title: CRTS: A type system for representing clinical recommendations

abstract:
  Background: Clinical guidelines and recommendations are the driving wheels of
the evidence-based medicine (EBM) paradigm, but these are available primarily
as unstructured text and are generally highly heterogeneous in nature. This
significantly reduces the dissemination and automatic application of these
recommendations at the point of care. A comprehensive structured representation
of these recommendations is highly beneficial in this regard. Objective: The
objective of this paper to present Clinical Recommendation Type System (CRTS),
a common type system that can effectively represent a clinical recommendation
in a structured form. Methods: CRTS is built by analyzing 125 recommendations
and 195 research articles corresponding to 6 different diseases available from
UpToDate, a publicly available clinical knowledge system, and from the National
Guideline Clearinghouse, a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice
guidelines. Results: We show that CRTS not only covers the recommendations but
also is flexible to be extended to represent information from primary
literature. We also describe how our developed type system can be applied for
clinical decision support, medical knowledge summarization, and citation
retrieval. Conclusion: We showed that our proposed type system is precise and
comprehensive in representing a large sample of recommendations available for
various disorders. CRTS can now be used to build interoperable information
extraction systems that automatically extract clinical recommendations and
related data elements from clinical evidence resources, guidelines, systematic
reviews and primary publications.
  Keywords: guidelines and recommendations, type system, clinical decision
support, evidence-based medicine, information storage and retrieval


title: Decoding quasars: gravitationally redshifted spectral lines !

abstract:
  Further investigation of data on quasars, especially in the ultraviolet band,
yields an amazingly coherent narrative which we present in this paper. Quasars
are characterised by strong continuum emission and redshifted emission and
absorption lines which includes the famous Lyman $\alpha$ forest. We present
irrefutable evidence in support of (1) the entire line spectrum arising in
matter located inside the quasar system, (2) the range of redshifts shown by
the lines being due to the variable contribution of the gravitational redshift
in the observed line velocity, (3) existence of rotating black holes and of
matter inside its ergosphere, (4) quasars located within cosmological redshifts
$\sim 3$, (5) $\gamma$ ray bursts being explosive events in a quasar. These
results are significant and a game-changer when we realise that the absorbing
gas has been postulated to exist along the line-of-sight to the quasar and
observations have accordingly been interpreted.
  In light of these definitive results which uniquely constrain the quasar
structure, we need to drastically revise our understanding of the universe
built on the faulty assumptions of observed redshifts of quasars having an
entirely cosmological origin and the absorption lines arising in the
intervening medium.


title:
An Information Extraction Approach to Prescreen Heart Failure Patients
  for Clinical Trials

abstract:
  To reduce the large amount of time spent screening, identifying, and
recruiting patients into clinical trials, we need prescreening systems that are
able to automate the data extraction and decision-making tasks that are
typically relegated to clinical research study coordinators. However, a major
obstacle is the vast amount of patient data available as unstructured free-form
text in electronic health records. Here we propose an information
extraction-based approach that first automatically converts unstructured text
into a structured form. The structured data are then compared against a list of
eligibility criteria using a rule-based system to determine which patients
qualify for enrollment in a heart failure clinical trial. We show that we can
achieve highly accurate results, with recall and precision values of 0.95 and
0.86, respectively. Our system allowed us to significantly reduce the time
needed for prescreening patients from a few weeks to a few minutes. Our
open-source information extraction modules are available for researchers and
could be tested and validated in other cardiovascular trials. An approach such
as the one we demonstrate here may decrease costs and expedite clinical trials,
and could enhance the reproducibility of trials across institutions and
populations.


title:
The Search for Multiple Populations in Magellanic Cloud Clusters I: Two
  Stellar Populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud Globular Cluster NGC 121

abstract:
  We started a photometric survey using the WFC3/UVIS instrument onboard the
Hubble Space Telescope to search for multiple populations within Magellanic
Cloud star clusters at various ages. In this paper, we introduce this survey.
As first results of this programme, we also present multi-band photometric
observations of NGC 121 in different filters taken with the WFC3/UVIS and
ACS/WFC instruments. We analyze the colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) of NGC 121,
which is the only "classical" globular cluster within the Small Magellanic
Cloud. Thereby, we use the pseudo-colour
C_(F336W,F438W,F343N)=(F336W-F438W)-(F438W-F343N) to separate populations with
different C and N abundances. We show that the red giant branch splits up in
two distinct populations when using this colour combination. NGC 121 thus
appears to be similar to Galactic globular clusters in hosting multiple
populations. The fraction of enriched stars (N rich, C poor) in NGC 121 is
about 32% +/- 3%, which is lower than the median fraction found in Milky Way
globular clusters. The enriched population seems to be more centrally
concentrated compared to the primordial one. These results are consistent with
the recent results by Dalessandro et al. (2016). The morphology of the
Horizontal Branch in a CMD using the optical filters F555W and F814W is best
produced by a population with a spread in Helium of Delta(Y) =0.025+/-0.005.


title: Direct Feedback Alignment Provides Learning in Deep Neural Networks

abstract:
  Artificial neural networks are most commonly trained with the
back-propagation algorithm, where the gradient for learning is provided by
back-propagating the error, layer by layer, from the output layer to the hidden
layers. A recently discovered method called feedback-alignment shows that the
weights used for propagating the error backward don't have to be symmetric with
the weights used for propagation the activation forward. In fact, random
feedback weights work evenly well, because the network learns how to make the
feedback useful. In this work, the feedback alignment principle is used for
training hidden layers more independently from the rest of the network, and
from a zero initial condition. The error is propagated through fixed random
feedback connections directly from the output layer to each hidden layer. This
simple method is able to achieve zero training error even in convolutional
networks and very deep networks, completely without error back-propagation. The
method is a step towards biologically plausible machine learning because the
error signal is almost local, and no symmetric or reciprocal weights are
required. Experiments show that the test performance on MNIST and CIFAR is
almost as good as those obtained with back-propagation for fully connected
networks. If combined with dropout, the method achieves 1.45% error on the
permutation invariant MNIST task.


title:
A Hybrid Citation Retrieval Algorithm for Evidence-based Clinical
  Knowledge Summarization: Combining Concept Extraction, Vector Similarity and
  Query Expansion for High Precision

abstract:
  Novel information retrieval methods to identify citations relevant to a
clinical topic can overcome the knowledge gap existing between the primary
literature (MEDLINE) and online clinical knowledge resources such as UpToDate.
Searching the MEDLINE database directly or with query expansion methods returns
a large number of citations that are not relevant to the query. The current
study presents a citation retrieval system that retrieves citations for
evidence-based clinical knowledge summarization. This approach combines query
expansion, concept-based screening algorithm, and concept-based vector
similarity. We also propose an information extraction framework for automated
concept (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Disease) extraction. We
evaluated our proposed system on all topics (as queries) available from
UpToDate for two diseases, heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AFib).
The system achieved an overall F-score of 41.2% on HF topics and 42.4% on AFib
topics on a gold standard of citations available in UpToDate. This is
significantly high when compared to a query-expansion based baseline (F-score
of 1.3% on HF and 2.2% on AFib) and a system that uses query expansion with
disease hyponyms and journal names, concept-based screening, and term-based
vector similarity system (F-score of 37.5% on HF and 39.5% on AFib). Evaluating
the system with top K relevant citations, where K is the number of citations in
the gold standard achieved a much higher overall F-score of 69.9% on HF topics
and 75.1% on AFib topics. In addition, the system retrieved up to 18 new
relevant citations per topic when tested on ten HF and six AFib clinical
topics.


title: Natural operations on differential forms on contact manifolds

abstract:
  We characterize all natural linear operations between spaces of differential
forms on contact manifolds. Our main theorem says roughly that such operations
are built from some algebraic operators which we introduce and the exterior
derivative.


title:
Measurement of the $t\bar{t}Z$ and $t\bar{t}W$ production cross sections
  in multilepton final states using 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at
  $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

abstract:
  A measurement of the $t\bar{t}Z$ and $t\bar{t}W$ production cross sections in
final states with either two same-charge muons, or three or four leptons
(electrons or muons) is presented. The analysis uses a data sample of
proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS
detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015, corresponding to a total
integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb$^{-1}$. The inclusive cross sections are
extracted using likelihood fits to signal and control regions, resulting in
$\sigma_{t\bar{t}Z} = 0.9 \pm 0.3$ pb and $\sigma_{t\bar{t}W} = 1.5 \pm 0.8$
pb, in agreement with the Standard Model predictions.


title: Quantum conditional query complexity

abstract:
  We define and study a new type of quantum oracle, the quantum conditional
oracle, which provides oracle access to the conditional probabilities
associated with an underlying distribution. Amongst other properties, we (a)
obtain speed-ups over the best known quantum algorithms for identity testing,
equivalence testing and uniformity testing of probability distributions; (b)
study the power of these oracles for testing properties of boolean functions,
and obtain an algorithm for checking whether an $n$-input $m$-output boolean
function is balanced or $\epsilon$-far from balanced; and (c) give a sub-linear
algorithm, requiring $\tilde{O}(n^{3/4}/\epsilon)$ queries, for testing whether
an $n$-dimensional quantum state is maximally mixed or not.


title: Successive maxima of samples from a GEM distribution

abstract:
  We show that the maximal value in a size $n$ sample from GEM$(\theta)$
distribution is distributed as a sum of independent geometric random variables.
This implies that the maximal value grows as $\theta\log(n)$ as $n\to\infty$.
For the two-parametric GEM$(\alpha,\theta)$ distribution we show that the
maximal value grows as a random factor of $n^{\alpha/(1-\alpha)}$ and find the
limiting distribution.


title:
Combinatorial and inductive methods for the tropical maximal rank
  conjecture

abstract:
  We produce new combinatorial methods for approaching the tropical maximal
rank conjecture, including inductive procedures for deducing new cases of the
conjecture on graphs of increasing genus from any given case. Using explicit
calculations in a range of base cases, we prove this conjecture for the
canonical divisor, and in a wide range of cases for m=3, extending previous
results for m=2.


