title:
Deciphering the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign in the Twitter Sphere: A
  Comparison of the Trumpists and Clintonists

abstract:
  In this paper, we study follower demographics of Donald Trump and Hillary
Clinton, the two leading candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential race. We
build a unique dataset US2016, which includes the number of followers for each
candidate from September 17, 2015 to December 22, 2015. US2016 also includes
the geographical location of these followers, the number of their own followers
and, very importantly, the profile image of each follower. We use individuals'
number of followers and profile images to analyze four dimensions of follower
demographics: social status, gender, race and age. Our study shows that in
terms of social influence, the Trumpists are more polarized than the
Clintonists: they tend to have either a lot of influence or little influence.
We also find that compared with the Clintonists, the Trumpists are more likely
to be either very young or very old. Our study finds no gender affinity effect
for Clinton in the Twitter sphere, but we do find that the Clintonists are more
racially diverse.


title:
Notes on Approximation Algorithms for Polynomial-Expansion and
  Low-Density Graphs

abstract:
  This write-up contains some minor results and notes related to our work
[HQ15] (some of them already known in the literature). In particular, it shows
the following:
  - We show that a graph with polynomial expansion have sublinear separators.
  - We show that hereditary sublinear separators imply that a graph have small
divisions.
  - We show a natural condition on a set of segments, such that they have low
density. This might be of independent interest in trying to define a realistic
input model for a set of segments. Unlike the previous two results, this is
new.
  For context and more details, see the main paper.


title:
Catching Fire via "Likes": Inferring Topic Preferences of Trump
  Followers on Twitter

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a framework to infer the topic preferences of
Donald Trump's followers on Twitter. We first use latent Dirichlet allocation
(LDA) to derive the weighted mixture of topics for each Trump tweet. Then we
use negative binomial regression to model the "likes," with the weights of each
topic serving as explanatory variables. Our study shows that attacking
Democrats such as President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
earns Trump the most "likes." Our framework of inference is generalizable to
the study of other politicians.


title: On Gieseker stability for Higgs sheaves

abstract:
  We review the notion of Gieseker stability for torsion-free Higgs sheaves.
This notion is a natural generalization of the classical notion of Gieseker
stability for torsion-free coherent sheaves. We prove some basic properties
that are similar to the classical ones for torsion-free coherent sheaves over
projective algebraic manifolds. In particular, we show that Gieseker stability
for torsion-free Higgs sheaves can be defined using only Higgs subsheaves with
torsion-free quotients; and we show that a classical relation between Gieseker
stability and Mumford-Takemoto stability extends naturally to Higgs sheaves. We
also prove that a direct sum of two Higgs sheaves is Gieseker semistable if and
only if the Higgs sheaves are both Gieseker semistable with equal normalized
Hilbert polynomial and we prove that a classical property of morphisms between
Gieseker semistable sheaves also holds in the Higgs case; as a consequence of
this and the existing relation between Mumford-Takemoto stability and Gieseker
stability, we obtain certain properties concerning the existence of
Hermitian-Yang-Mills metrics, simplesness and extensions in the Higgs context.
Finally, we make some comments about Jordan-H\"older and Harder-Narasimhan
filtrations for Higgs sheaves.


title: Recursive Recurrent Nets with Attention Modeling for OCR in the Wild

abstract:
  We present recursive recurrent neural networks with attention modeling
(R$^2$AM) for lexicon-free optical character recognition in natural scene
images. The primary advantages of the proposed method are: (1) use of recursive
convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which allow for parametrically efficient
and effective image feature extraction; (2) an implicitly learned
character-level language model, embodied in a recurrent neural network which
avoids the need to use N-grams; and (3) the use of a soft-attention mechanism,
allowing the model to selectively exploit image features in a coordinated way,
and allowing for end-to-end training within a standard backpropagation
framework. We validate our method with state-of-the-art performance on
challenging benchmark datasets: Street View Text, IIIT5k, ICDAR and Synth90k.


title: Robust Design of Spectrum-Sharing Networks

abstract:
  In spectrum-sharing networks, primary users have the right to preempt
secondary users, which significantly degrades the performance of underlying
secondary users. In this paper, we use backup channels to provide reliability
guarantees for secondary users. In particular, we study the optimal white
channel assignment that minimizes the amount of recovery capacity (i.e.,
bandwidth of backup channels) needed to meet a given reliability guarantee.
This problem is shown to be coupled by two NP-hard objectives. We characterize
the structure of the optimal assignment and develop bi-criteria approximation
algorithms. Moreover, we investigate the scaling of the recovery capacity as
the network size becomes large. It is shown that the recovery capacity is
negligible as compared to the total traffic demands in a large-scale network.


title:
Identifying Differences In Diagnostic Skills Between Physics Students:
  Developing A Rubric

abstract:
  Expert problem solvers are characterized by continuous evaluation of their
progress towards a solution. One characteristic of expertise is self-diagnosis
directed towards elaboration of the solvers' conceptual understanding,
knowledge organization or strategic approach. "Self-diagnosis tasks" aim at
fostering diagnostic behavior by explicitly requiring students to present
diagnosis as part of the activity of reviewing their problem solutions. We have
been investigating how introductory physics students perform in such tasks.
Developing a robust rubric is essential for objective evaluation of students'
self-diagnosis skills. We discuss the development of a grading rubric that
takes into account introductory physics students' content knowledge as well as
analysis, planning and presentation skills. Using this rubric, we have found
the inter-rater reliability to be better than 80%. The rubric can easily be
adapted to other problems, as will be discussed in a companion paper.


title: Cold-spots and glassy nematicity in underdoped cuprates

abstract:
  There is now copious direct experimental evidence of various forms of
(short-range) charge order in underdoped cuprate high temperature
superconductors, and spectroscopic signatures of a nodal-antinodal dichotomy in
the structure of the single-particle spectral functions. In this context, we
analyze the Bogoliubov quasiparticle spectrum in a superconducting nematic
glass. The coincidence of the superconducting "nodal points" and the nematic
"cold-spots" on the Fermi surface naturally accounts for many of the most
salient features of the measured spectral functions (from angle-resolved
photoemission) and the local density of states (from scanning tunneling
microscopy).


title:
Identifying Differences in Diagnostic Skills between Physics Students:
  Students' Self-Diagnostic Performance Given Alternative Scaffolding

abstract:
  "Self-diagnosis tasks" aim at fostering diagnostic behavior by explicitly
requiring students to present diagnosis as part of the activity of reviewing
their problem solutions. We have been investigating the extent to which
introductory physics students can diagnose their own mistakes when explicitly
asked to do so with different levels of scaffolding support provided to them.
In our study in an introductory physics class with more than 200 students, the
recitation classes were split into three different experimental groups in which
different levels of guidance were provided for performing the self-diagnosis
activities. We present our findings that students' performance was far from
perfect. However, differences in the scaffolding in the three experimental
groups (i.e. providing a correct solution and a self-diagnosis rubric)
noticeably affected the resulting diagnosis.


title:
Wave fronts and cascades of soliton interactions in the periodic two
  dimensional Volterra system

abstract:
  In the paper we develop the dressing method for the solution of the
two-dimensional periodic Volterra system with a period N. We derive soliton
solutions of arbitrary rank $k$ and give a full classification of rank 1
solutions. We have found a new class of exact solutions corresponding to wave
fronts which represent smooth interfaces between two nonlinear periodic waves
or a periodic wave and a trivial (zero) solution. The wave fronts are
non-stationary and they propagate with a constant average velocity. The system
also has soliton solutions similar to breathers, which resembles soliton webs
in the KP theory. We associate the classification of soliton solutions with the
Schubert decomposition of the Grassmanians ${\rm Gr}_{\mathbb{R}}(k,N)$ and
${\rm Gr}_{\mathbb{C}}(k,N)$.


title:
Local charge variation enhanced spin canting of BiFeO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3
  heterostructure

abstract:
  Transition-metal oxides (TMOs) exhibit many emergent phenomena ranging from
high-temperature super- conductivity and giant magnetoresistance to magnetism
and ferroelectricity. When TMOs are interfaced with each other, new
multi-functionalities can arise, which are absent in individual components. In
this work, we have systematically studied, within a unified double-exchange
model, the interfacial magnetic response in layered BiFeO3 (BFO) and
La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) heterostructures. The ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic
canting is shown to be enhanced on the interface of BFO by the influence of
local charge variation. More interestingly, it is found that the spin canting
in BFO can be further enhanced with deeper penetration depth to the bulk when a
local oxygen vacancy is placed around the interface.


title: Interactive learning tutorials on quantum mechanics

abstract:
  We discuss the development and evaluation of quantum interactive learning
tutorials (QuILTs) which are suitable for undergraduate courses in quantum
mechanics. QuILTs are based on the investigation of student difficulties in
learning quantum physics. They exploit computer-based visualization tools and
help students build links between the formal and conceptual aspects of quantum
physics without compromising the technical content. They can be used both as
supplements to lectures or as a self-study tool.


title: On the permanental nullity and matching number of graphs

abstract:
  For a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, let $\nu(G)$ and $A(G)$ denote the
matching number and adjacency matrix of $G$, respectively. The permanental
polynomial of $G$ is defined as $\pi(G,x)={\rm per}(Ix-A(G))$. The permanental
nullity of $G$, denoted by $\eta_{per}(G)$, is the multiplicity of the zero
root of $\pi(G,x)$. In this paper, we use the Gallai-Edmonds structure theorem
to derive a concise formula which reveals the relationship between the
permanental nullity and the matching number of a graph. Furthermore, we prove a
necessary and sufficient condition for a graph $G$ to have $\eta_{per}(G)=0$.
As applications, we show that every unicyclic graph $G$ on $n$ vertices
satisfies $n-2\nu(G)-1 \le \eta_{per}(G) \le n-2\nu(G)$, that the permanental
nullity of the line graph of a graph is either zero or one, and that the
permanental nullity of a factor critical graph is always zero.


title:
Change management: Implementation and benefits of the change control in
  the information technology enviroment

abstract:
  In the competitive environment, companies have given increasing importance to
the IT sector and the resources it delivers as strategic. As a result, IT
becomes a living being within the company. This sector is being subject to
continuous changes in this scenario. These changes can occur within the own IT
sector or whether IT to other sectors of the company. For both scenarios, it is
important to have a good change control to avoid unnecessary trouble and
expense. This paper aims to show through a case study, the benefits and results
obtained with the implementation of a process of managing and controlling
changes in the information technology environment of a large government company
in Brazil.


