title:
Predicting Patient State-of-Health using Sliding Window and Recurrent
  Classifiers

abstract:
  Bedside monitors in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) frequently sound incorrectly,
slowing response times and desensitising nurses to alarms (Chambrin, 2001),
causing true alarms to be missed (Hug et al., 2011). We compare sliding window
predictors with recurrent predictors to classify patient state-of-health from
ICU multivariate time series; we report slightly improved performance for the
RNN for three out of four targets.


title: Fractional operators on weighted Morrey spaces

abstract:
  A necessary condition and a sufficient condition for one weight norm
inequalities on Morrey spaces to hold are given for the fractional maximal
operator and the fractional integral operator. We clarify the difference
between the behavior of the fractional maximal operator and the one of the
fractional integral operator which is originated from the structure of Morrey
spaces. Both the necessary condition and the sufficient condition are also
verified for the power weights.


title:
Survival Prediction with Limited Features: a Top Performing Approach
  from the DREAM ALS Stratification Prize4Life Challenge

abstract:
  Survival prediction with small sets of features is a highly relevant topic
for decision-making in clinical practice. I describe a method for predicting
survival of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients that was developed as
a submission to the DREAM ALS Stratification Prize4Life Challenge held in
summer 2015 to find the most accurate prediction of ALS progression and
survival. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease with very heterogeneous survival
times. Based on patient data from two national registries, solvers were asked
to predict survival for three different time intervals, which was then
evaluated on undisclosed information from additional data. I describe methods
used to generate new features from existing ones from longitudinal data,
selecting the most predictive features, and developing the best survival model.
I show that easily obtainable engineered features can significantly improve
prediction and could be incorporated into clinical practice. Furthermore, my
prediction model confirms previous reports suggesting that past disease
progression measured by the ALSFRS (ALS functional rating scale score), time
since disease onset, onset site, and age are strong predictors for survival.
Regarding prediction accuracy, this approach ranked second.


title: Non-manifold monodromy spaces of branched coverings between manifolds

abstract:
  By a construction of Berstein and Edmonds every proper branched cover f
between manifolds is a factor of a branched covering orbit map from a locally
connected and locally compact Hausdorff space called the monodromy space of f
to the target manifold. For proper branched covers between 2-manifolds the
monodromy space is known to be a manifold. We show that this does not
generalize to dimension 3 by constructing a self-map of the 3-sphere for which
the monodromy space is not a locally contractible space.


title: Dynamic Structural Operational Semantics

abstract:
  We introduce Dynamic SOS as a framework for describing semantics of
programming languages that include dynamic software upgrades, for upgrading
software code during run-time. Dynamic SOS (DSOS) is built on top of the
Modular SOS of P. Mosses, with an underlying category theory formalization. The
idea of Dynamic SOS is to bring out the essential differences between dynamic
upgrade constructs and program execution constructs. The important feature of
Modular SOS (MSOS) that we exploit in DSOS is the sharp separation of the
program execution code from the additional (data) structures needed at
run-time. In DSOS we aim to achieve the same modularity and decoupling for
dynamic software upgrades. This is partly motivated by the long term goal of
having machine-checkable proofs for general results like type safety.
  We exemplify Dynamic SOS on two languages supporting dynamic software
upgrades, namely the C-like Proteus, which supports updating of variables,
functions, records, or types at specific program points, and Creol, which
supports dynamic class upgrades in the setting of concurrent objects. Existing
type analyses for software upgrades can be done on top of DSOS too, as we
illustrate for Proteus.
  As a side result we define of a general encapsulating construction on Modular
SOS useful in situations where a form of encapsulation of the execution is
needed. We use encapsulation in the Creol setting of concurrent object-oriented
programming with active objects and asynchronous method calls.


title:
Voxelwise nonlinear regression toolbox for neuroimage analysis:
  Application to aging and neurodegenerative disease modeling

abstract:
  This paper describes a new neuroimaging analysis toolbox that allows for the
modeling of nonlinear effects at the voxel level, overcoming limitations of
methods based on linear models like the GLM. We illustrate its features using a
relevant example in which distinct nonlinear trajectories of Alzheimer's
disease related brain atrophy patterns were found across the full biological
spectrum of the disease. The open-source toolbox presented in this paper is
available at https://github.com/imatge-upc/VNeAT.


title: Estonian Voting Verification Mechanism Revisited

abstract:
  After the Estonian Parliamentary Elections held in 2011, an additional
verification mechanism was integrated into the i-voting system in order to
resist corrupted voting devices, including the so called Student's Attack where
a student practically showed that the voting system is indeed not verifiable by
developing several versions of malware capable of blocking or even changing the
vote. This mechanism gives voters the opportunity to verify whether the vote
they cast is stored in the central system correctly. However, the verification
phase ends by displaying the cast vote in plain form on the verification
device. In other words, the device on which the verification is done learns the
voter's choice. In this work, our aim is to investigate this verification phase
in detail and to point out that leaking the voter's choice to the verification
application may harm the voter privacy. Additionally, when applied in a wide
range, this would even compromise the fairness and the overall secrecy of the
elections. In this respect, we propose an alternative verification mechanism
for the Estonian i-voting system to overcome this vulnerability. Not only is
the proposed mechanism secure and resistant against corrupted verification
devices, so does it successfully verify whether the vote is correctly stored in
the system. We also highlight that our proposed mechanism brings only symmetric
encryptions and hash functions on the verification device, thereby mitigating
these weaknesses in an efficient way with a negligible cost. More concretely,
it brings only $m$ additional symmetric key decryptions to the verification
device, where $m$ denoting the number of candidates. Finally, we prove the
security of the proposed verification mechanism and compare the cost complexity
of the proposed method with that of the current mechanism.


title: Transaction-based Sandboxing for JavaScript

abstract:
  Today's JavaScript applications are composed of scripts from different
origins that are loaded at run time. As not all of these origins are equally
trusted, the execution of these scripts should be isolated from one another.
However, some scripts must access the application state and some may be allowed
to change it, while preserving the confidentiality and integrity constraints of
the application.
  This paper presents design and implementation of DecentJS, a
language-embedded sandbox for full JavaScript. It enables scripts to run in a
configurable degree of isolation with fine-grained access control. It provides
a transactional scope in which effects are logged for review by the access
control policy. After inspection of the log, effects can be committed to the
application state or rolled back.
  The implementation relies on JavaScript proxies to guarantee full
interposition for the full language and for all code, including dynamically
loaded scripts and code injected via eval. Its only restriction is that scripts
must be compliant with JavaScript's strict mode.


title:
How Are Programs Found? Speculating About Language Ergonomics With
  Curry-Howard

abstract:
  Functional languages with strong static type systems have beneficial
properties to help ensure program correctness and reliability. Surprisingly,
their practical significance in applications is low relative to other languages
lacking in those dimensions. In this paper, the programs-as-proofs analogy is
taken seriously to gain speculative insights by analysis of creation habits in
the proof-centric discipline of mathematics. Viewed in light of this analogy, a
sampling of mathematicians' attitudes towards formal proof suggests that the
crucial role of intuition and experimentation in programming tasks may be under
appreciated, hinting at a possible explanation of the challenges rigorously
disciplined languages face in practical applications.


title:
Reliable Evaluation of Neural Network for Multiclass Classification of
  Real-world Data

abstract:
  This paper presents a systematic evaluation of Neural Network (NN) for
classification of real-world data. In the field of machine learning, it is
often seen that a single parameter that is 'predictive accuracy' is being used
for evaluating the performance of a classifier model. However, this parameter
might not be considered reliable given a dataset with very high level of
skewness. To demonstrate such behavior, seven different types of datasets have
been used to evaluate a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) using twelve(12) different
parameters which include micro- and macro-level estimation. In the present
study, the most common problem of prediction called 'multiclass' classification
has been considered. The results that are obtained for different parameters for
each of the dataset could demonstrate interesting findings to support the
usability of these set of performance evaluation parameters.


title:
A preliminary DFT study of the adsorption and dissociation of
  $CH_{4}$,$SO_{2}$ and $O_{2}$ reactions on $Cr_{2}O_{3}(0001)$

abstract:
  In the present work, we study the structures and molecular geometries of
$CH_{4}$, $SO_{2}$ and $O_{2}$ adsorbed on $Cr_{2}O_{3}(0001)$. Using
computational calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT), we
analyze the most suitable sites to carry out the adsorption of each of the
molecules mentioned, and the influence of each species on the adsorption and
dissociation of the others. The results allow us to understand the activation
of the $Cr_{2}O_{3}(0001)$ surface, which leads to the presence of $SO_{2}$
during the oxidation of $CH_{4}$, as was experimentally verified.


title: Top quark pair asymmetries

abstract:
  In this article, we study top quark pair charge, energy and incline asymmetry
at parton level using Powheg Monte-Carlo generator.


title: Singular Instantons in Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld Gravity

abstract:
  In this work, we investigate $O(4)$-symmetric instantons within the
Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld gravity theory (EiBI). We discuss the regular
Hawking-Moss instanton and find that the tunneling rate reduces to the General
Relativity (GR) value, even though the action value is different by a constant.
We give a thorough analysis of the singular Vilenkin instanton and the
Hawking-Turok instanton with a quadratic scalar field potential in the EiBI
theory. In both cases, we find that the singularity can be avoided in the sense
that the physical metric, its scalar curvature and the scalar field are regular
under some parameter restrictions, but there is a curvature singularity of the
auxiliary metric compatible with the connection. We find that the on-shell
action is finite and the probability does not reduce to its GR value. We also
find that the Vilenkin instanton in the EiBI theory would still cause the
instability of the Minkowski space, similar to that in GR, and this is
observationally inconsistent. This result suggests that the singularity of the
auxiliary metric may be problematic at the quantum level and that these
instantons should be excluded from the path integral.


title: The Weight in Enumeration

abstract:
  In our setting enumeration amounts to generate all solutions of a problem
instance without duplicates. We address the problem of enumerating the models
of B-formulae. A B-formula is a propositional formula whose connectives are
taken from a fixed set B of Boolean connectives. Without imposing any specific
order to output the solutions, this task is solved. We completely classify the
complexity of this enumeration task for all possible sets of connectives B
imposing the orders of (1) non-decreasing weight, (2) non-increasing weight;
the weight of a model being the number of variables assigned to 1. We consider
also the weighted variants where a non-negative integer weight is assigned to
each variable and show that this add-on leads to more sophisticated enumeration
algorithms and even renders previously tractable cases intractable, contrarily
to the constraint setting. As a by-product we obtain complete complexity
classifications for the optimization problems known as Min-Ones and Max-Ones
which are in the B-formula setting two different tasks.