title:
Universal fluctuations in orbital diamagnetism: A surprise in
  theoretical physics

abstract:
  Over the last century Bohr van Leuween theorem attracted the notice of
physicists. The theorem states about the absence of magnetization in classical
systems in thermal equilibrium. In this paper, we discuss about fluctuations of
magnetic moment in classical systems. In recent years this topic has been
investigated intensively and it is not free from controversy. We a have
considered a system consisting of a single particle moving in a plane. A
magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the plane. The system is in contact
with a thermal bath. We have considered three cases: (a) particle moving in a
homogeneous medium, (b) particle moving in a medium with space dependent
friction and (c) particle moving in a medium with space dependent temperature.
For all the three cases average magnetic moment and fluctuations in magnetic
moment has been calculated. Average magnetic moment saturates to a finite value
in case of free particle but goes to zero when the particle is confined by a
2-D harmonic potential. Fluctuations in magnetic moment shows universal
features in the presence of arbitrary friction inhomogeneity. For this case the
system reaches equilibrium asymptotically. In case of space dependent
temperature profile, the stationary distribution is non-Gibbsian and
fluctuations deviate from universal value for the bounded system only.


title: MCA: Boolean Networks Control Algorithm

abstract:
  Control problem in a biological system is the problem of finding an
interventional policy for changing the state of the biological system from an
undesirable state, e.g. disease, into a desirable healthy state. Boolean
networks are utilized as mathematical model for gene regulatory networks. This
paper provides an algorithm to solve the control problem in Boolean networks.
The proposed algorithm is implemented and applied on two biological systems:
T-cell receptor network and Drosophila melanogaster network. Results show that
the proposed algorithm works faster in solving the control problem over these
networks, while having similar accuracy, in comparison to previous methods.


title: Protophobic Light Vector Boson as a Mediator to the Dark Sector

abstract:
  The observation of a protophobic 16.7 MeV vector boson has been reported by a
$^8$Be nuclear transition experiment. Such a new particle could mediate between
the Standard Model and a dark sector, which includes the dark matter. In this
paper, we show some simple models of the dark matter which satisfy the thermal
relic abundance under the current experimental bounds from the direct and the
indirect detections. In a model, it is found that an appropriate
self-scattering cross section to solve the small scale structure puzzles can be
achieved.


title:
Canonical Weierstrass representations for minimal surfaces in Euclidean
  4-space

abstract:
  Minimal surfaces of general type in Euclidean 4-space are characterized with
the conditions that the ellipse of curvature at any point is centered at this
point and has two different principal axes. Any minimal surface of general type
locally admits geometrically determined parameters - canonical parameters. In
such parameters the Gauss curvature and the normal curvature satisfy a system
of two natural partial differential equations and determine the surface up to a
motion. For any minimal surface parameterized by canonical parameters we obtain
Weierstrass representations - canonical Weierstrass representations. These
Weierstrass formulas allow us to solve explicitly the system of natural partial
differential equations and to establish geometric correspondence between
minimal surfaces of general type, the solutions to the system of natural
equations and pairs of holomorphic functions in the Gauss plane. On the base of
these correspondences we obtain that any minimal surface of general type in
Euclidean 4-space determines locally a pair of two minimal surfaces in
Euclidean 3-space and vice versa. Finally some applications of this phenomenon
are given.


title:
Statistical properties of a filtered Poisson process with additive
  random noise: Distributions, correlations and moment estimation

abstract:
  Filtered Poisson processes are often used as reference models for
intermittent fluc- tuations in physical systems. Such a process is here
extended by adding a noise term, either as a purely additive term to the
process or as a dynamical term in a stochastic differential equation. The
lowest order moments, probability density function, auto-correlation function
and power spectral density are derived and used to identify and compare the
effects of the two different noise terms. Monte-Carlo studies of synthetic time
series are used to investigate the accuracy of model pa- rameter estimation and
to identify methods for distinguishing the noise types. It is shown that the
probability density function and the three lowest order moments provide
accurate estimations of the parameters, but are unable to separate the noise
types. The auto-correlation function and the power spectral density also
provide methods for estimating the model parameters, as well as being capable
of identifying the noise type. The number of times the signal crosses a
prescribed threshold level in the positive direction also promises to be able
to differentiate the noise type.


title:
Robustness of topologically protected transport in graphene-boron
  nitride lateral heterostructures

abstract:
  Previously, graphene nanoribbons set in lateral heterostructures with
hexagonal boron nitride were predicted to support topologically protected
states at low energy. We investigate how robust the transport properties of
these states are against lattice disorder. We find that forms of disorder that
do not couple the two valleys of the zigzag graphene nanoribbon do not impact
the transport properties at low bias, indicating that these lateral
heterostructures are very promising candidates for chip-scale conducting
interconnects. Forms of disorder that do couple the two valleys, such as
vacancies in the graphene ribbon, or substantial inclusions of armchair edges
at the graphene-hexagonal boron nitride interface will negatively affect the
transport. However, these forms of disorder are not commonly seen in current
experiments.


title: Quantum metrology with nonclassical states of atomic ensembles

abstract:
  Quantum technologies exploit entanglement to revolutionize computing,
measurements, and communications. This has stimulated the research in different
areas of physics to engineer and manipulate fragile many-particle entangled
states. Progress has been particularly rapid for atoms. Thanks to the large and
tunable nonlinearities and the well developed techniques for trapping,
controlling and counting, many groundbreaking experiments have demonstrated the
generation of entangled states of trapped ions, cold and ultracold gases of
neutral atoms. Moreover, atoms can couple strongly to external forces and light
fields, which makes them ideal for ultra-precise sensing and time keeping. All
these factors call for generating non-classical atomic states designed for
phase estimation in atomic clocks and atom interferometers, exploiting
many-body entanglement to increase the sensitivity of precision measurements.
The goal of this article is to review and illustrate the theory and the
experiments with atomic ensembles that have demonstrated many-particle
entanglement and quantum-enhanced metrology.


title: Absolute frequency measurement of the 1S0 - 3P0 transition of 171Yb

abstract:
  We report the absolute frequency measurement of the unperturbed transition
1S0 - 3P0 at 578 nm in 171Yb realized in an optical lattice frequency standard.
The absolute frequency is measured 518 295 836 590 863.55(28) Hz relative to a
cryogenic caesium fountain with a fractional uncertainty of 5.4x10-16 . This
value is in agreement with the ytterbium frequency recommended as a secondary
representation of the second in the International System of Units.


title: Search for formation of isospin-3/2 $\Xi$ states by neutrinos

abstract:
  A narrow peak near 1870 MeV is observed in the combined invariant-mass
spectrum of the systems $\Lambda K^0_S \pi^-$, $\Lambda K^0_S \pi^+$, $\Lambda
K^- \pi^-$, and $\Lambda K^- \pi^+$ formed in $\nu_\mu$- and
$\bar{\nu_\mu}$-induced charged-current collisions with free protons,
deuterons, and Neon nuclei. Observed width of the resonance is consistent with
being entirely due to apparatus smearing. A possible interpretation of the peak
is formation and three-body $\Lambda K \pi$ decay of an exotic baryon with $I =
3/2$ and $S = -2$.


title: Fractional and Circular Separation Dimension of Graphs

abstract:
  The separation dimension of a graph $G$, written $\pi(G)$, is the minimum
number of linear orderings of $V(G)$ such that every two nonincident edges are
"separated" in some ordering, meaning that both endpoints of one edge appear
before both endpoints of the other. We introduce the fractional separation
dimension $\pi_f(G)$, which is the minimum of $a/b$ such that some $a$ linear
orderings (repetition allowed) separate every two nonincident edges at least
$b$ times.
  In contrast to separation dimension, fractional separation dimension is
bounded: always $\pi_f(G)\le 3$, with equality if and only if $G$ contains
$K_4$. There is no stronger bound even for bipartite graphs, since
$\pi_f(K_{m,m})=\pi_f(K_{m+1,m})=\frac{3m}{m+1}$. We also compute $\pi_f(G)$
for cycles and some complete tripartite graphs. We show that $\pi_f(G)<\sqrt 2$
when $G$ is a tree and present a sequence of trees on which the value tends to
$4/3$.
  Finally, we consider analogous problems for circular orderings, where pairs
of nonincident edges are separated unless their endpoints alternate. Let
$\pi^\circ(G)$ be the number of circular orderings needed to separate all pairs
and $\pi_f^\circ(G)$ be the fractional version. Among our results: (1)
$\pi^\circ(G)=1$ if and only $G$ is outerplanar. (2) $\pi^\circ(G)\le2$ when
$G$ is bipartite. (3) $\pi^\circ(K_n)\ge\log_2\log_3(n-1)$. (4)
$\pi_f^\circ(G)\le\frac{3}{2}$, with equality if and only if $K_4\subseteq G$.
(5) $\pi_f^\circ(K_{m,m})=\frac{3m-3}{2m-1}$.


title: Chiral charge pumping in graphene deposited on a magnetic insulator

abstract:
  We demonstrate that a sizable chiral charge pumping can be achieved at room
temperature in graphene/Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) bilayer systems. The effect,
which cannot be attributed to the ordinary spin pumping, reveals itself in the
creation of a dc electric field/voltage in graphene as a response to the
dynamic magnetic excitations (spin waves) in an adjacent out-of-plane
magnetized YIG film. We show that the induced voltage changes its sign when the
orientation of the static magnetization is reversed, clearly indicating the
broken spatial inversion symmetry in the studied system. The strength of effect
shows a non-monotonous dependence on the spin-wave frequency, in agreement with
the proposed theoretical model.


title: Modeling The Adaption Rule in Context-aware Systems

abstract:
  Context awareness is increasingly gaining applicability in interactive
ubiquitous mobile computing systems. Each context-aware application has its own
set of behaviors to react to context modifications. This paper is concerned
with the context modeling and the development methodology for context-aware
systems. We proposed a rule-based approach and use the adaption tree to model
the adaption rule of context-aware systems. We illustrate this idea in an
arithmetic game application.


title:
How to measure the local Dzyaloshinskii Moriya Interaction in Skyrmion
  Thin Film Multilayers

abstract:
  The current driven motion of skyrmions in MnSi and FeGe thinned single
crystals could be initiated at current densities of the order of $10^6$ A/m,
five orders of magnitude smaller than for magnetic domain walls. The
technologically crucial step of replicating these results in thin films has not
been successful to date, but the reasons are not clear. Elucidating them
requires analyzing system characteristics at scales of few nm where the key
Dzyaloshinskii Moriya (DM) interactions vary, and doing so in near application
conditions, i.e. oxidation protected systems at room temperature. In this
work's magnetic force microscopy (MFM) studies of magnetron sputtered Ir/Co/Pt
multilayers we show skyrmions that are smaller than previously observed, are
not circularly symmetric, and are pinned to 50 nm wide areas of 75 percent
higher than average DM interaction. This finding matches our measurement of Co
layer thickness inhomogeneity of the order of $\pm$1.2 atomic monolayers per
0.6 nm layer, and indicates that layer flatness must be controlled with greater
precision to preclude skyrmion pinning.


