title: Frequentist size of Bayesian inequality tests

abstract:
  Bayesian and frequentist criteria are fundamentally different, but often
posterior and sampling distributions are asymptotically equivalent (e.g.,
Gaussian). For the corresponding limit experiment, we characterize the
frequentist size of a certain Bayesian hypothesis test of (possibly nonlinear)
inequalities. If the null hypothesis is that the (possibly
infinite-dimensional) parameter lies in a certain half-space, then the Bayesian
test's size is $\alpha$; if the null hypothesis is a subset of a half-space,
then size is above $\alpha$ (sometimes strictly); and in other cases, size may
be above, below, or equal to $\alpha$. Two examples illustrate our results:
testing stochastic dominance and testing curvature of a translog cost function.


title: Elementary Thermal Operations

abstract:
  To what extent do thermodynamic resource theories capture physically relevant
constraints? Inspired by quantum computation, we define a set of elementary
thermodynamic gates that only act on 2 energy levels of a system at a time. We
show that this theory is well reproduced by a Jaynes-Cummings interaction in
rotating wave approximation and draw a connection to standard descriptions of
thermalisation. We then prove that elementary thermal operations present
tighter constraints on the allowed transformations than thermal operations.
Mathematically, this illustrates the failure at finite temperature of
fundamental theorems by Birkhoff and Muirhead-Hardy-Littlewood-Polya concerning
stochastic maps. Physically, this implies that stronger constraints than those
imposed by single-shot quantities can be given if we tailor a thermodynamic
resource theory to the relevant experimental scenario. We provide new tools to
do so, including necessary and sufficient conditions for a given change of the
population to be possible. As an example, we describe the resource theory of
the Jaynes-Cummings model. Finally, we initiate an investigation into how our
resource theories can be applied to Heat Bath Algorithmic Cooling protocols.


title: Di-vector Boson Production with Jets at the LHC

abstract:
  In this talk we present the first calculation of next-to-leading-order QCD
corrections for the production of $W^+W^-$ pairs in association with three jets
at the LHC. We show the observed improvement in the dependence of total and
differential cross sections on the unphysical renormalization and factorization
scales. We study the radiation pattern for configurations associated to
vector-boson fusion and the impact that the QCD corrections have on them.


title:
A Convexity Result in the Spectral Geometry of Conformally Equivalent
  Metrics on Surfaces

abstract:
  Motivated by considerations of euclidean quantum gravity, we investigate a
central question of spectral geometry, namely the question of
reconstructability of compact Riemannian manifolds from the spectra of their
Laplace operators. To this end, we study analytic paths of metrics that induce
isospectral Laplace-Beltrami operators over oriented compact surfaces without
boundary. Applying perturbation theory, we show that sets of conformally
equivalent metrics on such surfaces contain no nontrivial convex subsets. This
indicates that cases where the manifolds cannot be reconstructed from their
spectra are highly constrained.


title: Interaction Network, State Space and Control in Social Dynamics

abstract:
  In the present chapter we study the emergence of global patterns in large
groups in first and second-order multi-agent systems, focusing on two
ingredients that influence the dynamics: the interaction network and the state
space. The state space determines the types of equilibrium that can be reached
by the system. Meanwhile, convergence to specific equilibria depends on the
connectivity of the interaction network and on the interaction potential. When
the system does not satisfy the necessary conditions for convergence to the
desired equilibrium, control can be exerted, both on finite-dimensional systems
and on their mean-field limit.


title: Endlessly flat scalar potentials and $\alpha$-attractors

abstract:
  We consider a minimally-coupled inflationary theory with a general scalar
potential $V(f(\varphi))= V(\xi\sum_{k=1}^{n}\lambda_k \varphi^k)$ containing a
stationary point of maximal order $m$. We show that asymptotically flat
potentials can be associated to stationary points of infinite order and discuss
the relation of our approach to the theory of $\alpha$-attractors.


title:
Predicting Planck scale and Newtonian constant from a Yang-Mills gauge
  theory: 1 and 2-loops estimates

abstract:
  Recently, a model for an emergent gravity based on $SO(5)$ Yang-Mills action
in Euclidian 4-dimensional spacetime was proposed. In this work we provide some
1 and 2-loops computations and show that the model can accommodate suitable
predicting values for the Newtonian constant. Moreover, it is shown that the
typical scale of the expected transition between the quantum and the
geometrodynamical theory is consistent with Planck scale. We also provide a
discussion on the cosmological constant problem.


title: Total domination polynomials of graphs

abstract:
  Given a graph $G$, a total dominating set $D_t$ is a vertex set that every
vertex of $G$ is adjacent to some vertices of $D_t$ and let $d_t(G,i)$ be the
number of all total dominating sets with size $i$. The total domination
polynomial, defined as $D_t(G,x)=\sum\limits_{i=1}^{| V(G)|} d_t(G,i)x^i$,
recently has been one of the considerable extended research in the field of
domination theory. In this paper, we obtain the vertex-reduction and
edge-reduction formulas of total domination polynomials. As consequences, we
give the total domination polynomials for paths and cycles. Additionally, we
determine the sharp upper bounds of total domination polynomials for trees and
characterize the corresponding graphs attaining such bounds. Finally, we use
the reduction-formulas to investigate the relations between vertex sets and
total domination polynomials in $G$.


title: Relativistic QED Plasma at Extremely High Temperature

abstract:
  Renormalization scheme of QED (Quantum Electrodynamics) at high temperatures
is used to calculate the effective parameters of relativistic plasma in the
early universe. Renormalization constants of QED play role of effective
parameters of the theory and can be used to determine the collective behavior
of the medium. We explicitly show that the dielectric constant, magnetic
reluctivity, Debye length and the plasma frequency depend on temperature in the
early universe. Propagation speed, refractive index, plasma frequency and Debye
shielding length of a QED plasma are computed at extremely high temperatures in
the early universe. We also found the favorable conditions for the relativistic
plasma from this calculations.


title: The Wiener Index and the Hosoya Polynomial of the Jahangir Graphs

abstract:
  Let G be a simple connected graph having vertex set V and edge set E. The
vertex-set and edge-set of G denoted by V(G) and E(G), respectively. The length
of the smallest path between two vertices is called the distance. Mathematical
chemistry is the area of research engaged in new application of mathematics in
chemistry. In mathematics chemistry, we have many topological indices for any
molecular graph, that they are invariant on the graph automorphism. In this
research paper, we computing the Wiener index and the Hosoya polynomial of the
Jahangir graphs $J_5,m$ for all integer number $m \geq 3$.


title:
Microscopic theory of the Coulomb based exchange coupling in magnetic
  tunnel junctions

abstract:
  We study interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) based on the many-body Coulomb
interaction between conduction electrons in magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ).
This mechanism complements the known IEC based on virtual electron hopping (or
spin currents). We find that these two mechanisms have different behavior on
system parameters. The Coulomb based IEC may exceed the hopping based exchange
coupling. We show that the Coulomb based exchange coupling, in contrast to the
hopping based coupling, depends strongly on the dielectric constant of the
insulating layer. The dependence of the IEC on the dielectric properties of the
insulating layer in MTJ is similar to magneto-electric (ME) effect where
electric and magnetic degrees of freedom are coupled. We calculate the IEC as a
function of temperature and electric field for MTJ with ferroelectric (FE)
layer and show that IEC has a sharp decrease in the vicinity of the FE phase
transition and varies strongly with external electric field.


title: The Elusive Part of the Standard-Model Extension Gravitational Sector

abstract:
  In the minimal gravitational sector of the Standard-Model Extension, there is
a coefficient whose physical consequences are unknown, and the reason behind
this lack of effects is still puzzling. This contribution summarizes several
studies where the goal was to find a fundamental explanation of this puzzle. So
far, no evidence of such a fundamental explanation has been found, suggesting
that this coefficient could actually produce physical effects. Nevertheless,
while looking for this fundamental reason, several relevant lessons have been
revealed.


title:
Using Social Media to Promote STEM Education: Matching College Students
  with Role Models

abstract:
  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields have become
increasingly central to U.S. economic competitiveness and growth. The shortage
in the STEM workforce has brought promoting STEM education upfront. The rapid
growth of social media usage provides a unique opportunity to predict users'
real-life identities and interests from online texts and photos. In this paper,
we propose an innovative approach by leveraging social media to promote STEM
education: matching Twitter college student users with diverse LinkedIn STEM
professionals using a ranking algorithm based on the similarities of their
demographics and interests. We share the belief that increasing STEM presence
in the form of introducing career role models who share similar interests and
demographics will inspire students to develop interests in STEM related fields
and emulate their models. Our evaluation on 2,000 real college students
demonstrated the accuracy of our ranking algorithm. We also design a novel
implementation that recommends matched role models to the students.


title: On the analytical formulation of classical electromagnetic fields

abstract:
  Three objections to the canonical analytical treatment of covariant
electromagnetic theory are presented: (i) only half of Maxwell's equations are
present upon variation of the fundamental Lagrangian; (ii) the trace of the
canonical energy-momentum tensor is not equivalent to the trace of the observed
energy-momentum tensor; (iii) the Belinfante symmetrization procedure exists
separate from the analytical approach in order to obtain the known observed
result. It is shown that the analytical construction from Noether's theorem is
based on manipulations that were developed to obtain the compact forms of the
theory presented by Minkowski and Einstein; presentations which were developed
before the existence of Noether's theorem. By reformulating the fundamental
Lagrangian, all of the objections are simultaneously relieved. Variation of the
proposed Lagrangian yields the complete set of Maxwell's equations in the
Euler-Lagrange equation of motion, and the observed energy-momentum tensor
directly follows from Noether's theorem. Previously unavailable symmetries and
identities that follow naturally from this procedure are also discussed.


title: Representation of free Herglotz functions

abstract:
  A Herglotz function is a holomorphic map from the open complex unit disk into
the closed complex right halfplane. A classical Herglotz function has an
integral representation against a positive measure on the unit circle. We prove
a free analytic analogue of the Herglotz representation and describe how our
representations specialize to the free probabilistic case. We also show that
the set of representable Herglotz functions arising from noncommutative
conditional expectations must be closed in a natural topology.


