title: Electoral Competition under Best-Worst Voting Rules

abstract:
  We characterise multi-candidate pure-strategy equilibria in the
Hotelling-Downs spatial election model for the class of best-worst voting
rules, in which each voter is endowed with both a positive and a negative vote,
i.e., each voter can vote in favour of one candidate and against another one.
The weights attached to positive and negative votes in calculating a
candidate's net score may be different, so that a negative vote and a positive
vote need not cancel out exactly. These rules combine the first-place seeking
incentives of plurality with the incentives to avoid being ranked last of
anti-plurality. We show that these rules generally admit equilibria, which are
nonconvergent if and only if the importance of a positive vote exceeds that of
a negative vote. The set of equilibria in the latter case is very similar to
that of plurality, except that the platforms are less extreme due to the
moderating effect of negative votes. Moreover, any degree of dispersion between
plurality, at one extreme, and full convergence, at the other, can be attained
for the correct choice of the weights.


title: Degenerate $C$-ultradistribution semigroups in locally convex spaces

abstract:
  The main subject in this paper are degenerate $C$-ultradistribution
semigroups in barreled sequentially complete locally convex spaces. Here, the
regularizing operator $C$ is not necessarily injective and the infinitesimal
generator is multivalued linear operator. We also consider exponential
degenerate $C$-ultradistribution semigroups.


title:
Quasi-equicontinous exponential families of generalized function
  $C$-semigroups in locally convex spaces

abstract:
  Our main goal in this paper is to investigate the (q-)exponential
$C$-distribution semigroups and (q-)exponential $C$-ultradistribution
semigroups in the setting of sequentially complete locally convex spaces. We
contribute to previous work and the work of many other authors, providing
additionally plenty of various examples and applications of obtained results.


title:
Distribution of spin-axes longitudes and shape elongations of main-belt
  asteroids

abstract:
  Context: Large all-sky surveys provide us with a lot of photometric data that
are sparse in time (typically few measurements per night) and can be
potentially used for the determination of shapes and rotational states of
asteroids. The method which is generally used to derive these parameters is the
lightcurve inversion. However, for most asteroids their sparse data are not
accurate enough to derive a unique model and the lightcurve inversion method is
thus not very efficient.
  Aims: To fully utilize photometry sparse in time, we developed a new
simplified model and applied it on the data from the Lowell photometric
database. Our aim was to derive spin axis orientations and shape elongations of
asteroids and to reconstruct distributions of these parameters for selected
subpopulations to find if there are some differences.
  Methods: We model asteroids as geometrically scattering triaxial ellipsoids.
Observed values of mean brightness and the dispersion of brightness are
compared with computed values obtained from the parameters of the model --
ecliptical longitude $\lambda$ and latitude $\beta$ of the pole and the ratios
$a/b$, $b/c$ of axes of the ellipsoid. These parameters are optimized to get
the best agreement with the observation.
  Results: We found that the distribution of $\lambda$ for main-belt asteroids
is not uniform (in agreement with findings of Bowell et al., 2014, M&PS, 49,
95) and is dependent on the inclination of orbit. Surprisingly, the
non-uniformity of $\lambda$ distribution is larger for asteroids residing on
low-inclination orbits. We also studied distributions of $a/b$ for several
groups of asteroids and found that small asteroids ($D<25\,$km) are on average
more elongated than large ones.


title:
$C$-distribution semigroups and $C$-ultradistribution semigroups in
  locally convex spaces

abstract:
  The main purpose of this paper is to investigate $C$-distribution semigroups
and $C$-ultradistribution semigroups in the setting of sequentially complete
locally convex spaces. There are a few important theoretical novelties in this
field and there are given some interesting examples.


title: Transverse phase space and its multipole decomposition

abstract:
  Relativistic phase space distributions are very interesting objects as they
allow one to gather the information extracted from various types of experiments
into a single coherent picture. Focusing on the four-dimensional transverse
phase space, we identified all the possible angular correlations providing at
the same time a clear physical interpretation of all the leading-twist
generalized and transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions. We also
developed a convenient representation of this four-dimensional space.


title:
Precise observations of the 12C/13C ratios of HC3N in the low-mass
  star-forming region L1527

abstract:
  Using the Green Bank 100 m telescope and the Nobeyama 45 m telescope, we have
observed the rotational emission lines of the three 13C isotopic species of
HC3N in the 3 and 7 mm bands toward the low-mass star-forming region L1527 in
order to explore their anomalous 12C/13C ratios. The column densities of the
13C isotopic species are derived from the intensities of the J = 5-4 lines
observed at high signal-to-noise ratios. The abundance ratios are determined to
be 1.00:1.01 +- 0.02:1.35 +- 0.03:86.4 +- 1.6 for
[H13CCCN]:[HC13CCN]:[HCC13CN]:[HCCCN], where the errors represent one standard
deviation. The ratios are very similar to those reported for the starless
cloud, Taurus Molecular Cloud-1 Cyanopolyyne Peak (TMC-1 CP). These ratios
cannot be explained by thermal equilibrium, but likely reflect the production
pathways of this molecule. We have shown the equality of the abundances of
H13CCCN and HC13CCN at a high-confidence level, which supports the production
pathways of HC3N via C2H2 and C2H2+. The average 12C/13C ratio for HC3N is 77
+- 4, which may be only slightly higher than the elemental 12C/13C ratio.
Dilution of the 13C isotope in HC3N is not as significant as that in CCH or
c-C3H2. We have also simultaneously observed the DCCCN and HCCC15N lines and
derived the isotope ratios: [DCCCN]/[HCCCN] = 0.0370 +- 0.0007 and
[HCCCN]/[HCCC15N] = 338 +- 12.


title:
Performance study of acoustophoretic microfluidic silicon-glass devices
  by characterization of material- and geometry-dependent frequency spectra

abstract:
  The mechanical and electrical response of acoustophoretic microfluidic
devices attached to an ac-voltage-driven piezoelectric transducer is studied by
means of numerical simulations. The governing equations are formulated in a
variational framework that, introducing Lagrangian and Hamiltonian densities,
is used to derive the weak form for the finite element discretization of the
equations and to characterize the device response in terms of
frequency-dependent figures of merit or indicators. The effectiveness of the
device in focusing microparticles is quantified by two mechanical indicators:
the average direction of the pressure gradient and the amount of acoustic
energy localized in the microchannel. Further, we derive the relations between
the Lagrangian, the Hamiltonian and three electrical indicators: the resonance
Q-value, the impedance and the electric power. The frequency response of the
hard-to-measure mechanical indicators is correlated to that of the
easy-to-measure electrical indicators, and by introducing optimality criteria,
it is clarified to which extent the latter suffices to identify optimal driving
frequencies as the geometric configuration and the material parameters vary.


title:
Measuring correlations of cold atom systems using multiple quantum
  probes

abstract:
  We present a non-destructive method to probe a complex quantum system using
multiple impurity atoms as quantum probes. Our protocol provides access to
different equilibrium properties of the system by changing its coupling to the
probes. In particular, we show that measurements with two probes reveal the
system's non-local two-point density correlations, for probe-system contact
interactions. We illustrate our findings with analytic and numerical
calculations for the Bose-Hubbard model in the weakly and strongly-interacting
regimes, under conditions relevant to ongoing experiments in cold atom systems.


title: Modeling of Spatial Uncertainties in the Magnetic Reluctivity

abstract:
  In this paper a computationally efficient approach is suggested for the
stochastic modeling of an inhomogeneous reluctivity of magnetic materials.
These materials can be part of electrical machines, such as a single phase
transformer (a benchmark example that is considered in this paper). The
approach is based on the Karhunen-Lo\`{e}ve expansion. The stochastic model is
further used to study the statistics of the self inductance of the primary coil
as a quantity of interest.


title:
Guidance algorithm for smooth trajectory tracking of a fixed wing UAV
  flying in wind flows

abstract:
  This paper presents an algorithm for solving the problem of tracking smooth
curves by a fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle travelling with a constant
airspeed and under a constant wind disturbance. The algorithm is based on the
idea of following a guiding vector field which is constructed from the implicit
function that describes the desired (possibly time-varying) trajectory. The
output of the algorithm can be directly expressed in terms of the bank angle of
the UAV in order to achieve coordinated turns. Furthermore, the algorithm can
be tuned offline such that physical constraints of the UAV, e.g. the maximum
bank angle, will not be violated in a neighborhood of the desired trajectory.
We provide the corresponding theoretical convergence analysis and performance
results from actual flights.


title: K-homology and K-theory for the lamplighter groups of finite groups

abstract:
  Let $F$ be a finite group. We consider the lamplighter group
$L=F\wr\mathbb{Z}$ over $F$. We prove that $L$ has a classifying space for
proper actions $\underline{E} L$ which is a complex of dimension two. We use
this to give an explicit proof of the Baum-Connes conjecture (without
coefficients), that states that the assembly map $\mu_i^L:K_i^L(\underline{E}
L)\rightarrow K_i(C^*L)\;(i=0,1)$ is an isomorphism. Actually, $K_0(C^*L)$ is
free abelian of countable rank, with an explicit basis consisting of
projections in $C^*L$, while $K_1(C^*L)$ is infinite cyclic, generated by the
unitary of $C^*L$ implementing the shift. Finally we show that, for $F$
abelian, the $C^*$-algebra $C^*L$ is completely characterized by $|F|$ up to
isomorphism.


title:
A Five-Freedom Active Damping and Alignment Device Used in the Joule
  Balance

abstract:
  Damping devices are necessary for suppressing the undesired coil motions in
the watt/joule balance. In this paper, an active electromagnetic damping
device, located outside the main magnet, is introduced in the joule balance
project. The presented damping device can be used in both dynamic and static
measurement modes. With the feedback from a detection system, five degrees of
freedom of the coil, i.e. the horizontal displacement $x$, $y$ and the rotation
angles $\theta_x$, $\theta_y$, $\theta_z$, can be controlled by the active
damping device. Hence, two functions, i.e. suppressing the undesired coil
motions and reducing the misalignment error, can be realized with this active
damping device. The principle, construction and performance of the proposed
active damping device are presented.


