title:
A fuzzy expert system for earthquake prediction, case study: the Zagros
  range

abstract:
  A methodology for the development of a fuzzy expert system (FES) with
application to earthquake prediction is presented. The idea is to reproduce the
performance of a human expert in earthquake prediction. To do this, at the
first step, rules provided by the human expert are used to generate a fuzzy
rule base. These rules are then fed into an inference engine to produce a fuzzy
inference system (FIS) and to infer the results. In this paper, we have used a
Sugeno type fuzzy inference system to build the FES. At the next step, the
adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is used to refine the FES
parameters and improve its performance. The proposed framework is then employed
to attain the performance of a human expert used to predict earthquakes in the
Zagros area based on the idea of coupled earthquakes. While the prediction
results are promising in parts of the testing set, the general performance
indicates that prediction methodology based on coupled earthquakes needs more
investigation and more complicated reasoning procedure to yield satisfactory
predictions.


title:
Edge Modes, Degeneracies, and Topological Numbers in Non-Hermitian
  Systems

abstract:
  We analyze chiral topological edge modes in a non-Hermitian variant of the 2D
Dirac equation. Such modes appear at interfaces between media with different
"masses" and/or signs of the "non-Hermitian charge". The existence of these
edge modes is intimately related to exceptional points of the bulk
Hamiltonians, i.e., degeneracies in the bulk spectra of the media. We find that
the topological edge modes can be divided into three families
("Hermitian-like", "non-Hermitian", and "mixed"), these are characterized by
two winding numbers, describing two distinct kinds of half-integer charges
carried by the exceptional points. We show that all the above types of
topological edge modes can be realized in honeycomb lattices of ring resonators
with asymmetric or gain/loss couplings.


title:
The origin of type-I profiles in cluster lenticulars: An interplay
  between ram pressure stripping and tidally-induced spiral migration

abstract:
  Using $N$-body+SPH simulations of galaxies falling into a cluster, we study
the evolution of their radial density profiles. When evolved in isolation,
galaxies develop a type~II (down-bending) profile. In the cluster, the
evolution of the profile depends on the minimum cluster-centric radius the
galaxy reaches, which controls the degree of ram pressure stripping. If the
galaxy falls to $\sim 50\%$ of the virial radius, then the profile remains
type~II, but if the galaxy reaches down to $\sim 20\%$ of the virial radius the
break weakens and the profile becomes more type~I like. The velocity
dispersions are only slightly increased in the cluster simulations compared
with the isolated galaxy; random motion therefore cannot be responsible for
redistributing material sufficiently to cause the change in the profile type.
Instead we find that the joint action of radial migration driven by
tidally-induced spirals and the outside-in quenching of star formation due to
ram pressure stripping alters the density profile. As a result, this model
predicts a flattening of the age profiles amongst cluster lenticulars with
type~I profiles, which can be observationally tested. %


title:
Assouad type dimensions for certain sponges with a weak coordinate
  ordering condition

abstract:
  Recently self-affine sponges have been shown to be interesting
counter-examples to several previously open problems. One class of recently
studied sponges are Bedford-McMullen sponges with a weak coordinate ordering
condition, that is, sponges with several coordinates having the same
contraction ratio. The Assouad type dimensions of such sets cannot be
calculated using the same formula as the regular Bedford-McMullen sponges. We
calculate the Assouad type dimensions for such sponges and the more general
Lalley-Gatzouras sponges with a weak coordinate ordering condition, discussing
some of their more subtle details along the way.


title: Predicting the dynamics of 2d objects with a deep residual network

abstract:
  We investigate how a residual network can learn to predict the dynamics of
interacting shapes purely as an image-to-image regression task.
  With a simple 2d physics simulator, we generate short sequences composed of
rectangles put in motion by applying a pulling force at a point picked at
random. The network is trained with a quadratic loss to predict the image of
the resulting configuration, given the image of the starting configuration and
an image indicating the point of grasping.
  Experiments show that the network learns to predict accurately the resulting
image, which implies in particular that (1) it segments rectangles as distinct
components, (2) it infers which one contains the grasping point, (3) it models
properly the dynamic of a single rectangle, including the torque, (4) it
detects and handles collisions to some extent, and (5) it re-synthesizes
properly the entire scene with displaced rectangles.


title: Nonexistence of twists and surgeries generating exotic 4-manifolds

abstract:
  It is well known that for any exotic pair of simply connected closed oriented
4-manifolds, one is obtained from the other by twisting a compact contractible
submanifold via an involution on the boundary. By contrast, here we show that
for each positive integer $n$, there exists a simply connected closed oriented
4-manifold $X$ such that, for any compact (not necessarily connected)
codimension zero submanifold $W$ with $b_1(\partial W)<n$, the set of all
smooth structures on $X$ cannot be generated from $X$ by twisting $W$ and
varying the gluing map. As a corollary, we show that there exists no
`universal' compact 4-manifold $W$ such that, for any simply connected closed
4-manifold $X$, the set of all smooth structures on $X$ is generated from a
4-manifold by twisting a fixed embedded copy of $W$ and varying the gluing map.
Moreover, we give similar results for surgeries.


title:
Strong, anisotropic anomalous Hall effect and spin Hall effect in chiral
  antiferromagnetic compounds Mn$_3X$ ($X$ = Ge, Sn, Ga, Ir, Rh and Pt)

abstract:
  We have carried out a comprehensive study of the intrinsic anomalous Hall
effect and spin Hall effect of several chiral antiferromagnetic compounds,
Mn$_3X$ ($X$ = Ge, Sn, Ga, Ir, Rh and Pt) by $ab~initio$ band structure and
Berry phase calculations. These studies reveal large and anisotropic values of
both the intrinsic anomalous Hall effect and spin Hall effect. The Mn$_3X$
materials exhibit a non-collinear antiferromagnetic order which, to avoid
geometrical frustration, forms planes of Mn moments that are arranged in a
Kagome-type lattice. With respect to these Kagome planes, we find that both the
anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) and the spin Hall conductivity (SHC) are
quite anisotropic for any of these materials. Based on our calculations, we
propose how to maximize AHC and SHC for different materials. The band
structures and corresponding electron filling, that we show are essential to
determine the AHC and SHC, are compared for these different compounds. We point
out that Mn$_3$Ga shows a large SHC of about 600 $(\hbar/e)(\Omega\cdot
cm)^{-1}$. Our work provides insights into the realization of strong anomalous
Hall effects and spin Hall effects in chiral antiferromagetic materials.


title: Coulomb matrix elements in multi-orbital Hubbard models

abstract:
  Coulomb matrix elements are needed in all studies in solid-state theory that
are based on Hubbard-type multi-orbital models. Due to symmetries, the matrix
elements are not independent. We determine a set of independent Coulomb
parameters for a $d$-shell and a $f$-shell and all point groups with up to $16$
elements ($O_h$, $O$, $T_d$, $T_h$, $D_{6h}$, and $D_{4h}$). Furthermore, we
express all other matrix elements as a function of the independent Coulomb
parameters. Apart from the solution of the general point-group problem we
investigate in detail the spherical approximation and first-order corrections
to the spherical approximation.


title: Coulomb-blockade and Pauli-blockade magnetometry

abstract:
  Scanning-probe magnetometry is a valuable experimental tool to investigate
magnetic phenomena at the micro- and nanoscale. We theoretically analyze the
possibility of measuring magnetic fields via the electrical current flowing
through quantum dots. We characterize the shot-noise-limited magnetic-field
sensitivity of two devices: a single dot in the Coulomb blockade regime, and a
double dot in the Pauli blockade regime. Constructing such magnetometers using
carbon nanotube quantum dots would benefit from the large, strongly anisotropic
and controllable g tensors, the low abundance of nuclear spins, and the small
detection volume allowing for nanoscale spatial resolution; we estimate that a
sensitivity below $1 \, \mu\text{T}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ can be achieved with this
material. As quantum dots have already proven to be useful as scanning-probe
electrometers, our proposal highlights their potential as hybrid sensors having
in situ switching capability between electrical and magnetic sensing.


title: Dynamics of coupled oscillator systems in presence of a local potential

abstract:
  We consider a long-range model of coupled phase-only oscillators subject to a
local potential and evolving in presence of thermal noise. The model is a
non-trivial generalization of the celebrated Kuramoto model of collective
synchronization. We demonstrate by exact results and numerics a surprisingly
rich long-time behavior, in which the system settles into either a stationary
state that could be in or out of equilibrium and supports either global
synchrony or absence of it, or, in a time-periodic synchronized state. The
system shows both continuous and discontinuous phase transitions, as well as an
interesting reentrant transition in which the system successively loses and
gains synchrony on steady increase of the relevant tuning parameter.