title: Private Link Exchange over Social Graphs

abstract:
  Currently, most of the online social networks (OSN) keep their data secret
and in centralized manner. Researchers are allowed to crawl the underlying
social graphs (and data) but with limited rates, leading to only partial views
of the true social graphs. To overcome this constraint, we may start from user
perspective, the contributors of the OSNs. More precisely, if users cautiously
collaborate with one another, they can use the very infrastructure of the OSNs
to exchange noisy friend lists with their neighbors in several rounds. In the
end, they can build local subgraphs, also called local views of the true social
graph. In this paper, we propose such protocols for the problem of
\textit{private link exchange} over social graphs.
  The problem is unique in the sense that the disseminated data over the links
are the links themselves. However, there exist fundamental questions about the
feasibility of this model. The first question is how to define simple and
effective privacy concepts for the link exchange processes. The second question
comes from the high volume of link lists in exchange which may increase
exponentially round after round. While storage and computation complexity may
be affordable for desktop PCs, communication costs are non-trivial. We address
both questions by a simple $(\alpha,\beta)$-exchange using Bloom filters.


title: Distributed chaos and inertial ranges in turbulence

abstract:
  It is shown that appearance of inertial range of scales, adjacent to
distributed chaos range, results in adiabatic invariance of an energy
correlation integral for isotropic homogeneous turbulence and for buoyancy
driven turbulence (with stable or unstable stratification, including
Rayleigh-Taylor mixing zone). Power spectrum of velocity field for distributed
chaos dominated by this adiabatic invariant has a stretched exponential form
$\propto \exp(-k/k_{\beta})^{3/5}$. Results of recent direct numerical
simulations have been used in order to support these conclusions.


title: Valid lower bound for all estimators in quantum parameter estimation

abstract:
  The widely used quantum Cramer-Rao bound (QCRB) sets a lower bound for the
mean square error of unbiased estimators in quantum parameter estimation,
however, in general QCRB is only tight in the asymptotical limit. With a
limited number of measurements biased estimators can have a far better
performance for which QCRB cannot calibrate. Here we introduce a valid lower
bound for all estimators, either biased or unbiased, which can serve as
standard of merit for all quantum parameter estimations.


title:
Soft gluon resummation at fixed invariant mass for associated
  $t\bar{t}H$ production at the LHC

abstract:
  In the following we present our results on resummation of invariant mass
threshold corrections for the $2 \to 3$ type hadronic production processes in
the Mellin moment space formalism. This method is applied to the associated
Higgs boson production process $pp \to t \bar{t} H$ at the LHC. The results for
the total cross section, the differential distribution with respect to the
invariant mass and their uncertainties are presented.


title: Entropy Production and Thermalization in the One-Atom Maser

abstract:
  In the configuration in which two-level atoms with an initial thermal
distribution of their states are sent in succession to a cavity sustaining a
single mode of electromagnetic radiation, one atom leaving the cavity as the
next one enters it (as in the one-atom maser), Jaynes and Cummings showed that
the steady state of the field, when many atoms have traversed the cavity, is
thermal with a temperature different than that of the atoms in the off-resonant
situation. Having an interaction between two subsystems which maintains them at
different temperatures was then understood as leading to an apparent violation
of energy conservation. Here we show, by calculating the quantum entropy
production in the system, that this difference of temperatures is consistent
with having the subsystems adiabatically insulated from each other as the
steady state is approached. At resonance the insulation is removed and
equilibration of the temperatures is achieved.


title:
Deterministic Criteria for the Absence and Existence of Arbitrage in
  Multi-Dimensional Diffusion Markets

abstract:
  We derive deterministic criteria for the existence and non-existence of
equivalent (local) martingale measures for financial markets driven by
multi-dimensional time-inhomogeneous diffusions. Our conditions can be used to
construct financial markets in which the \emph{no unbounded profit with bounded
risk} condition holds, while the classical \emph{no free lunch with vanishing
risk} condition fails.


title:
A Cross-layer Contention Based Synchronous MAC Protocol for Transmission
  Delay Reduction in Multi-Hop WSNs

abstract:
  Recently designed cross-layer contention based synchronous MAC protocols like
the PRMAC protocol, for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) enable a node to
schedule multi-hop transmission of multiple data packets in a cycle. However,
these systems accommodate both the request-to-send data process and the
confirmation-to-send data process in the same data transmission scheduling
window (i.e. data window). This reduces the length of the multi-hop flow setup
in the data window. In a multi-hop scenario, this degrades both the packet
delivery ratio (PDR) and the end-to-end transmission delay (E2ETD). In this
paper, we propose a cross-layer contention based synchronous MAC protocol,
which accommodates the request-to-send data process in the data window and the
confirmation-to-send data process in the sleep window for increased efficiency.
We evaluate our proposed protocol through ns-2.35 simulations and compare its
performance with the PRMAC protocol. Results suggest that in multi-hop
scenario, proposed protocol outperforms PRMAC both in terms of the E2ETD and
the packet delivery ratio (PDR).


title:
Observed Faraday Effects in Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers and Lyman Limit
  Systems: The Magnetised Environment of Galactic Building Blocks at Redshift=2

abstract:
  Protogalactic environments are typically identified using quasar absorption
lines, and these galactic building blocks can manifest as Damped Lyman-Alpha
Absorbers (DLAs) and Lyman Limit Systems (LLSs). We use radio observations of
Faraday effects to test whether DLAs and LLSs host a magnetised medium, by
combining DLA and LLS detections throughout the literature with 1.4 GHz
polarization data from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). We obtain a control, a
DLA, and a LLS sample consisting of 114, 19, and 27 lines-of-sight respectively
- all of which are polarized at $\ge8\sigma$ to ensure Rician bias is
negligible. Using a Bayesian framework, we are unable to detect either coherent
or random magnetic fields in DLAs: the regular coherent magnetic fields within
the DLAs must be $\le2.8$ $\mu$G, and the lack of depolarization is consistent
with the weakly magnetised gas in DLAs being non-turbulent and quiescent.
However, we find mild suggestive evidence that LLSs have coherent magnetic
fields: after controlling for the redshift-distribution of our data, we find a
71.5% probability that LLSs have a higher RM than a control sample. We also
find strong evidence that LLSs host random magnetic fields, with a 95.5%
probability that LLS lines-of-sight have lower polarized fractions than a
control sample. The regular coherent magnetic fields within the LLSs must be
$\le2.4$ $\mu$G, and the magnetised gas must be highly turbulent with a typical
scale on the order of $\approx5$-20 pc, which is similar to that of the Milky
Way. This is consistent with the standard dynamo pedagogy, whereby magnetic
fields in protogalaxies increase in coherence and strength as a function of
cosmic time. Our results are consistent with a hierarchical galaxy formation
scenario, with the DLAs, LLSs, and strong magnesium II (MgII) systems exploring
three different stages of magnetic field evolution in galaxies.


title:
Quasiperiodic Frank-Kasper phases derived from the square-triangle
  dodecagonal tiling

abstract:
  Frank-Kasper (F-K) phases form an important set of large-cell crystalline
structures describing many inter-metallic alloys. They are usually described in
term of their atomic environments, with atoms having $12, 14, 15$ and $16$
neighbours, coded into the canonical $Z_p$ cells (with $p$ the coordination
number), the case $p=12$ corresponding to a local icosahedral environment. In
addition, the long range structure is captured by the geometry of a network
(called either "major skeleton" or "disclination network") connecting only the
non-icosahedral sites (with $p\ne 12$). Another interesting description, valid
for the so-called "layered F-K phases", amounts to give simple rules to
decorate specific periodic 2d tilings made of triangles and squares and
eventually get the 3d periodic F-K phases. Quasicrystalline phases can sometime
be found in the vicinity, in the phase diagram, of the F-K crystalline alloys;
it is therefore of interest to understand if and how the standard F-K
construction rules can be generalized on top of an underlying quasiperiodic
structure. It is in particular natural to investigate how well square-triangle
quasiperiodic tilings with dodecagonal symmetry, made of square and
(equilateral) triangles, can be used as building frames to generate some
F-K-like quasicrystalline structures. We show here how to produce two types of
such structures, which are quasiperiodic in a plane and periodic in the third
direction, and containing (or not) $Z_{16}$ sites.


title:
Discriminating image textures with the multiscale two-dimensional
  complexity-entropy causality plane

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to further explore the usefulness of the
two-dimensional complexity-entropy causality plane as a texture image
descriptor. A multiscale generalization is introduced in order to distinguish
between different roughness features of images at small and large spatial
scales. Numerically generated two-dimensional structures are initially
considered for illustrating basic concepts in a controlled framework. Then,
more realistic situations are studied. Obtained results allow us to confirm
that intrinsic spatial correlations of images are successfully unveiled by
implementing this multiscale symbolic information-theory approach.
Consequently, we conclude that the proposed representation space is a versatile
and practical tool for identifying, characterizing and discriminating image
textures.


title: Chlorine Abundances in Cool Stars

abstract:
  Chlorine abundances are reported in 15 evolved giants and one M dwarf in the
solar neighborhood. The Cl abundance was measured using the vibration-rotation
1-0 P8 line of H$^{35}$Cl at 3.69851 $\mu$m. The high resolution L-band spectra
were observed using the Phoenix infrared spectrometer on the Kitt Peak Mayall
4m telescope. The average [$^{35}$Cl/Fe] abundance in stars with
--0.72$<$[Fe/H]$<$0.20 is [$^{35}$Cl/Fe]=(--0.10$\pm$0.15) dex. The mean
difference between the [$^{35}$Cl/Fe] ratios measured in our stars and chemical
evolution model values is (0.16$\pm$0.15) dex. The [$^{35}$Cl/Ca] ratio has an
offset of $\sim$0.35 dex above model predictions suggesting chemical evolution
models are under producing Cl at the high metallicity range. Abundances of C,
N, O, Si, and Ca were also measured in our spectral region and are consistent
with F and G dwarfs. The Cl versus O abundances from our sample match Cl
abundances measured in planetary nebula and \ion{H}{2} regions. In one star
where both H$^{35}$Cl and H$^{37}$Cl could be measured, a $^{35}$Cl/$^{37}$Cl
isotope ratio of 2.2$\pm$0.4 was found, consistent with values found in the
Galactic ISM and predicted chemical evolution models.


