title: Generalized Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Description of the Frohlich Polaron

abstract:
  We adapt the generalized Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) method to an
interacting many-phonon system free of impurities. The many-phonon system is
obtained from applying the Lee-Low-Pine (LLP) transformation to the Frohlich
model which describes a mobile impurity coupled to noninteracting phonons. We
specialize our general HFB description of the Frohlich polaron to Bose polarons
in quasi-1D cold atom mixtures. The LLP transformed many-phonon system
distinguishes itself with an artificial phonon-phonon interaction which is very
different from the usual two-body interaction. We use the quasi-one-dimensional
model, which is free of an ultraviolet divergence that exists in higher
dimensions, to better understand how this unique interaction affects polaron
states and how the density and pair correlations inherent to the HFB method
conspire to create a polaron ground state with an energy in good agreement with
and far closer to the prediction from Feynman's variational path integral
approach than mean-field theory where HFB correlations are absent.


title: Finding Detours is Fixed-parameter Tractable

abstract:
  We consider the following natural "above guarantee" parameterization of the
classical Longest Path problem: For given vertices s and t of a graph G, and an
integer k, the problem Longest Detour asks for an (s,t)-path in G that is at
least k longer than a shortest (s,t)-path. Using insights into structural graph
theory, we prove that Longest Detour is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) on
undirected graphs and actually even admits a single-exponential algorithm, that
is, one of running time exp(O(k)) poly(n). This matches (up to the base of the
exponential) the best algorithms for finding a path of length at least k.
  Furthermore, we study the related problem Exact Detour that asks whether a
graph G contains an (s,t)-path that is exactly k longer than a shortest
(s,t)-path. For this problem, we obtain a randomized algorithm with running
time about 2.746^k, and a deterministic algorithm with running time about
6.745^k, showing that this problem is FPT as well. Our algorithms for Exact
Detour apply to both undirected and directed graphs.


title:
Test Models for Statistical Inference: Two-Dimensional Reaction Systems
  Displaying Limit Cycle Bifurcations and Bistability

abstract:
  Theoretical results regarding two-dimensional ordinary-differential equations
(ODEs) with second-degree polynomial right-hand sides are summarized, with an
emphasis on limit cycles, limit cycle bifurcations and multistability. The
results are then used for construction of two reaction systems, which are at
the deterministic level described by two-dimensional third-degree kinetic ODEs.
The first system displays a homoclinic bifurcation, and a coexistence of a
stable critical point and a stable limit cycle in the phase plane. The second
system displays a multiple limit cycle bifurcation, and a coexistence of two
stable limit cycles. The deterministic solutions (obtained by solving the
kinetic ODEs) and stochastic solutions (noisy time-series generating by the
Gillespie algorithm, and the underlying probability distributions obtained by
solving the chemical master equation (CME)) of the constructed systems are
compared, and the observed differences highlighted. The constructed systems are
proposed as test problems for statistical methods, which are designed to detect
and classify properties of given noisy time-series arising from biological
applications.


title:
Moderation of neoclassical impurity accumulation in high temperature
  plasmas of helical devices

abstract:
  Achieving impurity and helium ash control is a crucial issue in the path
towards fusion-grade magnetic confinement devices, and this is particularly the
case of helical reactors, whose low-collisionality ion-root operation scenarios
usually display a negative radial electric field which is expected to cause
inwards impurity pinch. In these work we discuss, based on experimental
measurements and standard predictions of neoclassical theory, how plasmas of
very low ion collisionality, similar to those observed in the impurity hole of
the Large Helical Device, can be an exception to this general rule, and how a
negative radial electric field can coexist with an outward impurity flux. This
interpretation is supported by comparison with documented discharges available
in the International Stellarator-Heliotron Profile Database, and it can be
extrapolated to show that achievement of high ion temperature in the core of
helical devices is not fundamentally incompatible with low core impurity
content.


title: Detecting Pulsars with Interstellar Scintillation in Variance Images

abstract:
  Pulsars are the only cosmic radio sources known to be sufficiently compact to
show diffractive interstellar scintillations. Images of the variance of radio
signals in both time and frequency can be used to detect pulsars in large-scale
continuum surveys using the next generation of synthesis radio telescopes. This
technique allows a search over the full field of view while avoiding the need
for expensive pixel-by-pixel high time resolution searches. We investigate the
sensitivity of detecting pulsars in variance images. We show that variance
images are most sensitive to pulsars whose scintillation time-scales and
bandwidths are close to the subintegration time and channel bandwidth.
Therefore, in order to maximise the detection of pulsars for a given radio
continuum survey, it is essential to retain a high time and frequency
resolution, allowing us to make variance images sensitive to pulsars with
different scintillation properties. We demonstrate the technique with
Murchision Widefield Array data and show that variance images can indeed lead
to the detection of pulsars by distinguishing them from other radio sources.


title:
NNLL-fast: predictions for coloured supersymmetric particle production
  at the LHC with threshold and Coulomb resummation

abstract:
  We present state-of-the art predictions for the production of supersymmetric
squarks and gluinos at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), including soft-gluon
resummation up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy, the
resummation of Coulomb corrections and the contribution from bound states. The
NNLL corrections enhance the cross-section predictions and reduce the scale
uncertainty to a level of 5-10%. The NNLL resummed cross-section predictions
can be obtained from the computer code NNLL-fast, which also provides the scale
uncertainty and the pdf and alpha_s error.


title: An extremal graph problem with a transcendental solution

abstract:
  We prove that the number of multigraphs with vertex set $\{1, \ldots, n\}$
such that every four vertices span at most nine edges is $a^{n^2 + o(n^2)}$
where $a$ is transcendental (assuming Schanuel's conjecture from number
theory). This is an easy consequence of the solution to a related problem about
maximizing the product of the edge multiplicities in certain multigraphs, and
appears to be the first explicit (somewhat natural) question in extremal graph
theory whose solution is transcendental. These results may shed light on a
question of Razborov who asked whether there are conjectures or theorems in
extremal combinatorics which cannot be proved by a certain class of finite
methods that include Cauchy-Schwarz arguments.
  Our proof involves a novel application of Zykov symmetrization applied to
multigraphs, a rather technical progressive induction, and a straightforward
use of hypergraph containers.


title:
Robustness of Distributed Averaging Control in Power Systems: Time
  Delays & Dynamic Communication Topology

abstract:
  Distributed averaging-based integral (DAI) controllers are becoming
increasingly popular in power system applications. The literature has thus far
primarily focused on disturbance rejection, steady-state optimality and
adaption to complex physical system models without considering uncertainties on
the cyber and communication layer nor their effect on robustness and
performance. In this paper, we derive sufficient delay-dependent conditions for
robust stability of a secondary-frequency-DAI-controlled power system with
respect to heterogeneous communication delays, link failures and packet losses.
Our analysis takes into account both constant as well as fast-varying delays,
and it is based on a common strictly decreasing Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional.
The conditions illustrate an inherent trade-off between robustness and
performance of DAI controllers. The effectiveness and tightness of our
stability certificates are illustrated via a numerical example based on
Kundur's four-machine-two-area test system.


title:
The Concerted Impact of Galaxies and QSOs on the Ionization and Thermal
  State of the Intergalactic Medium

abstract:
  We present a detailed analysis of the ionization and thermal structure of the
intergalactic medium (IGM) around a high-redshift QSO using a large suite of
cosmological, multi-frequency radiative transfer (RT) simulations, exploring
the contribution from galaxies as well as the QSO, and the effect of X-rays and
secondary ionization. We show that in high-z QSO environments both the central
QSO and the surrounding galaxies concertedly control the reionization
morphology of hydrogen and helium and have a non-linear impact on the thermal
structure of the IGM. A QSO imprints a distinctive morphology on H II regions
if its total ionizing photon budget exceeds that of the surrounding galaxies
since the onset of hydrogen reionization; otherwise, the morphology shows
little difference from that of H II regions produced only by galaxies. In
addition, the spectral shape of the collective radiation field from galaxies
and QSOs controls the thickness of the I-fronts. While a UV-obscured QSO can
broaden the I-front, the contribution from other UV sources, either galaxies or
unobscured QSO, is sufficient to maintain a sharp I-front. X-rays photons from
the QSO are responsible for a prominent extended tail of partial ionization
ahead of the I-front. QSOs leave a unique imprint on the morphology of He II /
He III regions. We suggest that, while the physical state of the IGM is
modified by QSOs, the most direct test to understand the role of galaxies and
QSOs during reionization is to perform galaxy surveys in a region of sky imaged
by 21 cm tomography.


title: Leveraging Unstructured Data to Detect Emerging Reliability Issues

abstract:
  Unstructured data refers to information that does not have a predefined data
model or is not organized in a pre-defined manner. Loosely speaking,
unstructured data refers to text data that is generated by humans. In
after-sales service businesses, there are two main sources of unstructured
data: customer complaints, which generally describe symptoms, and technician
comments, which outline diagnostics and treatment information. A legitimate
customer complaint can eventually be tracked to a failure or a claim. However,
there is a delay between the time of a customer complaint and the time of a
failure or a claim. A proactive strategy aimed at analyzing customer complaints
for symptoms can help service providers detect reliability problems in advance
and initiate corrective actions such as recalls. This paper introduces
essential text mining concepts in the context of reliability analysis and a
method to detect emerging reliability issues. The application of the method is
illustrated using a case study.


title: Lipschitz Normal Embeddings and Determinantal Singularities

abstract:
  The germ of an algebraic variety is naturally equipped with two different
metrics up to bilipschitz equivalence. The inner metric and the outer metric.
One calls a germ of a variety Lipschitz normally embedded if the two metrics
are bilipschitz equivalent. In this article we prove that the model
determinantal singularity, that is the space of $m\times n$ matrices of rank
less than a given number, is Lipschitz normally embedded. We will also discuss
some of the difficulties extending this result to the case of general
determinantal singularities.


title: Poc Sets, Median Algebras and Group Actions

abstract: An extended Study of Dunwoody's Construction and Sageev's Theorem


title: Topological Crystals

abstract:
  Sunada's work on topological crystallography emphasizes the role of the
"maximal abelian cover" of a graph $X$. This is a covering space of $X$ for
which the group of deck transformations is the first homology group
$H_1(X,\mathbb{Z})$. An embedding of the maximal abelian cover in a vector
space can serve as the pattern for a crystal: atoms are located at the
vertices, while bonds lie on the edges. We prove that for any connected graph
$X$ without bridges, there is a canonical way to embed the maximal abelian
cover of $X$ into the vector space $H_1(X,\mathbb{R})$. We call this a
"topological crystal". Crystals of graphene and diamond are examples of this
construction. We prove that any symmetry of a graph lifts to a symmetry of its
topological crystal. We also compute the density of atoms in this topological
crystal. We give special attention to the topological crystals coming from
Platonic solids. The key technical tools are a way of decomposing the 1-chain
coming from a path in $X$ into manageable pieces, and the work of Bacher, de la
Harpe and Nagnibeda on integral cycles and integral cuts.