title: Cross-layer Transmission Design for Tactile Internet

abstract:
  To ensure the low end-to-end (E2E) delay for tactile internet, short frame
structures will be used in 5G systems. As such, transmission errors with finite
blocklength channel codes should be considered to guarantee the high
reliability requirement. In this paper, we study cross-layer transmission
optimization for tactile internet, where both queueing delay and transmission
delay are accounted for in the E2E delay, and different packet loss/error
probabilities are considered to characterize the reliability. We show that the
required transmit power becomes unbounded when the allowed maximal queueing
delay is shorter than the channel coherence time. To satisfy quality-of-service
requirement with finite transmit power, we introduce a proactive packet
dropping mechanism, and optimize a queue state information and channel state
information dependent transmission policy. Since the resource and policy for
transmission and the packet dropping policy are related to the packet error
probability, queueing delay violation probability, and packet dropping
probability, we optimize the three probabilities and obtain the policies
related to these probabilities. We start from single-user scenario and then
extend our framework to the multi-user scenario. Simulation results show that
the optimized three probabilities are in the same order of magnitude.
Therefore, we have to take into account all these factors when we design
systems for tactile internet applications.


title:
STASH: Securing transparent authentication schemes using prover-side
  proximity verification

abstract:
  Transparent authentication (TA) schemes are those in which a user is
authenticated by a verifier without requiring explicit user interaction. By
doing so, those schemes promise high usability and security simultaneously. The
majority of TA implementations rely on the received signal strength as an
indicator for the proximity of a user device (prover). However, such implicit
proximity verification is not secure against an adversary who can relay
messages over a larger distance. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for
thwarting relay attacks in TA schemes: the prover permits access to
authentication credentials only if it can confirm that it is near the verifier.
We present STASH, a system for relay-resilient transparent authentication in
which the prover does proximity verification by comparing its approach
trajectory towards the intended verifier with known authorized reference
trajectories. Trajectories are measured using low-cost sensors commonly
available on personal devices. We demonstrate the security of STASH against a
class of adversaries and its ease-of-use by analyzing empirical data, collected
using a STASH prototype. STASH is efficient and can be easily integrated to
complement existing TA schemes.


title:
ASTE Observation of Jupiter's Stratospheric Composition: Detection of
  Carbon Monosulfide ($J$=7--6) in 19 Years After the Cometary Impact

abstract:
  In Jupiter's stratosphere, gaseous carbon monosulfide (CS) was first
discovered in 1994 by millimeter and ultraviolet observations as a product
induced by the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9). {To constrain sulfur
chemistry, in 2013, 19 years after the SL9 event, we observed Jupiter's
stratospheric CS $J$=7 -- 6 rotational transition at 0.8 mm wavelength by using
the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) 10-m single dish
telescope. The CS molecular line was successfully detected with 120 mK
intensity in the antenna temperature scale. The obtained CS total mass shows
$\sim$90$\%$ decrease relative to that observed in 1998. From the line shape
analysis, CS is suggested to be present above the 0.2$^{+0.4}_{-0.15}$ mbar
pressure level, which is comparable to that of determined in 1998 which was
provided by SL9 along with CS, was observed up to the 2.0 mbar pressure region.
The discrepancy of CS vertical distribution with \ce{H2O} and the decrease in
its total mass may be attributed to the chemical loss of CS in Jupiter's
stratosphere lower than the 0.2 mbar altitude region.


title:
Phase diagram for the O(n) model with defects of "random local field"
  type and verity of the Imry-Ma theorem

abstract:
  It is shown that the Imry-Ma theorem stating that in space dimensions d<4 the
introduction of an arbitrarily small concentration of defects of the "random
local field" type in a system with continuous symmetry of the n-component
vector order parameter (O(n)model) leads to the long-range order collapse and
to the occurrence of a disordered state, is not true if the anisotropic
distribution of the defect-induced random local field directions in the
n-dimensional space of the order parameter leads to the defect-induced
effective anisotropy of the "easy axis" type. For a weakly anisotropic field
distribution, in space dimensions 2<d<4 there exists some critical defect
concentration, above which the inhomogeneous Imry-Ma state can exist as an
equilibrium one. At lower defect concentration the long-range order takes place
in the system. For a strongly anisotropic field distribution, the Imry-Ma state
is suppressed completely and the long-range order state takes place at any
defect concentration.


title: The PANDA Experiment at FAIR - Subatomic Physics with Antiprotons

abstract:
  The non-perturbative nature of the strong interaction leads to spectacular
phenomena, such as the formation of hadronic matter, color confinement, and the
generation of the mass of visible matter. To get deeper insight into the
underlying mechanisms remains one of the most challenging tasks within the
field of subatomic physics. The antiProton ANnihilations at DArmstadt (PANDA)
collaboration has the ambition to address key questions in this field by
exploiting a cooled beam of antiprotons at the High Energy Storage Ring (HESR)
at the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) combined with a
state-of-the-art and versatile detector. This contribution will address some of
the unique features of PANDA that give rise to a promising physics program
together with state-of-the-art technological developments.


title:
Nanoporous ionic organic networks: from synthesis to materials
  applications

abstract:
  The past decade has witnessed the rapid progress in synthesizing nanoporous
organic networks or polymer frameworks for various potential applications.
Generally speaking, functionalization of porous networks to add extra
properties and enhance materials performance could be achieved either during
the pore formation (thus a concurrent approach) or post-synthetic modification
(a sequential approach). Nanoporous organic networks which include ion pairs in
a covalent manner are of special importance and possess extreme application
profiles. Within these nanoporous ionic organic networks (NIONs), here with a
pore size in the range from sub-1 nm to 100 nm, we observe a synergistic
coupling of the electrostatic interaction of charges, the nanoconfinement
within pores and the addressable functional units in soft matter resulting in a
wide variety of functions and applications, above all catalysis, energy storage
and conversion, as well as environmental operations. This review aims to
highlight the recent progress in this area, and seeks to raise original
perspectives that will stimulate future advancements at both the fundamental
and applied level.


title: Modelling Sentence Pairs with Tree-structured Attentive Encoder

abstract:
  We describe an attentive encoder that combines tree-structured recursive
neural networks and sequential recurrent neural networks for modelling sentence
pairs. Since existing attentive models exert attention on the sequential
structure, we propose a way to incorporate attention into the tree topology.
Specially, given a pair of sentences, our attentive encoder uses the
representation of one sentence, which generated via an RNN, to guide the
structural encoding of the other sentence on the dependency parse tree. We
evaluate the proposed attentive encoder on three tasks: semantic similarity,
paraphrase identification and true-false question selection. Experimental
results show that our encoder outperforms all baselines and achieves
state-of-the-art results on two tasks.


title: Robust Bayesian Compressed sensing

abstract:
  We consider the problem of robust compressed sensing whose objective is to
recover a high-dimensional sparse signal from compressed measurements corrupted
by outliers. A new sparse Bayesian learning method is developed for robust
compressed sensing. The basic idea of the proposed method is to identify and
remove the outliers from sparse signal recovery. To automatically identify the
outliers, we employ a set of binary indicator hyperparameters to indicate which
observations are outliers. These indicator hyperparameters are treated as
random variables and assigned a beta process prior such that their values are
confined to be binary. In addition, a Gaussian-inverse Gamma prior is imposed
on the sparse signal to promote sparsity. Based on this hierarchical prior
model, we develop a variational Bayesian method to estimate the indicator
hyperparameters as well as the sparse signal. Simulation results show that the
proposed method achieves a substantial performance improvement over existing
robust compressed sensing techniques.


title: On massless dyadic forms and no minimal coupling theorem

abstract:
  We use the spinor helicity formalism in order to derive the dyadic forms for
massless fields of various spins. We also give an iterated form of this
approach in case higher spin theories are under study. This reduces
calculations at hard and soft scattering problems in gauge theories
drastically. Finally, we state and prove a theorem of gauge symmetry violation
in the presence of minimal coupling with light in higher spin theories
($j>1/2$).


title: Energy Efficient Design for Tactile Internet

abstract:
  Ensuring the ultra-low end-to-end latency and ultrahigh reliability required
by tactile internet is challenging. This is especially true when the stringent
Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirement is expected to be satisfied not at the
cost of significantly reducing spectral efficiency and energy efficiency (EE).
In this paper, we study how to maximize the EE for tactile internet under the
stringent QoS constraint, where both queueing delay and transmission delay are
taken into account. We first validate that the upper bound of queueing delay
violation probability derived from the effective bandwidth can be used to
characterize the queueing delay violation probability in the short delay regime
for Poisson arrival process. However, the upper bound is not tight for short
delay, which leads to conservative designs and hence leads to wasting energy.
To avoid this, we optimize resource allocation that depends on the queue state
information and channel state information. Analytical results show that with a
large number of transmit antennas the EE achieved by the proposed policy
approaches to the EE limit achieved for infinite delay bound, which implies
that the policy does not lead to any EE loss. Simulation and numerical results
show that even for not-so-large number of antennas, the EE achieved by the
proposed policy is still close to the EE limit.


title: Gravitomagnetic effects in quadratic gravity with a scalar field

abstract:
  The two gravitomagnetic effects which influence bodies orbiting around a
gravitational source are the geodetic effect and the Lense-Thirring effect. The
former describes the precession angle of the axis of a spinning gyroscope while
in orbit around a nonrotating gravitational source whereas the latter provides
a correction for this angle in the case of a spinning source. In this paper we
derive the relevant equations in quadratic gravity and relate them to their
equivalents in general relativity. Starting with an investigation into Kepler's
third law in quadratic gravity with a scalar field, the effects of an
axisymmetric and rotating gravitational source on an orbiting body in a
circular, equatorial orbit are introduced.


title:
Quantum Transport Characteristics of Lateral pn-Junction of Single Layer
  TiS3

abstract:
  Using density functional theory and nonequilibrium Greens functions-based
methods we investigated the electronic and transport properties of monolayer
TiS3 pn-junction. We constructed a lateral pn-junction in monolayer TiS3 by
using Li and F adatoms. An applied bias voltage caused significant variability
in the electronic and transport properties of the TiS3 pn-junction. In
addition, spin dependent current-voltage characteristics of the constructed
TiS3 pn-junction were analyzed. Important device characteristics were found
such as negative differential resistance and rectifying diode behaviors for
spin-polarized currents in the TiS3 pn-junction. These prominent conduction
properties of TiS3 pn-junction offer remarkable opportunities for the design of
nanoelectronic devices based on a recently synthesized single-layered material.


