title:
General extreme value modeling and application of bootstrap on rainfall
  data - A case study

abstract:
  Extreme value theory is concerned with probabilistic and statistical
questions related to very high or very low values in sequences of random
variables and in stochastic processes. The subject has a rich mathematical
theory and also a long tradition of applications in a variety of areas. Among
many excellent books on the subject, Coles [2] while the book by concentrates
on data analysis and statistical inference for extremes. In this article, we
present a case study wherein we model annual maximum yearly rainfall data using
the generalized extreme value distribution. Also, we use R software for data
analysis and give the R codes in the appendix.


title:
A Survey on Factors Affecting Iran's Fuel Rationing Smart Card User
  Acceptance and Security

abstract:
  Smart card technology has resulted in vast developments in many aspects of
modern human life. User acceptance of fuel rationing smart cards based on
adoption model involves many factors such as: satisfaction, security, external
variables, attitude toward using, etc. In this study, user acceptance and
security factors for fuel rationing smart cards in Iran have been evaluated
based on an adoption model by distributing a questionnaire among UTM
(University Technology Malaysia) Iranian students, MMU (Multimedia University)
Iranian students, either asking by e-mail from people who are not available.


title:
Maps preserving peripheral spectrum of generalized Jordan products of
  operators

abstract:
  Let $X_1$ and $X_2$ be complex Banach spaces with dimension at least three,
$\mathcal{A}_1$ and $\mathcal{A}_2$ be standard operator algebras on $X_1$ and
$X_2$, respectively. For $k\geq2$, let $(i_1,...,i_m)$ be a sequence with terms
chosen from $\{1,\ldots,k\}$ and assume that at least one of the terms in
$(i_1,\ldots,i_m)$ appears exactly once. Define the generalized Jordan product
$T_1\circ T_2\circ\cdots\circ T_k=T_{i_1} T_{i_2}\cdots T_{i_m}+T_{i_m}\cdots
T_{i_2} T_{i_1}$ on elements in $\mathcal{A}_i$. This includes the usual Jordan
product $A_1A_2+A_2A_1$, and the Jordan triple $A_1A_2A_3+A_3A_2A_1$. Let
$\Phi:\mathcal{A}_1\rightarrow\mathcal{A}_2$ be a map with range containing all
operators of rank at most three. It is shown that $\Phi$ satisfies that
$\sigma_\pi(\Phi(A_1)\circ\cdots\circ\Phi(A_k))=\sigma_\pi(A_1\circ\cdots\circ
A_k)$ for all $A_1, \ldots, A_k$, where $\sigma_\pi(A)$ stands for the
peripheral spectrum of $A$, if and only if $\Phi$ is a Jordan isomorphism
multiplied by an $m$th root of unity.


title: On Renyi entropy convergence of the max domain of attraction

abstract:
  In this paper, we prove that the Renyi entropy of linearly normalized partial
maxima of independent and identically distributed random variables is
convergent to the corresponding limit Renyi entropy when the linearly
normalized partial maxima converges to some nondegenerate random variable.


title:
Chemical Trend of Superconducting Transition Temperature in Hole-doped
  CuBO$_2$, CuAlO$_2$, CuGaO$_2$ and CuInO$_2$

abstract:
  We calculated the superconducting transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ of
hole-doped CuBO$_2$, CuAlO$_2$, CuGaO$_2$ and CuInO$_2$ using first-principles.
The calculated $T_{\rm c}$ are about 50 K for CuAlO$_2$, 10 K for CuBO$_2$ and
CuGaO$_2$ and 1 K for CuInO$_2$ at maximum in the optimum hole-doping
concentration. The low $T_{\rm c}$ of CuInO$_2$ is attributed to the weak
electron-phonon interaction caused by the low covalency and heavy atomic mass.


title: A short proof of Kotzig's theorem

abstract:
  A new shortest proof of Kotzig's Theorem about graphs with unique perfect
matching is presented in this paper. It is well known that Kotzig's theorem is
a consequence of Yeo's Theorem about edge-colored graph without alternating
cycle. We present a proof of Yeo's Theorem based on the same ideas as our proof
of Kotzig's theorem.


title:
The Hubble diagram for a system within dark energy: influence of some
  relevant quantities

abstract:
  We study the influence of relevant quantities, including the density of dark
energy (DE), to the predicted Hubble outflow around a system of galaxies. In
particular, we are interested in the difference between two models: 1) The
standard $\Lambda$CDM model, with the everywhere constant DE density, and 2)
the "Swiss cheese model", where the universe is as old as the standard model,
but the DE density is zero on short scales, including the environment of the
system.
  We calculate the current predicted outflow patterns of dwarf galaxies around
the Local Group-like system, using different values for the mass of the group,
the local dark energy density, and the time of ejection of the dwarf galaxies,
treated as test particles. These results are compared with the observed Hubble
flow around the Local Group.
  The predicted distance-velocity relations around galaxy groups are not alone
very sensitive indicators of the dark energy density, due to the obsevational
scatter and the uncertainties caused by the used mass of the group and a range
in the ejection times. In general, the Local Group outflow data are in
agreement with the local DE density being equal to the global one, if the mass
is about $4 \times 10^{12} M_{\odot}$; a lower mass of about $2 \times 10^{12}
M_{\odot}$ or less could suggest a zero local DE density. The dependence of the
inferred DE density on the mass is a handicap in this and other common
dynamical methods. This emphasizes the need to use different approaches
together, for constraining the local dark energy density.


title:
The generation of concentrated energy of Bessel beams in an array of
  concentric rings

abstract:
  In recent years, the problem of the production of localized waves has been
analyzed in various ways, from both a theoretical and a practical point of
view. We present here a way in which to construct a suitable experimental
set-up, so as to obtain highly localized energy. On the basis of a vectorial
treatment already studied for a specific source (namely, a ring-shaped aperture
over a metallic screen), we evaluate the amount of energy supplied by a single
Bessel beam. Then, by analyzing the geometric characteristics of the
experimental set-up, we can establish the position of further rings, so as to
increase the localized energy to a maximum.


title:
Lattice Formulation for 2d N=(2,2), (4,4) Super Yang-Mills Theories
  without Admissibility Conditions

abstract:
  We present a lattice formulation for two-dimensional N=(2,2) and (4,4)
supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories that resolves vacuum degeneracy for gauge
fields without imposing admissibility conditions. Cases of U(N) and SU(N) gauge
groups are considered, gauge fields are expressed by unitary link variables,
and one or two supercharges are preserved on the two-dimensional square
lattice. There does not appear fermion doubler, and no fine-tuning is required
to obtain the desired continuum theories in a perturbative argument. This
formulation is expected to serve as a more convenient basis for numerical
simulations. The same approach will also be useful to other two-dimensional
supersymmetric lattice gauge theories with unitary link variables constructed
so far -- for example, N=(8,8) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and N=(2,2)
supersymmetric QCD.


title:
Scaling Concepts in Graph Thoery: Self-Avoiding Walk on Fractal Complex
  Networks

abstract:
  It was discovered a few years ago that many networks in the real world
exhibit self-similarity. A lot of researches on the structures and processes on
real and artificial fractal complex networks have been done, drawing an analogy
to critical phenomena. However, the non-Markovian dynamics on fractal networks
has not been understood well yet. We here study the self-avoiding walk on
complex fractal networks through the mapping of the self-avoiding walk to the
n-vector model by a generating function formalism. First, we analytically
calculate the critical exponent {\nu} and the effective coordination number
(the connective constant) by a renormalization-group analysis in various
fractal dimensions. We find that the exponent {\nu} is equal to the exponent of
displacement, which describes the speed of diffusion in terms of the shortest
distance. Second, by obtaining an exact solution, we present an example which
supports the well-known conjecture that the universality class of the
self-avoiding walk is not determined only by a fractal dimension. Our finding
suggests that the scaling theory of polymers can be applied to graphs which
lack the Euclidian distance as well. Furthermore, the self-avoiding walk has
been exactly solved only on a few lattices embedded in the Euclidian space, but
we show that consideration on general graphs can simplify analytic calculations
and leads to a better understanding of critical phenomena. The scaling theory
of the self-avoiding path will shed light on the relationship between path
numeration problems in graph theory and statistical nature of paths.


title: First-principles study of the lattice dynamics of Sb2S3

abstract:
  We present a lattice dynamics study of orthorhombic antimony sulphide (Sb2S3)
obtained using density-functional calculations in conjunction with the
supercell force-constant method. The effect of Born effective charges is taken
into account using a mixed-space approach, resulting in the splitting of
longitudinal and transverse optical (LO-TO) phonon branches near the zone
center. Zone-center frequencies agree well with Raman scattering experiments.
Due to the slow decay of the interatomic force constants (IFC), a minimal 2x4x2
supercell (Pnma setting) with 320 atoms is crucial for an accurate
determination of the dispersion relations. Smaller supercells result in
artificial acoustic phonon softening and unphysical lifting of degeneracies
along high symmetry directions. We propose a scheme to investigate the
convergence of the IFC with respect to the supercell sizes. The phonon
softening can be attributed to the periodic images that affect the accuracy of
the force constants, and the truncation of long-ranged forces. The
commensuration of the q-vectors with the supercell size is crucial to preserve
degeneracies in Sb2S3 crystals.


title: High visibility on-chip quantum interference of single surface plasmons

abstract:
  Quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPICs) based on dielectric waveguides
have been widely used in linear optical quantum computation. Recently, surface
plasmons have been introduced to this application because they can confine and
manipulate light beyond the diffraction limit. In this study, the on-chip
quantum interference of two single surface plasmons was achieved using
dielectric-loaded surface-plasmon-polariton waveguides. The high visibility
(greater than 90%) proves the bosonic nature of single plasmons and emphasizes
the feasibility of achieving basic quantum logic gates for linear optical
quantum computation. The effect of intrinsic losses in plasmonic waveguides
with regard to quantum information processing is also discussed. Although the
influence of this effect was negligible in the current experiment, our studies
reveal that such losses can dramatically reduce quantum interference visibility
in certain cases; thus, quantum coherence must be carefully considered when
designing QPIC devices.


title: On the structure of quaternion rings over $\mathbb{Z}/n \mathbb{Z}$

abstract:
  In this paper we investigate the structure of
$\left(\frac{a,b}{\Z{n}}\right)$, the quaternion rings over $\Z{n}$. It is
proved that these rings are isomorphic to $\left(\frac{-1,-1}{\Z{n}}\right)$ if
$ a \equiv b\equiv -1 \pmod{4}$ or to $\left(\frac{1,1}{\Z{n}}\right)$
otherwise. We also prove that the ring $\left(\frac{a,b}{\Z{n}}\right)$ is
isomorphic to $\mathbb{M}_2(\Z{n})$ if and only if $n$ is odd and that all
quaternion algebras defined over $\Z{n}$ are isomorphic if and only if $n \not
\equiv 0 \pmod{4}$.