title:
Mapping constrained optimization problems to quantum annealing with
  application to fault diagnosis

abstract:
  Current quantum annealing (QA) hardware suffers from practical limitations
such as finite temperature, sparse connectivity, small qubit numbers, and
control error. We propose new algorithms for mapping boolean constraint
satisfaction problems (CSPs) onto QA hardware mitigating these limitations. In
particular we develop a new embedding algorithm for mapping a CSP onto a
hardware Ising model with a fixed sparse set of interactions, and propose two
new decomposition algorithms for solving problems too large to map directly
into hardware.
  The mapping technique is locally-structured, as hardware compatible Ising
models are generated for each problem constraint, and variables appearing in
different constraints are chained together using ferromagnetic couplings. In
contrast, global embedding techniques generate a hardware independent Ising
model for all the constraints, and then use a minor-embedding algorithm to
generate a hardware compatible Ising model. We give an example of a class of
CSPs for which the scaling performance of D-Wave's QA hardware using the local
mapping technique is significantly better than global embedding.
  We validate the approach by applying D-Wave's hardware to circuit-based
fault-diagnosis. For circuits that embed directly, we find that the hardware is
typically able to find all solutions from a min-fault diagnosis set of size N
using 1000N samples, using an annealing rate that is 25 times faster than a
leading SAT-based sampling method. Further, we apply decomposition algorithms
to find min-cardinality faults for circuits that are up to 5 times larger than
can be solved directly on current hardware.


title:
Building a Fine-Grained Entity Typing System Overnight for a New X (X =
  Language, Domain, Genre)

abstract:
  Recent research has shown great progress on fine-grained entity typing. Most
existing methods require pre-defining a set of types and training a multi-class
classifier from a large labeled data set based on multi-level linguistic
features. They are thus limited to certain domains, genres and languages. In
this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised entity typing framework by
combining symbolic and distributional semantics. We start from learning general
embeddings for each entity mention, compose the embeddings of specific contexts
using linguistic structures, link the mention to knowledge bases and learn its
related knowledge representations. Then we develop a novel joint hierarchical
clustering and linking algorithm to type all mentions using these
representations. This framework doesn't rely on any annotated data, predefined
typing schema, or hand-crafted features, therefore it can be quickly adapted to
a new domain, genre and language. Furthermore, it has great flexibility at
incorporating linguistic structures (e.g., Abstract Meaning Representation
(AMR), dependency relations) to improve specific context representation.
Experiments on genres (news and discussion forum) show comparable performance
with state-of-the-art supervised typing systems trained from a large amount of
labeled data. Results on various languages (English, Chinese, Japanese, Hausa,
and Yoruba) and domains (general and biomedical) demonstrate the portability of
our framework.


title: Piecewise Flat Curvature and Ricci Flow in Three Dimensions

abstract:
  Discrete forms of the scalar, sectional and Ricci curvatures are constructed
on simplicial piecewise flat triangulations of smooth manifolds, depending
directly on the simplicial structure and a choice of dual tessellation. This is
done by integrating over volumes which include appropriate samplings of hinges
for each type of curvature, with the integrals based on the parallel transport
of vectors around hinges. Computations for triangulations of a diverse set of
manifolds show these piecewise flat curvatures to converge to their smooth
values. The Ricci curvature also gives a piecewise flat Ricci flow as a
fractional rate of change of edge-lengths, again converging to the smooth Ricci
flow for the manifolds tested.


title:
Formulae for entanglement in a linear coherent feedback network of
  multiple nondegenerate optical parametric amplifiers: the infinite bandwidth
  case

abstract:
  This paper presents formulae for Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement
generated from $N$ nondegenerate optical parametric amplifiers (NOPAs)
interconnected in a linear coherent feedback (CFB) chain in the idealized
lossless scenario and infinite bandwidth limit. The lossless scenario sets the
ultimate EPR entanglement (two-mode squeezing) that can be achieved by this
linear chain of NOPAs while the infinite bandwidth limit simplifies the
analysis but gives an accurate approximation to the EPR entanglement at low
frequencies of interest. Two adjustable phase shifts are placed at the outputs
of the system to achieve the best EPR entanglement by selecting appropriate
quadratures of the output fields.


title:
Clinically applicable Monte Carlo-based biological dose optimization for
  the treatment of head and neck cancers with spot-scanning proton therapy

abstract:
  Purpose: To demonstrate the feasibility of fast Monte Carlo (MC) based
inverse biological planning for the treatment of head and neck tumors in
spot-scanning proton therapy. Methods: Recently, a fast and accurate Graphics
Processor Unit (GPU)-based MC simulation of proton transport was developed and
used as the dose calculation engine in a GPU-accelerated IMPT optimizer.
Besides dose, the dose-averaged linear energy transfer (LETd) can be
simultaneously scored, which makes biological dose (BD) optimization possible.
To convert from LETd to BD, a linear relation was assumed. Using this novel
optimizer, inverse biological planning was applied to 4 patients: 2 small and 1
large thyroid tumor targets, and 1 glioma case. To create these plans,
constraints were placed to maintain the physical dose (PD) within 1.25 times
the prescription while maximizing target BD. For comparison, conventional IMRT
and IMPT plans were created for each case in Eclipse (Varian, Inc). The same
critical structure PD constraints were used for the IMRT, IMPT and
bio-optimized plans. The BD for the IMPT plans were obtained through MC
re-calculations. Results: Compared to standard IMPT, the bio-optimal plans for
patients with small tumor targets displayed a BD escalation that was around
twice the PD increase. Dose sparing to critical structures was improved
compared to both IMRT and IMPT. No significant BD increase could be achieved
for the large thyroid case, and when the presence of critical structures
mitigated the contribution of additional fields. The calculation of the
bio-optimized plans can be completed in a clinically viable time (<30 minutes)
on a 24-GPU system. Conclusion: By exploiting GPU acceleration, MC-based,
biologically optimized plans were created for small-target tumor patients. This
optimizer will be used in an upcoming feasibility trial on LETd painting for
radio-resistant tumors.


title: Low-rank passthrough neural networks

abstract:
  Various common deep learning architectures, such as LSTMs, GRUs, Resnets and
Highway Networks, employ state passthrough connections that support training
with high feed-forward depth or recurrence over many time steps. These
"Passthrough Networks" architectures also enable the decoupling of the network
state size from the number of parameters of the network, a possibility has been
studied by \newcite{Sak2014} with their low-rank parametrization of the LSTM.
In this work we extend this line of research, proposing effective, low-rank and
low-rank plus diagonal matrix parametrizations for Passthrough Networks which
exploit this decoupling property, reducing the data complexity and memory
requirements of the network while preserving its memory capacity. This is
particularly beneficial in low-resource settings as it supports expressive
models with a compact parametrization less susceptible to overfitting. We
present competitive experimental results on several tasks, including language
modeling and a near state of the art result on sequential randomly-permuted
MNIST classification, a hard task on natural data.


title:
Bifurcation of limit cycles from a fold-fold singularity in planar
  switched systems

abstract:
  An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is the primary motivation for this
research. The ABS controller switches the actions of charging and discharging
valves in the hydraulic actuator of the brake cylinder based on the wheels'
angular speed and acceleration. The controller is, therefore, modeled by
discontinuous differential equations where two smooth vector fields are
separated by a switching manifold S. The goal of the controller is to maximize
the tire-road friction force during braking (and, in particular, to prevent the
wheel lock-up). Since the optimal slip L of the wheel is known rather
approximately, the actual goal of the controller is to achieve such a switching
strategy that makes the dynamics converging to a limit cycle surrounding the
region of prospective values of L. In this paper we show that the required
limit cycle can be obtained as a bifurcation from a point x0 of S when a
suitable parameter D crosses 0. The point x0 turns out to be a fold-fold
singularity (the vector fields on the two sides of S are tangent one another at
x0) and the parameter D measures the deviation of the switching manifold from a
hyperplane. The proposed result is based on an extension of the classical fold
bifurcation theory available for smooth maps. Construction of a suitable smooth
map is a crucial step of the proof.


title:
First-Principles Momentum-Dependent Local Ansatz Wavefunction and
  Momentum Distribution Function Bands of Iron

abstract:
  We have developed a first-principles local ansatz wavefunction approach with
momentum-dependent variational parameters on the basis of the tight-binding
LDA+U Hamiltonian. The theory goes beyond the first-principles Gutzwiller
approach and quantitatively describes correlated electron systems. Using the
theory, we find that the momentum distribution function (MDF) bands of
paramagnetic bcc Fe along high-symmetry lines show a large deviation from the
Fermi-Dirac function for the $d$ electrons with $e_{g}$ symmetry and yield the
momentum-dependent mass enhancement factors. The calculated average mass
enhancement $m^{\ast}/m = 1.65$ is consistent with low-temperature specific
heat data as well as recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES)
data.


title:
Constraining the size of the carrier of the $\lambda$5797.1 diffuse
  interstellar band

abstract:
  The diffuse interstellar band (DIB) at 5797.1 \AA\ is simulated based on
three premises: (1) The carrier of the DIB is polar as concluded by T. Oka et
al. from the anomalous spectrum toward Herschel 36. (2) The sharp central
feature observed by P. J. Sarre's group is the $Q$-branch of a parallel band of
a prolate top. (3) The radiative temperature of the environment is $T_r$=2.73
K.
  A $^2 \Pi \leftarrow$ $^2\Pi$ transition of a linear radical is simulated.
Results depend on 10 parameters, with the rotational constant $B$ being the
most critical. Comparisons of calculated spectra with observed data constrain
$B$, which in turn constrains the number of heavy atoms to 5 $\leq n \leq 7$.
Upper limits based on the Her 36 spectrum and lower limits based on stability
against photodissociation are also discussed. The latter is based on the
assumption that the DIB molecules are produced top-down from the breakdown of
dust rather than bottom-up by chemical reactions.
  A difficulty with this limit is that J. P. Maier's laboratory has observed
many molecules within this size range, some of which have been tested
astronomically. Candidates are discussed in light of many prolate tops observed
by the P. Thaddeus and M. C. McCarthy microwave group.


