title: Parity-Time Symmetry in Coherently Coupled Vertical Cavity Laser Arrays

abstract:
  We report parity-time (PT) symmetry breaking in electrically injected,
coherently coupled, vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays. We predict
beam steering, mode evolution and mode hopping as a consequence of the
non-Hermiticity of the array analyzed by temporal coupled mode theory with both
asymmetric gain distribution and local frequency detuning. We present
experimental confirmation of the predicted mode evolution, mode hopping and PT
symmetry breaking with quantitative agreement with the theory.


title:
Collaborative effects of wavefront shaping and optical clearing agent in
  optical coherence tomography

abstract:
  We demonstrate that simultaneous application of optical clearing agents
(OCAs) and complex wavefront shaping in optical coherence tomography (OCT) can
provide significant enhancement of the penetration depth and imaging quality.
OCA reduces optical inhomogeneity of a highly scattering sample, and the
wavefront shaping of illumination light controls multiple scattering, resulting
in an enhancement of the penetration depth and signal-to-noise ratio. A tissue
phantom study shows that concurrent applications of OCA and wavefront shaping
successfully operate in OCT imaging. The penetration depth enhancement is
further demonstrated for ex vivo mouse ears, revealing hidden structures
inaccessible with conventional OCT imaging.


title: Infinite dimensional moment problem: open questions and applications

abstract:
  Infinite dimensional moment problems have a long history in diverse applied
areas dealing with the analysis of complex systems but progress is hindered by
the lack of a general understanding of the mathematical structure behind them.
Therefore, such problems have recently got great attention in real algebraic
geometry also because of their deep connection to the finite dimensional case.
In particular, our most recent collaboration with Murray Marshall and Mehdi
Ghasemi about the infinite dimensional moment problem on symmetric algebras of
locally convex spaces revealed intriguing questions and relations between real
algebraic geometry, functional and harmonic analysis. Motivated by this
promising interaction, the principal goal of this paper is to identify the main
current challenges in the theory of the infinite dimensional moment problem and
to highlight their impact in applied areas. The last advances achieved in this
emerging field and briefly reviewed throughout this paper led us to several
open questions which we outline here.


title:
Cut Finite Element Methods for Partial Differential Equations on
  Embedded Manifolds of Arbitrary Codimensions

abstract:
  We develop a theoretical framework for the analysis of stabilized cut finite
element methods for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a manifold embedded in
$\mathbb{R}^d$ of arbitrary codimension. The method is based on using
continuous piecewise polynomials on a background mesh in the embedding space
for approximation together with a stabilizing form that ensures that the
resulting problem is stable. The discrete manifold is represented using a
triangulation which does not match the background mesh and does not need to be
shape-regular, which includes level set descriptions of codimension one
manifolds and the non-matching embedding of independently triangulated
manifolds as special cases. We identify abstract key assumptions on the
stabilizing form which allow us to prove a bound on the condition number of the
stiffness matrix and optimal order a priori estimates. The key assumptions are
verified for three different realizations of the stabilizing form including a
novel stabilization approach based on penalizing the surface normal gradient on
the background mesh. Finally, we present numerical results illustrating our
results for a curve and a surface embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$.


title:
Maximizing Science in the Era of LSST: A Community-Based Study of Needed
  US Capabilities

abstract:
  The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be a discovery machine for
the astronomy and physics communities, revealing astrophysical phenomena from
the Solar System to the outer reaches of the observable Universe. While many
discoveries will be made using LSST data alone, taking full scientific
advantage of LSST will require ground-based optical-infrared (OIR) supporting
capabilities, e.g., observing time on telescopes, instrumentation, computing
resources, and other infrastructure. This community-based study identifies,
from a science-driven perspective, capabilities that are needed to maximize
LSST science. Expanding on the initial steps taken in the 2015 OIR System
Report, the study takes a detailed, quantitative look at the capabilities
needed to accomplish six representative LSST-enabled science programs that
connect closely with scientific priorities from the 2010 decadal surveys. The
study prioritizes the resources needed to accomplish the science programs and
highlights ways that existing, planned, and future resources could be
positioned to accomplish the science goals.


title:
Densification and Structural Transitions in Networks that Grow by Node
  Copying

abstract:
  We introduce a growing network model---the copying model---in which a new
node attaches to a randomly selected target node and, in addition,
independently to each of the neighbors of the target with copying probability
$p$. When $p<\frac{1}{2}$, this algorithm generates sparse networks, in which
the average node degree is finite. A power-law degree distribution also arises,
with a non-universal exponent whose value is determined by a transcendental
equation in $p$. In the sparse regime, the network is "normal", e.g., the
relative fluctuations in the number of links are asymptotically negligible. For
$p\geq \frac{1}{2}$, the emergent networks are dense (the average degree
increases with the number of nodes $N$) and they exhibit intriguing structural
behaviors. In particular, the $N$-dependence of the number of $m$-cliques
(complete subgraphs of $m$ nodes) undergoes $m-1$ transitions from normal to
progressively more anomalous behavior at a $m$-dependent critical values of
$p$. Different realizations of the network, which start from the same initial
state, exhibit macroscopic fluctuations in the thermodynamic limit---absence of
self averaging. When linking to second neighbors of the target node can occur,
the number of links asymptotically grows as $N^2$ as $N\to\infty$, so that the
network is effectively complete as $N\to \infty$.


title:
Modeling and Simulation of the Current Quenching Behavior of a Line
  Lightning Protection Device

abstract:
  We develop a consistent model for a Line Lightning Protection Device and
demonstrate that this model can explain the two modes of current quenching --
impulse quenching and current zero quenching -- observed in such devices. A
dimensional analysis shows that impulse quenching can always be obtained if the
power loss from the electric arcs is large enough as compared to $U_0 I_f$,
where $U_0$ is the grid voltage and $I_f$ is the maximum follow current after a
lightning strike. We further show that the two modes of quenching can be
reproduced in a full 3D arc simulations coupled to the appropriate circuit
model. This means the arc simulations can be used for optimization and
development of future LLPDs.


title: Quantum Proofs

abstract:
  Quantum information and computation provide a fascinating twist on the notion
of proofs in computational complexity theory. For instance, one may consider a
quantum computational analogue of the complexity class \class{NP}, known as
QMA, in which a quantum state plays the role of a proof (also called a
certificate or witness), and is checked by a polynomial-time quantum
computation. For some problems, the fact that a quantum proof state could be a
superposition over exponentially many classical states appears to offer
computational advantages over classical proof strings. In the interactive proof
system setting, one may consider a verifier and one or more provers that
exchange and process quantum information rather than classical information
during an interaction for a given input string, giving rise to quantum
complexity classes such as QIP, QSZK, and QMIP* that represent natural quantum
analogues of IP, SZK, and MIP. While quantum interactive proof systems inherit
some properties from their classical counterparts, they also possess distinct
and uniquely quantum features that lead to an interesting landscape of
complexity classes based on variants of this model.
  In this survey we provide an overview of many of the known results concerning
quantum proofs, computational models based on this concept, and properties of
the complexity classes they define. In particular, we discuss non-interactive
proofs and the complexity class QMA, single-prover quantum interactive proof
systems and the complexity class QIP, statistical zero-knowledge quantum
interactive proof systems and the complexity class \class{QSZK}, and
multiprover interactive proof systems and the complexity classes QMIP, QMIP*,
and MIP*.


title: CMB and matter power spectra with non-linear dark-sector interactions

abstract:
  An interaction between dark matter and dark energy, proportional to the
product of their energy densities, results in a scaling behavior of the ratio
of these densities with respect to the scale factor of the Robertson-Walker
metric. This gives rise to a class of cosmological models which deviate from
the standard model in an analytically tractable way. In particular, it becomes
possible to quantify the role of potential dark-energy perturbations. We
investigate the impact of this interaction on the structure formation process.
Using the (modified) CAMB code we obtain the CMB spectrum as well as the linear
matter power spectrum. It is shown that the strong degeneracy in the parameter
space present in the background analysis is considerably reduced by considering
\textit{Planck} data. Our analysis is compatible with the $\Lambda$CDM model at
the $2\sigma$ confidence level with a slightly preferred direction of the
energy flow from dark matter to dark energy.


title:
Expanding large global solutions of the equations of compressible fluid
  mechanics

abstract:
  In a recent work Sideris constructed a finite-parameter family of compactly
supported affine solutions to the three-dimensional isentropic compressible
Euler equations satisfying the physical vacuum condition. The support of these
solutions expands at a linear rate in time. We show that if the adiabatic
exponent $\gamma$ belongs to the interval $(1,\frac53]$, then these affine
motions are nonlinearly stable. Small perturbations lead to globally-in-time
defined solutions that remain in the vicinity of the manifold of affine
motions, they remain smooth in the interior of their support, and no shocks are
formed in the process.
  Our strategy relies on two key ingredients. We first provide a new
interpretation of the affine motions using an (almost) invariant action of
GL$^+(3)$ on the compressible Euler system. This transformation dictates a
particular rescaling of time and a change of variables, which in turn exposes a
stabilization mechanism induced by the expansion of the background affine
motions when $\gamma\in(1,\frac53]$. We then switch to a Lagrangian description
of the rescaled Euler system which reflects the geometry of expanding affine
motions. We introduce new ideas with respect to the existing well-posedness
frameworks and build high-order energy spaces to prove global-in-time
stability, thereby making crucial use of the new stabilization effect


title: New Parallaxes and a Convergence Analysis for the TW Hya Association

abstract:
  The TW Hya Association (TWA) is a nearby stellar association with an age of
$\sim$ 5-10 Myr. This is an important age for studying the late stages of star
and planet formation. We measure the parallaxes of 14 candidate members of TWA.
That brings to 38 the total number of individual stars with fully measured
kinematics, i.e. proper motion, radial velocity, and parallax, to describe
their motions through the Galaxy. We analyze these kinematics to search for
convergence to a smaller volume in the past, but we find the association is
never much more compact than it is at present. We show that it is difficult to
measure traceback ages for associations such as TWA that have expected velocity
dispersions of 1-2 km s$^{-1}$ with typical measurement uncertainties. We also
use our stellar distances and pre-main-sequence evolutionary tracks to find the
average age of the association of 7.9 $\pm$ 1.0 Myr. Additionally, our parallax
measurement of TWA 32 indicates it should be considered a bona fide member of
TWA. Two new candidate members have high membership probabilities, and we
assign them TWA numbers: TWA 45 for 2MASS J11592786-4510192 and TWA 46 for
2MASS J12354615-4115531.