title:
Analytical expression for radial distribution function of hard sphere
  system: density derivative and application to perturbation theories

abstract:
  Model of hard sphere system is important part of modern theories of liquids.
Radial distribution function of hard sphere fluid represented in form of
explicit analytical expression allows to obtain thermodynamic potentials in
analytical form, which is very helpful for further analysis and applications. A
new analytical expression of radial distribution function of hard sphere fluid
is developed. The density derivative of the radial distribution function and
the first two terms of Barker-Henderson perturbation theory are derived as
analytical expressions. The obtained results agree well with published
simulation data. These results have important implications for real fluid
modeling using density functional theory and perturbation theories.


title: The semi-classical energy of closed Nambu-Goto strings

abstract:
  We compute semi-classical corrections to the energy of rotating closed
Nambu-Goto strings. We confirm the results obtained by means of the
Polchinski-Strominger action. We also show that in this semi-classical
approximation, the spectrum of physical excitations contains modes that are
unphysical non-perturbatively, i.e., to which no physical excitations of the
covariantly quantized Nambu-Goto string correspond.


title: Exponential growth of some iterated monodromy groups

abstract:
  Iterated monodromy groups of postcritically-finite rational maps form a rich
class of self-similar groups with interesting properties. There are examples of
such groups that have intermediate growth, as well as examples that have
exponential growth. These groups arise from polynomials. We show exponential
growth of the $\operatorname{IMG}$ of several non-polynomial maps. These
include rational maps whose Julia set is the whole sphere, rational maps with
Sierpi\'{n}ski carpet Julia set, and obstructed Thurston maps. Furthermore, we
construct the first example of a non-renormalizable polynomial with a dendrite
Julia set whose $\operatorname{IMG}$ has exponential growth.


title:
Highly Robust Clustering of GPS Driver Data for Energy Efficient Driving
  Style Modelling

abstract:
  This paper presents a novel approach to distinguish driving styles with
respect to their energy efficiency. A distinct property of our method is that
it relies exclusively on Global Positioning System (GPS) logs of drivers. This
setting is highly relevant in practice as these data can easily be acquired.
  Relying on positional data alone means that all derived features will be
correlated, so we strive to find a single quantity that allows us to perform
the driving style analysis. To this end we consider a robust variation of the
so called jerk of a movement. We show that our feature choice outperforms other
more commonly used jerk-based formulations and we discuss the handling of
noisy, inconsistent, and incomplete data as this is a notorious problem when
dealing with real-world GPS logs.
  Our solving strategy relies on an agglomerative hierarchical clustering
combined with an L-term heuristic to determine the relevant number of clusters.
It can easily be implemented and performs fast, even on very large, real-world
data sets. Experiments show that our approach is robust against noise and able
to discern different driving styles.


title:
Uplink Transmission Design with Massive Machine Type Devices in Tactile
  Internet

abstract:
  In this work, we study how to design uplink transmission with massive machine
type devices in tactile internet, where ultra-short delay and ultra-high
reliability are required. To characterize the transmission reliability
constraint, we employ a two-state transmission model based on the achievable
rate with finite blocklength channel codes. If the channel gain exceeds a
threshold, a short packet can be transmitted with a small error probability;
otherwise there is a packet loss. To exploit frequency diversity, we assign
multiple subchannels to each active device, from which the device selects a
subchannel with channel gain exceeding the threshold for transmission. To show
the total bandwidth required to ensure the reliability, we optimize the number
of subchannels and bandwidth of each subchannel and the threshold for each
device to minimize the total bandwidth of the system with a given number of
antennas at the base station. Numerical results show that with 1000 devices in
one cell, the required bandwidth of the optimized policy is acceptable even for
prevalent cellular systems. Furthermore, we show that by increasing antennas at
the BS, frequency diversity becomes unnecessary, and the required bandwidth is
reduced.


title: Spintronics via non-axisymmetric chiral skyrmions

abstract:
  Micromagnetic calculations demonstrate a peculiar evolution of
non-axisymmetric skyrmions driven by an applied magnetic field in confined
helimagnets with longitudinal modulations. We argue that these specific
solitonic states can be employed in nanoelectronic devices as an effective
alternative to the common axisymmetric skyrmions which occur in magnetically
saturated states.


title: Enhancing Thermoelectric Performance Using Nonlinear Transport Effects

abstract:
  We study nonlinear transport effects on the maximum efficiency and power for
both inelastic and elastic thermoelectric generators. The former refers to
phonon-assisted hopping in double quantum-dots, while the latter is represented
by elastic tunneling through a single quantum-dot. We find that nonlinear
thermoelectric transport can lead to enhanced efficiency and power for both
types of devices. A comprehensive survey of various quantum-dot energy,
temperature, and parasitic heat conduction reveals that the nonlinear transport
induced improvements of the maximum efficiency and power are overall much more
significant for inelastic devices than the elastic devices, even for
temperature biases as small as $T_h=1.2T_c$ ($T_h$ and $T_c$ are the
temperatures of the hot and cold reservoirs, respectively). The underlying
mechanism is revealed as due to the fact that, unlike the Fermi distribution,
the Bose distribution is not bounded when the temperature bias increases. A
large flux density of absorbed phonons leads to great enhancement of the
electrical current, the output power, and the energy efficiency, dominating
over the concurrent increase of the parasitic heat current. Our study reveals
that nonlinear transport effects can be a useful tool for improving
thermoelectric performance.


title: Assortativity in Generalized Preferential Attachment Models

abstract:
  In this paper, we analyze assortativity of preferential attachment models. We
deal with a wide class of preferential attachment models (PA-class). It was
previously shown that the degree distribution in all models of the PA-class
follows a power law. Also, the global and the average local clustering
coefficients were analyzed. We expand these results by analyzing the
assortativity property of the PA-class of models. Namely, we analyze the
behavior of $d_{nn}(d)$ which is the average degree of a neighbor of a vertex
of degree $d$.


title: Redundancies in Linear Systems with two Variables per Inequality

abstract:
  The problem of detecting and removing redundant constraints is fundamental in
optimization. We focus on the case of linear programs (LPs), given by $d$
variables with $n$ inequality constraints. A constraint is called
\emph{redundant}, if after its removal, the LP still has the same feasible
region. The currently fastest method to detect all redundancies is due to
Clarkson: it solves $n$ linear programs, but each of them has at most $s$
constraints, where $s$ is the number of nonredundant constraints.
  In this paper, we study the special case where every constraint has at most
two variables with nonzero coefficients. This family, denoted by $LI(2)$, has
some nice properties. Namely, as shown by Aspvall and Shiloach, given a
variable $x_i$ and a value $\lambda$, we can test in time $O(nd)$ whether there
is a feasible solution with $x_i = \lambda$. Hochbaum and Naor present an
$O(d^2 n \log n)$ algorithm for solving the feasibility problem in $LI(2)$.
Their technique makes use of the Fourier-Motzkin elimination method and the
earlier mentioned result by Aspvall and Shiloach.
  We present a strongly polynomial algorithm that solves redundancy detection
in time $O(n d^2 s \log s)$. It uses a modification of Clarkson's algorithm,
together with a revised version of Hochbaum and Naor's technique. Finally we
show that dimensionality testing can be done with the same running time as
solving feasibility.


title: On exact triangles consisting of stable vector bundles on tori

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider the exact triangles consisting of stable vector
bundles on one-dimensional complex tori, and give a geometric interpretation of
them in terms of the corresponding Fukaya category via the homological mirror
symmetry.


title:
Diversity Extraction for Multicarrier Continuous-Variable Quantum Key
  Distribution

abstract:
  We introduce a diversity extraction for multicarrier continuous-variable (CV)
quantum key distribution (QKD). The diversity extraction utilizes the resources
that are injected into the transmission by the additional degrees of freedom of
the multicarrier modulation. The multicarrier scheme granulates the information
into Gaussian subcarrier CVs and divides the physical link into several
Gaussian sub-channels for the transmission. We prove that the exploitable extra
degree of freedom in a multicarrier CVQKD scenario significantly extends the
possibilities of single-carrier CVQKD. The diversity extraction allows for the
parties to reach decreased error probabilities by utilizing those extra
resources of a multicarrier transmission that are not available in a
single-carrier CVQKD setting. The additional resources of multicarrier CVQKD
allow the achievement of significant performance improvements that are
particularly crucial in an experimental scenario.


title:
Iterative Secret Key Rate Adapting with Error Minimization for
  Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution

abstract:
  We define an iterative error-minimizing secret key adapting method for
multicarrier CVQKD. A multicarrier CVQKD protocol uses Gaussian subcarrier
quantum continuous variables (CVs) for the transmission. The proposed method
allows for the parties to reach a given target secret key rate with minimized
error rate through the Gaussian sub-channels by a sub-channel adaption
procedure. The adaption algorithm iteratively determines the optimal transmit
conditions to achieve the target secret key rate and the minimal error rate
over the sub-channels. The solution requires no complex calculations or
computational tools, allowing for easy implementation for experimental CVQKD
scenarios.


title:
Determinism and Computational Power of Real Measurement-based Quantum
  Computation

abstract:
  Measurement-based quantum computing (MBQC) is a universal model for quantum
computation. The combinatorial characterisation of determinism in this model,
powered by measurements, and hence, fundamentally probabilistic, is the
cornerstone of most of the breakthrough results in this field. The most general
known sufficient condition for a deterministic MBQC to be driven is that the
underlying graph of the computation has a particular kind of flow called Pauli
flow. The necessity of the Pauli flow was an open question. We show that the
Pauli flow is necessary for real-MBQC, and not in general providing
counterexamples for (complex) MBQC. We explore the consequences of this result
for real MBQC and its applications. Real MBQC and more generally real quantum
computing is known to be universal for quantum computing. Real MBQC has been
used for interactive proofs by McKague. The two-prover case corresponds to
real-MBQC on bipartite graphs. While (complex) MBQC on bipartite graphs are
universal, the universality of real MBQC on bipartite graphs was an open
question. We show that real bipartite MBQC is not universal proving that all
measurements of real bipartite MBQC can be parallelised leading to constant
depth computations. As a consequence, McKague techniques cannot lead to
two-prover interactive proofs.