title: Conditioning of Leverage Scores and Computation by QR Decomposition

abstract:
  The leverage scores of a full-column rank matrix A are the squared row norms
of any orthonormal basis for range(A). We show that corresponding leverage
scores of two matrices A and A + \Delta A are close in the relative sense, if
they have large magnitude and if all principal angles between the column spaces
of A and A + \Delta A are small. We also show three classes of bounds that are
based on perturbation results of QR decompositions. They demonstrate that
relative differences between individual leverage scores strongly depend on the
particular type of perturbation \Delta A. The bounds imply that the relative
accuracy of an individual leverage score depends on: its magnitude and the
two-norm condition of A, if \Delta A is a general perturbation; the two-norm
condition number of A, if \Delta A is a perturbation with the same norm-wise
row-scaling as A; (to first order) neither condition number nor leverage score
magnitude, if \Delta A is a component-wise row-scaled perturbation. Numerical
experiments confirm the qualitative and quantitative accuracy of our bounds.


title:
Estimating spatial quantile regression with functional coefficients: A
  robust semiparametric framework

abstract:
  This paper considers an estimation of semiparametric functional
(varying)-coefficient quantile regression with spatial data. A general robust
framework is developed that treats quantile regression for spatial data in a
natural semiparametric way. The local M-estimators of the unknown
functional-coefficient functions are proposed by using local linear
approximation, and their asymptotic distributions are then established under
weak spatial mixing conditions allowing the data processes to be either
stationary or nonstationary with spatial trends. Application to a soil data set
is demonstrated with interesting findings that go beyond traditional analysis.


title: Neutrino Emissivities from Deuteron-Breakup and Formation in Supernovae

abstract:
  Neutrino emissions from electron/positron capture on the deuteron and the
nucleon-nucleon fusion processes in the surface region of a supernova core are
studied. These weak processes are evaluated in the standard nuclear physics
approach, which consists of one-nucleon and two-nucleon-exchange currents and
nuclear wave functions generated by a high precision nucleon-nucleon potential.
In addition to the cross sections for these processes involving the deuteron,
we present neutrino emissivities due to these processes calculated for typical
profiles of core-collapsed supernovae. These novel neutrino emissivities are
compared with the standard neutrino emission mechanisms. We find that the
neutrino emissivity due to the electron capture on the deuteron is comparable
to that on the proton in the deuteron abundant region. The implications of the
new channels involving deuterons for the supernova mechanism are discussed.


title: Superconductivity of Cu/CuOx interface formed by shock-wave pressure

abstract:
  A mixture of powdered Cu and CuO has been subjected to a shock-wave pressure
of 350 kbar with following quenching of the vacuum-encapsulated product to 77
K. The ac magnetic susceptibility measurements of the samples have revealed
metastable superconductivity with Tc = 19.5 K, characterized by glassy dynamics
of the shielding currents below Tc . Comparison of the ac susceptibility and
the dc magnetization measurements infers that the superconductivity arises
within the granular interfacial layer formed between metallic Cu and its oxides
due to the shock-wave treatment.


title: A generalization of Solovay's $\Sigma$-construction

abstract:
  A $\Sigma$-construction of Solovay is partially extended to the case of
intermediate sets which are not necessarily subsets of the ground model. As an
application, we prove that, for a given name $t$, the set of all sets $t[G]$,
$G$ being generic over the ground model, is Borel. This result was first
established by Zapletal by a totally different descriptive set theoretic
argument.


title: Lectures on Lattices and locally symmetric spaces

abstract:
  The aim of this short lecture series is to expose the students to the
beautiful theory of lattices by, on one hand, demonstrating various basic ideas
that appear in this theory and, on the other hand, formulating some of the
celebrated results which, in particular, shows some connections to other fields
of mathematics. The time restriction forces us to avoid many important parts of
the theory, and the route we have chosen is naturally biased by the individual
taste of the speaker.


title:
The interface of gravity and quantum mechanics illuminated by Wigner
  phase space

abstract:
  We provide an introduction into the formulation of non-relativistic quantum
mechanics using the Wigner phase-space distribution function and apply this
concept to two physical situations at the interface of quantum theory and
general relativity: (i) the motion of an ensemble of cold atoms relevant to
tests of the weak equivalence principle, and (ii) the Kasevich-Chu
interferometer. In order to lay the foundations for this analysis we first
present a representation-free description of the Kasevich-Chu interferometer
based on unitary operators.


title:
Precision growth index using the clustering of cosmic structures and
  growth data

abstract:
  We use the clustering properties of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) and the
growth rate data provided by the various galaxy surveys in order to constrain
the growth index ($\gamma$) of the linear matter fluctuations. We perform a
standard $\chi^2$-minimization procedure between theoretical expectations and
data, followed by a joint likelihood analysis and we find a value of
$\gamma=0.56\pm 0.05$, perfectly consistent with the expectations of the
$\Lambda$CDM model, and $\Omega_{m0} =0.29\pm 0.01$, in very good agreement
with the latest Planck results. Our analysis provides significantly more
stringent growth index constraints with respect to previous studies, as
indicated by the fact that the corresponding uncertainty is only $\sim 0.09
\gamma$. Finally, allowing $\gamma$ to vary with redshift in two manners
(Taylor expansion around $z=0$, and Taylor expansion around the scale factor),
we find that the combined statistical analysis between our clustering and
literature growth data alleviates the degeneracy and obtain more stringent
constraints with respect to other recent studies.


title:
The nuclear matter equation of state with consistent two- and three-body
  perturbative chiral interactions

abstract:
  We compute the energy per particle of infinite symmetric nuclear matter from
chiral N3LO (next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order) two-body potentials plus
N2LO three-body forces. The low-energy constants of the chiral three-nucleon
force that cannot be constrained by two-body observables are fitted to
reproduce the triton binding energy and the 3H-3He Gamow-Teller transition
matrix element. In this way, the saturation properties of nuclear matter are
reproduced in a parameter-free approach. The equation of state is computed up
to third order in many-body perturbation theory, with special emphasis on the
role of the third-order particle-hole diagram. The dependence of these results
on the cutoff scale and regulator function is studied. We find that the
inclusion of three-nucleon forces consistent with the applied two-nucleon
interaction leads to a reduced dependence on the choice of the regulator only
for lower values of the cutoff.


title:
Uniform convergence rates for a class of martingales with application in
  non-linear cointegrating regression

abstract:
  For a class of martingales, this paper provides a framework on the uniform
consistency with broad applicability. The main condition imposed is only
related to the conditional variance of the martingale, which holds true for
stationary mixing time series, stationary iterated random function, Harris
recurrent Markov chains and $I(1)$ processes with innovations being a linear
process. Using the established results, this paper investigates the uniform
convergence of the Nadaraya-Watson estimator in a non-linear cointegrating
regression model. Our results not only provide sharp convergence rate, but also
the optimal range for the uniform convergence to be held. This paper also
considers the uniform upper and lower bound estimates for a functional of
Harris recurrent Markov chain, which are of independent interests.


title: Bi-invariant metric on contact diffeomorphisms group

abstract:
  We show the existence of a weak bi-invariant symmetric nondegenerate 2-form
on the contact diffeomorphisms group $\mathcal{D}_\theta$ of a contact
Riemannian manifold $(M,g,\theta)$ and study its properties. We describe the
Euler's equation on a Lie algebra of group $\mathcal{D}_\theta$ and calculate
the sectional curvature of $\mathcal{D}_\theta$. In a case $\dim M =3$
connection between the bi-invariant metric on $\mathcal{D}_\theta$ and the
bi-invariant metric on volume-preserving diffeomorphisms group
$\mathcal{D}_\mu$ of $M^3$ is discover.


title:
Parameterization of temperature and spectral distortions in future CMB
  experiments

abstract:
  CMB spectral distortions are induced by Compton collisions with electrons. We
review the various schemes to characterize the anisotropic CMB with a
non-Planckian spectrum. We advocate using logarithmically averaged temperature
moments as the preferred language to describe these spectral distortions, both
for theoretical modeling and observations. Numerical modeling is simpler, the
moments are frame-independent, and in terms of scattering the mode truncation
is exact.


title: Invariant Coupling of Determinantal Measures on Sofic Groups

abstract:
  To any positive contraction $Q$ on $\ell^2(W)$, there is associated a
determinantal probability measure ${\mathbf P}^Q$ on $2^W$, where $W$ is a
denumerable set. Let $\Gamma$ be a countable sofic finitely generated group and
$G = (\Gamma, \mathsf{E})$ be a Cayley graph of $\Gamma$. We show that if $Q_1$
and $Q_2$ are two $\Gamma$-equivariant positive contractions on
$\ell^2(\Gamma)$ or on $\ell^2(\mathsf{E})$ with $Q_1 \le Q_2$, then there
exists a $\Gamma$-invariant monotone coupling of the corresponding
determinantal probability measures witnessing the stochastic domination ${\bf
P}^{Q_1} \preccurlyeq {\bf P}^{Q_2}$. In particular, this applies to the wired
and free uniform spanning forests, which was known before only when $\Gamma$ is
residually amenable. In the case of spanning forests, we also give a second
more explicit proof, which has the advantage of showing an explicit way to
create the free uniform spanning forest as a limit over a sofic approximation.
Another consequence of our main result is to prove that all determinantal
probability measures ${\bf P}^Q$ as above are ${\bar d}$-limits of finitely
dependent processes. Thus, when $\Gamma$ is amenable, ${\bf P}^Q$ is isomorphic
to a Bernoulli shift, which was known before only when $\Gamma$ is abelian. We
also prove analogous results for sofic unimodular random rooted graphs.


title:
Intrinsic asymmetry with respect to adversary: new feature of Bell
  inequalities

abstract:
  It is known that the local bound of a Bell inequality is sensitive to the
knowledge of the external observer about the settings statistics. Here we ask
how that sensitivity depends on the structure of that knowledge. It turns out
that in some cases it may happen that the local bound is much more sensitive to
adversary's knowledge about settings of one party than the other. Remarkably,
there are Bell inequalities which are highly asymmetric with respect to the
adversary's knowledge about local settings. This property may be viewed as a
hidden intrinsic asymmetry of Bell inequalities. Potential implications of the
revealed asymmetry effect are also discussed.