title: Shaping Polaritons to Reshape Selection Rules

abstract:
  The discovery of orbital angular momentum (OAM) in light established a new
degree of freedom by which to control not only its flow but also its
interaction with matter. Here, we show that by shaping extremely sub-wavelength
polariton modes, for example by imbuing plasmon and phonon polariton with OAM,
we engineer which transitions are allowed or forbidden in electronic systems
such as atoms, molecules, and artificial atoms. Crucial to the feasibility of
these engineered selection rules is the access to conventionally forbidden
transitions afforded by sub-wavelength polaritons. We also find that the
position of the absorbing atom provides a surprisingly rich parameter for
controlling which absorption processes dominate over others. Additional
tunability can be achieved by altering the polaritonic properties of the
substrate, for example by tuning the carrier density in graphene, potentially
enabling electronic control over selection rules. Our findings are best suited
to OAM-carrying polaritonic modes that can be created in graphene, monolayer
conductors, thin metallic films, and thin films of polar dielectrics such as
boron nitride. By building on these findings we foresee the complete
engineering of spectroscopic selection rules through the many degrees of
freedom in the shape of optical fields.


title: Game Semantics for Martin-L\"of Type Theory

abstract:
  We present a new game semantics for Martin-L\"of type theory (MLTT), our aim
is to give a mathematical and intensional explanation of MLTT. Specifically, we
propose a category with families of a novel variant of games, which induces a
surjective and injective (when Id-types are excluded) interpretation of the
intensional variant of MLTT equipped with unit-, empty-, N-, dependent product,
dependent sum and Id-types as well as the cumulative hierarchy of universes for
the first time in the literature (as far as we are aware), though the
surjectivity is accomplished merely by an inductive definition of a certain
class of games and strategies. Our games generalize the existing notion of
games, and achieve an interpretation of dependent types and the hierarchy of
universes in an intuitive yet mathematically precise manner, our strategies can
be seen as algorithms underlying programs (or proofs) in MLTT. A more
fine-grained interpretation of Id-types is left as future work.


title: The Gun Violence Database

abstract:
  We describe the Gun Violence Database (GVDB), a large and growing database of
gun violence incidents in the United States. The GVDB is built from the
detailed information found in local news reports about gun violence, and is
constructed via a large-scale crowdsourced annotation effort through our web
site, http://gun-violence.org/. We argue that centralized and publicly
available data about gun violence can facilitate scientific, fact-based
discussion about a topic that is often dominated by politics and emotion. We
describe our efforts to automate the construction of the database using
state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) technologies, eventually
enabling a fully-automated, highly-scalable resource for research on this
important public health problem.


title:
Universal sensitivity of speckle intensity correlations to wavefront
  change in light diffusers

abstract:
  Here, we present a concept based on the realization that a complex medium can
be used as a simple interferometer. Changes in the wavefront of an incident
coherent beam can be retrieved by analyzing changes in speckle patterns when
the beam passes through a light diffuser. We demonstrate that the spatial
intensity correlations of the speckle patterns are independent of the light
diffusers, and are solely determined by the phase changes of an incident beam.
With numerical simulations using the random matrix theory, and an experimental
pressure-driven wavefront-deforming setup using a microfluidic channel, we
theoretically and experimentally confirm the universal sensitivity of speckle
intensity correlations, which is attributed to the conservation of optical
field correlation despite multiple light scattering. This work demonstrates
that a complex media is a simple interferometer, and presents opportunities to
replace complicated reference-beam-assisted interferometers with a simple and
compact scattering layer in various applications in metrology, analytical
chemistry, and biomedicine.


title: On the sum of two squares and at most two powers of 2

abstract:
  We demonstrate that there are infinitely many integers that cannot be
expressed as the sum of two squares of integers and up to two non-negative
integer powers of 2.


title:
Electronic excitations stabilised by a degenerate electron gas in
  semiconductors

abstract:
  Excitons in semiconductors and insulators consist of fermionic subsystems,
electrons and holes, whose attractive interaction facilitates bound
quasiparticles with quasi-bosonic character due to even-numbered pair spins. In
the presence of a degenerate electron gas, such excitons dissociate due to free
carrier screening, leaving a spectrally broad and faint optical signature
behind. Contrary to this expected behaviour, we have discovered pronounced
emission traces in bulk, germanium-doped GaN up to 100 K, mimicking excitonic
behaviour at high free electron concentrations from 3.4E19/cm3 to 8.9E19/cm3.
Consequently, we show that a degenerate, three-dimensional electron gas
stabilizes a novel class of quasiparticles, named collexons, by many-particle
effects dominated by exchange of electrons with the Fermi gas. The observation
of collexons and their stabilisation with rising doping concentration, is
facilitated by a superior crystal quality due to perfect substitution of the
host atom with the dopant.


title: Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks: Articles, Authors and Programs

abstract:
  The phylogenetic network emerged in the 1990s as a new model to represent the
evolution of species in the case where coexisting species transfer genetic
information through hybridization, recombination, lateral gene transfer, etc.
As is true for many rapidly evolving fields, there is considerable
fragmentation and diversity in methodologies, standards and vocabulary in
phylogenetic network research, thus creating the need for an integrated
database of articles, authors, techniques, keywords and software. We describe
such a database, "Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks", available at
http://phylnet.univ-mlv.fr. "Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks" comprises
more than 600 publications and 500 authors interlinked with a rich set of more
than 200 keywords related to phylogenetic networks. The database is integrated
with web-based tools to visualize authorship and collaboration networks and
analyze these networks using common graph and social network metrics such as
centrality (betweenness, eigenvector, degree and closeness) and clustering. We
provide downloads of raw information about entries in the database, and a
facility to suggest modifications and contribute new information to the
database. We also present in this article common use cases of the database and
identify trends in the research on phylogenetic networks using the information
in the database and textual analysis.


title: Generalized Inverse Classification

abstract:
  Inverse classification is the process of perturbing an instance in a
meaningful way such that it is more likely to conform to a specific class.
Historical methods that address such a problem are often framed to leverage
only a single classifier, or specific set of classifiers. These works are often
accompanied by naive assumptions. In this work we propose generalized inverse
classification (GIC), which avoids restricting the classification model that
can be used. We incorporate this formulation into a refined framework in which
GIC takes place. Under this framework, GIC operates on features that are
immediately actionable. Each change incurs an individual cost, either linear or
non-linear. Such changes are subjected to occur within a specified level of
cumulative change (budget). Furthermore, our framework incorporates the
estimation of features that change as a consequence of direct actions taken
(indirectly changeable features). To solve such a problem, we propose three
real-valued heuristic-based methods and two sensitivity analysis-based
comparison methods, each of which is evaluated on two freely available
real-world datasets. Our results demonstrate the validity and benefits of our
formulation, framework, and methods.


title: Coloring decompositions of complete geometric graphs

abstract:
  A decomposition of a non-empty simple graph $G$ is a pair $[G,P]$, such that
$P$ is a set of non-empty induced subgraphs of $G$, and every edge of $G$
belongs to exactly one subgraph in $P$. The chromatic index $\chi'([G,P])$ of a
decomposition $[G,P]$ is the smallest number $k$ for which there exists a
$k$-coloring of the elements of $P$ in such a way that: for every element of
$P$ all of its edges have the same color, and if two members of $P$ share at
least one vertex, then they have different colors. A long standing conjecture
of Erd\H{o}s-Faber-Lov\'asz states that every decomposition $[K_n,P]$ of the
complete graph $K_n$ satisfies $\chi'([K_n,P])\leq n$. In this paper we work
with geometric graphs, and inspired by this formulation of the conjecture, we
introduce the concept of chromatic index of a decomposition of the complete
geometric graph. We present bounds for the chromatic index of several types of
decompositions when the vertices of the graph are in general position. We also
consider the particular case in which the vertices are in convex position and
present bounds for the chromatic index of a few types of decompositions.


title: Understanding the spectrum of the very hot DA white dwarf PG0948+534

abstract:
  PG0948+534 is currently one of the hottest DA white dwarf stars, and is also
one of the most mysterious. Attempts to model the sharp, deep absorption
features of this star have been unsuccessful. In these proceedings we describe
our analysis of PG0948+534. We perform a line survey of the UV spectrum of
PG0948+534, making detections of 300+ absorption features, and identifying four
distinct velocity regimes. We find evidence of circumstellar absorption in the
profiles of C {\sc iv} and Si {\sc iv}. Using non-local thermodynamic
equilibrium model atmospheres, we are able to correctly model the absorption
features of the star, providing abundance measurements for C, N, O, and Si for
PG0948+534 for the first time. We also revise the effective temperature and
gravity for this star using models including these new abundances.


title:
Giant deviation of a relaxation time from generalized Newtonian theory
  in Discontinuous Shear Thickening suspensions

abstract:
  We investigated the transient relaxation of a Discontinuous Shear Thickening
suspension of cornstarch in water. We performed 2 types of relaxation
experiments starting from a steady shear in a parallel plate rheometer,
followed by either stopping the top plate rotation and measuring the transient
torque relaxation, or removing the torque on the plate and measuring the
transient tool rotation. We found that at low weight fraction
$\phi_{eff}<58.8\pm0.4\%$, the suspensions exhibited a relaxation behavior
consistent with a generalized Newtonian fluid. However, for larger weight
fraction $58.8\% < \phi_{eff} < 61.0\%$, near the liquid-solid transition
$\phi_c=61.0\pm0.7\%$, we found relaxation behaviors different from the
generalized Newtonian model. The relaxation time in this range scales with the
inverse of the critical shear rate at the onset of shear thickening. In this
range the relaxation time was the same in both stress and rate controlled
experiments, rather than the viscosity calculated from the relaxation time
which is expected to be intrinsic material parameter in the generalized
Newtonian model. The discrepancy between the measured relaxation times and the
generalized Newtonian prediction was found to be up to $10^4$, and
extrapolations diverge in the limit of $\phi_c$ as the generalized Newtonian
prediction approaches 0. At the highest weight fractions, the relaxation time
scales were measured to be on the order of $\sim 1$ s. The fact that this
timescale is resolvable by the naked eye may be important to understanding some
of the dynamic phenomenon commonly observed in these systems. We also showed
that using the critical shear rate $\dot\gamma_c$ at the onset of shear
thickening to characterize the effective weight fraction can more precisely
characterize material properties near the critical point $\phi_c$, allowing us
to resolve this transition so close to $\phi_c$.