title:
Design and construction of an optical test bed for LISA imaging systems
  and tilt-to-length coupling

abstract:
  The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a future space-based
interferometric gravitational-wave detector consisting of three spacecraft in a
triangular configuration. The interferometric measurements of path length
changes between satellites will be performed on optical benches in the
satellites. Angular misalignments of the interfering beams couple into the
length measurement and represent a significant noise source. Imaging systems
will be used to reduce this tilt-to-length coupling.
  We designed and constructed an optical test bed to experimentally investigate
tilt-to-length coupling. It consists of two separate structures, a minimal
optical bench and a telescope simulator. The minimal optical bench comprises
the science interferometer where the local laser is interfered with light from
a remote spacecraft. In our experiment, a simulated version of this received
beam is generated on the telescope simulator. The telescope simulator provides
a tilting beam, a reference interferometer and an additional static beam as a
phase reference. The tilting beam can either be a flat-top beam or a Gaussian
beam. We avoid tilt-to-length coupling in the reference interferometer by using
a small photo diode placed at an image of the beam rotation point. We show that
the test bed is operational with an initial measurement of tilt-to-length
coupling without imaging systems.
  Furthermore, we show the design of two different imaging systems whose
performance will be investigated in future experiments.


title:
VULCAN: an Open-Source, Validated Chemical Kinetics Python Code for
  Exoplanetary Atmospheres

abstract:
  We present an open-source and validated chemical kinetics code for studying
hot exoplanetary atmospheres, which we name VULCAN. It is constructed for
gaseous chemistry from 500 to 2500 K using a reduced C-H-O chemical network
with about 300 reactions. It uses eddy diffusion to mimic atmospheric dynamics
and excludes photochemistry. We have provided a full description of the rate
coefficients and thermodynamic data used. We validate VULCAN by reproducing
chemical equilibrium and by comparing its output versus the
disequilibrium-chemistry calculations of Moses et al. and Rimmer & Helling. It
reproduces the models of HD 189733b and HD 209458b by Moses et al., which
employ a network with nearly 1600 reactions. We also use VULCAN to examine the
theoretical trends produced when the temperature-pressure profile and
carbon-to-oxygen ratio are varied. Assisted by a sensitivity test designed to
identify the key reactions responsible for producing a specific molecule, we
revisit the quenching approximation and find that it is accurate for methane
but breaks down for acetylene, because the disequilibrium abundance of
acetylene is not directly determined by transport-induced quenching, but is
rather indirectly controlled by the disequilibrium abundance of methane.
Therefore, we suggest that the quenching approximation should be used with
caution and must always be checked against a chemical kinetics calculation. A
one-dimensional model atmosphere with 100 layers, computed using VULCAN,
typically takes several minutes to complete. VULCAN is part of the Exoclimes
Simulation Platform (ESP; http://www.exoclime.net/) and publicly available at
http://github.com/exoclime/VULCAN .


title: Domain Adaptation for Neural Networks by Parameter Augmentation

abstract:
  We propose a simple domain adaptation method for neural networks in a
supervised setting. Supervised domain adaptation is a way of improving the
generalization performance on the target domain by using the source domain
dataset, assuming that both of the datasets are labeled. Recently, recurrent
neural networks have been shown to be successful on a variety of NLP tasks such
as caption generation; however, the existing domain adaptation techniques are
limited to (1) tune the model parameters by the target dataset after the
training by the source dataset, or (2) design the network to have dual output,
one for the source domain and the other for the target domain. Reformulating
the idea of the domain adaptation technique proposed by Daume (2007), we
propose a simple domain adaptation method, which can be applied to neural
networks trained with a cross-entropy loss. On captioning datasets, we show
performance improvements over other domain adaptation methods.


title:
Hybrid optimization and Bayesian inference techniques for a non-smooth
  radiation detection problem

abstract:
  In this investigation, we propose several algorithms to recover the location
and intensity of a radiation source located in a simulated 250 m x 180 m block
in an urban center based on synthetic measurements. Radioactive decay and
detection are Poisson random processes, so we employ likelihood functions based
on this distribution. Due to the domain geometry and the proposed response
model, the negative logarithm of the likelihood is only piecewise continuous
differentiable, and it has multiple local minima. To address these
difficulties, we investigate three hybrid algorithms comprised of mixed
optimization techniques. For global optimization, we consider Simulated
Annealing (SA), Particle Swarm (PS) and Genetic Algorithm (GA), which rely
solely on objective function evaluations; i.e., they do not evaluate the
gradient in the objective function. By employing early stopping criteria for
the global optimization methods, a pseudo-optimum point is obtained. This is
subsequently utilized as the initial value by the deterministic Implicit
Filtering method (IF), which is able to find local extrema in non-smooth
functions, to finish the search in a narrow domain. These new hybrid techniques
combining global optimization and Implicit Filtering address difficulties
associated with the non-smooth response, and their performances are shown to
significantly decrease the computational time over the global optimization
methods alone. To quantify uncertainties associated with the source location
and intensity, we employ the Delayed Rejection Adaptive Metropolis (DRAM) and
DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) algorithms. Marginal
densities of the source properties are obtained, and the means of the chains'
compare accurately with the estimates produced by the hybrid algorithms.


title:
Evolution of superconducting gap anisotropy in hole-doped 122 iron
  pnictides

abstract:
  Motivated by recent experimental findings, we investigate the evolution of
the superconducting gap anisotropy in 122 iron pnictides as a function of hole
doping. Employing both a functional and a weak coupling renormalization group
approach (FRG and WRG), we analyse the Fermi surface instabilities of an
effective 122 model band structure at different hole dopings x, and derive the
gap anisotropy from the leading superconducting instability. In the transition
regime from collinear magnetism to s_{\pm}-wave, where strong correlations are
present, we employ FRG to identify a non- monotonous change of the gap
anisotropy in qualitative agreement with new experimental findings. From the
WRG, which is asymptotically exact in the weak coupling limit, we find an
s_{\pm}-wave to d-wave transition as a function of hole doping, complementing
previous findings from FRG [Thomale et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 117001
(2011)]. The gap anisotropy of the s_{\pm}-wave monotonously increases towards
the transition to d-wave as a function of x.


title:
Electromagnetic effects on meson production: a new tool for studying the
  space-time evolution of heavy ion collisions

abstract:
  We review our studies of spectator-induced electromagnetic (EM) effects on
the emission of charged mesons in the final state of ultrarelativistic heavy
ion collisions. We argue that these effects offer sensitivity to the distance
$d_E$ between the charged meson formation zone at freeze-out and the spectator
system. As such, they can serve as an independent, new tool to probe the
space-time and longitudinal evolution of the system created in the collision.
As a phenomenological application for this tool in the context of resonance
production and decay, we obtain a first estimate of the time of pion emission
from EM effects. This we compare to existing HBT data.


title:
Exact and memory--dependent decay rates to the non--hyperbolic
  equilibrium of differential equations with unbounded delay and maximum
  functional

abstract:
  In this paper, we obtain the exact rates of decay to the non--hyperbolic
equilibrium of the solution of a functional differential equation with maxima
and unbounded delay. We study the convergence rates for both locally and
globally stable solutions. We also give examples showing how the rate of growth
of decay of solutions depends on the rate of growth of the unbounded delay as
well as the nonlinearity local to the equilibrium.


title: Linear dynamical systems on graphs

abstract:
  We consider linear dynamical systems with a structure of a multigraph. The
vertices are associated to linear spaces and the edges correspond to linear
maps between those spaces. We analyse the asymptotic growth of trajectories
(associated to paths along the multigraph), the stability and the
stabilizability problems. This generalizes the classical linear switching
systems and their recent extensions to Markovian systems, to systems generated
by regular languages, etc. We show that an arbitrary system can be factorized
into several irreducible systems on strongly connected multigraphs. For the
latter systems, we prove the existence of invariant (Barabanov) multinorm and
derive a method of its construction. The method works for a vast majority of
systems and finds the joint spectral radius (Lyapunov exponent). Numerical
examples are presented and applications to the study of fractals, attractors,
and multistep methods for ODEs are discussed.


title:
Radio Constraints on Long-Lived Magnetar Remnants in Short Gamma-Ray
  Bursts

abstract:
  The merger of a neutron star binary may result in the formation of a
rapidly-spinning magnetar. The magnetar can potentially survive for seconds or
longer as a supramassive neutron star before collapsing to a black hole if,
indeed, it collapses at all. During this process, a fraction of the magnetar's
rotational energy of ~10^53 erg is transferred via magnetic spin-down to the
surrounding ejecta. The resulting interaction between the ejecta and the
surrounding circumburst medium powers a >year-long synchrotron radio transient.
We present a search for radio emission with the Very Large Array following nine
short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) at rest-frame times of ~1.3-7.6 years
after the bursts, focusing on those events which exhibit early-time excess
X-ray emission that may signify the presence of magnetars. We place upper
limits of <18-32 microJy on the 6.0 GHz radio emission, corresponding to
spectral luminosities of <(0.05-8.3)x10^39 erg s^-1. Comparing these limits to
the predicted radio emission from a long-lived remnant and incorporating
measurements of the circumburst densities from broad-band modeling of short GRB
afterglows, we rule out a stable magnetar with an energy of 10^53 erg for half
of the events in our sample. A supramassive remnant that injects a lower
rotational energy of 10^52 erg is ruled out for a single event, GRB 050724A.
This study represents the deepest and most extensive search for long-term radio
emission following short GRBs to date, and thus the most stringent limits
placed on the physical properties of magnetars associated with short GRBs from
radio observations.


title:
Continuous Adaptation of Multi-Camera Person Identification Models
  through Sparse Non-redundant Representative Selection

abstract:
  The problem of image-base person identification/recognition is to provide an
identity to the image of an individual based on learned models that describe
his/her appearance. Most traditional person identification systems rely on
learning a static model on tediously labeled training data. Though labeling
manually is an indispensable part of a supervised framework, for a large scale
identification system labeling huge amount of data is a significant overhead.
For large multi-sensor data as typically encountered in camera networks,
labeling a lot of samples does not always mean more information, as redundant
images are labeled several times. In this work, we propose a convex
optimization based iterative framework that progressively and judiciously
chooses a sparse but informative set of samples for labeling, with minimal
overlap with previously labeled images. We also use a structure preserving
sparse reconstruction based classifier to reduce the training burden typically
seen in discriminative classifiers. The two stage approach leads to a novel
framework for online update of the classifiers involving only the incorporation
of new labeled data rather than any expensive training phase. We demonstrate
the effectiveness of our approach on multi-camera person re-identification
datasets, to demonstrate the feasibility of learning online classification
models in multi-camera big data applications. Using three benchmark datasets,
we validate our approach and demonstrate that our framework achieves superior
performance with significantly less amount of manual labeling.