title:
Inducing strong convergence into the asymptotic behaviour of proximal
  splitting algorithms in Hilbert spaces

abstract:
  Proximal splitting algorithms for monotone inclusions (and convex
optimization problems) in Hilbert spaces share the common feature to guarantee
for the generated sequences in general weak convergence to a solution. In order
to achieve strong convergence, one usually needs to impose more restrictive
properties for the involved operators, like strong monotonicity (respectively,
strong convexity for optimization problems). In this paper, we propose a
modified Krasnosel'ski\u{\i}--Mann algorithm in connection with the
determination of a fixed point of a nonexpansive mapping and show strong
convergence of the iteratively generated sequence to the minimal norm solution
of the problem. Relying on this, we derive a forward-backward and a
Douglas-Rachford algorithm, both endowed with Tikhonov regularization terms,
which generate iterates that strongly converge to the minimal norm solution of
the set of zeros of the sum of two maximally monotone operators. Furthermore,
we formulate strong convergent primal-dual algorithms of forward-backward and
Douglas-Rachford-type for highly structured monotone inclusion problems
involving parallel-sums and compositions with linear operators. The resulting
iterative schemes are particularized to the solving of convex minimization
problems.


title:
One-point functions of non-SUSY operators at arbitrary genus in a matrix
  model for type IIA superstrings

abstract:
  In the previous paper, the authors pointed out correspondence between a
supersymmetric double-well matrix model and two-dimensional type IIA
superstring theory on a Ramond-Ramond background from the viewpoint of symmetry
and spectrum. This was confirmed by agreement between planar correlation
functions in the matrix model and tree-level amplitudes in the superstring
theory. In order to investigate the correspondence further, in this paper we
compute correlation functions to all order of genus expansion in the double
scaling limit of the matrix model. One-point functions of operators protected
by supersymmetry terminate at some finite order, whereas those of unprotected
operators yield non-Borel summable series. The behavior of the latter is
characteristic in string perturbation series, providing further evidence that
the matrix model describes a string theory. Moreover, instanton corrections to
the planar one-point functions are also computed, and universal logarithmic
scaling behavior is found for non-supersymmetric operators.


title: Thermodynamics of the Schwarzschild-AdS black hole with a minimal length

abstract:
  Using the mass-smeared scheme of black holes, we study the thermodynamics of
black holes. Two interesting models are considered. One is the self-regular
Schwarzschild-AdS black hole whose mass density is given by the analogue to
probability densities of quantum hydrogen atoms. The other model is the same
black hole but whose mass density is chosen to be a rational fractional
function of radial coordinates. Both mass densities are in fact analytic
expressions of the ${\delta}$-function. We analyze the phase structures of the
two models by investigating the heat capacity at constant pressure and the
Gibbs free energy in an isothermal-isobaric ensemble. Both models fail to decay
into the pure thermal radiation even with the positive Gibbs free energy due to
the existence of a minimal length. Furthermore, we extend our analysis to a
general mass-smeared form that is also associated with the ${\delta}$-function,
and indicate the similar thermodynamic properties for various possible
mass-smeared forms based on the ${\delta}$-function.


title:
Large moments and extreme values of class numbers of indefinite binary
  quadratic forms

abstract:
  Let $h(d)$ be the class number of indefinite binary quadratic forms of
discriminant $d$, and let $\varepsilon_d$ be the corresponding fundamental
unit. In this paper, we obtain an asymptotic formula for the $k$-th moment of
$h(d)$ over positive discriminants $d$ with $\varepsilon_d\leq x$, uniformly
for real numbers $k$ in the range $0<k\leq (\log x)^{1-o(1)}$. This improves
upon the work of Raulf, who obtained such an asymptotic for a fixed positive
integer $k$. We also investigate the distribution of large values of $h(d)$
when the $d$'s are ordered according to the size of their fundamental units
$\varepsilon_d$. In particular, we show that the tail of this distribution has
the same shape as that of class numbers of imaginary quadratic fields ordered
by the size of their discriminants. As an application of these results, we
prove that there are many positive discriminants $d$ with class number
$h(d)\geq (e^{\gamma}/3+o(1))\cdot\varepsilon_d (\log\log \varepsilon_d)/\log
\varepsilon_d$, a bound that we believe is best possible. We also obtain an
upper bound for $h(d)$ that is twice as large, assuming the generalized Riemann
hypothesis.


title: Mixing completely scrambled system exists

abstract:
  We prove that there exists a topologically mixing homeomorphism which is
completely scrambled. We also prove that for any integer $n\geq 1$ there is a
continuum of topological dimension $n$ supporting a transitive completely
scrambled homeomorphism, and $n$-dimensional compactum supporting a weakly
mixing completely scrambled homeomorphism. This solves a 15 year old open
problem.


title: Boosting Wigner's nj-symbols

abstract:
  We study the SL(2,C) Clebsch-Gordan coefficients appearing in the lorentzian
EPRL spin foam amplitudes for loop quantum gravity. We show how the amplitudes
decompose into SU(2) nj-symbols at the vertices and integrals over boosts at
the edges. The integrals define edge amplitudes that can be evaluated
analytically using and adapting results in the literature, leading to a pure
state sum model formulation. This procedure introduces virtual representations
which, in a manner reminiscent to virtual momenta in Feynman amplitudes, are
off-shell of the simplicity constraints present in the theory, but with the
integrands that peak at the on-shell values. We point out some properties of
the edge amplitudes which are helpful for numerical and analytical evaluations
of spin foam amplitudes, and suggest among other things a simpler model useful
for calculations of certain lowest order amplitudes. As an application, we
estimate the large spin scaling behaviour of the simpler model, on a closed
foam with all 4-valent edges and Euler characteristic X, to be N^(X - 5E +
V/2). The paper contains a review and an extension of results on SL(2,C)
Clebsch-Gordan coefficients among unitary representations of the principal
series that can be useful beyond their application to quantum gravity
considered here.


abstract:
  In this paper we continue the study of important Banach spaces of slice
hyperholomorphic functions on the quaternionic unit ball by investigating the
BMO- and VMO-spaces of slice hyperholomorphic functions. We discuss in
particular conformal invariance and a refined characterization of these spaces
in terms of Carleson measures. Finally we show the relations with the Bloch and
Dirichlet space and the duality relation with the Hardy space
$\mathcal{H}^1(\mathbb{D})$.
  The importance of these spaces in the classical theory is well known. It is
therefore worthwhile to study their slice hyperholomorphic counterparts, in
particular because slice hyperholomorphic functions were found to have several
applications in operator theory and Schur analysis.


title: Fleet management for autonomous vehicles

abstract:
  The VIPAFLEET project consists in developing models and algorithms for man-
aging a fleet of Individual Public Autonomous Vehicles (VIPA). Hereby, we
consider a fleet of cars distributed at specified stations in an industrial
area to supply internal transportation, where the cars can be used in different
modes of circulation (tram mode, elevator mode, taxi mode). One goal is to
develop and implement suitable algorithms for each mode in order to satisfy all
the requests under an economic point of view by minimizing the total tour
length or the makespan. The innovative idea and challenge of the project is to
develop and install a dynamic fleet management system that allows the operator
to switch between the differ- ent modes within the different periods of the day
according to the dynamic transportation demands of the users. We model the
underlying online transportation system and propose an according fleet
management framework, to handle modes, demands and commands. We propose for
each mode appropriate online algorithms and evaluate their performance.


title:
A unified approach to construction of Gelfand-Tsetlin-Zhelobenko base
  vectors for series $A$, $B$, $C$, $D$

abstract:
  Using the Zhelobenko's approach we investigate a branching of an irreducible
representation of $g_n$ under the restriction of algebras $g_n\downarrow
g_{n-1}$, where $g_n$ is a Lie algebra of type $B_n$, $C_n$, $D_n$ or a Lie
algebra of type $A$, where in this case we put $g_{n}=\mathfrak{gl}_{n+1}$,
$g_{n-1}=\mathfrak{gl}_{n-1}$. We give a new explicit description of the space
of the $g_{n-1}$-highest vectors, then we construct a base in this space. The
case $n=2$ is considered separately for different algebras, but a passage from
$n=2$ to an arbitrary $n$ is the same for all series $A$, $B$, $C$, $D$. This
new procedure has the following advantage: it establishes a relation between
spaces of $g_{n-1}$-highest vectors for different series of algebras. This
procedure describes an extension of Gelfand-Tsetlin tableaux to the left.


title: Weak versus strong wave turbulence in the MMT model

abstract:
  Within the spirit of fluid turbulence, we consider the one-dimensional
Majda-McLaughlin-Tabak (MMT) model that describes the interactions of nonlinear
dispersive waves. We perform a detailed numerical study of the direct energy
cascade in the defocusing regime. In particular, we consider a configuration
with large-scale forcing and small scale dissipation, and we introduce three
non- dimensional parameters: the ratio between nonlinearity and dispersion,
{\epsilon}, and the analogues of the Reynolds number, Re, i.e. the ratio
between the nonlinear and dissipative time-scales, both at large and small
scales. Our numerical experiments show that (i) in the limit of small
{\epsilon} the spectral slope observed in the statistical steady regime
corresponds to the one predicted by the Weak Wave Turbulence (WWT) theory. (ii)
As the nonlinearity is increased, the WWT theory breaks down and deviations
from its predictions are observed. (iii) It is shown that such departures from
the WWT theoretical predictions are accompanied by the phenomenon of
intermittency, typical of three dimensional fluid turbulence. We calculate the
structure-function as well as the probability density function of the wave
field at each scale and show that the degree of intermittency depends on
{\epsilon}.


title: Nematic Films at Chemically Structured Surfaces

abstract:
  We investigate theoretically the morphology of a thin nematic film adsorbed
at flat substrate patterned by stripes with alternating aligning properties,
normal and tangential respectively. We construct a simple "exactly-solvable"
effective interfacial model where the liquid crystal distortions are accounted
for via an effective interface potential. We find that chemically patterned
substrates can strongly deform the nematic-air interface. The amplitude of this
substrate-induced undulations increases with decreasing average film thickness
and with increasing surface pattern pitch. We find a regime where the
interfacial deformation may be described in terms of a material-independent
universal scaling function. Surprisingly, the predictions of the effective
interfacial model agree semi-quantitatively with the results of the numerical
solution of a full model based on the Landau-de Gennes theory coupled to a
square-gradient phase field free energy functional for a two phase system.