title:
Constraints on the Microphysics of Pluto's Photochemical Haze from New
  Horizons Observations

abstract:
  The New Horizons flyby of Pluto confirmed the existence of hazes in its
atmosphere. Observations of a large high- to low- phase brightness ratio,
combined with the blue color of the haze, suggest that the haze particles are
fractal aggregates, analogous to the photochemical hazes on Titan. Therefore,
studying the Pluto hazes can shed light on the similarities and differences
between the Pluto and Titan atmospheres. We model the haze distribution using
the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres assuming that the
distribution is shaped by sedimentation and coagulation of particles
originating from photochemistry. Hazes composed of both purely spherical and
purely fractal aggregate particles are considered. Agreement between model
results and occultation observations is obtained with aggregate particles when
the downward flux of photochemical products is equal to the column-integrated
methane destruction rate ~1.2 $\times$ 10$^{-14}$ g cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, while
for spherical particles the mass flux must be 2-3 times greater. This flux is
nearly identical to the haze production flux of Titan previously obtained by
comparing microphysical model results to Cassini observations. The aggregate
particle radius is sensitive to particle charging, and a particle charge to
radius ratio of 30 e-/{\mu}m is necessary to produce ~0.1-0.2 {\mu}m aggregates
near Pluto's surface, in accordance with forward scattering measurements. Such
a particle charge to radius ratio is 2-4 times higher than those previously
obtained for Titan. Hazes composed of spheres with the same particle charge to
radius ratio have particles that are 4 times smaller. These results further
suggest that the haze particles are fractal aggregates. We also consider the
effect of condensation of HCN, and C$_{2}$-hydrocarbons on the haze particles,
which may play an important role in shaping their distributions.


title: Non-classical heat conduction problem with non local source

abstract:
  We consider the non-classical heat conduction equation, in the domain
$D=\br^{n-1}\times\br^{+}$, for which the internal energy supply depends on an
integral function in the time variable of % $(y , t)\mapsto \int_{0}^{t}
u_{x}(0 , y , s) ds$, %where $u_{x}(0 , y , s)$ is the heat flux on the
boundary $S=\partial D$, with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition and an
initial condition. The problem is motivated by the modeling of temperature
regulation in the medium. The solution to the problem is found using a Volterra
integral equation of second kind in the time variable $t$ with a parameter in
$\br^{n-1}$. The solution to this Volterra equation is the heat flux $(y,
s)\mapsto V(y , t)= u_{x}(0 , y , t)$ on $S$, which is an additional unknown of
the considered problem. We show that a unique local solution exists, which can
be extended globally in time. Finally a one-dimensional case is studied with
some simplifications, we obtain the solution explicitly by using the Adomian
method and we derive its properties.


title: A user's guide: Completed power operations for Morava $E$-theory

abstract:
  The user's guide provides a behind-the-scenes look at the paper of that
title.


title:
High-dimensional decoy-state quantum key distribution over 0.3 km of
  multicore telecommunication optical fibers

abstract:
  Multiplexing is a strategy to augment the transmission capacity of a
communication system. It consists of combining multiple signals over the same
data channel and it has been very successful in classical communications.
However, the use of enhanced channels has only reached limited practicality in
quantum communications (QC) as it requires the complex manipulation of quantum
systems of higher dimensions. Considerable effort is being made towards QC
using high-dimensional quantum systems encoded into the transverse momentum of
single photons but, so far, no approach has been proven to be fully compatible
with the existing telecommunication infrastructure. Here, we overcome such a
technological challenge and demonstrate a stable and secure high-dimensional
decoy-state quantum key distribution session over a 0.3 km long multicore
optical fiber. The high-dimensional quantum states are defined in terms of the
multiple core modes available for the photon transmission over the fiber, and
the decoy-state analysis demonstrates that our technique enables a positive
secret key generation rate up to 25 km of fiber propagation. Finally, we show
how our results build up towards a high-dimensional quantum network composed of
free-space and fiber based links


title:
Automatic Sleep Stage Scoring with Single-Channel EEG Using
  Convolutional Neural Networks

abstract:
  We used convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for automatic sleep stage
scoring based on single-channel electroencephalography (EEG) to learn
task-specific filters for classification without using prior domain knowledge.
We used an openly available dataset from 20 healthy young adults for evaluation
and applied 20-fold cross-validation. We used class-balanced random sampling
within the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) optimization of the CNN to avoid
skewed performance in favor of the most represented sleep stages. We achieved
high mean F1-score (81%, range 79-83%), mean accuracy across individual sleep
stages (82%, range 80-84%) and overall accuracy (74%, range 71-76%) over all
subjects. By analyzing and visualizing the filters that our CNN learns, we
found that rules learned by the filters correspond to sleep scoring criteria in
the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) manual that human experts follow.
Our method's performance is balanced across classes and our results are
comparable to state-of-the-art methods with hand-engineered features. We show
that, without using prior domain knowledge, a CNN can automatically learn to
distinguish among different normal sleep stages.


title:
Voting by Hands Promotes Institutionalised Monitoring in Indirect
  Reciprocity

abstract:
  Indirect reciprocity based on reputation is a leading mechanism driving human
cooperation, where monitoring of behaviour and sharing reputation-related
information are crucial. Because collecting information is costly, a tragedy of
the commons can arise, with some individuals free-riding on information
supplied by others. This can be overcome by organising monitors that aggregate
information, supported by fees from their information users. We analyse a
co-evolutionary model of individuals playing a social dilemma game and monitors
watching them; monitors provide information and players vote for a more
beneficial monitor. We find that (1) monitors that simply rate defection badly
cannot stabilise cooperation---they have to overlook defection against
ill-reputed players; (2) such overlooking monitors can stabilise cooperation if
players vote for monitors rather than to change their own strategy; (3) STERN
monitors, who rate cooperation with ill-reputed players badly, stabilise
cooperation more easily than MILD monitors, who do not do so; (4) a STERN
monitor wins if it competes with a MILD monitor; and (5) STERN monitors require
a high level of surveillance and achieve only lower levels of cooperation,
whereas MILD monitors achieve higher levels of cooperation with loose and thus
lower cost monitoring.


title: Supervision via Competition: Robot Adversaries for Learning Tasks

abstract:
  There has been a recent paradigm shift in robotics to data-driven learning
for planning and control. Due to large number of experiences required for
training, most of these approaches use a self-supervised paradigm: using
sensors to measure success/failure. However, in most cases, these sensors
provide weak supervision at best. In this work, we propose an adversarial
learning framework that pits an adversary against the robot learning the task.
In an effort to defeat the adversary, the original robot learns to perform the
task with more robustness leading to overall improved performance. We show that
this adversarial framework forces the the robot to learn a better grasping
model in order to overcome the adversary. By grasping 82% of presented novel
objects compared to 68% without an adversary, we demonstrate the utility of
creating adversaries. We also demonstrate via experiments that having robots in
adversarial setting might be a better learning strategy as compared to having
collaborative multiple robots.


title: Abaci structures of $(s,ms\pm1)$-core partitions

abstract:
  We develop a geometric approach to the study of $(s,ms-1)$-core and
$(s,ms+1)$-core partitions through the associated $ms$-abaci. This perspective
yields new proofs for results of H. Xiong and A. Straub (originally proposed by
T. Amdeberhan) on the enumeration of $(s, s+1)$ and $(s,ms-1)$-core partitions
with distinct parts. It also enumerates the $(s, ms+1)$-cores with distinct
parts. Furthermore, we calculate the weight of the $(s, ms-1,ms+1)$-core
partition with the largest number of parts. Finally we use 2-core partitions to
enumerate self-conjugate core partitions with distinct parts. The central idea
is that the $ms$-abaci of maximal $(s,ms\pm1)$-cores can be built up from
$s$-abaci of $(s,s\pm 1)$-cores in an elegant way.


title: Sampled Fictitious Play is Hannan Consistent

abstract:
  Fictitious play is a simple and widely studied adaptive heuristic for playing
repeated games. It is well known that fictitious play fails to be Hannan
consistent. Several variants of fictitious play including regret matching,
generalized regret matching and smooth fictitious play, are known to be Hannan
consistent. In this note, we consider sampled fictitious play: at each round,
the player samples past times and plays the best response to previous moves of
other players at the sampled time points. We show that sampled fictitious play,
using Bernoulli sampling, is Hannan consistent. Unlike several existing Hannan
consistency proofs that rely on concentration of measure results, ours instead
uses anti-concentration results from Littlewood-Offord theory.