title:
Surveying the Attitudes of Physicists Concerning Foundational Issues of
  Quantum Mechanics

abstract:
  Even though quantum mechanics has existed for almost 100 years, questions
concerning the foundation and interpretation of the theory still remain. These
issues have gathered more attention in recent years, but does this mean that
physicists are more aware of foundational issues concerning quantum mechanics?
A survey was sent out to 1234 physicists affiliated to 8 different
universities. 149 responded to the questions, which both concerned foundational
issues related to quantum mechanics, specifically, as well as questions
concerning interpretations of physical theories in general. The answers to the
survey revealed that foundational concepts in quantum mechanics are still a
topic that only a minority of physicists are familiar with, although a clear
majority of physicists find that interpretations of physical theories are
important. The various questions, as well as how the respondents answered, are
presented. The survey intends to give an overview of what the opinion of the
physics community, in general, is concerning issues related to quantum
mechanics.

categories: physics.hist-ph physics.ed-ph physics.soc-ph quant-ph


title:
Adaptive high-order splitting schemes for large-scale differential
  Riccati equations

abstract:
  We consider high-order splitting schemes for large-scale differential Riccati
equations. Such equations arise in many different areas and are especially
important within the field of optimal control. In the large-scale case, it is
critical to employ structural properties of the matrix-valued solution, or the
computational cost and storage requirements become infeasible. Our main
contribution is therefore to formulate these high-order splitting schemes in a
efficient way by utilizing a low-rank factorization. Previous results indicated
that this was impossible for methods of order higher than 2, but our new
approach overcomes these difficulties. In addition, we demonstrate that the
proposed methods contain natural embedded error estimates. These may be used
e.g. for time step adaptivity, and our numerical experiments in this direction
show promising results.


title: A Stronger Local Monomialization Theorem

abstract:
  We derive extensions of the monomialization theorems for morphisms of
varieties in our earlier work. In this note we show that a local
monomialization can be found which satisfies stronger local conditions. Some
comments are made about how the results of this paper can be used.


title:
Strain-controlled responsiveness of slave half-doped manganite
  La0.5Sr0.5MnO3 layers inserted in BaTiO3 ferroelectric tunnel junctions

abstract:
  Insertion of layers displaying field-induced metal-to-insulator (M/I)
transition in ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) has received attention as a
potentially useful way to enlarge junction tunnel electroresistance (TER).
Half-doped manganites being at the verge of metal-insulator character are thus
good candidates to be slave layers in FTJs. However, the phase diagram of these
oxides is extremely sensitive to strain and thus can be radically different
when integrated in epitaxial FTJs. Here we report a systematic study of
large-area (A = 4 to 100 um2) Pt/La0.5Sr0.5MnO3/BaTiO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3
(Pt/HD/BTO/LSMO) FTJs, having different thicknesses of the ferroelectric
(2-3nm) and HD layers (1-2nm), grown on substrates imposing either tensile
(SrTiO3) or compressive (LaAlO3) strains. Room-temperature electric
characterization of the FTJs shows polarization-controlled ON/ OFF states.
Clear evidences of field-induced M/I transition (difference between junction
resistance in OFF and ON state is increased of more than one order of
magnitude) are observed in junctions prepared on SrTiO3 but the HD layer is
generally metallic on LaAlO3. Moreover, the M/I transition is only confined in
an interfacial layer of the slave film thus entailing an overall reduction of
TER. The orderly results reported here give some hints towards selection of HD
materials and substrates for optimal FTJ responsiveness.


title:
Small-gain theorems for nonlinear stochastic systems with inputs and
  outputs II: Multiplicative white noise case

abstract:
  This paper is a continuation of the paper \cite{JL}, which focuses on
exploring the global stability of nonlinear stochastic feedback systems on the
nonnegative orthant driven by multiplicative white noise and presenting a
couple of small-gain results. We investigate the dynamical behavior of
pull-back trajectories for stochastic control systems and prove that there
exists a unique globally attracting positive random equilibrium for those
systems whose output functions either possess bounded derivatives or are
uniformly bounded away from zero. In the first case, we first prove the joint
measurability of both the pull-back trajectories and the metric dynamical
system $\theta$ with respect to the product $\sigma$-algebra
$\mathscr{B}(\mathbb{R_+})\otimes\mathscr{F}_-$ and
$\mathscr{B}(\mathbb{R_-})\otimes\mathscr{F}_-$, respectively, where
$\mathscr{F}_-=\sigma\{\omega\mapsto W_t(\omega):t\leq0\}$ is the past
$\sigma$-algebra and $W_t(\omega)$ is an $\mathbb{R}^d$-valued two-sided Wiener
process, and then combine the $\mathcal{L}^1$-integrability of the tempered
random variable coming from the definition of the top Lyapunov exponent and the
independence between the past $\sigma$-algebra and the future $\sigma$-algebra
$\mathscr{F}_+=\sigma\{\omega\mapsto W_t(\omega):t\geq0\}$ to obtain the
small-gain theorem by constructing the contraction mapping on an
$\mathscr{F}_-$-measurable, $\mathcal{L}^1$-integrable and complete metric
input space; in the second case, the sublinearity of output functions and the
part metric play the main roles in the existence and uniqueness of globally
attracting positive fixed point in the part of a normal, solid cone. Our
results can be applied to well-known stochastic Goodwin negative feedback
system, Othmer-Tyson positive feedback system and Griffith positive feedback
system as well as other stochastic cooperative, competitive and predator-prey
systems.


title:
Multitype branching processes evolving in i.i.d. random environment:
  probability of survival for the critical case

abstract:
  Using the annealed approach we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the
survival probability of a critical multitype branching process evolving in
i.i.d. random environment. We show under rather general assumptions on the form
of the offspring generating functions of particles that the probability of
survival up to generation $n$ of the process initiated at moment zero by a
single particle of type $i$ is equivalent to $c_{i}n^{-1/2}$ for large $n,$
where $c_{i}$ is a positive constant. Earlier such asymptotic representation
was known only for the case of the fractional linear offspring generating
functions.


title:
Families of quasi-exactly solvable extensions of the quantum oscillator
  in curved spaces

abstract:
  We introduce two new families of quasi-exactly solvable (QES) extensions of
the oscillator in a $d$-dimensional constant-curvature space. For the first
three members of each family, we obtain closed-form expressions of the energies
and wavefunctions for some allowed values of the potential parameters using the
Bethe ansatz method. We prove that the first member of each family has a hidden
sl(2,$\mathbb{R}$) symmetry and is connected with a QES equation of the first
or second type, respectively. One-dimensional results are also derived from the
$d$-dimensional ones with $d \ge 2$, thereby getting QES extensions of the
Mathews-Lakshmanan nonlinear oscillator.


title:
The role of volume and surface spontaneous parametric down-conversion in
  the generation of photon pairs in layered media

abstract:
  A rigorous description of volume and surface spontaneous parametric
down-conversion in 1D nonlinear layered structures is developed considering
exact continuity relations for the fields' amplitudes at the boundaries. The
nonlinear process is described by the quantum momentum operator that provides
the Heisenberg equations which solution is continuous at the boundaries. The
transfer-matrix formalism is applied. The volume and surface contributions are
clearly identified. Numerical analysis of a structure composed of 20
alternating GaN/AlN layers is given as an example.


title:
The Importance of the Pre-exponential Factor in Semiclassical Molecular
  Dynamics

abstract:
  This paper deals with the critical issue of approximating the pre-exponential
factor in semiclassical molecular dynamics. The pre-exponential factor is
important because it accounts for the quantum contribution to the semiclassical
propagator of the classical Feynman path fluctuations. Pre-exponential factor
approximations are necessary when chaotic or complex systems are simulated. We
introduced pre-exponential factor approximations based either on analytical
considerations or numerical regularization. The approximations are tested for
power spectrum calculations of more and more chaotic model systems and on
several molecules, for which exact quantum mechanical values are available. The
results show that the pre-exponential factor approximations introduced are
accurate enough to be safely employed for semiclassical simulations of complex
systems.


title:
Deeply quasi-bound state in single- and double-$\bar{K}$ nuclear
  clusters

abstract:
  New calculations of the quasi-bound state positions in $K^{-}K^{-}pp$ kaonic
nuclear cluster are performed using non-relativistic four-body Faddeev-type
equations in AGS form. The corresponding separable approximation for the
integral kernels in the three- and four-body kaonic clusters is obtained by
using the Hilbert-Schmidt expansion procedure. Different phenomenological
models of $\bar{K}N-\pi\Sigma$ potentials with one- and two-pole structure of
$\Lambda$(1405) resonance and separable potential models for
$\bar{K}$-$\bar{K}$ and nucleon-nucleon interactions, are used. The dependence
of the resulting four-body binding energy on models of $\bar{K}N-\pi\Sigma$
interaction is investigated. We obtained the binding energy of the
$K^{-}K^{-}pp$ quasi-bound state $\sim$ 80-94 MeV with the phenomenological
$\bar{K}N$ potentials. The width is about $\sim$ 5-8 MeV for the two-pole
models of the interaction, while the one-pole potentials give $\sim$ 24-31 MeV
width.


title: Identifying and Categorizing Anomalies in Retinal Imaging Data

abstract:
  The identification and quantification of markers in medical images is
critical for diagnosis, prognosis and management of patients in clinical
practice. Supervised- or weakly supervised training enables the detection of
findings that are known a priori. It does not scale well, and a priori
definition limits the vocabulary of markers to known entities reducing the
accuracy of diagnosis and prognosis. Here, we propose the identification of
anomalies in large-scale medical imaging data using healthy examples as a
reference. We detect and categorize candidates for anomaly findings untypical
for the observed data. A deep convolutional autoencoder is trained on healthy
retinal images. The learned model generates a new feature representation, and
the distribution of healthy retinal patches is estimated by a one-class support
vector machine. Results demonstrate that we can identify pathologic regions in
images without using expert annotations. A subsequent clustering categorizes
findings into clinically meaningful classes. In addition the learned features
outperform standard embedding approaches in a classification task.


