nowadays,
pitch-controlled WECSs are increasingly used for variable speed and pitch wind
turbines. Megawatt class wind turbines generally turn at variable speed in wind
farm. Thus turbine operation must be controlled in order to maximize the
conversion efficiency below rated power and reduce loading on the drive-train.
Due to random and non-linear nature of the wind turbulence and the ability of
Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) Artificial Neural
Networks (ANNs) in the modeling and control of this turbulence, in this study,
widespread changes of wind have been perused using MLP and RBF artificial NNs.
In addition in this study, a new genetic fuzzy system has been successfully
applied to identify disturbance wind in turbine input. Thus output power has
been regulated in optimal and nominal range by pitch angle regulation.
Consequently, our proposed approaches have regulated output aerodynamic power
and torque in the nominal rang.


title: Unified quantification of nonclassicality and entanglement

abstract:
  The nonclassicality of single-mode quantum states is studied in relation to
the entanglement created by a beam splitter. It is shown that properly defined
quantifications -- based on the quantum superposition principle -- of the
amounts of nonclassicality and entanglement are strictly related to each other.
This can be generalized to the amount of genuine multipartite entanglement,
created from a nonclassical state by an N splitter. As a consequence, a
single-mode state of a given amount of nonclassicality is fully equivalent, as
a resource, to exactly the same amount of entanglement. This relation is also
considered in the context of multipartite entanglement and multimode
nonclassicality.


title: Gluon fragmentation into S-wave heavy quarkonium

abstract:
  Fragmentation is the dominant production mechanism for heavy hadronic bound
states with large transverse momentum. We numerically calculate the initial
$g\rightarrow H(Q\bar{Q})$ fragmentation functions (FFs) using the
nonrelativistic QCD factorization approach. Our analytical expression of FFs
depends on both the momentum fraction $z$ and the transverse momentum of the
gluon, and contains most of the kinematical and dynamical properties of the
process. Specifically, using the perturbative QCD we present the FF for a gluon
to split into $S$-wave charmonium meson $H_c$ to leading order in the QCD
coupling constant.


title:
Least Entropy-Like Approach for Reconstructing L-Shaped Surfaces Using a
  Rotating Array of Ultrasonic Sensors

abstract:
  This paper introduces a new algorithm for accurately reconstructing two
smooth orthogonal surfaces by processing ultrasonic data. The proposed
technique is based on a preliminary analysis of a waveform energy indicator in
order to classify the data as belonging to one of the two flat surfaces. The
following minimization of a nonlinear cost function, inspired by the
mathematical definition of Gibbs entropy, allows to estimate the plane
parameters robustly with respect to the presence of outlying data. These
outliers are mainly due to the effect of multiple reflections arising in the
surfaces intersection region. The scanning system consists of four inexpensive
ultrasonic sensors rotated by means of a precision servo digital motor in order
to obtain distance measurements for each orientation. Experimental results are
presented and compared with the classic Least Squares Method demonstrating the
potentiality of the proposed approach in terms of precision and reliability.


title: Full characterisation of Airy beams under physical principles

abstract:
  The propagation characteristics of Airy beams is investigated and fully
described under the traveling waves approach analogous to that used for
non-diffracting Bessel beams. This is possible when noticing that Airy
functions are in fact Bessel functions of fractional order 1 . We show how
physical 3 principles impose restrictions such that the non-diffracting Airy
beams cannot be of infinite extent as has been argued, and introduce for the
first time quantitative expressions for the maximum transverse and longitudinal
extent of Airy beams. We show that under the appropriate physical conditions it
is possible to obtain higher-order Airy beams.


title: The Why and How of Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

abstract:
  Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) has become a widely used tool for the
analysis of high-dimensional data as it automatically extracts sparse and
meaningful features from a set of nonnegative data vectors. We first illustrate
this property of NMF on three applications, in image processing, text mining
and hyperspectral imaging --this is the why. Then we address the problem of
solving NMF, which is NP-hard in general. We review some standard NMF
algorithms, and also present a recent subclass of NMF problems, referred to as
near-separable NMF, that can be solved efficiently (that is, in polynomial
time), even in the presence of noise --this is the how. Finally, we briefly
describe some problems in mathematics and computer science closely related to
NMF via the nonnegative rank.


abstract:
  This is a corrected version of my paper "Application of integral geometry to
minimal surfaces" appeared in International J. Math. vol. 4 Nr. 1 (1993),
89-111. The correction concerns Proposition 3.5. We discuss this correction in
Appendix to the original version of my published paper by reproducing our
correspondence with Professor Tasaki.