title:
Dissecting a SN impostor's circumstellar medium: MUSEing about the SHAPE
  of eta Car's outer ejecta

abstract:
  Aims. The structural inhomogeneities and kinematics of massive star nebulae
are tracers of their mass-loss history. We conduct a three-dimensional
morpho-kinematic analysis of the ejecta of eta Car outside its famous
Homunculus nebula. Methods. We carried out the first large-scale integral field
unit observations of eta Car in the optical, covering a field of view of 1'x1'
centered on the star. Observations with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer
(MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) reveal the detailed three-dimensional
structure of eta Car's outer ejecta. Morpho-kinematic modeling of these ejecta
is conducted with the code SHAPE. Results. The largest coherent structure in
eta Car's outer ejecta can be described as a bent cylinder with roughly the
same symmetry axis as the Homunculus nebula. This large outer shell is
interacting with the surrounding medium, creating soft X-ray emission. We
establish the shape and extent of the ghost shell in front of the southern
Homunculus lobe and confirm that the NN condensation can best be modeled as a
bowshock in the orbital/equatorial plane. Conclusions. The SHAPE modeling of
the MUSE observations indicates that the kinematics of the outer ejecta
measured with MUSE can be described by a spatially coherent structure, and this
structure also correlates with the extended soft X-ray emission associated with
the outer debris field. The ghost shell just outside the southern Homunculus
lobe hints at a sequence of eruptions within the time frame of the Great
Eruption from 1837-1858 or possibly a later shock/reverse shock velocity
separation. Our 3D morpho-kinematic modeling and the MUSE observations
constitute an invaluable dataset to be confronted with future
radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. Such a comparison may shed light on the
yet elusive physical mechanism responsible for eta Car-like eruptions.


title: Moonshine modules and a question of Griess

abstract:
  We consider the situation in which a finite group acts on an
infinite-dimensional graded module in such a way that the graded trace
functions are weakly holomorphic modular forms. Under a mild hypothesis we
completely describe the asymptotic module structure of the homogeneous
subspaces. As a consequence we find that moonshine for a group gives rise to
partial orderings on its irreducible representations. This serves as a first
answer to a question posed by Griess. In particular, we show that our
hypothesis holds for umbral moonshine and for automorphism groups of certain
vertex operator algebras.


title: Low-tubal-rank Tensor Completion using Alternating Minimization

abstract:
  The low-tubal-rank tensor model has been recently proposed for real-world
multidimensional data. In this paper, we study the low-tubal-rank tensor
completion problem, i.e., to recover a third-order tensor by observing a subset
of its elements selected uniformly at random. We propose a fast iterative
algorithm, called {\em Tubal-Alt-Min}, that is inspired by a similar approach
for low-rank matrix completion. The unknown low-tubal-rank tensor is
represented as the product of two much smaller tensors with the low-tubal-rank
property being automatically incorporated, and Tubal-Alt-Min alternates between
estimating those two tensors using tensor least squares minimization. First, we
note that tensor least squares minimization is different from its matrix
counterpart and nontrivial as the circular convolution operator of the
low-tubal-rank tensor model is intertwined with the sub-sampling operator.
Second, the theoretical performance guarantee is challenging since
Tubal-Alt-Min is iterative and nonconvex in nature. We prove that 1)
Tubal-Alt-Min guarantees exponential convergence to the global optima, and 2)
for an $n \times n \times k$ tensor with tubal-rank $r \ll n$, the required
sampling complexity is $O(nr^2k \log^3 n)$ and the computational complexity is
$O(n^2rk^2 \log^2 n)$. Third, on both synthetic data and real-world video data,
evaluation results show that compared with tensor-nuclear norm minimization
(TNN-ADMM), Tubal-Alt-Min improves the recovery error dramatically (by orders
of magnitude). It is estimated that Tubal-Alt-Min converges at an exponential
rate $10^{-0.4423 \text{Iter}}$ where $\text{Iter}$ denotes the number of
iterations, which is much faster than TNN-ADMM's $10^{-0.0332 \text{Iter}}$,
and the running time can be accelerated by more than $5$ times for a $200
\times 200 \times 20$ tensor.


title:
Towards a Drone Cinematographer: Guiding Quadrotor Cameras using Visual
  Composition Principles

abstract:
  We present a system to capture video footage of human subjects in the real
world. Our system leverages a quadrotor camera to automatically capture
well-composed video of two subjects. Subjects are tracked in a large-scale
outdoor environment using RTK GPS and IMU sensors. Then, given the tracked
state of our subjects, our system automatically computes static shots based on
well-established visual composition principles and canonical shots from
cinematography literature. To transition between these static shots, we
calculate feasible, safe, and visually pleasing transitions using a novel
real-time trajectory planning algorithm. We evaluate the performance of our
tracking system, and experimentally show that RTK GPS significantly outperforms
conventional GPS in capturing a variety of canonical shots. Lastly, we
demonstrate our system guiding a consumer quadrotor camera autonomously
capturing footage of two subjects in a variety of use cases. This is the first
end-to-end system that enables people to leverage the mobility of quadrotors,
as well as the knowledge of expert filmmakers, to autonomously capture
high-quality footage of people in the real world.


title: Near-Optimal Variance-Based Uncertainty Relations

abstract:
  Learning physical properties of a quantum system is essential for the
developments of quantum technologies. However, Heisenberg's uncertainty
principle constrains the potential knowledge one can simultaneously have about
a system in quantum theory. Aside from its fundamental significance, the
mathematical characterization of this restriction, known as `uncertainty
relation', plays important roles in a wide range of applications, stimulating
the formation of tighter uncertainty relations. In this work, we investigate
the fundamental limitations of variance-based uncertainty relations, and
introduce several `near optimal' bounds for incompatible observables. Our
results consist of two morphologically distinct phases: lower bounds that
illustrate the uncertainties about measurement outcomes, and the upper bound
that indicates the potential knowledge we can gain. Combining them together
leads to an \emph{uncertainty interval}, which captures the essence of
uncertainties in quantum theory. Finally, we have detailed how to formulate
lower bounds for product-form variance-based uncertainty relations by employing
entropic uncertainty relations, and hence built a link between different forms
of uncertainty relations.


title:
Near-field measurement of modal interference in optical nanofibers for
  sub-Angstrom radius sensitivity

abstract:
  Optical nanofibers (ONF) of subwavelength dimensions confine light in modes
with a strong evanescent field that can trap, probe, and manipulate nearby
quantum systems. To measure the evanescent field and propagating modes, and to
optimize ONF performance, a surface probe is desirable during fabrication. We
demonstrate a nondestructive measurement of light propagation in ONFs by
sampling the local evanescent field with a microfiber. This approach reveals
the behavior of all propagating modes, and because the modal beat lengths in
cylindrical waveguides depend strongly on radius, simultaneously provides
exquisite sensitivity to the ONF radius. We show that our measured spatial
frequencies provide a map of the average ONF radius (over a 600 micrometer
window) along the 10 mm ONF waist with 40 picometer resolution and high
signal-to-noise ratio. The measurements agree with scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) to within SEM instrument resolution. This fast method is immune to
polarization, intrinsic birefringence, mechanical vibrations, scattered light,
and provides a set of constraints to protect from systematic errors in the
measurements


title:
Isogeometric finite element analysis of time-harmonic exterior acoustic
  scattering problems

abstract:
  We present an isogeometric analysis of time-harmonic exterior acoustic
problems. The infinite space is truncated by a fictitious boundary and (simple)
absorbing boundary conditions are applied. The truncation error is included in
the exact solution so that the reported error is an indicator of the
performance of the isogeometric analysis, in particular of the related
pollution error. Numerical results performed with high-order basis functions
(third or fourth orders) showed no visible pollution error even for very high
frequencies. This property combined with exact geometrical representation makes
isogeometric analysis a very promising platform to solve high-frequency
acoustic problems.


title: Green-to-Red Sequences for Positroids

abstract:
  Le-diagrams are combinatorial objects that parametrize cells of the totally
nonnegative Grassmannian, called positroid cells, and each Le-diagram gives
rise to a cluster algebra which is believed to be isomorphic to the coordinate
ring of the corresponding positroid variety. We study quivers arising from
these diagrams and show that they can be constructed from the well-behaved
quivers associated to Grassmannians by deleting and merging certain vertices.
Then, we prove that quivers coming from arbitrary Le-diagrams, and more
generally reduced plabic graphs, admit a particular sequence of mutations
called a green-to-red sequence.


title:
Duality and Conditional Expectations in the Nakajima-Mori-Zwanzig
  Formulation

abstract:
  We develop a new operator algebraic formulation of the Nakajima-Mori-Zwanzig
(NMZ) method of projections. The new theory is built upon rigorous mathematical
foundations, and it can be applied to both classical and quantum systems. We
show that a duality principle between the NMZ formulation in the space of
observables and in the state space can be established, analogous to the
Heisenberg and Schr\"odinger pictures in quantum mechanics. Based on this
duality we prove that, under natural assumptions, the projection operators
appearing in the NMZ equation must be conditional expectations. The proposed
formulation is illustrated in various examples.

categories: math-ph math.DS math.MP math.OA quant-ph


title:
Central Limit Theory for Combined Cross-Section and Time Series with an
  Application to Aggregate Productivity Shocks

abstract:
  Combining cross-section and time series data is a long and well established
practice in empirical economics. We develop a central limit theory that
explicitly accounts for possible dependence between the two data sets. We focus
on common factors as the mechanism behind this dependence. Using our central
limit theorem (CLT) we establish the asymptotic properties of parameter
estimates of a general class of models based on a combination of
cross-sectional and time series data, recognizing the interdependence between
the two data sources in the presence of aggregate shocks. Despite the
complicated nature of the analysis required to formulate the joint CLT, it is
straightforward to implement the resulting parameter limiting distributions due
to a formal similarity of our approximations with the standard Murphy and
Topel's (1985) formula.


title: Human Decision-Making under Limited Time

abstract:
  Subjective expected utility theory assumes that decision-makers possess
unlimited computational resources to reason about their choices; however,
virtually all decisions in everyday life are made under resource constraints -
i.e. decision-makers are bounded in their rationality. Here we experimentally
tested the predictions made by a formalization of bounded rationality based on
ideas from statistical mechanics and information-theory. We systematically
tested human subjects in their ability to solve combinatorial puzzles under
different time limitations. We found that our bounded-rational model accounts
well for the data. The decomposition of the fitted model parameter into the
subjects' expected utility function and resource parameter provide interesting
insight into the subjects' information capacity limits. Our results confirm
that humans gradually fall back on their learned prior choice patterns when
confronted with increasing resource limitations.