title: BMO solvability and absolute continuity of harmonic measure

abstract:
  We show that for a uniformly elliptic divergence form operator $L$, defined
in an open set $\Omega$ with Ahlfors-David regular boundary, BMO-solvability
implies scale invariant quantitative absolute continuity (the weak-$A_\infty$
property) of elliptic-harmonic measure with respect to surface measure on
$\partial \Omega$. We do not impose any connectivity hypothesis, qualitative or
quantitative; in particular, we do not assume the Harnack Chain condition, even
within individual connected components of $\Omega$. In this generality, our
results are new even for the Laplacian. Moreover, we obtain a converse, under
the additional assumption that $\Omega$ satisfies an interior Corkscrew
condition, in the special case that $L$ is the Laplacian.


title:
On the admissibility of unboundedness properties of forced deterministic
  and stochastic sublinear Volterra summation equations

abstract:
  In this paper we consider unbounded solutions of perturbed convolution
Volterra summation equations. The equations studied are asymptotically
sublinear, in the sense that the state--dependence in the summation is of
smaller than linear order for large absolute values of the state. When the
perturbation term is unbounded, it is elementary to show that solutions are
also. The main results of the paper are mostly of the following form: the
solution has an additional unboundedness property $U$ if and only if the
perturbation has property $U$. Examples of property $U$ include monotone
growth, monotone growth with fluctuation, fluctuation on $\mathbb{R}$ without
growth, existence of time averages. We also study the connection between the
times at which the perturbation and solution reach their running maximum, and
the connection between the size of signed and unsigned running maxima of the
solution and forcing term.


title: Coloring the power graph of a semigroup

abstract:
  Let $G$ be a semigroup. The vertices of the power graph $\mathcal{P}(G)$ are
the elements of $G$, and two elements are adjacent if and only if one of them
is a power of the other. We show that the chromatic number of $\mathcal{P}(G)$
is at most countable, answering a recent question of Aalipour et al.


title:
From Migration Corridors to Clusters: The Value of Google+ Data for
  Migration Studies

abstract:
  Recently, there have been considerable efforts to use online data to
investigate international migration. These efforts show that Web data are
valuable for estimating migration rates and are relatively easy to obtain.
However, existing studies have only investigated flows of people along
migration corridors, i.e. between pairs of countries. In our work, we use data
about "places lived" from millions of Google+ users in order to study migration
"clusters", i.e. groups of countries in which individuals have lived. For the
first time, we consider information about more than two countries people have
lived in. We argue that these data are very valuable because this type of
information is not available in traditional demographic sources which record
country-to-country migration flows independent of each other. We show that
migration clusters of country triads cannot be identified using information
about bilateral flows alone. To demonstrate the additional insights that can be
gained by using data about migration clusters, we first develop a model that
tries to predict the prevalence of a given triad using only data about its
constituent pairs. We then inspect the groups of three countries which are more
or less prominent, compared to what we would expect based on bilateral flows
alone. Next, we identify a set of features such as a shared language or
colonial ties that explain which triple of country pairs are more or less
likely to be clustered when looking at country triples. Then we select and
contrast a few cases of clusters that provide some qualitative information
about what our data set shows. The type of data that we use is potentially
available for a number of social media services. We hope that this first study
about migration clusters will stimulate the use of Web data for the development
of new theories of international migration that could not be tested
appropriately before.


title: Nucleon localization and fragment formation in nuclear fission

abstract:
  An electron localization measure was originally introduced to characterize
chemical bond structures in molecules. Recently, a nucleon localization based
on Hartree-Fock densities has been introduced to investigate $\alpha$-cluster
structures in light nuclei. Compared to the local nucleonic densities, the
nucleon localization function has been shown to be an excellent indicator of
shell effects and cluster correlations. Using the spatial nucleon localization
measure, we investigate the emergence of fragments in fissioning heavy nuclei.
To illustrate basic concepts of nucleon localization, we employ the
self-consistent energy density functional method with a quantified energy
density functional optimized for fission studies. We study the particle
densities and spatial nucleon localization distributions along the fission
pathways of $^{264}$Fm, $^{232}$Th and $^{240}$Pu. We demonstrate that the
fission fragments are formed fairly early in the evolution, well before
scission. We illustrate the usefulness of the localization measure by showing
how the hyperdeformed state of $^{232}$Th can be understood in terms of a
quasimolecular state made of $^{132}$Sn and $^{100}$Zr fragments. Compared to
nucleonic distributions, the nucleon localization function more effectively
quantifies nucleonic clustering: its characteristic oscillating pattern, traced
back to shell effects, is a clear fingerprint of cluster/fragment
configurations. This is of particular interest for studies of fragment
formation and fragment identification in fissioning nuclei.


title:
Sufficient Conditions for Polynomial Asymptotic Behaviour of the
  Stochastic Pantograph Equation

abstract:
  This paper studies the asymptotic growth and decay properties of solutions of
the stochastic pantograph equation with multiplicative noise. We give
sufficient conditions on the parameters for solutions to grow at a polynomial
rate in $p$-th mean and in the almost sure sense. Under stronger conditions the
solutions decay to zero with a polynomial rate in $p$-th mean and in the almost
sure sense. When polynomial bounds cannot be achieved, we show for a different
set of parameters that exponential growth bounds of solutions in $p$-th mean
and an almost sure sense can be obtained. Analogous results are established for
pantograph equations with several delays, and for general finite dimensional
equations.


title: Learning Relational Dependency Networks for Relation Extraction

abstract:
  We consider the task of KBP slot filling -- extracting relation information
from newswire documents for knowledge base construction. We present our
pipeline, which employs Relational Dependency Networks (RDNs) to learn
linguistic patterns for relation extraction. Additionally, we demonstrate how
several components such as weak supervision, word2vec features, joint learning
and the use of human advice, can be incorporated in this relational framework.
We evaluate the different components in the benchmark KBP 2015 task and show
that RDNs effectively model a diverse set of features and perform competitively
with current state-of-the-art relation extraction.


title:
Counting and differentiating aquatic biotic nanoparticles by full-field
  interferometry: from laboratory tests to Tara Oceans sample analysis

abstract:
  There is a huge abundance of viruses and membrane vesicles in seawater. We
describe a new full-field, incoherently illuminated, shot-noise limited,
common-path interferometric detection method that we couple with the analysis
of Brownian motion to detect, quantify, and differentiate biotic nanoparticles.
We validated the method with calibrated nanoparticles and homogeneous DNA or
RNA.viruses. The smallest virus size that we characterized with a suitable
signal-to-noise ratio was around 30 nm in diameter. Analysis of Brownian
motions revealed anisotropic trajectories for myoviruses.We further applied the
method for vesicles detection and for analysis of coastal and oligotrophic
samples from Tara Oceans circumnavigation.


title:
Incidence category of the Young lattice, injections between finite sets,
  and Koszulity

abstract:
  We describe the Gabriel quiver with defining relations of the category of
injections between finite sets, show that it is quadratic self-dual, and
construct linear resolutions for its simple modules.


title:
A unified approach of blow-up phenomena for two-dimensional singular
  Liouville systems

abstract:
  We consider generic 2 x 2 singular Liouville systems on a smooth bounded
domain in the plane having some symmetry with respect to the origin. We
construct a family of solutions to which blow-up at the origin and whose local
mass at the origin is a given quantity depending on the parameters of the
system. We can get either finitely many possible blow-up values of the local
mass or infinitely many. The blow-up values are produced using an explicit
formula which involves Chebyshev polynomials.


title:
Situated Structure Learning of a Bayesian Logic Network for Commonsense
  Reasoning

abstract:
  This paper details the implementation of an algorithm for automatically
generating a high-level knowledge network to perform commonsense reasoning,
specifically with the application of robotic task repair. The network is
represented using a Bayesian Logic Network (BLN) (Jain, Waldherr, and Beetz
2009), which combines a set of directed relations between abstract concepts,
including IsA, AtLocation, HasProperty, and UsedFor, with a corresponding
probability distribution that models the uncertainty inherent in these
relations. Inference over this network enables reasoning over the abstract
concepts in order to perform appropriate object substitution or to locate
missing objects in the robot's environment. The structure of the network is
generated by combining information from two existing knowledge sources:
ConceptNet (Speer and Havasi 2012), and WordNet (Miller 1995). This is done in
a "situated" manner by only including information relevant a given context.
Results show that the generated network is able to accurately predict object
categories, locations, properties, and affordances in three different household
scenarios.


title: Chemotactic waves of bacteria at the mesoscale

abstract:
  The existence of travelling waves for a model of concentration waves of
bacteria is investigated. The model consists in a kinetic equation for the
biased motion of cells following a run-and-tumble process, coupled with two
reaction-diffusion equations for the chemical signals. Strong mathematical
difficulties arise in comparison with the diffusive regime which was studied in
a previous work. The cornerstone of the proof consists in establishing
monotonicity properties of the spatial density of cells. Travelling waves exist
under certain conditions on the parameters. Counter-examples to both existence
and uniqueness are found numerically after careful analysis of the discrete
velocity problem.


title: Computational mechanics of soft filaments

abstract:
  Soft slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems and
can be observed at scales that range from the nanometric to the kilometric,
from polymers to space tethers. We present a practical numerical approach to
simulate the dynamics of filaments that, at every cross-section, can undergo
all six possible modes of deformation, allowing the filament to bend, twist,
stretch and shear, while interacting with complex environments via muscular
activity, surface contact, friction and hydrodynamics. We examine the accuracy
of our method by means of several benchmark problems with known analytic
solutions. We then demonstrate the capabilities and robustness of our approach
to solve forward problems in physics and mechanics related to solenoid and
plectoneme formation in twisted, stretched filaments, and inverse problems
related to active biophysics of limbless locomotion on solid surfaces and in
bulk liquids. All together, our approach provides a robust computational
framework to characterize the mechanical response and design of soft active
slender structures.