title:
LBT-LUCIFER spectroscopy: kinematics of a compact early type galaxy at
  z\simeq1.4

abstract:
  We present a high signal to noise (S/N$>$10) medium resolution (R=2000)
LBT-LUCIFER spectrum of the early-type galaxy (ETG) S2F1-142 at $z\simeq1.4$.
By means of the CaT line at $8662$ \AA, we measured its redshift $z=1.386\pm
0.001$ and we estimated its velocity dispersion $\sigma_{v}=340 ^{-60}_{+120}$
km/s. Its corresponding virial mass is 3.9$\times10^{11}$ M$_\odot$, compatible
with the stellar mass estimates obtained assuming Initial Mass Functions (IMFs)
less dwarf rich than the Salpeter one. S2F1-142 is a compact galaxy with
$R_{e}$=3.1$\pm$0.2 kpc, i.e., an effective radius more than three times
smaller than the average $R_{e}$ of early-type galaxies with the same mass in
the local universe. At the same time, we found local and high redshift galaxies
with a similar mass content and similar effective radius confirming that it is
fully consistent with the already available measures of $R_{e}$ and
$\sigma_{v}$ both in the local and in the distant universe. Considering the
distribution of $R_{e}$ and $\sigma_{v}$ as a function of the stellar mass
content of ETGs, both in the local and in the distant universe, we noticed that
the measured velocity dispersions of the more compact galaxies are on average
slightly lower than expected on the basis of their compactness and the virial
theorem, suggesting that {\it i)} their dark matter content is lower than in
the more diffuse galaxies and/or {\it ii)} their luminosity profiles are
steeper than in the more diffuse galaxies and/or {\it iii)} their larger
compactness is an apparent effect caused by the overestimate of their stellar
mass content (due to bottom lighter IMF and/or systematic affecting the stellar
mass estimates).


title: Construction of dyadic MDS matrices for cryptographic applications

abstract:
  Many recent block ciphers use Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) matrices in
their diffusion layer. The main objective of this operation is to spread as
much as possible the differences between the outputs of nonlinear Sboxes. So
they generally act at nibble or at byte level. The MDS matrices are associated
to MDS codes of ratio 1/2. The most famous example is the MixColumns operation
of the AES block cipher.
  In this example, the MDS matrix was carefully chosen to obtain compact and
efficient implementations. However, this MDS matrix is dedicated to 8-bit
words, and is not always adapted to lightweight applications. Recently, several
studies have been devoted to the construction of recursive diffusion layers.
Such a method allows to apply an MDS matrix using an iterative process which
looks like a Feistel network with linear functions instead of nonlinear.
  Our approach is quite different. We present a generic construction of
classical MDS matrices that are not recursively computed, but that are strong
symmetric in order to either accelerate their evaluation with a minimal number
of look-up tables, or to perform this evaluation with a minimal number of gates
in a circuit. We call this particular kind of matrices "dyadic matrices", since
they are related to dyadic codes. We study some basic properties of such
matrices. We introduce a generic construction of involutive dyadic MDS matrices
from Reed Solomon codes. Finally, we discuss the implementation aspects of
these dyadic MDS matrices in order to build efficient block ciphers.


title: Shimura varieties in the Torelli locus via Galois coverings

abstract:
  Given a family of Galois coverings of the projective line we give a simple
sufficient condition ensuring that the closure of the image of the family via
the period mapping is a special (or Shimura) subvariety in A_g. By a computer
program we get the list of all families in genus up to 8 satisfying our
condition. There is no family in genus 8, all of them are in genus at most 7.
These examples are related to a conjecture of Oort. Among them we get the
cyclic examples constructed by various authors (Shimura, Mostow, De Jong-Noot,
Rohde, Moonen and others) and the abelian non-cyclic examples found by
Moonen-Oort. We get 7 new non-abelian examples.


title:
Device-independent randomness extraction for arbitrarily weak
  min-entropy source

abstract:
  Expansion and amplification of weak randomness plays a crucial role in many
security protocols. Using quantum devices, such procedure is possible even
without trusting the devices used, by utilizing correlations between outcomes
of parts of the devices. We show here how to extract random bits with an
arbitrarily low bias from a single arbitrarily weak min-entropy source in a
device independent setting. To do this we use Mermin devices that exhibit
super-classical correlations. Number of devices used scales polynomially in the
length of the random sequence $n$. Our protocol is robust, it can tolerate
devices that malfunction with a probability dropping polynomially in $n$ at the
cost of a minor increase of the number of devices used.


title: The QCD improved electroweak parameter $\rho$

abstract:
  In the present paper, we make a detailed analysis for the QCD corrections to
the electroweak $\rho$ parameter by applying the principle of maximum
conformality (PMC). As a comparison, we show that under the conventional scale
setting, we have $\Delta\rho|_{\rm N^3LO} =
\left(8.257^{+0.045}_{-0.012}\right) \times10^{-3}$ by varying the scale
$\mu_{r}\in[M_{t}/2$, $2M_{t}]$. By defining a ratio, $\Delta
R=\Delta\rho/3X_t-1$, which shows the relative importance of the QCD
corrections, it is found that its scale error is $\sim \pm9 \%$ at the two-loop
level, which changes to $\sim\pm4\%$ at the three-loop level and $\sim \pm
2.5\%$ at the four-loop level, respectively. These facts well explain why the
conventional scale uncertainty constitutes an important error for estimating
the $\rho$ parameter. On the other hand, by applying the PMC scale setting, the
four-loop estimation $\Delta\rho|_{\rm N^3LO}$ shall be almost fixed to
$8.228\times10^{-3}$, which indicates that the conventional scale error has
been eliminated. We observe the pQCD convergence for the $\rho$ parameter has
also been greatly improved due to the elimination of the divergent renormalon
terms. As applications of the present QCD improved $\rho$ parameter, we show
the shifts of the $W$-boson mass and the effective leptonic weak-mixing angle
due to $\Delta\rho$ can be reduced to $\delta M_{W}|_{\rm N^3LO} =0.7$ MeV and
$\delta \sin^2{\theta}_{\rm eff}|_{\rm N^3LO}=-0.4\times10^{-5}$.


title: About the use of fidelity in continuous variable systems

abstract:
  We present examples of continuous variable (CV) states having high fidelity
to a given target, say $F > 0.9$ or $F > 0.99$, and still showing striking
differences in their physical properties, including classical and quantum
states within the set, separable and entangled ones, or nearly Gaussian and
strongly non-Gaussian ones. We also show that the phenomenon persists also when
one imposes additional constraints on the energy or the squeezing fraction of
the states, thus generally questioning the use of fidelity to assess properties
of CV systems.


title: Local stability of a gravitating filament: a dispersion relation

abstract:
  Filamentary structures are ubiquitous in astrophysics and are observed at
various scales. On a cosmological scale, matter is usually distributed along
filaments, and filaments are also typical features of the interstellar medium.
Within a cosmic filament, matter can contract and form galaxies, whereas an
interstellar gas filament can clump into a series of bead-like structures which
can then turn into stars. To investigate the growth of such instabilities, we
derive a local dispersion relation for an idealized self-gravitating filament,
and study some of its properties. Our idealized picture consists of an infinite
self-gravitating and rotating cylinder with pressure and density related by a
polytropic equation of state. We assume no specific density distribution, treat
matter as a fluid, and use hydrodynamics to derive the linearized equations
that govern the local perturbations. We obtain a dispersion relation for
axisymmetric perturbations and study its properties in the (k_R, k_z) phase
space, where k_R and k_z are respectively the radial and longitudinal
wavenumbers. While the boundary between the stable and unstable regimes is
symmetrical in k_R and k_z and analogous to the Jeans criterion, the most
unstable mode displays an asymmetry that could constrain the shape of the
structures that form within the filament. Here the results are applied to a
fiducial interstellar filament, but could be extended for more astrophysical
systems such as cosmological filaments and tidal tails.


title: Patchwise Joint Sparse Tracking with Occlusion Detection

abstract:
  This paper presents a robust tracking approach to handle challenges such as
occlusion and appearance change. Here, the target is partitioned into a number
of patches. Then, the appearance of each patch is modeled using a dictionary
composed of corresponding target patches in previous frames. In each frame, the
target is found among a set of candidates generated by a particle filter, via a
likelihood measure that is shown to be proportional to the sum of
patch-reconstruction errors of each candidate. Since the target's appearance
often changes slowly in a video sequence, it is assumed that the target in the
current frame and the best candidates of a small number of previous frames,
belong to a common subspace. This is imposed using joint sparse representation
to enforce the target and previous best candidates to have a common sparsity
pattern. Moreover, an occlusion detection scheme is proposed that uses
patch-reconstruction errors and a prior probability of occlusion, extracted
from an adaptive Markov chain, to calculate the probability of occlusion per
patch. In each frame, occluded patches are excluded when updating the
dictionary. Extensive experimental results on several challenging sequences
shows that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art trackers.


title: Isovector potential of $\Sigma$ in nuclei and neutron star matter

abstract:
  We determine the coupling constants of $\Sigma$ hyperon with mesons in
relativistic mean field (RMF) models using $\Sigma^-$ atomic shift data and
examine the effects of $\Sigma$ on the neutron star maximum mass. We find that
we need to reduce the vector-isovector meson coupling with $\Sigma$
($g_{\rho\Sigma}$) from the value constrained by the SU(3)v symmetry in order
to explain the $\Sigma^-$ atomic shifts for light symmetric and heavy
asymmetric nuclei simultaneously. With the atomic shift fit value of
$g_{\rho\Sigma}$, $\Sigma^-$ can emerge in neutron star matter overcoming the
repulsive isoscalar potential for $\Sigma$ hyperons. Admixture of $\Sigma^-$ in
neutron stars is found to reduce the neutron star maximum mass slightly.


title: Simple Deformed Witt Algebras

abstract:
  For any factorization domain $\cal A$ and an algebra endomorphism $\sigma$ of
$\cal A$, there exists a non-associative algebra $({\cal
A},\sigma,[\cdot,\cdot])$ with multiplication satisfying skew-symmetry and
generalized (twisted) Jacobi identities, called a $\sigma$-deformed Witt
algebra. In this paper, we obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for
the algebra $({\cal A},\sigma,[\cdot,\cdot])$ to be simple.


title: The globular cluster NGC 6528 the ferrous side of the Galactic Bulge

abstract:
  We present new and accurate optical photometry of the Bulge globular cluster
NGC 6528. The images were collected with ACS at HST and together with WFC3
(UVIS, IR) allowed us to measure the proper motion to separate cluster and
field stars. We adopted two empirical calibrators and we found that NGC 6528 is
coeval with and more metal-rich than 47 Tuc. Moreover, it appears older and
more metal-poor than the super-metal-rich old open cluster NGC 6791. We also
performed a preliminary analysis of field stellar populations located around
NGC 6528 and NGC 6522 by using ground-based near-infrared photometry collected
with SOFI at NTT. The comparison of evolved stellar components (red giant
branch, red horizontal branch, red clump stars) indicates that they share
similar properties in this region of the Baade's Window.