title:
Stability of determinacy and inverse spectral problems for Jacobi
  operators

abstract:
  This work studies the interplay between Green functions, the index of
determinacy of spectral measures and interior finite rank perturbations of
Jacobi operators. The index of determinacy quantifies the stability of
uniqueness of solutions of the moment problem. We give results on the constancy
of this index in terms of perturbations of the corresponding Jacobi operators.
The permanence of the $N$-extremality of a measure is also studied. A measure
$\mu$ is $N$-extremal when the polynomials are dense in $L_2(\mathbb{R},\mu)$.
As a by-product, we give a characterization of the index in terms of cyclic
vectors. We consider a new inverse problem for Jacobi operators in which
information on the place where the interior perturbation occurs is obtained
from the index of determinacy.


title:
Cross-sections for neutral atoms and molecules collisions with charged
  spherical nanoparticle

abstract:
  The paper presents cross sections for collisions of neutral atoms/molecules
with a charged nanoparticle, which is the source of the dipole potential. The
accuracy of the orbital limited motion (OLM) approximation is estimated. It is
shown that simple analytical formulas for the atoms/molecules and heat fluxes,
obtained in the OLM approximation, give an error of not more than 15%, and are
applicable in all reasonable range of nanoparticles and weakly ionized plasma
parameters.


title: Reflection symmetries of Isolated Self-consistent Stellar Systems

abstract:
  Isolated, steady-state galaxies correspond to equilibrium solutions of the
Poisson--Vlasov system. We show that (i) all galaxies with a distribution
function depending on energy alone must be spherically symmetric and (ii) all
axisymmetric galaxies with a distribution function depending on energy and the
angular momentum component parallel to the symmetry axis must also be
reflection-symmetric about the plane $z=0$. The former result is Lichtenstein's
Theorem, derived here by a method exploiting symmetries of solutions of
elliptic partial differential equations, while the latter result is new. These
results are subsumed into the Symmetry Theorem, which specifies how the
symmetries of the distribution function in configuration or velocity space can
control the planes of reflection symmetries of the ensuing stellar system.


title: Off-centred dark matter halo leading to strong central disc lopsidedness

abstract:
  There is increasing evidence now from simulations and observations that the
centre of dark matter halo in a Milky Way type galaxy could be off-centred by a
few 100 pc w.r.t. the galactic disc. We study the effect of such an offset halo
on the orbits and kinematics in the central few kpc of the disc. The equations
of motion in the disc plane can be written in terms of the disc and halo
potentials when these two are concentric and a perturbation term due to the
offset halo. This perturbation potential shows an m=1 azimuthal variation, or
is lopsided, and its magnitude increases at small radii. On solving these
equations, we find that the perturbed orbit shows a large deviation of ~ 40 %
in radius at R = 1.5 kpc, and also strong kinematical lopsidedness. Thus even a
small halo offset of 350 pc can induce surprisingly strong spatial and
kinematical lopsidedness in the central region within ~ 3 kpc radius. Further,
the disc would remain lopsided for several Gyr, as long as the halo offset
lasts. This would have important implications for the dynamical evolution of
this region.


title: Emergence of phase concentration for the Kuramoto-Sakaguchi equation

abstract:
  We study the asymptotic phase concentration phenomena for the
Kuramoto-Sakaguchi(K-S) equation in a large coupling strength regime. For this,
we analyze the detailed dynamics of the order parameters such as the amplitude
and the average phase. For the infinite ensemble of oscillators with the
identical natural frequency, we show that the total mass distribution
concentrates on the average phase asymptotically, whereas the mass around the
antipodal point of the average phase decays to zero exponentially fast in any
positive coupling strength regime. Thus, generic initial kinetic densities
evolve toward the Dirac measure concentrated on the average phase. In contrast,
for the infinite ensemble with distributed natural frequencies, we find a
certain time-dependent interval whose length can be explicitly quantified in
terms of the coupling strength. Provided that the coupling strength is
sufficiently large, the mass on such an interval is eventually non-decreasing
over the time. We also show that the amplitude order parameter has a positive
lower bound that depends on the size of support of the distribution function
for the natural frequencies and the coupling strength. The proposed asymptotic
lower bound on the order parameter tends to unity, as the coupling strength
increases to infinity. This is reminiscent of practical synchronization for the
Kuramoto model, in which the diameter for the phase configuration is inversely
proportional to the coupling strength. Our results for the K-S equation
generalize the results in [19] on the emergence of phase-locked states for the
Kuramoto model in a large coupling strength regime.


title:
Neural correlates of self-generated imagery and cognition throughout the
  sleep cycle

abstract:
  Humans have been aware for thousands of years that sleep comes in many forms,
accompanied by different kinds of mental content. We review the first-person
report literature on the frequency and type of content experienced in various
stages of sleep, showing that different sleep stages are dissociable at the
subjective level. We then relate these subjective differences to the growing
literature differentiating the various sleep stages at the neurophysiological
level, including evidence from electrophysiology, neurochemistry, and
functional neuroimaging. We suggest that there is emerging evidence for
relationships between sleep stage, neurophysiological activity, and subjective
experiences. Specifically, we emphasize that functional neuroimaging work
suggests a parallel between activation and deactivation of default network and
visual network brain areas and the varying frequency and intensity of imagery
and dream mentation across sleep stages; additionally, frontoparietal control
network activity across sleep stages may parallel levels of cognitive control
and meta-awareness. Together these findings suggest intriguing brain-mind
isomorphisms and may serve as a first step toward a comprehensive understanding
of the relationship between neurophysiology and psychology in sleep and
dreaming.


title:
X-ray and Rotational Luminosity Correlation and Magnetic Heating of the
  Radio Pulsars

abstract:
  Previous works have suggested a correlation between the X-ray luminosity Lx
and the rotational luminosity Lrot of the radio pulsars.However, none of the
obtained regression lines are statistically acceptable due to large scatters.
  We construct a statistical model which has an intrinsic Lx-Lrot relation and
reproduces the observed Lx distribution about it by using a Monte Carlo
simulator, which takes into account the effects obscuring the intrinsic
relation,i.e., the anisotropy of radiation, additional heating, uncertainty in
distance and detection limit of the instruments.
  From the ATNF pulsar catalog we collect 57 `ordinary radio pulsars' with
significant detection and 42 with upper limits.The sample does not include the
high-magnetic field pulsars (>10^{13} G), which are separately analyzed.
  We obtain a statistically acceptable relation Lx (0.5 - 10 keV)= 10^{31.69}
(Lrot / L_0)^{c_1} with c_1 = 1.03 \pm 0.27 and L_0 =10^{35.38}. The
distribution about the obtained Lx-Lrot relation is reproduced well by the
simulator.
  Pulsars with abnormally high Lx fall into two types: one is the soft
gamma-ray pulsars, and the other is thermally bright pulsars in comparison with
the standard cooling curve. On the other hand, pulsars showing low Lx are found
to have dim pulsar wind nebulae. We argue that there is an unknown mechanism
that governs both the magnetospheric emission and the pulsar wind nebulae, and
it might involve the production rate of electron-positron pairs.
  The high-field pulsars form a distinctive population other than the ordinary
pulsars due to their excess luminosities.


title:
Exploiting Depth from Single Monocular Images for Object Detection and
  Semantic Segmentation

abstract:
  Augmenting RGB data with measured depth has been shown to improve the
performance of a range of tasks in computer vision including object detection
and semantic segmentation. Although depth sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect
have facilitated easy acquisition of such depth information, the vast majority
of images used in vision tasks do not contain depth information. In this paper,
we show that augmenting RGB images with estimated depth can also improve the
accuracy of both object detection and semantic segmentation. Specifically, we
first exploit the recent success of depth estimation from monocular images and
learn a deep depth estimation model. Then we learn deep depth features from the
estimated depth and combine with RGB features for object detection and semantic
segmentation. Additionally, we propose an RGB-D semantic segmentation method
which applies a multi-task training scheme: semantic label prediction and depth
value regression. We test our methods on several datasets and demonstrate that
incorporating information from estimated depth improves the performance of
object detection and semantic segmentation remarkably.


title:
Anisotropic Babinet-invertible metasurfaces to realize
  transmission-reflection switching for orthogonal polarizations of light

abstract:
  The electromagnetic properties of an extremely thin metallic checkerboard
drastically change from resonant reflection (transmission) to resonant
transmission (reflection) when the local electrical conductivity at the
interconnection points of the checkerboard is switched. To date, such critical
transitions of metasurfaces have been applied only when they have 4-fold
rotational symmetry, and their application to polarization control, which
requires anisotropy, has been unexplored. To overcome this applicability
limitation and open up new pathways for dynamic deep-subwavelength polarization
control by utilizing critical transitions of checkerboard-like metasurfaces, we
introduce a universal class of anisotropic Babinet-invertible metasurfaces
enabling transmission-reflection switching for each orthogonally polarized
wave. As an application of anisotropic Babinet-invertible metasurfaces, we
experimentally realize a reconfigurable terahertz polarizer whose transmitting
axis can be dynamically rotated by $90^\circ$.


title:
A Deep Spatial Contextual Long-term Recurrent Convolutional Network for
  Saliency Detection

abstract:
  Traditional saliency models usually adopt hand-crafted image features and
human-designed mechanisms to calculate local or global contrast. In this paper,
we propose a novel computational saliency model, i.e., deep spatial contextual
long-term recurrent convolutional network (DSCLRCN) to predict where people
looks in natural scenes. DSCLRCN first automatically learns saliency related
local features on each image location in parallel. Then, in contrast with most
other deep network based saliency models which infer saliency in local
contexts, DSCLRCN can mimic the cortical lateral inhibition mechanisms in human
visual system to incorporate global contexts to assess the saliency of each
image location by leveraging the deep spatial long short-term memory (DSLSTM)
model. Moreover, we also integrate scene context modulation in DSLSTM for
saliency inference, leading to a novel deep spatial contextual LSTM (DSCLSTM)
model. The whole network can be trained end-to-end and works efficiently when
testing. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets show that DSCLRCN can
achieve state-of-the-art performance on saliency detection. Furthermore, the
proposed DSCLSTM model can significantly boost the saliency detection
performance by incorporating both global spatial interconnections and scene
context modulation, which may uncover novel inspirations for studies on them in
computational saliency models.