abstract:
  The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a large and high
precision liquid scintillator detector under construction in the south of
China. With its 20 kt target mass, it aims to achieve an unprecedented 3%
energy resolution at 1 MeV. Its main goal is to study the disappearance of
reactor antineutrino to determine the neutrino mass ordering, and to precisely
measure the mixing parameters $\theta_{12}$, $\Delta m^2_{12}$, and $\Delta m
^2_{ee}$. It also aims to detect neutrinos emitted from radioactive processes
taking place within the inner layers of the Earth (geoneutrinos), as well as
neutrinos produced during rare supernova bursts. Neutrinos emitted in solar
nuclear reactions could also be observed, if stringent radiopurity requirements
on the scintillator are met. This manuscript provides some highlights of JUNO's
Physics Programme, and describes the detector design, as well as the ongoing
detector R&D.


title: Bose-Einstein graviton condensate in a Schwarzschild black hole

abstract:
  We analyze in detail a previous proposal by Dvali and G\'omez that black
holes could be treated as consisting of a Bose-Einstein condensate of
gravitons. In order to do so we extend the Einstein-Hilbert action with a
chemical potential-like term, thus placing ourselves in a grand-canonical
ensemble. The form and characteristics of this chemical potential-like piece
are discussed in some detail. We argue that the resulting equations of motion
derived from the action could be interpreted as the Gross-Pitaevskii equation
describing a graviton Bose-Einstein condensate trapped by the black hole
gravitational field. After this, we proceed to expand the ensuring equations of
motion up to second order around the classical Schwarzschild metric so that
some non-linear terms in the metric fluctuation are kept. Next we search for
solutions and, modulo some very plausible assumptions, we find out that the
condensate vanishes outside the horizon but is non-zero in its interior.
Inspired by a linearized approximation around the horizon we are able to find
an exact solution for the mean-field wave function describing the graviton
Bose-Einstein condensate in the black hole interior. After this, we can
rederive some of the relations involving the number of gravitons $N$ and the
black hole characteristics along the lines suggested by Dvali and G\'omez.


title:
Almost Everywhere Strong Summability of Fejer means of rectangular
  partial sums of two-dimensional Walsh-Fourier Series

abstract:
  It is proved a BMO-estimation for rectangular partial sums of two-dimensional
Walsh-Fourier series from which it is derived an almost everywhere exponential
summability of rectangular partial sums of double Walsh-Fourier series.


title: Network Composition from Multi-layer Data

abstract:
  It is common for people to access multiple social networks, for example,
using phone, email, and social media. Together, the multi-layer social
interactions form a "integrated social network." How can we extend well
developed knowledge about single-layer networks, including vertex centrality
and community structure, to such heterogeneous structures? In this paper, we
approach these challenges by proposing a principled framework of network
composition based on a unified dynamical process. Mathematically, we consider
the following abstract problem: Given multi-layer network data and additional
parameters for intra and inter-layer dynamics, construct a (single) weighted
network that best integrates the joint process. We use transformations of
dynamics to unify heterogeneous layers under a common dynamics. For inter-layer
compositions, we will consider several cases as the inter-layer dynamics plays
different roles in various social or technological networks. Empirically, we
provide examples to highlight the usefulness of this framework for network
analysis and network design.


title:
Pointwise convergence of Marcinkiewicz-Fejer means of double
  Vilenkin-Fourier series

abstract:
  In this paper we give a characterization of points in which
Marcinkiewicz-Fejer means of double Vilenkin-Fourier series converges.


title: $D$-module and $F$-module length of local cohomology modules

abstract:
  Let $R$ be a polynomial or power series ring over a field $k$. We study the
length of local cohomology modules $H^j_I(R)$ in the category of $D$-modules
and $F$-modules. We show that the $D$-module length of $H^j_I(R)$ is bounded by
a polynomial in the degree of the generators of $I$. In characteristic $p>0$ we
obtain upper and lower bounds on the $F$-module length in terms of the
dimensions of Frobenius stable parts and the number of special primes of local
cohomology modules of $R/I$. The obtained upper bound is sharp if $R/I$ is an
isolated singularity, and the lower bound is sharp when $R/I$ is Gorenstein and
$F$-pure. We also give an example of a local cohomology module that has
different $D$-module and $F$-module lengths.


title:
Current-voltage characteristics and vortex dynamics in highly underdoped
  La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$

abstract:
  The temperature dependence of the nonlinear current-voltage ($I$-$V$)
characteristics in highly underdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ ($x=0.07$ and
0.08) thick films has been studied in both zero and perpendicular magnetic
fields $H$. Power-law behavior of $V(I)$ is found for both $H=0$ and $H \neq
0$. The critical current $I_{c}$ was extracted, and its temperature and
magnetic field dependences were studied in detail. The
Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics dominates the nonlinear $I$-$V$ near
the superconducting transition at $H=0$, and it continues to contribute up to a
characteristic temperature $T_x(H)$. Nonlinear $I$-$V$ persists up to an even
higher temperature $T_{h}(H)$ due to the depinning of vortices.


title:
Strong Approximation by Marcinkiewicz Means of two-dimensional
  Walsh-Kaczmarz-Fourier Series

abstract:
  In this paper we study the exponential uniform strong approximation of
Marcinkiewicz type of two-dimensional Walsh-Kaczmarz-Fourier series. In
particular, it is proved that the Marcinkiewicz type of two-dimensional
Walsh-Kaczmarz-Fourier series of the continuous function $f$ is uniformly
strong summable to the function $f$ exponentially in the power $1/2$. Moreover,
it is proved that this result is best possible.


title: Strong Summability of Two-Dimensional Vilenkin Fourier series

abstract:
  In this paper we study the exponential uniform strong summability of
two-dimensional Vilenkin-Fourier series. In particular, it is proved that the
two-dimensional Vilenkin-Fourier series of the continuous function $f$ is
uniformly strong summable to the function $f$ exponentially in the power $1/2$.
Moreover, it is proved that this result is best possible.


title: Extension theorems for large scale spaces via coarse neighbourhoods

abstract:
  We introduce the notion of (hybrid) large scale normal space and prove coarse
geometric analogues of Urysohn's Lemma and the Tietze Extension Theorem for
these spaces, where continuous maps are replaced by (continuous and) slowly
oscillating maps. To do so, we first prove a general form of each of these
results in the context of a set equipped with a neighbourhood operator
satisfying certain axioms, from which we obtain both the classical topological
results and the (hybrid) large scale results as corollaries. We prove that all
metric spaces are hybrid large scale normal, and characterize those locally
compact abelian groups which (as hybrid large scale spaces) are hybrid large
scale normal. Finally, we look at some properties of the Higson
compactifications and coronas of hybrid large scale normal spaces.


title:
Review of the Fingerprint Liveness Detection (LivDet) competition
  series: 2009 to 2015

abstract:
  A spoof attack, a subset of presentation attacks, is the use of an artificial
replica of a biometric in an attempt to circumvent a biometric sensor. Liveness
detection, or presentation attack detection, distinguishes between live and
fake biometric traits and is based on the principle that additional information
can be garnered above and beyond the data procured by a standard authentication
system to determine if a biometric measure is authentic. The goals for the
Liveness Detection (LivDet) competitions are to compare software-based
fingerprint liveness detection and artifact detection algorithms (Part 1), as
well as fingerprint systems which incorporate liveness detection or artifact
detection capabilities (Part 2), using a standardized testing protocol and
large quantities of spoof and live tests. The competitions are open to all
academic and industrial institutions which have a solution for either
softwarebased or system-based fingerprint liveness detection. The LivDet
competitions have been hosted in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 and have shown
themselves to provide a crucial look at the current state of the art in
liveness detection schemes. There has been a noticeable increase in the number
of participants in LivDet competitions as well as a noticeable decrease in
error rates across competitions. Participants have grown from four to the most
recent thirteen submissions for Fingerprint Part 1. Fingerprints Part 2 has
held steady at two submissions each competition in 2011 and 2013 and only one
for the 2015 edition. The continuous increase of competitors demonstrates a
growing interest in the topic.


title:
The Kakeya needle problem and the existence of Besicovitch and Nikodym
  sets for rectifiable sets

abstract:
  We solve the Kakeya needle problem and construct a Besicovitch and a Nikodym
set for rectifiable sets.


title:
Competing magnetic orders and spin liquids in two- and three-dimensional
  kagome systems: A pseudo-fermion functional renormalization group perspective

abstract:
  Quantum magnets on kagome lattice geometries in two and three spatial
dimensions are archetypal examples of spin systems in which geometric
frustration inhibits conventional magnetic ordering and instead benefits the
emergence of long-range entangled spin liquids at low temperature. Here we
employ a recently developed pseudo-fermion functional renormalization group
(pf-FRG) approach to study the low-temperature quantum magnetism of kagome and
hyperkagome spin systems with exchange interactions beyond the nearest neighbor
coupling. We find that next-nearest neighbor couplings stabilize a variety of
magnetic orders as well as induce additional spin liquid regimes giving rise to
rather rich phase diagrams, which we characterize in detail. On a technical
level, we find that the pf-FRG approach is in excellent quantitative agreement
with high-temperature series expansions over their range of validity and it
exhibits a systematic finite-size convergence in the temperature regime below.
We discuss notable advantages and some current limitations of the pf-FRG
approach in the ongoing search for unconventional forms of quantum magnetism.


title: Index Characterization for Free Boundary Minimal Surfaces

abstract:
  In this paper, we compute the Morse index for a free boundary minimal
submanifold from data of two simpler problems. The first one is the
corresponding problem with fixed boundary condition; and the second is
associated with the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for Jacobi fields. As an
application, we show that the Morse index of a free boundary minimal annulus is
equal to 4 if and only if it is the critical catenoid.


title: Entanglement of approximate quantum strategies in XOR games

abstract:
  We show that for any $\varepsilon>0$ there is an XOR game $G=G(\varepsilon)$
with $\Theta(\varepsilon^{-1/5})$ inputs for one player and
$\Theta(\varepsilon^{-2/5})$ inputs for the other player such that
$\Omega(\varepsilon^{-1/5})$ ebits are required for any strategy achieving bias
that is at least a multiplicative factor $(1-\varepsilon)$ from optimal. This
gives an exponential improvement in both the number of inputs or outputs and
the noise tolerance of any previously-known self-test for highly entangled
states. Up to the exponent $-1/5$ the scaling of our bound with $\varepsilon$
is tight: for any XOR game there is an $\varepsilon$-optimal strategy using
$\lceil \varepsilon^{-1} \rceil$ ebits, irrespective of the number of questions
in the game.