title: A parameter identification problem in stochastic homogenization

abstract:
  In porous media physics, calibrating model parameters through experiments is
a challenge. This process is plagued with errors that come from modelling,
measurement and computation of the macroscopic observables through random
homogenization -- the forward problem -- as well as errors coming from the
parameters fitting procedure -- the inverse problem. In this work, we address
these issues by considering a least-square formulation to identify parameters
of the microscopic model on the basis on macroscopic observables. In
particular, we discuss the selection of the macroscopic observables which we
need to know in order to uniquely determine these parameters. To gain a better
intuition and explore the problem without a too high computational load, we
mostly focus on the one-dimensional case. We show that the Newton algorithm can
be efficiently used to robustly determine optimal parameters, even if some
small statistical noise is present in the system.


title:
Spin-polarized transport in ferromagnetic multilayers: An
  unconditionally convergent FEM integrator

abstract:
  We propose and analyze a decoupled time-marching scheme for the coupling of
the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation with a quasilinear diffusion equation for
the spin accumulation. This model describes the interplay of magnetization and
electron spin accumulation in magnetic and non-magnetic multilayer structures.
Despite the strong nonlinearity of the overall PDE system, the proposed
integrator requires only the solution of two linear systems per time-step.
Unconditional convergence of the integrator towards weak solutions is proved.


title: Powers of Hamilton cycles in pseudorandom graphs

abstract:
  We study the appearance of powers of Hamilton cycles in pseudorandom graphs,
using the following comparatively weak pseudorandomness notion. A graph $G$ is
$(\varepsilon,p,k,\ell)$-pseudorandom if for all disjoint $X$ and $Y\subset
V(G)$ with $|X|\ge\varepsilon p^kn$ and $|Y|\ge\varepsilon p^\ell n$ we have
$e(X,Y)=(1\pm\varepsilon)p|X||Y|$. We prove that for all $\beta>0$ there is an
$\varepsilon>0$ such that an $(\varepsilon,p,1,2)$-pseudorandom graph on $n$
vertices with minimum degree at least $\beta pn$ contains the square of a
Hamilton cycle. In particular, this implies that $(n,d,\lambda)$-graphs with
$\lambda\ll d^{5/2 }n^{-3/2}$ contain the square of a Hamilton cycle, and thus
a triangle factor if $n$ is a multiple of $3$. This improves on a result of
Krivelevich, Sudakov and Szab\'o [Triangle factors in sparse pseudo-random
graphs, Combinatorica 24 (2004), no. 3, 403--426].
  We also extend our result to higher powers of Hamilton cycles and establish
corresponding counting versions.


title:
Time-delayed feedback control of breathing localized structures in a
  three-component reaction-diffusion system

abstract:
  We investigate the dynamics of a single breathing localized structure in a
three-component reaction-diffusion system subjected to the time-delayed
feedback. We show that variation of the delay time and the feedback strength
can lead either to stabilization of the breathing or to delay-induced periodic
or quasiperiodic oscillations of the localized structure. We provide a
bifurcation analysis of the system in question and derive an order parameter
equation, which describes the dynamics of the localized structure in the
vicinity of the Hopf bifurcation. With the aid of this equation, boundaries of
the stabilization domains as well as the dependence of the oscillation radius
on delay parameters can be explicitly derived, providing a robust mechanism to
control the behavior of the breathing localized structure in a straightforward
manner.


title:
Fieldlike and antidamping spin-orbit torques in as-grown and annealed
  Ta/CoFeB/MgO layers

abstract:
  We present a comprehensive study of the current-induced spin-orbit torques in
perpendicularly magnetized Ta/CoFeB/MgO layers. The samples were annealed in
steps up to 300 degrees C and characterized using x-ray absorption
spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, resistivity, and Hall effect
measurements. By performing adiabatic harmonic Hall voltage measurements, we
show that the transverse (field-like) and longitudinal (antidamping-like)
spin-orbit torques are composed of constant and magnetization-dependent
contributions, both of which vary strongly with annealing. Such variations
correlate with changes of the saturation magnetization and magnetic anisotropy
and are assigned to chemical and structural modifications of the layers. The
relative variation of the constant and anisotropic torque terms as a function
of annealing temperature is opposite for the field-like and antidamping
torques. Measurements of the switching probability using sub-{\mu}s current
pulses show that the critical current increases with the magnetic anisotropy of
the layers, whereas the switching efficiency, measured as the ratio of magnetic
anisotropy energy and pulse energy, decreases. The optimal annealing
temperature to achieve maximum magnetic anisotropy, saturation magnetization,
and switching efficiency is determined to be between 240 degrees and 270
degrees C.


title:
An alternative representation for pure symmetric states of qubits and
  its applications to entanglement classification

abstract:
  We prove that the vast majority of symmetric states of qubits can be
decomposed in a unique way into a superposition of spin 1/2 coherent states.
For the case of two qubits, the proposed decomposition reproduces the Schmidt
decomposition and therefore, in the case of a higher number of qubits, can be
considered as its generalization. We analyze the geometrical aspects of the
proposed representation and its invariant properties under the action of local
unitary and local invertible transformations. As an application, we identify
the most general classes of entanglement and representative states for any
number of qubits in a symmetric state.


title: The inverse problem for power distributions in committees

abstract:
  Several power indices have been introduced in the literature in order to
measure the influence of individual committee members on the aggregated
decision. Here we ask the inverse question and aim to design voting rules for a
committee such that a given desired power distribution is met as closely as
possible. We present an exact algorithm for a large class of different power
indices based on integer linear programming. With respect to negative
approximation results we generalize the approach of Alon and Edelman who
studied power distributions for the Banzhaf index, where most of the power is
concentrated on few coordinates. It turned out that each Banzhaf vector of an
n-member committee that is near to such a desired power distribution, has to be
also near to the Banzhaf vector of a k-member committee. We show that such
Alon-Edelman type results are possible for other power indices like e.g. the
Public Good index or the Coleman index to prevent actions, while they are
principally impossible for e.g. the Johnston index.


title: Implementation of Two Component Advective Flow Solution in XSPEC

abstract:
  Spectral and Temporal properties of black hole candidates can be explained
reasonably well using Chakrabarti-Titarchuk solution of two component advective
flow (TCAF). This model requires two accretion rates, namely, the Keplerian
disk accretion rate and the halo accretion rate, the latter being composed of a
sub-Keplerian, low angular momentum flow which may or may not develop a shock.
In this solution, the relevant parameter is the relative importance of the halo
(which creates the Compton cloud region) rate with respect to the Keplerian
disk rate (soft photon source). Though this model has been used earlier to
manually fit data of several black hole candidates quite satisfactorily, for
the first time, we made it user friendly by implementing it into XSPEC software
of GSFC/NASA. This enables any user to extract physical parameters of the
accretion flows, such as two accretion rates, the shock location, the shock
strength etc. for any black hole candidate. We provide some examples of fitting
a few cases using this model. Most importantly, unlike any other model, we show
that TCAF is capable of predicting timing properties from the spectral fits,
since in TCAF, a shock is responsible for deciding spectral slopes as well as
QPO frequencies.


title:
A simple mechanism for controlling the onset and arrest of collective
  oscillations in genetic circuits

abstract:
  We study a system of dynamical units, each of which shows excitable or
oscillatory behavior, depending on the choice of parameters. When we couple
these units with repressive bonds, we can control the duration of collective
oscillations for an intermediate period between collective fixed-point
behavior. The control mechanism works by monotonically increasing a single
bifurcation parameter. Both the onset and arrest of oscillations are due to
bifurcations. Depending on the coupling strength, the network topology and the
tuning speed, our numerical simulations reveal a rich dynamics
out-of-equilibrium with multiple inherent time scales, long transients towards
the stationary states and interesting transient patterns like self-organized
pacemakers. Zooming into the transition regime, we pursue the arrest of
oscillations along the arms of spirals. We point out possible relations to the
genetic network of segmentation clocks.


title: Shortest path and Schramm-Loewner Evolution

abstract:
  We numerically show that the statistical properties of the shortest path on
critical percolation clusters are consistent with the ones predicted for
Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) curves for $\kappa=1.04\pm0.02$. The shortest
path results from a global optimization process. To identify it, one needs to
explore an entire area. Establishing a relation with SLE permits to generate
curves statistically equivalent to the shortest path from a Brownian motion. We
numerically analyze the winding angle, the left passage probability, and the
driving function of the shortest path and compare them to the distributions
predicted for SLE curves with the same fractal dimension. The consistency with
SLE opens the possibility of using a solid theoretical framework to describe
the shortest path and it raises relevant questions regarding conformal
invariance and domain Markov properties, which we also discuss.


title: On Linear Landau Damping for Relativistic Plasmas via Gevrey Regularity

abstract:
  We examine the phenomenon of Landau Damping in relativistic plasmas via a
study of the relativistic Vlasov-Poisson system (both on the torus and on
$\mathbb{R}^3$) linearized around a sufficiently nice, spatially uniform
kinetic equilibrium. We find that exponential decay of spatial Fourier modes is
impossible under modest symmetry assumptions. However, by assuming the
equilibrium and initial data are sufficiently regular functions of velocity for
a given wavevector (in particular that they exhibit a kind of Gevrey
regularity), we show that it is possible for the mode associated to this
wavevector to decay sub-exponentially if its magnitude exceeds a certain
critical size. We also give a heuristic argument why one should not expect such
rapid decay for modes with wavevectors below this threshold.


title:
Defeating the Eavesdropper: On the Achievable Secrecy Capacity using
  Reconfigurable Antennas

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider the transmission of confidential messages over
slow fading wireless channels in the presence of an eavesdropper. We propose a
transmission scheme that employs a single reconfigurable antenna at each of the
legitimate partners, whereas the eavesdropper uses a single conventional
antenna. A reconfigurable antenna can switch its propagation characteristics
over time and thus it perceives different fading channels. It is shown that
without channel side information (CSI) at the legitimate partners, the main
channel can be transformed into an ergodic regime offering a \textit{secrecy
capacity} gain for strict outage constraints. If the legitimate partners have
partial or full channel side information (CSI), a sort of selection diversity
can be applied boosting the maximum secret communication rate. In this case,
fading acts as a friend not a foe.