title: Decay dynamics of the unbound $^{25}$O and $^{26}$O nuclei

abstract:
  We study the ground and excited resonance states of $^{26}$O with a
three-body model of $^{24}$O+n+n taking into account the coupling to the
continuum. To this end, we use the new experimental data for the invariant mass
spectroscopy of the unbound $^{25}$O and $^{26}$O nuclei, and present an update
of three-body model calculations for the two-neutron decay of the $^{26}$O
nucleus. With the new model inputs determined with the ground state decay of
$^{26}$O, we discuss the di-neurtron correlations and a halo nature of this
nucleus, as well as the structure of the excited states. For the energy of the
2$^+$ state, we achieve an excellent agreement with the experimental data with
this calculation. We show that the 2$^+$ state consists predominantly of the
$(d_{3/2})^2$ configuration, for which the pairing interaction between the
valence neutrons slightly decreases its energy from the unperturbed one. We
also discuss the structure of excited 0$^+$ states of the $^{26}$O nucleus. In
particular, we show the existence of an excited 0$^+$ state at 3.38 MeV, which
is mainly composed of the $(f_{7/2})^2$ configuration.


title:
Observation of a Quasi-periodic Pulsation in Hard X-ray, Radio and
  Extreme-ultraviolet Wavelengths

abstract:
  We present multi-wavelength analysis of a quasi-periodic pulsation (QPP)
observed in the hard X-ray, radio, and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) channels
during an M1.9 flare occurred on 23-24 September 2011. The non-thermal hard
X-ray emission in 25-50 keV observed by RHESSI shows five distinct impulsive
peaks of decaying amplitude with a period of about three minutes. Similar QPP
was observed in the microwave emission recorded by the Nobeyama Radioheliograph
and Polarimeter in the 8.8, 15, 17 GHz channels. Interestingly, the 3-min QPP
was also observed in the metric and decimetric radio frequencies (25-180, 245,
610 MHz) as repetitive type III bursts. Multi-wavelength observations from the
SDO/AIA, Hinode/SOT, and STEREO/SECCHI suggest a fan-spine topology at the
eruption site, associated with the formation of a quasi-circular ribbon during
the flare. A small filament was observed below the fan-loops before the flare
onset. The filament rose slowly and interacted with the ambient field. This
behaviour was followed by an untwisting motion of the filament. Two different
structures of the filament showed $\sim$3-min periodic alternate rotation in
the clockwise and counterclockwise directions. The 3-min QPP was found to
highly correlate with 3-min oscillations in a nearby sunspot. We suggest that
the periodic reconnection (modulated either by sunspot slow-mode wave or by
untwisting filament) at a magnetic null-point most likely causes the repetitive
particle acceleration, generating the QPP observed in hard X-ray, microwave and
type III radio bursts.


title:
Preventing side-channel effects in continuous-variable quantum key
  distribution

abstract:
  The role of the side channels in the continuous-variable quantum key
distribution is studied. It is shown how the information leakage through a side
channel from the trusted sender station increases the vulnerability of the
protocols to the eavesdropping in the main quantum communication channel.
Moreover, the untrusted noise infusion by an eavesdropper on the trusted
receiving side breaks the security even for a purely attenuating main quantum
channel. As a method to compensate for the effect of the side-channel leakage
on the sender side, we suggest several types of manipulations on the
side-channel input. It is shown that by applying the modulated coherent light
on the input of the side channel that is optimally correlated to the modulation
on the main signal and optionally, introducing additional squeezing in the case
of the squeezed-state protocol, the negative influence of the lossy side
channel on the sender side can be completely removed. For the trusted receiving
side, the method of optimal monitoring of the residual noise from the
side-channel noise infusion is suggested and shown to be able to completely
eliminate the presence of the noisy side channel. We therefore prove that the
side-channel effects can be completely removed using feasible operations if the
trusted parties access the respective parts of the side channels.


title:
Light Scattering and Thermal Emission by Primitive Dust Particles in
  Planetary Systems

abstract:
  This review focuses on numerical approaches to deducing the light-scattering
and thermal-emission properties of primitive dust particles in planetary
systems from astronomical observations. The particles are agglomerates of small
grains with sizes comparable to visible wavelength and compositions being
mainly magnesium-rich silicates, iron-bearing metals, and organic refractory
materials in pristine phases. These unique characteristics of primitive dust
particles reflect their formation and evolution around main-sequence stars of
essentially solar composition. The development of light-scattering theories has
been offering powerful tools to make a thorough investigation of light
scattering and thermal emission by primitive dust agglomerates in such a
circumstellar environment. In particular, the discrete dipole approximation,
the T-matrix method, and effective medium approximations are the most popular
techniques for practical use in astronomy. Numerical simulations of light
scattering and thermal emission by dust agglomerates of submicrometer-sized
constituent grains have a great potential to provide new state-of-the-art
knowledge of primitive dust particles in planetary systems. What is essential
to this end is to combine the simulations with comprehensive collections of
relevant results from not only astronomical observations, but also in-situ data
analyses, laboratory sample analyses, laboratory analogue experiments, and
theoretical studies on the origin and evolution of the particles.


title:
Semimartingales on Rays, Walsh Diffusions, and Related Problems of
  Control and Stopping

abstract:
  We introduce a class of continuous planar processes, called "semimartingales
on rays", and develop for them a change-of-variable formula involving quite
general classes of test functions. Special cases of such planar processes are
diffusions which choose, once they reach the origin, the rays for their
subsequent voyage according to a fixed probability measure in the manner of
Walsh (1978). We develop existence and uniqueness results up to an explosion
time for these "Walsh diffusions", study their asymptotic behavior, and develop
tests for explosions in finite time. We use these results to find an optimal
strategy, in a problem of control with discretionary stopping involving Walsh
diffusions.


title: Non-trivially graded self-dual fusion categories of rank $4$

abstract:
  Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a self-dual spherical fusion categories of rank $4$ with
non-trivial grading. We complete the classification of Grothendieck ring
$K(\mathcal{C})$ of $\mathcal{C}$; that is, we prove that $K(\mathcal{C})\cong
Fib\otimes\mathbb{Z}[\mathbb{Z}_2]$, where $Fib$ is the Fibonacci fusion ring
and $\mathbb{Z}[\mathbb{Z}_2]$ is the group ring on $\mathbb{Z}_2$. In
particular, if $\mathcal{C}$ is braided then it is equivalent to
$\textbf{Fib}\boxtimes\textbf{Vec}_{\mathbb{Z}_2}^{\omega}$ as fusion
categories, where $\textbf{Fib}$ is a Fibonacci category and
$\textbf{Vec}_{\mathbb{Z}_2}^{\omega}$ is a rank $2$ pointed fusion category.


title: On Board Data Handling (OBDH) based on PC104

abstract:
  Developing OBDH for satellite should consider the condition of the existing
research facilities and resources in an institution. Many OBDH developments
have been failed because not considering the capabilities of the institution.
Considering to the capabilities of the institution is important, because it is
major factor whether building OBDH can be realized successfully or not.
  System Design OBDH that has great opportunities to success in our research
environment is to concentrate on developing the software for the OBDH. The
software must be supported with the appropriate hardware which has been
recognized as space qualified. Therefore selection board which has space
qualified is important method: it has been conducted in this research. To
develop good software in the term of perspective programming, fast,
standardize, testable, multitasking: Operating System has been implemented in
this OBDH.
  This research showed the OBDH development is pretty fast and more realizable
to the limited institution resources. This research has produced an OBDH
prototype in terms of hardware/board selection and software development.


title:
Identification of high transverse momentum top quarks in $pp$ collisions
  at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

abstract:
  This paper presents studies of the performance of several jet-substructure
techniques, which are used to identify hadronically decaying top quarks with
high transverse momentum contained in large-radius jets. The efficiency of
identifying top quarks is measured using a sample of top-quark pairs and the
rate of wrongly identifying jets from other quarks or gluons as top quarks is
measured using multijet events collected with the ATLAS experiment in 20.3
fb$^{-1}$ of 8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.
Predictions from Monte Carlo simulations are found to provide an accurate
description of the performance. The techniques are compared in terms of signal
efficiency and background rejection using simulations, covering a larger range
in jet transverse momenta than accessible in the dataset. Additionally, a novel
technique is developed that is optimized to reconstruct top quarks in events
with many jets.


title:
The Standard Model in extra dimensions and its Kaluza-Klein effective
  Lagrangian

abstract:
  We construct an effective theory for the SM with extra dimensions. We start
from a theory governed by the extra-dimensional groups ISO$(1,3+n)$ and $G_{\rm
SM}({\cal M}^{4+n})=SU_C(3,{\cal M}^{4+n})\times SU_L(2,{\cal M}^{4+n})\times
U_Y(1,{\cal M}^{4+n})$, characterized by an unknown energy scale $\Lambda$ and
valid at energies far below this scale. Assuming that the extra dimensions are
much larger than the distance scale of this theory, we construct an effective
theory with symmetry groups ISO(1,3), $G_{\rm SM}({\cal M}^{4})$. The theories
are connected by a canonical transformation that hides ISO$(1,3+n)$, $G_{\rm
SM}({\cal M}^{4+n})$ into ISO(1,3), $G_{\rm SM}({\cal M}^{4})$; KK fields
receive mass. Using a set of orthogonal functions
$\{f^{(\underline{0})},f^{(\underline{m})}\}$, generated by the Casimir
invariant $\bar{P}^2$ associated with the translations subgroup
$T(n)\subset$ISO$(n)$, we expand the degrees of freedom of ISO$(1,3+n)$,
$G_{\rm SM}({\cal M}^{4+n})$ in general Fourier series, whose coefficients are
the degrees of freedom of ISO(1,3), $G({\cal M}^{4})$. These functions, which
correspond to the projection on $\{|\bar{x}\big>\}$ of the discrete basis
$\{|0\big>,|p^{(\underline{m})}\big>\}$ of $\bar{P}^2$, are central to define
the effective theory. Components along the ground state
$f^{(\underline{0})}=\big <\bar x|0\big>$ do not receive mass at the
compactification scale, so they are the SM fields; components along excited
states $f^{(\underline{m})}=\big<\bar x|p^{(\underline{m})}\big>$ get mass at
this scale, so they are KK excitations. For any direction
$|p^{(\underline{m})}\neq0\big>$ there are a massive gauge field and a
pseudo-Goldstone boson. We stress resemblances of this mass-generating
mechanism with the Englert-Higgs mechanism and discuss physical implications.
We include a full catalog of Lagrangian terms that can be used to calculate
Feynman rules.