title:
Modeling the gravitational potential of a cosmological dark matter halo
  with stellar streams

abstract:
  Stellar streams result from the tidal disruption of satellites and star
clusters as they orbit a host galaxy, and can be very sensitive probes of the
gravitational potential of the host system. We select and study narrow stellar
streams formed in a Milky-Way-like dark matter halo of the Aquarius suite of
cosmological simulations, to determine if these streams can be used to
constrain the present day characteristic parameters of the halo's gravitational
potential. We find that orbits integrated in static spherical and triaxial NFW
potentials both reproduce the locations and kinematics of the various streams
reasonably well. To quantify this further, we determine the best-fit potential
parameters by maximizing the amount of clustering of the stream stars in the
space of their actions. We show that using our set of Aquarius streams, we
recover a mass profile that is consistent with the spherically-averaged dark
matter profile of the host halo, although we ignored both triaxiality and time
evolution in the fit. This gives us confidence that such methods can be applied
to the many streams that will be discovered by the Gaia mission to determine
the gravitational potential of our Galaxy.


title:
Qualification Tests of the R11410-21 Photomultiplier Tubes for the
  XENON1T Detector

abstract:
  The Hamamatsu R11410-21 photomultiplier tube is the photodetector of choice
for the XENON1T dual-phase time projection chamber. The device has been
optimized for a very low intrinsic radioactivity, a high quantum efficiency and
a high sensitivity to single photon detection. A total of 248 tubes are
currently operated in XENON1T, selected out of 321 tested units. In this
article the procedures implemented to evaluate the large number of tubes prior
to their installation in XENON1T are described. The parameter distributions for
all tested tubes are shown, with an emphasis on those selected for XENON1T, of
which the impact on the detector performance is discussed. All photomultipliers
have been tested in a nitrogen atmosphere at cryogenic temperatures, with a
subset of the tubes being tested in gaseous and liquid xenon, simulating their
operating conditions in the dark matter detector. The performance and
evaluation of the tubes in the different environments is reported and the
criteria for rejection of PMTs are outlined and quantified.


title: The dividend problem with a finite horizon

abstract:
  We characterise the value function of the optimal dividend problem with a
finite time horizon as the unique classical solution of a suitable
Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. The optimal dividend strategy is realised by
a Skorokhod reflection of the fund's value at a time-dependent optimal
boundary. Our results are obtained by establishing for the first time a new
connection between singular control problems with an absorbing boundary and
optimal stopping problems on a diffusion reflected at $0$ and created at a rate
proportional to its local time.


title:
Mesoscale pattern formation of self-propelled rods with velocity
  reversal

abstract:
  We study self-propelled particles with velocity reversal interacting by
uniaxial (nematic) alignment within a coarse-grained hydrodynamic theory.
Combining analytical and numerical continuation techniques, we show that the
physics of this active system is essentially controlled by the reversal
frequency. In particular, we find that elongated, high-density, ordered
patterns, called bands, emerge via subcritical bifurcations from spatially
homogeneous states. Our analysis reveals further that the interaction of bands
is weakly attractive and, consequently, bands fuse upon collision in analogy
with nonequilibrium nucleation processes. Moreover, we demonstrate that a
renormalized positive line tension can be assigned to stable bands below a
critical reversal rate, beyond which they are transversally unstable. In
addition, we discuss the kinetic roughening of bands as well as their nonlinear
dynamics close to the threshold of transversal instability. Altogether, the
reduction of the multi-particle system onto the dynamics of bands provides a
framework to understand the impact of the reversal frequency on the emerging
nonequilibrium patterns in self-propelled particle systems. In this regard, our
results constitute a proof-of-principle in favor of the hypothesis in
microbiology that reversal of gliding rod-shaped bacteria regulates the
occurrence of various self-organized pattens observed during life-cycle phases.


title: MadeinMath. A Math Exhibition out of Many Threads

abstract:
  We describe some motivations lurking behind the making of a Math exhibition.
In particular, we refer to MadeInMath and its two set-ups in Triennale di
Milano and Museo della Scienza in Trento (MUSE), where the life and works of
Italian mathematicians played an important role, like Guido Castelnuovo,
Federigo Enriques and Vito Volterra.


title: Counting Feynman-like graphs: Quasimodularity and Siegel-Veech weight

abstract:
  We prove the quasimodularity of generating functions for counting torus
covers, with and without Siegel-Veech weight. Our proof is based on analyzing
decompositions of flat surfaces into horizontal cylinders. The quasimodularity
arise as contour integral of quasi-elliptic functions. It provides an
alternative proof of the quasimodularity results of Bloch-Okounkov,
Eskin-Okounkov and Chen-Moeller-Zagier, and generalizes the results of
Boehm-Bringmann-Buchholz-Markwig for simple ramification covers.


title:
Off-shell Top Quarks with One Jet at the LHC: A comprehensive analysis
  at NLO QCD

abstract:
  We present a comprehensive study of the production of top quark pairs in
association with one hard jet in the di-lepton decay channel at the LHC. Our
predictions, accurate at NLO in QCD, focus on the LHC Run II with a
center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. All resonant and non-resonant contributions at
the perturbative order ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^4 \alpha^4)$ are taken into account,
including irreducible backgrounds to $t\bar{t}j$ production, interferences and
off-shell effects of the top quark and the $W$ gauge boson. We extensively
investigate the dependence of our results upon variation of renormalisation and
factorisation scales and parton distribution functions in the quest for an
accurate estimate of the theoretical uncertainties. Additionally, we explore a
few possibilities for a dynamical scale choice with the goal of stabilizing the
perturbative convergence of the differential cross sections far away from the
$t\bar{t}$ threshold. Results presented here are particularly relevant for
searches of new physics as well as for precise measurements of the top-quark
fiducial cross sections and top-quark properties at the LHC.


title: Unknotted Reeb orbits and nicely embedded holomorphic curves

abstract:
  We exhibit a distinctly low-dimensional dynamical obstruction to the
existence of Liouville cobordisms: for any contact 3-manifold admitting an
exact symplectic cobordism to the tight 3-sphere, every nondegenerate contact
form admits an embedded Reeb orbit that is unknotted and has self-linking
number -1. The same is true moreover for any contact structure on a closed
3-manifold that is reducible. Our results generalize an earlier theorem of
Hofer-Wysocki-Zehnder for the 3-sphere, but use somewhat newer techniques: the
main idea is to exploit the intersection theory of punctured holomorphic curves
in order to understand the compactification of the space of so-called "nicely
embedded" curves in symplectic cobordisms. In the process, we prove a local
adjunction formula for holomorphic annuli breaking along a Reeb orbit, which
may be of independent interest.


title:
Microlens Array Laser Transverse Shaping Technique for Photoemission
  Electron Source

abstract:
  A common issue encountered in photoemission electron sources used in electron
accelerators is distortion of the laser spot due to non ideal conditions at all
stages of the amplification. Such a laser spot at the cathode may produce
asymmetric charged beams that will result in degradation of the beam quality
due to space charge at early stages of acceleration and fail to optimally
utilize the cathode surface. In this note we study the possibility of using
microlens arrays to dramatically improve the transverse uniformity of the drive
laser pulse on UV photocathodes at both Fermilab Accelerator Science \&
Technology (FAST) facility and Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA). In
particular, we discuss the experimental characterization of the homogeneity and
periodic patterned formation at the photocathode. Finally, we compare the
experimental results with the paraxial analysis, ray tracing and wavefront
propagation software.


title:
Robust Computation of a Minimum Area Convex Polygon Stabber of a Set of
  Isothetic Line Segments

abstract:
  In this paper, we discuss the algorithm engineering aspects of an O(n^2)-time
algorithm [6] for computing a minimum-area convex polygon that intersects a set
of n isothetic line segments.


title:
The canonical semantic network supports residual language function in
  chronic post-stroke aphasia

abstract:
  Current theories of language recovery after stroke are limited by a reliance
on small studies. Here, we aimed to test predictions of current theory and
resolve inconsistencies regarding right hemispheric contributions to long-term
recovery. We first defined the canonical semantic network in 43 healthy
controls. Then, in a group of 43 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia, we
tested whether activity in this network predicted performance on measures of
semantic comprehension, naming, and fluency while controlling for lesion volume
effects. Canonical network activation accounted for 22-33% of the variance in
language test scores. Whole-brain analyses corroborated these findings, and
revealed a core set of regions showing positive relationships to all language
measures. We next evaluated the relationship between activation magnitudes in
left and right hemispheric portions of the network, and how right hemispheric
activation related to the extent of left hemispheric damage. Activation
magnitudes in the each hemispheric network were strongly correlated, but four
right frontal regions showed heightened activity in patients with large
lesions. Activity in two of these regions (inferior frontal gyrus pars
opercularis and supplementary motor area) was associated with better language
abilities in patients with larger lesions, but poorer language abilities in
patients with smaller lesions. Our results indicate that bilateral language
networks support language processing after stroke, and that right hemispheric
activations related to extensive left hemisphere damage occur outside of the
canonical semantic network and differentially contribute to in their
relationship to behavior depending on the extent of left hemispheric damage


title: Assessment of P-value variability in the current replicability crisis

abstract:
  Increased availability of data and accessibility of computational tools in
recent years have created unprecedented opportunities for scientific research
driven by statistical analysis. Inherent limitations of statistics impose
constrains on reliability of conclusions drawn from data but misuse of
statistical methods is a growing concern. Significance, hypothesis testing and
the accompanying P-values are being scrutinized as representing most widely
applied and abused practices. One line of critique is that P-values are
inherently unfit to fulfill their ostensible role as measures of scientific
hypothesis's credibility. It has also been suggested that while P-values may
have their role as summary measures of effect, researchers underappreciate the
degree of randomness in the P-value. High variability of P-values would suggest
that having obtained a small P-value in one study, one is, nevertheless, likely
to obtain a much larger P-value in a similarly powered replication study. Thus,
"replicability of P-value" is itself questionable. To characterize P-value
variability one can use prediction intervals whose endpoints reflect the likely
spread of P-values that could have been obtained by a replication study.
Unfortunately, the intervals currently in use, the P-intervals, are based on
unrealistic implicit assumptions. Namely, P-intervals are constructed with the
assumptions that imply substantial chances of encountering large values of
effect size in an observational study, which leads to bias. As an alternative
to P-intervals, we develop a method that gives researchers flexibility by
providing them with the means to control these assumptions. Unlike endpoints of
P-intervals, endpoints of our intervals are directly interpreted as
probabilistic bounds for replication P-values and are resistant to selection
bias contingent upon approximate prior knowledge of the effect size
distribution.