title:
On representations of isometric isomorphisms between some monoid of
  functions

abstract:
  We prove that each isometric isomorphism, between the monoids of all
nonegative 1-Lipschitz maps defined on invariant metric groups and equiped with
the inf-convolution law, is given canonically from an isometric isomorphism
between their groups of units.


title:
Joint Resource Bidding and Tipping Strategies in Multi-hop Cognitive
  Networks

abstract:
  In multi-hop secondary networks, bidding strategies for spectrum auction,
route selection and relaying incentives should be jointly considered to
establish multi-hop communication. In this paper, a framework for joint
resource bidding and tipping is developed where users iteratively revise their
strategies, which include bidding and incentivizing relays, to achieve their
Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. A bidding language is designed to
generalize secondary users' heterogeneous demands for multiple resources and
willingness to pay. Then, group partitioning-based auction mechanisms are
presented to exploit the heterogeneity of SU demands in multi-hop secondary
networks. These mechanisms include primary operator (PO) strategies based on
static and dynamic partition schemes combined with new payment mechanisms to
obtain high revenue and fairly allocate the resources. The proposed auction
schemes stimulate the participation of SUs and provide high revenue for the PO
while maximizing the social welfare. Besides, they satisfy the properties of
truthfulness, individual rationality and computational tractability. Simulation
results have shown that for highly demanding users the static group scheme
achieves 150% more winners and 3 times higher revenue for the PO compared to a
scheme without grouping. For lowly demanding users, the PO may keep similar
revenue with the dynamic scheme by lowering 50% the price per channel as the
number of winners will increase proportionally.


title: Measurement of $R$ between 1.84 and 3.05 GeV at the KEDR detector

abstract:
  Using the KEDR detector at the VEPP-4M $e^+e^-$ collider, we have determined
the values of $R$ at thirteen points of the center-of-mass energy between 1.84
and 3.05 GeV. The achieved accuracy is about or better than $3.9\%$ at most of
the energy points with a systematic uncertainty less than $2.4\%$.


title:
Ranking academic institutions on potential paper acceptance in upcoming
  conferences

abstract:
  The crux of the problem in KDD Cup 2016 involves developing data mining
techniques to rank research institutions based on publications. Rank importance
of research institutions are derived from predictions on the number of full
research papers that would potentially get accepted in upcoming top-tier
conferences, utilizing public information on the web. This paper describes our
solution to KDD Cup 2016. We used a two step approach in which we first
identify full research papers corresponding to each conference of interest and
then train two variants of exponential smoothing models to make predictions.
Our solution achieves an overall score of 0.7508, while the winning submission
scored 0.7656 in the overall results.


title: Necessary Conditions in Optimal Control Theory

abstract:
  In this manuscript we develop necessary optimality conditions for weak and
strong minimizer in control problems on finite and infinite horizon. We show,
that the control problems on the infinite horizon are proper generalizations of
the finite horizon problems. Therefore, we have to develop an innovative
theoretical approach.
  The first chapters are devoted to known results and methods for weak and
strong minimizer in the Calculus of Variations and in finite horizon Optimal
Control Theory. In the last parts we extend these methods to optimal
multiprocesses and to infinite horizon optimal control problems.


title:
Frequency doubled telecom fiber laser for a cold atom interferometer
  using optical lattices

abstract:
  A compact and robust laser system, based on a frequency-doubled telecom
laser, providing all the lasers needed for a rubidium cold atom interferometer
using optical lattices is presented. Thanks to an optical switch at 1.5 \mu m
and a dual-wavelength second harmonic generation system, only one laser
amplifier is needed for all the laser system. Our system delivers at 780 nm a
power of 900 mW with a detuning of 110 GHz for the optical lattice and a power
of 650 mW with an adjustable detuning between 0 and -1 GHz for the laser
cooling, the detection and the Raman transitions.


title: Domain adaptation based Speaker Recognition on Short Utterances

abstract:
  This paper explores how the in- and out-domain probabilistic linear
discriminant analysis (PLDA) speaker verification behave when enrolment and
verification lengths are reduced. Experiment studies have found that when
full-length utterance is used for evaluation, in-domain PLDA approach shows
more than 28% improvement in EER and DCF values over out-domain PLDA approach
and when short utterances are used for evaluation, the performance gain of
in-domain speaker verification reduces at an increasing rate. Novel modified
inter dataset variability (IDV) compensation is used to compensate the mismatch
between in- and out-domain data and IDV-compensated out-domain PLDA shows
respectively 26% and 14% improvement over out-domain PLDA speaker verification
when SWB and NIST data are respectively used for S normalization. When the
evaluation utterance length is reduced, the performance gain by IDV also
reduces as short utterance evaluation data i-vectors have more variations due
to phonetic variations when compared to the dataset mismatch between in- and
out-domain data.


title: Useful axioms

abstract:
  We give a brief survey on the interplay between forcing axioms and various
other non-constructive principles widely used in many fields of abstract
mathematics, such as the axiom of choice and Baire's category theorem.
  First of all we outline how, using basic partial order theory, it is possible
to reformulate the axiom of choice, Baire's category theorem, and many large
cardinal axioms as specific instances of forcing axioms. We then address
forcing axioms with a model-theoretic perspective and outline a deep analogy
existing between the standard {\L}o\'s Theorem for ultraproducts of first order
structures and Shoenfield's absoluteness for $\Sigma^1_2$-properties. Finally
we address the question of whether and to what extent forcing axioms can
provide a "complete" semantics for set theory. We argue that to a large extent
this is possible for certain initial fragments of the universe of sets: The
pioneering work of Woodin on generic absoluteness show that this is the case
for the Chang model $L(\text{Ord}^\omega)$ in the presence of large cardinals,
and recent works by the author show that this can also be the case for the
Chang model $L(\text{Ord}^{\omega_1})$ in the presence of large cardinals and
maximal strengthenings of Martin's maximum or of the proper forcing axiom. The
major open question we leave open is whether this situation is peculiar to
these Chang models or can be lifted up also to $L(\text{Ord}^\kappa)$ for
cardinals $\kappa>\omega_1$.


title:
Nernst-Planck transport theory for (reverse) electrodialysis: II. Effect
  of water transport through ion-exchange membranes

abstract:
  Transport of water through ion-exchange membranes is of importance both for
electrodialysis (ED) and reverse electrodialysis (RED). In this work, we extend
our previous theory [J. Membrane Sci., 510, (2016) 370-381] and include water
transport in a two-dimensional model for (R)ED. Following a Maxwell-Stefan (MS)
approach, ions in the membrane have friction with the water, pore walls, and
one another. We show that when ion-ion friction is neglected, the MS-approach
is equivalent to the hydrodynamic theory of hindered transport, for instance
applied to nanofiltration. After validation against experimental data from
literature for ED and RED, the model is used to analyze single-pass seawater
ED, and RED with highly concentrated solutions. In the model, fluxes and
velocities of water and ions in the membranes are self-consistently calculated
as function of the driving forces. We investigate the influence of water and
coion leakage under different operational conditions.


abstract:
  A Hopf bifurcation in the Kuramoto-Daido model is investigated based on the
generalized spectral theory and the center manifold reduction for a certain
class of frequency distributions. The dynamical system of the order parameter
on a four-dimensional center manifold is derived. It is shown that the
dynamical system undergoes a Hopf bifurcation as the coupling strength
increases, which proves the existence of a periodic two-cluster state of
oscillators.


title:
Large fluctuations and growth rates of linear Volterra summation
  equations

abstract:
  This paper concerns the asymptotic behaviour of solutions of a linear
convolution Volterra summation equation with an unbounded forcing term. In
particular, we suppose the kernel is summable and ascribe growth bounds to the
exogenous perturbation. If the forcing term grows at a geometric rate
asymptotically or is bounded by a geometric sequence, then the solution
(appropriately scaled) omits a convenient asymptotic representation. Moreover,
this representation is used to show that additional growth properties of the
perturbation are preserved in the solution. If the forcing term fluctuates
asymptotically, we prove that fluctuations of the same magnitude will be
present in the solution and we also connect the finiteness of time averages of
the solution with those of the perturbation. Our results, and corollaries
thereof, apply to stochastic as well as deterministic equations, and we
demonstrate this by studying some representative classes of examples. Finally,
we show that our theory can be extended to cover a class of nonlinear equations
via a straightforward linearisation argument.


title: New Special Finsler Spaces

abstract:
  The pullback approach to global Finsler geometry is adopted. Some new types
of special Finsler spaces are introduced and investigated, namely, Ricci,
generalized Ricci, projectively recurrent and m-projectively recurrent Finsler
spaces. The properties of these special Finsler spaces are studied and the
relations between them are singled out.


title: On the classification of normal G-varieties with spherical orbits

abstract:
  In this article, we investigate the geometry of reductive group actions on
algebraic varieties. Given a connected reductive group $G$, we elaborate on a
geometric and combinatorial approach based on Luna-Vust theory to describe
every normal $G$-variety with spherical orbits. This description encompasses
the classical case of spherical varieties and the theory of
$\mathbb{T}$-varieties recently introduced by Altmann, Hausen, and S\"uss.


title:
The effect of gaseous accretion disk on dynamics of the stellar cluster
  in AGN

abstract:
  There is a supermassive black hole, a gaseous accretion disk and compact star
cluster in the center of active galactic nuclei, as known today. So the
activity of AGN can be represented as the result of interaction of these three
subsystems. In this work we investigate the dynamical interaction of a central
star cluster surrounding a supermassive black hole and a central accretion
disk. The dissipative force acting on stars in the disk leads to an asymmetry
in the phase space distribution of the central star cluster due to the rotating
accretion disk. In our work we present some results of Stardisk model, where we
see some changes in density and phase space of central star cluster due to
influence of rotating gaseous accretion disk.


abstract:
  The notion of type of quadruples of rows is proven to be useful in the
classification of Hadamard matrices. In this paper, we investigate Hadamard
matrices with few distinct types. Among other results, the Sylvester Hadamard
matrices are shown to be characterized by their spectrum of types.