title:
Some basic properties of G-Calculus and its applications in numerical
  analysis

abstract:
  Objective of this paper is to introduce a new type of calculus which will be
called G-Calculus based on non-Newtonian calculus introduced by Grossman and
Katz \cite{GrossmanKatz}. The basic difference between geometric calculus
defined by Grossman and Katz and the present G-calculus is that Grossman took
the values of the argument as $x, x+ h, x+2h,...$ but here in G-calculus we
take the values as $x, x\oplus h, x\oplus e^2\odot h, x\oplus e^3\odot h....$
This calculus will have great deal with numerical analysis which are discussed
in the last section of this paper.


title:
On the Propagation of a Geoeffective Coronal Mass Ejection during March
  15 -- 17, 2015

abstract:
  The largest geomagnetic storm so far in the solar cycle 24 was produced by a
fast coronal mass ejection (CME) originating on 2015 March 15. It was an
initially west-oriented CME and expected to only cause a weak geomagnetic
disturbance. Why did this CME finally cause such a large geomagnetic storm? We
try to find some clues by investigating its propagation from the Sun to 1 AU.
First, we reconstruct the CME's kinematic properties in the corona from the
SOHO and SDO imaging data with the aid of the graduated cylindrical shell (GCS)
model. It is suggested that the CME propagated to the west
$\sim$$33^\circ$$\pm$$10^\circ$ away from the Sun-Earth line with a speed of
about 817 km s$^{-1}$ before leaving the field of view of the SOHO/LASCO C3
camera. A magnetic cloud (MC) corresponding to this CME was measured in-situ by
the Wind spacecraft two days later. By applying two MC reconstruction methods,
we infer the configuration of the MC as well as some kinematic information,
which implies that the CME possibly experienced an eastward deflection on its
way to 1 AU. However, due to the lack of observations from the STEREO
spacecraft, the CME's kinematic evolution in interplanetary space is not clear.
In order to fill this gap, we utilize numerical MHD simulation, drag-based CME
propagation model (DBM) and the model for CME deflection in interplanetary
space (DIPS) to recover the propagation process, especially the trajectory, of
the CME from $30 R_S$ to 1 AU. It is suggested that the trajectory of the CME
was deflected toward the Earth by about $12^\circ$, consistent with the
implication from the MC reconstruction at 1 AU. This eastward deflection
probably contributed to the CME's unexpected geoeffectiveness by pushing the
center of the initially west-oriented CME closer to the Earth.


title:
Machine Learning in Falls Prediction; A cognition-based predictor of
  falls for the acute neurological in-patient population

abstract:
  Background Information: Falls are associated with high direct and indirect
costs, and significant morbidity and mortality for patients. Pathological falls
are usually a result of a compromised motor system, and/or cognition. Very
little research has been conducted on predicting falls based on this premise.
  Aims: To demonstrate that cognitive and motor tests can be used to create a
robust predictive tool for falls.
  Methods: Three tests of attention and executive function (Stroop, Trail
Making, and Semantic Fluency), a measure of physical function (Walk-12), a
series of questions (concerning recent falls, surgery and physical function)
and demographic information were collected from a cohort of 323 patients at a
tertiary neurological center. The principal outcome was a fall during the
in-patient stay (n = 54). Data-driven, predictive modelling was employed to
identify the statistical modelling strategies which are most accurate in
predicting falls, and which yield the most parsimonious models of clinical
relevance.
  Results: The Trail test was identified as the best predictor of falls.
Moreover, addition of any others variables, to the results of the Trail test
did not improve the prediction (Wilcoxon signed-rank p < .001). The best
statistical strategy for predicting falls was the random forest (Wilcoxon
signed-rank p < .001), based solely on results of the Trail test. Tuning of the
model results in the following optimized values: 68% (+- 7.7) sensitivity, 90%
(+- 2.3) specificity, with a positive predictive value of 60%, when the
relevant data is available.
  Conclusion: Predictive modelling has identified a simple yet powerful machine
learning prediction strategy based on a single clinical test, the Trail test.
Predictive evaluation shows this strategy to be robust, suggesting predictive
modelling and machine learning as the standard for future predictive tools.


title:
Oxygen modulated quantum conductance for ultra-thin HfO$_2$-based
  memristive switching devices

abstract:
  Memristive switching devices, candidates for resistive random access memory
technology, have been shown to switch off through a progression of states with
quantized conductance and subsequent non-integer conductance (in terms of
conductance quantum $G_0$). We have performed calculations based on density
functional theory to model the switching process for a Pt-HfO$_2$-Pt structure,
involving the movement of one or two oxygen atoms. Oxygen atoms moving within a
conductive oxygen vacancy filament act as tunneling barriers, and partition the
filament into weakly coupled quantum wells. We show that the low-bias
conductance decreases exponentially when one oxygen atom moves away from
interface. Our results demonstrate the high sensitivity of the device
conductance to the position of oxygen atoms.


title: Non-Fragility and Partial Controllability of Multi-Agent Systems

abstract:
  Controllability of multi-agent systems is determined by the interconnection
topologies. In practice, losing agents can change the topologies of multi-agent
systems, which may affect the controllability. This paper studies non-fragility
of controllability influenced by losing agents. In virtue of the concept of
cutsets, necessary and sufficient conditions are established from a graphic
perspective, for strong non-fragility and weak non-fragility of
controllability, respectively. For multi-agent systems which contain important
agents, partial controllability is proposed in terms of the concept of
controllable node groups, and necessary and sufficient criteria are established
for partial controllability. Moreover, partial controllability preserving
problem is proposed. Utilizing the concept of compressed graphs, this problem
is transformed into finding the the minimal $\mathbf{\langle s,t\rangle}$
vertex cutsets of the interconnection graph, which has a polynomial-time
complexity algorithm for the solution. Several constructive examples illuminate
the theoretical results.


title:
Decoupling the NLO coupled QED $\otimes$ QCD, DGLAP evolution
  equations,Using Laplace Transform Method

abstract:
  We analytically solved the QED $\otimes$ QCD coupled DGLAP evolution
equations at leading order (LO) quantum electrodynamics (QED) and next to
leading order (NLO) quantum chromodynamics (QCD) approximations, using the
Laplace transform method and then computed the proton structure function in
terms of the unpolarized parton distributions functions. Our analyitical
solutions for parton densities are in good agreement with those from APFEL (A
PDF Evolution Library) (Computer Physics Communications 185, 1647-1668 (2014))
and CT14QED (Phys. Rev. D 93, 114015 (2016)) global parameterizations. We also
compared the proton structure function, $F_{2}^{p}(x,Q^{2})$, with experimental
data released by the ZEUS and H1 collaborations at HERA. There is a nice
agreement between them in the range of low and high x and $Q^{2}$.


title:
A uniaxial stress capacitive dilatometer for high-resolution thermal
  expansion and magnetostriction under multiextreme conditions

abstract:
  Thermal expansion and magnetostriction are directional dependent
thermodynamic quantities. For the characterization of novel quantum phases of
matter it is required to study materials under multi-extreme conditions, in
particular down to very low temperatures, in very high magnetic fields, as well
as under high pressure. We developed a miniaturized capacitive dilatometer
suitable for temperatures down to 20 mK and usage in high magnetic fields,
which exerts a large spring force between 40 to 75 N on the sample. This
corresponds to a uniaxial stress up to 3 kbar for a sample with cross-section
of (0.5~mm)$^2$. We describe the design and performance test of the dilatometer
which resolves length changes with high resolution of $0.02 \mathrm{\AA}$ at
low temperatures. The miniaturized device can be utilized in any standard
cryostat, including dilution refrigerators or the commercial physical property
measurement system.


title: Hochschild coniveau spectral sequence and the Beilinson residue

abstract:
  We develop the Hochschild analogue of the coniveau spectral sequence and the
Gersten complex. Since Hochschild homology does not have devissage or
A^1-invariance, this is a little different from the K-theory story. In fact,
the rows of our spectral sequence look a lot like the Cousin complexes in
Hartshorne's 1966 "Residues & Duality". Note that these are for coherent
cohomology. We prove that they agree by an 'HKR isomorphism with supports'.
  Using the close ties of Hochschild homology to Lie algebra homology, this
gives residue maps in Lie homology, which we show to agree with those \`a la
Tate-Beilinson.


title:
Limit theorems for Markov walks conditioned to stay positive under a
  spectral gap assumption

abstract:
  Consider a Markov chain $(X_n)_{n\geqslant 0}$ with values in the state space
$\mathbb X$. Let $f$ be a real function on $\mathbb X$ and set $S_0=0,$ $S_n =
f(X_1)+\cdots + f(X_n),$ $n\geqslant 1$. Let $\mathbb P_x$ be the probability
measure generated by the Markov chain starting at $X_0=x$. For a starting point
$y \in \mathbb R$ denote by $\tau_y$ the first moment when the Markov walk
$(y+S_n)_{n\geqslant 1}$ becomes non-positive. Under the condition that $S_n$
has zero drift, we find the asymptotics of the probability $\mathbb P_x (
\tau_y >n )$ and of the conditional law $\mathbb P_x ( y+S_n\leqslant
\cdot\sqrt{n} | \tau_y >n )$ as $n\to +\infty.$


title:
Graphene pn-junction in a quantizing magnetic field: Conductance at
  intermediate disorder strength

abstract:
  In a graphene {\em pn} junction at high magnetic field, unidirectional "snake
states" are formed at the {\em pn} interface. In a clean {\em pn} junction,
each snake state exists in one of the valleys of the graphene band structure,
and the conductance of the junction as a whole is determined by microscopic
details of the coupling between the snake states at the {\em pn} interface and
quantum Hall edge states at the sample boundaries [Tworzydlo {\em et al.},
Phys. Rev. B {\bf 76}, 035411 (2007)]. Disorder mixes and couples the snake
states. We here report a calculation of the full conductance distribution in
the crossover between the clean limit and the strong disorder limit, in which
the conductance distribution is given by random matrix theory [Abanin and
Levitov, Science {\bf 317}, 641 (2007)]. Our calculation involves an exact
solution of the relevant scaling equation for the scattering matrix, and the
results are formulated in terms of parameters describing the microscopic
disorder potential in bulk graphene.