title:
Multiple rings in the transition disk and companion candidates around
  RXJ1615.3-3255. High contrast imaging with VLT/SPHERE

abstract:
  We search for signs of ongoing planet-disk interaction and study the
distribution of small grains at the surface of the transition disk around
RXJ1615.3-3255 (RX J1615). We observed RXJ1615 with VLT/SPHERE. We image the
disk for the first time in scattered light and detect two arcs, two rings, a
gap and an inner disk with marginal evidence for an inner cavity. The shapes of
the arcs suggest that they probably are segments of full rings. Ellipse fitting
for the two rings and inner disk yield a disk inclination i = 47 \pm 2 degrees
and find semi-major axes of 1.50 \pm 0.01" (278 au), 1.06 \pm 0.01" (196 au)
and 0.30 \pm 0.01" (56 au), respectively. We determine the scattering surface
height above the midplane, based on the projected ring center offsets. Nine
point sources are detected between 2.1" and 8.0" separation and considered as
companion candidates. With NACO data we recover four of the nine point sources,
which we determine not to be co-moving, and therefore unbound to the system. We
present the first detection of the transition disk of RXJ1615 in scattered
light. The height of the rings indicate limited flaring of the disk surface,
which enables partial self-shadowing in the disk. The outermost arc either
traces the bottom of the disk or it is another ring with semi-major axis >
2.35" (435 au). We explore both scenarios, extrapolating the complete shape of
the feature, which will allow to distinguish between the two in future
observations. The most interesting scenario, where the arc traces the bottom of
the outer ring, requires the disk truncated at r ~ 360 au. The closest
companion candidate, if indeed orbiting the disk at 540 au, would then be the
most likely cause for such truncation. This companion candidate, as well as the
remaining four, require follow up observations to determine if they are bound
to the system.


title: Projective Wellorders and the Nonstationary Ideal

abstract:
  We show that, under the assumption of the existence of $M_1^{\#}$, there
exists a model on which the restricted nonstationary ideal $\hbox{NS}
\upharpoonright A$ is $\aleph_2$-saturated, for $A$ a stationary co-stationary
subset of $\omega_1$, while the full nonstationary ideal $\hbox{NS}$ can be
made $\Delta_1$ definable with $K_{\omega_1}$ as a parameter. Further we show,
again under the assumption of the existence of $M_1^{\#}$ that there is a model
of set theory such that $\hbox{NS}$ is $\aleph_2$-saturated and such that there
is lightface $\Sigma^1_4$-definable well-order on the reals. This result is
optimal in the presence of a measurable cardinal.


title: Metasurface polarization splitter

abstract:
  Polarization beam splitters, devices that separate the two orthogonal
polarizations of light into different propagation directions, are one of the
most ubiquitous optical elements. However, traditionally polarization splitters
rely on bulky optical materials, while emerging optoelectronic and photonic
circuits require compact, chip-scale polarization splitters. Here we show that
a subwavelength rectangular lattice of cylindrical silicon Mie resonators
functions as a polarization splitter, efficiently reflecting one polarization
while transmitting the other. We show that the polarization splitting arises
from the anisotropic permittivity and permeability of the metasurface due to
the two-fold rotational symmetry of the rectangular unit cell. The high
polarization efficiency, low loss, and low profile make these metasurface
polarization splitters ideally suited for monolithic integration with
optoelectronic and photonic circuits.


title:
A resource dependent protein synthesis model for evaluating synthetic
  circuits

abstract:
  Reliable in-silico design of synthetic gene networks necessitates novel
approaches to model the process of protein synthesis under the influence of
limited resources. We present such a novel protein synthesis model which
originates from the Ribosome Flow Model and among other things describes the
movement of RNA-polymerase and Ribosomes on mRNA and DNA templates
respectively. By analyzing the convergence properties of this model based upon
geometric considerations we present additional insights into the dynamic
mechanisms of the process of protein synthesis. Further, we exemplarily show
how this model can be used to evaluate the performance of synthetic gene
circuits under different loading scenarios.


title:
Generalized Online Transfer Learning for Climate Control in Residential
  Buildings

abstract:
  This paper presents an online transfer learning framework for improving
temperature predictions in residential buildings. In transfer learning,
prediction models trained under a set of available data from a target domain
(e.g., house with limited data) can be improved through the use of data
generated from similar source domains (e.g., houses with rich data). Given also
the need for prediction models that can be trained online (e.g., as part of a
model-predictive-control implementation), this paper introduces the generalized
online transfer learning algorithm (GOTL). It employs a weighted combination of
the available predictors (i.e., the target and source predictors) and
guarantees convergence to the best weighted predictor. Furthermore, the use of
Transfer Component Analysis (TCA) allows for using more than a single source
domains, since it may facilitate the fit of a single model on more than one
source domains (houses). This allows GOTL to transfer knowledge from more than
one source domains. We further validate our results through experiments in
climate control for residential buildings and show that GOTL may lead to
non-negligible energy savings for given comfort levels.


title: Barak-Erd\H{o}s graphs and the infinite-bin model

abstract:
  A Barak-Erd\H{o}s graph is a directed acyclic version of the
Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graph. It is obtained by performing independent bond
percolation with parameter $p$ on the complete graph with vertices
$\{1,...,n\}$, in which the edge between two vertices $i<j$ is directed from
$i$ to $j$. The length of the longest path in this graph grows linearly with
the number of vertices, at rate $C(p)$. In this article, we use a coupling
between Barak-Erd\H{o}s graphs and infinite-bin models to provide explicit
estimates on $C(p)$. More precisely, we prove that the front of an infinite-bin
model grows at linear speed, and that this speed can be obtained as the sum of
a series. Using these results, we prove the analyticity of $C$ for $p >1/2$,
and compute its power series expansion. We also obtain the first two terms of
the asymptotic expansion of $C$ as $p \to 0$, using a coupling with branching
random walks.


title:
Arithmetic progressions of three prime numbers with two primes of the
  form $\mathbf{p=x^2+y^2+1}$

abstract:
  In the present paper we prove that there exist infinitely many arithmetic
progressions of three different primes $p_1,p_2,p_3=2p_2-p_1$ such that
$p_1=x_1^2 + y_1^2 +1$, $p_2=x_2^2 + y_2^2 +1$.


title: Rigidity of Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds

abstract:
  We prove that Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds of simple type are rigid, and that
any line bundle on an Oeljeklaus-Toma manifold is flat.


title: Is state-dependent valuation more adaptive than simpler rules?

abstract:
  McNamara, Trimmer, and Houston (2012) claim to provide an explanation of
certain systematic deviations from rational behavior using a mechanism that
could arise through natural selection. We provide an arguably much simpler
mechanism in terms of computational limitations, that performs better in the
environment described by McNamara, Trimmer, and Houston (2012). To argue
convincingly that animals' use of state-dependent valuation is adaptive and is
likely to be selected for by natural selection, one must argue that, in some
sense, it is a better approach than the simple strategies that we propose.


title:
How eclipse time variations, eclipse duration variations, and radial
  velocities can reveal S-type planets in close eclipsing binaries

abstract:
  While about a dozen transiting planets have been found in wide orbits around
an inner, close stellar binary (so-called "P-type planets"), no planet has yet
been detected orbiting only one star (a so-called "S-type planet") in an
eclipsing binary. This is despite a large number of eclipsing binary systems
discovered with the Kepler telescope. Here we propose a new detection method
for these S-type planets, which uses a correlation between the stellar radial
velocities (RVs), eclipse timing variations (ETVs), and eclipse duration
variations (EDVs). We test the capability of this technique by simulating a
realistic benchmark system and demonstrate its detectability with existing
high-accuracy RV and photometry instruments. We illustrate that, with a small
number of RV observations, the RV-ETV diagrams allows us to distinguish between
prograde and retrograde planetary orbits and also the planetary mass can be
estimated if the stellar cross-correlation functions can be disentangled. We
also identify a new (though minimal) contribution of S-type planets to the
Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in eclipsing stellar binaries. We finally explore
possible detection of exomoons around transiting luminous giant planets and
find that the precision required to detect moons in the RV curves of their host
planets is of the order of ${\rm cm\,s}^{-1}$ and therefore not accessible with
current instruments.


title: On a variant of Schanuel conjecture for the Carlitz exponential

abstract:
  We introduce and discuss a variant of Schanuel conjecture in the framework of
the Carlitz exponential function over Tate algebras and allied functions.
Another purpose of the present paper is to widen the horizons of possible
investigations in transcendence and algebraic independence in positive
characteristic.