title:
Dark atoms and the positron-annihilation-line excess in the galactic
  bulge

abstract:
  It was recently proposed that stable particles of charge $-2$, $O^{--}$, can
exist and constitute dark matter after they bind with primordial helium in
O-helium (OHe) atoms. We study here in details the possibility that this model
provides an explanation for the excess of gamma radiation in the
positron-annihilation line from the galactic bulge observed by INTEGRAL. This
explanation assumes that OHe, excited to a 2s state through collisions in the
central part of the Galaxy, de-excites to its ground state via an E0
transition, emitting an electron-positron pair. The cross section for OHe
collisions with excitation to 2s level is calculated and it is shown that the
rate of such excitations in the galactic bulge strongly depends not only on the
mass of O-helium, which is determined by the mass of $O^{--}$, but also on the
density and velocity distribution of dark matter. Given the astrophysical
uncertainties on these distributions, this mechanism constrains the $O^{--}$
mass to lie in two possible regions. One of these is reachable in the
experimental searches for stable multicharged particles at the LHC.


title: On Exceptional Vertex Operator (Super) Algebras

abstract:
  We consider exceptional vertex operator algebras and vertex operator
superalgebras with the property that particular Casimir vectors constructed
from the primary vectors of lowest conformal weight are Virasoro descendents of
the vacuum. We show that the genus one partition function and characters for
simple ordinary modules must satisfy modular linear differential equations. We
show the rationality of the central charge and module lowest weights,
modularity of solutions, the dimension of each graded space is a rational
function of the central charge and that the lowest weight primaries generate
the algebra. We also discuss conditions on the reducibility of the lowest
weight primary vectors as a module for the automorphism group. Finally we
analyse solutions for exceptional vertex operator algebras with primary vectors
of lowest weight up to 9 and for vertex operator superalgebras with primary
vectors of lowest weight up to 17/2. Most solutions can be identified with
simple ordinary modules for known algebras but there are also four conjectured
algebras generated by weight two primaries and three conjectured extremal
vertex operator algebras generated by primaries of weight 3, 4 and 6
respectively.


title:
Plasmonic Tamm states: second enhancement of light inside the plasmonic
  waveguide

abstract:
  A type of Tamm states inside metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguides is
proposed. An impedance based transfer matrix method is adopted to study and
optimize it. With the participation of the plasmonic Tamm states, fields could
be enhanced twice: the ffirst is due to the coupling between a normal waveguide
and a nanoscaled plasmonic waveguide and the second is due to the strong
localization and field enhancement of Tamm states. As shown in our 2D coupling
configuration, |E|^2 is enhanced up to 1050 times when 1550 nm light is coupled
from an 300 nm Si slab waveguide into an 40 nm MIM waveguide.


title:
Superfluid hydrodynamics of polytropic gases:dimensional reduction and
  sound velocity

abstract:
  Motivated by the fact that two-component confined fermionic gases in
Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-Bose-Einstein condensate (BCS-BEC) crossover can be
described through an hydrodynamical approach, we study these systems - both in
the cigar-shaped configuration and in the disk-shaped one - by using a
polytropic Lagrangian density. We start from the Popov Lagrangian density and
obtain, after a dimensional reduction process, the equations that control the
dynamics of such systems. By solving these equations we study the sound
velocity as a function of the density by analyzing how the dimensionality
affects this velocity


title: Bio-inspired friction switches: adaptive pulley systems

abstract:
  Frictional influences in tendon-driven robotic systems are generally
unwanted, with efforts towards minimizing them where possible. In the human
hand however, the tendon-pulley system is found to be frictional with a
difference between high-loaded static post-eccentric and post-concentric force
production of 9-12% of the total output force. This difference can be directly
attributed to tendon-pulley friction. Exploiting this phenomenon for robotic
and prosthetic applications we can achieve a reduction of actuator size, weight
and consequently energy consumption. In this study, we present the design of a
bio-inspired friction switch. The adaptive pulley is designed to minimize the
influence of frictional forces under low and medium-loading conditions and
maximize it under high-loading conditions. This is achieved with a
dual-material system that consists of a high-friction silicone substrate and
low-friction polished steel pins. The system, designed to switch its frictional
properties between the low-loaded and high-loaded conditions, is described and
its behavior experimentally validated with respect to the number and spacing of
pins. The results validate its intended behavior, making it a viable choice for
robotic tendon-driven systems.