title:
On the paradoxical evolution of the number of photons in a new model of
  interpolating Hamiltonians

abstract:
  We introduce a new Hamiltonian model which interpolates between the
Jaynes-Cummings model and other types of such Hamiltonians. It works with two
interpolating parameters, rather than one as traditional. Taking advantage of
this greater degree of freedom, we can perform continuous interpolation between
the various types of these Hamiltonians. As applications we discuss a paradox
raised in literature and compare the time evolution of photon statistics
obtained in the various interpolating models. The role played by the average
excitation in these comparisons is also highlighted.


title:
Measurement of the Two-Neutrino Double Beta Decay Half-life of
  $^{130}$Te with the CUORE-0 Experiment

abstract:
  We report on the measurement of the two-neutrino double beta decay half-life
of $^{130}$Te with the CUORE-0 detector. From an exposure of 33.4 kg$\cdot$y of
TeO$_2$, the half-life is determined to be $T_{1/2}^{2\nu}$ = [8.2 $\pm$ 0.2
(stat.) $\pm$ 0.6 (syst.)] $\times$ 10$^{20}$y. This result is obtained after a
detailed reconstruction of the sources responsible for the CUORE-0 counting
rate, with a specific study of those contributing to the $^{130}$Te
neutrinoless double beta decay region of interest.


title:
String-localized free vector and tensor potentials for massive particles
  with any spin: I. Bosons

abstract:
  It is well-known that a (point-localized) free quantum field for massive
particles with spin $s$ acting in a Hilbert space has at best scaling dimension
$s+1$, which excludes its use in the perturbative construction of
renormalizable interacting models for higher spin ($s\geq 1$). Up to date, such
models have been constructed only in the context of gauge theory, at the cost
of introducing additional unphysical (ghost) fields and an unphysical
(indefinite metric) state space. The unphysical degrees of freedom are divided
out by requiring gauge (or BRST) invariance.
  We construct free quantum fields for higher spin particles which have the
same good UV behaviour as the scalar field (scaling dimension one), and at the
same time act on a Hilbert space without ghosts. They are localized on
semi-infinite strings extending to space-like infinity, but are linearly
related to their point-local counterparts. We argue that this is sufficient
locality for a perturbative construction of interacting models of the gauge
theory type, with a string-independent S-matrix and point-localized interacting
observable fields. The usual principle of gauge-invariance is here replaced by
the (deeper) principle of locality.


title: The Waves and the Sigmas (To Say Nothing of the 750 GeV Mirage)

abstract:
  This paper shows how p-values do not only create, as well known, wrong
expectations in the case of flukes, but they might also dramatically diminish
the `significance' of most likely genuine signals. As real life examples, the
2015 first detections of gravitational waves are discussed. The March 2016
statement of the American Statistical Association, warning scientists about
interpretation and misuse of p-values, is also reminded and commented. (The
paper is complemented with some remarks on past, recent and future claims of
discoveries based on sigmas from Particles Physics.)

categories: physics.data-an gr-qc hep-ph math.HO math.ST stat.TH


title:
Possible Explanation of the Electron Positron Anomaly at 17 MeV in
  $^8Be$ Transitions Through a Light Pseudoscalar

abstract:
  We estimate the values of Yukawa couplings of a light pseudoscalar A with a
mass of about 17 MeV, which would explain the $^8Be$ anomaly observed in the
Atomki pair spectrometer experiment. The resulting couplings of A to up and
down type quarks are about 0.3 times the coupling of the standard Higgs boson.
Then constraints from K and B decays require that loop contributions to flavour
changing vertices cancel at least at the 10% level. Constraints from beam dump
experiments require the coupling of A to electrons to be larger than about 4
times the coupling of the standard Higgs boson, leading to a short enough A
life time consistent with an explanation of the anomaly.


title:
Improving Color Constancy by Discounting the Variation of Camera
  Spectral Sensitivity

abstract:
  It is an ill-posed problem to recover the true scene colors from a color
biased image by discounting the effects of scene illuminant and camera spectral
sensitivity (CSS) at the same time. Most color constancy (CC) models have been
designed to first estimate the illuminant color, which is then removed from the
color biased image to obtain an image taken under white light, without the
explicit consideration of CSS effect on CC. This paper first studies the CSS
effect on illuminant estimation arising in the inter-dataset-based CC
(inter-CC), i.e., training a CC model on one dataset and then testing on
another dataset captured by a distinct CSS. We show the clear degradation of
existing CC models for inter-CC application. Then a simple way is proposed to
overcome such degradation by first learning quickly a transform matrix between
the two distinct CSSs (CSS-1 and CSS-2). The learned matrix is then used to
convert the data (including the illuminant ground truth and the color biased
images) rendered under CSS-1 into CSS-2, and then train and apply the CC model
on the color biased images under CSS-2, without the need of burdensome
acquiring of training set under CSS-2. Extensive experiments on synthetic and
real images show that our method can clearly improve the inter-CC performance
for traditional CC algorithms. We suggest that by taking the CSS effect into
account, it is more likely to obtain the truly color constant images invariant
to the changes of both illuminant and camera sensors.


title: Mixed Periodic-classical barrier strategies for L\'evy risk processes

abstract:
  Given a spectrally negative L\'evy process and independent Poisson
observation times, we consider a periodic barrier strategy that pushes the
process down to a certain level whenever it is above it. We also consider the
versions with additional classical reflection above and/or below. Using scale
functions and excursion theory, various fluctuation identities are computed in
terms of the scale function. Applications in de Finetti's dividend problems are
also discussed.


title: Connectome Smoothing via Low-rank Approximations

abstract:
  In statistical connectomics, the quantitative study of brain networks,
estimating the mean of a population of graphs based on a sample is a core
problem. Often, this problem is especially difficult because the sample or
cohort size is relatively small, sometimes even a single subject. While using
the element-wise sample mean of the adjacency matrices is a common approach,
this method does not exploit any underlying structural properties of the
graphs. We propose using a low-rank method which incorporates tools for
dimension selection and diagonal augmentation to smooth the estimates and
improve performance over the naive methodology for small sample sizes.
Theoretical results for the stochastic blockmodel show that this method offers
major improvements when there are many vertices. Similarly, we demonstrate that
the low-rank methods outperform the standard sample mean for a variety of
independent edge distributions as well as human connectome data derived from
magnetic resonance imaging, especially when sample sizes are small. Moreover,
the low-rank methods yield "eigen-connectomes", which correlate with the
lobe-structure of the human brain and superstructures of the mouse brain. These
results indicate that low-rank methods are an important part of the tool box
for researchers studying populations of graphs in general, and statistical
connectomics in particular.


title: Aspherical Photon and Anti-Photon Surfaces

abstract:
  In this note we identify photon surfaces and anti-photon surfaces in some
physically interesting spacetimes, which are not spherically symmetric. All of
our examples solve physically reasonable field equations, including for some
cases the vacuum Einstein equations, albeit they are not asymptotically flat.
Our examples include the vacuum C-metric, the Melvin solution of
Einstein-Maxwell theory and generalisations including dilaton fields. The
(anti-)photon surfaces are not round spheres, and the lapse function is not
always constant.


title:
Testing relativistic reflection and resolving outflows in PG 1211+143
  with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR

abstract:
  We analyze the broad-band X-ray spectrum (0.3-50 keV) of the luminous Seyfert
1 / quasar PG 1211+143 - the archetypal source for high-velocity X-ray outflows
- using near-simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations. We compare pure
relativistic reflection models with a model including the strong imprint of
photoionized emission and absorption from a high-velocity wind (Pounds16a,16b),
finding a spectral fit that extrapolates well over the higher photon energies
covered by NuSTAR. Inclusion of the high S/N XMM-Newton spectrum provides much
tighter constraints on the model parameters, with a much harder photon index /
lower reflection fraction compared to that from the NuSTAR data alone. We show
that pure relativistic reflection models are not able to account for the
spectral complexity of PG 1211+143 and that wind absorption models are strongly
required to match the data in both the soft X-ray and Fe K spectral regions. In
confirming the significance of previously reported ionized absorption features,
the new analysis provides a further demonstration of the power of combining the
high throughput and resolution of long-look XMM-Newton observations with the
unprecedented spectral coverage of NuSTAR.


title:
Decompositions of complete uniform multi-hypergraphs into Berge paths
  and cycles of arbitrary lengths

abstract:
  In 1981, Alspach conjectured that the complete graph $ K_{n} $ could be
decomposed into cycles of arbitrary lengths, provided that the obvious
necessary conditions would hold. This conjecture was proved completely by
Bryant, Horsley and Pettersson in 2014. Moreover, in 1983, Tarsi conjectured
that the obvious necessary conditions for packing pairwise edge-disjoint paths
of arbitrary lengths in the complete multigraphs were also sufficient. The
conjecture was confirmed by Bryant in 2010. In this paper, we investigate an
analogous problem as the decomposition of the complete uniform multi-hypergraph
$ \mu K_{n}^{(k)} $ into Berge cycles and Berge paths of arbitrary given
lengths. We show that for every integer $ \mu\geq 1 $, $ n\geq 108 $ and $
3\leq k<n $, $ \mu K_{n}^{(k)} $ can be decomposed into Berge cycles and Berge
paths of arbitrary lengths, provided that the obvious necessary conditions
hold, thereby generalizing a result by K\"{u}hn and Osthus on the decomposition
of $K_{n}^{(k)}$ into Hamilton Berge cycles. Furthermore, we obtain the
necessary and sufficient conditions for packing the cycles of arbitrary lengths
in the complete multigraphs.


title: An IoT application development using IoTSuite

abstract:
  Application development in the Internet of Things (IoT) is challenging
because it involves dealing with issues that attribute to different life-cycle
phases. First, the application logic has to be analyzed and then separated into
a set of distributed tasks for an underlying network. Then, the tasks have to
be implemented for the specific hardware. Moreover, we take different IoT
applications and present development of these applications using IoTSuite. In
this paper, we introduce a design and implementation of ToolSuite, a suite of
tools, for reducing burden of each stage of IoT application development
process. We take different class of IoT applications, largely found in the IoT
literature, and demonstrate these IoT application development using IoTSuite.
These applications have been tested on several IoT technologies such as
Android, Raspberry PI, Arduino, and JavaSE-enabled devices, Messaging protocols
such as MQTT, CoAP, WebSocket, Server technologies such as Node.js, Relational
database such as MySQL, and Microsoft Azure Cloud services.