title:
New security notions and feasibility results for authentication of
  quantum data

abstract:
  We give a new class of security definitions for authentication in the quantum
setting. These definitions capture and strengthen existing definitions of
security against quantum adversaries for both classical message authentication
codes (MACs) and well as full quantum state authentication schemes. The main
feature of our definitions is that they precisely characterize the effective
behavior of any adversary when the authentication protocol accepts, including
correlations with the key. Our definitions readily yield a host of desirable
properties and interesting consequences; for example, our security definition
for full quantum state authentication implies that the entire secret key can be
re-used if the authentication protocol succeeds.
  Next, we present several protocols satisfying our security definitions. We
show that the classical Wegman-Carter authentication scheme with 3-universal
hashing is secure against superposition attacks, as well as adversaries with
quantum side information. We then present conceptually simple constructions of
full quantum state authentication.
  Finally, we prove a lifting theorem which shows that, as long as a protocol
can securely authenticate the maximally entangled state, it can securely
authenticate any state, even those that are entangled with the adversary. Thus,
this shows that protocols satisfying a fairly weak form of authentication
security automatically satisfy a stronger notion of security (in particular,
the definition of Dupuis, et al (2012)).


title: On the entropy of closed hypersurfaces and singular self-shrinkers

abstract:
  Self-shrinkers are the special solutions of mean curvature flow in
$\mathbf{R}^{n+1}$ that evolve by shrinking homothetically; they serve as
singularity models for the flow. The entropy of a hypersurface introduced by
Colding-Minicozzi is a Lyapunov functional for the mean curvature flow, and is
fundamental to their theory of generic mean curvature flow.
  In this paper we prove that a conjecture of Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi-White,
namely that any closed hypersurface in $\mathbf{R}^{n+1}$ has entropy at least
that of the round sphere, holds in any dimension $n$. This result had
previously been established for the cases $n\leq 6$ by Bernstein-Wang using a
carefully constructed weak flow.
  The main technical result of this paper is an extension of
Colding-Minicozzi's classification of entropy-stable self-shrinkers to the
singular setting. In particular, we show that any entropy-stable self-shrinker
whose singular set satisfies Wickramasekera's $\alpha$-structural hypothesis
must be a round cylinder $\mathbf{S}^k(\sqrt{2k})\times \mathbf{R}^{n-k}$.


title:
From Graph Isoperimetric Inequality to Network Connectivity -- A New
  Approach

abstract:
  We present a new, novel approach to obtaining a network's connectivity. More
specifically, we show that there exists a relationship between a network's
graph isoperimetric properties and its conditional connectivity. A network's
connectivity is the minimum number of nodes, whose removal will cause the
network disconnected. It is a basic and important measure for the network's
reliability, hence its overall robustness. Several conditional connectivities
have been proposed in the past for the purpose of accurately reflecting various
realistic network situations, with extra connectivity being one such
conditional connectivity. In this paper, we will use isoperimetric properties
of the hypercube network to obtain its extra connectivity. The result of the
paper for the first time establishes a relationship between the age-old
isoperimetric problem and network connectivity.


title:
Focused Model-Learning and Planning for Non-Gaussian Continuous
  State-Action Systems

abstract:
  We introduce a framework for model learning and planning in stochastic
domains with continuous state and action spaces and non-Gaussian transition
models. It is efficient because (1) local models are estimated only when the
planner requires them; (2) the planner focuses on the most relevant states to
the current planning problem; and (3) the planner focuses on the most
informative and/or high-value actions. Our theoretical analysis shows the
validity and asymptotic optimality of the proposed approach. Empirically, we
demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm on a simulated multi-modal
pushing problem.


title:
Energy-Efficient Real-Time Scheduling for Two-Type Heterogeneous
  Multiprocessors

abstract:
  We propose three novel mathematical optimization formulations that solve the
same two-type heterogeneous multiprocessor scheduling problem for a real-time
taskset with hard constraints. Our formulations are based on a global
scheduling scheme and a fluid model. The first formulation is a mixed-integer
nonlinear program, since the scheduling problem is intuitively considered as an
assignment problem. However, by changing the scheduling problem to first
determine a task workload partition and then to find the execution order of all
tasks, the computation time can be significantly reduced. Specifically, the
workload partitioning problem can be formulated as a continuous nonlinear
program for a system with continuous operating frequency, and as a continuous
linear program for a practical system with a discrete speed level set. The task
ordering problem can be solved by an algorithm with a complexity that is linear
in the total number of tasks. The work is evaluated against existing global
energy/feasibility optimal workload allocation formulations. The results
illustrate that our algorithms are both feasibility optimal and energy optimal
for both implicit and constrained deadline tasksets. Specifically, our
algorithm can achieve up to 40% energy saving for some simulated tasksets with
constrained deadlines. The benefit of our formulation compared with existing
work is that our algorithms can solve a more general class of scheduling
problems due to incorporating a scheduling dynamic model in the formulations
and allowing for a time-varying speed profile. Moreover, our algorithms can be
applied to both online and offline scheduling schemes.


title: Error estimation in the direct state tomography

abstract:
  We show that reformulating the Direct State Tomography (DST) protocol in
terms of projections into a set of non-orthogonal bases one can perform an
accuracy analysis of DST in a similar way as in the standard projection-based
reconstruction schemes. i.e. in terms of the Hilbert-Schmidt distance between
estimated and true states. This allows us to determine the estimation error for
any measurement strength, including the weak measurement case, and to obtain an
explicit analytic form for the average minimum square errors.


title:
Rightsstatements.org White Paper: Requirements for the Technical
  Infrastructure for Standardized International Rights Statements

abstract:
  This document is part of the deliverables created by the RightsStatements.org
consortium. It provides the technical requirements for implementation of the
Standardized International Rights Statements. These requirements are based on
the principles and specifications found in the normative Recommendations for
Standardized International Rights Statements. This document replaces and
supersedes the previously released Recommendations for the Technical
Infrastructure for Standardized Rights Statements, released by this working
group. The Requirements for the Technical Infrastructure for Standardized
International Rights Statements describes the expected behaviours for a service
that enables the delivery of human and machine-readable representations of the
rights statements. It documents the fundamental decisions that informed the
development of a data model grounded in Linked Data approaches. This document
also provides proposed implementation guidelines and a non-normative set of
examples for incorporating rights statements into provider metadata.


title: Uber: Utilizing Buffers to Simplify NoCs for Hundreds-Cores

abstract:
  Approaching ideal wire latency using a network-on-chip (NoC) is an important
practical problem for many-core systems, particularly hundreds-cores. Although
other researchers have focused on optimizing large meshes, bypassing or
speculating router pipelines, or creating more intricate logarithmic
topologies, this paper proposes a balanced combination that trades queue
buffers for simplicity. Preliminary analysis of nine benchmarks from PARSEC and
SPLASH using execution-driven simulation shows that utilization rises from 2%
when connecting a single core per mesh port to at least 50%, as slack for delay
in concentrator and router queues is around 6x higher compared to the ideal
latency of just 20 cycles. That is, a 16-port mesh suffices because queueing is
the uncommon case for system performance. In this way, the mesh hop count is
bounded to three, as load becomes uniform via extended concentration, and ideal
latency is approached using conventional four-stage pipelines for the mesh
routers together with minor logarithmic edges. A realistic Uber is also
detailed, featuring the same performance as a 64-port mesh that employs
optimized router pipelines, improving the baseline by 12%. Ongoing work
develops techniques to better balance load by tuning the placement of cache
blocks, and compares Uber with bufferless routing.


title: Radiation trapping in a dense cold Rydberg gas

abstract:
  Cold atomic gases resonantly excited to Rydberg states can exhibit strong
optical nonlinearity at the single photon level. We observe that in such
samples radiation trapping leads to an additional mechanism for Rydberg
excitation. Conversely we demonstrate that Rydberg excitation provides a novel
in situ probe of the spectral, statistical, temporal and spatial properties of
the trapped re-scattered light. We also show that absorption can lead to an
excitation saturation that mimics the Rydberg blockade effect. Collective
effects due to multiple scattering may co-exist with co-operative effects due
to long-range interactions between the Rydberg atoms, adding a new dimension to
quantum optics experiments with cold Rydberg gases.


title: Parity anomaly driven topological transitions in magnetic field

abstract:
  Recent developments in solid state physics give a prospect to observe the
parity anomaly in (2+1)D massive Dirac systems. Here we show, that the quantum
anomalous Hall (QAH) state in orbital magnetic fields originates from the Dirac
mass term and induces an anomalous four-current related to the parity anomaly.
This differentiates the QAH from the quantum Hall (QH) state for the
experimentally relevant case of an effective constant density (seen by the
gate). A direct signature of QAH phase in magnetic fields is a long
$\sigma_{xy}= e^2/h$ ($\sigma_{xy}= -e^2/h$) plateau in
Cr$_x$(Bi$_{1-y}$Sb$_y$)$_{2-x}$Te$_3$ (HgMnTe quantum wells). Furthermore, we
predict a new transition between the quantum spin Hall (QSH) and the QAH state
in magnetic fields, for constant effective carrier density, without magnetic
impurities but driven by effective g-factors and particle-hole asymmetry. This
transition can be related to the stability of edge states in the Dirac mass gap
of 2D topological insulators (TIs), even in high magnetic fields.


title:
Diffusive Heat Transport in Budyko's Energy Balance Climate Model with a
  Dynamic Ice Line

abstract:
  M. Budyko and W. Sellers independently introduced seminal energy balance
climate models in 1969, each with a goal of investigating the role played by
positive ice albedo feedback in climate dynamics. In this paper we replace the
relaxation to the mean horizontal heat transport mechanism used in the models
of Budyko and Sellers with diffusive heat transport. We couple the resulting
surface temperature equation with an equation for movement of the edge of the
ice sheet (called the ice line), recently introduced by E. Widiasih. We apply
the spectral method to the temperature-ice line system and consider finite
approximations. We prove there exists a stable equilibrium solution with a
small ice cap, and an unstable equilibrium solution with a large ice cap, for a
range of parameter values. If the diffusive transport is too efficient,
however, the small ice cap disappears and an ice free Earth becomes a limiting
state. In addition, we analyze a variant of the coupled diffusion equations
appropriate as a model for extensive glacial episodes in the Neoproterozoic
Era. Although the model equations are no longer smooth due to the existence of
a switching boundary, we prove there exists a unique stable equilibrium
solution with the ice line in tropical latitudes, a climate event known as a
Jormungand or Waterbelt state. As the systems introduced here contain variables
with differing time scales, the main tool used in the analysis is geometric
singular perturbation theory.