title: Impact of hydrostatic pressure on superconductivity of Sr0.5La0.5FBiS2

abstract:
  We report the impact of hydrostatic pressure (0-1.97GPa) on superconductivity
of recently discovered 2K superconductor Sr0.5La0.5FBiS2. Resistivity under
pressure measurements are performed by using HPC-33 Piston type pressure cell
with Quantum design DC resistivity Option. The superconducting transition
temperature (Tc) is increased by 5 fold to around 10K with just above 1GPa
pressure, which remains nearly unaltered for studied higher pressures of up to
1.97GPa. The fivefold increase in Tc of Sr0.5La0.5FBiS2 with just above 1GPa
pressure suggests very strong electron correlations in these systems and the
same calls for the attention of solid state physics community.


title: The role of carbohydrates at the origin of homochirality in biosystems

abstract:
  Pasteur has demonstrated that the chiral components in a racemic mixture can
separate in homochiral crystals. But with a strong chiral discrimination the
chiral components in a concentrated mixture can also phase separate into
homochiral fluid domains, and the isomerization kinetics can then perform a
symmetry breaking into one thermodynamical stable homochiral system.
Glyceraldehyde has a sufficient chiral discrimination to perform such a
symmetry breaking. The requirement of a high concentration of the chiral
reactant(s) in an aqueous solution in order to perform and $\textit{maintain}$
homochirality; the appearance of phosphorylation of almost all carbohydrates in
the central machinery of life; the basic ideas that the biochemistry and the
glycolysis and gluconeogenesis contain the trace of the biochemical evolution,
all point in the direction of that homochirality was obtained just after- or at
a phosphorylation of the very first products of the formose reaction, at high
concentrations of the reactants in phosphate rich compartments in submarine
hydrothermal vents. A racemic solution of D,L-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate could
be the template for obtaining homochiral D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate(aq) as
well as L-amino acids.


title: On thickness and thinness of Banach spaces

abstract:
  The aim of this note is to complement and extend some recent results on
Whitley's indices of thinness and thickness in three main directions. Firstly,
we investigate both the indices when forming $\ell_p$-sums of Banach spaces,
and obtain formulas which show that they behave rather differently. Secondly,
we consider the relation of the indices of the space and a subspace. Finally,
every Banach space $X$ containing a copy of $c_0$ can be equivalently renormed
so that in the new norm $c_0$ is an M-ideal in $X$ and both the thickness and
thinness index of $X$ equal 1.


title: Engineering Adaptive Digital Investigations using Forensics Requirements

abstract:
  A digital forensic investigation aims to collect and analyse the evidence
necessary to demonstrate a potential hypothesis of a digital crime. Despite the
availability of several digital forensics tools, investigators still approach
each crime case from scratch, postulating potential hypotheses and analysing
large volumes of data. This paper proposes to explicitly model forensic
requirements in order to engineer software systems that are forensic-ready and
guide the activities of a digital investigation. Forensic requirements relate
some speculative hypotheses of a crime to the evidence that should be collected
and analysed in a crime scene. In contrast to existing approaches, we propose
to perform proactive activities to preserve important - potentially ephemeral -
evidence, depending on the risk of a crime to take place. Once an investigation
starts, the evidence collected proactively is analysed to assess if some of the
speculative hypotheses of a crime hold and what further evidence is necessary
to support them. For each hypothesis that is satisfied, a structured argument
is generated to demonstrate how the evidence collected supports that
hypothesis. Our evaluation results suggest that the approach provides correct
investigative findings and reduces significantly the amount of evidence to be
collected and the hypotheses to be analysed.


title:
A family of energy stable, skew-symmetric finite difference schemes on
  collocated grids

abstract:
  A simple scheme for incompressible, constant density flows is presented,
which avoids odd-even decoupling for the Laplacian on a collocated grids.
Energy stability is implied by maintaining strict energy conservation. Momentum
is conserved. Arbitrary order in space and time can easily be obtained. The
conservation properties hold on transformed grids.


title:
The molecular circumnuclear disk (CND) in Centaurus A: A
  multi-transition CO and [CI] survey with Herschel, APEX, JCMT, and SEST

abstract:
  We present new CO and C^o line measurements of the compact circumnuclear disk
in the center of NGC 128 (Centaurus~A) obtained with the Herschel Space
Observatory, as well as SEST, JCMT, and APEX. The Cen A center CO ladder is
quite different from those of either star-burst galaxies or AGNs. In addition,
the relative intensity of the central Cen A [CI] emission lines is much greate
than that in any other galaxy. The CO surface brightness of the compact
circumnuclear disk (CND) is significantly higher than that of the much more
extended thin disk (ETD) in the same line of sight. Our LVG and PDR/XDR models
suggest that much of the CND gas is relatively cool (25 - 80 K) and not very
dense (~ 300 cm^{-3}) if the heating is by UV photons, although there is some
gas in both the CND and the ETD with a much higher density of ~30 000 cm^{-3}.
Finally, there is also high-excitation, high-density phase in the CND (but not
in the ETD), either in the form of an extreme PDR but more likely in the form
of an XDR. The total gas mass of the Cen A CND is 8.4 x 10^{7} M(sun),
uncertain by a factor of two. The CO-H2 conversion factor is 4 x 10^{20} K
km/s, also within a factor of two.


title:
Electronic properties of graphene nano-flakes: Energy gap, permanent
  dipole, termination effect and Raman spectroscopy

abstract:
  The electronic properties of graphene nano-flakes (GNFs) with different edge
passivation is investigated by using density functional theory. Passivation
with F and H atoms are considered: C$_{N_c}$ X$_{N_x}$ (X=F or H). We studied
GNFs with $10<N_c<56$ and limit ourselves to the lowest energy configurations.
We found that: i) the energy difference $\Delta$ between the highest occupied
molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO)
decreases with $N_c$, ii) topological defects (pentagon and heptagon) break the
symmetry of the GNFs and enhance the electric polarization, iii) the mutual
interaction of bilayer GNFs can be understood by dipole-dipole interaction
which were found sensitive to the relative orientation of the GNFs, iv) the
permanent dipoles depend on the edge terminated atom, while the energy gap is
independent of it, and v) the presence of heptagon and pentagon defects in the
GNFs results in the largest difference between the energy of the spin-up and
spin-down electrons which is larger for the H-passivated GNFs as compared to
F-passivated GNFs. Our study shows clearly the effect of geometry, size,
termination and bilayer on the electronic properties of small GNFs.This study
reveals important features of graphene nano-flakes which can be detected using
Raman spectroscopy.


title: Stressing the Boundaries of Mobile Accessibility

abstract:
  Mobile devices gather the communication capabilities as no other gadget.
Plus, they now comprise a wider set of applications while still maintaining
reduced size and weight. They have started to include accessibility features
that enable the inclusion of disabled people. However, these inclusive efforts
still fall short considering the possibilities of such devices. This is mainly
due to the lack of interoperability and extensibility of current mobile
operating systems (OS). In this paper, we present a case study of a
multi-impaired person where access to basic mobile applications was provided in
an applicational basis. We outline the main flaws in current mobile OS and
suggest how these could further empower developers to provide accessibility
components. These could then be compounded to provide system-wide inclusion to
a wider range of (multi)-impairments.


title: On Transiso Graph

abstract:
  In this note, we define a new graph $\Gamma_d(G)$ on a finite group $G$,
where $d$ is a divisor of $|G|$. The vertices of $\Gamma_d(G)$ are the
subgroups of $G$ of order $d$ and two subgroups $H_1$ and $H_2$ of $G$ are said
to be adjacent if there exists $S_i \in \mathcal{T}(G,H_i)$ $(i=1,2)$ such that
$S_1 \cong S_2$. We shall discuss the completeness of $\Gamma_d(G)$ for various
groups like finite abelian groups, dihedral groups and some finite $p$-groups.


title:
Activation cross-sections of long lived products of deuteron induced
  nuclear reactions on dysprosium up to 50 MeV

abstract:
  Activation cross-sections for production of 162m,161,155Ho,165,159,157,155Dy
and 161,160,156,155Tb radionuclides in deuteron induced nuclear reactions on
elemental dysprosium were measured up to 50 MeV for practical application and
the test of the predictive power of nuclear reaction model codes. A
stacked-foil irradiation technique and off-line gamma-ray spectrometry were
used to determine the activities. No earlier cross-section data were found in
the literature. The experimental data are compared with the predictions of the
ALICE-D, EMPIRE-D and TALYS codes. Integral production yields were calculated
from the fitted experimental data.


title:
Laplace Transform of Product of Generalized Marcum Q, Bessel I, and
  Power Functions with Applications

abstract:
  The evaluation of integral transforms of special functions is required in
different research and practical areas. Analyzing the $\kappa$-$\mu$ fading
distribution also khown as the generalized Rician distribution, we find out
that the assessment of a few different performance metrics, such as the
probability of energy detection of unknown signals and outage probability under
co-channel interference, involves the evaluation of an infinite-range integral,
which has the form of Laplace transform of product of Marcum Q, Bessel I, and
power functions. We evaluate this integral in a closed-form and present
numerical estimates.


title:
The Processing of the Clumpy Molecular Gas in the Galactic Center and
  the Star-Formation

abstract:
  We present the Green Bank 100m Telescope (GBT) mapping observations of CS
1-0, and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) 157-pointings mosaic of the 0.86 mm dust
continuum emission as well as several warm and dense gas tracers, in the
central ~20 pc area in Galactic Center. The unprecedentedly large field-of-view
and the high angular resolution of our SMA dust image allow the identification
of abundant 0.1-0.2 pc scale dense gas clumps. We found that in the Galactic
Center, the Class I methanol masers are excellently correlated with the dense
gas clumps. However, on the ~0.1 pc scale, these dense gas clumps still have a
extremely large linewidth (FWHM~10-20 km/s). Simple calculations suggest that
the identified clumps can be possibly the pressurized gas reservoir feeding the
formation of 1-10 solar-mass stars. These gas clumps may be the most promising
candidates for ALMA to resolve the high-mass star-formation in the Galactic
center.


title: Role of defects and geometry in the strength of polycrystalline graphene

abstract:
  Defects in solid commonly limit mechanical performance of the material.
However, recent measurements reported that the extraordinarily high strength of
graphene is almost retained with the presence of grain boundaries. We clarify
in this work that lattice defects in the grain boundaries and distorted
geometry thus induced define the mechanical properties characterized under
specific loading conditions. Atomistic simulations and theoretical analysis
show that tensile tests measure in-plane strength that is governed by
defect-induced stress buildup, while nanoindentation probes local strength
under the indenter tip and bears additional geometrical effects from warping.
These findings elucidate the failure mechanisms of graphene under realistic
loading conditions and assess the feasibility of abovementioned techniques in
quantifying the strength of graphene, and suggest that mechanical properties of
low-dimensional materials could be tuned by implanting defects and geometrical
distortion they leads to.