title: Adaptive quantum tomography

abstract:
  We provide a review of the experimental and theoretical research in the field
of quantum tomography with an emphasis on recently developed adaptive
protocols. Several statistical frameworks for adaptive experimental design are
discussed. We argue in favor of the Bayesian approach, highlighting both its
advantages for a statistical reconstruction of unknown quantum states and
processes, and utility for adaptive experimental design. The discussion is
supported by an analysis of several recent experimental implementations and
numerical recipes.


title:
LR-Drawings of Ordered Rooted Binary Trees and Near-Linear Area Drawings
  of Outerplanar Graphs

abstract:
  In this paper we study a family of algorithms, introduced by Chan [SODA 1999]
and called LR-algorithms, for drawing ordered rooted binary trees. In
particular, we are interested in constructing LR-drawings (that are drawings
obtained via LR-algorithms) with small width. Chan showed three different
LR-algorithms that achieve, for an ordered rooted binary tree with $n$ nodes,
width $O(n^{0.695})$, width $O(n^{0.5})$, and width $O(n^{0.48})$.
  We prove that, for every $n$-node ordered rooted binary tree, an LR-drawing
with minimum width can be constructed in $O(n^{1.48})$ time. Further, we show
an infinite family of $n$-node ordered rooted binary trees requiring
$\Omega(n^{0.418})$ width in any LR-drawing; no lower bound better than
$\Omega(\log n)$ was previously known. Finally, we present the results of an
experimental evaluation that allowed us to determine the minimum width of all
the ordered rooted binary trees with up to $451$ nodes.
  Our interest in LR-drawings is mainly motivated by a result of Di Battista
and Frati [Algorithmica 2009], who proved that $n$-vertex outerplanar graphs
have outerplanar straight-line drawings in $O(n^{1.48})$ area by means of a
drawing algorithm which resembles an LR-algorithm.
  We deepen the connection between LR-drawings and outerplanar straight-line
drawings by proving that, if $n$-node ordered rooted binary trees have
LR-drawings with $f(n)$ width, for any function $f(n)$, then $n$-vertex
outerplanar graphs have outerplanar straight-line drawings in $O(f(n))$ area.
  Finally, we exploit a structural decomposition for ordered rooted binary
trees introduced by Chan in order to prove that every $n$-vertex outerplanar
graph has an outerplanar straight-line drawing in $O(n\cdot 2^{\sqrt{2 \log_2
n}} \sqrt{\log n})$ area.


title:
Gapped electron fractionalization in robustly one dimensional
  Li0.9Mo6O17

abstract:
  The angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy lineshapes of quasi
one-dimensional (1d) Li0.9Mo6O17 display both agreement with and departures
from the one-band Tomonaga-Luttinger model. We show that the departures can be
understood by explicitly accounting for the four modes arising from the two
quasi-1d bands known to cross the Fermi energy. The key assumption is that the
antisymmetric charge mode is gapped with a magnitude near the temperature (T)
of a mysterious 25K powerlaw resistivity upturn. The gap is consistent with the
lack of a charge or spin density wave accompanying the upturn, is able to
control the upturn T, and prevents crossover to a Fermi liquid (FL) down to the
superconducting transition at 1.9K.


title: Unjamming in models with analytic pairwise potentials

abstract:
  The canonical models for studying the unjamming scenario in systems of soft
repulsive particles assume pairwise potentials with a sharp cut-off in the
interaction range. The sharp cut-off renders the potential non-analytic, but
makes it possible to describe many properties of the solid in terms of the
coordination number $z$, which has an unambiguous definition in these cases.
Pairwise potentials without a sharp cut-off in the interaction range have not
been considered in this context, but are of interest for understanding the
relevance of the unjamming phenomenology to systems in which such a cut-off
cannot be assumed. In this work we explore two systems with such interactions:
an inverse power law and an exponentially decaying pairwise potential, with the
control parameters being the exponent (of the inverse power-law) for the former
and the number density for the latter. Both systems are shown to exhibit the
characteristic features of the unjamming transition, among which are the
vanishing of the shear to bulk modulus ratio and the emergence of an excess of
low-frequency vibrational modes. We establish a relation between the
hydrostatic pressure to bulk modulus ratio and the distance to unjamming in
each of our model systems. This allows us to predict the dependence of other
key observables on the distance to unjamming. Our results provide the means for
a quantitative estimation of the proximity of generic glass forming models to
the unjamming transition in the absence of a clear-cut definition of the
coordination number, and highlight the general irrelevance of nonaffine
contributions to the bulk modulus.


title: Continuous-time Markov decision processes with exponential utility

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider a continuous-time Markov decision process (CTMDP)
in Borel spaces, where the certainty equivalent with respect to the exponential
utility of the total undiscounted cost is to be minimized. The cost rate is
nonnegative. We establish the optimality equation. Under the
compactness-continuity condition, we show the existence of a deterministic
stationary optimal policy. We reduce the risk-sensitive CTMDP problem to an
equivalent risk-sensitive discrete-time Markov decision process, which is with
the same state and action spaces as the original CTMDP. In particular, the
value iteration algorithm for the CTMDP problem follows from this reduction. We
do not need impose any condition on the growth of the transition and cost rate
in the state, and the controlled process could be explosive.


title: Hom-post-Lie modules, O-operators and some functors on Hom-algebras

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to study modules over Hom-post-Lie algebras and give
some contructions and various twisting i.e. we show that modules over
post-Hom-Lie algebras are close by twisting either Hom-post-Lie algebras or
module structure maps. Given a type of Hom-algebra A, an A-bimodule M and an
O-operator T : A ---> M, we give constructions another of Hom-algebra structure
on M.


title:
A new proof of the Larman-Rogers upper bound for the chromatic number of
  the Euclidean space

abstract:
  The chromatic number $\chi(\mathbb{R}^n)$ of the Euclidean space
$\mathbb{R}^n$ is the smallest number of colors sufficient for coloring all
points of the space in such a way that any two points at the distance 1 have
different colors. In 1972 Larman--Rogers proved that $\chi(\mathbb{R}^n) \leq
(3 + o(1))^n$. We give a new proof of this bound.


abstract:
  Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning has been previously shown to speed up the
convergence rate of RL planning algorithms as well as mitigate feature-based
model misspecification (Mankowitz et. al. 2016a,b, Bacon 2015). To do so, it
utilizes hierarchical abstractions, also known as skills -- a type of
temporally extended action (Sutton et. al. 1999) to plan at a higher level,
abstracting away from the lower-level details. We incorporate risk sensitivity,
also referred to as Situational Awareness (SA), into hierarchical RL for the
first time by defining and learning risk aware skills in a Probabilistic Goal
Semi-Markov Decision Process (PG-SMDP). This is achieved using our novel
Situational Awareness by Risk-Conscious Skills (SARiCoS) algorithm which comes
with a theoretical convergence guarantee. We show in a RoboCup soccer domain
that the learned risk aware skills exhibit complex human behaviors such as
`time-wasting' in a soccer game. In addition, the learned risk aware skills are
able to mitigate reward-based model misspecification.


title:
Exploring Biases of Atmospheric Retrievals in Simulated JWST
  Transmission Spectra of Hot Jupiters

abstract:
  With a scheduled launch in October 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope
(JWST) is expected to revolutionise the field of atmospheric characterization
of exoplanets. The broad wavelength coverage and high sensitivity of its
instruments will allow us to extract far more information from exoplanet
spectra than what has been possible with current observations. In this paper,
we investigate whether current retrieval methods will still be valid in the era
of JWST, exploring common approximations used when retrieving transmission
spectra of hot Jupiters. To assess biases, we use 1D photochemical models to
simulate typical hot Jupiter cloud-free atmospheres and generate synthetic
observations for a range of carbon-to-oxygen ratios. Then, we retrieve these
spectra using TauREx, a Bayesian retrieval tool, using two methodologies: one
assuming an isothermal atmosphere, and one assuming a parametrized temperature
profile. Both methods assume constant-with-altitude abundances. We found that
the isothermal approximation biases the retrieved parameters considerably,
overestimating the abundances by about one order of magnitude. The retrieved
abundances using the parametrized profile are usually within one sigma of the
true state, and we found the retrieved uncertainties to be generally larger
compared to the isothermal approximation. Interestingly, we found that using
the parametrized temperature profile we could place tight constraints on the
temperature structure. This opens the possibility to characterize the
temperature profile of the terminator region of hot Jupiters. Lastly, we found
that assuming a constant-with-altitude mixing ratio profile is a good
approximation for most of the atmospheres under study.


title:
Automatic Gain Tuning of a Momentum Based Balancing Controller for
  Humanoid Robots

abstract:
  This paper proposes a technique for automatic gain tuning of a momentum based
balancing controller for humanoid robots. The controller ensures the
stabilization of the centroidal dynamics and the associated zero dynamics.
Then, the closed-loop, constrained joint space dynamics is linearized and the
controller's gains are chosen so as to obtain desired properties of the
linearized system. Symmetry and positive definiteness constraints of gain
matrices are enforced by proposing a tracker for symmetric positive definite
matrices. Simulation results are carried out on the humanoid robot iCub.


title: Impatient DNNs - Deep Neural Networks with Dynamic Time Budgets

abstract:
  We propose Impatient Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) which deal with dynamic time
budgets during application. They allow for individual budgets given a priori
for each test example and for anytime prediction, i.e., a possible interruption
at multiple stages during inference while still providing output estimates. Our
approach can therefore tackle the computational costs and energy demands of
DNNs in an adaptive manner, a property essential for real-time applications.
Our Impatient DNNs are based on a new general framework of learning dynamic
budget predictors using risk minimization, which can be applied to current DNN
architectures by adding early prediction and additional loss layers. A key
aspect of our method is that all of the intermediate predictors are learned
jointly. In experiments, we evaluate our approach for different budget
distributions, architectures, and datasets. Our results show a significant gain
in expected accuracy compared to common baselines.


title:
A Greedy Blind Calibration Method for Compressed Sensing with Unknown
  Sensor Gains

abstract:
  The realisation of sensing modalities based on the principles of compressed
sensing is often hindered by discrepancies between the mathematical model of
its sensing operator, which is necessary during signal recovery, and its actual
physical implementation, which can amply differ from the assumed model. In this
paper we tackle the bilinear inverse problem of recovering a sparse input
signal and some unknown, unstructured multiplicative factors affecting the
sensors that capture each compressive measurement. Our methodology relies on
collecting a few snapshots under new draws of the sensing operator, and
applying a greedy algorithm based on projected gradient descent and the
principles of iterative hard thresholding. We explore empirically the sample
complexity requirements of this algorithm by testing its phase transition, and
show in a practically relevant instance of this problem for compressive imaging
that the exact solution can be obtained with only a few snapshots.