title: Approximate Policy Iteration for Budgeted Semantic Video Segmentation

abstract:
  This paper formulates and presents a solution to the new problem of budgeted
semantic video segmentation. Given a video, the goal is to accurately assign a
semantic class label to every pixel in the video within a specified time
budget. Typical approaches to such labeling problems, such as Conditional
Random Fields (CRFs), focus on maximizing accuracy but do not provide a
principled method for satisfying a time budget. For video data, the time
required by CRF and related methods is often dominated by the time to compute
low-level descriptors of supervoxels across the video. Our key contribution is
the new budgeted inference framework for CRF models that intelligently selects
the most useful subsets of descriptors to run on subsets of supervoxels within
the time budget. The objective is to maintain an accuracy as close as possible
to the CRF model with no time bound, while remaining within the time budget.
Our second contribution is the algorithm for learning a policy for the sparse
selection of supervoxels and their descriptors for budgeted CRF inference. This
learning algorithm is derived by casting our problem in the framework of Markov
Decision Processes, and then instantiating a state-of-the-art policy learning
algorithm known as Classification-Based Approximate Policy Iteration. Our
experiments on multiple video datasets show that our learning approach and
framework is able to significantly reduce computation time, and maintain
competitive accuracy under varying budgets.


title:
A Geometric Approach to Confidence Regions and Bands for Functional
  Parameters

abstract:
  Functional data analysis, FDA, is now a well established discipline of
statistics, with its core concepts and perspectives in place. Despite this,
there are still fundamental statistical questions which have received
relatively little attention. One of these is the systematic construction of
confidence regions for functional parameters. This work is concerned with
developing, understanding, and visualizing such regions. We provide a general
strategy for constructing confidence regions in a real separable Hilbert space
using hyper-ellipsoids and hyper-rectangles. We then propose specific
implementations which work especially well in practice. They provide powerful
hypothesis tests and useful visualization tools without using any simulation.
We also demonstrate the negative result that nearly all regions, including our
own, have zero-coverage when working with empirical covariances. To overcome
this challenge we propose a new paradigm for evaluating confidence regions by
showing that the distance between an estimated region and the desired region
(with proper coverage) tends to zero faster than the regions shrink to a point.
We call this phenomena ghosting and refer to the empirical regions as ghost
regions. We illustrate the proposed methods in a simulation study and an
application to fractional anisotropy tract profile data.


title: Andreev spectrum of a Josephson junction with spin-split superconductors

abstract:
  The Andreev bound states and charge transport in a Josephson junction between
two superconductors with intrinsic exchange fields are studied. We find that
for a parallel configuration of the exchange fields in the superconductors the
discrete spectrum consists of two pairs of spin-split states. The Josephson
current in this case is mainly carried by bound states. In contrast, for the
antiparallel configuration we find that there is no spin-splitting of the bound
states and that for phase differences smaller than certain critical value there
are no bound states at all. Hence the supercurrent is only carried by states in
the continuous part of the spectrum. Our predictions can be tested by
performing a tunneling spectroscopy of a weak link between two spin-split
superconductors.


title: Unquenched flavor on the Higgs branch

abstract:
  We construct the gravity duals of the Higgs branches of three-dimensional
(four-dimensional) super Yang-Mills theories coupled to $N_\textrm{f}$ quark
flavors. The effect of the quarks on the color degrees of freedom is included,
and corresponds on the gravity side to the backreaction of $N_\textrm{f}$
flavor D6-branes (D7-branes) on the background of $N_\textrm{c}$ color
D2-branes (D3-branes). The Higgsing of the gauge group arises from the
dissolution of some color branes inside the flavor branes. The dissolved color
branes are represented by non-Abelian instantons whose backreaction is also
included. The result is a cascading-like solution in which the effective number
of color branes varies along the holographic direction. In the
three-dimensional case the solution may include an arbitrary number of
quasi-conformal (walking) regions.


title: Giant drag reduction due to interstitial air in sand

abstract:
  When an object impacts onto a bed of very loose, fine sand, the drag it
experiences depends on the ambient pressure in a surprising way: Drag is found
to increase significantly with decreasing pressure. We use a modified
penetrometer experiment to investigate this effect and directly measure the
drag on a sphere as a function of both velocity and pressure. We observe a drag
reduction of over 90% and trace this effect back to the presence of air in the
pores between the sand grains. Finally, we construct a model based on the
modification of grain-grain interactions that is in full quantitative agreement
with the experiments.


title: Einstein $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ and $\mathrm{G}_2$ structures

abstract:
  We describe a method to obtain $\mathrm{SU}(3)$-structures and
$\mathrm{G}_2$-structures on 6 and 7-dimensional manifolds respectively, such
that its associated metric is Einstein. More concretely, we have that different
classes of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ and $\mathrm{SU}(3)$-structures, on 5 and
6-dimensional manifolds whose induced metric is Einstein can produce, via
warped products, different classes $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ and
$\mathrm{G}_2$-structures such that its associated metric is also Einstein.


title:
Motility of \textit{Escherichia coli} in a quasi-two-dimensional porous
  medium

abstract:
  Bacterial migration through confined spaces is critical for several phenomena
like: biofilm formation, bacterial transport in soils, and bacterial therapy
against cancer . In the present work, \textit{E. coli} (strain K12-MG1655 WT)
motility was characterized by recording and analyzing individual bacterium
trajectories in a simulated quasi-2-dimensional porous medium. The porous
medium was simulated by enclosing, between slide and cover slip, a
bacterial-culture sample mixed with uniform 2.98 $\mu m$ spherical latex
particles. The porosity of the medium was controlled by changing the latex
particle concentration. By statistically analyzing trajectory parameters like:
instantaneous velocity and turn angle, as well as mean squared displacement, we
were able to quantify the effects that different latex particle concentrations
have upon bacterial motility. To better understand our results, bacterial
trajectories were simulated by means of a phenomenological random-walk model
(developed ad hoc), and the simulated results were compared with the
experimental ones.


title: Examples of minimal $G$-structures induced by the Lee form

abstract:
  We compute the condition of minimality of a G-structure for the Gray-Hervella
class $\mathcal{W}_4$ of almost hermitian manifolds and $\mathcal{C}_5$ class
of almost contact metric structures. We also consider $\mathcal{C}_4$ class by
comparison with the Grey-Hervella class $\mathcal{W}_4$. The common feature is
the existence of the Lee form $\theta$ representing these structures. We show
that these classes contain minimal G-structures. Here, minimality means
minimality of a $G$-structure inside oriented orthonormal frame bundle $SO(M)$
of a Riemannian manifold $M$.


title: Nonnoetherian singularities and their noncommutative blowups

abstract:
  We establish a new fundamental class of varieties in nonnoetherian algebraic
geometry related to the central geometry of dimer algebras. Specifically, given
an affine algebraic variety $X$ and a finite collection of non-intersecting
positive dimensional algebraic sets $Y_i \subset X$, we construct a
nonnoetherian coordinate ring whose variety coincides with $X$ except that each
$Y_i$ is identified as a distinct positive dimensional closed point. We then
show that the noncommutative blowup of such a singularity is a noncommutative
desingularization, in a suitable geometric sense.


title:
Global deformations of certain rational almost homogeneous projective
  bundles

abstract:
  We study global deformations of certain projective bundles over projective
spaces. We show that any projective global deformation of a projective bundle
over $\bP^1$ carries the structure of a projective bundle over some projective
space. Furthermore, we construct examples in arbitrary dimension $\ge 3$ of
almost homogeneous Fano projective bundles over $\bP^2$ which can be globally
deformed to non-almost homogeneous manifolds.


title:
A Step towards Advanced Metering for the Smart Grid: A Survey of Energy
  Monitors

abstract:
  The smart grid initiative has encouraged utility companies worldwide to
rollout new and smarter versions of energy meters. Before an extensive rollout,
which is both labor-intensive and incurs high capital costs, consumers need to
be incentivized to reap the long-term benefits of smart grid. Off-the-shelf
energy monitors can provide consumers with an insight of such potential
benefits. Since energy monitors are owned by the consumer, the consumer has
greater control over data which significantly reduces privacy and data
confidentiality concerns. We evaluate several existing energy monitors using an
online technical survey and online product literature. For consumers, the use
of different off-the-shelf energy monitors can help demonstrate the potential
gains of smart grid. Our survey indicates a trend towards incorporation of
state-of-the-art capabilities, like appliance level monitoring through load
disaggregation in energy monitors, which can encourage effective consumer
participation. Multiple sensor types and ratings allow some monitors to operate
in various configurations and environments.


title:
Effect and suppression of parasitic surface damage in neutron irradiated
  CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors

abstract:
  CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) were chosen as sensor technology
for the vertex detectors of STAR, CBM and the upgraded ALICE-ITS. They also
constitute a valuable option for tracking devices at future e+e- colliders.
Those applications require a substantial tolerance to both, ionizing and
non-ionizing radiation. To allow for a focused optimization of the radiation
tolerance, prototypes are tested by irradiating the devices either with purely
ionizing radiation (e.g. soft X-rays) or the most pure sources of non-ionizing
radiation available (e.g. reactor neutrons). In the second case, it is
typically assumed that the impact of the parasitic $\gamma$-rays found in the
neutron beams is negligible. We checked this assumption by irradiating MAPS
with $\gamma$-rays and comparing the radiation damage generated with the one in
neutron irradiated sensors. We conclude that the parasitic radiation doses may
cause non-negligible radiation damage. Based on the results we propose a
procedure to recognize and to suppress the effect of the related parasitic
ionizing radiation damage.


title: Logistic growth of skyrmions in 3D chiral magnets

abstract:
  The process of topological phase transition in a chiral magnetic material
from skyrmion lattice phase to helical phase has been investigated numerically
and experimentally, yet the analytical expression of the evolution of skyrmion
number and emergent magnetic monopole charge during the process is still
waiting to be explored. In this letter, by utilizing the topological current
theory, we show that the change of skyrmion number of a layer in the system is
equal to the net monopole charges that flows through the layer. Based on this
relation, with the help of statistical argument, we derive the analytical
expressions of the skyrmion number and the monopole charge as functions of the
external magnetic field. We find that the evolution of the skyrmion number is
exactly the logistic growth function, and the evolution of the monopole charge
is proportional to the derivative of the skyrmion number of the system. our
analytical results are in good agreement with the numerical simulations in
\cite{2013SCIENCE}. The goodness of data fitting goes up to 99.94\%.