title:
Photohadronic scenario in interpreting the February-March 2014 flare of
  1ES 1011+496

abstract:
  The extraordinary multi-TeV flare from 1ES 1011 +496 during February-March
2014 was observed by MAGIC telescopes for 17 nights and the average spectrum of
the whole period has a non-trivial shape. We have used the photohadronic model
and a template EBL model to explain the average spectrum which fits well to the
flare data. The spectral index $\alpha$ is the only free parameter in our
model. We have also shown that the non-trivial nature of the spectrum is due to
the change in the behavior of the optical depth above $\sim 600$ GeV
$\gamma$-ray energy accompanied with the high SSC flux.


title:
Isospin decomposition of the $\gamma^{(*)} N \to N^*$ transitions as
  input for constructing models of neutrino-induced reactions in the nucleon
  resonance region

abstract:
  We present our recent efforts to determine the matrix elements associated
with the transition between the nucleon and a nucleon resonance induced by the
vector current, which are necessary ingredients for models of neutrino-induced
reactions in the resonance region. This is accomplished by making the
comprehensive analysis of the data for various meson photo- and
electro-production reactions off the nucleon within a sophisticated
coupled-channels framework, which is known as the ANL-Osaka dynamical
coupled-channels model. We also give a brief introduction to our project for
constructing a unified neutrino reaction model conducted at the J-PARC Branch
of the KEK Theory Center.


title: Imaging non-local electron transport via local excess noise

abstract:
  Noise is usually a hindrance to signal detection. As stressed by Landauer,
however, noise can be an invaluable signal that reveals kinetics of charge
particles. Understanding local non-equilibrium electron kinetics at nano-scale
is of decisive importance for the development of miniaturized electronic
devices, optical nano-devices, and heat management devices. In non-equilibrium
conditions electrons cause current fluctuation (excess noise) that contains
fingerprint-like information about the electron kinetics. A crucial challenge
is hence a local detection of excess noise and its real-space mapping. However,
the challenge has not been tackled in existing noise measurements because the
noise studied was the spatially integrated one. Here we report the experiment
in which the excess noise at ultra-high-frequency(21.3THz), generated on
GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well (QW) devices with a nano-scale constriction, is
locally detected and mapped for the first time. We use a sharp tungsten tip as
a movable, contact-free and noninvasive probe of the local noise, and achieved
nano-scale spatial resolution (~50nm). Local profile of electron heating and
hot-electron kinetics at nano-scales are thereby visualized for the first time,
disclosing remarkable non-local nature of the transport, stemming from the
velocity overshoot and the intervalley hot electron transfer. While we
demonstrate the usefulness of our experimental method by applying to mesoscopic
conductors, we emphasize that the method is applicable to a variety of
different materials beyond the conductor, and term our instrument a scanning
noise microscope (SNoiM):In general non-equilibrium current fluctuations are
generated in any materials including dielectrics, metals and molecular systems.
The fluctuations, in turn, excite fluctuating electric and magnetic evanescent
fields on the material surface, which can be detected and imaged by our SNoiM.


title:
A Methodology for Customizing Clinical Tests for Esophageal Cancer based
  on Patient Preferences

abstract:
  Tests for Esophageal cancer can be expensive, uncomfortable and can have side
effects. For many patients, we can predict non-existence of disease with 100%
certainty, just using demographics, lifestyle, and medical history information.
Our objective is to devise a general methodology for customizing tests using
user preferences so that expensive or uncomfortable tests can be avoided. We
propose to use classifiers trained from electronic health records (EHR) for
selection of tests. The key idea is to design classifiers with 100% false
normal rates, possibly at the cost higher false abnormals. We compare Naive
Bayes classification (NB), Random Forests (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM)
and Logistic Regression (LR), and find kernel Logistic regression to be most
suitable for the task. We propose an algorithm for finding the best probability
threshold for kernel LR, based on test set accuracy. Using the proposed
algorithm, we describe schemes for selecting tests, which appear as features in
the automatic classification algorithm, using preferences on costs and
discomfort of the users. We test our methodology with EHRs collected for more
than 3000 patients, as a part of project carried out by a reputed hospital in
Mumbai, India. Kernel SVM and kernel LR with a polynomial kernel of degree 3,
yields an accuracy of 99.8% and sensitivity 100%, without the MP features, i.e.
using only clinical tests. We demonstrate our test selection algorithm using
two case studies, one using cost of clinical tests, and other using
"discomfort" values for clinical tests. We compute the test sets corresponding
to the lowest false abnormals for each criterion described above, using
exhaustive enumeration of 15 clinical tests. The sets turn out to different,
substantiating our claim that one can customize test sets based on user
preferences.


title: Generating Simulations of Motion Events from Verbal Descriptions

abstract:
  In this paper, we describe a computational model for motion events in natural
language that maps from linguistic expressions, through a dynamic event
interpretation, into three-dimensional temporal simulations in a model.
Starting with the model from (Pustejovsky and Moszkowicz, 2011), we analyze
motion events using temporally-traced Labelled Transition Systems. We model the
distinction between path- and manner-motion in an operational semantics, and
further distinguish different types of manner-of-motion verbs in terms of the
mereo-topological relations that hold throughout the process of movement. From
these representations, we generate minimal models, which are realized as
three-dimensional simulations in software developed with the game engine,
Unity. The generated simulations act as a conceptual "debugger" for the
semantics of different motion verbs: that is, by testing for consistency and
informativeness in the model, simulations expose the presuppositions associated
with linguistic expressions and their compositions. Because the model
generation component is still incomplete, this paper focuses on an
implementation which maps directly from linguistic interpretations into the
Unity code snippets that create the simulations.


title:
Visualization of defect-induced excitonic properties of the edges and
  grain boundaries in synthesized monolayer molybdenum disulfide

abstract:
  Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs)
are attractive materials for next generation nanoscale optoelectronic
applications. Understanding nanoscale optical behavior of the edges and grain
boundaries of synthetically grown TMDCs is vital for optimizing their
optoelectronic properties. Elucidating the nanoscale optical properties of 2D
materials through far-field optical microscopy requires a diffraction-limited
optical beam diameter sub-micron in size. Here we present our experimental work
on spatial photoluminescence (PL) scanning of large size ( $\geq 50$ microns)
monolayer MoS$_2$ grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using a diffraction
limited blue laser beam spot (wavelength 405 nm) with a beam diameter as small
as 200 nm allowing us to probe nanoscale excitonic phenomena which was not
observed before. We have found several important features: (i) there exists a
sub-micron width strip ($\sim 500$ nm) along the edges that fluoresces $\sim
1000 \%$ brighter than the region far inside; (ii) there is another brighter
wide region consisting of parallel fluorescing lines ending at the corners of
the zig-zag peripheral edges; (iii) there is a giant blue shifted A-excitonic
peak, as large as $\sim 120$ meV, in the PL spectra from the edges. Using
density functional theory calculations, we attribute this giant blue shift to
the adsorption of oxygen dimers at the edges, which reduces the excitonic
binding energy. Our results not only shed light on defect-induced excitonic
properties, but also offer an attractive route to tailor optical properties at
the TMDC edges through defect engineering.


title: The $L^p$ Carleman estimate and a partial data inverse problem

abstract:
  We construct an explicit Green's function for the conjugated Laplacian
$e^{-\omega \cdot x/h}\Delta e^{-\omega \cdot x/h}$, which let us control our
solutions on roughly half of the boundary. We apply the Green's function to
solve a partial data inverse problem for the Schr\"odinger equation with
potential $q \in L^{n/2}$. We also use this Green's function to derive $L^p$
Carleman estimates similar to the ones in Kenig-Ruiz-Sogge \cite{krs}, but for
functions with support up to part of the boundary.


title:
Isotropic-nematic behaviour of hard rigid rods: a percolation theoretic
  approach

abstract:
  Needles at different orientations are placed in an i.i.d. manner at points of
a Poisson point process on $\mathbb R^2$ of density $\lambda$. Needles at the
same direction have the same length, while needles at different directions
maybe of different lengths. We study the geometry of a finite cluster when
needles have only two possible orientations and when needles have only three
possible orientations. In both these cases the asymptotic shape of the finite
cluster as $\lambda \to \infty$ is shown to consists of needles only in two
directions. In the two orientations case the shape does not depend on the
orientation but just on the i.i.d. structure of the orientations, while in the
three orientations case the shape depend on all the parameters, i.e. the i.i.d.
structure of the orientations, the lengths and the orientations of the needles.


title:
Histological and Histochemical Studies on the Esophagus, Stomach and
  Small Intestines of Vara-nus niloticus

abstract:
  The aim of the current study was to investigate the morphological structure
of one of the most common reptilian species in Egypt, Varanus niloticus or Nile
monitor. Specimens for histological examination were collected from the
esophageus, stomach and small intestine of the Nile monitor and processed for
paraffin embedding. Sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin for
general morphology. Periodic Acid Schiff's (PAS) and Alcian Blue (AB) staining
methods were applied to detect the different types of the mucous con-tents of
the gastro-intestinal tract. Some paraffin sections were stained with Grimelius
silver impregnation technique for localization of the enteroendocrine cells.
The folded esophageal mucosa had ciliated columnar epithelium with mucous
secreting goblet cells, which stained positive with PAS and AB. The esophageal
mucosa was folded and the lining epithelium was ciliated columnar epithelium
with mucous secreting goblet cells, which stained positive with PAS and AB. The
stomach was divided into fundic and pyloric regions. The mucosa was thrown into
gastric pits, into which the gastric glands opened. The surface epithelium was
mucous secreting columnar cells and stained positive with PAS but negative with
AB. The fundic gland was made by oxynticopeptic cells and few mucous cells,
while the entire pyloric gland was made by mucous cells stained positive for
both PAS and AB. The small intestine showed many villi but occasional poorly
developed intestinal crypts were. The intestinal mucosa was lined with
absorptive columnar epithelium with goblet cells, which stained positive with
PAS and AB. Enteroendocrine cells were of different shapes; rounded, spindle,
oval or pyramidal and were localized in the surface epithelium of the esophagus
and small intestine, and among the cells of the gastric glands.