title:
Globules and pillars in Cygnus X. II. Massive star formation in the
  globule IRAS~20319+3958

abstract:
  Globules and pillars, impressively revealed by the Spitzer and Herschel
satellites, for example, are pervasive features found in regions of massive
star formation. We studied the globule IRAS 20319+3958 in Cygnus X by means of
visible and near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy, complemented with
mid-infrared Spitzer/IRAC imaging, in order to obtain a census of its stellar
content and the nature of its embedded sources. Our observations show that the
globule contains an embedded aggregate of about 30 very young ($\lesssim
1$~Myr) stellar objects, for which we estimate a total mass of ~ 90 M_sun. The
most massive members are three systems containing early B-type stars. Two of
them most likely produced very compact HII regions, one of them being still
highly embedded and coinciding with a peak seen in emission lines
characterising the photon dominated region (PDR). Two of these three systems
are resolved binaries, and one of those contains a visible Herbig Be star. An
approximate derivation of the mass function of the members of the aggregate
gives hints of a slope at high masses shallower than the classical Salpeter
slope, and a peak of the mass distribution at a mass higher than that at which
the widely adopted log-normal initial mass function peaks. The emission
distribution of H$_2$ and Br gamma, tracing the PDR and the ionised gas phase,
respectively, suggests that molecular gas is distributed as a shell around the
embedded aggregate, filled with centrally-condensed ionised gas. Both, the
morphology and the low excitation of the HII region, indicate that the sources
of ionisation are the B stars of the embedded aggregate, rather than the
external UV field caused by the O stars of Cygnus OB2. The youth of the
embedded cluster, combined with the isolation of the globule, suggests that
star formation in the globule was triggered by the passage of the ionisation
front.


title: Unified Hanani-Tutte theorem

abstract:
  We introduce a common generalization of the strong Hanani-Tutte theorem and
the weak Hanani-Tutte theorem: if a graph $G$ has a drawing $D$ in the plane
where every pair of independent edges crosses an even number of times, then $G$
has a planar drawing preserving the rotation of each vertex whose incident
edges cross each other evenly in $D$. The theorem is implicit in the proof of
the strong Hanani-Tutte theorem by Pelsmajer, Schaefer and \v{S}tefankovi\v{c}.
We give a new, somewhat simpler proof.


title:
Sharp bounds for composition with quasiconformal mappings in Sobolev
  spaces

abstract:
  Let $\phi$ be a quasiconformal mapping, and let $T_\phi$ be the composition
operator which maps $f$ to $f\circ\phi$. Since $\phi$ may not be bi-Lipschitz,
the composition operator need not map Sobolev spaces to themselves. The study
begins with the behavior of $T_\phi$ on $L^p$ and $W^{1,p}$ for $1<p<\infty$.
This cases are well understood but alternative proofs of some known results are
provided. Using interpolation techniques it is seen that compactly supported
Bessel potential functions in $H^{s,p}$ are sent to $H^{s,q}$ whenever $0<s<1$
for appropriate values of $q$. The techniques used lead to sharp results and
they can be applied to Besov spaces as well.


title:
A Bayesian Heteroscedastic GLM with Application to fMRI Data with Motion
  Spikes

abstract:
  We propose a voxel-wise general linear model with autoregressive noise and
heteroscedastic noise innovations (GLMH) for analyzing functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The model is analyzed from a Bayesian
perspective and has the benefit of automatically down-weighting time points
close to motion spikes in a data-driven manner. We develop a highly efficient
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm that allows for Bayesian variable
selection among the regressors to model both the mean (i.e., the design matrix)
and variance. This makes it possible to include a broad range of explanatory
variables in both the mean and variance (e.g., time trends, activation stimuli,
head motion parameters and their temporal derivatives), and to compute the
posterior probability of inclusion from the MCMC output. Variable selection is
also applied to the lags in the autoregressive noise process, making it
possible to infer the lag order from the data simultaneously with all other
model parameters. We use both simulated data and real fMRI data from OpenfMRI
to illustrate the importance of proper modeling of heteroscedasticity in fMRI
data analysis. Our results show that the GLMH tends to detect more brain
activity, compared to its homoscedastic counterpart, by allowing the variance
to change over time depending on the degree of head motion.


title: The quark propagator in QCD and $G_2$ QCD

abstract:
  QCD-like theories provide testing grounds for truncations of functional
equations at non-zero density, since comparisons with lattice results are
possible due to the absence of the sign problem. As a first step towards such a
comparison, we determine for QCD and $G_2$ QCD the chiral and
confinement/deconfinement transitions from the quark propagator Dyson-Schwinger
equation at zero chemical potential by calculating the chiral and dual chiral
condensates, respectively.


title: Extremes of Multi-type Branching Random Walks: Heaviest Tail Wins

abstract:
  We consider a branching random walk on a multi($Q$)-type, supercritical
Galton-Watson tree which satisfies Kesten-Stigum condition. We assume that the
displacements associated with the particles of type $Q$ have regularly varying
tails of index $\alpha$, while the other types of particles have lighter tails
than that of particles of type $Q$. In this article, we derive the weak limit
of the sequence of point processes associated with the positions of the
particles in the $n^{th}$ generation. We verify that the limiting point process
is a randomly scaled scale-decorated Poisson point process (SScDPPP) using the
tools developed in \cite{bhattacharya:hazra:roy:2016}. As a consequence, we
shall obtain the asymptotic distribution of the position of the rightmost
particle in the $n^{th}$ generation.


title: From signatures to monads in UniMath

abstract:
  The term UniMath refers both to a formal system for mathematics, as well as a
computer-checked library of mathematics formalized in that system. The UniMath
system is a core dependent type theory, augmented by the univalence axiom. The
system is kept as small as possible in order to ease verification of it - in
particular, general inductive types are not part of the system.
  In this work, we partially remedy the lack of inductive types by constructing
some datatypes and their associated induction principles from other type
constructors. This involves a formalization of a category-theoretic result on
the construction of initial algebras, as well as a mechanism to conveniently
use the datatypes obtained. We also connect this construction to a previous
formalization of substitution for languages with variable binding. Altogether,
we construct a framework that allows us to concisely specify, via a simple
notion of binding signature, a language with variable binding. From such a
specification we obtain the datatype of terms of that language, equipped with a
certified monadic substitution operation and a suitable recursion scheme. Using
this we formalize the untyped lambda calculus and the raw syntax of
Martin-L\"of type theory.


title: ESE: Efficient Speech Recognition Engine with Sparse LSTM on FPGA

abstract:
  Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is widely used in speech recognition. In order
to achieve higher prediction accuracy, machine learning scientists have built
larger and larger models. Such large model is both computation intensive and
memory intensive. Deploying such bulky model results in high power consumption
and leads to high total cost of ownership (TCO) of a data center. In order to
speedup the prediction and make it energy efficient, we first propose a
load-balance-aware pruning method that can compress the LSTM model size by 20x
(10x from pruning and 2x from quantization) with negligible loss of the
prediction accuracy. The pruned model is friendly for parallel processing.
Next, we propose scheduler that encodes and partitions the compressed model to
each PE for parallelism, and schedule the complicated LSTM data flow. Finally,
we design the hardware architecture, named Efficient Speech Recognition Engine
(ESE) that works directly on the compressed model. Implemented on Xilinx
XCKU060 FPGA running at 200MHz, ESE has a performance of 282 GOPS working
directly on the compressed LSTM network, corresponding to 2.52 TOPS on the
uncompressed one, and processes a full LSTM for speech recognition with a power
dissipation of 41 Watts. Evaluated on the LSTM for speech recognition
benchmark, ESE is 43x and 3x faster than Core i7 5930k CPU and Pascal Titan X
GPU implementations. It achieves 40x and 11.5x higher energy efficiency
compared with the CPU and GPU respectively.


title:
Kinetic instabilities in a mirror-confined plasma sustained by
  high-power microwave radiation

abstract:
  This paper summarizes the studies of plasma kinetic instabilities in the
electron cyclotron frequency range carried out over the last decade at the
Institute of Applied Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences. We investigate the
nonequilibrium plasma created and sustained by high-power microwave radiation
of a gyrotron under the electron cyclotron resonance condition. Resonant plasma
heating results in the formation of at least two electron components, one of
which, more dense and cold, determines the dispersion properties of the
high-frequency waves, and the second, a small group of energetic electrons with
a highly anisotropic velocity distribution, is responsible for the excitation
of unstable waves. Dynamic spectra and the intensity of stimulated
electromagnetic emission are studied with high temporal resolution.
Interpretation of observed data is based on the cyclotron maser paradigm, in
this context, a laboratory modeling of non-stationary wave-particle interaction
processes have much in common with similar processes occurring in the
magnetosphere of the Earth, planets, and in solar coronal loops.


title: Solving CFTs with Weakly Broken Higher Spin Symmetry

abstract:
  The method of large spin perturbation theory allows to analyse conformal
field theories (CFT) by turning the crossing equations into an algebraic
problem. We apply this method to a generic CFT with weakly broken higher spin
(HS) symmetry, to the first non-trivial order in the breaking parameter. We
show that the spectrum of broken currents, for any value of the spin, follows
from crossing symmetry. After discussing a generic model of a single scalar
field, we focus on vector models with $O(N)$ global symmetry. We rediscover the
spectrum of several models, including the $O(N)$ Wilson-Fisher model around
four dimensions, the large $O(N)$ model in $2<d<4$ and cubic models around six
dimensions, not necessarily unitary. We also discuss models where the
fundamental field is not part of the spectrum. Examples of this are weakly
coupled gauge theories and our method gives an on-shell gauge invariant way to
study them. At first order in the coupling constant we show that again the
spectrum follows from crossing symmetry, to all values of the spin. Our method
provides an alternative to usual perturbation theory without any reference to a
Lagrangian.