title: Daala: A Perceptually-Driven Next Generation Video Codec

abstract:
  The Daala project is a royalty-free video codec that attempts to compete with
the best patent-encumbered codecs. Part of our strategy is to replace core
tools of traditional video codecs with alternative approaches, many of them
designed to take perceptual aspects into account, rather than optimizing for
simple metrics like PSNR. This paper documents some of our experiences with
these tools, which ones worked and which did not, and what we've learned from
them. The result is a codec which compares favorably with HEVC on still images,
and is on a path to do so for video as well.


title:
Theoretical Comparisons of Positive-Unlabeled Learning against
  Positive-Negative Learning

abstract:
  In PU learning, a binary classifier is trained from positive (P) and
unlabeled (U) data without negative (N) data. Although N data is missing, it
sometimes outperforms PN learning (i.e., ordinary supervised learning).
Hitherto, neither theoretical nor experimental analysis has been given to
explain this phenomenon. In this paper, we theoretically compare PU (and NU)
learning against PN learning based on the upper bounds on estimation errors. We
find simple conditions when PU and NU learning are likely to outperform PN
learning, and we prove that, in terms of the upper bounds, either PU or NU
learning (depending on the class-prior probability and the sizes of P and N
data) given infinite U data will improve on PN learning. Our theoretical
findings well agree with the experimental results on artificial and benchmark
data even when the experimental setup does not match the theoretical
assumptions exactly.


title:
Commensurate and Incommensurate Vortex States Confined in Mesoscopic
  Triangles of Weak Pinning Superconducting Thin Films

abstract:
  We report on the direct observation of vortex states confined in equilateral
and isosceles triangular dots of weak pinning amorphous superconducting thin
films with a scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscope.
The observed images illustrate not only pieces of a triangular vortex lattice
as commensurate vortex states, but also incommensurate vortex states including
metastable ones. We comparatively analyze vortex configurations found in
different sample geometries and discuss the symmetry and stability of
commensurate and incommensurate vortex configurations against deformations of
the sample shape.


title:
Some Useful Relations for Analyzing Nanoscale MOSFETs Operating in the
  Linear Region

abstract:
  Several equations used to model and characterize the linear region IV
characteristics of nanoscale field-effect transistors are derived. The meaning
of carrier mobility at the nanoscale is discussed by defining two related
quantities, the apparent mobility and the ballistic mobility. The validity of
Matthiessen's Rule for relating the apparent ability to the ballistic and
diffusive mobilities is examined. Other questions that arise in the analysis
and characterization of nanoscale field-effect transistors are also discussed.
These notes are intended to pull together in one place some key equations
needed to analyze the linear region performance of nanoscale MOSFETs and to
point out some errors in previous publications.


title:
Energy-Efficient Packet Scheduling with Finite Blocklength Codes:
  Convexity Analysis and Efficient Algorithms

abstract:
  This paper considers an energy-efficient packet scheduling problem over
quasi-static block fading channels. The goal is to minimize the total energy
for transmitting a sequence of data packets under the first-in-first-out rule
and strict delay constraints. Conventionally, such design problem is studied
under the assumption that the packet transmission rate can be characterized by
the classical Shannon capacity formula, which, however, may provide inaccurate
energy consumption estimation, especially when the code blocklength is finite.
In this paper, we formulate a new energy-efficient packet scheduling problem by
adopting a recently developed channel capacity formula for finite blocklength
codes. The newly formulated problem is fundamentally more challenging to solve
than the traditional one because the transmission energy function under the new
channel capacity formula neither can be expressed in closed form nor possesses
desirable monotonicity and convexity in general. We analyze conditions on the
code blocklength for which the transmission energy function is monotonic and
convex. Based on these properties, we develop efficient offline packet
scheduling algorithms as well as a rolling-window based online algorithm for
real-time packet scheduling. Simulation results demonstrate not only the
efficacy of the proposed algorithms but also the fact that the traditional
design using the Shannon capacity formula can considerably underestimate the
transmission energy for reliable communications.


title:
A uniform asymptotic formula for the second moment of primitive
  L-functions on the critical line

abstract:
  We prove an asymptotic formula for the second moment of automorphic
L-functions of even weight and prime power level. The error term is estimated
uniformly in all parameters: level, weight, shift and twist.


title: Planet-disc evolution and the formation of Kozai-Lidov planets

abstract:
  With hydrodynamical simulations we determine the conditions under which an
initially coplanar planet-disc system that orbits a member of a misaligned
binary star evolves to form a planet that undergoes Kozai-Lidov (KL)
oscillations once the disc disperses. These oscillations may explain the large
orbital eccentricities, as well as the large misalignments with respect to the
spin of the central star, observed for some exoplanets. The planet is assumed
to be massive enough to open a gap in the disc. The planet's tilt relative to
the binary orbital plane is subject to two types of oscillations. The first
type, present at even small inclination angles relative to the binary orbital
plane, is due to the interaction of the planet with the disc and binary
companion and is amplified by a secular resonance. The second type of
oscillation is the KL oscillation that operates on both the planet and disc at
larger binary inclination angles. We find that for a sufficiently massive disc,
even a relatively low inclination planet-disc system can force a planet to an
inclination above the critical KL angle, as a consequence of the first type of
tilt oscillation, allowing it to undergo the second type of oscillation. We
conclude that the hydrodynamical evolution of a sufficiently massive and
inclined disc in a binary system broadens the range of systems that form
eccentric and misaligned giant planets to include a wide range of initial
misalignment angles (20 to 160 degrees).


title: Electric dipole moment of $^{13}$C

abstract:
  We calculate for the first time the electric dipole moment (EDM) of $^{13}$C
generated by the isovector CP-odd pion exchange nuclear force in the
$\alpha$-cluster model, which describes well the structures of low lying states
of the $^{13}$C nucleus. The linear dependence of the EDM of $^{13}$C on the
neutron EDM and the isovector CP-odd nuclear coupling is found to be
$d_{^{13}{\rm C}} = -0.33 d_n - 0.0020 \bar G_\pi^{(1)}$. The linear
enhancement factor of the CP-odd nuclear coupling is smaller than that of the
deuteron, due to the difference of the structure between the $1/2^-_1$ state
and the opposite parity ($1/2^+$) states. We clarify the role of the structure
played in the enhancement of the EDM. This result provides good guiding
principles to search for other nuclei with large enhancement factor. We also
mention the role of the EDM of $^{13}$C in determining the new physics beyond
the standard model.


title:
Low-lying Resonances and Relativistic Screening in Big Bang
  Nucleosynthesis

abstract:
  We explore effects of the screening due to the relativistic electron-positron
plasma and presence of resonances in the secondary reactions leading to A=7
nuclei during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In particular, we investigate and
examine possible low-lying resonances in the $^7$Be($^3$He, $\gamma$)$^{10}$C
reaction and examine the resultant destruction of $^7$Be for various resonance
locations and strengths. While a resonance in the $^{10}$C compound nucleus is
thought to have negligible effects we explore the possibility of an enhancement
from plasma screening that may adjust the final $^7$Be abundance. We find the
effects of relativistic screening and possible low-lying resonances to be
relatively small in the standard Early Universe models.


title: Proof of a conjecture of Bergeron, Ceballos and Labb\'e

abstract:
  The reduced expressions for a given element $w$ of a Coxeter group $(W, S)$
can be regarded as the vertices of a directed graph $\mathcal{R}(w)$; its arcs
correspond to the braid moves. Specifically, an arc goes from a reduced
expression $a$ to a reduced expression $b$ when $b$ is obtained from $a$ by
replacing a contiguous subword of the form $stst...$ (for some distinct $s, t$
in $S$) by $tsts...$ (where both subwords have length $m_{s, t}$, the order of
$st$ in $W$). We prove a strong bipartiteness-type result for this graph
$\mathcal{R}(w)$: Not only does every cycle of $\mathcal{R}(w)$ have even
length; actually, the arcs of $\mathcal{R}(w)$ can be colored (with colors
corresponding to the type of braid moves used), and to every color $c$
corresponds an "opposite" color $c^{\operatorname{op}}$ (corresponding to the
reverses of the braid moves with color $c$), and for any color $c$, the number
of arcs in any given cycle of $\mathcal{R}(w)$ having color in $\left\{c,
c^{\operatorname{op}}\right\}$ is even. This is a generalization and
strengthening of a 2014 result by Bergeron, Ceballos and Labb\'e. We state
further conjectural extensions.


title:
Approximate Correctors and Convergence Rates in Almost-Periodic
  Homogenization

abstract:
  We carry out a comprehensive study of quantitative homogenization of
second-order elliptic systems with bounded measurable coefficients that are
almost-periodic in the sense of H. Weyl. We obtain uniform local $L^2$
estimates for the approximate correctors in terms of a function that quantifies
the almost-periodicity of the coefficient matrix. We give a condition that
implies the existence of (true) correctors. These estimates as well as similar
estimates for the dual approximate correctors yield optimal or near optimal
convergence rates in $H^1$ and $L^2$.The $L^2$-based H\"older and Lipschitz
estimates at large scale are also established.


title: Differential geometry of general affine plane curves

abstract:
  In this paper we study the general affine geometry of curves in affine space
$A^2$. For a regular plane curves we define two kinds of moving frames. The
first is of minimal order in all moving frames.The second is the Frenet moving
frame. We get the moving equations of these moving frames. And we prove that
curvature and signature are the complete invariants of regular curves. As
application we give a complete classification of constant curvature curves in
$A^2$.


title: Calibrar: an R package for fitting complex ecological models

abstract:
  The fitting or parameter estimation of complex ecological models is a
challenging optimization task, with a notable lack of tools for fitting complex
stochastic models. calibrar is an R package that has been developed for fitting
complex ecological models to data, including complex Individual Based Models.
It is a generic tool that can be used for any type of model, especially those
with non-differentiable objective functions. calibrar supports multiple phases
and constrained optimization. It implements maximum likelihood estimation
methods and automated construction of the objective function from simulated
model outputs. User-level expertise in R is necessary to handle calibration
experiments with calibrar, but there is no need to modify the model's code,
which can be programmed in any language. For more experienced users, calibrar
allows the implementation of user-defined objective functions. The package
source code is fully accessible from github
(htpps://roliveros-ramos.github.com/calibrar) and can be installed directly
from CRAN.