title:
Impact of Dispersive and Saturable Gain/Loss on Bistability of Nonlinear
  Parity-Time Bragg Gratings

abstract:
  We report on the impact of realistic gain and loss models on the bistable
operation of nonlinear parity-time Bragg gratings. In our model we include both
dispersive and saturable gain and show that levels of gain/loss saturation can
have significant impact on the bistable operation of a nonlinear PT Bragg
grating based on GaAs material. The hysteresis of the nonlinear PT Bragg
grating is analyzed for different levels of gain and loss and different
saturation levels. We show that high saturation levels can improve the
nonlinear operation by reducing the intensity at which the bistability occurs.
However when the saturation intensity is low, saturation inhibits the PT
characteristics of the grating.


title: On the third weight of generalized Reed-Muller codes

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the third weight of generalized Reed-Muller codes. We
prove under some restrictive condition that the third weight of generalized
Reed-Muller codes depends on the third weight of generalized Reed-Muller codes
of small order with two variables. In some cases, we are able to determine the
third weight and the third weight codewords of generalized Reed-Muller codes.


title:
The soft X-ray emission of Ark 120. XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and the
  importance of taking the broad view

abstract:
  We present simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the `bare'
Seyfert 1 galaxy, Ark 120, a system in which ionized absorption is absent. The
NuSTAR hard X-ray spectral coverage allows us to constrain different models for
the excess soft X-ray emission. Among phenomenological models, a cutoff power
law best explains the soft X-ray emission. This model likely corresponds to
Comptonization of the accretion disk seed UV photons by a population of warm
electrons: using Comptonization models, a temperature of ~0.3 keV and an
optical depth of ~13 are found. If the UV-to-X-ray optxagnf model is applied,
the UV fluxes from the XMM-$Newton$ Optical Monitor suggest an intermediate
black hole spin. Contrary to several other sources observed by NuSTAR, no high
energy cutoff is detected, with a lower limit of 190 keV.


title: The Effect Of Online Cooperative Homework On Students' Academic Success

abstract:
  In this study, the effect of online cooperative learning homework practices
on academic success of students is searched. The experience group of the
research consists of 58 students from Anadolu University Education Faculty
Education of Computer and Instruction Technology Section. Students in A section
are taken to traditional method by neutral appointment; those in B section are
taken to online homework practice method. In each class consisting of 29
people, it's decided that 14 students prepare their homework individually; the
rest 15 students prepare their homework with cooperative as triple groups. It's
students' own choice to prepare their homework individually or cooperatively.
There has been a success scale at the end of the teaching period. According to
research results, there isn't statistically considerable difference between
students who attend traditional homework practices and online homework
practices. According to research results, there isn't statistically
considerable difference between students who attend individual homework
practices and cooperative homework practices. The academic success of the
students who attend online-based individual homework practices is higher than
traditional individual and online based cooperative learning homework
practices.


title: Finite sections of truncated Toeplitz operators

abstract:
  We describe the $C^*$-algebra associated with the finite sections
discretization of truncated Toeplitz operators on the model space $K^2_u$ where
$u$ is an infinite Blaschke product. As consequences, we get a stability
criterion for the finite sections discretization and results on spectral and
pseudospectral approximation.


title: Weak Gauge Boson Radiation in Parton Showers

abstract:
  The emission of W and Z gauge boson is included in a traditional QCD + QED
shower. The unitarity of the shower algorithm links the real radiation of the
weak gauge bosons to the negative weak virtual corrections. The shower
evolution process leads to a competition between QCD, QED and weak radiation,
and allows for W and Z boson production inside jets. Various effects on LHC
physics are studied, both at low and high transverse momenta, and effects at
higher-energy hadron colliders are outlined.


title:
Nearly compensated exchange in the dimer compound callaghanite
  Cu$_2$Mg$_2$(CO$_3$)(OH)$_6$$\cdot$2H$_2$O

abstract:
  A combined theoretical and experimental study of the natural Cu(2+)-mineral
callaghanite is presented. Its crystal structure features well separated
Cu$_2$(OH)$_6$ structural dimers with weakly bonded carbonate groups and water
molecules in between. Susceptibility, field-dependent magnetization and
specific heat measurements reveal a compound with a small spin gap of about 7
K. The observed magnetic properties are well described by a model of isolated
antiferromagnetic spin dimers. Possible ferromagnetic interactions between the
dimers amount to -1.5 K, at most. Different flavors of electronic structure
calculations have been employed to locate the magnetic dimers in the crystal
structure, i.e., to determine whether they coincide with the structural dimers
or not. Calculations of the coupling between the structural dimers clearly show
that magnetic and structural dimers are the same. For the intradimer coupling,
however, the computational results confirmed a coupling strength close to zero
but the sign of the coupling could not be determined unambiguously. Based on
this finding, we then discuss how the reliability of the numerical methods
depends on the characteristics of exchange pathways and on structural features
of the compound in general. Eventually, we try to provide a minimum coupling
strength that is needed for a reliable computational description.