title: Pappus Theorem, Schwartz Representations and Anosov Representations

abstract:
  In the paper "Pappus's theorem and the modular group", R. Schwartz
constructed a 2-dimensional family of faithful representations $\rho_\Theta$ of
the modular group $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ into the group $\mathscr{G}$ of
projective symmetries of the projective plane via Pappus Theorem. The image of
the unique index 2 subgroup $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})_o$ of
$\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ under each representation $\rho_\Theta$ is in the
subgroup $\mathrm{PGL}(3,\mathbb{R})$ of $\mathscr{G}$ and preserves a
topological circle in the flag variety, but $\rho_\Theta$ is not Anosov. In her
PhD Thesis, V. P. Val\'erio elucidated the Anosov-like feature of Schwartz
representations: For every $\rho_\Theta$, there exists a 1-dimensional family
of Anosov representations $\rho^\varepsilon_{\Theta}$ of
$\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})_o$ into $\mathrm{PGL}(3,\mathbb{R})$ whose limit is
the restriction of $\rho_\Theta$ to $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})_o$. In this
paper, we improve her work: For each $\rho_\Theta$, we build a 2-dimensional
family of Anosov representations of $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})_o$ into
$\mathrm{PGL}(3,\mathbb{R})$ containing $\rho^\varepsilon_{\Theta}$ and a
1-dimensional subfamily of which can extend to representations of
$\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ into $\mathscr{G}$. Schwartz representations are
therefore, in a sense, the limits of Anosov representations of
$\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ into $\mathscr{G}$.


title: Extensions of Scott's Graph Model and Kleene's Second Algebra

abstract:
  We use a way to extend partial combinatory algebras (pcas) by forcing them to
represent certain functions. In the case of Scott's Graph model, equality is
computable relative to the complement function. However, the converse is not
true. This creates a hierarchy of pcas which relates to similar structures of
extensions on other pcas. We study one such structure on Kleene's second model
and one on a pca equivalent but not isomorphic to it. For the recursively
enumerable sub pca of the Graph model, results differ as we can compute the
(partial) complement function using the equality.


title: Time value of extra information against its timely value

abstract:
  We introduce an interactive market setup with sequential auctions where
agents receive variegated signals with a known deadline. The effects of
differential information and mutual learning on the allocation of overall
profit \& loss (P\&L) and the pace of price discovery are analysed. We
characterise the signal-based expected P\&L of agents based on explicit
formulae for the directional quality of the trading signal, and study the
optimal trading pattern using dynamic programming and provided that there is a
common anticipation by agents of gains from trade. We find evidence in favour
of exploiting new information whenever it arrives, and market efficiency. Brief
extensions of the problem to risk-adjusted gains as well as risk-averse agents
are provided. We then introduce the `information-adjusted risk premium' and
recover the signal-based equilibrium price as the weighted average of the
signal-based individual prices with respect to the risk-aversion levels.


title: A Gibbs Conditional theorem under extreme deviation

abstract:
  We explore some properties of the conditional distribution of an i.i.d.
sample under large exceedances of its sum. Thresholds for the asymptotic
independance of the summands are observed, in contrast with the classical case
when the conditioning event is in the range of a large deviation. This paper is
an extension to [7]. Tools include a new Edgeworth expansion adapted to
specific triangular arrays where the rows are generated by tilted distribution
with diverging parameters, together with some Abelian type results.


title:
Relaxation of charge in monolayer graphene: fast non-linear diffusion vs
  Coulomb effects

abstract:
  Pristine monolayer graphene exhibits very poor screening because the density
of states vanishes at the Dirac point. As a result, charge relaxation is
controlled by the effects of zero-point motion (rather than by the Coulomb
interaction) over a wide range of parameters. Combined with the fact that
graphene possesses finite intrinsic conductivity, this leads to a regime of
relaxation described by a non-linear diffusion equation with a diffusion
coefficient that diverges at zero charge density. Some consequences of this
fast diffusion are self-similar superdiffusive regimes of relaxation, the
development of a charge depleted region at the interface between electron- and
hole-rich regions, and finite extinction times for periodic charge profiles.


title: Dissipation in unsteady turbulence

abstract:
  Recent experiments and simulations have shown that unsteady turbulent flows,
before reaching a dynamic equilibrium state, display a universal behaviour. We
show that the observed universal non-equilibrium scaling can be explained using
a non-equilibrium correction of Kolmogorov's energy spectrum. Given the
universality of the experimental and numerical observations, the ideas
presented here lay the foundation for the modeling of a wide class of unsteady
turbulent flows.


title:
Approximating partition functions of bounded-degree Boolean counting
  Constraint Satisfaction Problems

abstract:
  We study the complexity of approximate counting Constraint Satisfaction
Problems (#CSPs) in a bounded degree setting. Specifically, given a Boolean
constraint language $\Gamma$ and a degree bound $\Delta$, we study the
complexity of #CSP$_\Delta(\Gamma)$, which is the problem of counting
satisfying assignments to CSP instances with constraints from $\Gamma$ and
whose variables can appear at most $\Delta$ times. Our main result shows that:
(i) if every function in $\Gamma$ is affine, then #CSP$_\Delta(\Gamma)$ is in
FP for all $\Delta$, (ii) otherwise, if every function in $\Gamma$ is in a
class called IM$_2$, then for all sufficiently large $\Delta$,
#CSP$_\Delta(\Gamma)$ is equivalent under approximation-preserving (AP)
reductions to the counting problem #BIS (the problem of counting independent
sets in bipartite graphs) (iii) otherwise, for all sufficiently large $\Delta$,
it is NP-hard to approximate the number of satisfying assignments of an
instance of #CSP$_\Delta(\Gamma)$, even within an exponential factor. Our
result extends previous results, which apply only in the so-called
"conservative" case.


title: Estimation of linear operators from scattered impulse responses

abstract:
  We provide a new estimator of integral operators with smooth kernels,
obtained from a set of scattered and noisy impulse responses. The proposed
approach relies on the formalism of smoothing in reproducing kernel Hilbert
spaces and on the choice of an appropriate regularization term that takes the
smoothness of the operator into account. It is numerically tractable in very
large dimensions. We study the estimator's robustness to noise and analyze its
approximation properties with respect to the size and the geometry of the
dataset. In addition, we show minimax optimality of the proposed estimator.


title:
Stroke Sequence-Dependent Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Online
  Handwritten Chinese Character Recognition

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a novel model, named Stroke Sequence-dependent Deep
Convolutional Neural Network (SSDCNN), using the stroke sequence information
and eight-directional features for Online Handwritten Chinese Character
Recognition (OLHCCR). On one hand, SSDCNN can learn the representation of
Online Handwritten Chinese Character (OLHCC) by incorporating the natural
sequence information of the strokes. On the other hand, SSDCNN can incorporate
eight-directional features in a natural way. In order to train SSDCNN, we
divide the process of training into two stages: 1) The training data is used to
pre-train the whole architecture until the performance tends to converge. 2)
Fully-connected neural network which is used to combine the stroke
sequence-dependent representation with eight-directional features and softmax
layer are further trained. Experiments were conducted on the OLHCCR competition
tasks of ICDAR 2013. Results show that, SSDCNN can reduce the recognition error
by 50\% (5.13\% vs 2.56\%) compared to the model which only use
eight-directional features. The proposed SSDCNN achieves 97.44\% accuracy which
reduces the recognition error by about 1.9\% compared with the best submitted
system on ICDAR2013 competition. These results indicate that SSDCNN can exploit
the stroke sequence information to learn high-quality representation of OLHCC.
It also shows that the learnt representation and the classical
eight-directional features complement each other within the SSDCNN
architecture.


title:
Exponential Dichotomy for Hyperbolic Systems with Periodic Boundary
  Conditions

abstract:
  We investigate evolution families generated by general linear first-order
hyperbolic systems in one space dimension with periodic boundary conditions. We
state explicit conditions on the coefficient functions that are sufficient for
the existence of exponential dichotomies on $\R$ in the space of continuous
periodic functions.


title:
Role of direct exchange and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in
  magnetic properties of graphene derivatives: C$_2$F and C$_2$H

abstract:
  According to the Lieb's theorem the ferromagnetic interaction in
graphene-based materials with bipartite lattice is a result of disbalance
between the number of sites available for $p_z$ electrons in different
sublattices. Here, we report on another mechanism of the ferromagnetism in
functionalized graphene that is the direct exchange interaction between spin
orbitals. By the example of the single-side semihydrogenated (C$_2$H) and
semifluorinated (C$_2$F) graphene we show that such a coupling can partially or
even fully compensate antiferromagnetic character of indirect exchange
interactions reported earlier [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 88}, 081405(R) (2013)]. As a
result, C$_2$H is found to be a two-dimensional material with the isotropic
ferromagnetic interaction and negligibly small magnetic anisotropy, which
prevents the formation of the long-range magnetic order at finite temperature
in accordance with the Mermin-Wagner theorem. This gives a rare example of a
system where direct exchange interactions play a crucial role in determining a
magnetic structure. In turn, C$_2$F is found to be at the threshold of the
antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic instability, which in combination with the
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can lead to a skyrmion state.


title: Higher-order recoil corrections for triplet states of the helium atom

abstract:
  Nuclear recoil corrections of order $\alpha^6\,m^2/M$ are calculated for the
lowest-lying triplet states of the helium atom. It improves the theoretical
prediction for the isotope shift of the $2^3S-2^3P$ transition energy and
influences the determination of the ${}^3\textrm{He}-{}^4\textrm{He}$ nuclear
charge radii difference. This calculation is a step forward on the way towards
the direct determination of the charge radius of the helium nucleus from
spectroscopic measurements.