title: Simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of PSR B0611+22

abstract:
  We report results from simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of PSR
B0611+22 which is known to exhibit bursting in its single-pulse emission. The
pulse phase of the bursts vary with radio frequency. The bursts are correlated
in 327/150~MHz datasets while they are anti-correlated, with bursts at one
frequency associated with normal emission at the other, in 820/150~MHz
datasets. Also, the flux density of this pulsar is lower than expected at
327~MHz assuming a power law. We attribute this unusual behaviour to the pulsar
itself rather than absorption by external astrophysical sources. Using this
dataset over an extensive frequency range, we show that the bursting phenomenon
in this pulsar exhibits temporal variance over a span of few hours. We also
show that the bursting is quasi-periodic over the observed band. The
anti-correlation in the phase offset of the burst mode at different frequencies
suggests that the mechanisms responsible for phase offset and flux enhancement
have different dependencies on the frequency. We did not detect the pulsar with
XMM-Newton and place a 99$\%$ confidence upper limit on the X-ray efficiency of
$ 10^{-5}$.


title: Description and simulation of physics of Resistive Plate Chambers

abstract:
  Monte-Carlo simulation of physical processes is an important tool for
detector development as it allows to predict signal pulse amplitude and timing,
time resolution, efficiency ... Yet despite the fact they are very common, full
simulations for RPC-like detector are not widespread and often incomplete. They
are often based on mathematical distributions that are not suited for this
particular modelisation and over-simplify or neglect some important physical
processes.
  We describe the main physical processes occurring inside a RPC when a charged
particle goes through (ionisation, electron drift and multiplication, signal
induction ...) through the Riegler-Lippmann-Veenhof model together with a
still-in-development simulation. This is a full, fast and multi-threaded
Monte-Carlo modelisation of the main physical processes using existing and well
tested libraries and framework (such as the Garfield++ framework and the GNU
Scientific Library). It is developed in the hope to be a basic ground for
future RPC simulation developments.


title:
IMPETUS: New Cloudy's radiative tables for accretion onto a galaxy black
  hole

abstract:
  We present digital tables for the radiative terms that appear in the energy
and momentum equations used to simulate the accretion onto supermassive black
holes (SMBHs) in the center of galaxies. Cooling and heating rates and
radiative accelerations are calculated with two different Spectral Energy
Distributions (SEDs). One SED is composed of an accretion disk +
[X-ray]-powerlaw, while the other is made of an accretion disk +
[Corona]-bremsstrahlung with $T_X=1.16 \times 10^8$ K, where precomputed
conditions of adiabatic expansion are included. Quantification of different
physical mechanisms at operation are presented, showing discrepancies and
similarities between both SEDs in different ranges of fundamental physical
parameters (i.e., ionization parameter, density, and temperature). With the
recent discovery of outflows originating at sub-parsec scales, these tables may
provide a useful tool to model gas accretion processes onto a SMBH.


title: Equivalence of several descriptions for 6d SCFT

abstract:
  We show that the three different looking BPS partition functions, namely the
elliptic genus of the 6d $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ $Sp(1)$ gauge theory with $10$
flavors and a tensor multiplet, the Nekrasov partition function of the 5d
$\mathcal{N}=1$ $Sp(2)$ gauge theory with $10$ flavors, and the Nekrasov
partition function of the 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ $SU(3)$ gauge theory with $10$
flavors, are all equal to each other under specific maps among gauge theory
parameters. This result strongly suggests that the three gauge theories have an
identical UV fixed point. Type IIB 5-brane web diagrams play an essential role
to compute the $SU(3)$ Nekrasov partition function as well as establishing the
maps.


title: Open problems in Banach spaces and measure theory

abstract:
  We collect several open questions in Banach spaces, mostly related to measure
theoretic aspects of the theory. The problems are divided into five categories:
miscellaneous problems in Banach spaces (non-separable $L^p$ spaces,
compactness in Banach spaces, $w^*$-null sequences in dual spaces),
measurability in Banach spaces (Baire and Borel $\sigma$-algebras, measurable
selectors), vector integration (Riemann, Pettis and McShane integrals), vector
measures (range and associated $L^1$ spaces) and Lebesgue-Bochner spaces
(topological and structural properties, scalar convergence).


title:
How scientific literature has been evolving over the time? A novel
  statistical approach using tracking verbal-based methods

abstract:
  This paper provides a global vision of the scientific publications related
with the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), taking as starting point abstracts
of articles. Through the time, abstracts have been evolving towards higher
complexity on used terminology, which makes necessary the use of sophisticated
statistical methods and answering questions including: how vocabulary is
evolving through the time? Which ones are most influential articles? And which
one are the articles that introduced new terms and vocabulary? To answer these,
we analyze a dataset composed by 506 abstracts and downloaded from 115
different journals and cover a 18 year-period.


title: Triangle-tilings in graphs without large independent sets

abstract:
  We study the minimum degree necessary to guarantee the existence of perfect
and almost-perfect triangle-tilings in an $n$-vertex graph $G$ with sublinear
independence number. In this setting, we show that if $\delta(G) \ge n/3 +
o(n)$ then $G$ has a triangle-tiling covering all but at most four vertices.
Also, for every $r \ge 5$, we asymptotically determine the minimum degree
threshold for a perfect triangle-tiling under the additional assumptions that
$G$ is $K_r$-free and $n$ is divisible by $3$.


title: Digitory, A Smart Way of Learning Islamic History in Digital Era

abstract:
  In this paper, we would like to propose our web-based application for Islamic
history learning system, named Digitory-Digital History. There are two main
navigations to browse historical stories on the web. One is location-based
navigation using on-line map which gives users access to understand events
during Islamic introduction to Indonesia based on the location. Alternatively,
users can browse on time base using sliding navigation marked timely, so they
can comprehend history in time sequence. Implementing semantic web, this
web-app can suggest users related articles, either based on time series,
location similarities, or time-domain similarities, and also suggest pictures
related to the articles. AJAX strengthen the real-time access and interactivity
as users navigate around the web. By the end of this research, we will have the
web-app prototype completed with its fundamental location-based navigation,
semantic relationship among articles and pictures, and time- based navigation
system. As the web-app deployed, we have some volunteers to try our application
so that we can evaluate its result, particularly its effectiveness.


title:
Wormholes and black universes without phantom fields in Einstein-Cartan
  theory

abstract:
  We obtain a family of regular static, spherically symmetric solutions in
Einstein--Cartan theory with an electromagnetic field and a nonminimally
coupled scalar field with the correct sign of kinetic energy density. At
different values of its parameters, the solution, being asemptotically flat at
large values of the radial coordinate, describes (i) twice asemptotically flat
symmetric wormholes, (ii) asymmetric wormholes with an AdS asymptotic at the
"far end", (iii) regular black holes with an extremal horizon or two simple
horizons, and (iv) black universes with a de Sitter asymptotic at the "far
end". As in other black universe models, it is a black hole as seen by a
distant observer, but beyond its horizon there is a nonsingular expanding
universe. In all these cases, both the metric and the torsion are regular in
the whole space.


title: Customer Churn in Mobile Markets A Comparison of Techniques

abstract:
  The high increase in the number of companies competing in mature markets
makes customer retention an important factor for any company to survive. Thus,
many methodologies (e.g., data mining and statistics) have been proposed to
analyse and study customer retention. The validity of such methods is not yet
proved though. This paper tries to fill this gap by empirically comparing two
techniques: Customer churn-decision tree and logistic regression models. The
paper proves the superiority of decision tree technique and stresses the needs
for more advanced methods to churn modelling.


title: A Design Tool to Reason about Ambient Assisted Living Systems

abstract:
  This paper proposes a design tool to investigate the properties and emergent
behaviours of a special class of Ambient Assisted Living systems, namely mutual
assistance communities where the dwellers contribute to each other's well
being. Purpose of our system is to understand how mutual assistance communities
work, what consequences a design decision could ultimately bring about, and how
to construct care communities providing timely and cost-effective service for
elderly and disabled people. We prove that mutual assistance between dwellers
can provide care in time, and decrease the requirement for professional medical
service. The simulation results show that with the existing rules most of the
requirements for help can be solved or promptly initiated inside the community
before their members resort to external professionals.


title:
Detecting Topological Superconductivity with $\varphi_{0}$ Josephson
  Junctions

abstract:
  The interplay of superconductivity, magnetic fields, and spin-orbit
interaction lies at the heart of topological superconductivity. Remarkably, the
recent experimental discovery of $\varphi_{0}$ Josephson junctions by Szombati
et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 568 (2016), characterized by a finite phase offset in
the supercurrent, require the same ingredients as topological superconductors,
which suggests a profound connection between these two distinct phenomena.
Here, we theoretically show that a quantum dot $\varphi_{0}$ Josephson junction
can serve as a new qualitative indicator for topological superconductivity:
Microscopically, we find that the phase shift in a junction of $s-$wave
superconductors is due to the spin-orbit induced mixing of singly occupied
states on the qantum dot, while for a topological superconductor junction it is
due to singlet-triplet mixing. Because of this important difference, when the
spin-orbit vector of the quantum dot and the external Zeeman field are
orthogonal, the $s$-wave superconductors form a $\pi$ Josephson junction while
the topological superconductors have a finite offset $\varphi_{0}$ by which
topological superconductivity can be distinguished from conventional
superconductivity. Our prediction can be immediately tested in nanowire systems
currently used for Majorana fermion experiments and thus offers a new and
realistic approach for detecting topological bound states.


title: Entanglement as a resource for discrimination of classical environments

abstract:
  We address extended systems interacting with classical fluctuating
environments and analyze the use of quantum probes to discriminate local noise,
described by independent fluctuating fields, from common noise, corresponding
to the interaction with a common one. In particular, we consider a bipartite
system made of two non interacting harmonic oscillators and assess
discrimination strategies based on homodyne detection, comparing their
performances with the ultimate bounds on the error probabilities of
quantum-limited measurements. We analyze in details the use of Gaussian probes,
with emphasis on experimentally friendly signals. Our results show that a joint
measurement of the position-quadrature on the two oscillators outperforms any
other homodyne-based scheme for any input Gaussian state.