title:
Obtaining mass parameters of compact objects from red-blue shifts
  emitted by geodesic particles around them

abstract:
  The mass parameters of compact objects such as Boson Stars, Schwarzschild,
Reissner Nordstrom and Kerr black holes are computed in terms of the measurable
redshift-blueshift (zred, zblue) of photons emitted by particles moving along
circular geodesics around these objects and the radius of their orbits. We
found bounds for the values of (zred, zblue) that may be observed. For the case
of Kerr black hole, recent observational estimates of SrgA\* mass and rotation
parameter are employed to determine the corresponding values of these red-blue
shifts.


title: Entanglement branes in a two-dimensional string theory

abstract:
  What is the meaning of entanglement in a theory of extended objects such as
strings? To address this question we consider the spatial entanglement between
two intervals in the Gross-Taylor model, the string theory dual to
two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory at large $N$. The string diagrams that
contribute to the entanglement entropy describe open strings with endpoints
anchored to the entangling surface, as first argued by Susskind. We develop a
canonical theory of these open strings, and describe how closed strings are
divided into open strings at the level of the Hilbert space. We derive the
Modular hamiltonian for the Hartle-Hawking state and show that the
corresponding reduced density matrix describes a thermal ensemble of open
strings ending on an object at the entangling surface that we call an E-brane.


title:
Automatic Detection of Small Groups of Persons, Influential Members,
  Relations and Hierarchy in Written Conversations Using Fuzzy Logic

abstract:
  Nowadays a lot of data is collected in online forums. One of the key tasks is
to determine the social structure of these online groups, for example the
identification of subgroups within a larger group. We will approach the
grouping of individual as a classification problem. The classifier will be
based on fuzzy logic. The input to the classifier will be linguistic features
and degree of relationships (among individuals). The output of the classifiers
are the groupings of individuals. We also incorporate a method that ranks the
members of the detected subgroup to identify the hierarchies in each subgroup.
Data from the HBO television show The Wire is used to analyze the efficacy and
usefulness of fuzzy logic based methods as alternative methods to classical
statistical methods usually used for these problems. The proposed methodology
could detect automatically the most influential members of each organization
The Wire with 90% accuracy.


title:
Propagation and recovery of singularities in the inverse conductivity
  problem

abstract:
  The ill-posedness of Calder\'on's inverse conductivity problem, responsible
for the poor spatial resolution of Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT), has
been an impetus for the development of hybrid imaging techniques, which
compensate for this lack of resolution by coupling with a second type of
physical wave, typically modeled by a hyperbolic PDE. Here we show how, using
EIT data alone, to efficiently detect interior jumps and other singularities of
the conductivity. Analysis of the complex geometrical optics solutions of
Astala and P\"aiv\"arinta [\emph{Ann. Math.}, {\bf 163} (2006)] in 2D makes it
possible to exploit an underlying complex principal type structure of the
problem. We show that the leading term in a Neumann series is an invertible
nonlinear generalized Radon transform of the conductivity. The wave front set
of all higher-order terms can be characterized, and, under a prior, some are
smoother than the leading term. Numerics indicate that this approach
effectively detects inclusions within inclusions via EIT.


title: A Symbolic Decision Procedure for Symbolic Alternating Finite Automata

abstract:
  We introduce Symbolic Alternating Finite Automata (s-AFA) as an expressive,
succinct, and decidable model for describing sets of finite sequences over
arbitrary alphabets. Boolean operations over s-AFAs have linear complexity,
which is in sharp contrast with the quadratic cost of intersection and union
for non-alternating symbolic automata. Due to this succinctness, emptiness and
equivalence checking are PSpace-hard.
  We introduce an algorithm for checking the equivalence of two s-AFAs based on
bisimulation up to congruence. This algorithm allows us to exploit the power of
SAT and SMT solvers to efficiently search the state space of the s-AFAs. We
evaluate our decision procedure on two verification and security applications:
1) checking satisfiability of linear temporal logic formulas over finite
traces, and 2) checking equivalence of Boolean combinations of regular
expressions. Our experiments show that our technique often outperforms existing
techniques and it can be beneficial in both such applications.


title: Learning with Finite Memory for Machine Type Communication

abstract:
  Machine-type devices (MTDs) will lie at the heart of the Internet of Things
(IoT) system. A key challenge in such a system is sharing network resources
between small MTDs, which have limited memory and computational capabilities.
In this paper, a novel learning \emph{with finite memory} framework is proposed
to enable MTDs to effectively learn about each others message state, so as to
properly adapt their transmission parameters. In particular, an IoT system in
which MTDs can transmit both delay tolerant, periodic messages and critical
alarm messages is studied. For this model, the characterization of the
exponentially growing delay for critical alarm messages and the convergence of
the proposed learning framework in an IoT are analyzed. Simulation results show
that the delay of critical alarm messages is significantly reduced up to $94\%$
with very minimal memory requirements. The results also show that the proposed
learning with finite memory framework is very effective in mitigating the
limiting factors of learning that prevent proper learning procedures.


title:
Controlling Interface States in 1D Photonic Crystals by tuning Bulk
  Geometric Phases

abstract:
  Interface states in photonic crystals usually require defects or
surface/interface decorations. We show here that one can control interface
states in 1D photonic crystals through the engineering of geometrical phase
such that interface states can be guaranteed in even or odd, or in all photonic
bandgaps. We verify experimentally the designed interface states in 1D
multilayered photonic crystals fabricated by electron beam vapor deposition. We
also obtain the geometrical phases by measuring the reflection phases at the
bandgaps of the PCs and achieve good agreement with the theory. Our approach
could provide a platform for the design of using interface states in photonic
crystals for nonlinear optic, sensing, and lasing applications


title:
Enhancing charge-density-wave order in 1T-TiSe2 nanosheet by
  encapsulation with hexagonal Boron Nitride

abstract:
  Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) provide an ideal platform for
exploring the effects of dimensionality on correlated electronic phases such as
charge density wave (CDW) order. When TMDs are reduced in thickness to the 2-D
limit, it is expected that the substrates will exert considerable influence on
the electron states. Here we report a study of the charge density wave (CDW)
state in 1T-TiSe2 nanosheets of different thicknesses when the sheets are
encapsulated by hexagonal Boron Nitride (h-BN) or supported on SiO2 substrate.
Our results show that dimensionality reduction results in an enhancement of CDW
order and that disorder and substrate phonons tends to destroy CDW order,
preventing observation of intrinsic CDW transition in ultrathin samples.
Encapsulated 10 nm thick 1T-TiSe2 samples exhibit intrinsic CDW with transition
temperature as high as 235 K. Our study points out that choosing the right
substrate is important in the search for room temperature CDW materials.


title:
Graphene-Enhanced Thermal Interface Materials for Thermal Management of
  Photovoltaic Solar Cells

abstract:
  The increase in the temperature of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells affects
negatively their power conversion efficiency and decreases their lifetime. The
negative effects are particularly pronounced in concentrator solar cells.
Therefore, it is crucial to limit the PV cell temperature by effectively
removing the excess heat. Conventional thermal phase change materials (PCMs)
and thermal interface materials (TIMs) do not possess the thermal conductivity
values sufficient for thermal management of the next generation of PV cells. In
this paper, we report the results of investigation of the increased efficiency
of PV cells with the use of graphene-enhanced TIMs. Graphene reveals the
highest values of the intrinsic thermal conductivity. It was also shown that
the thermal conductivity of composites can be increased via utilization of
graphene fillers. We prepared TIMs with up to 6% of graphene designed
specifically for PV cell application. The solar cells were tested using the
solar simulation module. It was found that the drop in the output voltage of
the solar panel under two-sun concentrated illumination can be reduced from 19%
to 6% when graphene-enhanced TIMs are used. The proposed method can recover up
to 75% of the power loss in solar cells.


title:
General structure of two-photon S matrix in waveguide quantum
  electrodynamics systems containing a local quantum system with multiple
  ground states

abstract:
  We present the general structure of two-photon S matrix for a waveguide
coupled to a local quantum system that supports multiple ground states. The
presence of the multiple ground states results in a non-commutative aspect of
the system with respect to the exchange of the orders of photons. Consequently,
the two-photon S matrix significantly differs from the standard form as
described by the cluster decomposition principle in the quantum field theory.


title:
RedThreads: An Interface for Application-level Fault
  Detection/Correction through Adaptive Redundant Multithreading

abstract:
  In the presence of accelerated fault rates, which are projected to be the
norm on future exascale systems, it will become increasingly difficult for
high-performance computing (HPC) applications to accomplish useful computation.
Due to the fault-oblivious nature of current HPC programming paradigms and
execution environments, HPC applications are insufficiently equipped to deal
with errors. We believe that HPC applications should be enabled with
capabilities to actively search for and correct errors in their computations.
The redundant multithreading (RMT) approach offers lightweight replicated
execution streams of program instructions within the context of a single
application process. However, the use of complete redundancy incurs significant
overhead to the application performance.
  In this paper we present RedThreads, an interface that provides
application-level fault detection and correction based on RMT, but applies the
thread-level redundancy adaptively. We describe the RedThreads syntax and
semantics, and the supporting compiler infrastructure and runtime system. Our
approach enables application programmers to scope the extent of redundant
computation. Additionally, the runtime system permits the use of RMT to be
dynamically enabled, or disabled, based on the resiliency needs of the
application and the state of the system. Our experimental results demonstrate
how adaptive RMT exploits programmer insight and runtime inference to
dynamically navigate the trade-off space between an application's resilience
coverage and the associated performance overhead of redundant computation.


title:
Parity-decomposition and Moment Analysis for Stationary Wigner Equation
  with Inflow Boundary Conditions

abstract:
  We study the stationary Wigner equation on a bounded, one-dimensional spatial
domain with inflow boundary conditions by using the parity decomposition in
(Barletti and weifel, Trans. Theory Stat. Phys., 507--520, 2001). The
decomposition reduces the half-range, two-point boundary value problem into two
decoupled initial value problems of the even part and the odd part. Without
using a cutoff approximation around zero velocity, we prove that the initial
value problem for the even part is well-posed. For the odd part, we prove the
uniqueness of the solution in the odd $L^2$-space by analyzing the moment
system. An example is provided to show that how to use the analysis to obtain
the solution of the stationary Wigner equation with inflow boundary conditions.