title: On the radio dichotomy of active galactic nuclei

abstract:
  It is still a mystery why only a small fraction of active galactic nuclei
(AGNs) contain relativistic jets. Strong magnetic field is a necessary
ingredient for jet formation, however, the advection of the external field in a
geometrically thin disk is inefficient. The gas with a small angular velocity
may fall from the Bondi radius $R_{\rm B}$ nearly freely to the circularization
radius $R_{\rm c}$, and a thin accretion disk is formed within $R_{\rm c}$. We
suggest that the external magnetic field is substantially enhanced in this
region, and the magnetic field at $R_{\rm c}$ can be sufficiently strong to
drive outflows from the disk if the angular velocity of the gas is low at
$R_{\rm B}$. The magnetic field is efficiently dragged in the disk, because
most angular momentum of the disk is removed by the outflows that leads to a
significantly high radial velocity. The strong magnetic field formed in this
way may accelerate jets in the region near the black hole either by the
Blandford-Payne or/and Blandford-Znajek mechanisms. We suggest that the radio
dichotomy of AGNs predominantly originates from the angular velocity of the
circumnuclear gas. An AGN will appear as a radio-loud (RL) one if the angular
velocity of the circumnuclear gas is lower than a critical value at the Bondi
radius, otherwise, it will appear as a radio-quiet (RQ) AGN. This is supported
by the observations that RL nuclei are invariably hosted by core galaxies. Our
model suggests that the mass growth of the black holes in RL quasars is much
faster than that in RQ quasars with the same luminosity, which is consistent
with the fact that the massive black holes in RL quasars are systematically a
few times heavier than those in their RQ counterparts.


title: Video Fill in the Blank with Merging LSTMs

abstract:
  Given a video and its incomplete textural description with missing words, the
Video-Fill-in-the-Blank (ViFitB) task is to automatically find the missing
word. The contextual information of the sentences are important to infer the
missing words; the visual cues are even more crucial to get a more accurate
inference. In this paper, we presents a new method which intuitively takes
advantage of the structure of the sentences and employs merging LSTMs (to merge
two LSTMs) to tackle the problem with embedded textural and visual cues. In the
experiments, we have demonstrated the superior performance of the proposed
method on the challenging "Movie Fill-in-the-Blank" dataset.


title:
Combining symmetry breaking and restoration with configuration
  interaction: a highly accurate many-body scheme applied to the pairing
  Hamiltonian

abstract:
  Background: Ab initio many-body methods have been developed over the past ten
years to address mid-mass nuclei... As progress in the design of inter-nucleon
interactions is made, further efforts must be made to tailor many-body methods.
  Methods: We formulate a truncated configuration interaction method that
consists of diagonalizing the Hamiltonian in a highly truncated subspace of the
total N-body Hilbert space. The reduced Hilbert space is generated via the
particle-number projected BCS state along with projected seniority-zero two and
four quasi-particle excitations. Furthermore, the extent by which the
underlying BCS state breaks U(1) symmetry is optimized in presence of the
projected two and four quasi-particle excitations... The quality of the newly
designed method is tested against exact solutions of the so-called attractive
pairing Hamiltonian problem.
  Results: By construction, the method reproduce exact results for N=2 and N=4.
For N=(8,16,20) the error on the ground-state correlation energy is less than
(0.006, 0.1, 0.15) % across the entire range of inter-nucleon coupling defining
the pairing Hamiltonian and driving the normal-to-superfluid quantum phase
transition. The presently proposed method offers the advantage to automatically
access the low-lying spectroscopy, which it does with high accuracy.
  Conclusions: The numerical cost of the newly designed variational method is
polynomial (N$^6$) in system size. It achieves an unprecedented accuracy on the
ground-state correlation energy, effective pairing gap and one-body entropy as
well as on the excitation energy of low-lying states of the attractive pairing
Hamiltonian. This constitutes a strong enough motivation to envision its
application to realistic nuclear Hamiltonians in view of providing a
complementary, accurate and versatile ab initio description of mid-mass
open-shell nuclei in the future.


title: An Efficient and Robust Social Network De-anonymization Attack

abstract:
  Releasing connection data from social networking services can pose a
significant threat to user privacy. In our work, we consider structural social
network de-anonymization attacks, which are used when a malicious party uses
connections in a public or other identified network to re-identify users in an
anonymized social network release that he obtained previously.
  In this paper we design and evaluate a novel social de-anonymization attack.
In particular, we argue that the similarity function used to re-identify nodes
is a key component of such attacks, and we design a novel measure tailored for
social networks. We incorporate this measure in an attack called Bumblebee. We
evaluate Bumblebee in depth, and show that it significantly outperforms the
state-of-the-art, for example it has higher re-identification rates with high
precision, robustness against noise, and also has better error control.


title: An arbiter PUF secured by remote random reconfigurations of an FPGA

abstract:
  We present a practical and highly secure method for the authentication of
chips based on a new concept for implementing strong Physical Unclonable
Function (PUF) on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). Its qualitatively
novel feature is a remote reconfiguration in which the delay stages of the PUF
are arranged to a random pattern within a subset of the FPGA's gates. Before
the reconfiguration is performed during authentication the PUF simply does not
exist. Hence even if an attacker has the chip under control previously she can
gain no useful information about the PUF. This feature, together with a strict
renunciation of any error correction and challenge selection criteria that
depend on individual properties of the PUF that goes into the field make our
strong PUF construction immune to all machine learning attacks presented in the
literature. More sophisticated attacks on our strong-PUF construction will be
difficult, because they require the attacker to learn or directly measure the
properties of the complete FPGA. A fully functional reference implementation
for a secure "chip biometrics" is presented. We remotely configure ten 64-stage
arbiter PUFs out of 1428 lookup tables within a time of 25 seconds and then
receive one "fingerprint" from each PUF within 1 msec.


title: The Wigner function and short-range correlations in the deuteron

abstract:
  $\textbf{Background:}$ The deuteron shows the essential features of
short-range correlations found in all nuclei. Experimental observables related
to short-range correlations are connected with the high-momentum components of
one- and two-body momentum distributions. An intuitive understanding of
short-range correlations is provided by the suppression of the two-body density
in coordinate space at small distances.
  $\textbf{Purpose:}$ The Wigner function provides a quasi-probability
distribution in phase-space that allows to investigate short-range correlations
as a function of distance and relative momentum in a unified picture.
  $\textbf{Method:}$ The Wigner function for the deuteron is calculated for
bare and SRG evolved AV8' and N3LO interactions and investigated as a function
of distance, relative momentum and angular orientation. Partial momentum and
coordinate space distributions are obtained by integrating over parts of phase
space.
  $\textbf{Results:}$ The Wigner function shows a pronounced low-momentum peak
that is not affected by short-range correlations and a high-momentum shoulder
at small distances that reflects short-range correlations. Oscillations of the
Wigner function are related to interference of low- and high-momentum
components.
  $\textbf{Conclusions:}$ Short-range correlations are a truly
quantum-mechanical phenomenon caused by interference of low- and high-momentum
components in the wave function.


title:
Explicit constructions and properties of generalized shift-invariant
  systems in $L^2(\mathbb{R})$

abstract:
  Generalized shift-invariant (GSI) systems, originally introduced by
Hern\'andez, Labate & Weiss and Ron & Shen, provide a common frame work for
analysis of Gabor systems, wavelet systems, wave packet systems, and other
types of structured function systems. In this paper we analyze three important
aspects of such systems. First, in contrast to the known cases of Gabor frames
and wavelet frames, we show that for a GSI system forming a frame, the
Calder\'on sum is not necessarily bounded by the lower frame bound. We identify
a technical condition implying that the Calder\'on sum is bounded by the lower
frame bound and show that under a weak assumption the condition is equivalent
with the local integrability condition introduced by Hern\'andez et al. Second,
we provide explicit and general constructions of frames and dual pairs of
frames having the GSI-structure. In particular, the setup applies to wave
packet systems and in contrast to the constructions in the literature, these
constructions are not based on characteristic functions in the Fourier domain.
Third, our results provide insight into the local integrability condition
(LIC).


title: Weiss oscillations in graphene with a modulated height profile

abstract:
  We study the electronic transport properties of a monolayer graphene with a
one-dimensional modulated height profile caused, for instance, by substrate
ondulations. We show that the combined effect of the resulting strain fields
induce modulated scalar and vector potentials that give rise to Weiss
oscillations in the magnetoconductivity. We also find that similar effects can
be obtained by applying a parallel magnetic field to the graphene-substrate
interface. The parameters of an experimental set-up for a physical realization
of these findings in graphene systems are discussed.