title: Identifiability of Open Quantum Systems

abstract:
  We provide a general framework for the identification of open quantum
systems. By looking at the input-output behavior, we try to identify the system
inside a black box in which some Markovian time-evolution takes place. Due to
the generally irreversible nature of the dynamics, it is difficult to assure
full controllability over the system. Still, we show that the system is
identifiable up to similarity under a certain rank condition. The framework
also covers situations relevant to standard quantum process tomography, where
we do not have enough control over the system but have a tomographically
complete set of initial states and observables. Remarkably, the similarity
cannot in general be reduced to unitarity even for unitary systems, and the
spectra of Hamiltonians are not identifiable without additional knowledge.


title: On propagators and vertices of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory

abstract:
  We calculate the three-point functions of pure Landau gauge QCD and
investigate their influence on the propagators. As expected, the ghost-gluon
vertex leads only to minor modifications, while the three-gluon vertex has a
sizeable impact on the mid-momentum regime of the gluon propagator. We describe
an effective model of the three-gluon vertex that includes contributions from
the neglected two-loop diagrams and thus allows to obtain propagators in good
agreement with lattice results. We also determine the three-gluon vertex from
these propagators and find good agreement with lattice results as well. In
turn, these results allow us to assess the effect of the missing two-loop
diagrams in the gluon propagator equation. Finally, we present the first
self-consistent calculation that includes all two-and three-point functions.


title: The HST view of the broad line region in low luminosity AGN

abstract:
  We analyze the properties of the broad line region (BLR) in low luminosity
AGN by using HST/STIS spectra. We consider a sample of 24 nearby galaxies in
which the presence of a BLR has been reported from their Palomar ground-based
spectra. Following a widely used strategy, we used the [SII] doublet to
subtract the contribution of the narrow emission lines to the H-alpha+[NII]
complex and to isolate the BLR emission. Significant residuals that suggest a
BLR, are present. However, the results change substantially when the [OI]
doublet is used. Furthermore, the spectra are also reproduced well by just
including a wing in the narrow H-alpha and [NII] lines, thus not requiring the
presence of a BLR. We conclude that complex structure of the narrow line region
(NLR) is not captured with this approach and that it does not lead to general
robust constraints on the properties of the BLR in these low luminosity AGN.
Nonetheless, the existence of a BLR is firmly established in 5 Seyferts, and 5
LINERs. However, the measured BLR fluxes and widths in the 5 LINERs differ
substantially with respect to the ground-based data. The BLR sizes in LINERs,
which are estimated by using the virial formula from the line widths and the
black hole mass, are about 1 order of magnitude greater than the extrapolation
to low luminosities of the relation between the BLR radius and AGN luminosity
observed in more powerful active nuclei. We ascribe the larger BLR radius to
the lower accretion rate in LINERs when compared to the Seyfert, which causes
the formation of an inner region dominated by an advection-dominated accretion
flow (ADAF). The estimated BLR sizes in LINERs are comparable to the radius
where the transition between the ADAF and the standard thin disk occurs due to
disk evaporation.


title:
Milli-interacting dark matter interpretation of the direct-search
  experiments

abstract:
  We reinterpret the results of the direct searches for dark matter in terms of
milli-interacting dark particles. The model reproduces the positive results
from DAMA/LIBRA and CoGeNT and is consistent with the absence of signal in the
XENON100, CDMS-II/Ge and LUX detectors. Dark atoms, interacting with standard
atoms through a kinetic mixing between photons and dark photons and a mass
mixing of {\sigma} mesons with dark scalars, diffuse elastically in terrestrial
matter where they deposit all their energy. Reaching underground detectors
through gravity at thermal energies, they form bound states with nuclei of the
active medium by radiative capture, which causes the emission of photons that
produce the observed signals. The parameter space of the model is explored and
regions reproducing the results at the 2{\sigma} level are obtained for each
experiment.