title:
The low-mass population in the young cluster Stock 8: Stellar properties
  and Initial Mass Function

abstract:
  The evolution of HII regions/supershells can trigger a new generation of
stars/clusters at their peripheries, with environmental conditions that may
affect the initial mass function, disk evolution and star formation efficiency.
In this paper we study the stellar content and star formation processes in the
young cluster Stock 8, which itself is thought to be formed during the
expansion of a supershell. We present deep optical photometry along with JHK
and 3.6, 4.5 {\mu}m photometry from UKIDSS and Spitzer-IRAC. We use multi-color
criteria to identify the candidate young stellar objects in the region. Using
evolutionary models, we obtain a median log(age) of ~6.5 (~3.0 Myr) with an
observed age spread of ~0.25 dex for the cluster. Monte Carlo simulations of
the population of Stock 8, based on estimates for the photometric uncertainty,
differential reddening, binarity, and variability, indicate that these
uncertainties introduce an age spread of ~0.15 dex. The intrinsic age spread in
the cluster is ~0.2 dex. The fraction of young stellar objects surrounded by
disk is ~35%. The K-band luminosity function of Stock 8 is similar to that of
the Trapezium cluster. The IMF of Stock 8 has a Salpeter- like slope at >0.5
Msun and the IMF flattens and peaks at ~0.4 Msun, below which declines into the
substellar regime. Although Stock 8 is surrounded by several massive stars,
there seems to be no severe environmental effect in the form of IMF due to the
proximity of massive stars around the cluster.


title: Orbits of real forms, Matsuki duality and CR-cohomology

abstract:
  We discuss the relationship between some groups of tangential CR cohomology
of some compact homogeneous CR manifolds and the corresponding Dolbeault
cohomology groups of their canonical complex embeddings.


title: Gel-Based Morphological Design of Zirconium Metal-organic Frameworks

abstract:
  The ability of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to gelate under specific
synthetic conditions opens up new opportunities in the preparation and shaping
of hierarchically porous MOF monoliths, which could be directly implemented for
catalytic and adsorptive applications. In this work, we present the first
examples of xero- or aerogel monoliths consisting solely of nanoparticles of
several prototypical Zr4+-based MOFs: UiO-66-X (X = H, NH2, NO2, (OH)2),
UiO-67, MOF-801, MOF-808 and NU-1000. High reactant and water concentrations
during synthesis were observed to induce the formation of gels, which were
converted to monolithic materials by drying in air or supercritical CO2.
Electron microscopy, combined with N2 physisorption experiments, was used to
show that an irregular nanoparticle packing leads to pure MOF monoliths with
hierarchical pore systems, featuring both intraparticle micropores and
interparticle mesopores. Finally, UiO-66 gels were shaped into monolithic
spheres of 600 micrometer diameter using an oil-drop method, creating promising
candidates for packed-bed catalytic or adsorptive applications, where
hierarchical pore systems can greatly mitigate mass transfer limitations.


title: Radiative corrections and instability of large Q-Balls

abstract:
  We discuss stability of Q-balls interacting with fermions in theory with
small coupling constant g. We argue that for configurations with large global
U(1)-charge Q the problem of classical stability becomes more subtle. For
example, in model with flat direction there is maximal value of charge for
stable solutions with Q~1/g^4. We study origin of additional instability and
discuss possible ways to avoid it.


title: Near Horizon Extreme Magnetized Kerr Geometry

abstract:
  The conjectured magnetized Kerr/CFT correspondence states that the quantum
theory of gravity in the near horizon of extreme Kerr black holes immersed by
the magnetic field, Near Horizon Extreme Magnetized Kerr black holes, is
holographic dual to a two-dimensional chiral conformal field theory. To obtain
Near Horizon Extreme Magnetized Kerr geometry, the extreme limit of the
magnetized Kerr metric is taken so, $ a=M $ and then continued by transforming
the coordinates to have a warped and twisted product of $ \textrm{AdS}_2 \times
\textrm{S}^2 $, and also with the Near Horizon Extreme Kerr metric one.
Consequently, we can obtain also the new Ernst potentials for those geometries.
Finally, the transformed central charge from the extremal non-magnetized one to
the magnetized one in the Ernst-Papapetrou formalism is obtained.


title:
Bridging the gap between event-by-event fluctuation measurements and
  theory predictions in relativistic nuclear collisions

abstract:
  We develop methods to deal with non-dynamical contributions to event-by-event
fluctuation measurements of net-particle numbers in relativistic nuclear
collisions. These contributions arise from impact parameter fluctuations and
from the requirement of overall net-baryon number or net-charge conservation
and may mask the dynamical fluctuations of interest, such as those due to
critical endpoints in the QCD phase diagram. Within a model of independent
particle sources we derive formulae for net-particle fluctuations and develop a
rigorous approach to take into account contributions from participant
fluctuations in realistic experimental environments and at any cumulant order.
Interestingly, contributions from participant fluctuations to the second and
third cumulants of net-baryon distributions are found to vanish at mid-rapidity
for LHC energies while higher cumulants of even order are non-zero even when
the net-baryon number at mid-rapidity is zero. At lower beam energies the
effect of participant fluctuations increases and induces spurious higher
moments. The necessary corrections become large and need to be carefully taken
into account before comparison to theory. We also provide a procedure for
selecting the optimal phase-space coverage of particles for fluctuation
analyses and discuss quantitatively the necessary correction due to global
charge conservation.


title: EEG-assisted Modulation of Sound Sources in the Auditory Scene

abstract:
  Noninvasive EEG (electroencephalography) based auditory attention detection
could be useful for improved hearing aids in the future. This work is a novel
attempt to investigate the feasibility of online modulation of sound sources by
probabilistic detection of auditory attention, using a noninvasive EEG-based
brain computer interface. Proposed online system modulates the upcoming sound
sources through gain adaptation which employs probabilistic decisions (soft
decisions) from a classifier trained on offline calibration data. In this work,
calibration EEG data were collected in sessions where the participants listened
to two sound sources (one attended and one unattended). Cross-correlation
coefficients between the EEG measurements and the attended and unattended sound
source envelope (estimates) are used to show differences in sharpness and
delays of neural responses for attended versus unattended sound source. Salient
features to distinguish attended sources from the unattended ones in the
correlation patterns have been identified, and later they have been used to
train an auditory attention classifier. Compared to the existing results in the
literature, in this paper we have two main contributions. First, using the
auditory attention classifier, we have shown high offline detection performance
with single channel EEG measurements of shorter duration compared to the
existing approaches in the literature which employ large number of channels
with longer EEG measurements. Second, using the classifier trained offline in
the calibration session, we have shown the performance of the online sound
source modulation system. We observe that online sound source modulation system
is able to keep the level of attended sound source higher than the unattended
source.
  Keywords: auditory BCI, cocktail party problem, auditory attention
classification


title: Connectivity dynamics in the vitrification of colloidal liquids

abstract:
  While various structural and dynamical precursors to vitrification have been
identified, a predictive and quantitative description of how subtle changes at
the microscopic scale give rise to the steep growth in macroscopic viscosity is
missing. It was proposed that the presence of long-lived bonded structures
within the liquid may provide this connection. Here we directly observe and
quantify the connectivity dynamics in liquids of charged colloids en-route to
vitrification. Based on these data, we extend Dyre's elastic model for the
glass transition to account for particle-level dynamics; this results in a
parameter-free expression for the slowing down of relaxations in the liquid
that is in quantitative agreement with our experiments.


title:
An Optical Atmospheric Phenomenon Observed in 1670 over the City of
  Astrakhan Was not a Mid-Latitude Aurora

abstract:
  It has been recently claimed (Zolotova and Ponyavin, Solar Phys., 291, 2869,
2016, ZP16 henceforth) that a mid-latitude optical phenomenon, which took place
over the city of Astrakhan in July 1670, according to Russian chronicles, was a
strong aurora borealis. If this was true, it would imply a very strong or even
severe geomagnetic storm during the quietest part of the Maunder minimum.
However, as we argue in this article, this conclusion is erroneous and caused
by a misinterpretation of the chronicle record. As a result of a thorough
analysis of the chronicle text, we show that the described phenomenon occurred
during the daylight period of the day ("the last morning hour"), in the south
direction ("towards noon"), and its description does not match that of an
aurora. The date of the event was also incorrectly interpreted. We conclude
that this phenomenon was not a mid-latitude aurora but an atmospheric
phenomenon, the so-called sundog (or parhelion) which is a particular type of
solar halo. Accordingly, the claim about a strong mid-latitude aurora during
the deep Maunder minimum is not correct and should be dismissed.


title:
A New Sample of Mid-Infrared Bright, Long-Period Mira Variables from the
  MACHO Galactic Bulge Fields

abstract:
  Mid-infrared bright objects in the direction of the Galactic Bulge were
investigated using time series photometry from the MACHO data archive, which
led to the discovery of a large number of long-period variables. Among these, a
total of 192 bona-fide Mira variables was identified, which, to the best of our
knowledge, are reported here for the first time. Together with the results from
our previous investigations, we thereby bring the number of Mira variables
found in the MACHO Galactic Bulge fields to a new total of 1286 stars. Light
curves, folded light curves and summary data for all new Mira variables are
presented and their properties in colour-colour, period-colour and
period-magnitude space are investigated. In agreement with our expectations,
the present sample of mid-infrared bright objects is composed mostly of
luminous, long-period variables.


title:
Mid-infrared continuous wave parametric amplification in tapered
  chalcogenide microstructured fibers

abstract:
  As photon mixing is not inherently limited to any specific spectral region,
parametric processes represent a compelling solution for all-optical signal
processing in spectral windows not easily accessible by other technologies.
Particularly, the continuous-wave pumping scheme is essential for any
application requiring modulated signals or precise spectroscopic
characterization. Highly nonlinear fibers enabled record performances for
wavelength conversion and amplification in the telecommunication band, however
no waveguiding platforms have yet solved the trade-off between
high-nonlinearity, low propagation losses and dispersion in the mid-infrared.
Here, we show mid-infrared continuous-wave parametric amplification in a GeAsSe
fiber. Leveraging state-of-the-art fabrication techniques, a novel tapered
photonic crystal fiber geometry enabling 4.5 dB signal amplification and 2 dB
idler conversion efficiency is experimentally demonstrated using only 125 mW of
pump in the 2 micron wavelength range. This result is not only the first ever
continuous-wave parametric amplification measured at 2 micron, in any
waveguide, but also establishes GeAsSe PCF tapers as the most promising
all-fibered, high efficiency continuous-wave parametric converter for advanced
applications in the mid-infrared.