title: Truthful Mechanisms for Matching and Clustering in an Ordinal World

abstract:
  We study truthful mechanisms for matching and related problems in a partial
information setting, where the agents' true utilities are hidden, and the
algorithm only has access to ordinal preference information. Our model is
motivated by the fact that in many settings, agents cannot express the
numerical values of their utility for different outcomes, but are still able to
rank the outcomes in their order of preference. Specifically, we study problems
where the ground truth exists in the form of a weighted graph of agent
utilities, but the algorithm can only elicit the agents' private information in
the form of a preference ordering for each agent induced by the underlying
weights. Against this backdrop, we design truthful algorithms to approximate
the true optimum solution with respect to the hidden weights. Our techniques
yield universally truthful algorithms for a number of graph problems: a
1.76-approximation algorithm for Max-Weight Matching, 2-approximation algorithm
for Max k-matching, a 6-approximation algorithm for Densest k-subgraph, and a
2-approximation algorithm for Max Traveling Salesman as long as the hidden
weights constitute a metric. We also provide improved approximation algorithms
for such problems when the agents are not able to lie about their preferences.
Our results are the first non-trivial truthful approximation algorithms for
these problems, and indicate that in many situations, we can design robust
algorithms even when the agents may lie and only provide ordinal information
instead of precise utilities.


title: Freezing similarity solutions in multi-dimensional Burgers' Equation

abstract:
  The topic of this paper are similarity solutions occurring in
multi-dimensional Burgers' equation. We present a simple derivation of the
symmetries appearing in a family of generalizations of Burgers' equation in
$d$-space dimensions. These symmetries we use to derive an equivalent partial
differential algebraic equation (freezing system) that allows us to do long
time simulations and obtain good approximations of similarity solutions by
direct forward simulation. The method also allows us without further effort to
observe meta-stable behavior near N-wave-like patterns.


title: Pricing to Maximize Revenue and Welfare Simultaneously in Large Markets

abstract:
  We study large markets with a single seller which can produce many types of
goods, and many multi-minded buyers. The seller chooses posted prices for its
many items, and the buyers purchase bundles to maximize their utility. For this
setting, we consider the following questions: What fraction of the optimum
social welfare does a revenue maximizing solution achieve? Are there pricing
mechanisms which achieve both good revenue and good welfare simultaneously? To
address these questions, we give efficient pricing schemes which are guaranteed
to result in both good revenue and welfare, as long as the buyer valuations for
the goods they desire have a nice (although reasonable) structure, e.g., that
the aggregate buyer demand has a monotone hazard rate or is not too convex. We
also show that our pricing schemes have implications for any pricing which
achieves high revenue: specifically that even if the seller cares only about
revenue, they can still ensure that their prices result in good social welfare
without sacrificing profit. Our results holds for general multi-minded buyers
in large markets; we also provide improved guarantees for the important special
case of unit-demand buyers.


title: Ultra-high bandwidth quantum secured data transmission

abstract:
  Quantum key distribution (QKD) provides an attractive means for securing
communications in optical fibre networks. However, deployment of the technology
has been hampered by the frequent need for dedicated dark fibres to segregate
the very weak quantum signals from conventional traffic. Up until now the
coexistence of QKD with data has been limited to bandwidths that are orders of
magnitude below those commonly employed in fibre optic communication networks.
Using an optimised wavelength divisional multiplexing scheme, we transport QKD
and the prevalent 100 Gb/s data format in the forward direction over the same
fibre for the first time. We show a full quantum encryption system operating
with a bandwidth of 200 Gb/s over a 100 km fibre. Exploring the ultimate limits
of the technology by experimental measurements of the Raman noise, we
demonstrate it is feasible to combine QKD with 10 Tb/s of data over a 50 km
link. These results suggest it will be possible to integrate QKD and other
quantum photonic technologies into high bandwidth data communication
infrastructures, thereby allowing their widespread deployment.


title: Improved Knowledge Base Completion by Path-Augmented TransR Model

abstract:
  Knowledge base completion aims to infer new relations from existing
information. In this paper, we propose path-augmented TransR (PTransR) model to
improve the accuracy of link prediction. In our approach, we base PTransR model
on TransR, which is the best one-hop model at present. Then we regularize
TransR with information of relation paths. In our experiment, we evaluate
PTransR on the task of entity prediction. Experimental results show that
PTransR outperforms previous models.


title:
Using asymmetry observables to discover and distinguish Z' signals in
  top pair production with the lepton-plus-jets final state at the LHC

abstract:
  We study the sensitivity of top pair production with six-fermion decay at the
LHC to the presence and nature of an underlying Z' boson, accounting for full
tree-level Standard Model ttbar interference, with all intermediate particles
allowed off-shell. We concentrate on the lepton-plus-jets final state and
simulate experimental conditions, including kinematic requirements and top
quark pair reconstruction in the presence of missing transverse energy and
combinatorial ambiguity in jet-top assignment. We focus on the differential
mass spectra of the cross section and asymmetry observables, especially
demonstrating the use of the latter in probing the coupling structure of a new
neutral resonance, in addition to cases in which the asymmetry forms a
complementary discovery observable.


title: Is the Regge Trajectory Quasi-linear or Square-root Form?

abstract:
  There are many orbital excited mesons discovered in recent years. In this
work we attempt to study whether the Regge trajectory is quasi-linear or
square-root form. In the framework of the quasi-linear Regge trajectory and
square-root Regge trajectory, the masses of the states lying on the well
established 11S0, 13S1, and 13P2 trajectories are estimated. Comparison of the
results given by the two trajectories with the existing experimental data
illustrates that both of them can give a reasonable description for the ground
mesons. For the orbital excited states, the quasi-linear trajectory describes
the existing meson spectrum to be more reasonable.


title:
A Fault-Tolerant Distributed Detection of Two Simultaneous Events in
  Wireless Sensor Networks

abstract:
  Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of many low cost and light sensors
dispersed in an area to monitor the physical environment. Event detection in
WSN area, especially detection of multi-events at the same time, is an
important problem. This article is a new attempt for detection of two
simultaneous events based on distributed data processing structure and Bayesian
criteria. For accurate detection of two simultaneous events, we proposed new
decision rules based on likelihood ratio test and also derived probability of
detection error based on Bayesian criteria. In addition to multi-event
detection, the proposed method is expanded to a fault-tolerant procedure if
there are faults in decision making of sensors. Performance of the proposed
approach is demonstrated for detection of events in different circumstances.
Results show the effectiveness of the algorithm for fault-tolerant multi-event
detection.


title: Hypersurfaces with defect

abstract:
  A projective hypersurface $X \subseteq \mathbb P^n$ has defect if $h^i(X)
\neq h^i(\mathbb P^n)$ for some $i \in \{n, \dots, 2n-2\}$ in a suitable
cohomology theory. This occurs for example when $X \subseteq \mathbb P^4$ is
not $\mathbb Q$-factorial. We show that in characteristic 0, the Tjurina number
of hypersurfaces with defect is large. For $X$ with mild singularities, there
is a similar result in positive characteristic. As an application, we obtain a
lower bound on the asymptotic density of hypersurfaces without defect over a
finite field.


title:
A Unified Model for Differential Expression Analysis of RNA-seq Data via
  L1-Penalized Linear Regression

abstract:
  The RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) is becoming increasingly popular for quantifying
gene expression levels. Since the RNA-seq measurements are relative in nature,
between-sample normalization of counts is an essential step in differential
expression (DE) analysis. The normalization of existing DE detection algorithms
is ad hoc and performed once for all prior to DE detection, which may be
suboptimal since ideally normalization should be based on non-DE genes only and
thus coupled with DE detection. We propose a unified statistical model for
joint normalization and DE detection of log-transformed RNA-seq data.
Sample-specific normalization factors are modeled as unknown parameters in the
gene-wise linear models and jointly estimated with the regression coefficients.
By imposing sparsity-inducing L1 penalty (or mixed L1/L2-norm for multiple
treatment conditions) on the regression coefficients, we formulate the problem
as a penalized least-squares regression problem and apply the augmented
lagrangian method to solve it. Simulation studies show that the proposed model
and algorithms outperform existing methods in terms of detection power and
false-positive rate when more than half of the genes are differentially
expressed and/or when the up- and down-regulated genes among DE genes are
unbalanced in amount.


title: Towards end-to-end optimisation of functional image analysis pipelines

abstract:
  The study of neurocognitive tasks requiring accurate localisation of activity
often rely on functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a widely adopted technique
that makes use of a pipeline of data processing modules, each involving a
variety of parameters. These parameters are frequently set according to the
local goal of each specific module, not accounting for the rest of the
pipeline. Given recent success of neural network research in many different
domains, we propose to convert the whole data pipeline into a deep neural
network, where the parameters involved are jointly optimised by the network to
best serve a common global goal. As a proof of concept, we develop a module
able to adaptively apply the most suitable spatial smoothing to every brain
volume for each specific neuroimaging task, and we validate its results in a
standard brain decoding experiment.