title:
Influence of personal values and the adoption of analytical tools using
  laddering methodology

abstract:
  Analytical tools in business management are understood as a combination of
information technologies and quantitative methods used to assist stakeholders
to make better decisions. The contemporary business environment is dramatically
changing by the massive accumulation of data. Now, as never before, the use of
analytical tools must be expanded to take advantage of this growing digital
universe. This article will apply the laddering technique to see how personal
values (or managerial functions) influence a companys adoption of analytical
tools. A set of ten in-depth interviews are conducted with CEOs, analytics
consultants, academics and businessmen in order to establish quantitative
relations among attributes, consequences and personal values. Two easy-to-read
outputs are provided to interpret our results. The most important links are
quantitatively associated through an implication matrix, and then visually
represented on a hierarchical value map. Guidelines for improving the use of
analytical tools are provided in the last section


title:
Combined Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches to Performance-guaranteed
  Integrated Task and Motion Planning of Cooperative Multi-agent Systems

abstract:
  We propose a hierarchical design framework to automatically synthesize
coordination schemes and control policies for cooperative multi-agent systems
to fulfill formal performance requirements, by associating a bottom-up reactive
motion controller with a top-down mission plan. On one hand, starting from a
global mission that is specified as a regular language over all the agents'
mission capabilities, a mission planning layer sits on the top of the proposed
framework, decomposing the global mission into local tasks that are in
consistency with each agent's individual capabilities, and compositionally
justifying whether the achievement of local tasks implies the satisfaction of
the global mission via an assume-guarantee paradigm. On the other hand,
bottom-up motion plans associated with each agent are synthesized corresponding
to the obtained local missions by composing basic motion primitives, which are
verified safe by differential dynamic logic (d$\mathcal{L}$), through a
Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solver that searches feasible solutions in
face of constraints imposed by local task requirements and the environment
description. It is shown that the proposed framework can handle dynamical
environments as the motion primitives possess reactive features, making the
motion plans adaptive to local environmental changes. Furthermore, on-line
mission reconfiguration can be triggered by the motion planning layer once no
feasible solutions can be found through the SMT solver. The effectiveness of
the overall design framework is validated by an automated warehouse case study.


title: Equivalence of Quasi-cyclic Codes over Finite Fields

abstract:
  This paper considers the equivalence problem for quasi-cyclic codes over
finite fields. The results obtained are used to construct isodual quasi-cyclic
codes.


title: Free-space optical channel estimation for physical layer security

abstract:
  We present experimental data on message transmission in a free-space optical
(FSO) link at an eye-safe wavelength, using a testbed consisting of one sender
and two receiver terminals, where the latter two are a legitimate receiver and
an eavesdropper. The testbed allows us to emulate a typical scenario of
physical-layer (PHY) security such as satellite-to-ground laser communications.
We estimate information-theoretic metrics including secrecy rate, secrecy
outage probability, and expected code lengths for given secrecy criteria based
on observed channel statistics. We then discuss operation principles of secure
message transmission under realistic fading conditions, and provide a guideline
on a multi-layer security architecture by combining PHY security and
upper-layer (algorithmic) security.


title: High speed optical holography of retinal blood flow

abstract:
  We performed non-invasive video imaging of retinal blood flow in a pigmented
rat by holographic interferometry of near-infrared laser light backscattered by
retinal tissue, beating against an off-axis reference beam sampled at a frame
rate of 39 kHz with a high throughput camera. Local Doppler contrasts emerged
from the envelopes of short-time Fourier transforms and the phase of
autocorrelation functions of holograms rendered by Fresnel transformation. This
approach permitted imaging of blood flow in large retinal vessels (30 microns
diameter) over 400 by 400 pixels with a spatial resolution of 8 microns and a
temporal resolution of 6.5 ms.


title:
ABROA : Audio-Based Room-Occupancy Analysis using Gaussian Mixtures and
  Hidden Markov Models

abstract:
  This paper outlines preliminary steps towards the development of an audio-
based room-occupancy analysis model. Our approach borrows from speech
recognition tradition and is based on Gaussian Mixtures and Hidden Markov
Models. We analyze possible challenges encountered in the development of such a
model, and offer several solutions including feature design and prediction
strategies. We provide results obtained from experiments with audio data from a
retail store in Palo Alto, California. Model assessment is done via
leave-two-out Bootstrap and model convergence achieves good accuracy, thus
representing a contribution to multimodal people counting algorithms.


title: Extension of the first mixed volume to nonconvex sets

abstract:
  We study the first mixed volume for nonconvex sets and apply the results to
limits of discrete isoperimetric problems. Let $ M,N \subset \mathbb{R}^d$.
Define $D_N (M)=\lim_{\epsilon \downarrow 0} \frac{|M+\epsilon
N|-|M|}{\epsilon}$ whenever the limit exists. Our main result states that for a
compact domain $M \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ with piecewise $C^1$ boundary and
bounded $N \subset \mathbb{R}^d$, $D_N(M)=D_{\text{conv}(N)}(M)$ and
$D_N(M)=\int_{\text{bd }M} h_N(u_M(x)) \, d \mathcal{H}^{d-1}(x)$.


title:
Density of Sampling and Interpolation in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert
  Spaces

abstract:
  We derive necessary density conditions for sampling and for interpolation in
general reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces satisfying some natural conditions on
the geometry of the space and the reproducing kernel. If the volume of shells
is small compared to the volume of balls (weak annular decay property) and if
the kernel possesses some off-diagonal decay or even some weaker form of
localization, then there exists a critical density $D$ with the following
property: a set of sampling has density $\geq D$, whereas a set of
interpolation has density $\leq D$. The main theorem unifies many known density
theorems in signal processing, complex analysis, and harmonic analysis. For the
special case of bandlimited function we recover Landau's fundamental density
result. In complex analysis we rederive a critical density for generalized Fock
spaces. In harmonic analysis we obtain the first general result about the
density of coherent frames.


title:
Error-Resilient Machine Learning in Near Threshold Voltage via
  Classifier Ensemble

abstract:
  In this paper, we present the design of error-resilient machine learning
architectures by employing a distributed machine learning framework referred to
as classifier ensemble (CE). CE combines several simple classifiers to obtain a
strong one. In contrast, centralized machine learning employs a single complex
block. We compare the random forest (RF) and the support vector machine (SVM),
which are representative techniques from the CE and centralized frameworks,
respectively. Employing the dataset from UCI machine learning repository and
architectural-level error models in a commercial 45 nm CMOS process, it is
demonstrated that RF-based architectures are significantly more robust than SVM
architectures in presence of timing errors due to process variations in
near-threshold voltage (NTV) regions (0.3 V - 0.7 V). In particular, the RF
architecture exhibits a detection accuracy (P_{det}) that varies by 3.2% while
maintaining a median P_{det} > 0.9 at a gate level delay variation of 28.9% .
In comparison, SVM exhibits a P_{det} that varies by 16.8%. Additionally, we
propose an error weighted voting technique that incorporates the timing error
statistics of the NTV circuit fabric to further enhance robustness. Simulation
results confirm that the error weighted voting achieves a P_{det} that varies
by only 1.4%, which is 12X lower compared to SVM.


title: Why are we not able to see beyond three dimensions?

abstract:
  This is perhaps a philosophical question rather than a mathematical one, we
do not expect to give a full answer, even though we hope to clarify some ideas.
In addition, we would like to provide a new perspective on the subject. We will
find curious analogies with the way we perceive color and make some imaginary
experiments showing that, even living imprisoned in three dimensions it could
be different.


title: Lecture notes on stochastic models in systems biology

abstract:
  These notes provide a short, focused introduction to modelling stochastic
gene expression, including a derivation of the master equation, the recovery of
deterministic dynamics, birth-and-death processes, and Langevin theory. The
notes were last updated around 2010 and written for lectures given at summer
schools held at McGill University's Centre for Non-linear Dynamics in 2004,
2006, and 2008.


title: Entanglement of higher-derivative oscillators in holographic systems

abstract:
  We study the quantum entanglement of coupled Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillators using
the formalism of thermo-field dynamics. The entanglement entropy is computed
for the specific cases of two and a ring of $N$ coupled Pais-Uhlenbeck
oscillators of fourth order. It is shown that the entanglement entropy depends
on the temperatures, frequencies and coupling parameters of the different
degrees of freedom corresponding to harmonic oscillators. We also make remarks
on the appearance of instabilities of higher-derivative oscillators in the
context of AdS/CFT correspondence. Finally, we advert to the information
geometry theory by calculating the Fisher information metric for the considered
system of coupled oscillators.


title:
The role of exchange interaction in nitrogen vacancy centre-based
  magnetometry

abstract:
  We propose a multilayer device comprising of a thin-film-based ferromagnetic
hetero-structure (FMH) deposited on a diamond layer doped with nitrogen vacancy
centers (NVC's). We find that when the NVC's are in close proximity (1-2 nm)
with the FMH, the exchange energy is comparable to, and may even surpass the
magnetostatic interaction energy. This calls for the need to consider and
utilize both effects in magnetometry based on NVC's in diamond. As the distance
between the FMH and NVC is decreased to the sub-nanometer scale, the
exponential increase in the exchange energy suggests spintronic applications of
NVC beyond magnetometry, such as detection of spin-Hall effect or spin
currents.


title:
Entropic formulation for the protein folding process: hydrophobic
  stability correlates with folding rates

abstract:
  We assume that the protein folding process follows two autonomous steps: the
conformational search for the native, mainly ruled by the hydrophobic effect;
and, the final adjustment stage, which eventually gives stability to the
native. Our main tool of investigation is a 3D lattice model provided with a
ten-letter alphabet, the stereochemical model. This model was conceived for
Monte Carlo (MC) simulations when one keeps in mind the kinetic behavior of
protein-like chains in solution. In order to characterize the folding
characteristic time ({\tau}) by two distinct sampling methods, first we present
two sets of 10^{3} MC simulations for a fast protein-like sequence. For these
sets of folding times, {\tau} and {\tau}_{q} were obtained with the application
of the standard Metropolis algorithm (MA), and a modified algorithm (M_{q}A).
The results for {\tau}_{q}reveal two things: i) the hydrophobic chain-solvent
interactions plus a set of inter-residues steric constraints are enough to
emulate the first stage of the process: for each one of the 10^{3} MC performed
simulations, the native is always found without exception, ii) the ratio
{\tau}_{q}/{\tau}~1/3 suggests that the effect of local thermal fluctuations,
encompassed by the Tsallis weight, provides an innate efficiency to the chain
escapes from energetic and steric traps. ...