title: A state equation for the Schelling's segregation model

abstract:
  An aspatial version for the famous Schelling's segregation model has recently
been proposed, which, called two-room model, is still in an agent-based format
like the original Schelling model. In the present study, we propose a new,
state equation version of the Schelling model. The new equation is based on the
two-room model and is derived in terms of a set of discrete maps. Fixed point
solutions for the new equation are found analytically and confirmed
numerically. Especially, we show that the extremely simple state equations can
reasonably reveal the essence of the Schelling dynamics: integration,
segregation and tipping. In addition to the fixed point solutions, periodic
solutions are identified and conditions of the limit cycles are derived
analytically.


title: Switching of Conducting Planes by Partial Dimer Formation in IrTe$_2$

abstract:
  Single-crystal X-ray diffraction was employed to study the
structural-electronic phase transition of IrTe$_2$ at approximately 270 K. The
low-temperature structure was found to be a triclinic (space group $P\bar{1}$)
characterized by the partial formation of Ir$_2$ dimers in the triangular
lattice of IrTe$_2$, resulting in a structural modulation with a wave vector of
${\bf q} = (1/5, 0, -1/5)$. First-principles band calculations demonstrate that
tilted two-dimensional Fermi surfaces emerge in the triclinic phase, suggesting
that switching of the conducting planes occurs from the basal plane of the
trigonal IrTe$_2$ to the tilted plane normal to ${\bf q}$ of the triclinic
IrTe$_2$.


title: Dynamic Programming Subject to Total Variation Distance Ambiguity

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to address optimality of stochastic control
strategies via dynamic programming subject to total variation distance
ambiguity on the conditional distribution of the controlled process. We
formulate the stochastic control problem using minimax theory, in which the
control minimizes the pay-off while the conditional distribution, from the
total variation distance set, maximizes it.
  First, we investigate the maximization of a linear functional on the space of
probability measures on abstract spaces, among those probability measures which
are within a total variation distance from a nominal probability measure, and
then we give the maximizing probability measure in closed form. Second, we
utilize the solution of the maximization to solve minimax stochastic control
with deterministic control strategies, under a Markovian and a non-Markovian
assumption, on the conditional distributions of the controlled process. The
results of this part include: 1) Minimax optimization subject to total
variation distance ambiguity constraint; 2) new dynamic programming recursions,
which involve the oscillator seminorm of the value function, in addition to the
standard terms; 3) new infinite horizon discounted dynamic programming
equation, the associated contractive property, and a new policy iteration
algorithm. Finally, we provide illustrative examples for both the finite and
infinite horizon cases. For the infinite horizon case we invoke the new policy
iteration algorithm to compute the optimal strategies.


title:
Maximum work extraction and implementation costs for non-equilibrium
  Maxwell's demons

abstract:
  In this theoretical study, we determine the maximum amount of work
extractable in finite time by a demon performing continuous measurements on a
quadratic Hamiltonian system subjected to thermal fluctuations, in terms of the
information extracted from the system. This is in contrast to many recent
studies that focus on demons' maximizing the extracted work over received
information, and operate close to equilibrium. The maximum work demon is found
to apply a high-gain continuous feedback using a Kalman-Bucy estimate of the
system state. A simple and concrete electrical implementation of the feedback
protocol is proposed, which allows for analytic expressions of the flows of
energy and entropy inside the demon. This let us show that any implementation
of the demon must necessarily include an external power source, which we prove
both from classical thermodynamics arguments and from a version of Landauer's
memory erasure argument extended to non-equilibrium linear systems.


title: Selective molecular capture mechanism in carbon nanotube networks

abstract:
  Recent air pollution issues have raised significant attention to develop
efficient air filters, and one of the most promising candidates is that enabled
by nanofibers. We explore here selective molecular capture mechanism for
volatile organic compounds in carbon nanotube networks by performing atomistic
simulations. The results are discussed with respect to the two key parameters
that define the performance of nanofiltration, i.e. the capture efficiency and
flow resistance, which validate the advantage of carbon nanotube networks with
high surface-to-volume ratio and atomistically smooth surfaces. We also reveal
the important roles of interfacial adhesion and diffusion that govern selective
gas transport through the network.


title:
Sequencing Participatory Action Research and i* Modeling Framework in
  Capturing Multiple Roles Requirements

abstract:
  This paper presents the conceptual framework for sequencing of Participatory
Action Research (PAR) methodology with the implementation of i* modeling
framework in capturing multiple roles requirements. There are multiple roles
involved in the development of information system, thus it involves with
difference users requirements and preferences, context as well as the demands
which become a challenge in development of system. This is due to these roles
where information of the project monitoring is perceived in accordance to their
role and domain. In the development of information systems, requirement
engineering is a vital methodology. Requirement engineering (RE) consists of
several phases which elicitation is a crucial phase in RE since it requires
researcher to gather the requirement from the users. Methods of eliciting
requirements are now more co-operative. Based on the preliminary study of
construction-based in Malaysia, evidence of dynamic requirements has been
observed according to the environments, economic, technology and manpower
involved in the construction project. An adaptive design for project monitoring
is needed which allow the physical system to self-adapt in response to the
changing environments. Adaptive design requires selecting the right techniques
of requirements elicitation. The conceptual framework defined shall be used to
elicit requirements from a local construction company.


title:
Beyond Rainbow-Ladder in a covariant three-body Bethe-Salpeter approach:
  Baryons

abstract:
  We report on recent results of a calculation of the nucleon and delta masses
in a covariant bound-state approach, where to the simple rainbow-ladder
gluon-exchange interaction kernel we add a pion-exchange contribution to
account for pion cloud effects. We observe good agreement with lattice data at
large pion masses. At the physical point our masses are too large by about five
percent, signaling the need for more structure in the gluon part of the
interaction.


title: Understanding water permeation in graphene oxide membranes

abstract:
  Water transport through graphene-derived membranes has gained much interest
recently due to its promising potential in filtration and separation
applications. In this work, we explore water permeation in graphene oxide
membranes using atomistic simulations, by considering flow through interlayer
gallery, expanded pores such as wrinkles of interedge spaces, and pores within
the sheet. We find that although flow enhancement can be established by
nanoconfinement, fast water transport through pristine graphene channels is
prohibited by a prominent side-pinning effect from capillaries formed between
oxidized regions. We then discuss flow enhancement in situations according to
several recent experiments. These understandings are finally integrated into a
complete picture to understand water permeation through the layer-by-layer and
porous microstructure and could guide rational design of functional membranes
for energy and environmental applications.


title: Mechanotunable monatomic metal structures at graphene edges

abstract:
  Monatomic metal (e.g. silver) structures could form preferably at graphene
edges. We explore their structural and electronic properties by performing
density functional theory based first-principles calculations. The results show
that cohesion between metal atoms, as well as electronic coupling between metal
atoms and graphene edges offer remarkable structural stability of the hybrid.
We find that the outstanding mechanical properties of graphene allow tunable
properties of the metal monatomic structures by straining the structure. The
concept is extended to metal rings and helices that form at open ends of carbon
nanotubes and edges of twisted graphene ribbons. These findings demostrate the
role of graphene edges as an efficient one-dimensional template for
low-dimensional metal structures that are mechanotunable.


title: Anatomy of nuclear matter fundamentals

abstract:
  The bridge between finite and infinite nuclear system is analyzed for the
fundamental quantities like binding energy, density, compressibility, giant
monopole excitation energy and effective mass of both nuclear matter and finite
nuclei systems. It is shown quantitatively that by knowing one of the
fundamental property of one system one can estimate the same in its counter
part, only approximately


title:
Finitely Axiomatized Set Theory: a nonclassical first-order theory
  implying ZF

abstract:
  It is well-known that a finite axiomatization of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory
(ZF) is not possible in the same first-order language. In this note we show
that a finite axiomatization is possible if we extent the language of ZF with
the new logical concept of 'universal quantification over a family of variables
indexed in an arbitrary set X' and with a concept of generalized disjunction.
We axiomatically introduce Finitely Axiomatized Set Theory (FAST), which
consists of eleven theorems of ZF plus a new constructive axiom called the
family set axiom (FAM), the latter is a generalization of the pair axiom of ZF,
and uses the new concepts. We prove that FAM enables to derive the axioms
schemes of separation and substitution of ZF from FAST, and that the
Loewenheim-Skolem theorem does not hold for FAST. The conclusions are (i) that
FAST is a finite, nonclassical first-order theory, and (ii) that FAST implies
ZF.


title:
Curvature of surfaces in euclidean 3-space: philosophical analysis of
  Gauss' Theorema Egregium

abstract:
  This essay, an excerpt of the author's Ph.D. in Philosophy of mathematics
(2012) thought of as being a companion to recent discoveries of new explicit
Cartan geometry curvatures, analyzes how Gauss, after having devised the
isometrically invariant character of curvature, struggled with elimination
computations in order to transform the available extrinsic expression of
curvature into a new beautifully general differential expression which depends
only on second order derivatives of the coefficients E, F, G of the intrinsic
metric. Systematic speculations about the essence of impersonal mathematical
necessitation are steadily inserted.


title:
The structure of PX3 (X=Cl, Br, I) molecular liquids from X-ray
  diffraction, Molecular Dynamics simulations and Reverse Monte Carlo modeling

abstract:
  Synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements have been conducted on liquid
phosphorus trichloride, tribromide and triiodide. Molecular Dynamics
simulations for these molecular liquids were performed with a dual purpose: (1)
to establish whether existing intermolecular potential functions can provide a
picture that is consistent with diffraction data; (2) to generate reliable
starting configurations for subsequent Reverse Monte Carlo modelling.
Structural models (i.e., sets of coordinates of thousands of atoms) that were
fully consistent with experimental diffraction information, within errors, have
been prepared by means of the Reverse Monte Carlo method. Comparison with
reference systems, generated by hard sphere-like Monte Carlo simulations, was
also carried out to demonstrate the extent to which simple space filling
effects determine the structure of the liquids (and thus, also estimating the
information content of measured data). Total scattering structure factors,
partial radial distribution functions and orientational correlations as a
function of distances between the molecular centres have been calculated from
the models. In general, more or less antiparallel arrangements of the primary
molecular axes that are found to be the most favourable orientation of two
neighbouring molecules. In liquid PBr3 electrostatic interactions seem to play
a more important role in determining intermolecular correlations than in the
other two liquids; molecular arrangements in both PCl3 and PI3 are largely
driven by steric effects.