title: Cuspidal Robots

abstract:
  This chapter is dedicated to the so-called cuspidal robots, i.e. those robots
that can move from one inverse geometric solution to another without meeting a
singular confuguration. This feature was discovered quite recently and has then
been fascinating a lot of researchers. After a brief history of cuspidal
robots, the chapter provides the main features of cuspidal robots: explanation
of the non-singular change of posture, uniqueness domains, regions of feasible
paths, identification and classification of cuspidal robots. The chapter
focuses on 3-R orthogonal serial robots. The case of 6-dof robots and parallel
robots is discussed in the end of this chapter.


title: Dirac Equation in Four Time and Four Space Dimensions

abstract:
  The Dirac equation in four time and four space dimensions (or
(4+4)-dimensions) is considered. Step by step we show that such an equation
admits Majorana and Weyl solutions. In order to obtain the Majorana or Weyl
spinors we used a method based on the construction of Clifford algebra in terms
of 2x2-matrices. We argue that our approach can be useful in supergravity,
superstrings and qubit theory.


title: Synchronization of micromasers

abstract:
  We investigate synchronization effects in quantum self-sustained oscillators
theoretically using the micromaser as a model system. We use the probability
distribution for the relative phase as a tool for quantifying the emergence of
preferred phases when two micromasers are coupled together. Using perturbation
theory, we show that the behavior of the phase distribution is strongly
dependent on exactly how the oscillators are coupled. In the quantum regime
where photon occupation numbers are low we find that although synchronization
effects are rather weak, they are nevertheless significantly stronger than
expected from a semiclassical description of the phase dynamics. We also
compare the behavior of the phase distribution with the mutual information of
the two oscillators and show that they can behave in rather different ways.


title: Spin wave surface states in one-dimensional planar magnonic crystals

abstract:
  We have investigated surface spin wave states in one-dimensional planar
bi-component magnonic crystals, localized on the surfaces resulting from the
breaking of the periodic structure. The two systems have been considered: the
magnonic crystal with periodic changes of the anisotropy field in exchange
regime and the magnonic crystal composed of Fe and Ni stripes in dipolar regime
with exchange interactions included. We chose the symmetric unit cell for both
systems to implement the symmetry related criteria for existence of the surface
states. We investigated also the surface states induced by the presence of
perturbation of the surface areas of the magnonic crystals. We showed, that the
system with modulated anisotropy is a direct analog of the electronic crystal.
Therefore, the surface states in both systems have the same properties. For
surface states existing in magnonic crystals in dipolar regime we demonstrated
that spin waves preserve distinct differences to the electronic crystals, which
are due to long-range dynamic dipolar interactions. We found that tuning of the
strength of magnetization pinning resulting from the surface anisotropy or
dipolar effect is vitally important for existence of the surface states in
magnonic crystals.


title: Small FDIRC Designs

abstract:
  In this article we explore the angular resolution limits attainable in small
FDIRC designs taking advantage of the new highly pixelated detectors that are
now available. Since the basic FDIRC design concept attains its particle
separation performance mostly in the angular domain as measured by
two-dimensional pixels, this paper relies primarily on a pixel-based analysis,
with additional chromatic corrections using the time domain, requiring single
photon timing resolution at a level of 100-200ps only. This approach differs
from other modern DIRC design concepts such as TOP or TORCH detectors, whose
separation performances rely more strongly on time-dependent analyses. We find
excellent single photon resolution with a geometry where individual bars are
coupled to a single plate, which is coupled in turn to a cylindrical lens
focusing camera.


title: The Fatou Closedness under Model Uncertainty

abstract:
  We provide a characterization in terms of Fatou closedness for weakly closed
monotone convex sets in the space of $\mathcal{P}$-quasisure bounded random
variables, where $\mathcal{P}$ is a (possibly non-dominated) class of
probability measures. Applications of our results lie within robust versions
the Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing or dual representation of convex risk
measures.


title: Unorganized Malicious Attacks Detection

abstract:
  Recommender system has attracted much attention during the past decade. Many
attack detection algorithms have been developed for better recommendations,
mostly focusing on shilling attacks, where an attack organizer produces a large
number of user profiles by the same strategy to promote or demote an item. This
work considers a different attack style: unorganized malicious attacks, where
attackers individually utilize a small number of user profiles to attack
different items without any organizer. This attack style occurs in many real
applications, yet relevant study remains open. We first formulate the
unorganized malicious attacks detection as a matrix completion problem, and
propose the Unorganized Malicious Attacks detection (UMA) approach, a proximal
alternating splitting augmented Lagrangian method. We verify, both
theoretically and empirically, the effectiveness of our proposed approach.


title: Static-Fluid Black Holes

abstract:
  We investigate black holes formed by static perfect fluid with $p=-\rho/3$.
These represent the black holes in $S_3$ and $H_3$ spatial geometries. There
are three classes of black-hole solutions, two $S_3$ types and one $H_3$ type.
The interesting solution is the one of $S_3$ type which possesses two
singularities. The one is at the north pole behind the horizon, and the other
is naked at the south pole. The observers, however, are free from falling to
the naked singularity. There are also nonstatic cosmological solutions in $S_3$
and $H_3$, and a singular static solution in $H_3$.


title:
Targeting Eigenstates by "Simulated Measurements" using a Decoherence
  based Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation

abstract:
  Inspired by the idea of mimicking the measurement on a quantum system through
a decoherence process to target specific eigenstates based on Born's law, i.e.
the hiearchy of probabilities instead of the hierarchy of eigenvalues, we
transform a Lindblad equation for the reduced density operator into a nonlinear
Schr\"{o}dinger equation to obtain a computationally feasible simulation of the
decoherent dynamics in the open quantum system. This gives the opportunity to
target the eigenstates which have the largest $L^2$ overlap with an initial
superposition state and hence more flexibility in the selection criteria. One
can use this feature for instance to approximate eigenstates with certain
localization or symmetry properties. As an application of the theory we discuss
\textit{eigenstate towing}, which relies on the perturbation theory to follow
the progression of an arbitrary subset of eigenstates along a sum of
perturbation operators with the intention to explore for example the effect of
interactions on these eigenstates. The easily parallelizable numerical method
shows an exponential convergence and its computational costs scale linear for
sparse matrix representations of the involved Hermitian operators.


title:
New Insights into Initiation of Colon and Intestinal Cancer: The
  Significance of Central Stem Cells in the Crypt

abstract:
  Rapidly dividing tissues, like intestinal crypts, are frequently chosen to
investigate the process of tumor initiation, because of their high rate of
mutations. To study the interplay between normal and mutant as well as immortal
cells in the human colon or intestinal crypt, we developed a 4-compartmental
stochastic model for cell dynamics based on current discoveries. Recent studies
of the intestinal crypt have revealed the existence of two stem cell groups.
Therefore, our model incorporates two stem cell groups (central stem cells
(CeSCs) and border stem cells (BSCs)), plus one compartment for transit
amplifying (TA) cells and one compartment of fully differentiated (FD) cells.
However, it can be easily modified to have only one stem cell group. We find
that the worst-case scenario occurs when CeSCs are mutated, or an immortal cell
arises in the TA or FD compartments. The probability that the progeny of a
single advantageous CeSC mutant will take over the entire crypt is more than
$0.2$, and one immortal cell always causes all FD cells to become
immortals.Moreover, when CeSCs are either mutants or wild-type (w.t.)
individuals, their progeny will take over the entire crypt in less than 100
days if there is no immortal cell. Unexpectedly, if the CeSCs are wild-type,
then non-immortal mutants with higher fitness are washed out faster than those
with lower fitness. Therefore, we suggest one potential treatment for colon
cancer might be replacing or altering the CeSCs with the normal stem cells.


title: An amusing sequence of functions

abstract:
  We consider the amusing sequence of functions $f_n: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow
\mathbb{R}$ given by $$ f_n(x) = \sum_{k=1}^{n}{\frac{|\sin{(k \pi x)}|}{k}}.$$
Every rational point is eventually the location of a strict local minimum of
$f_n$: more precisely, $f_n$ has a strict local minimum in all rational points
$x=p/q \in \mathbb{Q}$ with $|q| \leq \sqrt{n}$.


title:
Optimizing Communication and Computation for Multi-UAV Information
  Gathering Applications

abstract:
  Mobile agent networks, such as multi-UAV systems, are constrained by limited
resources. In particular, limited energy affects system performance directly,
such as system lifetime. It has been demonstrated in the wireless sensor
network literature that the communication energy consumption dominates the
computational and the sensing energy consumption. Hence, the lifetime of the
multi-UAV systems can be extended significantly by optimizing the amount of
communication data, at the expense of increasing computational cost. In this
work, we aim at attaining an optimal trade-off between the communication and
the computational energy. Specifically, we propose a mixed-integer optimization
formulation for a multi-hop hierarchical clustering-based self-organizing UAV
network incorporating data aggregation, to obtain an energy-efficient
information routing scheme. The proposed framework is tested on two
applications, namely target tracking and area mapping. Based on simulation
results, our method can significantly save energy compared to a baseline
strategy, where there is no data aggregation and clustering scheme.