title:
General intrinsic theory of general large $N_{c}$ QCD, SU(3) QCD, SU(2)
  hadron-dynamics and U(1) QED gauge field theories in general field theory and
  progress towards solving the nucleon spin crisis

abstract:
  This paper gives general intrinsic theory of general large $N_{c}$ QCD, SU(3)
QCD, SU(2) hadron-dynamics and U(1) QED gauge field theories in general field
theory and progress towards solving the nucleon spin crisis, i.e., presents
general large $N_{c}$ QCD's inner structures, gauge invariant angular momenta
and new corresponding Coulomb theorem in quark-gluon field interaction systems
based on general field theory, and naturally deduces the gauge invariant spin
and orbital angular momentum operators of quark and gauge fields with
$SU(N_{c})$ gauge symmetry by Noether theorem in general field theory. In the
general large $N_{c}$ QCD, we discover not only the general covariant
transverse and parallel conditions ( namely, non-Abelian divergence and curl ),
but also that this general system has good intrinsic symmetry characteristics.
Specially, this paper's generally decomposing gauge potential theory presents a
new technique, it should play a votal role in future physics research.
Therefore, this paper breakthroughs the some huge difficulties in the nucleon
spin crisis and opens a door of researching on lots of strong interacting
systems with different symmetric properties, which is popularly interesting,
and keeps both the gauge invariance and their angular momentum commutation
relations so that their theories are consistent. Especially, the achieved
results here can be utilized to calculate the general QCD strong interactions
and to give the precise predictions that can be exactly measured by current
particle physics experiments due to their gauge invariant properties etc.


title: The Orion HII Region and the Orion Bar in the Mid-Infrared

abstract:
  We present mid-infrared photometry of the Orion Bar obtained with FORCAST
aboard SOFIA at 6.4, 6.6, 7.7, 19.7, 31.5 and 37.1 \um. By complementing this
observations with archival FORCAST and \emph{Herschel}/PACS images we are able
to construct a complete infrared spectral energy distribution of the Huygens
region in the Orion nebula By comparing the infrared images with gas tracers,
we find that PACS maps trace the molecular cloud, while the FORCAST data trace
the photodissociation region (PDR) and HII region. Analysis of the energetics
of the region reveal that the PDR extends for 0.28~pc along the line-of-sight
and that the Bar is inclined at an angle of $4\degr$. The infrared and
submillimeter images reveal that the Orion Bar represents a swept up shell with
a thickness of 0.1~pc. The mass of the shell implies a shock velocity of
$\simeq 3$ km/s and an age of $\simeq 10^5$ yr for the HII region. Our analysis
shows that the UV and infrared dust opacities in the HII region and the PDR are
a factor 5 to 10 lower than in the diffuse interstellar medium. In the ionized
gas, Ly$\alpha$ photons are a major source of dust heating at distances larger
than $\simeq0.06$~pc from \toc. Dust temperatures can be explained if the size
of the grains is between 0.1 to 1~\um. We derive the photo-electric heating
efficiency of the atomic gas in the Orion Bar. The results are in good
qualitative agreement with models and The quantitative differences indicate a
decreased PAH abundance in this region.


title: Nodal Brillouin Zone Boundary from Folding a Chern Insulator

abstract:
  Chern insulator is a building block of many topological quantum matters,
ranging from quantum spin Hall insulators to fractional Chern insulators. Here,
we discuss a new type of insulator, which consists of two half filled ordinary
Chern insulators. On the one hand, the bulk energy spectrum is obtained from
folding that of either Chern insulator. Such folding gives rise to a nodal
boundary of the Brillouin zone, at which the band crossing is protected by the
symmetries of the two-dimensional lattice that is invariant under combined
transformations in the spatial and the spin space. It also provides one a
natural platform to explore the non-abelian Berry curvature and the resultant
quantum phenomena. On the other hand, these two underlying Chern insulators are
distinguished from each other by nonsymmorphic operators, which lead to
intriguing properties absent in conventional Chern insulators. A new degree of
freedom, the parity of the nonsymmorphic symmetry, needs to be introduced for
describing the topological pumping, if the edge respects the nonsymmorphic
symmetry.


title: Euler systems for Hilbert modular surfaces

abstract:
  We construct an Euler system -- a compatible family of global cohomology
classes -- for the Galois representations appearing in the geometry of Hilbert
modular surfaces. If a conjecture of Bloch and Kato on injectivity of regulator
maps holds, this Euler system is non-trivial, and we deduce bounds towards the
Iwasawa main conjecture for these Galois representations.


title: Minkowski complexes and convex threshold dimension

abstract:
  For a collection of convex bodies $P_1,\dots,P_n \subset \mathbb{R}^d$
containing the origin, a Minkowski complex is given by those subsets whose
Minkowski sum does not contain a fixed basepoint. Every simplicial complex can
be realized as a Minkowski complex and for convex bodies on the real line, this
recovers the class of threshold complexes. The purpose of this note is the
study of the convex threshold dimension of a complex, that is, the smallest
dimension in which it can be realized as a Minkowski complex. In particular, we
show that the convex threshold dimension can be arbitrarily large. This is
related to work of Chv\'atal and Hammer (1977) regarding forbidden subgraphs of
threshold graphs. We also show that convexity is crucial this context.


title:
Strong Secrecy on a Class of Degraded Broadcast Channels Using Polar
  Codes

abstract:
  Different polar coding schemes are proposed for the memoryless degraded
broadcast channel under different reliability and secrecy requirements: layered
decoding and/or layered secrecy. In this setting, the transmitter wishes to
send multiple messages to a set of legitimate receivers keeping them masked
from a set of eavesdroppers. The layered decoding structure requires receivers
with better channel quality to reliably decode more messages, while the layered
secrecy structure requires eavesdroppers with worse channel quality to be kept
ignorant of more messages. The implementation of the proposed polar coding
schemes is discussed and their performance is evaluated by simulations for the
symmetric degraded broadcast channel.


title: Elastohydrodynamic wake and wave resistance

abstract:
  The dynamics of a thin elastic sheet lubricated by a narrow layer of liquid
is relevant to various situations and length scales. In the continuity of our
previous work on viscous wakes, we study theoretically the effects of an
external pressure disturbance moving at constant speed along the surface of a
thin lubricated elastic sheet. In the comoving frame, the imposed pressure
field creates a stationary deformation of the free interface that spatially
vanishes in the far-field region. The shape of the wake and the way it decays
depend on the speed and size of the external disturbance, as well as the
rheological properties of both the elastic and liquid layers. The wave
resistance, namely the force that has to be externally furnished in order to
maintain the wake, is analyzed in detail.


title:
Prediction of future hospital admissions - what is the tradeoff between
  specificity and accuracy?

abstract:
  Large amounts of electronic medical records collected by hospitals across the
developed world offer unprecedented possibilities for knowledge discovery using
computer based data mining and machine learning. Notwithstanding significant
research efforts, the use of this data in the prediction of disease development
has largely been disappointing. In this paper we examine in detail a recently
proposed method which has in preliminary experiments demonstrated highly
promising results on real-world data. We scrutinize the authors' claims that
the proposed model is scalable and investigate whether the tradeoff between
prediction specificity (i.e. the ability of the model to predict a wide number
of different ailments) and accuracy (i.e. the ability of the model to make the
correct prediction) is practically viable. Our experiments conducted on a data
corpus of nearly 3,000,000 admissions support the authors' expectations and
demonstrate that the high prediction accuracy is maintained well even when the
number of admission types explicitly included in the model is increased to
account for 98% of all admissions in the corpus. Thus several promising
directions for future work are highlighted.


title: Computing the k Nearest-Neighbors for all Vertices via Dijkstra

abstract:
  We are given a directed graph $G = (V,E)$ with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges,
with positive weights on the edges, and a parameter $k >0$. We show how to
compute, for every vertex $v \in V$, its $k$ nearest-neighbors. The algorithm
runs in $O( k ( n \log n + m ) )$ time, and follows by a somewhat careful
modification of Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm.
  This result is probably folklore, but we were unable to find a reference to
it -- thus, this note.


title:
Approximation by Combinations of ReLU and Squared ReLU Ridge Functions
  with $ \ell^1 $ and $ \ell^0 $ Controls

abstract:
  We establish $ L^{\infty} $ and $ L^2 $ error bounds for functions of many
variables that are approximated by linear combinations of ReLU (rectified
linear unit) and squared ReLU ridge functions with $ \ell^1 $ and $ \ell^0 $
controls on their inner and outer parameters. With the squared ReLU ridge
function, we show that the $ L^2 $ approximation error is inversely
proportional to the inner layer $ \ell^0 $ sparsity and it need only be
sublinear in the outer layer $ \ell^0 $ sparsity. Our constructions are
obtained using a variant of the Jones-Barron probabilistic method, which can be
interpreted as either stratified sampling with proportionate allocation or
two-stage cluster sampling. We also provide companion error lower bounds that
reveal near optimality of our constructions. Despite the sparsity assumptions,
we showcase the richness and flexibility of these ridge combinations by
defining a large family of functions, in terms of certain spectral conditions,
that are particularly well approximated by them.


title: Almost flat bundles and homological invariance of infinite K-area

abstract:
  We extend the notion of an almost flat bundle over a closed Riemannian
manifold to bundles over simplicial complexes, and prove that up to a constant
factor, this notion is invariant under pullback via maps which induce
isomorphisms on fundamental groups. As an application, we show that the
property of having infinite K-area only depends on the image of the fundamental
class under the classifying map of the universal cover.


title:
Complete intersection Calabi--Yau manifolds with respect to homogeneous
  vector bundles on Grassmannians

abstract:
  Based on the method by [K\"uc95], we give a procedure to list up all complete
intersection Calabi--Yau manifolds with respect to direct sums of irreducible
homogeneous vector bundles on Grassmannians for each dimension. In particular,
we give a classification of such Calabi--Yau 3-folds and determine their
topological invariants. We also give alternative descriptions for some of them.