title: Uniqueness of Normal Forms for Shallow Term Rewrite Systems

abstract:
  Uniqueness of normal forms ($UN^=$) is an important property of term rewrite
systems. $UN^=$ is decidable for ground (i.e., variable-free) systems and
undecidable in general. Recently it was shown to be decidable for linear,
shallow systems. We generalize this previous result and show that this property
is decidable for shallow rewrite systems, in contrast to confluence,
reachability and other properties, which are all undecidable for flat systems.
Our result is also optimal in some sense, since we prove that the $UN^=$
property is undecidable for two classes of linear rewrite systems: left-flat
systems in which right-hand sides are of depth at most two and right-flat
systems in which left-hand sides are of depth at most two.


title:
On the nature of the enigmatic object IRAS 19312+1950: A rare phase of
  massive star formation?

abstract:
  IRAS 19312+1950 is a peculiar object that has eluded firm characterization
since its discovery, with combined maser properties similar to an evolved star
and a young stellar object (YSO). To help determine its true nature, we
obtained infrared spectra of IRAS 19312+1950 in the range 5-550 $\mu$m using
the Herschel and Spitzer space observatories. The Herschel PACS maps exhibit a
compact, slightly asymmetric continuum source at 170 $\mu$m, indicative of a
large, dusty circumstellar envelope. The far-IR CO emission line spectrum
reveals two gas temperature components: $\approx0.22M_{\odot}$ of material at
$280\pm18$ K, and $\approx1.6M_{\odot}$ of material at $157\pm3$ K. The OI 63
$\mu$m line is detected on-source but no significant emission from atomic ions
was found. The HIFI observations display shocked, high-velocity gas with
outflow speeds up to 90 km s$^{-1}$ along the line of sight. From Spitzer
spectroscopy, we identify ice absorption bands due to H$_2$O at 5.8 $\mu$m and
CO$_2$ at 15 $\mu$m. The spectral energy distribution is consistent with a
massive, luminous ($\sim2\times10^4L_{\odot}$) central source surrounded by a
dense, warm circumstellar disk and envelope of total mass
$\sim500$-$700M_{\odot}$, with large bipolar outflow cavities. The combination
of distinctive far-IR spectral features suggest that IRAS 19312+1950 should be
classified as an accreting high-mass YSO rather than an evolved star. In light
of this reclassification, IRAS 19312+1950 becomes only the 5th high-mass
protostar known to exhibit SiO maser activity, and demonstrates that 18 cm OH
maser line ratios may not be reliable observational discriminators between
evolved stars and YSOs.


title:
On the conservation of the Jacobi integral in the post-Newtonian
  circular restricted three-body problem

abstract:
  In the present paper, using the first-order approximation of the $n$-body
Lagrangian (derived on the basis of the post-Newtonian gravitational theory of
Einstein, Infeld, and Hoffman), we explicitly write down the equations of
motion for the planar circular restricted three-body problem. Additionally,
with some simplified assumptions, we obtain two formulas for estimating the
values of the mass/distance and velocity/speed of light ratios appropriate for
a given post-Newtonian approximation. We show that the formulas derived in the
present study, lead to a good numerical conservation of the Jacobi constant and
allow for an approximate equivalence between the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian
approaches at the same post-Newtonian order. Accordingly, the dynamics of the
system is analyzed in terms of the Poincar\'e sections method and Lyapunov
exponents, finding that for specific values of the Jacobi constant the dynamics
can be either chaotic or regular. Our results suggest that the chaoticity of
the post-Newtonian system is slightly in- creased in comparison with its
Newtonian counterpart.


title: The carbon holdings of northern Ecuador's mangrove forests

abstract:
  Within a GIS environment, we combine field measures of mangrove diameter,
mangrove species distribution, and mangrove density with remotely sensed
measures of mangrove location and mangrove canopy cover to estimate the
mangrove carbon holdings of northern Ecuador. We find that the four northern
estuaries of Ecuador contain approximately 7,742,999 t (plus or minus 15.47
percent) of standing carbon. Of particular high carbon holdings are the
Rhizophora mangle dominated mangrove stands found in-and-around the
Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Reserve in northern Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador and
certain stands of Rhizophora mangle in-and-around the Isla Corazon y Fragata
Wildlife Refuge in central Manabi Province, Ecuador. Our field driven mangrove
carbon estimate is higher than all but one of the comparison models evaluated.
We find that basic latitudinal mangrove carbon models performed at least as
well, if not better, than the more complex species based allometric models in
predicting standing carbon levels. In addition, we find that improved results
occur when multiple models are combined as opposed to relying any one single
model for mangrove carbon estimates. The high level of carbon contained in
these mangrove forests, combined with the future atmospheric carbon
sequestration potential they offer, makes it a necessity that they are included
in any future payment for ecosystem services strategy aimed at utilizing forest
systems to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate predicted CO2 driven temperature
increases.


title:
Decoding the Encoding of Functional Brain Networks: an fMRI
  Classification Comparison of Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF),
  Independent Component Analysis (ICA), and Sparse Coding Algorithms

abstract:
  Brain networks in fMRI are typically identified using spatial independent
component analysis (ICA), yet mathematical constraints such as sparse coding
and positivity both provide alternate biologically-plausible frameworks for
generating brain networks. Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) would
suppress negative BOLD signal by enforcing positivity. Spatial sparse coding
algorithms ($L1$ Regularized Learning and K-SVD) would impose local
specialization and a discouragement of multitasking, where the total observed
activity in a single voxel originates from a restricted number of possible
brain networks.
  The assumptions of independence, positivity, and sparsity to encode
task-related brain networks are compared; the resulting brain networks for
different constraints are used as basis functions to encode the observed
functional activity at a given time point. These encodings are decoded using
machine learning to compare both the algorithms and their assumptions, using
the time series weights to predict whether a subject is viewing a video,
listening to an audio cue, or at rest, in 304 fMRI scans from 51 subjects.
  For classifying cognitive activity, the sparse coding algorithm of $L1$
Regularized Learning consistently outperformed 4 variations of ICA across
different numbers of networks and noise levels (p$<$0.001). The NMF algorithms,
which suppressed negative BOLD signal, had the poorest accuracy. Within each
algorithm, encodings using sparser spatial networks (containing more
zero-valued voxels) had higher classification accuracy (p$<$0.001). The success
of sparse coding algorithms may suggest that algorithms which enforce sparse
coding, discourage multitasking, and promote local specialization may capture
better the underlying source processes than those which allow inexhaustible
local processes such as ICA.


title: Terminal-Set-Enhanced Community Detection in Social Networks

abstract:
  Community detection aims to reveal the community structure in a social
network, which is one of the fundamental problems. In this paper we investigate
the community detection problem based on the concept of terminal set. A
terminal set is a group of users within which any two users belong to different
communities. Although the community detection is hard in general, the terminal
set can be very helpful in designing effective community detection algorithms.
We first present a 2-approximation algorithm running in polynomial time for the
original community detection problem. In the other issue, in order to better
support real applications we further consider the case when extra restrictions
are imposed on feasible partitions. For such customized community detection
problems, we provide two randomized algorithms which are able to find the
optimal partition with a high probability. Demonstrated by the experiments
performed on benchmark networks the proposed algorithms are able to produce
high-quality communities.


title:
Automated pulse discrimination of two freely-swimming weakly electric
  fish and analysis of their electrical behavior during a dominance contest

abstract:
  Electric fishes modulate their electric organ discharges with a remarkable
variability. Some patterns can be easily identified, such as pulse rate
changes, offs and chirps, which are often associated with important behavioral
contexts, including aggression, hiding and mating. However, these behaviors are
only observed when at least two fish are freely interacting. Although their
electrical pulses can be easily recorded by non-invasive techniques,
discriminating the emitter of each pulse is challenging when physically similar
fish are allowed to freely move and interact. Here we optimized a custom-made
software recently designed to identify the emitter of pulses by using automated
chirp detection, adaptive threshold for pulse detection and slightly changing
how the recorded signals are integrated. With these optimizations, we performed
a quantitative analysis of the statistical changes throughout the dominance
contest with respect to Inter Pulse Intervals, Chirps and Offs dyads of freely
moving Gymnotus carapo. In all dyads, chirps were signatures of subsequent
submission, even when they occurred early in the contest. Although offs were
observed in both dominant and submissive fish, they were substantially more
frequent in submissive individuals, in agreement with the idea from previous
studies that offs are electric cues of submission. In general, after the
dominance is established the submissive fish significantly changes its average
pulse rate, while the pulse rate of the dominant remained unchanged.
Additionally, no chirps or offs were observed when two fish were manually kept
in direct physical contact, suggesting that these electric behaviors are not
automatic responses to physical contact.


title:
Phase boundary of spin-polarized-current state of electrons in bilayer
  graphene

abstract:
  Using a four-band Hamiltonian, we study the phase boundary of
spin-polarized-current state (SPCS) of interacting electrons in bilayer
graphene. The model of spin-polarized-current state has previously been shown
to resolve a number of experimental puzzles in bilayer graphene. The phase
boundaries of the SPCS with and without the external voltage between the two
layers are obtained in this work. An unusual phase boundary where there are two
transition temperatures for a given carrier concentration is found at finite
external voltage. The physics of this phenomenon is explained.


title: Interface-Induced Phenomena in Magnetism

abstract:
  This article reviews static and dynamic interfacial effects in magnetism,
focusing on interfacially-driven magnetic effects and phenomena associated with
spin-orbit coupling and intrinsic symmetry breaking at interfaces. It provides
a historical background and literature survey, but focuses on recent progress,
identifying the most exciting new scientific results and pointing to promising
future research directions. It starts with an introduction and overview of how
basic magnetic properties are affected by interfaces, then turns to a
discussion of charge and spin transport through and near interfaces and how
these can be used to control the properties of the magnetic layer. Important
concepts include spin accumulation, spin currents, spin transfer torque, and
spin pumping. An overview is provided to the current state of knowledge and
existing review literature on interfacial effects such as exchange bias,
exchange spring magnets, spin Hall effect, oxide heterostructures, and
topological insulators. The article highlights recent discoveries of
interface-induced magnetism and non-collinear spin textures, non-linear
dynamics including spin torque transfer and magnetization reversal induced by
interfaces, and interfacial effects in ultrafast magnetization processes.