title: Truncation Dimension for Function Approximation

abstract:
  We consider approximation of functions of $s$ variables, where $s$ is very
large or infinite, that belong to weighted anchored spaces. We study when such
functions can be approximated by algorithms designed for functions with only
very small number ${\rm dim^{trnc}}(\varepsilon)$ of variables. Here
$\varepsilon$ is the error demand and we refer to ${\rm
dim^{trnc}}(\varepsilon)$ as the $\varepsilon$-truncation dimension. We show
that for sufficiently fast decaying product weights and modest error demand (up
to about $\varepsilon \approx 10^{-5}$) the truncation dimension is
surprisingly very small.


title:
Minimal energy solutions to the fractional Lane-Emden system, I:
  Existence and singularity formation

abstract:
  This is the first of two papers which study asymptotic behavior of minimal
energy solutions to the fractional Lane-Emden system in a smooth bounded domain
$\Omega$ \[(-\Delta)^s u = v^p, \quad (-\Delta)^s v = u^q \text{ in } \Omega
\quad \text{and} \quad u = v = 0 \text{ on } \pa \Omega \quad \text{for } 0 < s
< 1\] under the assumption that the subcritical pair $(p,q)$ approaches to the
critical Sobolev hyperbola. If $p = 1$, the above problem is reduced to the
subcritical higher-order fractional Lane-Emden equation with the Navier
boundary condition \[(-\Delta)^s u = u^{\frac{n+2s}{n-2s}-\ep} \text{ in }
\Omega \quad \text{and} \quad u = (-\Delta)^{s \over 2} u = 0 \quad \text{for }
1 < s < 2.\] The main objective of this paper is to deduce the existence of
minimal energy solutions, and to examine their (normalized) pointwise limits
provided that $\Omega$ is convex. As a by-product of our study, a new approach
for the existence of an extremal function for the Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev
inequality is provided.


title: Hallmarks of Hund's coupling in the Mott insulator Ca$_2$RuO$_4$

abstract:
  A paradigmatic case of multi-band Mott physics including spin-orbit and
Hund's coupling is realised in Ca$_2$RuO$_4$. Progress in understanding the
nature of this Mott insulating phase has been impeded by the lack of knowledge
about the low-energy electronic structure. Here we provide -- using
angle-resolved photoemission electron spectroscopy -- the band structure of the
paramagnetic insulating phase of Ca$_2$RuO$_4$ and show how it features several
distinct energy scales. Comparison to a simple analysis of atomic multiplets
provides a quantitative estimate of the Hund's coupling $J=0.4$ eV.
Furthermore, the experimental spectra are in good agreement with electronic
structure calculations performed with Dynamical Mean-Field Theory. The crystal
field stabilisation of the d$_{xy}$ orbital due to $c$-axis contraction is
shown to be important in explaining the nature of the insulating state. It is
thus a combination of multiband physics, Coulomb interaction and Hund's
coupling that generates the Mott insulating state of Ca$_2$RuO$_4$. These
results underscore the importance of Hund's coupling in the ruthenates and
related multiband materials.


title:
Constraints on neutrino masses from the study of the nearby large-scale
  structure and galaxy cluster counts

abstract:
  The high precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background by the
Planck survey yielded tight constraints on cosmological parameters and the
statistics of the density fluctuations at the time of recombination. This
provides the means for a critical study of structure formation in the Universe
by comparing the microwave background results with present epoch measurements
of the cosmic large-scale structure. It can reveal subtle effects such as how
different forms of Dark Matter may modify structure growth. Currently most
interesting is the damping effect of structure growth by massive neutrinos.
Different observations of low redshift matter density fluctuations provided
evidence for a signature of massive neutrinos. Here we discuss the study of the
cosmic large-scale structure with a complete sample of nearby, X-ray luminous
clusters from our REFLEX cluster survey. From the observed X-ray luminosity
function and its reproduction for different cosmological models, we obtain
tight constraints on the cosmological parameters describing the matter density,
Omega_m, and the density fluctuation amplitude, sigma_8. A comparison of these
constraints with the Planck results shows a discrepancy in the framework of a
pure LambdaCDM model, but the results can be reconciled, if we allow for a
neutrino mass in the range of 0.17 to 0.7 eV. Also some others, but not all of
the observations of the nearby large-scale structure provide evidence or trends
for signatures of massive neutrinos. With further improvement in the
systematics and future survey projects, these indications will develop into a
definitive measurement of neutrino masses.


title:
Modulation and nonlinear evolution of multi-dimensional Langmuir wave
  envelopes in a relativistic plasma

abstract:
  The modulational instability (MI) and the evolution of weakly nonlinear
two-dimensional (2D) Langmuir wave (LW) packets are studied in an unmagnetized
collisionless plasma with weakly relativistic electron flow. By using a 2D
self-consistent relativistic fluid model and employing the standard
multiple-scale technique, a coupled set of Davey-Stewartson (DS)-like equations
is derived which governs the slow modulation and the evolution of LW packets in
relativistic plasmas. It is found that the relativistic effects favor the
instability of LW envelopes in the k{\theta} plane, where k is the wave number
and {\theta} the angle of modulation. It is also found that as the electron
thermal velocity or {\theta} increases, the growth rate of MI increases with
cutoffs at higher wave numbers of modulation. Furthermore, in the nonlinear
evolution of the DS-like equations, it is seen that with an effect of the
relativistic flow, a Gaussian wave beam collapses in a finite time, and the
collapse can be arrested when the effect of the thermal pressure or the
relativistic flow is slightly relaxed. The present results may be useful to the
MI and the formation of localized LW envelopes in cosmic plasmas with a
relativistic flow of electrons.


title: Accounting for Availability Biases in Information Visualization

abstract:
  The availability heuristic is a strategy that people use to make quick
decisions but often lead to systematic errors. We propose three ways that
visualization could facilitate unbiased decision-making. First, visualizations
can alter the way our memory stores the events for later recall, so as to
improve users' long-term intuitions. Second, the known biases could lead to new
visualization guidelines. Third, we suggest the design of decision-making tools
that are inspired by heuristics, e.g. suggesting intuitive approximations,
rather than target to present exhaustive comparisons of all possible outcomes,
or automated solutions for choosing decisions.


title: Origin of multiple band gap values in single width nanoribbons

abstract:
  Deterministic band gap in quasi-one-dimensional nanoribbons is prerequisite
for their integrated functionalities in high-performance molecular-electronics
based devices. However, multiple band gap values commonly observed in the same
width of graphene nanoribbons fabricated in same slot of the experiments
remains unresolved, and raise a critical concern over scalable production of
pristine and/or hetero-structure nanoribbons with deterministic properties and
functionalities for plethora of applications. Here, we show that a modification
in the depth of potential wells in the periodic direction of a supercell on
relative shifting of passivating atoms at the edges is the origin of multiple
band gap values for the same width of nanoribbons in a crystallographic
orientation, although they carry practically the same ground state energy. The
results are similar when calculations are extended from planar graphene to
buckled silicene nanoribbons. Thus, the findings facilitate tuning of the
electronic properties of quasi-one-dimensional materials such as bio-molecular
chains, organic and inorganic nanoribbons by performing edge engineering.


title:
Spin-Wave Spectrum in Magnetic Nanodot with Continuous Transition
  between Vortex, Bloch-type Skyrmion and N\'eel-type Skyrmion States

abstract:
  We study spin-wave excitations in a circular ferromagnetic nanodot in
different inhomogeneous, topologically non-trivial magnetization states,
specifically, vortex and skyrmion states. Gradual change in the strength of the
out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange
interaction leads to continuous phase transitions between different stable
magnetic configurations and allows for mapping of dynamic spin modes in and
between the vortex, Bloch-type skyrmion and N\'eel-type skyrmion states. Our
study elucidates the connections between gyrotropic modes, azimuthal spin waves
and breathing modes in various stable magnetization states and helps to
understand the rich spin excitation spectrum on the skyrmion background.


title: A simple method to optimize HMC performance

abstract:
  We present a practical strategy to optimize a set of Hybrid Monte Carlo
parameters in simulations of QCD and QCD-like theories. We specialize to the
case of mass-preconditioning, with multiple time-step Omelyan integrators.
Starting from properties of the shadow Hamiltonian we show how the optimal
setup for the integrator can be chosen once the forces and their variances are
measured, assuming that those only depend on the mass-preconditioning
parameter.


title:
A multidimensional analogue of the arcsine law for the number of
  positive terms in a random walk

abstract:
  Consider a random walk $S_i= \xi_1+\ldots+\xi_i$, $i\in\mathbb N$, whose
increments $\xi_1,\xi_2,\ldots$ are independent identically distributed random
vectors in $\mathbb R^d$ such that $\xi_1$ has the same law as $-\xi_1$ and
$\mathbb P[\xi_1\in H] = 0$ for every affine hyperplane $H\subset \mathbb R^d$.
Our main result is the distribution-free formula $$ \mathbb E \left[\sum_{1\leq
i_1 < \ldots < i_k\leq n} 1_{\{0\notin \text{conv}(S_{i_1},\ldots,
S_{i_k})\}}\right] = 2 \binom n k \frac {B(k, d-1) + B(k, d-3) +\ldots} {2^k
k!}, $$ where the $B(k,j)$'s are defined by their generating function $$ (t+1)
(t+3) \ldots (t+2k-1) = \sum_{j=0}^{k} B(k,j) t^j. $$ The expected number of
$k$-tuples above admits the following geometric interpretation: it is the
expected number of $k$-dimensional faces of a randomly and uniformly sampled
open Weyl chamber of type $B_n$ that are not intersected by a generic linear
subspace $L\subset \mathbb R^n$ of codimension $d$. The case $d=1$ turns out to
be equivalent to the classical discrete arcsine law for the number of positive
terms in a one-dimensional random walk with continuous symmetric distribution
of increments. We also prove similar results for random bridges with no central
symmetry assumption required.