title: Induced subgraphs with many distinct degrees

abstract:
  Let $\hom(G)$ denote the size of the largest clique or independent set of a
graph $G$. In 2007, Bukh and Sudakov proved that every $n$-vertex graph $G$
with $\hom(G) = O(\log n)$ contains an induced subgraph with $\Omega(n^{1/2})$
distinct degrees, and raised the question of deciding whether an analogous
result holds for every $n$-vertex graph $G$ with $\hom(G) = O(n^\epsilon)$,
where $\epsilon > 0$ is a fixed constant. Here, we answer their question in the
affirmative and show that every graph $G$ on $n$ vertices contains an induced
subgraph with $\Omega((n/\hom(G))^{1/2})$ distinct degrees. We also prove a
stronger result for graphs with large cliques or independent sets and show, for
any fixed $k \in \mathbb{N}$, that if an $n$-vertex graph $G$ contains no
induced subgraph with $k$ distinct degrees, then $\hom(G) \ge n/(k-1)-o(n)$;
this bound is essentially best-possible.


title:
Discriminative Enhancement for Single Channel Audio Source Separation
  using Deep Neural Networks

abstract:
  The sources separated by most single channel audio source separation
techniques are usually distorted and each separated source contains residual
signals from the other sources. To tackle this problem, we propose to enhance
the separated sources to decrease the distortion and interference between the
separated sources using deep neural networks (DNNs). Two different DNNs are
used in this work. The first DNN is used to separate the sources from the mixed
signal. The second DNN is used to enhance the separated signals. To consider
the interactions between the separated sources, we propose to use a single DNN
to enhance all the separated sources together. To reduce the residual signals
of one source from the other separated sources (interference), we train the DNN
for enhancement discriminatively to maximize the dissimilarity between the
predicted sources. The experimental results show that using discriminative
enhancement decreases the distortion and interference between the separated
sources.


title:
Filtering Problem for Functionals of Stationary Processes with Missing
  Observations

abstract:
  The problem of the mean-square optimal linear estimation of the functional
$A\xi=\ \int\limits_{R^s}a(t)\xi(-t)dt,$ which depends on the unknown values of
stochastic stationary process $\xi(t)$ from observations of the process
$\xi(t)+\eta(t)$ at points $t\in\mathbb{R} ^{-} \backslash S $,
$S=\bigcup\limits_{l=1}^{s}[-M_{l}-N_{l}, \, \ldots, \, -M_{l} ],$
$R^s=[0,\infty) \backslash S^{+},$ $S^{+}=\bigcup\limits_{l=1}^{s}[ M_{l}, \,
\ldots, \, M_{l}+N_{l}]$ is considered. Formulas for calculating the
mean-square error and the spectral characteristic of the optimal linear
estimate of the functional are proposed under the condition of spectral
certainty, where spectral densities of the processes $\xi(t)$ and $\eta(t)$ are
exactly known. The minimax (robust) method of estimation is applied in the case
where spectral densities are not known exactly, but sets of admissible spectral
densities are given. Formulas that determine the least favorable spectral
densities and minimax spectral characteristics are proposed for some special
sets of admissible densities.


title: On the central limit theorem for unsharp quantum random variables

abstract:
  In this letter we study the weak-convergence properties of random variables
generated by unsharp quantum measurements. More precisely, for a sequence of
random variables generated by repeated unsharp quantum measurements, we study
the limit distribution of relative frequency. We provide the de Finetti-type
representation theorem for all separable states, showing that the distribution
can be well approximated by mixture of normal distributions. No symmetry
restrictions, such as the permutational invariance were needed. Furthermore, we
investigate the convergence rates and show that the relative frequency can
stabilize to some constant at best at the rate of order $1/\sqrt{N}$ for all
separable inputs. On the other hand, we provide an example of a strictly
unsharp quantum measurement where the better rates are achieved by using
entangled inputs. This means that in certain cases the noise generated by the
measurement process can be suppressed by using entanglement. We deliver our
result in the form of quantum information task where the player achieves the
goal with certainty in the limiting case by using entangled inputs or fails
with certainty by using separable inputs.


title: Ponderomotive dynamics of waves in quasiperiodically modulated media

abstract:
  Similarly to how charged particles experience time-averaged ponderomotive
forces in high-frequency fields, linear waves also experience time-averaged
refraction in modulated media. Here we propose a covariant variational theory
of this "ponderomotive effect on waves" for a general nondissipative linear
medium. Using the Weyl calculus, our formulation accommodates waves with
temporal and spatial period comparable to that of the modulation (provided that
parametric resonances are avoided). Our theory also shows that any wave is, in
fact, a polarizable object that contributes to the linear dielectric tensor of
the ambient medium. The dynamics of quantum particles is subsumed as a special
case. As an illustration, ponderomotive Hamiltonians of quantum particles and
photons are calculated within a number of models. We also explain a fundamental
connection between these results and the commonly known expression for the
electrostatic dielectric tensor of quantum plasmas.


title: Random Tie-breaking with Stochastic Dominance

abstract:
  Consider Plurality with random tie-breaking. This paper uses standard
axiomatic extensions of preferences over elements to preferences over sets
(Kelly, Gardenfors, Responsiveness) to characterize all better-replies of a
voter under stochastic dominance.


title: Ultrasonic attenuation in a pseudogapped superconductor

abstract:
  We develop a theory of ultrasound decay rate $\alpha$ in a model of a
superconductor with a large pseudogap $\Delta_P$, and show that at low
temperatures ($T \ll T_c$) the magnitude of the decay rate $\alpha$ is
controlled by the ratio of $T/\Delta$, where $\Delta \ll \Delta_P$ is a
superconducting collective gap. Thus we propose new method to measure the
collective gap $\Delta$ in a situation when strong pseudogap is present.


title: KAM for beating solutions of the quintic NLS

abstract:
  We consider the nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation of degree five on the
circle $\mathbb{S}^1 = \mathbb{R}/2\pi$. We prove the existence of
quasi-periodic solutions which bifurcate from "resonant" solutions (studied in
[14]) of the system obtained by truncating the Hamiltonian after one step of
Birkhoff normal form, exhibiting recurrent exchange of energy between some
Fourier modes. The existence of these quasi-periodic solutions is a purely
nonlinear effect.


title: Gravitational back reaction on piecewise linear cosmic string loops

abstract:
  We calculate the metric and affine connection due to a piecewise linear
cosmic string loop, and the effect of gravitational back reaction for the
Garfinkle-Vachaspati loop with four straight segments. As expected, back
reaction reduces the size of the loop, in accord with the energy going into
gravitational waves. The "square" (maximally symmetric) loop evaporates without
changing shape, but for all other loops in this class, the kinks become less
sharp and segments between kinks become curved. If the loop is close to the
square case, it will evaporate before its kinks are significantly changed, if
it is far from square, the opening out of the kinks is much faster than
evaporation of the loop.


title: Experimental Status of Supersymmetry after the LHC Run-I

abstract:
  The ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN have
searched for signals of new physics, in particular for supersymmetry. The data
collected until 2012 at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV and integrated
luminosities of 5 fb^-1 and 20 fb^-1, respectively, agree with the expectation
from standard model processes. Constraints on supersymmetry have been
calculated and interpreted in different models. Limits on supersymmetry
particle masses at the TeV scale have been derived and interpreted generally in
the context of simplified model spectra. The constrained minimal supersymmetric
standard model is disfavored by the experimental results. Natural supersymmetry
scenarios with low supersymmetry particle masses remain possible in multiple
regions, for example in those with compressed spectra, that are difficult to
access experimentally. The upgraded LHC operating at 13 TeV is gaining
sensitivity to the remaining unexplored SUSY parameter space.


title: Remarks on QFT in the Coordinate Space

abstract:
  Generators of the Poincar\'e group, for a free massive scalar field, are
usually expressed in the momentum space. In this work we perform a
transformation of these generators into the coordinate space. This
(spatial)-position space is spanned by eigenvectors of the Newton-Wigner-Pryce
operator. The motivation is a deeper understanding of the commutative spatial
coordinate space in QFT, in order to investigate the non-commutative version
thereof.


title: Growth and Characterization of Iron Scandium Sulfide (FeSc2S4)

abstract:
  Here we report successful growth of mm scale single crystals of
stoichiometric FeSc2S4. Single crystal X-ray diffraction yields a cubic
structure, spacegroup Fd-3m, with a=10.5097(2) angstroms at T=110(2) K
consistent with previous literature on polycrystallin samples. Models fit to
the data reveal no detectable antisite mixing or deviations from the ideal
stoichiometry. Heat capacity and dc magnetization measurements on the single
crystals match those of high quality powder specimens. The novel traveling
solvent growth method presented in this work opens the door to studies
requiring sizable single crystals of the candidate spin-orbital liquid FeSc2S4.


title:
Accelerating Nuclear Configuration Interaction Calculations through a
  Preconditioned Block Iterative Eigensolver

abstract:
  We describe a number of recently developed techniques for improving the
performance of large-scale nuclear configuration interaction calculations on
high performance parallel computers. We show the benefit of using a
preconditioned block iterative method to replace the Lanczos algorithm that has
traditionally been used to perform this type of computation. The rapid
convergence of the block iterative method is achieved by a proper choice of
starting guesses of the eigenvectors and the construction of an effective
preconditioner. These acceleration techniques take advantage of special
structure of the nuclear configuration interaction problem which we discuss in
detail. The use of a block method also allows us to improve the concurrency of
the computation, and take advantage of the memory hierarchy of modern
microprocessors to increase the arithmetic intensity of the computation
relative to data movement. We also discuss implementation details that are
critical to achieving high performance on massively parallel multi-core
supercomputers, and demonstrate that the new block iterative solver is two to
three times faster than the Lanczos based algorithm for problems of moderate
sizes on a Cray XC30 system.


title:
A Unified Coding Framework for Distributed Computing with Straggling
  Servers

abstract:
  We propose a unified coded framework for distributed computing with
straggling servers, by introducing a tradeoff between "latency of computation"
and "load of communication" for some linear computation tasks. We show that the
coded scheme of [1]-[3] that repeats the intermediate computations to create
coded multicasting opportunities to reduce communication load, and the coded
scheme of [4], [5] that generates redundant intermediate computations to combat
against straggling servers can be viewed as special instances of the proposed
framework, by considering two extremes of this tradeoff: minimizing either the
load of communication or the latency of computation individually. Furthermore,
the latency-load tradeoff achieved by the proposed coded framework allows to
systematically operate at any point on that tradeoff to perform distributed
computing tasks. We also prove an information-theoretic lower bound on the
latency-load tradeoff, which is shown to be within a constant multiplicative
gap from the achieved tradeoff at the two end points.