title: The SERENDIP III 70 cm Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

abstract:
  We employed the SERENDIP III system with the Arecibo radio telescope to
search for possible artificial extraterrestrial signals. Over the four years of
this search we covered 93% of the sky observable at Arecibo at least once and
44% of the sky five times or more with a sensitivity of ~3E-25 W/m2. The data
were sent to a 4 million channel spectrum analyzer. Information was obtained
from over 1E+14 independent data points and the results were then analyzed via
a suite of pattern detection algorithms to identify narrow band spectral power
peaks that were not readily identifiable as the product of human activity. We
separately selected data coincident with interesting nearby G dwarf stars that
were encountered by chance in our sky survey for suggestions of excess power
peaks. The peak power distributions in both these data sets were consistent
with random noise. We report upper limits on possible signals from the stars
investigated and provide examples of the most interesting candidates identified
in the sky survey. This paper was intended for publication in 2000 and is
presented here without change from the version submitted to ApJS in 2000.


title:
Strain-based Spin Manipulation on Substitutional Nickel in Silicon
  Carbide

abstract:
  By using the full potential linear augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method and
full potential local orbital minimum basis (FP-LOMB) method within generalized
gradient approximation (GGA), we studied the electronic structures and magnetic
properties of nickel and chromium single dopants in polytypes of silicon
carbide (SiC). The magnetic phases of defects are found to be strongly
dependent on the external stress on the supercell. In 3C-SiC, the Ni single
dopant exhibits an anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) transition at
a moderate compressive and tensile hydrostatic strain in Si-sub and C-sub
cases. In contrast, the Ni single dopant in 4H-SiC is stably in the nonmagnetic
phase under external stress. The Cr single dopant is also insensitive to the
applied stress but stably in the magnetic phase. This strain controlled
magnetic transition makes the Ni single dopant a novel scheme of qubit.


title: Datasets on object manipulation and interaction: a survey

abstract:
  A dataset is crucial for model learning and evaluation. Choosing the right
dataset to use or making a new dataset requires the knowledge of those that are
available. In this work, we provide that knowledge, by reviewing twenty
datasets that were published in the recent six years and that are directly
related to object manipulation. We report on modalities, activities, and
annotations for each individual dataset and give our view on its use for object
manipulation. We also compare the datasets and summarize them. We conclude with
our suggestion on future datasets.


title: Algebraic Proof Complexity: Progress, Frontiers and Challenges

abstract:
  We survey recent progress in the proof complexity of strong proof systems and
its connection to algebraic circuit complexity, showing how the synergy between
the two gives rise to new approaches to fundamental open questions, solutions
to old problems, and new directions of research. In particular, we focus on
tight connections between proof complexity lower bounds (namely, lower bounds
on the size of proofs of certain tautologies), algebraic circuit lower bounds,
and the Polynomial Identity Testing problem from derandomization theory.


title: Thermal Effects in Dislocation Theory

abstract:
  The mechanical behaviors of polycrystalline solids are determined by the
interplay between phenomena governed by two different thermodynamic
temperatures: the configurational effective temperature that controls the
density of dislocations, and the ordinary kinetic-vibrational temperature that
controls activated depinning mechanisms and thus deformation rates. This paper
contains a review of the effective-temperature theory and its relation to
conventional dislocation theories. It includes a simple illustration of how
these two thermal effects can combine to produce a predictive theory of spatial
heterogeneities such as shear-banding instabilities. Its main message is a plea
that conventional dislocation theories be reformulated in a thermodynamically
consistent way so that the vast array of observed behaviors can be understood
systematically.


title:
Extension properties of asymptotic property C and finite decomposition
  complexity

abstract:
  We prove extension theorems for several geometric properties such as
asymptotic property C (APC), finite decomposition complexity (FDC), strict
finite decomposition complexity (sFDC) which are weakenings of Gromov's finite
asymptotic dimension (FAD). The context of all theorems is a finitely generated
group $G$ with a word metric and a coarse quasi-action on a metric space $X$.
We assume that the quasi-stabilizers have a property $P_1$, and $X$ has the
same or sometimes a weaker property $P_2$. Then $G$ also has property $P_2$. We
show some sample applications, discuss constraints to further generalizations,
and illustrate the flexibility that the weak quasi-action assumption allows.


title:
A Greedy Approach to Adapting the Trace Parameter for Temporal
  Difference Learning

abstract:
  One of the main obstacles to broad application of reinforcement learning
methods is the parameter sensitivity of our core learning algorithms. In many
large-scale applications, online computation and function approximation
represent key strategies in scaling up reinforcement learning algorithms. In
this setting, we have effective and reasonably well understood algorithms for
adapting the learning-rate parameter, online during learning. Such
meta-learning approaches can improve robustness of learning and enable
specialization to current task, improving learning speed. For
temporal-difference learning algorithms which we study here, there is yet
another parameter, $\lambda$, that similarly impacts learning speed and
stability in practice. Unfortunately, unlike the learning-rate parameter,
$\lambda$ parametrizes the objective function that temporal-difference methods
optimize. Different choices of $\lambda$ produce different fixed-point
solutions, and thus adapting $\lambda$ online and characterizing the
optimization is substantially more complex than adapting the learning-rate
parameter. There are no meta-learning method for $\lambda$ that can achieve (1)
incremental updating, (2) compatibility with function approximation, and (3)
maintain stability of learning under both on and off-policy sampling. In this
paper we contribute a novel objective function for optimizing $\lambda$ as a
function of state rather than time. We derive a new incremental, linear
complexity $\lambda$-adaption algorithm that does not require offline batch
updating or access to a model of the world, and present a suite of experiments
illustrating the practicality of our new algorithm in three different settings.
Taken together, our contributions represent a concrete step towards black-box
application of temporal-difference learning methods in real world problems.


title:
Extended stellar substructure surrounding the Bo\"otes I dwarf
  spheroidal galaxy

abstract:
  We present deep stellar photometry of the Bo\"otes I dwarf spheroidal galaxy
in g and i band filters, taken with the Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo in
Chile. Our analysis reveals a large, extended region of stellar substructure
surrounding the dwarf, as well as a distinct over-density encroaching on its
tidal radius. A radial profile of the Bo\"otes I stellar distribution shows a
break radius indicating the presence of extra-tidal stars. These observations
strongly suggest that Bo\"otes I is experiencing tidal disruption, although not
as extreme as that exhibited by the Hercules dwarf spheroidal. Combined with
revised velocity dispersion measurements from the literature, we see evidence
suggesting the need to review previous theoretical models of the Bo\"otes I
dwarf spheroidal galaxy.


title:
Estimation and prediction of credit risk based on rating transition
  systems

abstract:
  Risk management is an important practice in the banking industry. In this
paper we develop a new methodology to estimate and predict the probability of
default (PD) based on the rating transition matrices, which relates the rating
transition matrices to the macroeconomic variables. Our method can overcome the
shortcomings of the framework of Belkin et al. (1998), and is especially useful
in predicting the PD and doing stress testing. Simulation is conducted at the
end, which shows that our method can provide more accurate estimate than that
obtained by the method of Belkin et al. (1998).


title: Theoretical Simulation of 87Rb Absorption Spectrum in a Thermal Cell

abstract:
  In this paper, we present a theoretical simulation of 87Rb absorption
spectrum in a thermal cm-cell which is adaptive to the experimental
observation. In experiment, the coupling and probe beams are configured to
copropagate but perpendicular polarized, making up to five velocity selective
optical pumping (VSOP) absorption dips able to be identified. A $\Lambda$-type
electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is also observed for each group
of velocity-selected atoms. The spectrum by only sweeping the probe beam can be
decomposed into a combination of Doppler-broadened background and three VSOP
dips for each group of velocity-selected atoms, companied by an EIT peak. This
proposed theoretical model can be used to simulate the spectrum adaptive to the
experimental observation by non-linear least-square fit method. The fit for
high quality of experimental observation can determine valuable transition
parameters such as decaying rates and coupling beam power accurately.


title: Winding light beams along elliptical helical trajectories

abstract:
  Conventional caustic methods in real or Fourier space produced accelerating
optical beams only with convex trajectories. We develop a superposition caustic
method capable of winding light beams along non-convex trajectories. We
ascertain this method by constructing a one-dimensional (1D) accelerating beam
moving along a sinusoidal trajectory, and subsequently extending to
two-dimensional (2D) accelerating beams along arbitrarily elliptical helical
trajectories. We experimentally implement the method with a compact and robust
integrated optics approach by fabricating micro-optical structures on quartz
glass plates to perform the spatial phase and amplitude modulation to the
incident light, generating beam trajectories highly consistent with prediction.
The theoretical and implementation methods can in principle be extended to the
construction of accelerating beams with a wide variety of non-convex
trajectories, thereby opening up a new route of manipulating light beams for
fundamental research and practical applications.


title: Discrete-time Mean-field Stochastic $H_2/H_\infty$ Control

abstract:
  The finite horizon $H_2/H_\infty$ control problem of mean-field type for
discrete-time systems is considered in this paper. Firstly, we derive a
mean-field stochastic bounded real lemma (SBRL). Secondly, a sufficient
condition for the solvability of discrete-time mean-field stochastic
linear-quadratic (LQ) optimal control is presented. Thirdly, based on SBRL and
LQ results, this paper establishes a sufficient condition for the existence of
discrete-time stochastic $H_2/H_\infty$ control of mean-field type via the
solvability of coupled matrix-valued equations.


title: Feature-rich Geometric and Electronic Properties of Carbon Nanoscrolls

abstract:
  How to form carbon nanoscrolls with the non-uniform curvatures is worthy of a
detailed investigation. The first-principles method is suitable in studying the
combined effects due to the finite-size confinement, the edge-dependent
interactions, the interlayer atomic interactions, the mechanical strains, and
the magnetic configurations. The complex mechanisms can induce the unusual
essential properties, e.g., the optimal structures, magnetisms, band gaps and
energy dispersions. To reach a stable spiral profile, the requirements on the
critical nanoribbon width and overlapping length will be thoroughly explored by
evaluating the $W$-dependent scrolling energies. A comparison of formation
energy between armchair and zigzag nanoscrolls is useful in understanding the
experimental characterizations. The spin-up and spin-down distributions near
the zigzag edges are examined for their magnetic environments. This accounts
for the conservation or destruction of spin degeneracy. The various curved
surfaces on a relaxed nanoscroll will create the complicated multi-orbital
hybridizations, so that the low-lying energy dispersions and energy gaps are
expected to be very sensitive to ribbon width, especially for those of armchair
systems. Finally, the planar, curved, folded, scrolled graphene nanoribbons are
compared with one another to illustrate the geometry-induced diversity.