title:
Calibration of Herschel SPIRE FTS observations at different spectral
  resolutions

abstract:
  The SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer on board the Herschel Space
Observatory had two standard spectral resolution modes for science
observations: high resolution (HR) and low resolution (LR), which could also be
performed in sequence (H+LR). A comparison of the HR and LR resolution spectra
taken in this sequential mode, revealed a systematic discrepancy in the
continuum level. Analysing the data at different stages during standard
pipeline processing, demonstrates the telescope and instrument emission affect
HR and H+LR observations in a systematically different way. The origin of this
difference is found to lie in the variation of both the telescope and
instrument response functions, while it is triggered by fast variation of the
instrument temperatures. As it is not possible to trace the evolution of the
response functions through auxiliary housekeeping parameters, the calibration
cannot be corrected analytically. Therefore an empirical correction for LR
spectra has been developed, which removes the systematic noise introduced by
the variation of the response functions.


title:
Feasible Invertibility Conditions for Maximum Likelihood Estimation for
  Observation-Driven Models

abstract:
  Invertibility conditions for observation-driven time series models often fail
to be guaranteed in empirical applications. As a result, the asymptotic theory
of maximum likelihood and quasi-maximum likelihood estimators may be
compromised. We derive considerably weaker conditions that can be used in
practice to ensure the consistency of the maximum likelihood estimator for a
wide class of observation-driven time series models. Our consistency results
hold for both correctly specified and misspecified models. The practical
relevance of the theory is highlighted in a set of empirical examples. We
further obtain an asymptotic test and confidence bounds for the unfeasible "
true " invertibility region of the parameter space.


title:
Evolution of new regulatory functions on biophysically realistic fitness
  landscapes

abstract:
  Regulatory networks consist of interacting molecules with a high degree of
mutual chemical specificity. How can these molecules evolve when their function
depends on maintenance of interactions with cognate partners and simultaneous
avoidance of deleterious "crosstalk" with non-cognate molecules? Although
physical models of molecular interactions provide a framework in which
co-evolution of network components can be analyzed, most theoretical studies
have focused on the evolution of individual alleles, neglecting the network. In
contrast, we study the elementary step in the evolution of gene regulatory
networks: duplication of a transcription factor followed by selection for TFs
to specialize their inputs as well as the regulation of their downstream genes.
We show how to coarse grain the complete, biophysically realistic
genotype-phenotype map for this process into macroscopic functional outcomes
and quantify the probability of attaining each. We determine which evolutionary
and biophysical parameters bias evolutionary trajectories towards fast
emergence of new functions and show that this can be greatly facilitated by the
availability of "promiscuity-promoting" mutations that affect TF specificity.


title: An Encoding for Order-Preserving Matching

abstract:
  Encoding data structures store enough information to answer the queries they
are meant to support but not enough to recover their underlying datasets. In
this paper we give the first encoding data structure for the challenging
problem of order-preserving pattern matching. This problem was introduced only
a few years ago but has already attracted significant attention because of its
applications in data analysis. Two strings are said to be an order-preserving
match if the {\em relative order} of their characters is the same: e.g., $4, 1,
3, 2$ and $10, 3, 7, 5$ are an order-preserving match. We show how, given a
string $S [1..n]$ over an arbitrary alphabet and a constant $c \geq 1$, we can
build an $O (n \log \log n)$-bit encoding such that later, given a pattern $P
[1..m]$ with $m \leq \lg^c n$, we can return the number of order-preserving
occurrences of $P$ in $S$ in $O (m)$ time. Within the same time bound we can
also return the starting position of some order-preserving match for $P$ in $S$
(if such a match exists). We prove that our space bound is within a constant
factor of optimal; our query time is optimal if $\log \sigma = \Omega(\log n)$.
Our space bound contrasts with the $\Omega (n \log n)$ bits needed in the worst
case to store $S$ itself, an index for order-preserving pattern matching with
no restrictions on the pattern length, or an index for standard pattern
matching even with restrictions on the pattern length. Moreover, we can build
our encoding knowing only how each character compares to $O (\lg^c n)$
neighbouring characters.


title: The critical Galton-Watson process vanishes

abstract:
  The Galton-Watson process belongs to standard teaching in probability. The
basic theorem says that survival is only possible when the fecondity exceeds 1.
The classical proof is essentially analytic, using generating functions and
convexity arguments. We give here a more probabilistic proof, in the spirit of
Bezuidenhout and Grimmett.


title:
Study on creation and destruction of transport barriers via effective
  safety factors for energetic particles

abstract:
  Charged particles with low kinetic energy move along magnetic field lines,
but so do not energetic particles. We investigate the topological structure
changes in the phase space of energetic particles with respect to the magnetic
one. For this study cylindrical magnetic fields with non-monotonic safety
factors that induce the magnetic internal transport barrier are considered. We
show that the topological structure of the magnetic field line and of the
particle trajectories can be quite different. We explain this difference using
the concept of effective particle $q$-profile. Using this notion we can
investigate the location and existence of resonances for particle orbits that
are different from the magnetic ones. These are examined both numerically by
integrating an equation of motion and theoretically by use of Alfv\'en's
guiding center theory and by use of the effective reduced Hamiltonian for the
integrable unperturbed system. It is clarified that, for the energetic
particles, the grad $B$ drift effect shifts the resonances and the drift
induced by curvature of the magnetic field line leads to the vanishing of the
resonances. As a result, we give two different mechanisms that lead to the
creation of transport barriers for energetic particles in the region where the
magnetic field line is chaotic.


title: Spectral and resonance properties of Smilansky Hamiltonian

abstract:
  We analyze the Hamiltonian proposed by Smilansky to describe irreversible
dynamics in quantum graphs and studied further by Solomyak and others. We
derive a weak-coupling asymptotics of the ground state and add new insights by
finding the discrete spectrum numerically. Furthermore, we show that the model
has a rich resonance structure.


title:
LeaveNow: A Social Network-based Smart Evacuation System for Disaster
  Management

abstract:
  The importance of timely response to natural disasters and evacuating
affected people to safe areas is paramount to save lives. Emergency services
are often handicapped by the amount of rescue resources at their disposal. We
present a system that leverages the power of a social network forming new
connections among people based on \textit{real-time location} and expands the
rescue resources pool by adding private sector cars. We also introduce a
car-sharing algorithm to identify safe routes in an emergency with the aim of
minimizing evacuation time, maximizing pick-up of people without cars, and
avoiding traffic congestion.


title:
Multipole charge conservation and implications on electromagnetic
  radiation

abstract:
  It is shown that conserved charges associated with a specific subclass of
gauge symmetries of Maxwell electrodynamics are proportional to the well known
electric multipole moments. The symmetries are residual gauge transformations
surviving after fixing the Lorenz gauge, and have nontrivial charge. These
"Multipole charges" receive contributions both from the charged matter and
electromagnetic fields. The former is nothing but the electric multipole moment
of the source. In a stationary configuration, there is a novel equipartition
relation between the two contributions. The multipole charge, while conserved,
can freely interpolate between the source and the electromagnetic field, and
therefore can be propagated with the radiation. Using the multipole charge
conservation, we obtain infinite number of constraints over the radiation
produced by the dynamics of charged matter.


title: X-ray selected BALQSOs

abstract:
  We study a sample of six X-ray selected broad absorption line (BAL)
quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) from the XMM-Newton Wide Angle Survey. All six
objects are classified as BALQSOs using the classic balnicity index, and
together they form the largest sample of X-ray selected BALQSOs. We find
evidence for absorption in the X-ray spectra of all six objects. An ionized
absorption model applied to an X-ray spectral shape that would be typical for
non-BAL QSOs (a power law with energy index alpha=0.98) provides acceptable
fits to the X-ray spectra of all six objects. The optical to X-ray spectral
indices, alpha_OX, of the X-ray selected BALQSOs, have a mean value of 1.69 +-
0.05, which is similar to that found for X-ray selected and optically selected
non-BAL QSOs of similar ultraviolet luminosity. In contrast, optically-selected
BALQSOs typically have much larger alpha_OX and so are characterised as being
X-ray weak. The results imply that X-ray selection yields intrinsically X-ray
bright BALQSOs, but their X-ray spectra are absorbed by a similar degree to
that seen in optically-selected BALQSO samples; X-ray absorption appears to be
ubiquitous in BALQSOs, but X-ray weakness is not. We argue that BALQSOs sit at
one end of a spectrum of X-ray absorption properties in QSOs related to the
degree of ultraviolet absorption in C IV 1550.


title:
Cross-validation estimation of covariance parameters under fixed-domain
  asymptotics

abstract:
  We consider a one-dimensional Gaussian process having exponential covariance
function. Under fixed-domain asymptotics, we prove the strong consistency and
asymptotic normality of a cross validation estimator of the microergodic
covariance parameter. In this setting, Ying [40] proved the same asymptotic
properties for the maximum likelihood estimator. Our proof includes several
original or more involved components, compared to that of Ying. Also, while the
asymptotic variance of maximum likelihood does not depend on the triangular
array of observation points under consideration, that of cross validation does,
and is shown to be lower and upper bounded. The lower bound coincides with the
asymptotic variance of maximum likelihood. We provide examples of triangular
arrays of observation points achieving the lower and upper bounds. We
illustrate our asymptotic results with simulations, and provide extensions to
the case of an unknown mean function. To our knowledge, this work constitutes
the first fixed-domain asymptotic analysis of cross validation.


title: Riemannian submersions and factorization of Dirac operators

abstract:
  We establish the factorization of Dirac operators on Riemannian submersions
of compact spin$^c$ manifolds in unbounded KK-theory. More precisely, we show
that the Dirac operator on the total space of such a submersion is unitarily
equivalent to the tensor sum of a family of Dirac operators with the Dirac
operator on the base space, up to an explicit bounded curvature term. Thus, the
latter is an obstruction to having a factorization in unbounded KK-theory. We
show that our tensor sum represents the bounded KK-product of the corresponding
KK-cycles and connect to the early work of Connes and Skandalis.