title: Scaling laws and bulk-boundary decoupling in heat flow

abstract:
  When driven out of equilibrium by a temperature gradient, fluids respond by
developing a nontrivial, inhomogeneous structure according to the governing
macroscopic laws. Here we show that such structure obeys strikingly simple
scaling laws arbitrarily far from equilibrium, provided that both macroscopic
local equilibrium and Fourier's law hold. Extensive simulations of hard disk
fluids confirm the scaling laws even under strong temperature gradients,
implying that Fourier's law remains valid in this highly nonlinear regime, with
putative corrections absorbed into a nonlinear conductivity functional. In
addition, our results show that the scaling laws are robust in the presence of
strong finite-size effects, hinting at a subtle bulk-boundary decoupling
mechanism which enforces the macroscopic laws on the bulk of the finite-sized
fluid. This allows to measure for the first time the marginal anomaly of the
heat conductivity predicted for hard disks.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.soft math-ph math.MP


title: Edge detection of binary images using the method of masks

abstract:
  In this work the method of masks, creating and using of inverted image masks,
together with binary operation of image data are used in edge detection of
binary images, monochrome images, which yields about 300 times faster than
ordinary methods. The method is divided into three stages: Mask construction,
Fundamental edge detection, and Edge Construction Comparison with an ordinary
method and a fuzzy based method is carried out.


title: Genetic Algorithms and its use with back-propagation network

abstract:
  Genetic algorithms are considered as one of the most efficient search
techniques. Although they do not offer an optimal solution, their ability to
reach a suitable solution in considerably short time gives them their
respectable role in many AI techniques. This work introduces genetic algorithms
and describes their characteristics. Then a novel method using genetic
algorithm in best training set generation and selection for a back-propagation
network is proposed. This work also offers a new extension to the original
genetic algorithms


title: Information content: assessing meso-scale structures in complex networks

abstract:
  We propose a novel measure to assess the presence of meso-scale structures in
complex networks. This measure is based on the identification of regular
patterns in the adjacency matrix of the network, and on the calculation of the
quantity of information lost when pairs of nodes are iteratively merged. We
show how this measure is able to quantify several meso-scale structures, like
the presence of modularity, bipartite and core-periphery configurations, or
motifs. Results corresponding to a large set of real networks are used to
validate its ability to detect non-trivial topological patterns.


title:
Coalescence 2.0: a multiple branching of recent theoretical developments
  and their applications

abstract:
  Population genetics theory has laid the foundations for genomics analyses
including the recent burst in genome scans for selection and statistical
inference of past demographic events in many prokaryote, animal and plant
species. Identifying SNPs under natural selection and underpinning species
adaptation relies on disentangling the respective contribution of random
processes (mutation, drift, migration) from that of selection on nucleotide
variability. Most theory and statistical tests have been developed using the
Kingman coalescent theory based on the Wright-Fisher population model. However,
these theoretical models rely on biological and life-history assumptions which
may be violated in many prokaryote, fungal, animal or plant species. Recent
theoretical developments of the so called multiple merger coalescent models are
reviewed here ({\Lambda}-coalescent, beta-coalescent, Bolthausen-Snitzman,
{\Xi}-coalescent). We explicit how these new models take into account various
pervasive ecological and biological characteristics, life history traits or
life cycles which were not accounted in previous theories such as 1) the skew
in offspring production typical of marine species, 2) fast adapting
microparasites (virus, bacteria and fungi) exhibiting large variation in
population sizes during epidemics, 3) the peculiar life cycles of fungi and
bacteria alternating sexual and asexual cycles, and 4) the high rates of
extinction-recolonization in spatially structured populations. We finally
discuss the relevance of multiple merger models for the detection of SNPs under
selection in these species, for population genomics of very large sample size
and advocate to potentially examine the conclusion of previous population
genetics studies.


title: A remark on the connectedness of spheres in Cayley graphs

abstract:
  The aim of this small note is to prove an elementary yet useful properties of
finitely presented groups. Let G be a finitely generated group with one end.
Fix a (finite) generating set and let $B_n$ be the ball of radius $n$ around
$e$. Let $B_n^{c,\infty}$ be the infinite connected component of the complement
of $B_n$. Then G has connected spheres if there exists a $r >0$ such that
$B_{n+r} \cap B_n^{c,\infty}$ is connected for all $n \geq 0$. This note shows
that if G is finitely presented then it has connected spheres.