title: Ma-Schlenker c-Octahedra in the 2-Sphere

abstract:
  We present constructions inspired by the Ma-Schlenker example
of~\cite{Ma:2012hl} that show the non-rigidity of spherical inversive distance
circle packings. In contrast to the use in~\cite{Ma:2012hl} of an
infinitesimally flexible Euclidean polyhedron, embeddings in de Sitter space,
and Pogorelov maps, our elementary constructions use only the inversive
geometry of the $2$-sphere.


title: Limit order trading with a mean reverting reference price

abstract:
  Optimal control models for limit order trading often assume that the
underlying asset price is a Brownian motion since they deal with relatively
short time scales. The resulting optimal bid and ask limit order prices tend to
track the underlying price as one might expect. This is indeed the case with
the model of Avellaneda and Stoikov (2008), which has been studied extensively.
We consider here this model under the condition when the underlying price is
mean reverting. Our main result is that when time is far from the terminal, the
optimal price for bid and ask limit orders is constant, which means that it
does not track the underlying price. Numerical simulations confirm this
behavior. When the underlying price is mean reverting, then for times
sufficiently far from terminal, it is more advantageous to focus on the mean
price and ignore fluctuations around it. Mean reversion suggests that limit
orders will be executed with some regularity, and this is why they are optimal.
We also explore intermediate time regimes where limit order prices are
influenced by the inventory of outstanding orders. The duration of this
intermediate regime depends on the liquidity of the market as measured by
specific parameters in the model.


title:
Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostics by Adaptation of 3D Convolutional
  Network

abstract:
  Early diagnosis, playing an important role in preventing progress and
treating the Alzheimer\{'}s disease (AD), is based on classification of
features extracted from brain images. The features have to accurately capture
main AD-related variations of anatomical brain structures, such as, e.g.,
ventricles size, hippocampus shape, cortical thickness, and brain volume. This
paper proposed to predict the AD with a deep 3D convolutional neural network
(3D-CNN), which can learn generic features capturing AD biomarkers and adapt to
different domain datasets. The 3D-CNN is built upon a 3D convolutional
autoencoder, which is pre-trained to capture anatomical shape variations in
structural brain MRI scans. Fully connected upper layers of the 3D-CNN are then
fine-tuned for each task-specific AD classification. Experiments on the
CADDementia MRI dataset with no skull-stripping preprocessing have shown our
3D-CNN outperforms several conventional classifiers by accuracy. Abilities of
the 3D-CNN to generalize the features learnt and adapt to other domains have
been validated on the ADNI dataset.


title:
Fermions in G\"odel-type background space-times with torsion and the
  Landau quantization

abstract:
  In this paper, we analyze Dirac fermions in G\"odel-type background
space-times with torsion. We also consider the G\"odel-type spacetimes embedded
in a topological defect background. We show that relativistic bound states
solutions to the Dirac equation can be obtained by dealing with three cases of
the G\"odel-type solutions with torsion, where a cosmic string passes through
these three cases of the space-time. We obtain the relativistic energy levels
for all cases of the G\"odel-type solutions with torsion with a cosmic string,
where we show that there exists an analogy with the Landau levels for Dirac
particles. We also show that the presence of torsion in the space-time yields
new contributions to the relativistic spectrum of energies and that the
presence of the topological defect modifies the degeneracy of the relativistic
energy levels.


title:
Floodlight Quantum Key Distribution: Demonstrating a New Framework for
  High-Rate Secure Communication

abstract:
  Floodlight quantum key distribution (FL-QKD) is a radically different QKD
paradigm that can achieve Gbit/s secret-key rates over metropolitan area
distances without multiplexing [Phys. Rev. A 94, 012322 (2016)]. It is a
two-way protocol that transmits many photons per bit duration and employs a
high-gain optical amplifier, neither of which can be utilized by existing QKD
protocols to mitigate channel loss. FL-QKD uses an optical bandwidth that is
substantially larger than the modulation rate and performs decoding with a
unique broadband homodyne receiver. Essential to FL-QKD is Alice's injection of
photons from a photon-pair source--in addition to the light used for key
generation--into the light she sends to Bob. This injection enables Alice and
Bob to quantify Eve's intrusion and thus secure FL-QKD against collective
attacks. Our proof-of-concept experiment included 10 dB propagation
loss--equivalent to 50 km of low-loss fiber--and achieved a 55 Mbit/s
secret-key rate (SKR) for a 100 Mbit/s modulation rate, as compared to the
state-of-the-art system's 1 Mbit/s SKR for a 1 Gbit/s modulation rate [Opt.
Express 21, 24550-24565 (2013)], representing ~500-fold and ~50-fold
improvements in secret-key efficiency (SKE) (bits per channel use) and SKR
(bits per second), respectively.


title: Existence Results for a critical fractional equation

abstract:
  We are concerned with existence results for a critical problem of
Brezis-Nirenberg Type involving an integro-differential operator. Our study
includes the fractional Laplacian. Our approach still applies when adding small
singular terms. It hinges on appropriate choices of parameters in the
mountain-pass theorem


title: Re-acceleration model for the `Sausage' Radio Relic

abstract:
  The Sausage radio relic is the arc-like radio structure in the cluster CIZA
J2242.8+5301, whose observed properties can be best understood by synchrotron
emission from relativistic electrons accelerated at a merger-driven shock.
However, there remain a few puzzles that cannot be explained by the shock
acceleration model with only in-situ injection. In particular, the Mach number
inferred from the observed radio spectral index, $M_{\rm radio}\approx 4.6$,
while the Mach number estimated from X-ray observations, $M_{\rm X-ray}\approx
2.7$. In an attempt to resolve such a discrepancy, here we consider the
re-acceleration model in which a shock of $M_s\approx 3$ sweeps through the
intracluster gas with a pre-existing population of relativistic electrons. We
find that observed brightness profiles at multi frequencies provide strong
constraints on the spectral shape of pre-existing electrons. The models with a
power-law momentum spectrum with the slope, $s\approx 4.1$, and the cutoff
Lorentz factor, $\gamma_{e,c}\approx 3-5\times 10^4$ can reproduce reasonably
well the observed spatial profiles of radio fluxes and integrated radio
spectrum of the Sausage relic. The possible origins of such relativistic
electrons in the intracluster medium remain to be investigated further.


title: Modulations of viscous fluid conduit periodic waves

abstract:
  In this work, modulation of periodic interfacial waves on a conduit of
viscous liquid is explored utilizing Whitham theory and Nonlinear Schr\"odinger
(NLS) theory. Large amplitude periodic wave modulation theory does not require
integrability of the underlying model equation, yet in practice, either
integrable equations are studied or the full extent of Whitham (wave-averaging)
theory is not developed. The governing conduit equation is nonlocal with
nonlinear dispersion and is not integrable. Via a scaling symmetry, periodic
waves can be characterized by their wavenumber and amplitude. In the weakly
nonlinear regime, both the defocusing and focusing variants of the NLS equation
are derived, depending on the wavenumber. Dark and bright envelope solitons are
found to persist in the conduit equation. Due to non-convex dispersion,
modulational instability for periodic waves above a critical wavenumber is
predicted. In the large amplitude regime, structural properties of the Whitham
modulation equations are computed, including strict hyperbolicity, genuine
nonlinearity, and linear degeneracy. Bifurcating from the NLS critical
wavenumber at zero amplitude is an amplitude-dependent elliptic region for the
Whitham equations within which a maximally unstable periodic wave is
identified. These results have implications for dispersive shock waves,
recently observed experimentally.


title: Fast Escaping Sets of meromorphic functions

abstract:
  In this paper, we give a definition of Eremenko's point of a meromorphic
function with infinitely many poles and a condition for its existence in narrow
annuli in terms of a covering theorem of annulus.


title: Suppression of chaos through coupling to an external chaotic system

abstract:
  We explore the behaviour of an ensemble of chaotic oscillators coupled only
to an external chaotic system, whose intrinsic dynamics may be similar or
dissimilar to the group. Counter-intuitively, we find that a dissimilar
external system manages to suppress the intrinsic chaos of the oscillators to
fixed point dynamics, at sufficiently high coupling strengths. So, while
synchronization is induced readily by coupling to an identical external system,
control to fixed states is achieved only if the external system is dissimilar.
We quantify the efficacy of control by estimating the fraction of random
initial states that go to fixed points, a measure analogous to basin stability.
Lastly, we indicate the generality of this phenomenon by demonstrating
suppression of chaotic oscillations by coupling to a common hyper-chaotic
system. These results then indicate the easy controllability of chaotic
oscillators by an external chaotic system, thereby suggesting a potent method
that may help design control strategies.


title:
Computations of superstring amplitudes in pure spinor formalism via
  Cadabra

abstract:
  The discovery of pure spinor formalism makes the computation of superstring
scattering amplitudes possible. In this paper, we will illustrate how computer
algebra system Cadabra is used in computing the supersymmetric amplitude in
pure spinor formalism and provide the source code that computes the tree-level
massless 5-gluon amplitude.


title: NIST: An Image Classification Network to Image Semantic Retrieval

abstract:
  This paper proposes a classification network to image semantic retrieval
(NIST) framework to counter the image retrieval challenge. Our approach
leverages the successful classification network GoogleNet based on
Convolutional Neural Networks to obtain the semantic feature matrix which
contains the serial number of classes and corresponding probabilities. Compared
with traditional image retrieval using feature matching to compute the
similarity between two images, NIST leverages the semantic information to
construct semantic feature matrix and uses the semantic distance algorithm to
compute the similarity. Besides, the fusion strategy can significantly reduce
storage and time consumption due to less classes participating in the last
semantic distance computation. Experiments demonstrate that our NIST framework
produces state-of-the-art results in retrieval experiments on MIRFLICKR-25K
dataset.