title: Non-Hermitian Floquet invisibility

abstract:
  Wave transport and scattering in open systems can be profoundly affected by
non- Hermitian dynamics. In this work we consider wave scattering in a
one-dimensional tight-binding lattice with a low-frequency
harmonically-vibrating complex site potential. Floquet scattering is shown to
be suppressed in a range of the spectral lattice band, which is limited by a
singularity in the spectral transmission/reflection amplitudes for inelastic
scattering channels. Invisibility over the entire spectral band is found when
the singularity is pushed at the edge of the Brillouin zone, which requires a
modulation frequency larger than the width of the tight-binding lattice band.
Remarkably, invisibility is found to persist for multiple oscillating lattice
impurities.


title:
ASIME 2016 White Paper: In-Space Utilisation of Asteroids: "Answers to
  Questions from the Asteroid Miners"

abstract:
  The aim of the Asteroid Science Intersections with In-Space Mine Engineering
(ASIME) 2016 conference on September 21-22, 2016 in Luxembourg City was to
provide an environment for the detailed discussion of the specific properties
of asteroids, with the engineering needs of space missions that utilize
asteroids.
  The ASIME 2016 Conference produced a layered record of discussions from the
asteroid scientists and the asteroid miners to understand each other's key
concerns and to address key scientific questions from the asteroid mining
companies: Planetary Resources, Deep Space Industries and TransAstra. These
Questions were the focus of the two day conference, were addressed by
scientists inside and outside of the ASIME Conference and are the focus of this
White Paper.
  The Questions from the asteroid mining companies have been sorted into the
three asteroid science themes: 1) survey, 2) surface and 3) subsurface and 4)
Other. The answers to those Questions have been provided by the scientists with
their conference presentations or edited directly into an early open-access
collaborative Google document (August 2016-October 2016), or inserted by A.
Graps using additional reference materials. During the ASIME 2016 last
two-hours, the scientists turned the Questions from the Asteroid Miners around
by presenting their own key concerns: Questions from the Asteroid Scientists .
These answers in this White Paper will point to the Science Knowledge Gaps
(SKGs) for advancing the asteroid in-space resource utilisation domain.


title:
Faraday tomography of the local interstellar medium with LOFAR: Galactic
  foregrounds towards IC342

abstract:
  The new generation of low-frequency radio telescopes, such as the Low
Frequency Array (LOFAR: a Square Kilometre Array-low pathfinder), provides
advancements in our capability of probing Galactic magnetism through
low-frequency polarimetry. Maps of diffuse polarized radio emission and Faraday
rotation can be used to infer properties of, and trace structure in, the
magnetic fields in the ISM. However, to date very little of the sky has been
probed at high angular and Faraday depth resolution. We observed a 5x5 degree
region centred on the nearby galaxy IC342 using LOFAR in the frequency range
115-178 MHz at 4 arcmin resolution and performed Faraday tomography to detect
foreground Galactic polarized synchrotron emission separated by Faraday depth
(different amounts of Faraday rotation). Our Faraday depth cube shows rich
polarized structure, with up to 30 K of polarized emission at 150 MHz. We
detect two overlapping diffuse polarized features that are clearly separated in
Faraday depth. Faraday-thick structures at such low frequencies would be too
strongly depolarized to explain the observations and are therefore rejected.
Only Faraday thin structures will not be strongly depolarized; producing such
structures requires localized variations in the ratio of synchrotron emissivity
to Faraday depth per unit distance, which can arise from several physical
phenomena, such as a transition between regions of ionized and neutral gas. We
conclude that the observed polarized emission is Faraday thin, and propose that
the emission originates from two neutral clouds in the local ISM. We have
modeled the Faraday rotation for this line of sight and estimated that the line
of sight component of magnetic field of the local ISM for this direction varies
between -0.86 and +0.12 uG. We propose that this may be a useful method for
mapping magnetic fields within the local ISM.


title: Optical turbulence forecast: ready for an operational application

abstract:
  One of the main goals of the feasibility study MOSE (MOdellig ESO Sites) is
to evaluate the performances of a method conceived to forecast the optical
turbulence above the ESO sites of the Very Large Telescope and the
European-Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. The method implied the use of a
dedicated code conceived for the optical turbulence (OT) called Astro-Meso-Nh.
In this paper we present results we obtained at conclusion of this project
concerning the performances of this method in forecasting the most relevant
parameters related to the optical turbulence (CN2, seeing , isoplanatic angle
theta_0 and wavefront coherence time tau_0). Numerical predictions related to a
very rich statistical sample of nights uniformly distributed along a solar year
and belonging to different years have been compared to observations and
different statistical operators have been analyzed such as classical bias, RMSE
and and more sophisticated statistical operators derived by the contingency
tables that are able to quantify the score of success of a predictive method
such as the percentage of correct detection (PC) and the probability to detect
a parameter within a specific range of values (POD). The main conclusions of
the study tell us that the Astro-Meso-Nh model provides performances that are
already very good to definitely guarantee a not negligible positive impact on
the Service Mode of top-class telescopes and ELTs. A demonstrator for an
automatic and operational version of the Astro-Meso-Nh model will be soon
implemented on the sites of VLT and E-ELT.


title: Probabilistic Neural Programs

abstract:
  We present probabilistic neural programs, a framework for program induction
that permits flexible specification of both a computational model and inference
algorithm while simultaneously enabling the use of deep neural networks.
Probabilistic neural programs combine a computation graph for specifying a
neural network with an operator for weighted nondeterministic choice. Thus, a
program describes both a collection of decisions as well as the neural network
architecture used to make each one. We evaluate our approach on a challenging
diagram question answering task where probabilistic neural programs correctly
execute nearly twice as many programs as a baseline model.


title: Scaling behaviour in random non-commutative geometries

abstract:
  Random non-commutative geometries are a novel approach to taking a
non-perturbative path integral over geometries. They were introduced in
arxiv.org/abs/1510.01377, where a first examination was performed. During this
examination we found that some geometries show indications of a phase
transition. In this article we explore this phase transition further for
geometries of type $(1,1)$, $(2,0)$, and $(1,3)$. We determine the pseudo
critical points of these geometries and explore how some of the observables
scale with the system size. We also undertake first steps towards understanding
the critical behaviour through correlations and in determining critical
exponents of the system.


title:
The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular
  Clusters. VIII. Preliminary Public Catalog Release

abstract:
  The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular
Clusters (GO-13297) has been specifically designed to complement the existing
F606W and F814W observations of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Globular
Cluster Survey (GO-10775) by observing the most accessible 47 of the previous
survey's 65 clusters in three WFC3/UVIS filters F275W, F336W, and F438W. The
new survey also adds super-solar metallicity open cluster NGC 6791 to increase
the metallicity diversity. The combined survey provides a homogeneous 5-band
data set that can be used to pursue a broad range of scientific investigations.
In particular, the chosen UV filters allow the identification of multiple
stellar populations by targeting the regions of the spectrum that are sensitive
to abundance variations in C, N, and O. In order to provide the community with
uniform preliminary catalogs, we have devised an automated procedure that
performs high-quality photometry on the new UV observations (along with similar
observations of seven other programs in the archive). This procedure finds and
measures the potential sources on each individual exposure using library
point-spread functions and cross-correlates these observations with the
original ACS-Survey catalog. The catalog of 57 clusters we publish here will be
useful to identify stars in the different stellar populations, in particular
for spectroscopic follow-up. Eventually, we will construct a more sophisticated
catalog and artificial-star tests based on an optimal reduction of the UV
survey data, but the catalogs presented here give the community the chance to
make early use of this HST Treasury survey.


title: Frequency Regulation in Islanded Microgrid Using Demand Response

abstract:
  Introducing more Distributed Generation (DG) into power grid infrastructure
drives more attention to understand how large scale DG affects grid operation.
Islanding is an important concern in this area. Islanding refers to the
condition that DGs within a microgrid continue energizing while the microgrid
has been disconnected from the main grid. Considering the adverse effects of
Islanding, it should be detected and managed in a proper way. After Islanding
has been detected, even though the first option is tripping all inverterbased
DG unit in the system, the system has this option to work as a stand-alone
microgrid. For achieving this goal, the frequency of microgrid should be
regulated. This paper proposes an islanding detection method based on current
detection in a parallel arm with the fuse arm of the microgrid. After islanding
detection, this paper presents an effective implementation Demand Response (DR)
to regulate the frequency in islanded microgrid as an Ancillary Service (AS)
considering the transient constraints of frequency in inverterbased
generations.


title:
A Game Theoretic Model of Demand Response Aggregator Competition for
  Selling Stored Energy in Regulated and Unregulated Power Markets

abstract:
  This work is concerned with the application of game theoretic principles to
model competition between demand response aggregators for selling excess energy
stored in electrochemical storage devices directly to other aggregators in a
power market. This market framework is presented as an alternative to the
traditional vertically integrated market structure, which may be better suited
for developing demand response and smart grid technologies, in addition to
increasing penetration of independent renewable energy generation devices.
Demand for power generated by the utility through combustion of fuel could be
replaced, lowering emission of pollutants, when the energy used to charge the
batteries is produced sustainably and traded on smaller scales. The four
variants of game are considered: both non-cooperative (unregulated competition)
and Stackelberg (regulations on transaction price and size), each with and
without DR scheduling. The Nash equilibrium is derived for each game variant in
order to serve as a bid-price decision making criteria which determines the
optimal bidding strategy for an aggregator to sell in the market. The model is
applied to a case study involving completion for selling between two
aggregators. Bidding strategy is dependent on parameters inherent to an
aggregator's energy storage hardware, and the strategy selected by each
aggregator does not vary with the variations in the game conditions considered.
Demand response scheduling offers greater payoff for aggregators who implement
it, compared with those who do not. Addition of transaction price and volume
regulations to the market do not affect the participants optimal bidding
strategies (the Nash equilibrium), but lowers payoffs for all aggregators
participating in the market relative to unregulated competition.