title:
Self-Gravitational Force Calculation of Infinitesimally Thin Gaseous
  Disks on Nested Grids

abstract:
  We extend the work of Yen et al. (2012) and develop 2nd order formulae to
accommodate a nested grid discretization for the direct self-gravitational
force calculation for infinitesimally thin gaseous disks. This approach uses a
two-dimensional kernel derived for infinitesimally thin disks and is free of
artificial boundary conditions. The self-gravitational force calculation is
presented in generalized convolution forms for a nested grid configuration. A
numerical technique derived from a fast Fourier transform is employed to reduce
the computational complexity to be nearly linear. By comparing with analytic
potential-density pairs associated with the generalized Maclaurin disks, the
extended approach is verified to be of second order accuracy using numerical
simulations. The proposed method is accurate, computationally fast and has the
potential to be applied to the studies of planetary migration and the gaseous
morphology of disk galaxies.


title: Gravitomagnetism and the significance of the curvature scalar invariants

abstract:
  The curvature invariants have been subject of interest due to the debate
concerning the notions of intrinsic/extrinsic frame-dragging, the use of the
electromagnetic analogy in such classification, and the question of whether
there is a fundamental difference between the gravitomagnetic fields arising
from the translational and rotational motions of the sources (which have been
subject of observational and experimental tests, including the dedicated
Gravity Probe-B and LARES space missions). In this work we clarify both the
algebraic and physical meaning of the curvature invariants and their
electromagnetic counterparts. They are seen to yield conditions for the
existence of observers measuring vanishing electric/magnetic fields and
gravitoelectric/gravitomagnetic tidal tensors, respectively. We determine these
observers (in the gravitational sector and in the presence of sources, for the
more relevant gravitomagnetic case) obtaining their velocities explicitly in
terms of the fields/tidal tensors as measured by an arbitrary observer. The
structure of the invariants of the astrophysical setups of interest is studied
in detail, and its relationship with the gravitomagnetic effects is dissected.
Finally, a new classification for intrinsic/extrinsic gravitomagnetism is
proposed.


title: Part-of-Speech Tagging for Historical English

abstract:
  As more historical texts are digitized, there is interest in applying natural
language processing tools to these archives. However, the performance of these
tools is often unsatisfactory, due to language change and genre differences.
Spelling normalization heuristics are the dominant solution for dealing with
historical texts, but this approach fails to account for changes in usage and
vocabulary. In this empirical paper, we assess the capability of domain
adaptation techniques to cope with historical texts, focusing on the classic
benchmark task of part-of-speech tagging. We evaluate several domain adaptation
methods on the task of tagging Early Modern English and Modern British English
texts in the Penn Corpora of Historical English. We demonstrate that the
Feature Embedding method for unsupervised domain adaptation outperforms word
embeddings and Brown clusters, showing the importance of embedding the entire
feature space, rather than just individual words. Feature Embeddings also give
better performance than spelling normalization, but the combination of the two
methods is better still, yielding a 5% raw improvement in tagging accuracy on
Early Modern English texts.


title: Unwinding spirals

abstract:
  We show that there is no bi-Lipschitz homeomorphism of $\mathbb{R}^2$ that
maps a spiral with a sub-exponential decay of winding radii to an unwinded arc.
This result is sharp as shows an example of a logarithmic spiral.


title:
Vibration-induced electrical noise in a cryogen-free dilution
  refrigerator: characterization, mitigation, and impact on qubit coherence

abstract:
  Cryogen-free low-temperature setups are becoming more prominent in
experimental science due to their convenience and reliability, and concern
about the increasing scarcity of helium as a natural resource. Despite not
having any moving parts at the cold end, pulse tube cryocoolers introduce
vibrations that can be detrimental to the experiments. We characterize the
coupling of these vibrations to the electrical signal observed on cables
installed in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator. The dominant electrical
noise is in the 5 to 10 kHz range and its magnitude is found to be strongly
temperature dependent. We test the performance of different cables designed to
diagnose and tackle the noise, and find triboelectrics to be the dominant
mechanism coupling the vibrations to the electrical signal. Flattening a
semi-rigid cable or jacketing a flexible cable in order to restrict movement
within the cable, successfully reduces the noise level by over an order of
magnitude. Furthermore, we characterize the effect of the pulse tube vibrations
on an electron spin qubit device in this setup. Coherence measurements are used
to map out the spectrum of the noise experienced by the qubit, revealing
spectral components matching the spectral signature of the pulse tube.


title:
Vortex shells in mesoscopic triangles of amorphous superconducting thin
  films

abstract:
  Direct observation of vortex states confined in mesoscopic regular triangle
dots of amorphous MoGe thin films was made with a scanning superconducting
quantum interference device microscope. The observed magnetic images illustrate
clearly how vortices are distributed over the triangle dots by forming not only
commensurate triangular clusters, but also unique patterns imposed by
incommensurability. We discuss the results in terms of vortex shells and
construct the packing sequence of vortices in the multiple shell structure.


title:
Path-integral Monte Carlo study on a droplet of a dipolar Bose-Einstein
  condensate stabilized by quantum fluctuation

abstract:
  Motivated by the recent experiments [H. Kadau et al., Nature (London) 530,
194 (2016); I. Ferrier-Barbut et al., arXiv:1601.03318] and theoretical
prediction (F. W\"achtler and L. Santos, arXiv:1601.04501), the ground state of
a dysprosium Bose-Einstein condensate with strong dipole-dipole interaction is
studied using the path-integral Monte Carlo method. It is shown that quantum
fluctuation can stabilize the condensate against dipolar collapse.


title:
Real time error detection in metal arc welding process using Artificial
  Neural Netwroks

abstract:
  Quality assurance in production line demands reliable weld joints. Human made
errors is a major cause of faulty production. Promptly Identifying errors in
the weld while welding is in progress will decrease the post inspection cost
spent on the welding process. Electrical parameters generated during welding,
could able to characterize the process efficiently. Parameter values are
collected using high speed data acquisition system. Time series analysis tasks
such as filtering, pattern recognition etc. are performed over the collected
data. Filtering removes the unwanted noisy signal components and pattern
recognition task segregate error patterns in the time series based upon
similarity, which is performed by Self Organized mapping clustering algorithm.
Welder quality is thus compared by detecting and counting number of error
patterns appeared in his parametric time series. Moreover, Self Organized
mapping algorithm provides the database in which patterns are segregated into
two classes either desirable or undesirable. Database thus generated is used to
train the classification algorithms, and thereby automating the real time error
detection task. Multi Layer Perceptron and Radial basis function are the two
classification algorithms used, and their performance has been compared based
on metrics such as specificity, sensitivity, accuracy and time required in
training.


title: Models of reduced-noise, probabilistic linear amplifiers

abstract:
  We construct an amplifier that interpolates between a nondeterministic,
immaculate linear amplifier and a deterministic, ideal linear amplifier and
beyond to nonideal linear amplifiers. The construction involves cascading an
immaculate linear amplifier that has amplitude gain $g_1$ with a (possibly)
nonideal linear amplifier that has gain $g_2$. With respect to normally ordered
moments, the device has output noise $\mu^2(G^2-1)$ where $G=g_1 g_2$ is the
overall amplitude gain and $\mu^2$ is a noise parameter. When $\mu^2\ge1$, our
devices realize ideal ($\mu^2=1$) and nonideal ($\mu^2>1$) linear amplifiers.
When $0\le\mu^2<1$, these devices work effectively only over a restricted
region of phase space and with some subunity success probability
$p_{\checkmark}$. We investigate the performance of our $\mu^2$-amplifiers in
terms of a gain-corrected probability-fidelity product and the ratio of input
to output signal-to-noise ratios corrected for success probability.


title: Informed Truthfulness in Multi-Task Peer Prediction

abstract:
  The problem of peer prediction is to elicit information from agents in
settings without any objective ground truth against which to score reports.
Peer prediction mechanisms seek to exploit correlations between signals to
align incentives with truthful reports. A long-standing concern has been the
possibility of uninformative equilibria. For binary signals, a multi-task
mechanism [Dasgupta-Ghosh '13] achieves strong truthfulness, so that the
truthful equilibrium strictly maximizes payoff. We characterize conditions on
the signal distribution for which this mechanism remains strongly-truthful with
non-binary signals, also providing a greatly simplified proof. We introduce the
Correlated Agreement (CA) mechanism, which handles multiple signals and
provides informed truthfulness: no strategy profile provides more payoff in
equilibrium than truthful reporting, and the truthful equilibrium is strictly
better than any uninformed strategy (where an agent avoids the effort of
obtaining a signal). The CA mechanism is maximally strongly truthful, in that
no mechanism in a broad class of mechanisms is strongly truthful on a larger
family of signal distributions. We also give a detail-free version of the
mechanism that removes any knowledge requirements on the part of the designer,
using reports on many tasks to learn statistics while retaining
epsilon-informed truthfulness.


title: Noisy Index Coding with PSK and QAM

abstract:
  Noisy index coding problems over AWGN channel are considered. For a given
index coding problem and a chosen scalar linear index code of length $N$, we
propose to transmit the $N$ index coded bits as a single signal from a $2^N$-
PSK constellation. By transmitting the index coded bits in this way, there is
an $N/2$ - fold reduction in the bandwidth consumed. Also, receivers with side
information satisfying certain conditions get coding gain relative to a
receiver with no side information. This coding gain is due to proper
utilization of their side information and hence is called "PSK side information
coding gain (PSK-SICG)". A necessary and sufficient condition for a receiver to
get PSK-SICG is presented. An algorithm to map the index coded bits to PSK
signal set such that the PSK-SICG obtained is maximized for the receiver with
maximum side information is given. We go on to show that instead of
transmitting the $N$ index coded bits as a signal from $2^N$- PSK, we can as
well transmit them as a signal from $2^N$- QAM and all the results including
the necessary and sufficient condition to get coding gain holds. We prove that
sending the index coded bits as a QAM signal is better than sending them as a
PSK signal when the receivers see an effective signal set of eight points or
more.


title:
Zipf's law emerges asymptotically during phase transitions in
  communicative systems

abstract:
  Zipf's law predicts a power-law relationship between word rank and frequency
in language communication systems, and is widely reported in texts yet remains
enigmatic as to its origins. Computer simulations have shown that language
communication systems emerge at an abrupt phase transition in the fidelity of
mappings between symbols and objects. Since the phase transition approximates
the Heaviside or step function, we show that Zipfian scaling emerges
asymptotically at high rank based on the Laplace transform. We thereby
demonstrate that Zipf's law gradually emerges from the moment of phase
transition in communicative systems. We show that this power-law scaling
behavior explains the emergence of natural languages at phase transitions. We
find that the emergence of Zipf's law during language communication suggests
that the use of rare words in a lexicon is critical for the construction of an
effective communicative system at the phase transition.