title:
Exploring the magnetic field complexity in M dwarfs at the boundary to
  full convection

abstract:
  Based on detailed spectral synthesis we carry out quantitative measurements
of the strength and complexity of surface magnetic fields in the four
well-known M-dwarfs GJ 388, GJ 729, GJ 285, and GJ 406 populating the mass
regime around the boundary between partially and fully convective stars. Very
high resolution R=100000, high signal-to-noise (up to 400) near-infrared Stokes
I spectra were obtained with CRIRES at ESO's Very Large Telescope covering
regions of the FeH Wing-Ford transitions at 1mum. The field distributions in
all four stars are characterized by three distinct groups of field components,
the data are neither consistent with a smooth distribution of different field
strengths, nor with one average field strength covering the full star. We find
evidence of a subtle difference in the field distribution of GJ 285 compared to
the other three targets. GJ 285 also has the highest average field of 3.5kG and
the strongest maximum field component of 7-7.5kG. The maximum local field
strengths in our sample seem to be correlated with rotation rate. While the
average field strength is saturated, the maximum local field strengths in our
sample show no evidence for saturation. We find no difference between the field
distributions of partially and fully convective stars. The one star with
evidence for a field distribution different to the other three is the most
active star (i.e. with largest x-ray luminosity and mean surface magnetic
field) rotating relatively fast. A possible explanation is that rotation
determines the distribution of surface magnetic fields, and that local field
strengths grow with rotation even in stars in which the average field is
already saturated.


title: Representations of derived A-infinity algebras

abstract:
  The notion of a derived A-infinity algebra arose in the work of Sagave as a
natural generalisation of the classical A-infinity algebra, relevant to the
case where one works over a commutative ring rather than a field. We develop
some of the basic operadic theory of derived A-infinity algebras, building on
work of Livernet-Roitzheim-Whitehouse. In particular, we study the coalgebras
over the Koszul dual cooperad of the operad dAs, and provide a simple
description of these. We study representations of derived A-infinity algebras
and explain how these are a two-sided version of Sagave's modules over derived
A-infinity algebras. We also give a new explicit example of a derived
A-infinity algebra.


title: Kirkwood-Shumaker interactions and general thermal fluctuation forces

abstract:
  We present an extension of the Kirkwood-Shumaker (KS) theory of
proton-fluctuation interactions to situations where the perturbation theory,
usually invoked to derive these interactions, fails. In order to do that we
formulate a generalized theory of fluctuation interactions with non-linear
macroion (surface) free energy term that naturally leads to the long-range KS
interactions, but can also be straightforwardly generalized to situations where
the perturbation expansion ceases to be valid. It also allows for other surface
free energy terms to be treated within the same formalism, enabling us to
derive the complete fluctuation interaction with monopolar and dipolar
fluctuations included, leading to the KS theory as a limiting form.


title:
Pure 2nd harmonic current phase relation in Spin filter Josephson
  junctions

abstract:
  Higher harmonics in current phase relations of Josephson Junctions (JJs) are
predicted to be observed when the first harmonic is suppressed. Conventional
theoretical models predict higher harmonics to be extremely sensitive to
changes in barrier thickness, temperature, etc. In contrast, experiments with
JJs incorporating a spin dependent tunnelling barrier reported here reveal a
current phase relation for highly spin polarized barriers which is purely 2nd
harmonic in nature, and this is insensitive to changes in barrier thickness.
This observation is consistent with recent theoretical predictions of a robust
2nd harmonic current phase relation for certain JJs with ferromagnetic barriers
and implies that the standard theory of Cooper pair transport through
tunnelling barriers is not applicable for spin dependent tunnelling barriers.


title: Valuations in G\"{o}del Logic, and the Euler Characteristic

abstract:
  Using the lattice-theoretic version of the Euler characteristic introduced by
V. Klee and G.-C. Rota in the Sixties, we define the Euler characteristic of a
formula in G\"{o}del logic (over finitely or infinitely many truth-values). We
then prove that the information encoded by the Euler characteristic is
classical, i.e. coincides with the analogous notion defined over Boolean logic.
Building on this, we define many-valued versions of the Euler characteristic of
a formula $\varphi$, and prove that they indeed provide information about the
logical status of $\varphi$ in G\"{o}del logic. Specifically, our first main
result shows that the many-valued Euler characteristics are invariants that
separate many-valued tautologies from non-tautologies. Further, we offer an
initial investigation of the linear structure of these generalised
characteristics. Our second main result is that the collection of many-valued
characteristics forms a linearly independent set in the real vector space of
all valuations of G\"{o}del logic over finitely many propositional variables.