title: Enhanced Information Exclusion Relations

abstract:
  In Hall's reformulation of the uncertainty principle, the entropic
uncertainty relation occupies a core position and provides the first nontrivial
bound for the information exclusion principle. Based upon recent developments
on the uncertainty relation, we present new bounds for the information
exclusion relation using majorization theory and combinatoric techniques, which
reveal further characteristic properties of the overlap matrix between the
measurements.


title: Outlier absorbing based on a Bayesian approach

abstract:
  The presence of outliers is prevalent in machine learning applications and
may produce misleading results. In this paper a new method for dealing with
outliers and anomal samples is proposed. To overcome the outlier issue, the
proposed method combines the global and local views of the samples. By
combination of these views, our algorithm performs in a robust manner. The
experimental results show the capabilities of the proposed method.


title: On The Security of AoA Estimation

abstract:
  Angle of Arrival (AoA) estimation has found its way to a wide range of
applications. Much attention have been paid to study different techniques for
AoA estimation and its applications for jamming suppression, however, security
vulnerability issues of AoA estimation itself under hostile activity have not
been paid the same attention. In this paper, the problem of AoA estimation in
Rician flat fading channel under jamming condition is investigated. We consider
the scenario in which a receiver with multiple antenna is trying to estimate
the AoA of the specular line of sight (LOS) component of signal received from a
given single antenna transmitter using a predefined training sequence. A jammer
equipped with multiple antennas is trying to interrupt the AoA estimation phase
by sending an arbitrary signal. We derive the optimal jammer and receiver
strategies in various scenarios based on the knowledge of the opponent
strategies and the available information about the communication channel. In
all scenarios, we derive the optimal jammer signal design as well as its
optimal power allocation policy. The results show the optimality of the
training based Maximum Likelihood (ML) AoA estimator in case of randomly
generated jamming signal. We also show that, the optimal jammer strategy is to
emit a signal identical to the predefined training sequence turning the
estimation process into a highest power competition scenario in which the
detected AoA is the one for the transmitting entity of higher power. The
obtained results are supported by the provided computer simulation.


title:
Unbreakable distributed storage with quantum key distribution network
  and password-authenticated secret sharing

abstract:
  Distributed storage plays an essential role in realizing robust and secure
data storage in a network over long periods of time. A distributed storage
system consists of a data owner machine, multiple storage servers and channels
to link them. In such a system, secret sharing scheme is widely adopted, in
which secret data are split into multiple pieces and stored in each server. To
reconstruct them, the data owner should gather plural pieces. Shamir's (k,
n)-threshold scheme, in which the data are split into n pieces (shares) for
storage and at least k pieces of them must be gathered for reconstruction,
furnishes information theoretic security, that is, even if attackers could
collect shares of less than the threshold k, they cannot get any information
about the data, even with unlimited computing power. Behind this scenario,
however, assumed is that data transmission and authentication must be perfectly
secure, which is not trivial in practice. Here we propose a totally information
theoretically secure distributed storage system based on a user-friendly
single-password-authenticated secret sharing scheme and secure transmission
using quantum key distribution, and demonstrate it in the Tokyo metropolitan
area.


title: On Eisenstein primes

abstract:
  In this paper, we prove that there are infinitely many primes of the form
$\ell^2 - \ell m + m^2$ such that $2\ell - m$ is also prime. To prove this, we
follow along the lines of the work of Fouvry and Iwaniec (1997) who showed that
there are infinitely many primes of the form $\ell^2 + m^2$ for $\ell$ prime,
but use $\mathbb{Z}[\omega]$ instead of $\mathbb{Z}[i]$ to work with the
bilinear forms that arise in both.


title: Keyframe-based monocular SLAM: design, survey, and future directions

abstract:
  Extensive research in the field of monocular SLAM for the past fifteen years
has yielded workable systems that found their way into various applications in
robotics and augmented reality. Although filter-based monocular SLAM systems
were common at some time, the more efficient keyframe-based solutions are
becoming the de facto methodology for building a monocular SLAM system. The
objective of this paper is threefold: first, the paper serves as a guideline
for people seeking to design their own monocular SLAM according to specific
environmental constraints. Second, it presents a survey that covers the various
keyframe-based monocular SLAM systems in the literature, detailing the
components of their implementation, and critically assessing the specific
strategies made in each proposed solution. Third, the paper provides insight
into the direction of future research in this field, to address the major
limitations still facing monocular SLAM; namely, in the issues of illumination
changes, initialization, highly dynamic motion, poorly textured scenes,
repetitive textures, map maintenance, and failure recovery.


title:
Maximizing device-independent randomness from a Bell experiment by
  optimizing the measurement settings

abstract:
  The rates at which a user can generate device-independent quantum random
numbers from a Bell-type experiment depend on the measurements that he
performs. By numerically optimising over these measurements, we present lower
bounds on the randomness generation rates for a family of two-qubit states
composed from a mixture of partially entangled states and the completely mixed
state. We also report on the randomness generation rates from a tomographic
measurement. Interestingly in this case, the randomness generation rates are
not monotonic functions of entanglement.


title: Jaco-Type Graphs and Black Energy Dissipation

abstract:
  In this paper, we introduce the notion of an energy graph as a simple,
directed and vertex labeled graph $G$ such that the arcs $(v_i, v_j) \notin
A(G)$ if $i > j$ for all distinct pairs $v_i,v_j$ and at least one vertex $v_k$
exists such that $d^-(v_k)=0$. Initially, equal amount of potential energy is
allocated to certain vertices. Then, at a point of time these vertices
transform the potential energy into kinetic energy and initiate transmission to
head vertices. Upon reaching a head vertex, perfect elastic collisions with
atomic particles take place and propagate energy further. Propagation rules
apply which result in energy dissipation. This dissipated energy is called
black energy. The notion of the black arc number of a graph is also introduced
in this paper. Mainly Jaco-type graphs are considered for the application of
the new concepts.


title: Distance and distance signless Laplacian spread of connected graphs

abstract:
  For a connected graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, recall that the distance signless
Laplacian matrix of $G$ is defined to be $\mathcal{Q}(G)=Tr(G)+\mathcal{D}(G)$,
where $\mathcal{D}(G)$ is the distance matrix, $Tr(G)=diag(D_1, D_2, \ldots,
D_n)$ and $D_{i}$ is the row sum of $\mathcal{D}(G)$ corresponding to vertex
$v_{i}$. Denote by $\rho^{\mathcal{D}}(G),$ $\rho_{min}^{\mathcal{D}}(G)$ the
largest eigenvalue and the least eigenvalue of $\mathcal{D}(G)$, respectively.
And denote by $q^{\mathcal{D}}(G)$, $q_{min}^{\mathcal{D}}(G)$ the largest
eigenvalue and the least eigenvalue of $\mathcal{Q}(G)$, respectively. The
distance spread of a graph $G$ is defined as
$S_{\mathcal{D}}(G)=\rho^{\mathcal{D}}(G)- \rho_{min}^{\mathcal{D}}(G)$, and
the distance signless Laplacian spread of a graph $G$ is defined as
$S_{\mathcal{Q}}(G)=q^{\mathcal{D}}(G)-q_{min}^{\mathcal{D}}(G)$. In this
paper, we point out an error in the result of Theorem 2.4 in "Distance spectral
spread of a graph" [G.L. Yu, et al, Discrete Applied Mathematics. 160 (2012)
2474--2478] and rectify it. As well, we obtain some lower bounds on ddistance
signless Laplacian spread of a graph.


title:
Adaptive Neighborhood Graph Construction for Inference in
  Multi-Relational Networks

abstract:
  A neighborhood graph, which represents the instances as vertices and their
relations as weighted edges, is the basis of many semi-supervised and
relational models for node labeling and link prediction. Most methods employ a
sequential process to construct the neighborhood graph. This process often
consists of generating a candidate graph, pruning the candidate graph to make a
neighborhood graph, and then performing inference on the variables (i.e.,
nodes) in the neighborhood graph. In this paper, we propose a framework that
can dynamically adapt the neighborhood graph based on the states of variables
from intermediate inference results, as well as structural properties of the
relations connecting them. A key strength of our framework is its ability to
handle multi-relational data and employ varying amounts of relations for each
instance based on the intermediate inference results. We formulate the link
prediction task as inference on neighborhood graphs, and include preliminary
results illustrating the effects of different strategies in our proposed
framework.


title: Lessons from DEPLOYment

abstract:
  This paper reviews the major lessons learnt during two significant pilot
projects by Bosch Research during the DEPLOY project. Principally, the use of a
single formalism, even when it comes together with a rigorous refinement
methodology like Event-B, cannot offer a complete solution. Unfortunately (but
not unexpectedly), we cannot offer a panacea to cover every phase from
requirements to code; in fact any specific formalism or language (or tool)
should be used only where and when it is really suitable and not necessarily
(and somehow forcibly) over the entire lifecycle.


title: Equimatchable Claw-Free Graphs

abstract:
  A graph is equimatchable if all of its maximal matchings have the same size.
A graph is claw-free if it does not have a claw as an induced subgraph. In this
paper, we provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first characterization of
claw-free equimatchable graphs by identifying the equimatchable claw-free graph
families. This characterization implies an efficient recognition algorithm.


title:
Comment on Justin E. Pye and Connie B. Roth, J. Polym. Sci., Part B
  Polym.Phys. 2015, 53, 64-75

abstract:
  Two transitions were found by ellipsometry in freestanding high molecular
weight PS films by Pye and Roth (PR). PR suggested that the upper and the lower
transitions both came from the segmental a-relaxation, and the upper transition
occurs in 90% of the material. In this paper we use dielectric relaxation data
of freestanding films to rule out their suggestion. Furthermore, we demonstrate
by experimental evidences that the sub-Rouse modes are coupled to density, and
respond to physical aging to validate our interpretation and can explain the
upper transition.