title: A kilobit hidden SNFS discrete logarithm computation

abstract:
  We perform a special number field sieve discrete logarithm computation in a
1024-bit prime field. To our knowledge, this is the first kilobit-sized
discrete logarithm computation ever reported for prime fields. This computation
took a little over two months of calendar time on an academic cluster using the
open-source CADO-NFS software. Our chosen prime $p$ looks random, and $p--1$
has a 160-bit prime factor, in line with recommended parameters for the Digital
Signature Algorithm. However, our p has been trapdoored in such a way that the
special number field sieve can be used to compute discrete logarithms in
$\mathbb{F}\_p^*$ , yet detecting that p has this trapdoor seems out of reach.
Twenty-five years ago, there was considerable controversy around the
possibility of back-doored parameters for DSA. Our computations show that
trapdoored primes are entirely feasible with current computing technology. We
also describe special number field sieve discrete log computations carried out
for multiple weak primes found in use in the wild. As can be expected from a
trapdoor mechanism which we say is hard to detect, our research did not reveal
any trapdoored prime in wide use. The only way for a user to defend against a
hypothetical trapdoor of this kind is to require verifiably random primes.


title:
Berezin transforms attached to Landau levels on the complex projective
  space CPn

abstract:
  In this paper, we construct coherent states for each generalized Bergman
space on the n-dimensional complex projective space in order to apply a
coherent states quantization method. Doing so allows to define the Berezin
transform for these spaces. In particular, we provide a variational formula for
this transform by means of the Fubini-Study Laplace operator which reduces when
n = 1 and for the lowest spherical Landau level to the well-known formula
previously given by Berezin himself.


title:
Heuristic Approaches for Generating Local Process Models through Log
  Projections

abstract:
  Local Process Model (LPM) discovery is focused on the mining of a set of
process models where each model describes the behavior represented in the event
log only partially, i.e. subsets of possible events are taken into account to
create so-called local process models. Often such smaller models provide
valuable insights into the behavior of the process, especially when no adequate
and comprehensible single overall process model exists that is able to describe
the traces of the process from start to end. The practical application of LPM
discovery is however hindered by computational issues in the case of logs with
many activities (problems may already occur when there are more than 17 unique
activities). In this paper, we explore three heuristics to discover subsets of
activities that lead to useful log projections with the goal of speeding up LPM
discovery considerably while still finding high-quality LPMs. We found that a
Markov clustering approach to create projection sets results in the largest
improvement of execution time, with discovered LPMs still being better than
with the use of randomly generated activity sets of the same size. Another
heuristic, based on log entropy, yields a more moderate speedup, but enables
the discovery of higher quality LPMs. The third heuristic, based on the
relative information gain, shows unstable performance: for some data sets the
speedup and LPM quality are higher than with the log entropy based method,
while for other data sets there is no speedup at all.


title: A class of Solvable Multiple Entry Problems with Forced Exits

abstract:
  We study an optimal investment problem with multiple entries and forced
exits. A closed form solution of the optimisation problem is presented for
general underlying diffusion dynamics and a general running payoff function in
the case when forced exits occur on the jump times of a Poisson process.
Furthermore, we allow the investment opportunity to be subject to the risk of a
catastrophe that can occur at the jumps of the Poisson process. More precisely,
we attach IID Bernoulli trials to the jump times and if the trial fails, no
further re-entries are allowed. We show in the general case that the optimal
investment threshold is independent of the success probability is the Bernoulli
trials. The results are illustrated with explicit examples.


title: Navigation by anomalous random walks on complex networks

abstract:
  Anomalous random walks having long-range jumps are a critical branch of
dynamical processes on networks, which can model a number of search and
transport processes. However, traditional measurements based on mean first
passage time are not useful as they fail to characterize the cost associated
with each jump. Here we introduce a new concept of mean first traverse distance
(MFTD) to characterize anomalous random walks that represents the expected
traverse distance taken by walkers searching from source node to target node,
and we provide a procedure for calculating the MFTD between two nodes. We use
Levy walks on networks as an example, and demonstrate that the proposed
approach can unravel the interplay between diffusion dynamics of Levy walks and
the underlying network structure. Interestingly, applying our framework to the
famous PageRank search, we can explain why its damping factor empirically
chosen to be around 0.85. The framework for analyzing anomalous random walks on
complex networks offers a new useful paradigm to understand the dynamics of
anomalous diffusion processes, and provides a unified scheme to characterize
search and transport processes on networks.


title:
Test of the photon detection system for the LHCb RICH Upgrade in a
  charged particle beam

abstract:
  The LHCb detector will be upgraded to make more efficient use of the
available luminosity at the LHC in Run III and extend its potential for
discovery. The Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors are key components of the LHCb
detector for particle identification. In this paper we describe the setup and
the results of tests in a charged particle beam, carried out to assess
prototypes of the upgraded opto-electronic chain from the Multi-Anode PMT
photosensor to the readout and data acquisition system.


title:
Preservation of immersed or injective properties by composing generic
  generalized distance-squared mappings

abstract:
  Any generalized distance-squared mapping of equidimensional case has
singularities, and their singularity types are wrapped into mystery in higher
dimensional cases. Any generalized distance-squared mapping of equidimensional
case is not injective. Nevertheless, in this paper, it is shown that the
non-singular property or the injective property of a mapping is preserved by
composing a generic generalized distance-squared mapping of equidimensional
case.


title:
Essential Properties of Numerical Integration for Time-optimal
  Trajectory Planning Along a Specified Path

abstract:
  This letter summarizes some known properties and also presents several new
properties of the Numerical Integration (NI) method for time-optimal trajectory
planning along a specified path. The contribution is that rigorous mathematical
proofs of these properties are presented, most of which cannot be found in
existing literatures. We first give some properties regarding switch points and
accelerating/decelerating curves of the NI method. Then, for the fact that when
kinematic constraints are considered, the original version of NI which only
considers torque constraints may result in failure of trajectory planning, we
give the concrete failure conditions with rigorous mathematical proof.
Accordingly, a failure detection algorithm is given in a run-and-test manner.
Some simulation results on a unicycle vehicle are provided to verify those
presented properties. Note that though those known properties are not
discovered first, their mathematical proofs are given first in this letter. The
detailed proofs make the theory of NI more complete and help interested readers
to gain a thorough understanding of the method.


title: The sudden change phenomenon of quantum discord

abstract:
  Even if the parameters determining a system's state are varied smoothly, the
behavior of quantum correlations alike to quantum discord, and of its classical
counterparts, can be very peculiar, with the appearance of non-analyticities in
its rate of change. Here we review this sudden change phenomenon (SCP)
discussing some important points related to it: Its uncovering,
interpretations, and experimental verifications, its use in the context of the
emergence of the pointer basis in a quantum measurement process, its appearance
and universality under Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics, its theoretical
and experimental investigation in some other physical scenarios, and the
related phenomenon of double sudden change of trace distance discord. Several
open questions are identified, and we envisage that in answering them we will
gain significant further insight about the relation between the SCP and the
symmetry-geometric aspects of the quantum state space.


title:
Exploring anomalous $HZ\gamma $ couplings in $\gamma $-proton collisions
  at the LHC

abstract:
  The $HZ\gamma $ coupling, which is highly sensitive to the new physics beyond
the standard model, is studied through the process $pp\rightarrow p\gamma
p\rightarrow pHX$ at the LHC. To this purpose, an effective Lagrangian, in a
model independent approach, with dimension six operators is considered in this
paper. New interaction terms regarding beyond the standard model physics
include the Higgs boson anomalous vertices in both CP-even and CP-odd
structures. A detailed numerical analysis is performed to scrutinize the
accurate constraints on the effective $HZ\gamma $ couplings and to discuss how
far the corresponding bounds can be improved. This is achieved by testing all
the efficient Higgs decay channels and increasing the integrated luminosity at
three different forward detector acceptance regions. The numerical results
propose that the Higgs photoproduction at the LHC, as a complementary channel,
has a great potential of exploring the $HZ\gamma $ couplings.


title: Topological signature in the NEXT high pressure xenon TPC

abstract:
  The NEXT experiment aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of
Xe-136 in a high-pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescence to amplify
the signal from ionization. One of the main advantages of this technology is
the possibility to use the topology of events with energies close to Qbb as an
extra tool to reject background. In these proceedings we show with data from
prototypes that an extra background rejection factor of 24.3 +- 1.4 (stat.)%
can be achieved, while maintaining an efficiency of 66.7 +- 1.% for signal
events. The performance expected in NEW, the next stage of the experiment, is
to improve to 12.9% +- 0.6% background acceptance for 66.9% +- 0.6% signal
efficiency.


title: Hardening Cassandra Against Byzantine Failures

abstract:
  Cassandra is one of the most widely used distributed data stores these days.
Cassandra supports flexible consistency guarantees over a wide-column data
access model and provides almost linear scale-out performance. This enables
application developers to tailor the performance and availability of Cassandra
to their exact application's needs and required semantics. Yet, Cassandra is
designed to withstand benign failures, and cannot cope with most forms of
Byzantine attacks.
  In this work, we present an analysis of Cassandra's vulnerabilities and
propose protocols for hardening Cassandra against Byzantine failures. We
examine several alternative design choices and compare between them both
qualitatively and empirically by using the Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark
(YCSB) performance benchmark. We include incremental performance analysis for
our algorithmic and cryptographic adjustments, supporting our design choices.


title:
On infrared problems of effective Lagrangians of massive spin 2 fields
  coupled to gauge fields

abstract:
  In this paper we analyze the interactions of a massive spin-2 particles
charged under both Abelian and non-Abelian group using the Porrati-Rahman
Lagrangian. This theory is valid up to an intrinsic cutoff scale.
Phenomenologically a theory valid up to a cutoff scale is sensible as all known
higher spin particles are non-fundamental and it is shown that indeed this
action can be used to estimate some relevant cross section. Such action
necessarily includes Stuckelberg field and therefore it is necessary to fix the
corresponding gauge symmetry. We show that this theory, when the Stuckelberg
symmetry is gauge-fixed, possesses a non-trivial infrared problem. A gauge
fixing ambiguity arises which is akin to the Gribov problem in QCD in the
Abelian case as well. In some cases (such as when the space-time is the
four-dimensional torus) the vacuum copies can be found analytically. A similar
phenomenon also appears in the case of Proca fields. A very interesting feature
of these copies is that they arise only for "large enough" gauge potentials.
This opens the possibility to avoid the appearance of such gauge fixing
ambiguities by using a Gribov-Zwanziger like approach.