title: On Pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians

abstract:
  We investigate some questions on the construction of $\eta$ operators for
pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We give a sufficient condition which can be
exploited to systematically generate a sequence of $\eta$ operators starting
from a known one, thereby proving the non-uniqueness of $\eta$ for a particular
pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonian. We also study perturbed Hamiltonians for which
$\eta$'s corresponding to the original Hamiltonian still work.


title:
Effective dynamics of scalar perturbations in a flat
  Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime in Loop Quantum Cosmology

abstract:
  We study the evolution of a homogeneous and isotropic spacetime whose spatial
sections have three-torus topology, coupled to a massless scalar field with
small scalar perturbations within loop quantum cosmology. We consider a
proposal for the effective dynamics based on a previous hybrid quantization
completed by us. Consequently, we introduce a convenient gauge fixing and adopt
reduced canonical variables adapted to that hybrid quantum description.
Besides, we keep backreaction contributions on the background coming from terms
quadratic in the perturbations in the action of the system. We carry out a
numerical analysis assuming that the inhomogeneities were in a massless vacuum
state at distant past (where the initial data are set). At distant future, we
observe a statistical amplification of the modes amplitude in the infrared
region, as well as a phase synchronization arising from quantum gravity
phenomena. A description of the perturbations in terms of the Mukhanov-Sasaki
gauge invariants provides the same qualitative results. Finally, we analyze
some consequences of the backreaction in our effective description.


title: $a-c$ test of holography vs quantum renormalization group

abstract:
  We show that a "constructive derivation" of the AdS/CFT correspondence based
on the quantum local renormalization group in large N quantum field theories
consistently provides the a-c holographic Weyl anomaly in d=4 at the curvature
squared order in the bulk action. The consistency of the construction further
predicts the form of the metric beta function.


title: Service Oriented Paradigm for Massive Multiplayer Online Games

abstract:
  In recent times Massive Multiplayer Online Game has appeared as a computer
game that enables hundreds of players from all parts of the world to interact
in a game world (common platform) at the same time instance. Current
architecture used for MMOGs based on the classic tightly coupled distributed
system. While, MMOGs are getting more interactive same time number of
interacting users is increasing, classic implementation architecture may raise
scalability and interdependence issues. This requires a loosely coupled service
oriented architecture to support evolution in MMOG application. Data flow
architecture, Event driven architecture and client server architecture are
basic date orchestration approaches used by any service oriented architecture.
Real time service is hottest issue for service oriented architecture. The basic
requirement of any real time service oriented architecture is to ensure the
quality of service. In this paper we have proposed a service oriented
architecture for massive multiplayer online game and a specific middleware
(based on open source DDS) in MMOGs for fulfilling real time constraints.


title:
Characterization algorithms for shift radix systems with finiteness
  property

abstract:
  For a natural number d and a d-dimensional real vector r let Tau(r) denote
the (d-dimensional) shift radix system associated with r. Tau(r) is said to
have the finiteness property iff all orbits of Tau(r) end up in the zero
vector; the set of all corresponding parameters r is denoted by DN(d), whereas
D(d) consists of those parameters r for which all orbits are eventually
periodic. DN(d) has a very complicated structure even for d=2. In the present
paper two algorithms are presented which allow the characterization of the
intersection of DN(d) and any closed convex hull of finitely many interior
points of D(d) which is completely contained in the interior of D(d). One of
the algorithms is used to determine the structure of DN(2) in a region
considerably larger than previously possible, and to settle two questions on
its topology: It is shown that DN(2) is disconnected and that the largest
connected component has nontrivial fundamental group. The other algorithm is
the first characterizing DN(d) in a given convex polyhedron which terminates
for all inputs. Furthermore several infinite families of "cutout polygons" are
deduced settling the finiteness property for a chain of regions touching the
boundary of D(2).


title:
A novel approach to numerical measurements of the configurational
  entropy in supercooled liquids

abstract:
  The configurational entropy is among the key observables to characterize
experimentally the formation of a glass. Physically, it quantifies the
multiplicity of metastable states in which an amorphous material can be found
at a given temperature, and its temperature dependence provides a major
thermodynamic signature of the glass transition, which is experimentally
accessible. Measurements of the configurational entropy require, however, some
approximations which have often led to ambiguities and contradictory results.
Here we implement a novel numerical scheme to measure the configurational
entropy Sigma(T) in supercooled liquids, using a direct determination of the
free energy cost to localize the system within a single metastable state at
temperature T. For two prototypical glass-forming liquids, we find that
Sigma(T) disappears discontinuously above a temperature T_c, which is slightly
lower than the usual estimate of the onset temperature for glassy dynamics.
This observation is in good agreement with theoretical expectations, but
contrasts sharply with alternative numerical methods. While the temperature
dependence of Sigma(T) correlates with the glass fragility, we show that the
validity of the Adam-Gibbs relation (relating configurational entropy to
structural relaxation time) established in earlier numerical studies is smaller
than previously thought, potentially resolving an important conflict between
experiments and simulations.