title: Vortex lattices in dipolar two-component Bose-Einstein condensates

abstract:
  We consider a rapidly rotating two-component Bose-Einstein condensate with
short-range s-wave interactions as well as dipolar coupling. We calculate the
phase diagram of vortex lattice structures as a function of the intercomponent
s-wave interaction and the strength of the dipolar interaction. We find that
the long-range interactions cause new vortex lattice structures to be stable
and lead to a richer phase diagram. Our results reduce to the previously found
lattice structures for short-range interactions and single-component dipolar
gases in the corresponding limits.


title:
Spectrophotometric analysis of the 5200A region for peculiar and normal
  stars

abstract:
  Many chemically peculiar (CP) stars, especially the magnetic CP2 stars, show
a flux depression at 5200A. The "Delta a" photometric System takes advantage of
this characteristic to detect these objects in an efficient way. In addition,
it is capable of finding metal-weak, emission-type, and shell-type objects of
the upper main sequence. To compare available observations and to detect new
peculiar objects, we used a spectrophotometric catalogue consisting of 1159
stars. From this catalogue, we selected 1067 objects to synthesize three
different "a" indices to find the most efficient one for further observations.
In addition, we extended the analysis to stars cooler than F5. We employed
classical "Delta a" photometry described by Maitzen, using simulated filter
curves, the spectrophotometric "Delta a" index by Adelman, and a modified
index. During this investigation magnetic chemically peculiar stars could be
confirmed using the data of the catalogue and in addition we noticed an unknown
behavior for red stars in "Delta a", becoming independent of B-V. Even though
the accuracy of the spectrophotometry used for this investigation is
significantly lower than the photometric "Delta a" measurements, we are able to
confirm peculiarity for most of the known CP2 stars above a certain limit of
"Delta a". We investigated 631 stars hotter than spectral type F5 to find
additional that are not yet identified peculiar objects. We find that for very
low mass stars (M0), the "a" index is independent of the colour (effective
temperature). The "Delta a" photometric system is very closely correlated with
the effective temperature over a wide range of the main sequence. It is able to
detect any kind of peculiarity connected to the 5200A region. Especially for
low-mass stars, this opens up a new possibility of detecting peculiar objects
in an efficient way.


title: The ORCA Option for KM3NeT

abstract:
  It has recently been suggested that the neutrino mass hierarchy can be
experimentally determined from the oscillation pattern of atmospheric neutrinos
passing through the Earth by measuring the two-dimensional arrival pattern of
neutrinos in energy and zenith angle, in the energy regime of about 3-20 GeV.
ORCA (Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss) is a study addressing the
feasibility of such a measurement employing the deep-sea neutrino telescope
technology developed for the KM3NeT project. In the following, the underlying
physics and resulting experimental signatures will be discussed and some
aspects of the ongoing simulation studies presented. A preliminary sensitivity
estimate derived from a simplified study strongly indicates that an exposure of
at least 20 Mton-years will be required to arrive at conclusive results.


title: Flavor signatures of isosinglet vector-like down quark model

abstract:
  We consider a model where the standard model is extended by the addition of a
vector-like isosinglet down-type quark b'. We perform a chi square fit to the
flavor physics data and obtain the preferred central values along with errors
of all the elements of the measurable 3 X 4 quark mixing matrix. The fit
indicates that all the new-physics parameters are consistent with zero and the
mixing of the b' quark with the other three is constrained to be small. The
current flavor physics data rules out possibility of detectable new physics
signals in most of the flavor physics observables. We also investigate possible
deviations in the standard model Wtb couplings and bottom quark coupling to
Higgs boson. We find that these deviations are less than a percent level which
is too small to be observed at the LHC with current precision.


title: Evaluation of Multi-Box Diagrams in Six Dimensions

abstract:
  We present a simple method which simplifies the evaluation of the on-shell
multiple box diagrams reducing them to triangle type ones. For the $L$-loop
diagram one gets the expression in terms of Feynman parameters with $2L$-fold
integration. As examples we consider the 2 and 3 loops cases, the numerical
integration up to six loops is also presented. The method is valid in six
dimensions where neither UV not IR divergences appear.


title:
Spin-orbit coupling as a source of long-range triplet proximity effect
  in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures

abstract:
  We investigate the proximity effect in diffusive superconducting hybrid
structures with a spin-orbit (SO) coupling. Our study is focused on the
singlet-triplet conversion and the generation of long-range superconducting
correlations in ferromagnetic elements. We derive the quasiclassical equations
for the Green's functions including the SO coupling terms in form of a
background SU(2) field. With the help of these equations, we first present a
complete analogy between the spin diffusion process in normal metals and the
generation of the triplet components of the condensate in a diffusive
superconducting structure in the presence of SO coupling. From this analogy it
turns out naturally that the SO coupling is an additional source of the
long-range triplet component (LRTC) besides the magnetic inhomogeneities
studied in the past. We demonstrate an explicit connection between an
inhomogeneous exchange field and SO coupling mechanisms for the generation of
the LRTC and establish the conditions for the appearance of the LRTC in
different geometries. We also consider a S/F bilayer in contact with normal
metal with SO coupling and show that the latter can be used as a source for the
LRTC. Our work gives a global description of the singlet-triplet conversion in
hybrids structures in terms of generic spin-fields and our results are
particularly important for the understanding of the physics underlying
spintronics devices with superconductor elements.


title:
Framework Flexibility and the Negative Thermal Expansion Mechanism of
  Copper(I) Oxide, Cu2O

abstract:
  The negative thermal expansion (NTE) mechanism in Cu2O has been characterised
via mapping of different Cu2O structural flexibility models onto phonons
obtained using ab-initio lattice dynamics. Low frequency acoustic modes that
are responsible for the NTE in this material correspond to vibrations of rigid
O-Cu-O rods. There is also some small contribution from higher frequency optic
modes that correspond to rotations of rigid and near-rigid OCu4 tetrahedra as
well as of near-rigid O-Cu-O rods. The primary NTE mode also drives a
ferroelastic phase transition at high pressure; our calculations predict this
to be to an orthorhombic structure with space group Pnnn.


title:
Learning Stationary Correlated Equilibria in Constrained General-Sum
  Stochastic Games

abstract:
  We study constrained general-sum stochastic games with unknown Markovian
dynamics. A distributed constrained no-regret Q-learning scheme (CNRQ) is
presented to guarantee convergence to the set of stationary correlated
equilibria of the game. Prior art addresses the unconstrained case only, is
structured with nested control loops, and has no convergence result. CNRQ is
cast as a single-loop three-timescale asynchronous stochastic approximation
algorithm with set-valued update increments. A rigorous convergence analysis
with differential inclusion arguments is given which draws on recent extensions
of the theory of stochastic approximation to the case of asynchronous recursive
inclusions with set-valued mean fields. Numerical results are given for the
exemplary application of CNRQ to decentralized resource control in
heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets).


title: Spatial and temporal propagation of Kondo correlations

abstract:
  We address the fundamental question how the spatial Kondo correlations are
building up in time assuming an initially decoupled impurity spin $\vec{S}_{\rm
imp}$. We investigate the time-dependent spin-correlation function
$\chi(\vec{r},t) = \langle \vec{S}_\mathrm{imp} \vec{s}(\vec{r}) \rangle (t)$
in the Kondo model with antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic couplings where $
\vec{s}(\vec{r})$ denotes the spin density of the conduction electrons after
switching on the Kondo coupling at time $t=0$. We present data obtained from a
time-dependent numerical renormalisation group (TD-NRG) calculation. We gauge
the accuracy of our two-band NRG by the spatial sum-rules of the equilibrium
correlation functions and the reproduction of the analytically exactly known
spin-correlation function of the decoupled Fermi sea. We find a remarkable
building up of Kondo-correlation outside of the light cone defined by the Fermi
velocity of the host metal. By employing a perturbative approach exact in
second-order of the Kondo coupling, we connect these surprising correlations to
the intrinsic spin-density entanglement of the Fermi sea. The thermal wave
length supplies a cutoff scale at finite temperatures beyond which correlations
are exponentially suppressed. We present data for the frequency dependent
retarded spin-spin susceptibility and use the results to calculate the
real-time response of a weak perturbation in linear response: within the
spatial resolution no response outside of the light cone is found.


title: Spin evolution of long-period X-ray pulsars

abstract:
  Spin evolution of X-ray pulsars in High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs) is
discussed under various assumptions about the geometry and physical parameters
of the accretion flow. The torque applied to the neutron star from the
accretion flow and equilibrium period of the pulsars are evaluated. We show
that the observed spin evolution of the pulsars can be explained in terms of a
scenario in which the neutron star accretes material from a magnetized stellar
wind.


title:
First-Principles Study of the Honeycomb-Lattice Iridates Na2IrO3 in the
  Presence of Strong Spin-Orbit Interaction and Electron Correlations

abstract:
  An effective low-energy Hamiltonian of itinerant electrons for iridium oxide
Na2IrO3 is derived by an ab initio downfolding scheme. The model is then
reduced to an effective spin model on a honeycomb lattice by the strong
coupling expansion. Here we show that the ab initio model contains spin-spin
anisotropic exchange terms in addition to the extensively studied Kitaev and
Heisenberg exchange interactions, and allows to describe the experimentally
observed zigzag magnetic order, interpreted as the state stabilized by the
antiferromagnetic coupling of the ferromagnetic chains. We clarify possible
routes to realize quantum spin liquids from existing Na2IrO3.


title:
The nucleon mass and pion-nucleon sigma term from a chiral analysis of
  Nf=2 lattice QCD world data

abstract:
  We investigate the pion-mass dependence of the nucleon mass within the
covariant SU(2) baryon chiral perturbation theory up to order p4 with and
without explicit Delta(1232) degrees of freedom. We fit lattice QCD data from
several collaborations for 2 and 2+1 flavor ensembles. Here, we emphasize our
Nf=2 study where the inclusion the Delta(1232) contributions stabilizes the
fits. We correct for finite volume and spacing effects, set independently the
lattice QCD scale by a Sommer-scale of r0 = 0.493(23) fm and also include one
sigma pi-N lQCD data point near Mpi = 290 MeV. We obtain low-energy constants
of natural size which are compatible with the rather linear pion-mass
dependence observed in lattice QCD. We report a value of 41(5)(4) MeV for the
sigma pi-N term in the 2 flavor case and 52(3)(8) MeV in the 2+1 flavors case.