title: A new algorithm for 3-sphere recognition

abstract:
  We prove the existence of a new algorithm for 3-sphere recognition based on
Groebner basis methods applied to the variety of $\text{\em
SL}(2,\C)$-representation of the fundamental group. An essential input is a
recent result of the second author, stating that any integer homology 3-sphere
different from the 3-sphere admits an irreducible representation of its
fundamental group in $\text{\em SL}(2,\C)$. This result, and hence our
algorithm, build on the geometrisation theorem of 3-manifolds.


title:
Local Asymptotic Normality for Shape and Periodicity in the Drift of a
  Time Inhomogeneous Diffusion

abstract:
  We consider a one-dimensional diffusion whose drift contains a deterministic
periodic signal with unknown periodicity $T$ and carrying some unknown
$d$-dimensional shape parameter $\theta$. We prove Local Asymptotic Normality
(LAN) jointly in $\theta$ and $T$ for the statistical experiment arising from
continuous observation of this diffusion. The local scale turns out to be
$n^{-1/2}$ for the shape parameter and $n^{-3/2}$ for the periodicity which
generalizes known results about LAN when either $\theta$ or $T$ is assumed to
be known.


title:
(Anti)evaporation of Dyonic Black Holes in string-inspired dilaton
  $f(R)$-gravity

abstract:
  We discuss dyonic black hole solutions in the case of $f(R)$-gravity coupled
with a dilaton and two gauge bosons. The study of such a model is highly
motivated from string theory. Our Black Hole solutions are extensions of the
one firstly studied by Kallosh, Linde, Ort\'in, Peet and Van Proyen (KLOPV) in
[arXiv:hep-th/9205027]. We will show that extreme solutions are unstable. In
particular, these solutions have Bousso-Hawking-Nojiri-Odintsov
(anti)evaporation instabilities.


title:
Lorentz Hypersurfaces satisfying $\triangle \vec {H}= \alpha \vec {H}$
  with non diagonal shape operator

abstract:
  We study Lorentz hypersurfaces $M_{1}^{n}$ in $E_{1}^{n+1}$ satisfying
$\triangle \vec {H}= \alpha \vec {H}$ with non diagonal shape operator, having
complex eigenvalues. We prove that every such Lorentz hypersurface in
$E_{1}^{n+1}$ having at most five distinct principal curvatures has constant
mean curvature.


title:
QCD Corrections and Long-Range Mechanisms of neutrinoless double beta
  decay

abstract:
  Recently it has been demonstrated that QCD corrections are numerically
important for short-range mechanisms (SRM) of neutrinoless double beta decay
($0\nu\beta\beta$) mediated by heavy particle exchange. This is due to the
effect of color mismatch for certain effective operators, which leads to mixing
between different operators with vastly different nuclear matrix elements
(NMEs). In this note we analyze the QCD corrections for long-range mechanisms
(LRM), due to diagrams with light-neutrino exchange between a Standard Model
(V-A)$\times$(V-A) and a beyond the SM lepton number violating vertex. We argue
that in contrast to the SRM in the LRM case, there is no operator mixing from
color-mismatched operators. This is due to a combined effect of the nuclear
short-range correlations and color invariance. As a result, the QCD corrections
to the LRM amount to an effect no more than 60%, depending on the operator in
question. Although less crucial, taken into account QCD running makes
theoretical predictions for $0\nu\beta\beta$-decay more robust also for LRM
diagrams. We derive the current experimental constraints on the Wilson
coefficients for all LRM effective operators.


title:
Automatic View-Point Selection for Inter-Operative Endoscopic
  Surveillance

abstract:
  Esophageal adenocarcinoma arises from Barrett's esophagus, which is the most
serious complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Strategies for
screening involve periodic surveillance and tissue biopsies. A major challenge
in such regular examinations is to record and track the disease evolution and
re-localization of biopsied sites to provide targeted treatments. In this
paper, we extend our original inter-operative relocalization framework to
provide a constrained image based search for obtaining the best view-point
match to the live view. Within this context we investigate the effect of: the
choice of feature descriptors and color-space; filtering of uninformative
frames and endoscopic modality, for view-point localization. Our experiments
indicate an improvement in the best view-point retrieval rate to [92%,87%] from
[73%,76%] (in our previous approach) for NBI and WL.


title: Flexibility of group actions on the circle

abstract:
  In this partly expository monograph we develop a general framework for
producing uncountable families of exotic actions of certain classically studied
groups acting on the circle. We show that if $L$ is a nontrivial limit group
then the nonlinear representation variety
$\mathrm{Hom}(L,\mathrm{Homeo}_+(S^1))$ contains uncountably many
semi-conjugacy classes of faithful actions on $S^1$ with pairwise disjoint
rotation spectra (except for $0$) such that each representation lifts to
$\mathbb{R}$. For the case of most Fuchsian groups $L$, we prove further that
this flexibility phenomenon occurs even locally, thus complementing a result of
K. Mann. We prove that each non-elementary free or surface group admits an
action on $S^1$ that is never semi-conjugate to any action that factors through
a finite--dimensional connected Lie subgroup in $\mathrm{Homeo}_+(S^1)$. It is
exhibited that the mapping class groups of bounded surfaces have
non-semi-conjugate faithful actions on $S^1$. In the process of establishing
these results, we prove general combination theorems for indiscrete subgroups
of $\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ which apply to most Fuchsian groups and to all
limit groups. We also show a Topological Baumslag Lemma, and general
combination theorems for representations into Baire topological groups. The
abundance of $\mathbb{Z}$--valued subadditive defect--one quasimorphisms on
these groups would follow as a corollary. We also give a mostly self-contained
reconciliation of the various notions of semi-conjugacy in the extant
literature by showing that they are all equivalent.


title: Chain groups of homeomorphisms of the interval

abstract:
  We introduce and study the notion of a chain group of homeomorphisms of a
one-manifold, which is a certain generalization of Thompson's group $F$. The
resulting class of groups exhibits a combination of uniformity and diversity.
On the one hand, a chain group either has a simple commutator subgroup or the
action of the group has a wandering interval. In the latter case, the chain
group admits a canonical quotient which is also a chain group, and which has a
simple commutator subgroup. On the other hand, every finitely generated
subgroup of $\operatorname{Homeo}^+(I)$ can be realized as a subgroup of a
chain group. As a corollary, we show that there are uncountably many
isomorphism types of chain groups, as well as uncountably many isomorphism
types of countable simple subgroups of $\operatorname{Homeo}^+(I)$. We consider
the restrictions on chain groups imposed by actions of various regularities,
and show that there are uncountably many isomorphism types of $3$--chain groups
which cannot be realized by $C^2$ diffeomorphisms, as well as uncountably many
isomorphism types of $6$--chain groups which cannot be realized by $C^1$
diffeomorphisms. As a corollary, we obtain uncountably many isomorphism types
of simple subgroups of $\operatorname{Homeo}^+(I)$ which admit no nontrivial
$C^1$ actions on the interval. Finally, we show that if a chain group acts
minimally on the interval, then it does so uniquely up to topological
conjugacy.


title: Some results on order bounded almost weak Dunford-Pettis operators

abstract:
  We give some new characterizations of almost weak Dunford-Pettis operators
and we investigate their relationship with weak Dunford-Pettis operators.


title:
Matrix liberation process I: Large deviation upper bound and almost sure
  convergence

abstract:
  We introduce the concept of matrix liberation process, a random matrix
counterpart of the liberation process in free probability, and prove a large
deviation upper bound for its empirical distribution with several properties on
its rate function. As a simple consequence we obtain the almost sure
convergence of the empirical distribution of the matrix liberation process to
that of the corresponding liberation process as continuous processes in large
$N$ limit.


title:
First Observation of Low Energy Electron Neutrinos in a Liquid Argon
  Time Projection Chamber

abstract:
  The capabilities of liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) to
reconstruct the spatial and calorimetric information of neutrino events have
made them the detectors of choice in a number of experiments, specifically
those looking to observe electron neutrino ($\nu_e$) appearance. The LArTPC
promises excellent background rejection capabilities, especially in this
"golden" channel for both short and long baseline neutrino oscillation
experiments. We present the first experimental observation of electron
neutrinos and anti-neutrinos in the ArgoNeut LArTPC, in the energy range
relevant to DUNE and the Fermilab Short Baseline Neutrino Program. We have
selected 37 electron candidate events and 274 gamma candidate events, and
measured an 80\% purity of electrons based on a topological selection.
Additionally, we present a of separation of electrons from gammas using
calorimetric energy deposition, demonstrating further separation of electrons
from background gammas.


title:
Mackey analogy via $\mathcal{D}$-modules in the example of
  $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$

abstract:
  A conjecture by Mackey and Higson claims that there is close relationship
between irreducible representations of a real reductive group and those of its
Cartan motion group. The case of irreducible tempered unitary representations
has been verified recently by Afgoustidis. We study the admissible
representations of $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ by considering families of $\D$-modules
over its flag varieties. We make a conjecture which gives a geometric
understanding of the Makcey-Higson bijection in the general case.