title:
Blazar Flaring Patterns (B-FlaP): Classifying Blazar Candidates of
  Uncertain type in the third Fermi-LAT catalog by Artificial Neural Networks

abstract:
  The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) is currently the most important facility
for investigating the GeV $\gamma$-ray sky. With Fermi LAT more than three
thousand $\gamma$-ray sources have been discovered so far. 1144 ($\sim40\%$) of
the sources are active galaxies of the blazar class, and 573 ($\sim20\%$) are
listed as Blazar Candidate of Uncertain type (BCU), or sources without a
conclusive classification. We use the Empirical Cumulative Distribution
Functions (ECDF) and the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for a fast method of
screening and classification for BCUs based on data collected at $\gamma$-ray
energies only, when rigorous multiwavelength analysis is not available. Based
on our method, we classify 342 BCUs as BL Lacs and 154 as FSRQs, while 77
objects remain uncertain. Moreover, radio analysis and direct observations in
ground-based optical observatories are used as counterparts to the statistical
classifications to validate the method. This approach is of interest because of
the increasing number of unclassified sources in Fermi catalogs and because
blazars and in particular their subclass High Synchrotron Peak (HSP) objects
are the main targets of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes.


title: Parabolic bundles in positive characteristic

abstract:
  Algebraic parabolic bundles on smooth projective curves over algebraically
closed field of positive characteristic is defined. It is shown that the
category of algebraic parabolic bundles is equivalent to the category of
orbifold bundles defined in \cite{KP}. Tensor, dual, pullback and pushforward
operations are also defined for parabolic bundles.


title: Natural Steganography: cover-source switching for better steganography

abstract:
  This paper proposes a new steganographic scheme relying on the principle of
cover-source switching, the key idea being that the embedding should switch
from one cover-source to another. The proposed implementation, called Natural
Steganography, considers the sensor noise naturally present in the raw images
and uses the principle that, by the addition of a specific noise the
steganographic embedding tries to mimic a change of ISO sensitivity. The
embedding methodology consists in 1) perturbing the image in the raw domain, 2)
modeling the perturbation in the processed domain, 3) embedding the payload in
the processed domain. We show that this methodology is easily tractable
whenever the processes are known and enables to embed large and undetectable
payloads. We also show that already used heuristics such as synchronization of
embedding changes or detectability after rescaling can be respectively
explained by operations such as color demosaicing and down-scaling kernels.


title: Running Vacuum Cosmological Models: Linear Scalar Perturbations

abstract:
  In cosmology, phenomenologically motivated expressions for running vacuum are
commonly parametrized as linear functions $\Lambda(H^2)$ or $\Lambda(R)$. Such
kind of models assume an equation of state for vacuum given by $\,\overline
P_\Lambda=-\,\overline\rho_\Lambda$, relating their background pressure
$\,\overline P_\Lambda$ and mean energy density
$\,\overline\rho_\Lambda\equiv\Lambda/8\pi G$. This equation of state requires
that the dynamic for vacuum is due to the energy exchange with the material
species. Most of the approaches to background level consider only the energy
exchange between vacuum and the transient dominant material component of the
universe. We extend such models assuming the running vacuum as the sum of
independent contributions $\,\overline\rho_{\Lambda}
=\sum_i\,\overline\rho_{\Lambda i}$, associated with (and interacting with)
each of the $i$ material species. We derive the linear scalar perturbations for
two running scenarios, modeling its cosmic evolution and identifying their
different imprints on the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and the
matter power spectrum. In the $\Lambda(H^2)$ scenario the running vacuum are
coupled with all the material species in the universe, whereas the $\Lambda(R)$
description only leads to coupling between vacuum and the non-relativistic
matter components; which produces different imprints of the two models on the
matter power spectrum. A comparison with the Planck 2015 data was made in order
to constrain the free parameters of the models. In the case of the
$\Lambda(H^2)$ model, it was found that $\Omega_\Lambda=0.705\pm0.027$ and
$H_0=69.6\pm2.9\, km\, Mpc^{-1}\, s^{-1}$, which diminish the tension with the
low redshift expectations.


title:
High Throughput combinatorial method for fast and robust prediction of
  lattice thermal conductivity

abstract:
  The lack of computationally inexpensive and accurate ab-initio based
methodologies to predict lattice thermal conductivity, without computing the
anharmonic force constants or time-consuming ab-initio molecular dynamics, is
one of the obstacles preventing the accelerated discovery of new high or low
thermal conductivity materials. The Slack equation is the best alternative to
other more expensive methodologies but is highly dependent on two variables:
the acoustic Debye temperature, $\theta_a$, and the Gr\"{u}neisen parameter,
$\gamma$. Furthermore, different definitions can be used for these two
quantities depending on the model or approximation. In this article, we present
a combinatorial approach to elucidate which definitions of both variables
produce the best predictions of the lattice thermal conductivity, $\kappa_l$. A
set of 42 compounds was used to test accuracy and robustness of all possible
combinations. This approach is ideal for obtaining more accurate values than
fast screening models based on the Debye model, while being significantly less
expensive than methodologies that solve the Boltzmann transport equation.


title: Orbital exponential sums for prehomogeneous vector spaces

abstract:
  Let (G, V) be a prehomogeneous vector space, let O be any G(F_q)-invariant
subset of V(F_q), and let f be the characteristic function of O. In this paper
we develop a method for explicitly and efficiently evaluating the Fourier
transform of f, based on combinatorics and linear algebra. We then carry out
these computations in full for each of five prehomogeneous vector spaces,
including the 12-dimensional space of pairs of ternary quadratic forms. Our
computations reveal that these Fourier transforms enjoy a great deal of
structure, and sometimes exhibit more than square root cancellation on average.
  These Fourier transforms naturally arise in analytic number theory, where
explicit formulas (or upper bounds) lead to sieve level of distribution results
for related arithmetic sequences. We describe some examples, and in a companion
paper we develop a new method to do so, designed to exploit the particular
structure of these Fourier transforms.


title: Regular Behaviours with Names

abstract:
  Nominal sets provide a framework to study key notions of syntax and semantics
such as fresh names, variable binding and $\alpha$-equivalence on a
conveniently abstract categorical level. Coalgebras for endofunctors on nominal
sets model, e.g., various forms of automata with names as well as infinite
terms with variable binding operators (such as $\lambda$-abstraction). Here, we
first study the behaviour of orbit-finite coalgebras for functors $\bar F$ on
nominal sets that lift some finitary set functor $F$. We provide sufficient
conditions under which the rational fixpoint of $\bar F$, i.e. the collection
of all behaviours of orbit-finite $\bar F$-coalgebras, is the lifting of the
rational fixpoint of $F$. Second, we describe the rational fixpoint of the
quotient functors: we introduce the notion of a sub-strength of an endofunctor
on nominal sets, and we prove that for a functor $G$ with a sub-strength the
rational fixpoint of each quotient of $G$ is a canonical quotient of the
rational fixpoint of $G$. As applications, we obtain a concrete description of
the rational fixpoint for functors arising from so-called binding signatures
with exponentiation, such as those arising in coalgebraic models of infinitary
$\lambda$-terms and various flavours of automata.


title: Orbifold slope-rational connectedness

abstract:
  We define, for smooth projective orbifold pairs $(X,D)$ notions of `slope
Rational connectedness', and of orbifold `slope Rational quotient' . These
notions extend to this larger context the classical notions of rationally
connected manifold and `rational quotient' (sometimes called `MRC fibration').
Our notions and proofs work entirely in characteristic zero, and are based on
the consideration of foliations with minimal positive slope with respect to
some suitable movable class. The existence of covering or connecting families
of `orbifold rational curves' is indeed presently unknown in the orbifold
context, in situations analogous to the classical case $D=0$. By contrast, the
notions we introduce here, are checkable in practice and can certainly be used
to show general properties expected from the existence of connecting families
of `orbifold rational curves'. The proofs given here in the orbifold context
provide new proofs in the classical case where $D=0$, since the classical
proofs did not seem to adapt, with the presently existing techniques, to this
broader context.


title:
Harish-Chandra--Schwartz's algebras associated with discrete subgroups
  of Semisimple Lie groups

abstract:
  We prove that the Harish-Chandra--Schwartz space associated with a discrete
subgroup of a semisimple Lie group is a dense subalgebra of the reduced
$C^*$-algebra of the discrete subgroup. Then, we prove that for the reduced
$C^*$-norm is controlled by the norm of the Harish-Chandra--Schwartz space.
This inequality is weaker than property RD and holds for any discrete group
acting isometrically, properly on a Riemannian symmetric space.


title: An elliptic Garnier system

abstract:
  We present a linear system of difference equations whose entries are
expressed in terms of theta functions. This linear system is singular at
$4m+12$ points for $m \geq 1$, which appear in pairs due to a symmetry
condition. We parameterize this linear system in terms a set of kernels at the
singular points. We regard the system of discrete isomonodromic deformations as
an elliptic analogue of the Garnier system. We identify the special case in
which $m=1$ with the elliptic Painlev\'e equation, hence, this work provides an
explicit form and Lax pair for the elliptic Painlev\'e equation.


title:
The Approximation of Parabolic Equations Involving Fractional Powers of
  Elliptic Operators

abstract:
  We study the numerical approximation of a time dependent equation involving
fractional powers of an elliptic operator $L$ defined to be the unbounded
operator associated with a Hermitian, coercive and bounded sesquilinear form on
$H^1_0(\Omega)$. The time dependent solution $u(x,t)$ is represented as a
Dunford Taylor integral along a contour in the complex plane.
  The contour integrals are approximated using sinc quadratures. In the case of
homogeneous right-hand-sides and initial value $v$, the approximation results
in a linear combination of functions $(z_qI-L)^{-1}v\in H^1_0(\Omega)$ for a
finite number of quadrature points $z_q$ lying along the contour. In turn,
these quantities are approximated using complex valued continuous piecewise
linear finite elements.
  Our main result provides $L^2(\Omega)$ error estimates between the solution
$u(\cdot,t)$ and its final approximation. Numerical results illustrating the
behavior of the algorithms are provided.


title: The Number of Atomic Models of Uncountable Theories

abstract:
  We show there exists a complete theory in a language of size continuum
possessing a unique atomic model which is not constructible. We also show it is
consistent with $ZFC + \aleph_1 < 2^{\aleph_0}$ that there is a complete theory
in a language of size $\aleph_1$ possessing a unique atomic model which is not
constructible. Finally we show it is consistent with $ZFC + \aleph_1 <
2^{\aleph_0}$ that for every complete theory $T$ in a language of size
$\aleph_1$, if $T$ has uncountable atomic models but no constructible models,
then $T$ has $2^{\aleph_1}$ atomic models of size $\aleph_1$.