title:
Intracavity characterization of micro-comb generation in the
  single-soliton regime

abstract:
  Soliton formation in on-chip micro-comb generation balances cavity dispersion
and nonlinearity and allows coherent, low-noise comb operation. We study the
intracavity waveform of an on-chip microcavity soliton in a silicon nitride
microresonator configured with a drop port. Whereas combs measured at the
through port are accompanied by a very strong pump line which accounts for >99%
of the output power, our experiments reveal that inside the microcavity, most
of the power is in the soliton. Time-domain measurements performed at the drop
port provide information that directly reflects the intracavity field. Data
confirm a train of bright, close to bandwidth-limited pulses, accompanied by a
weak continuous wave (CW) background with a small phase shift relative to the
comb.


title:
Unified approach towards the dynamics of optical and electron vortex
  beams

abstract:
  We have proposed a unified framework towards the dynamics of optical and
electron vortex beams from the perspective of geometric phase and the
associated Hall effects. The unification is attributed to the notion that the
spin degrees of freedom of a relativistic particle, either massive or massless,
is associated with a vortex line. %The formulation in cylindrical coordinates
leads to a local vortex structure related to orbital angular momentum(OAM).
Based on cylindrical corodinate formulation, which leads to a local vortex
structure related to orbital angular momentum (OAM), it can be shown that when
electron vortex beams (EVBs) move in an external electric field paraxial beams
give rise to OAM Hall effect and non-paraxial beams with tilted vortices
initiate spin Hall effect in free space as well as in an external field. A
similar analysis reveals that the paraxial optical vortex beams(OVBs) in an
inhomogeneous medium induce OAM Hall effect whereas non-paraxial beams with
tilted vortices drive the spin Hall effect. Moreover, both OVBs and EVBs with
tilted vortices give rise to OAM states with arbitrary fractional value.


title:
Finite groups whose non-linear irreducible characters of the same degree
  are Galois conjugate

abstract:
  We classify the finite groups whose non-linear irreducible characters that
are not conjugate under the natural Galois action have distinct degrees,
therefore extending the results in Berkovich et al. [Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.
{\bf 115} (1992), 955-959] and Dolfi et al. [Israel J. Math. {\bf 198} (2013),
283-331].


title:
Next-to-next-to-leading order QCD analysis of spin-dependent parton
  distribution functions and their uncertainties: Jacobi polynomials approach

abstract:
  We present a first QCD analysis of next-to-next-leading-order (NNLO)
contributions of the spin-dependent parton distribution functions (PPDFs) in
the nucleon and their uncertainties using the Jacobi polynomial approach.
Having the NNLO contributions of the quark-quark and gluon-quark splitting
functions in perturbative QCD (Nucl. Phys. B 889 (2014) 351-400), one can
obtain the evolution of longitudinally polarized parton densities of hadrons up
to NNLO accuracy of QCD. A very large sets of recent and up-to-date
experimental data of spin structure functions of the proton $g_1^p$, neutron
$g_1^n$, and deuteron $g_1^d$ have been used in this analysis. The predictions
for the NNLO calculations of the polarized parton distribution functions as
well as the proton, neutron and deuteron polarized structure functions are
compared with the corresponding results of the NLO approximation. We form a
mutually consistent set of polarized PDFs due to the inclusion of the most
available experimental data including the recently high-precision measurements
from {\tt COMPASS16} experiments (Phys. Lett. B 753 (2016) 18-28). We have
performed a careful estimation of the uncertainties using the most common and
practical method, the Hessian method, for the polarized PDFs originating from
the experimental errors. The proton, neutron and deuteron structure functions
and also their first moments, $\Gamma^{\rm p, n, d}$, are in good agreement
with the experimental data at small and large momentum fraction of $x$. We will
discuss how our knowledge of spin-dependence structure functions can improve at
small and large value of $x$ by the recent {\tt COMPASS16} measurements at
CERN, the {\tt PHENIX} and {\tt STAR} measurements at RHIC, and at the future
proposed colliders such as Electron-Ion collider (EIC).


title: Scenario Submodular Cover

abstract:
  Many problems in Machine Learning can be modeled as submodular optimization
problems. Recent work has focused on stochastic or adaptive versions of these
problems. We consider the Scenario Submodular Cover problem, which is a
counterpart to the Stochastic Submodular Cover problem studied by Golovin and
Krause. In Scenario Submodular Cover, the goal is to produce a cover with
minimum expected cost, where the expectation is with respect to an empirical
joint distribution, given as input by a weighted sample of realizations. In
contrast, in Stochastic Submodular Cover, the variables of the input
distribution are assumed to be independent, and the distribution of each
variable is given as input. Building on algorithms developed by Cicalese et al.
and Golovin and Krause for related problems, we give two approximation
algorithms for Scenario Submodular Cover over discrete distributions. The first
achieves an approximation factor of O(log Qm), where m is the size of the
sample and Q is the goal utility. The second, simpler algorithm achieves an
approximation bound of O(log QW), where Q is the goal utility and W is the sum
of the integer weights. (Both bounds assume an integer-valued utility
function.) Our results yield approximation bounds for other problems involving
non-independent distributions that are explicitly specified by their support.


title:
Details of the spatial structure and kinematics of the Castor and Ursa
  Major streams

abstract:
  A list of the Castor stream members is compiled based on the data from
various authors. The membership probabilities for some stars are revised based
on the individual apex, multiplicity, observational errors, and peculiarity.
The apex of the Castor moving group is determined using the apex diagram
method. The parameters of the Castor and Ursa Major streams are compared and
the positions of the two streams on the apex diagram are found to differ by
225deg, implying that the two groups move in almost opposite directions. Stars
of both moving groups are intermixed in space, the Castor stream occupies a
smaller volume than the UMa stream and is located inside it. Our results can be
useful for understanding the morphology of the Galactic disk in the Sun's
vicinity.


title:
Near-Optimality of Linear Strategies for Static Teams with `Big'
  Non-Gaussian Noise

abstract:
  We study stochastic team problems with static information structure where we
assume controllers have linear information and quadratic cost but allow the
noise to be from a non-Gaussian class. When the noise is Gaussian, it is well
known that these problems admit linear optimal controllers. We show that for
such linear-quadratic static teams with any log-concave noise, if the length of
the noise or data vector becomes large compared to the size of the team and
their observations, then linear strategies approach optimality for `most'
problems. The quality of the approximation improves as length of the noise
vector grows and the class of problems for which the approximation is
asymptotically not exact approaches a set of measure zero. We show that if the
optimal strategies for problems with log-concave noise converge pointwise, they
do so to the (linear) optimal strategy for the problem with Gaussian noise. And
we derive an asymptotically tight error bound on the difference between the
optimal cost for the non-Gaussian problem and the best cost obtained under
linear strategies.


title: K\"uchle fivefolds of type c5

abstract:
  We show that K\"uchle fivefolds of type (c5) --- subvarieties of the
Grassmannian Gr(3,7) parameterizing 3-subspaces that are isotropic for a given
2-form and are annihilated by a given 4-form --- are birational to hyperplane
sections of the Lagrangian Grassmannian LGr(3,6) and describe in detail these
birational transformations. As an application, we show that the integral Chow
motive of a K\"uchle fivefold of type (c5) is of Lefschetz type. We also
discuss K\"uchle fourfolds of type (c5) --- hyperplane sections of the
corresponding K\"uchle fivefolds --- an interesting class of Fano fourfolds,
which is expected to be similar to the class of cubic fourfolds in many
aspects.


title:
Decoded fMRI neurofeedback can induce bidirectional behavioral changes
  within single participants

abstract:
  Studies using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) have
recently incorporated the decoding approach, allowing for fMRI to be used as a
tool for manipulation of fine-grained neural activity. Because of the
tremendous potential for clinical applications, certain questions regarding
decoded neurofeedback (DecNef) must be addressed. Neurofeedback effects can
last for months, but the short- to mid-term dynamics are not known.
Specifically, can the same subjects learn to induce neural patterns in two
opposite directions in different sessions? This leads to a further question,
whether learning to reverse a neural pattern may be less effective after
training to induce it in a previous session. Here we employed a
within-subjects' design, with subjects undergoing DecNef training sequentially
in opposite directions (up or down regulation of confidence judgements in a
perceptual task), with the order counterbalanced across subjects. Behavioral
results indicated that the manipulation was strongly influenced by the order
and direction of neurofeedback. We therefore applied nonlinear mathematical
modeling to parametrize four main consequences of DecNef: main effect of change
in behavior, strength of down-regulation effect relative to up-regulation,
maintenance of learning over sessions, and anterograde learning interference.
Modeling results revealed that DecNef successfully induced bidirectional
behavioral changes in different sessions. Furthermore, up-regulation was more
sizable, and the effect was largely preserved even after an interval of
one-week. Lastly, the second week effect was diminished as compared to the
first week effect, indicating strong anterograde learning interference. These
results suggest reinforcement learning characteristics of DecNef, and provide
important constraints on its application to basic neuroscience, occupational
and sports trainings, and therapies.


title:
Stable Well-posedness and Tilt stability with respect to admissible
  functions

abstract:
  Note that the well-posedness of a proper lower semicontinuous function $f$
can be equivalently described using an admissible function. In the case when
the objective function $f$ undergos the tilt perturbations in the sense of
Poliquin and Rockafellar, adopting admissible functions $\varphi$ and $\psi$,
this paper introduces and studies the stable well-posedness of $f$ with respect
to $\varphi$ (in breif, $\varphi$-SLWP) and tilt-stable local minimum of $f$
with respect to $\psi$ (in brief, $\psi$-TSLM). In the special case when
$\varphi(t)=t^2$ and $\psi(t)=t$, the corresponding $\varphi$-SLWP and
$\psi$-TSLM reduce to the stable second local minimizer and tilt stable local
minimum respectively, which have been extensively studied in recent years. We
discover an interesting relationship between two admissible functions $\varphi$
and $\psi$: $\psi(t)=(\varphi')^{-1}(t)$, which implies that a proper lower
semicontinous function $f$ on a Banach space has $\varphi$-SLWP if and only if
$f$ has $\psi$-TSLM. Using the techniques of variational analysis and conjugate
analysis, we also prove that the strong metric $\varphi'$-regularity of
$\partial f$ is a sufficient condition for $f$ to have $\varphi$-SLWP and that
the strong metric $\varphi'$-regularity of $\partial\overline{\rm
co}(f+\delta_{B[\bar x,r]})$ for some $r>0$ is a necessary condition for $f$ to
have $\varphi$-SLWP. In the special case when $\varphi(t)=t^2$, our results
cover some existing main results on the tilt stability.