title:
Test of Weak Equivalence Principle with the multi-band timing of the
  Crab Pulsar

abstract:
  Weak Equivalent Principle (WEP) can be tested through the parameterized
post-Newtonian parameter $\gamma$, representing the space curvature produced by
unit rest mass. The parameter $\gamma$ in turn has been constrained by
comparing the arrival times of photons originating in distant transient events,
such as gamma-ray bursts, fast radio bursts as well as giant pulses of pulsars.
Those measurements normally correspond to an individual burst event with very
limited energy bands and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). In this letter, the
discrepancy in the pulse arrival times of the Crab Pulsar between different
energy bands is obtained by the phase difference between corresponding pulse
profiles. This allows us to compare the pulse arrival times at the largest
energy band differences, between radio and optical, radio and X-ray, radio and
gamma-ray respectively. As the pulse profiles are generated by phase-folding
thousands of individual pulses, the time discrepancies between two energy bands
are actually measured from thousands of events at each energy band, which
corresponds to much higher S/N. The upper limit of the $\gamma$ discrepancy set
by such an extensively-observed and well-modeled source is as follows:
$\gamma_{radio}-\gamma_{\gamma-ray}<3.28\times10^{-9}$ at the energy difference
of $E_{\gamma-ray}/E_{radio}\sim10^{13}$,
$\gamma_{radio}-\gamma_{X-ray}<4.01\times10^{-9}$ at the energy difference of
$E_{X-ray}/E_{radio}\sim10^{9}$,
$\gamma_{radio}-\gamma_{optical}<2.63\times10^{-9}$ at
$E_{optical}/E_{radio}\sim10^{5}$, and
$\gamma_{optical}-\gamma_{\gamma-ray}<3.03\times10^{-10}$ at
$E_{\gamma-ray}/E_{optical}\sim10^8$. This actually measures the arrival times
of freely-falling photons in the gravitational field of the Milky Way with the
largest amount of events and with data of the highest S/N, which tests WEP at
the energy band differences that has never been reached before.


title: Note on Greenberg conjecture

abstract:
  We use logarithmic {\ell}-class groups to take a new view on Greenberg's
conjecture about Iwasawa {\ell}-invariants of a totally real number field K. By
the way we recall and complete some classical results. Under Leopoldt's
conjecture, we prove that Greenberg's conjecture holds if and only if the
logarithmic classes of K principalize in the cyclotomic Z{\ell}-extensions of
K. As an illustration of our approach, in the special case where the prime
{\ell} splits completely in K, we prove that the sufficient condition
introduced by Gras just asserts the triviality of the logarithmic class group
of K.Last, in the abelian case, we provide an explicit description of the
circular class groups in connexion with the so-called weak conjecture.


title:
The Hasse principle for systems of quadratic and cubic diagonal
  equations

abstract:
  Employing Br\"udern's and Wooley's new complification method, we establish an
asymptotic Hasse principle for the number of solutions to a system of r_3 cubic
and r_2 quadratic diagonal forms, when the number of cubic equations is at
least double the number of quadratic forms. The number of variables required is
lower than in earlier work. In particular, we achieve essentially square root
cancellation for systems of one quadratic and arbitrarily many cubic equations.


title: Optimal consumption and investment under transaction costs

abstract:
  In this article we consider the Merton problem in a market with a single
risky asset and transaction costs. We give a complete solution of the problem
up to the solution of a free-boundary problem for a first-order differential
equation, and find that the form of the solution (whether the problem is
well-posed, whether the problem is well-posed only for large transaction costs,
whether the no-transaction wedge lies in the first, second or fourth quadrants)
depends only on a quadratic whose co-efficients are functions of the parameters
of the problem, and then only through the value and slope of this quadratic at
zero, one and the turning point.
  We find that for some parameter values and for large transaction costs the
location of the boundary at which sales of the risky asset occur is independent
of the transaction cost on purchases. We give both a mathematical and financial
reason for this phenomena.


title:
Geometrical thermodynamics and P-V criticality of the black holes with
  power-law Maxwell field

abstract:
  We study thermodynamical structure of Einstein black holes in the presence of
power Maxwell invariant nonlinear electrodynamics for two different cases. The
behavior of the temperature and conditions regarding the stability of these
black holes are investigated. Since the language of geometry is an effective
method in general relativity, we concentrate on the geometrical thermodynamics
to build a phase space for studying phase transition. In addition, taking into
account the denominator of the heat capacity, we use the proportionality
between cosmological constant and thermodynamical pressure to extract the
critical values for these black holes. Besides, the effects of the variation of
different parameters on thermodynamical structure of these black holes are
investigated. In addition, some thermodynamical properties such as volume
expansion coefficient, speed of sound and isothermal compressibility
coefficient are calculated and some remarks regarding these quantities are
given.


title:
Asymptotic Optimality of Power-of-$d$ Load Balancing in Large-Scale
  Systems

abstract:
  We consider a system of $N$ identical server pools and a single dispatcher
where tasks arrive as a Poisson process of rate $\lambda(N)$. Arriving tasks
cannot be queued, and must immediately be assigned to one of the server pools
to start execution, or discarded. The execution times are assumed to be
exponentially distributed with unit mean, and do not depend on the number of
other tasks receiving service. However, the experienced performance (e.g. in
terms of received throughput) does degrade with an increasing number of
concurrent tasks at the same server pool. The dispatcher therefore aims to
evenly distribute the tasks across the various server pools. Specifically, when
a task arrives, the dispatcher assigns it to the server pool with the minimum
number of tasks among $d(N)$ randomly selected server pools. This assignment
strategy is called the JSQ$(d(N))$ scheme, as it resembles the power-of-$d$
version of the Join-the-Shortest-Queue (JSQ) policy, and will also be referred
to as such in the special case $d(N) = N$.
  We construct a stochastic coupling to bound the difference in the system
occupancy processes between the JSQ policy and a scheme with an arbitrary value
of $d(N)$. We use the coupling to derive the fluid limit in case $d(N) \to
\infty$ and $\lambda(N)/N \to \lambda$ as $N \to \infty$, along with the
associated fixed point. The fluid limit turns out to be insensitive to the
exact growth rate of $d(N)$, and coincides with that for the JSQ policy. We
further leverage the coupling to establish that the diffusion limit corresponds
to that for the JSQ policy as well, as long as $d(N)/\sqrt{N} \log(N) \to
\infty$, and characterize the common limiting diffusion process. These results
indicate that the JSQ optimality can be preserved at the fluid-level and
diffusion-level while reducing the overhead by nearly a factor O($N$) and
O($\sqrt{N}/\log(N)$), respectively.


title: Universality of Power-of-$d$ Load Balancing in Many-Server Systems

abstract:
  We consider a system of $N$ parallel single-server queues with unit
exponential service rates and a single dispatcher where tasks arrive as a
Poisson process of rate $\lambda(N)$. When a task arrives, the dispatcher
assigns it to a server with the shortest queue among $d(N)$ randomly selected
servers ($1 \leq d(N) \leq N$). This load balancing strategy is referred to as
a JSQ($d(N)$) scheme, marking that it subsumes the celebrated Join-the-Shortest
Queue (JSQ) policy as a crucial special case for $d(N) = N$.
  We construct a stochastic coupling to bound the difference in the queue
length processes between the JSQ policy and a scheme with an arbitrary value of
$d(N)$. We use the coupling to derive the fluid limit in the regime where
$\lambda(N) / N \to \lambda < 1$ as $N \to \infty$ with $d(N) \to\infty$, along
with the associated fixed point. The fluid limit turns out not to depend on the
exact growth rate of $d(N)$, and in particular coincides with that for the JSQ
policy. We further leverage the coupling to establish that the diffusion limit
in the critical regime where $(N - \lambda(N)) / \sqrt{N} \to \beta > 0$ as $N
\to \infty$ with $d(N)/(\sqrt{N} \log (N))\to\infty$ corresponds to that for
the JSQ policy. These results indicate that the optimality of the JSQ policy
can be preserved at the fluid-level and diffusion-level while reducing the
overhead by nearly a factor O($N$) and O($\sqrt{N}/\log(N)$), respectively.


title: Charged-lepton decays from soft flavour violation

abstract:
  We consider a two-Higgs-doublet extension of the Standard Model, with three
right-handed neutrino singlets and the seesaw mechanism, wherein all the
Yukawa-coupling matrices are lepton flavour-diagonal and lepton flavour
violation is soft, originating solely in the non-flavour-diagonal Majorana mass
matrix of the right-handed neutrinos. We consider the limit $m_R \to \infty$ of
this model, where $m_R$ is the seesaw scale. We demonstrate that there is a
region in parameter space where the branching ratios of all five charged-lepton
decays $\ell_1^- \to \ell_2^- \ell_3^+ \ell_3^-$ are close to their
experimental upper bounds, while the radiative decays $\ell_1^- \to \ell_2^-
\gamma$ are invisible because their branching ratios are suppressed by
$m_R^{-4}$. We also consider the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and show
that in our model the contributions from the extra scalars, both charged and
neutral, can remove the discrepancy between its experimental and theoretical
values.


title:
An Optimally Weighted Estimator of the Linear Power Spectrum
  Disentangling the Growth of Density Perturbations Across Galaxy Surveys

abstract:
  Measuring the clustering of galaxies from surveys allows us to estimate the
power spectrum of matter density fluctuations, thus constraining cosmological
models. This requires careful modelling of observational effects to avoid
misinterpretation of data. In particular, signals coming from different
distances encode information from different epochs. This is known as
"light-cone effect" and is going to have a higher impact as upcoming galaxy
surveys probe larger redshift ranges. Generalising the method by Feldman et al.
(1994), I define a minimum-variance estimator of the linear power spectrum at a
fixed time, properly taking into account the light-cone effect. An analytic
expression for the estimator is provided, and that is consistent with the
findings of previous works in the literature. I test the method within the
context of the halo model, assuming Planck 2014 cosmological parameters. I show
that the estimator presented recovers the fiducial linear power spectrum at
present time within 5% accuracy up to $k \sim 0.80\;h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and
within 10% up to $k \sim 0.94\;h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, well into the non-linear
regime of the growth of density perturbations. As such, the method could be
useful in the analysis of the data from future large-scale surveys, like
Euclid.


title: A note on the universality of Hurwitz-Lerch zeta functions

abstract:
  A failed attempt to prove the universality of Lerch zeta function
$L(\lambda,\alpha,s)$ when $\lambda$ is irrational and $\alpha$ is rational,
and for any $\lambda$ when $\alpha$ is irrational algebraic.


title: Gustafson integrals for $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ spin magnet

abstract:
  It was observed recently that the multidimensional Mellin--Barnes integrals
(Gustafson's integrals) arise naturally in studies of the $SL(2,R)$ spin chain
models. We extend this analysis to the noncompact $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ spin
magnets and obtain integrals which generalize Gustafson's integrals to the
complex case.