title: An Analysis of Ruspini Partitions in G\"odel Logic

abstract:
  By a Ruspini partition we mean a finite family of fuzzy sets $\{f_1, \ldots,
f_n\}$, $f_i : [0,1] \to [0,1]$, such that $\sum_{i=1}^n f_i(x)=1$ for all $x
\in [0,1]$, where $[0,1]$ denotes the real unit interval. We analyze such
partitions in the language of G\"odel logic. Our first main result identifies
the precise degree to which the Ruspini condition is expressible in this
language, and yields inter alia a constructive procedure to axiomatize a given
Ruspini partition by a theory in G\"odel logic. Our second main result extends
this analysis to Ruspini partitions fulfilling the natural additional condition
that each $f_i$ has at most one left and one right neighbour, meaning that
$\min_{x \in [0,1]}{\{f_{i_1}(x),f_{i_2}(x),f_{i_3}(x)\}}=0$ holds for $i_1\neq
i_2\neq i_3$.


title: Spacetime thermodynamics without hidden degrees of freedom

abstract:
  A celebrated result by Jacobson is the derivation of Einstein's equations
from Unruh's temperature, the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the Clausius
relation. This has been repeatedly taken as evidence for an interpretation of
Einstein's equations as equations of state for unknown degrees of freedom
underlying the metric. We show that a different interpretation of Jacobson
result is possible, which does not imply the existence of additional degrees of
freedom, and follows only from the quantum properties of gravity. We introduce
the notion of quantum gravitational Hadamard states, which give rise to the
full local thermodynamics of gravity.


title: Chiral nature of magnetic monopoles in artificial spin ice

abstract:
  Micromagnetic properties of monopoles in artificial kagome spin ice systems
are investigated using numerical simulations. We show that micromagnetics
brings additional complexity into the physics of these monopoles that is, by
essence, absent in spin models: besides a fractionalized classical magnetic
charge, monopoles in the artificial kagome ice are chiral at remanence. Our
simulations predict that the chirality of these monopoles can be controlled
without altering their charge state. This chirality breaks the vertex symmetry
and triggers a directional motion of the monopole under an applied magnetic
field. Our results also show that the choice of the geometrical features of the
lattice can be used to turn on and off this chirality, thus allowing the
investigation of chiral and achiral monopoles.


title:
Penalized EM algorithm and copula skeptic graphical models for inferring
  networks for mixed variables

abstract:
  In this article, we consider the problem of reconstructing networks for
continuous, binary, count and discrete ordinal variables by estimating sparse
precision matrix in Gaussian copula graphical models. We propose two
approaches: $\ell_1$ penalized extended rank likelihood with Monte Carlo
Expectation-Maximization algorithm (copula EM glasso) and copula skeptic with
pair-wise copula estimation for copula Gaussian graphical models. The proposed
approaches help to infer networks arising from nonnormal and mixed variables.
We demonstrate the performance of our methods through simulation studies and
analysis of breast cancer genomic and clinical data and maize genetics data.


title:
An Integrated Approach for Identifying Relevant Factors Influencing
  Software Development Productivity

abstract:
  Managing software development productivity and effort are key issues in
software organizations. Identifying the most relevant factors influencing
project performance is essential for implementing business strategies by
selecting and adjusting proper improvement activities. There is, however, a
large number of potential influencing factors. This paper proposes a novel
approach for identifying the most relevant factors influencing software
development productivity. The method elicits relevant factors by integrating
data analysis and expert judgment approaches by means of a multi-criteria
decision support technique. Empirical evaluation of the method in an industrial
context has indicated that it delivers a different set of factors compared to
individual data- and expert-based factor selection methods. Moreover,
application of the integrated method significantly improves the performance of
effort estimation in terms of accuracy and precision. Finally, the study did
not replicate the observation of similar investigations regarding improved
estimation performance on the factor sets reduced by a data-based selection
method.