title:
Experimental neutron capture data of $^{58}$Ni from the CERN n_TOF
  facility

abstract:
  The $^{58}$Ni $(n,\gamma)$ cross section has been measured at the neutron
time of flight facility n_TOF at CERN, in the energy range from 27 meV up to
400 keV. In total, 51 resonances have been analyzed up to 122 keV. Maxwellian
averaged cross sections (MACS) have been calculated for stellar temperatures of
kT$=$5-100 keV with uncertainties of less than 6%, showing fair agreement with
recent experimental and evaluated data up to kT = 50 keV. The MACS extracted in
the present work at 30 keV is 34.2$\pm$0.6$_\mathrm{stat}\pm$1.8$_\mathrm{sys}$
mb, in agreement with latest results and evaluations, but 12% lower relative to
the recent KADoNIS compilation of astrophysical cross sections. When included
in models of the s-process nucleosynthesis in massive stars, this change
results in a 60% increase of the abundance of $^{58}$Ni, with a negligible
propagation on heavier isotopes. The reason is that, using both the old or the
new MACS, 58Ni is efficiently depleted by neutron captures.


title: Three-step estimation of latent Markov models with covariates

abstract:
  We propose a modified version of the three-step estimation method for the
latent class model with covariates, which may be used to estimate latent Markov
models for longitudinal data. The three-step estimation approach we propose is
based on a preliminary clustering of sample units on the basis of the time
specific responses only. This approach represents an useful estimation tool
when a large number of response variables are observed at each time occasion.
In such a context, full maximum likelihood estimation, which is typically based
on the Expectation-Maximization algorithm, may have some drawbacks, essentially
due to the presence of many local maxima of the model likelihood. Moreover, the
EM algorithm may be particularly slow to converge, and may become unstable with
complex LM models. We prove the consistency of the proposed three-step
estimator when the number of response variables tends to infinity. We also show
the results of a simulation study aimed at evaluating the performance of the
proposed alternative approach with respect to the full likelihood method. We
finally illustrate an application to a real dataset on the health status of
elderly people hosted in Italian nursing homes.


title: Orion revisited. II. The foreground population to Orion A

abstract:
  Following the recent discovery of a large population of young stars in front
of the Orion Nebula, we carried out an observational campaign with the DECam
wide-field camera covering ~10~deg^2 centered on NGC 1980 to confirm, probe the
extent of, and characterize this foreground population of pre-main-sequence
stars. We confirm the presence of a large foreground population towards the
Orion A cloud. This population contains several distinct subgroups, including
NGC1980 and NGC1981, and stretches across several degrees in front of the Orion
A cloud. By comparing the location of their sequence in various color-magnitude
diagrams with other clusters, we found a distance and an age of 380pc and
5~10Myr, in good agreement with previous estimates. Our final sample includes
2123 candidate members and is complete from below the hydrogen-burning limit to
about 0.3Msun, where the data start to be limited by saturation. Extrapolating
the mass function to the high masses, we estimate a total number of ~2600
members in the surveyed region. We confirm the presence of a rich, contiguous,
and essentially coeval population of about 2600 foreground stars in front of
the Orion A cloud, loosely clustered around NGC1980, NGC1981, and a new group
in the foreground of the OMC-2/3. For the area of the cloud surveyed, this
result implies that there are more young stars in the foreground population
than young stars inside the cloud. Assuming a normal initial mass function, we
estimate that between one to a few supernovae must have exploded in the
foreground population in the past few million years, close to the surface of
Orion A, which might be responsible, together with stellar winds, for the
structure and star formation activity in these clouds. This long-overlooked
foreground stellar population is of great significance, calling for a revision
of the star formation history in this region of the Galaxy.


title: Model-based Sketching and Recovery with Expanders

abstract:
  Linear sketching and recovery of sparse vectors with randomly constructed
sparse matrices has numerous applications in several areas, including
compressive sensing, data stream computing, graph sketching, and combinatorial
group testing. This paper considers the same problem with the added twist that
the sparse coefficients of the unknown vector exhibit further correlations as
determined by a known sparsity model. We prove that exploiting model-based
sparsity in recovery provably reduces the sketch size without sacrificing
recovery quality. In this context, we present the model-expander iterative hard
thresholding algorithm for recovering model sparse signals from linear sketches
obtained via sparse adjacency matrices of expander graphs with rigorous
performance guarantees. The main computational cost of our algorithm depends on
the difficulty of projecting onto the model-sparse set. For the tree and
group-based sparsity models we describe in this paper, such projections can be
obtained in linear time. Finally, we provide numerical experiments to
illustrate the theoretical results in action.


title:
User-Sensitive Mobile Interfaces: Accounting for Individual Differences
  amongst the Blind

abstract:
  Mobile phones pervade our daily lives and play ever expanding roles in many
contexts. Their ubiquitousness makes them pivotal in empowering disabled
people. However, if no inclusive approaches are provided, it becomes a strong
vehicle of exclusion. Even though current solutions try to compensate for the
lack of sight, not all information reaches the blind user. Good spatial ability
is still required to make sense of the device and its interface, as well as the
need to memorize positions on screen or keys and associated actions in a
keypad. Those problems are compounded by many individual attributes such as
age, age of blindness onset or tactile sensitivity which often are forgotten by
designers. Worse, the entire blind population is recurrently thought of as
homogeneous (often stereotypically so). Thus all users face the same solutions,
ignoring their specific capabilities and needs. We usually ignore this
diversity as we have the ability to adapt and become experts in interfaces that
were probably maladjusted to begin with. This adaptation is not always within
reach. Interaction with mobile devices is highly visually demanding which
widens this gap amongst blind people. It is paramount to understand the impact
of individual differences and their relationship with demands to enable the
deployment of more inclusive solutions. We explore individual differences among
blind people and assess how they are related with mobile interface demands,
both at low (e.g. performing an on-screen gesture) and high level (text-entry)
tasks. Results confirmed that different ability levels have significant impact
on the performance attained by a blind person. Particularly, otherwise ignored
attributes like tactile acuity, pressure sensitivity, spatial ability or verbal
IQ have shown to be matched with specific mobile demands and parametrizations.


title:
Understanding Individual Differences: Towards Effective Mobile Interface
  Design and Adaptation for the Blind

abstract:
  No two people are alike. We usually ignore this diversity as we have the
capability to adapt and, without noticing, become experts in interfaces that
were probably misadjusted to begin with. This adaptation is not always at the
user's reach. One neglected group is the blind. Spatial ability, memory, and
tactile sensitivity are some characteristics that diverge between users.
Regardless, all are presented with the same methods ignoring their capabilities
and needs. Interaction with mobile devices is highly visually demanding which
widens the gap between blind people. Our research goal is to identify the
individual attributes that influence mobile interaction, considering the blind,
and match them with mobile interaction modalities in a comprehensive and
extensible design space. We aim to provide knowledge both for device design,
device prescription and interface adaptation.


title: A note on entanglement entropy and quantum geometry

abstract:
  It has been argued that the entropy which one is computing in the isolated
horizon framework of loop quantum gravity is closely related to the
entanglement entropy of the gravitational field and that the calculation
performed is not restricted to horizons. We recall existing work on this issue
and explain how recent work on generalising these computations to arbitrary
spacetime dimensions D+1>2 supports this point of view and makes the duality
between entanglement entropy and the entropy computed from counting boundary
states manifest. In a certain semiclassical regime in 3+1 dimensions, this
entropy is given by the Bekenstein-Hawking formula.


title:
Dense Gas Tracers and Star Formation Laws in Active Galaxies: APEX
  Survey of HCN J=4-3, HCO+ J=4-3, and CS J=7-6

abstract:
  We report HCN J=4-3, HCO+ J=4-3, and CS J=7-6 observations in 20 nearby
star-forming galaxies with the Acatama Pathfinder EXperiment 12-m telescope.
Combined with 4 HCN, 3 HCO+, and 4 CS detections in literature, we probe the
empirical link between the luminosity of molecular gas (L_gas) and that of
infrared emission (L_IR), up to the highest gas densities (10^6 - 10^8 cm-3)
that have been probed so far. For nearby galaxies with large radii, we measure
the IR luminosity within the submm beam-size (14"-18") to match the molecular
emission. We find linear slopes for L_CS76-L_IR and L_HCN43-L_IR, and a
slightly super-linear slope for L_HCO+43-L_IR. The correlation of L_CS76-L_IR
even extends over eight orders of luminosity magnitude down to Galactic dense
cores, with a fit of log(L_IR)=1.00(\pm 0.01) \times log(L_CS76) + 4.03(\pm
0.04). Such linear correlations appear to hold for all densities >10^4 cm-3,
and indicate that star formation rate is not related to free-fall time scale
for dense molecular gas.


title: Pore formation phase diagrams for lipid membranes

abstract:
  Critical lateral pressure for a pore formation and phase diagram of porous
membrane are derived analytically as functions of the microscopic parameters of
the lipid chains. The derivation exploits path-integral calculation of the free
energy of the ensembles of semi-flexible strings and rigid rods that mimic the
hydrophobic tails of lipids in the lipid bilayers and bolalipid membranes
respectively. Analytical expressions for the area stretch/compressibility
moduli of the membranes are derived in both models.


title:
Construction of the \Phi^4_4-quantum field theory on noncommutative
  Moyal space

abstract:
  We review our recent construction of the $\phi^4$-model on four-dimensional
Moyal space. A milestone is the exact solution of the quartic matrix model
$Z[E,J]=\int d\Phi \exp(tr(J\Phi- E\Phi^2 -(\lambda/4) \Phi^4))$ in terms of
the solution of a non-linear equation for the 2-point function and the
eigenvalues of $E$. The $\beta$-function vanishes identically. For the Moyal
model, the theory of Carleman type singular integral equations reduces the
construction to a fixed point problem. Its numerical solution reveals a
second-order phase transition at $\lambda_c\approx-0.396$ and a phase
transition of infinite order at $\lambda=0$. The resulting Schwinger functions
in position space are symmetric and invariant under the full Euclidean group.
They are only sensitive to diagonal matrix correlation functions, and
clustering is violated. The Schwinger 2-point function is reflection positive
iff the diagonal matrix 2-point function is a Stieltjes function. Numerically
this seems to be the case for coupling constants $\lambda \in [\lambda_c,0]$.


title: Unimodularity of Invariant Random Subgroups

abstract:
  An invariant random subgroup $H \leq G$ is a random closed subgroup whose law
is invariant to conjugation by all elements of $G$. When $G$ is locally compact
and second countable, we show that for every invariant random subgroup $H \leq
G$ there almost surely exists an invariant measure on $G/H$. Equivalently, the
modular function of $H$ is almost surely equal to the modular function of $G$,
restricted to $H$.
  We use this result to construct invariant measures on orbit equivalence
relations of measure preserving actions. Additionally, we prove a mass
transport principle for discrete or compact invariant random subgroups.