title:
Classical Integrability for Three-point Functions: Cognate Structure at
  Weak and Strong Couplings

abstract:
  In this paper, we develop a new method of computing three-point functions in
the SU(2) sector of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory in the
semi-classical regime at weak coupling, which closely parallels the strong
coupling analysis. The structure threading two disparate regimes is the
so-called monodromy relation, an identity connecting the three-point functions
with and without the insertion of the monodromy matrix. We shall show that this
relation can be put to use directly for the semi-classical regime, where the
dynamics is governed by the classical Landau-Lifshitz sigma model.
Specifically, it reduces the problem to a set of functional equations, which
can be solved once the analyticity in the spectral parameter space is
specified. To determine the analyticity, we develop a new universal logic
applicable at both weak and strong couplings. As a result, compact
semi-classical formulas are obtained for a general class of three-point
functions at weak coupling including the ones whose semi-classical behaviors
were not known before. In addition, the new analyticity argument applied to the
strong coupling analysis leads to a modification of the integration contour,
producing the results consistent with the recent hexagon bootstrap approach.
This modification also makes the Frolov-Tseytlin limit perfectly agree with the
weak coupling form.


title:
Automated Clustering and Program Repair for Introductory Programming
  Assignments

abstract:
  Providing feedback on programming assignments is a tedious task for the
instructor, and even impossible in large Massive Open Online Courses with
thousands of students. Previous research has suggested that program repair
techniques can be used to generate feedback in programming education. In this
paper, we present a novel fully automated program repair algorithm for
introductory programming assignments. The key idea of the technique, which
enables automation and scalability, is to use the existing correct student
solutions to repair the incorrect attempts. We evaluate the approach in two
experiments: (I) We evaluate the number, size and quality of the generated
repairs on 4,293 incorrect student attempts from an existing MOOC. We find that
our approach can repair 97% of student attempts, while 81% of those are small
repairs of good quality. (II) We conduct a preliminary user study on
performance and repair usefulness in an interactive teaching setting. We obtain
promising initial results (the average usefulness grade 3.4 on a scale from 1
to 5), and conclude that our approach can be used in an interactive setting.


title:
Topological and dynamical properties of a generalized cluster model in
  one dimension

abstract:
  We study the ground-state phase diagram and dynamics of the one-dimensional
cluster model with several competing interactions. Paying particular attention
to the relation between the entanglement spectrum (ES) and the bulk topological
(winding) number, we first map out the ground-state phases of the model and
determine the universality classes of the transitions from the exact solution.
We then investigate the dynamical properties during interaction sweeps through
the critical points of topological phase transitions. When the sweep speed is
slow, the correlation functions and the entanglement entropy exhibit spatially
periodic structures. On top of this, the levels in the ES oscillate temporally
during the dynamics. By explicitly calculating the above quantities for excited
states, we attribute these behaviors to the Bogoliubov quasiparticles generated
near the critical points. We also show that the ES reflects the strength of the
Majorana correlation even for the excited states.


title:
Localized NMR Mediated by Electrical-Field-Induced Domain Wall
  Oscillation in Quantum-Hall-Ferromagnet Nanowire

abstract:
  We present fractional quantum Hall domain walls confined in a gate-defined
wire structure. Our experiments utilize spatial oscillation of domain walls
driven by radio frequency electric fields to cause nuclear magnetic resonance.
The resulting spectra are discussed in terms of both large quadrupole fields
created around the wire and hyperfine fields associated with the oscillating
domain walls. This provides the experimental fact that the domain walls survive
near the confined geometry despite of potential deformation, by which a
localized magnetic resonance is allowed in electrical means.


title:
Cohesion of Amorphous Silica Spheres: Toward a Better Understanding of
  the Coagulation Growth of Silicate Dust Aggregates

abstract:
  Adhesion forces between submicrometer-sized silicate grains play a crucial
role in the formation of silicate dust agglomerates, rocky planetesimals, and
terrestrial planets. The surface energy of silicate dust particles is the key
to their adhesion and rolling forces in a theoretical model based on the
contact mechanics. Here we revisit the cohesion of amorphous silica spheres by
compiling available data on the surface energy for hydrophilic amorphous silica
in various circumstances. It turned out that the surface energy for hydrophilic
amorphous silica in a vacuum is a factor of 10 higher than previously assumed.
Therefore, the previous theoretical models underestimated the critical velocity
for the sticking of amorphous silica spheres, as well as the rolling friction
forces between them. With the most plausible value of the surface energy for
amorphous silica spheres, theoretical models based on the contact mechanics are
in harmony with laboratory experiments. Consequently, we conclude that silicate
grains with a radius of $0.1~\mu$m could grow to planetesimals via coagulation
in a protoplanetary disk. We argue that the coagulation growth of silicate
grains in a molecular cloud is advanced either by organic mantles rather than
icy mantles or, if there are no mantles, by nanometer-sized grain radius.


title:
Stability of Transonic Shocks in Steady Supersonic Flow past
  Multidimensional Wedges

abstract:
  We are concerned with the stability of multidimensional (M-D) transonic
shocks in steady supersonic flow past multidimensional wedges. One of our
motivations is that the global stability issue for the M-D case is much more
sensitive than that for the 2-D case, which requires more careful rigorous
mathematical analysis. In this paper, we develop a nonlinear approach and
employ it to establish the stability of weak shock solutions containing a
transonic shock-front for potential flow with respect to the M-D perturbation
of the wedge boundary in appropriate function spaces. To achieve this, we first
formulate the stability problem as a free boundary problem for nonlinear
elliptic equations. Then we introduce the partial hodograph transformation to
reduce the free boundary problem into a fixed boundary value problem near a
background solution with fully nonlinear boundary conditions for second-order
nonlinear elliptic equations in an unbounded domain. To solve this reduced
problem, we linearize the nonlinear problem on the background shock solution
and then, after solving this linearized elliptic problem, develop a nonlinear
iteration scheme that is proved to be contractive.


title: Data fluidity in DARIAH -- pushing the agenda forward

abstract:
  This paper provides both an update concerning the setting up of the European
DARIAH infrastructure and a series of strong action lines related to the
development of a data centred strategy for the humanities in the coming years.
In particular we tackle various aspect of data management: data hosting, the
setting up of a DARIAH seal of approval, the establishment of a charter between
cultural heritage institutions and scholars and finally a specific view on
certification mechanisms for data.


title: Well-balanced and asymptotic preserving schemes for kinetic models

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a general framework for designing numerical schemes
that have both well-balanced (WB) and asymptotic preserving (AP) properties,
for various kinds of kinetic models. We are interested in two different
parameter regimes, 1) When the ratio between the mean free path and the
characteristic macroscopic length $\epsilon$ tends to zero, the density can be
described by (advection) diffusion type (linear or nonlinear) macroscopic
models; 2) When $\epsilon$ = O(1), the models behave like hyperbolic equations
with source terms and we are interested in their steady states. We apply the
framework to three different kinetic models: neutron transport equation and its
diffusion limit, the transport equation for chemotaxis and its Keller-Segel
limit, and grey radiative transfer equation and its nonlinear diffusion limit.
Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the properties of the schemes.


title: Profinite completions and MacNeille completions of MV-algebras

abstract:
  We determine the profinite completions of MV-algebras, and obtain a
description that generalizes the well known profinite completions of Boolean
algebras as the power sets of their Stone spaces. We also use the description
found to characterize profinite MV-algebras that are isomorphic to the
profinite completion of an MV-algebra. Finally, MV-algebras for which the
profinite Completion and MacNeille completion are isomorphic are characterized.


title:
Strange Scaling and Temporal Evolution of Finite-Size Fluctuation in
  Thermal Equilibrium

abstract:
  We numerically exhibit strange scaling and temporal evolution of finite-size
fluctuation in thermal equilibrium of a simple long-range interacting system.
These phenomena are explained from the view point of existence of the Casimirs
and their nonexactness in finite-size systems, where the Casimirs are
invariants in the Vlasov dynamics describing the long-range systems in the
limit of large population. This explanation expects appearance of the reported
phenomena in a wide class of isolated long-range systems. The scaling theory is
also discussed as an application of the strange scaling.


title: Multinomial Multiple Correspondence Analysis

abstract:
  Relations between categorical variables can be analyzed conveniently by
multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). %It is well suited to discover
relations that may exist between categories of different variables. The
graphical representation of MCA results in so-called biplots makes it easy to
interpret the most important associations. However, a major drawback of MCA is
that it does not have an underlying probability model for an individual
selecting a category on a variable. In this paper, we propose such probability
model called multinomial multiple correspondence analysis (MMCA) that combines
the underlying low-rank representation of MCA with maximum likelihood. An
efficient majorization algorithm that uses an elegant bound for the second
derivative is derived to estimate the parameters. The proposed model can easily
lead to overfitting causing some of the parameters to wander of to infinity. We
add the nuclear norm penalty to counter this issue and discuss ways of
selecting regularization parameters. The proposed approach is well suited to
study and vizualise the dependences for high dimensional data.


title:
The Influence of Modification of Gravity on the Dynamics of Radiating
  Spherical Fluids

abstract:
  We explore the evolutionary behaviors of compact objects in a modified
gravitational theory with the help of structure scalars. Particularly, we
consider the spherical geometry coupled with heat and radiation emitting
shearing viscous matter configurations. We construct structure scalars by
splitting the Riemann tensor orthogonally in $f(R,T)$ gravity with and without
constant $R$ and $T$ constraints, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar and $T$ is the
trace of the energy-momentum tensor. We investigate the influence of
modification of gravity on the physical meaning of scalar functions for
radiating spherical matter configurations. It is explicitly demonstrated that
even in modified gravity, the evolutionary phases of relativistic stellar
systems can be analyzed through the set of modified scalar functions.