title: Who Invented the Gromov-Hausdorff Distance?

abstract:
  One of the most beautiful notions of metric geometry is the Gromov-Hausdorff
distance which measures the difference between two metric spaces. To define the
distance, let us isometrically embed these spaces into various metric spaces
and measure the Hausdorff distance between their images. The best matching
corresponds to the least Hausdorff distance. The idea to compare metric spaces
in such a way was described in M.Gromov publications dating back to 1981. It
was shown that this distance being restricted to isometry classes of compact
metric spaces forms a metric which is now called Gromov-Hausdorff metric.
However, whether M.Gromov was the first who introduced this metric? It turns
out that 6 years before these Gromov's works, in 1975, another mathematician,
namely, David Edwards published a paper in which he defined this metric in
another way. Also, Edwards found and proved the basic properties of the
distance. It seems unfair that almost no one mentions this Edwards's paper
including well-known specialists in metric geometry. The main goal of the
present publication is to fill this gap.


title:
Automated assessment of non-native learner essays: Investigating the
  role of linguistic features

abstract:
  Automatic essay scoring (AES) refers to the process of scoring free text
responses to given prompts, considering human grader scores as the gold
standard. Writing such essays is an essential component of many language and
aptitude exams. Hence, AES became an active and established area of research,
and there are many proprietary systems used in real life applications today.
However, not much is known about which specific linguistic features are useful
for prediction and how much of this is consistent across datasets. This article
addresses that by exploring the role of various linguistic features in
automatic essay scoring using two publicly available datasets of non-native
English essays written in test taking scenarios. The linguistic properties are
modeled by encoding lexical, syntactic, discourse and error types of learner
language in the feature set. Predictive models are then developed using these
features on both datasets and the most predictive features are compared. While
the results show that the feature set used results in good predictive models
with both datasets, the question "what are the most predictive features?" has a
different answer for each dataset.


title:
A Pilot Case Study on Innovative Behaviour: Lessons Learned and
  Directions for Future Work

abstract:
  Context: A case study is a powerful research strategy for investigating
complex social-technical and managerial phenomena in real life settings.
However, when the phenomenon has not been fully discovered or understood, pilot
case studies are important to refine the research problem, the research
variables, and the case study design before launching a full-scale
investigation. The role of pilot case studies has not been fully addressed in
empirical software engineering research literature. Objective: To explore the
use of pilot case studies in the design of full-scale case studies, and to
report the main lessons learned from an industrial pilot study. Method: We
designed and conducted an exploratory case study to identify new relevant
research variables that influence the innovative behaviour of software
engineers in the industrial setting and to refine the full-scale case study
design for the next phase of our research. Results: The use of a pilot case
study identified several important research variables that were missing in the
initial framework. The pilot study also supported a more sophisticated case
study design, which was used to guide a full-scale study. Conclusions: When a
research topic has not been fully discovered or understood, it is difficult to
create a case study design that covers the relevant research variables and
their potential relationships. Conducting a full-scale case study using an
untested case design can lead to waste of resources and time if the design has
to be reworked during the study. In these situations, the use of pilot case
studies can significantly improve the case study design.


title:
Random walk hitting times and effective resistance in sparsely connected
  Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graphs

abstract:
  We prove expectation and concentration results for the following random
variables on an Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graph $\mathcal{G}\left(n,p\right)$ in
the sparsely connected regime $\log n + \log\log \log n \leq np < n^{1/10}$:
effective resistances, random walk hitting and commute times, the Kirchoff
index, cover cost, random target times, the mean hitting time and Kemeny's
constant. For the effective resistance between two vertices our concentration
result extends further to $np\geq c\log n, \; c>0$. To achieve these results,
we show that a strong connectedness property holds with high probability for
$\mathcal{G}(n,p)$ in this regime.


title:
A SICA compartmental model in epidemiology with application to HIV/AIDS
  in Cape Verde

abstract:
  We propose a new mathematical model for the transmission dynamics of the
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Global stability of the unique endemic
equilibrium is proved. Then, based on data provided by the "Progress Report on
the AIDS response in Cape Verde 2015", we calibrate our model to the cumulative
cases of infection by HIV and AIDS from 1987 to 2014 and we show that our model
predicts well such reality. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is done for the
case study in Cape Verde. We conclude that the goal of the United Nations to
end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is a nontrivial task.


title: Trends in Students Media Usage

abstract:
  Trends in media usage by students can affect the way they learn. Students
demand the use of technology, thus institutions and instructors should meet
students requests. This paper describes the results of a survey where drivers
in the use of media show continuously increasing or decreasing values from the
first to the fourth year of study experience at the Western University, Canada,
highlighting trends in the usage of new and traditional media in higher
education by students. The survey was used to gather data on students media
usage habits and user satisfaction from first to fourth year of study and found
that media usage increases over the years from first to fourth. The
presentation of data using bar charts reveals a slight increase over the years
in students owning notebooks or laptops off-campus and a significant increase
from first to fourth year of students accessing online academic periodicals and
journals. Another noteworthy finding relates to fourth year students being more
conscious of the quality of information that they read on the Internet in
comparison to students in first year, even though this is a slight year on year
increase.


title: Why a Testing Career Is Not the First Choice of Engineers

abstract:
  As software systems are becoming larger, more complex, and dependent on many
third-party software components, the chances of their failure are increasing
further. This calls for intense efforts to improve the quality of testing in
the software development process.


title:
Environmental Factors Influencing Individual Decision-Making Behavior in
  Software Project: A Systematic Literature Review

abstract:
  As one of the crucial human aspects, individual decision-making behavior that
may affect the quality of a software project is adaptive to the environment in
which the individual is. However, no comprehensive reference framework of the
environmental factors influencing individual decision-making behavior in
software projects is presently available. This paper undertakes a systematic
literature review (SLR) to gain insight into existing studies on this topic.
After a careful SLR process, 40 studies were targeted to solve this question.
Based on these extracted studies, we first provided a taxonomy of environmental
factors comprising eight categories. Then a total of 237 factors are identified
and classified using these eight categories, and some major environmental
factors of each category are listed in the paper. The environmental factors
listing and the taxonomy can help researchers and practitioners to better
understand and predict the behavior of individuals during decision making and
to design more effective solutions to improve people management in software
projects.


title: Parabolic double cosets in Coxeter groups

abstract:
  Parabolic subgroups $W_I$ of Coxeter systems $(W,S)$, as well as their
ordinary and double quotients $W / W_I$ and $W_I \backslash W / W_J$, appear in
many contexts in combinatorics and Lie theory, including the geometry and
topology of generalized flag varieties and the symmetry groups of regular
polytopes. The set of ordinary cosets $w W_I$, for $I \subseteq S$, forms the
Coxeter complex of $W$, and is well-studied. In this article we look at a less
studied object: the set of all double cosets $W_I w W_J$ for $I, J \subseteq
S$. Double coset are not uniquely presented by triples $(I,w,J)$. We describe
what we call the lex-minimal presentation, and prove that there exists a unique
such object for each double coset. Lex-minimal presentations are then used to
enumerate double cosets via a finite automaton depending on the Coxeter graph
for $(W,S)$. As an example, we present a formula for the number of parabolic
double cosets with a fixed minimal element when $W$ is the symmetric group
$S_n$ (in this case, parabolic subgroups are also known as Young subgroups).
Our formula is almost always linear time computable in $n$, and we show how it
can be generalized to any Coxeter group with little additional work. We spell
out formulas for all finite and affine Weyl groups in the case that $w$ is the
identity element.


title: Problem with classical stability of U(1) gauged Q-balls

abstract:
  In this paper, we present a detailed study of the problem of classical
stability of U(1) gauged Q-balls. In particular, we show that the standard
methods that are suitable for establishing the classical stability criterion
for ordinary (nongauged) one-field and two-field Q-balls are not effective in
the case of U(1) gauged Q-balls, although all the technical steps of
calculations can be performed in the same way as those for ordinary Q-balls. We
also present the results of numerical simulations in models with different
scalar field potentials, explicitly demonstrating that, in general, the regions
of stability of U(1) gauged Q-balls are not defined in the same way as in the
case of ordinary Q-balls. Consequently, the classical stability criterion for
ordinary Q-balls cannot be applied to U(1) gauged Q-balls in the general case.


title: Action Recognition with Dynamic Image Networks

abstract:
  We introduce the concept of "dynamic image", a novel compact representation
of videos useful for video analysis, particularly in combination with
convolutional neural networks (CNNs). A dynamic image encodes temporal data
such as RGB or optical flow videos by using the concept of `rank pooling'. The
idea is to learn a ranking machine that captures the temporal evolution of the
data and to use the parameters of the latter as a representation. When a linear
ranking machine is used, the resulting representation is in the form of an
image, which we call dynamic because it summarizes the video dynamics in
addition of appearance. This is a powerful idea because it allows to convert
any video to an image so that existing CNN models pre-trained for the analysis
of still images can be immediately extended to videos. We also present an
efficient and effective approximate rank pooling operator, accelerating
standard rank pooling algorithms by orders of magnitude, and formulate that as
a CNN layer. This new layer allows generalizing dynamic images to dynamic
feature maps. We demonstrate the power of the new representations on standard
benchmarks in action recognition achieving state-of-the-art performance.


title: Real-time simulation of the Schwinger effect with Matrix Product States

abstract:
  Matrix Product States (MPS) are used for the simulation of the real-time
dynamics induced by an electric quench on the vacuum state of the massive
Schwinger model. For small quenches it is found that the obtained oscillatory
behavior of local observables can be explained from the single-particle
excitations of the quenched Hamiltonian. For large quenches damped oscillations
are found and comparison of the late time behavior with the appropriate Gibbs
states seems to give some evidence for the onset of thermalization. Finally,
the MPS real-time simulations are explicitly compared with the semi-classical
approach and, as expected, agreement is found in the limit of large quenches.