title:
Helicity reversion in high harmonic generation driven by bichromatic
  counterrotating circularly polarized laser fields

abstract:
  We investigate the polarization properties of high harmonics generated with
the bichromatic counterrotating circularly polarized (BCCP) laser fields by
numerically solving time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation (TDSE). It is found
that, the helicity of the elliptically polarized harmonic emission is reversed
at particular harmonic orders. Based on the time-frequency analysis and the
classical three-step model, the correspondence between the positions of
helicity reversions and the classical trajectories of continuum electrons is
established. It is shown that, the electrons ionized at one lobe of laser field
can be divided into different groups based on the different lobes they
recombine at, and the harmonics generated by adjacent groups have opposite
helicities. Our study performs a detailed analysis of high harmonics in terms
of electron trajectories and depicts a clear and intuitive physical picture of
the HHG process in BCCP laser field.


title:
The NANOGrav Nine-Year Data Set: Excess Noise in Millisecond Pulsar
  Arrival Times

abstract:
  Gravitational wave astronomy using a pulsar timing array requires
high-quality millisecond pulsars, correctable interstellar propagation delays,
and high-precision measurements of pulse times of arrival. Here we identify
noise in timing residuals that exceeds that predicted for arrival time
estimation for millisecond pulsars observed by the North American Nanohertz
Observatory for Gravitational Waves. We characterize the excess noise using
variance and structure function analyses. We find that 26 out of 37 pulsars
show inconsistencies with a white-noise-only model based on the short timescale
analysis of each pulsar and we demonstrate that the excess noise has a red
power spectrum for 15 pulsars. We also decompose the excess noise into
chromatic (radio-frequency-dependent) and achromatic components. Associating
the achromatic red-noise component with spin noise and including additional
power-spectrum-based estimates from the literature, we estimate a scaling law
in terms of spin parameters (frequency and frequency derivative) and data-span
length and compare it to the scaling law of Shannon \& Cordes (2010). We
briefly discuss our results in terms of detection of gravitational waves at
nanohertz frequencies.


title:
PCA-aided Fully Convolutional Networks for Semantic Segmentation of
  Multi-channel fMRI

abstract:
  Semantic segmentation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) makes
great sense for pathology diagnosis and decision system of medical robots. The
multi-channel fMRI provides more information of the pathological features. But
the increased amount of data causes complexity in feature detections. This
paper proposes a principal component analysis (PCA)-aided fully convolutional
network to particularly deal with multi-channel fMRI. We transfer the learned
weights of contemporary classification networks to the segmentation task by
fine-tuning. The results of the convolutional network are compared with various
methods e.g. k-NN. A new labeling strategy is proposed to solve the semantic
segmentation problem with unclear boundaries. Even with a small-sized training
dataset, the test results demonstrate that our model outperforms other
pathological feature detection methods. Besides, its forward inference only
takes 90 milliseconds for a single set of fMRI data. To our knowledge, this is
the first time to realize pixel-wise labeling of multi-channel magnetic
resonance image using FCN.


title:
Towards Cognitive Exploration through Deep Reinforcement Learning for
  Mobile Robots

abstract:
  Exploration in an unknown environment is the core functionality for mobile
robots. Learning-based exploration methods, including convolutional neural
networks, provide excellent strategies without human-designed logic for the
feature extraction. But the conventional supervised learning algorithms cost
lots of efforts on the labeling work of datasets inevitably. Scenes not
included in the training set are mostly unrecognized either. We propose a deep
reinforcement learning method for the exploration of mobile robots in an indoor
environment with the depth information from an RGB-D sensor only. Based on the
Deep Q-Network framework, the raw depth image is taken as the only input to
estimate the Q values corresponding to all moving commands. The training of the
network weights is end-to-end. In arbitrarily constructed simulation
environments, we show that the robot can be quickly adapted to unfamiliar
scenes without any man-made labeling. Besides, through analysis of receptive
fields of feature representations, deep reinforcement learning motivates the
convolutional networks to estimate the traversability of the scenes. The test
results are compared with the exploration strategies separately based on deep
learning or reinforcement learning. Even trained only in the simulated
environment, experimental results in real-world environment demonstrate that
the cognitive ability of robot controller is dramatically improved compared
with the supervised method. We believe it is the first time that raw sensor
information is used to build cognitive exploration strategy for mobile robots
through end-to-end deep reinforcement learning.


title: Computer Network Defense Through Radial Wave Functions

abstract:
  The purpose of this research was to synthesize basic and fundamental findings
in quantum computing, as applied to the attack and defense of conventional
computer networks. The concept focuses on uses of radio waves as a shield for,
and attack against traditional computers. A logic bomb is analogous to a
landmine in a computer network, and if one was to implement it as non-trivial
mitigation, it will aid computer network defense. As has been seen in kinetic
warfare, the use of landmines has been devastating to geopolitical regions in
that they are severely difficult for a civilian to avoid triggering given the
unknown position of a landmine. Thus, the importance of understanding a logic
bomb is relevant and has corollaries to quantum mechanics as well. The research
synthesizes quantum logic phase shifts in certain respects using the Dynamic
Data Exchange protocol in software written for this work, as well as a C-NOT
gate applied to a virtual quantum circuit environment by implementing a Quantum
Fourier Transform. The research focus applies the principles of coherence and
entanglement from quantum physics, the concept of expert systems in artificial
intelligence, principles of prime number based cryptography with trapdoor
functions, and modeling radio wave propagation against an event from unknown
parameters. This comes as a program relying on the artificial intelligence
concept of an expert system in conjunction with trigger events for a trapdoor
function relying on infinite recursion, as well as system mechanics for
elliptic curve cryptography along orbital angular momenta. Here trapdoor both
denotes the form of cipher, as well as the implied relationship to logic bombs.


title: Existence and applications of Ricci flows via pseudolocality

abstract:
  We prove the short-time existence of Ricci flows on complete manifolds with
scalar curvature bounded below uniformly, Ricci curvature bounded below by a
negative quadratic function, and with almost Euclidean isoperimetric inequality
holds locally. In particular, this result applies to manifolds with both Ricci
curvature and injectivity radius bounded from below. We also study the
short-time behaviour of these solutions which may have unbounded curvature at
the initial time, and provide some applications. A key tool is Perelman's
pseudolocality theorem.


title: Reconstruction-induced trefoil knot Fermi contour of Au(111)

abstract:
  Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we study the effect
of the so-called herringbone reconstruction of Au(111) on the dispersion of the
free electron-like surface state. While earlier ARPES investigations have only
reported a minor interplay of the surface state dispersion and the underlying
reconstruction, we show that the uniaxial lattice distortion and the thereby
changed reciprocal lattice for the first atomic layer leads to distinct surface
state dispersions around the first order reciprocal lattice points of the three
domains, creating a constant energy surface resembling a trefoil knot. The
findings resolve the long-standing discrepancy between, on one hand, the
reconstruction-induced surface state modifications reported in scanning
tunnelling microscopy and first principle calculations and, on the other hand,
their conspicuous absence in photoemission.


title: Microwave-Free Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at Molecular Scales

abstract:
  The implementation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at the nanoscale is a
major challenge, as conventional systems require relatively large ensembles of
spins and limit resolution to mesoscopic scales. New approaches based on
quantum spin probes, such as the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond, have
recently achieved nano-NMR under ambient conditions. However, the measurement
protocols require application of complex microwave pulse sequences of high
precision and relatively high power, placing limitations on the design and
scalability of these techniques. Here we demonstrate a microwave-free method
for nanoscale NMR using the NV centre, which is a far less invasive, and vastly
simpler measurement protocol. By utilising a carefully tuned magnetic
cross-relaxation interaction between a subsurface NV spin and an external,
organic environment of proton spins, we demonstrate NMR spectroscopy of $^1$H
within a $\approx(10~{\rm nm})^3$ sensing volume. We also theoretically and
experimentally show that the sensitivity of our approach matches that of
existing microwave control-based techniques using the NV centre. Removing the
requirement for coherent manipulation of either the NV or the environmental
spin quantum states represents a significant step towards the development of
robust, non-invasive nanoscale NMR probes.


title: Explicit filtering for large eddy simulation as use of a spectral buffer

abstract:
  The explicit filtering method for large eddy simulation (LES,) which
comprises integration of the governing equations without any added terms for
sub-grid-scale modeling, and the application of a low-pass filter to
transported fields, is discussed. The shapes of filter response functions of
numerical schemes for spatial derivatives and the explicit filter, that have
been used for several LES, are examined. Generally, these are flat (no
filtering) over a range of low wavenumbers, and then fall off over a small
range of the highest represented wavenumbers. It is argued that this high
wavenumber part can be viewed as a spectral buffer analogous to physical buffer
(or sponge) zones used near outflow boundaries. The monotonic convergence of
this approach to a direct numerical simulation, and the shifting of the
spectral buffer to larger wavenumbers as the represented spectral range is
increased, without altering the low wavenumber part of solutions, is
demonstrated with LES of two sample flows. Connections to other widely used
methods---the Smagorinsky model, MILES and another ILES---are also explained.


title:
Observation of broad p-wave Feshbach resonances in ultracold
  $^{85}$Rb-$^{87}$Rb mixtures

abstract:
  We observe new Feshbach resonances in ultracold mixtures of $^{85}$Rb and
$^{87}$Rb atoms in the $^{85}$Rb$|2, +2\rangle$+$^{87}$Rb$|1, +1\rangle$ and
$^{85}$Rb$|2, -2\rangle$+$^{87}$Rb$|1, -1\rangle$ scattering channels. The
positions and properties of the resonances are predicted and characterized
using the semi-analytic multichannel quantum-defect theory by Gao. Of
particular interest, a number of broad entrance-channel dominated p-wave
resonances are identified, implicating exciting opportunities for studying a
variety of p-wave interaction dominated physics.