title:
Free core nutation: new large disturbance and connection evidence with
  geomagnetic jerks

abstract:
  Variations in free core nutation (FCN) are connected with various processes
in the Earth's fluid core and core-mantle coupling, which are also largely
responsible for the geomagnetic field variations, particularly the geomagnetic
jerks (GMJs). A previous study (Malkin, 2013) revealed that the epochs of the
observed extremes in the FCN amplitude and phase variations are close to the
GMJ epochs. In this paper, a new evidence of this connection was found. The
large FCN amplitude and phase disturbance occurred at the epoch close to the
newly revealed GMJ 2011. This event occurred to be the second large change in
the FCN amplitude and phase after the 1999 disturbance that is also associated
with the GMJ 1999. Moreover, the long-time FCN phase drift had changed suddenly
in 1998--1999, immediately before the GMJ 1999, and seemed to change again at
the epoch immediately preceding the GMJ 2011. The FCN amplitude showed a
general long-time decrease before GMJ 1999, and it subsequently grew until GMJ
2011, and then seemed to decrease again. A smaller FCN change can be observed
at the epoch around 2013, which is also suspected as the GMJ epoch. The latter
confirms the suggestion that a rapid change in the FCN amplitude and/or phase
can be used as an evidence of the GMJ that is not clearly detected from the
geomagnetic observations.


title:
GU Mon, a high-mass eclipsing overcontact binary in the young open
  cluster Dolidze 25

abstract:
  Context. The eclipsing binary GU Mon is located in the star-forming cluster
Dolidze 25, which has the lowest metallicity measured in a Milky Way young
cluster. Aims. GU Mon has been identified as a short-period eclipsing binary
with two early B-type components. We set out to derive its orbital and stellar
parameters. Methods. We present a comprehensive analysis, including B and V
light curves and 11 high-resolution spectra, to verify the orbital period and
determine parameters. We use the stellar atmosphere code FASTWIND to obtain
stellar parameters and create templates for cross-correlation. We obtain a
model to fit the light and radial-velocity curves using the Wilson-Devinney
code iteratively and simultaneously. Results. The two components of GU Mon are
identical stars of spectral type B1 V, with the same mass and temperature. The
lightcurves are typical of an EW-type binary. The spectroscopic and photometric
analyses agree on a period of 0.896640 +- 0.000007 d. We determine a mass of
9.0 +- 0.6 Msun for each component and temperatures of 28 000 +- 2 000 K. Both
values are consistent with the spectral type. The two stars are overfilling
their respective Roche lobes, sharing a common envelope, and therefore the
orbit is synchronised and circularised. Conclusions. The GU Mon system has a
fill-out factor above 0.8, containing two dwarf B-type stars on the main
sequence. The two stars are in a very advanced stage of interaction, with their
extreme physical similarity likely due to the common envelope. The expected
evolution of such a system will very probably lead to a merger while still on
the main sequence.


title: Near-Optimal Sample Complexity Bounds for Circulant Binary Embedding

abstract:
  Binary embedding is the problem of mapping points from a high-dimensional
space to a Hamming cube in lower dimension while preserving pairwise distances.
An efficient way to accomplish this is to make use of fast embedding techniques
involving Fourier transform e.g.~circulant matrices. While binary embedding has
been studied extensively, theoretical results on fast binary embedding are
rather limited. In this work, we build upon the recent literature to obtain
significantly better dependencies on the problem parameters. A set of $N$
points in $\mathbb{R}^n$ can be properly embedded into the Hamming cube $\{\pm
1\}^k$ with $\delta$ distortion, by using $k\sim\delta^{-3}\log N$ samples
which is optimal in the number of points $N$ and compares well with the optimal
distortion dependency $\delta^{-2}$. Our optimal embedding result applies in
the regime $\log N\lesssim n^{1/3}$. Furthermore, if the looser condition $\log
N\lesssim \sqrt{n}$ holds, we show that all but an arbitrarily small fraction
of the points can be optimally embedded. We believe our techniques can be
useful to obtain improved guarantees for other nonlinear embedding problems.


title: Ergodicity and propagation of chaos for mean field kinetic particles

abstract:
  The trend to equilibrium in large time is studied for a large particle system
associated to a Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation in the presence of a convex
external potential, without smallness restriction on the interaction. From this
are derived uniform in time propagation of chaos estimates, which themselves
yield in turn an exponentially fast convergence for the semi-linear equation
itself. The approach is quantitative.


title: Uniform Approximation of a Maxwellian Thermostat by Finite Reservoirs

abstract:
  We study the evolution of a system of M particles in contact with a large
reservoir of N>>M particles. The reservoir is initially in equilibrium at
temperature T=1/\beta. The evolution of the system and reservoir is described
via a suitable Kac-style collision process. We show that for large N, this
evolution can be effectively described by replacing the reservoir with a
Maxwellian thermostat at temperature T. This description provides an
approximation that is uniform in time both in a suitable L^2 norm and in the
Gabetta-Toscani-Wennberg (GTW) distance.


title:
Inferring Fine-grained Details on User Activities and Home Location from
  Social Media: Detecting Drinking-While-Tweeting Patterns in Communities

abstract:
  Nearly all previous work on geo-locating latent states and activities from
social media confounds general discussions about activities, self-reports of
users participating in those activities at times in the past or future, and
self-reports made at the immediate time and place the activity occurs.
Activities, such as alcohol consumption, may occur at different places and
types of places, and it is important not only to detect the local regions where
these activities occur, but also to analyze the degree of participation in them
by local residents. In this paper, we develop new machine learning based
methods for fine-grained localization of activities and home locations from
Twitter data. We apply these methods to discover and compare alcohol
consumption patterns in a large urban area, New York City, and a more suburban
and rural area, Monroe County. We find positive correlations between the rate
of alcohol consumption reported among a community's Twitter users and the
density of alcohol outlets, demonstrating that the degree of correlation varies
significantly between urban and suburban areas. While our experiments are
focused on alcohol use, our methods for locating homes and distinguishing
temporally-specific self-reports are applicable to a broad range of behaviors
and latent states.


title: Absence of stable atomic structure in fluorinated graphene

abstract:
  Based on the results of first-principles calculations we demonstrate that
significant distortion of graphene sheets caused by adsorption of fluorine
atoms leads to the formation of metastable patterns for which the next step of
fluorination is considerably less energetically favorable. Existence of these
stable patterns oriented along the armchair direction makes possible the
synthesis of various CFx structures. The combination of strong distortion of
the nonfluorinated graphene sheet with the doping caused by the polar nature of
C-F bonds reduces the energy cost of migration and the energy of migration
barriers, making possible the migration of fluorine atoms on the graphene
surface as well as transformation of the shapes of fluorinated areas. The
decreasing energy cost of migration with increasing fluorine content also leads
to increasing numbers of single fluorine adatoms, which could be the source of
magnetic moments.

categories: cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.mes-hall physics.chem-ph physics.comp-ph


title: Exploring Context with Deep Structured models for Semantic Segmentation

abstract:
  State-of-the-art semantic image segmentation methods are mostly based on
training deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). In this work, we proffer to
improve semantic segmentation with the use of contextual information. In
particular, we explore `patch-patch' context and `patch-background' context in
deep CNNs. We formulate deep structured models by combining CNNs and
Conditional Random Fields (CRFs) for learning the patch-patch context between
image regions. Specifically, we formulate CNN-based pairwise potential
functions to capture semantic correlations between neighboring patches.
Efficient piecewise training of the proposed deep structured model is then
applied in order to avoid repeated expensive CRF inference during the course of
back propagation. For capturing the patch-background context, we show that a
network design with traditional multi-scale image inputs and sliding pyramid
pooling is very effective for improving performance. We perform comprehensive
evaluation of the proposed method. We achieve new state-of-the-art performance
on a number of challenging semantic segmentation datasets including $NYUDv2$,
$PASCAL$-$VOC2012$, $Cityscapes$, $PASCAL$-$Context$, $SUN$-$RGBD$,
$SIFT$-$flow$, and $KITTI$ datasets. Particularly, we report an
intersection-over-union score of $77.8$ on the $PASCAL$-$VOC2012$ dataset.


title: Odd structures are odd

abstract:
  By an odd structure we mean an algebraic structure in the category of graded
vector spaces whose structure operations have odd degrees. Particularly
important are odd modular operads which appear as Feynman transforms of modular
operads and, as such, describe some structures of string field theory.
  We will explain how odd structures are affected by the choice of the monoidal
structure of the underlying category. We will then present two `natural' and
`canonical' constructions of an odd modular endomorphism operad leading to
different results, only one being correct. This contradicts the generally
accepted belief that the systematic use of the Koszul sign convention leads to
correct signs.


title: Personalized Speech recognition on mobile devices

abstract:
  We describe a large vocabulary speech recognition system that is accurate,
has low latency, and yet has a small enough memory and computational footprint
to run faster than real-time on a Nexus 5 Android smartphone. We employ a
quantized Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) acoustic model trained with
connectionist temporal classification (CTC) to directly predict phoneme
targets, and further reduce its memory footprint using an SVD-based compression
scheme. Additionally, we minimize our memory footprint by using a single
language model for both dictation and voice command domains, constructed using
Bayesian interpolation. Finally, in order to properly handle device-specific
information, such as proper names and other context-dependent information, we
inject vocabulary items into the decoder graph and bias the language model
on-the-fly. Our system achieves 13.5% word error rate on an open-ended
dictation task, running with a median speed that is seven times faster than
real-time.


title:
From splashing to bouncing: the influence of viscosity on the impact of
  suspension droplets on a solid surface

abstract:
  We experimentally investigated the splashing of dense suspension droplets
impacting a solid surface, extending prior work to the regime where the
viscosity of the suspending liquid becomes a significant parameter. The overall
behavior can be described by a combination of two trends. The first one is that
the splashing becomes favored when the kinetic energy of individual particles
at the surface of a droplet overcomes the confinement produced by surface
tension. This is expressed by a particle-based Weber number $We_p$. The second
is that splashing is suppressed by increasing the viscosity of the solvent.
This is expressed by the Stokes number $St$, which influences the effective
coefficient of restitution of colliding particles. We developed a phase diagram
where the splashing onset is delineated as a function of both $We_p$ and $St$.
A surprising result occurs at very small Stokes number, where not only
splashing is suppressed but also plastic deformation of the droplet. This leads
to a situation where droplets can bounce back after impact, an observation we
are able to reproduce using discrete particle numerical simulations that take
into account viscous interaction between particles and elastic energy.


title: Differential inequalities on homogeneous toric bundles

abstract:
  We study a generalized Abreu Equation in $n$-dimensional polytopes and prove
some differential inequalities for homogeneous toric bundles.