title: Gas Accretion and Star-Formation Rates with IFUs and Background Quasars

abstract:
  Star-forming galaxies (SFGs) are forming stars at a regular pace, forming the
so-called main sequence (MS). However, all studies of their gas content show
that their gas reservoir ought to be depleted in 0.5-2 Gyr. Thus, SFGs are
thought to be fed by the continuous accretion of intergalactic gas in order to
sustain their star-formation activity. However, direct observational evidence
for this accretion phenomenon has been elusive. Theoretically, the accreted gas
coming from the intergalactic medium is expected to orbit about the halo,
delivering not just fuel for star-formation but also angular momentum to the
galaxy. This accreting material is thus expected to form a gaseous structure
that should be co-rotating with the host once at $r<0.3\;R_{\rm vir}$ or
$r<10-30$ kpc. Because of the rough alignment between the star-forming disk and
this extended gaseous structure, the accreting material can be most easily
detected with the combination of background quasars and integral field units
(IFUs). In this chapter, accretion studies using this technique are reviewed.


title: Raman spectroscopy of chocolate bloom

abstract:
  Raman spectroscopy has been widely applied to the chemical analysis of food
quality and, in particular, of chocolate. We perform Raman analysis of bloom
formation in white and dark chocolates. We show evidence of sugar and fat bloom
and investigate spectroscopic signatures of polymorphic changes in different
phases.


title:
Comparison of the COG Defuzzification Technique and Its Variations to
  the GPA Index

abstract:
  The Center of Gravity (COG) method is one of the most popular defuzzification
techniques of fuzzy mathematics. In earlier works the COG technique was
properly adapted to be used as an assessment model (RFAM)and several variations
of it (GRFAM, TFAM and TpFAM)were also constructed for the same purpose. In
this paper the outcomes of all these models are compared to the corresponding
outcomes of a traditional assessment method of the bi-valued logic, the Grade
Point Average (GPA) Index. Examples are also presented illustrating our
results.


title:
Effects of static and dynamic higher-order optical modes in balanced
  homodyne readout for future gravitational waves detectors

abstract:
  With the recent discovery of Gravitational waves, marking the start of the
new field of GW astronomy, the push for building more sensitive
laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors (GWD) has never been
stronger. Balanced homodyne detection (BHD) allows for a quantum noise limited
readout of arbitrary light field quadratures, and has therefore been suggested
as a vital building block for upgrades to Advanced LIGO and third generation
observatories. In terms of the practical implementation of BHD, we develop a
full framework for analyzing the static optical high order modes (HOMs)
occurring in the BHD paths related to the misalignment or mode matching at the
input and output ports of the laser interferometer. We find the effects of HOMs
on the quantum noise limited sensitivity is independent of the actual
interferometer configuration, e.g. Michelson and Sagnac interferometers are
effected in the same way. We show that output misalignment only effects the
high frequency part of the quantum noise limited sensitivity. However, at low
frequencies, HOMs reduce the interferometer response and the radiation pressure
noise by the same amount and hence the quantum noise limited sensitivity is not
negatively effected. We show that the input misalignment to the interferometer
produces the same effect as output misalignment and additionally decreases the
power inside the interferometer. We also analyze dynamic HOM effects, such as
beam jitter created by the suspended mirrors of the BHD. Our analyses can be
directly applied to any BHD implementation in a future GWD. Moreover, we apply
our analytical techniques to the example of the speed meter proof of concept
experiment under construction in Glasgow. We find that for our experimental
parameters, the performance of our seismic isolation system in the BHD paths is
compatible with the design sensitivity of the experiment.


title:
Note on discounted continuous-time Markov decision processes with a
  lower bounding function

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider the discounted continuous-time Markov decision
process (CTMDP) with a lower bounding function. In this model, the negative
part of each cost rate is bounded by the drift function, say $w$, whereas the
positive part is allowed to be arbitrarily unbounded. Our focus is on the
existence of a stationary optimal policy for the discounted CTMDP problems out
of the more general class. Both constrained and unconstrained problems are
considered. Our investigations are based on a useful transformation for
nonhomogeneous Markov pure jump processes that has not yet been widely applied
to the study of CTMDPs. This technique was not employed in previous literature,
but it clarifies the roles of the imposed conditions in a rather transparent
way. As a consequence, we withdraw and weaken several conditions commonly
imposed in the literature.


title: Cognitive Deep Machine Can Train Itself

abstract:
  Machine learning is making substantial progress in diverse applications. The
success is mostly due to advances in deep learning. However, deep learning can
make mistakes and its generalization abilities to new tasks are questionable.
We ask when and how one can combine network outputs, when (i) details of the
observations are evaluated by learned deep components and (ii) facts and
confirmation rules are available in knowledge based systems. We show that in
limited contexts the required number of training samples can be low and
self-improvement of pre-trained networks in more general context is possible.
We argue that the combination of sparse outlier detection with deep components
that can support each other diminish the fragility of deep methods, an
important requirement for engineering applications. We argue that supervised
learning of labels may be fully eliminated under certain conditions: a
component based architecture together with a knowledge based system can train
itself and provide high quality answers. We demonstrate these concepts on the
State Farm Distracted Driver Detection benchmark. We argue that the view of the
Study Panel (2016) may overestimate the requirements on `years of focused
research' and `careful, unique construction' for `AI systems'.


title:
GPU-accelerated algorithms for many-particle continuous-time quantum
  walks

abstract:
  Many-particle continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs) represent a resource for
several tasks in quantum technology, including quantum search algorithms and
universal quantum computation. In order to design and implement CTQWs in a
realistic scenario, one needs effective simulation tools for Hamiltonians that
take into account static noise and fluctuations in the lattice, i.e.
Hamiltonians containing stochastic terms. To this aim, we suggest a parallel
algorithm based on the Taylor series expansion of the evolution operator, and
compare its performances with those of algorithms based on the exact
diagonalization of the Hamiltonian or a 4-th order Runge-Kutta integration. We
prove that both Taylor-series expansion and Runge-Kutta algorithms are reliable
and have a low computational cost, the Taylor-series expansion showing the
additional advantage of a memory allocation not depending on the precision of
calculation. Both algorithms are also highly parallelizable within the SIMT
paradigm, and are thus suitable for GPGPU computing. In turn, we have
benchmarked 4 NVIDIA GPUs and 3 quad-core Intel CPUs for a 2-particle system
over lattices of increasing dimension, showing that the speedup providend by
GPU computing, with respect to the OPENMP parallelization, lies in the range
between 8x and (more than) 20x, depending on the frequency of post-processing.
GPU-accelerated codes thus allow one to overcome concerns about the execution
time, and make it possible simulations with many interacting particles on large
lattices, with the only limit of the memory available on the device.


title:
Optical spectroscopy of complex open 4$d$-shell ions
  Sn$^{7+}$-Sn$^{10+}$

abstract:
  We analyze the complex level structure of ions with many-valence-electron
open [Kr] 4$d^\textrm{m}$ sub-shells ($\textrm{m}$=7-4) with ab initio
calculations based on configuration-interaction many-body perturbation theory
(CI+MBPT). Charge-state-resolved optical and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectra
of Sn$^{7+}$-Sn$^{10+}$ ions were obtained using an electron beam ion trap.
Semi-empirical spectral fits carried out with the orthogonal parameters
technique and Cowan code calculations lead to 90 identifications of
magnetic-dipole transitions and the determination of 79 energy
ground-configuration levels, questioning some earlier EUV-line assignments. Our
results, the most complete data set available to date for these ground
configurations, confirm the ab initio predictive power of CI+MBPT calculations
for the these complex electronic systems.


title: A specialization property of index

abstract:
  In this article we study certain specialization properties of the index of
varieties defined by Koll\'{a}r.


title: The Monoid Structure on Homotopy Obstructions

abstract:
  Let $A$ be a commutative noetherian ring, containing a field $k$, with
$1/2\in k$, $\dim A=d$, and let $P$ be a projective $A$-module or $rank(P)=n$.
In continuation of \cite{MM}, we study Homotopy obstructions for $P$ to split
off a free direct summand. Let ${\mathcal LO}(P)$ be the set of all pairs $(I,
\omega)$, where $I$ is an ideal of $A$ and $\omega: P\rightarrow I/I^2$ is a
surjective map. The homotopy relations on ${\mathcal LO}(P)$, induced by
${\mathcal LO}(P[T])$, leads to a set $\pi_0\left({\mathcal LO}(P)\right)$ of
equivalence classes in ${\mathcal LO}(P)$. There are two distinguished elements
${\bf e}_0, {\bf e}_1\in \pi_0\left({\mathcal LO}(P)\right)$, respectively, the
images of $(0, 0)$ and $(A, 0)$. Define the obstruction class $e(P)={\bf
e}_0\in \pi_0\left({\mathcal LO}(P)\right)$. The following results are under
suitable smoothness or regularity hypotheses. When
  $2n\geq d+3$, we prove $e(P)={\bf e}_1 \Leftrightarrow P\cong Q\oplus A$. We
prove, if $2n\geq d+2$, then
  $\pi_0\left({\mathcal LO}(P)\right)$ has a natural structure of a monoid,
which is a group if $P\cong Q\oplus A$.
  Further, we give a definition of a Euler class group $E(P)$. Under suitable
smoothness hypotheses, we prove, if $P\cong Q\oplus A$ and $2n\geq d+3$, then
there is natural isomorphism $E(P) \rightarrow \pi_0\left({\mathcal
LO}(P)\right)$ of groups.


title: Non-Negative Matrix Factorizations for Multiplex Network Analysis

abstract:
  Networks have been a general tool for representing, analyzing, and modeling
relational data arising in several domains. One of the most important aspect of
network analysis is community detection or network clustering. Until recently,
the major focus have been on discovering community structure in single (i.e.,
monoplex) networks. However, with the advent of relational data with multiple
modalities, multiplex networks, i.e., networks composed of multiple layers
representing different aspects of relations, have emerged. Consequently,
community detection in multiplex network, i.e., detecting clusters of nodes
shared by all layers, has become a new challenge. In this paper, we propose
Network Fusion for Composite Community Extraction (NF-CCE), a new class of
algorithms, based on four different non-negative matrix factorization models,
capable of extracting composite communities in multiplex networks. Each
algorithm works in two steps: first, it finds a non-negative, low-dimensional
feature representation of each network layer; then, it fuses the feature
representation of layers into a common non-negative, low-dimensional feature
representation via collective factorization. The composite clusters are
extracted from the common feature representation. We demonstrate the superior
performance of our algorithms over the state-of-the-art methods on various
types of multiplex networks, including biological, social, economic, citation,
phone communication, and brain multiplex networks.