title: Model Checking of BPMN Models for Reconfigurable Workflows

abstract:
  Nowadays, business enterprises often need to dynamically reconfigure their
internal processes in order to improve the efficiency of the business flow.
However, modifications of the workflow usually lead to several problems in
terms of deadlock freedom, completeness and security. A solid solution to these
problems consists in the application of model checking techniques in order to
verify if specific properties of the workflow are preserved by the change in
configuration. Our goal in this work is to develop a formal verification
procedure to deal with these problems. The first step consists in developing a
formal definition of a BPMN model of a business workflow. Then, a given BPMN
model is translated into a formal model specified in Promela. Finally, by using
the SPIN model checker, the correctness of the reconfigured workflow is
verified.


title:
Development of a Method for Tissue Elasticity Imaging Using Tagged
  Magnetic Resonance Imaging

abstract:
  The purpose of this study was to develop a method for tissue elasticity
imaging using tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). First, we developed a
cyclic pressure device that used air to remotely transmit the power to generate
cyclic deformation in an object. The pressure induced by the cyclic pressure
device was measured by MRI-compatible force sensors. Second, we developed a
software to calculate Young's modulus from tagged MRI data using the harmonic
phase (HARP) method and the finite element method (FEM). We also developed a
software to extract tag-cross points from tagged MRI data. Finally, we
evaluated the usefulness of our method using three homogeneous silicone gel
phantoms with different degrees of stiffness in comparison with Young's moduli
measured by a material testing machine. The coefficient of variation of the
pressure data measured by MRI-compatible force sensors was within 5 %,
indicating that the reproducibility of the pressure generated by our cyclic
pressure device was good. The Young's moduli obtained by the material testing
machine, the HARP method, and the FEM increased with increasing stiffness of
the phantoms. There were relatively good agreements among the three methods.
These results suggest that our method is useful for tissue elasticity imaging
and for quantifying the stiffness of tissues.


title:
Towards laboratory detection of topological vortices in superfluid
  phases of QCD

abstract:
  Topological defects arise in a variety of systems, e.g. vortices in
superfluid helium to cosmic strings in the early universe. There is an indirect
evidence of neutron superfluid vortices from glitches in pulsars. One also
expects that topological defects may arise in various high baryon density
phases of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), e.g. superfluid topological vortices in
the color flavor locked (CFL) phase. Though vastly different in energy/length
scales, there are universal features, e.g. in the formation of all these
defects. Utilizing this universality, we investigate the possibility of
detecting these topological superfluid vortices in laboratory experiments,
namely heavy-ion collisions. Using hydrodynamic simulations, we show that
vortices can qualitatively affect the power spectrum of flow fluctuations. This
can give unambiguous signal for superfluid transition resulting in vortices,
allowing for check of defect formation theories in a relativistic quantum field
theory system, and the detection of superfluid phases of QCD. Detection of
nucleonic superfluid vortices in low energy heavy-ion collisions will give
opportunity for laboratory controlled study of their properties, providing
crucial inputs for the physics of pulsars.

categories: hep-ph cond-mat.supr-con nucl-ex nucl-th


title:
Non-commutative Geometry of Homogenized Quantum
  $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb{C})$

abstract:
  This paper examines the relationship between certain non-commutative
analogues of projective 3-space, $\mathbb{P}^3$, and the quantized enveloping
algebras $U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_2)$. The relationship is mediated by certain
non-commutative graded algebras $S$, one for each $q \in \mathbb{C}^\times$,
having a degree-two central element $c$ such that $S[c^{-1}]_0 \cong
U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_2)$. The non-commutative analogues of $\mathbb{P}^3$ are the
spaces $\operatorname{Proj}_{nc}(S)$. We show how the points, fat points,
lines, and quadrics, in $\operatorname{Proj}_{nc}(S)$, and their incidence
relations, correspond to finite dimensional irreducible representations of
$U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_2)$, Verma modules, annihilators of Verma modules, and
homomorphisms between them.


title:
A higher order system of some coupled nonlinear Schr\"odinger and
  Korteweg-de Vries equations

abstract:
  We prove existence and multiplicity of bound and ground state solutions,
under appropriate conditions on the parameters, for a bi-harmonic stationary
system of coupled nonlinear Schr\"odinger--Korteweg-de Vries equations.


title: Quasi-Species in High Dimensional Spaces

abstract:
  We show that, under certain assumptions, the fitness of almost all
quasi-species becomes independent of mutational probabilities and the initial
frequency distributions of the sequences in high dimensional sequence spaces.
This result is the consequence of the concentration of measure on a high
dimensional hypersphere and its extension to Lipschitz functions knows as the
Levy's Lemma. Therefore, evolutionary dynamics almost always yields the same
value for fitness of the quasi-species, independent of the mutational process
and initial conditions, and is quite robust to mutational changes and
fluctuations in initial conditions. Our results naturally extend to any
Lipschitz function whose input parameters are the frequencies of individual
constituents of the quasi-species. This suggests that the functional
capabilities of high dimensional quasi-species are robust to fluctuations in
the mutational probabilities and initial conditions.


title:
Three-Dimensional Reddening Map for Stars from 2MASS Photometry: The
  Method and the First Results

abstract:
  The first results of the construction of a 3D reddening map for stars within
1600 pc of the Sun are presented. Analysis of the distribution of 70 million
stars from the 2MASS catalog with the most accurate photometry on the (J-Ks) -
Ks diagram supplemented with Monte Carlo simulations has shown that one of the
maxima of this distribution corresponds to F-type dwarfs and subgiants with a
mean absolute magnitude MKs=2.5m. The shift of this maximum toward large (J-Ks)
with increasing $Ks$ reflects the reddening of these stars with increasing
heliocentric distance. The distribution of the sample of stars over Ks, l, and
b cells with corresponds to their distribution over 3D spatial cells. As a
result, the reddening E(J-Ks) has been determined with an accuracy of 0.03m for
spatial cells with a side of 100 pc. All of the known large absorbing clouds
within 1600 pc of the Sun have manifested themselves in the results obtained.
The distances to the near and far edges of the clouds have been determined with
a relative accuracy of 15\%. The cases where unknown clouds are hidden behind
known ones on the same line of sight have been found. The distance dependence
of reddening is considered for various Galactic latitudes and longitudes. The
absorbing matter of the Gould Belt is shown to manifest itself at latitudes up
to 40 deg and within 600 pc of the Sun. The size and influence of the Gould
Belt may have been underestimated thus far. The absorbing matter at latitudes
up to 60 deg and within 1600 pc of the Sun has been found to be distributed
predominantly in the first and second quadrants in S hemisphere and in the
third and fourth quadrants in N hemisphere. A nonrandom orientation of the
clouds relative to the Sun is possible. The mass of the baryonic dark matter in
solar neighborhoods can then be considerably larger than is generally believed.


title: Group Sparse Regularization for Deep Neural Networks

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider the joint task of simultaneously optimizing (i)
the weights of a deep neural network, (ii) the number of neurons for each
hidden layer, and (iii) the subset of active input features (i.e., feature
selection). While these problems are generally dealt with separately, we
present a simple regularized formulation allowing to solve all three of them in
parallel, using standard optimization routines. Specifically, we extend the
group Lasso penalty (originated in the linear regression literature) in order
to impose group-level sparsity on the network's connections, where each group
is defined as the set of outgoing weights from a unit. Depending on the
specific case, the weights can be related to an input variable, to a hidden
neuron, or to a bias unit, thus performing simultaneously all the
aforementioned tasks in order to obtain a compact network. We perform an
extensive experimental evaluation, by comparing with classical weight decay and
Lasso penalties. We show that a sparse version of the group Lasso penalty is
able to achieve competitive performances, while at the same time resulting in
extremely compact networks with a smaller number of input features. We evaluate
both on a toy dataset for handwritten digit recognition, and on multiple
realistic large-scale classification problems.


title: Singularly Perturbed Profiles

abstract:
  In the current paper the so-called REaction-DIffusion Manifold (REDIM) method
of model reduction is discussed within the framework of standard singular
perturbation theory. According to the REDIM a reduced model for the system
describing a reacting flow (accounting for chemical reaction, advection and
molecular diffusion) is represented by a low-dimensional manifold, which is
embedded in the system state space and approximates the evolution of the system
solution profiles in space and in time. This pure geometric construction is
reviewed by using Singular Perturbed System (SPS) theory as the only
possibility to formalize, to justify and to verify the suggested methodology.
The REDIM is studied as a correction by the diffusion of the slow invariant
manifold defined for a pure homogeneous system. A main result of the study is
an estimation of this correction to the slow invariant manifold. A benchmark
model of Mechaelis-Menten is extended to the system with the standard diffusion
described by the Laplacian and used as an illustration and for validation of
analytic results.


title: The spectral estimates for the Neumann-Laplace operator in space domains

abstract:
  In this paper we prove discreteness of the spectrum of the
Neu\-mann-Lap\-la\-ci\-an (the free membrane problem) in a large class of
non-convex space domains. The lower estimates of the first non-trivial
eigenvalue are obtained in terms of geometric characteristics of Sobolev
mappings. The suggested approach is based on Poincar\'e-Sobolev inequalities
that are obtained with the help of the composition operators theory for uniform
Sobolev spaces. These composition operators are induced by a generalizations of
conformal mappings that are mappings of bounded $2$-dilatation
($2$-quasiconformal mappings).


title:
Event patterns (particle scatter plots) extracted from charged particle
  spectra in $pp$ and Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

abstract:
  The transverse momentum ($p_T$) and pseudorapidity ($\eta$) spectra of
charged particles produced in proton-proton ($pp$) and lead-lead (Pb-Pb)
collisions at the large hadron collider (LHC) are described by a hybrid model.
In the model, the $p_T$ spectrum is described by a two-component distribution
which contains an inverse power-law suggested by the QCD (Quantum
Chromodynamic) calculus and an Erlang distribution resulted from a multisource
thermal model. The $\eta$ spectrum is described by a Gaussian rapidity ($y$)
distribution resulted from the Landau hydrodynamic model and the two-component
$p_T$ distribution, where the conversion between $y$ and $\eta$ is accurately
considered. The modelling results are in agreement with the experimental data
measured by the ATLAS Collaboration in $pp$ collisions at center-of-mass energy
$\sqrt{s}=2.76$ TeV and in Pb-Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per
nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. Based on the parameter values extracted
from $p_T$ and $\eta$ or $y$ spectra, the event patterns or particle scatter
plots in three-dimensional velocity and momentum spaces are obtained.