title: Long-term monitoring of Ark 120 with Swift

abstract:
  We report the results of a six-month Swift monitoring campaign of Ark120, a
prototypical bare Seyfert1 galaxy. The lack of intrinsic absorption combined
with the nearly contemporaneous coverage of the UV and X-ray bands makes it
possible to investigate the link between the accretion disk and the
Comptonization corona. Our observations confirm the presence of substantial
temporal variability, with the X-rays characterized by large-amplitude flux
changes on timescales of few days, while the variations in the UV bands are
smoother on timescales of several weeks. The source also shows spectral
variability with the X-ray spectrum steepening when the source is brighter. We
do not detect any correlation between the UV flux and the X-ray spectral slope.
A cross correlation analysis suggests positive delays between X-rays and the UV
emission, favoring a scenario of disk reprocessing. Although the strength of
the correlation is moderate with a delay not well constrained (7.5+-7 days), it
is nevertheless indicative of a large disk reprocessing region, with a
separation between the X-ray and the UV emitting regions of the order of 1000
rG. The Ark120 correlation results are in agreement with those obtained in
similar monitoring studies. When combined together, the observations can be
well described by a linear relation between the X-ray/UV delay and the black
hole mass. Within the context of the simplest scenario where these delays
correspond to light-travel times, the implied distance between the X-ray source
and the UV disk reprocessing region is of the order of many hundreds of
gravitational radii.


title: Fundamental isomorphism theorems for quantum groups

abstract:
  The lattice of subgroups of a group is the subject of numerous results
revolving around the central theme of decomposing the group into "chunks"
(subquotients) that can then be compared to one another in various ways.
Examples of results in this class would be the Noether isomorphism theorems,
Zassenhaus' butterfly lemma, the Schreier refinement theorem for subnormal
series of subgroups, the Dedekind modularity law, and last but not least the
Jordan-H\"older theorem.
  We discuss analogues of the above-mentioned results in the context of locally
compact quantum groups and linearly reductive quantum groups. The nature of the
two cases is different: the former is operator algebraic and the latter Hopf
algebraic, hence the corresponding two-part organization of our study. Our
intention is that the analytic portion be accessible to the algebraist and vice
versa.
  The upshot is that in the locally compact case one often needs further
assumptions (integrability, compactness, discreteness). In the linearly
reductive case on the other hand, the quantum versions of the results hold
without further assumptions. Moreover the case of compact / discrete quantum
groups is usually covered by both the linearly reductive and the locally
compact framework, thus providing a bridge between the two.


title: TOPoS: III. An ultra iron-poor multiple CEMP system

abstract:
  One of the primary objectives of the TOPoS survey is to search for the most
metal-poor stars. Our search has led to the discovery of one of the most
iron-poor objects known, SDSS\,J092912.32+023817.0. This object is a multiple
system, in which two components are clearly detected in the spectrum. We have
analysed 16 high-resolution spectra obtained using the UVES spectrograph at the
ESO 8.2m VLT telescope to measure radial velocities and determine the chemical
composition of the system. Cross correlation of the spectra with a synthetic
template yields a double-peaked cross-correlation function (CCF) for eight
spectra, and in one case there is evidence for the presence of a third peak.
Chemical analysis of the spectrum obtained by averaging all the spectra for
which the CCF showed a single peak found that the iron abundance is
[Fe/H]=-4.97. The system is also carbon enhanced with [C/Fe]=+3.91 (A(C)=7.44).
From the permitted oxygen triplet we determined an upper limit for oxygen of
[O/Fe]<+3.52 such that C/O>1.3. We are also able to provide more stringent
upper limits on the Sr and Ba abundances ([Sr/Fe]<+0.70, and [Ba/Fe]<+1.46,
respectively).


title:
Robust spectral unmixing of sparse multispectral Lidar waveforms using
  gamma Markov random fields

abstract:
  This paper presents a new Bayesian spectral unmixing algorithm to analyse
remote scenes sensed via sparse multispectral Lidar measurements. To a first
approximation, in the presence of a target, each Lidar waveform consists of a
main peak, whose position depends on the target distance and whose amplitude
depends on the wavelength of the laser source considered (i.e, on the target
reflectivity). Besides, these temporal responses are usually assumed to be
corrupted by Poisson noise in the low photon count regime. When considering
multiple wavelengths, it becomes possible to use spectral information in order
to identify and quantify the main materials in the scene, in addition to
estimation of the Lidar-based range profiles. Due to its anomaly detection
capability, the proposed hierarchical Bayesian model, coupled with an efficient
Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm, allows robust estimation of depth images
together with abundance and outlier maps associated with the observed 3D scene.
The proposed methodology is illustrated via experiments conducted with real
multispectral Lidar data acquired in a controlled environment. The results
demonstrate the possibility to unmix spectral responses constructed from
extremely sparse photon counts (less than 10 photons per pixel and band).


title:
Hydrodynamic approach to the centrality dependence of di-hadron
  correlations

abstract:
  Measurements of di-hadron azimuthal correlations at different centralities
for Au+Au collisions at 200 AGeV were reported by the PHENIX Collaboration. The
data were presented for different ranges of transverse momentum. In particular,
it was observed that the away-side correlation evolves from double- to a
single-peak structure when the centrality decreases. In this work, we show that
these features naturally appear as due to an interplay between the
centrality-dependent smooth background elliptic flow and the one produced by
event-by-event fluctuating peripheral tubes. To compare with the PHENIX data,
we also carry out numerical simulations by using a hydrodynamical code
NeXSPheRIO, and calculate the correlations by both cumulant and the ZYAM method
employed by PHENIX Collaboration. It is shown that our results are in
reasonable agreement with the data. A brief discussion on the physical content
of the present model and its difference from other viewpoint is also presented.


title: Particle physics perspective

abstract:
  A personal perspective on the future challenges of research in particle
physics is presented with emphasis on the role of DIS physics in this
endeavour.


title: Emergence of superconductivity in doped H$_2$O ice at high pressure

abstract:
  We investigate the possibility of achieving high-temperature
superconductivity in hydrides under pressure by inducing metallization of
otherwise insulating phases through doping, a path previously used to render
standard semiconductors superconducting at ambient pressure. Following this
idea, we study H$_2$O, one of the most abundant and well-studied substances, we
identify nitrogen as the most likely and promising substitution/dopant. We show
that for realistic levels of doping of a few percent, the phase X of ice
becomes superconducting with a critical temperature of about 60 K at 150GPa. In
view of the vast number of hydrides that are strongly covalent bonded, but that
remain insulating until rather large pressures, our results open a series of
new possibilities in the quest for novel high-temperature superconductors.


title: Experimental Overview of Open Heavy Flavor

abstract:
  These are the proceedings of the experimental overview of the production of
open heavy flavor at the international conference Strangeness in Quark Matter
2016. Instead of a comprehensive overview, I focus on a few topics which the
reader might find particularly interesting.


title: Dynamical Dark Matter from Strongly-Coupled Dark Sectors

abstract:
  Dynamical Dark Matter (DDM) is an alternative framework for dark-matter
physics in which the dark sector comprises a vast ensemble of particle species
whose decay widths are balanced against their cosmological abundances. Previous
studies of this framework have focused on a particular class of DDM ensembles
--- motivated primarily by KK towers in theories with extra dimensions --- in
which the density of states scales roughly as a polynomial of mass. In this
paper, by contrast, we study the properties of a different class of DDM
ensembles in which the density of states grows exponentially with mass.
Ensembles with this Hagedorn-like property arise naturally as the "hadrons"
associated with the confining phase of a strongly-coupled dark sector; they
also arise naturally as the gauge-neutral bulk states of Type I string
theories. We study the dynamical properties of such ensembles, and demonstrate
that an appropriate DDM-like balancing between decay widths and abundances can
emerge naturally --- even with an exponentially rising density of states. We
also study the effective equations of state for such ensembles, and investigate
some of the model-independent observational constraints on such ensembles that
follow directly from these equations of state. In general, we find that such
constraints tend to introduce correlations between various properties of these
DDM ensembles such as their associated mass scales, lifetimes, and abundance
distributions. For example, we find that these constraints allow DDM ensembles
with energy scales ranging from the GeV scale all the way to the Planck scale,
but the total present-day cosmological abundance of the dark sector must be
spread across an increasing number of different states in the ensemble as these
energy scales are dialed from the Planck scale down to the GeV scale. Numerous
other correlations and constraints are also discussed.


title:
Parametrizing the time-variation of the "surface term" of stellar p-mode
  frequencies: application to helioseismic data

abstract:
  The solar-cyle variation of acoustic mode frequencies has a frequency
dependence related to the inverse mode inertia. The discrepancy between model
predictions and measured oscillation frequencies for solar and solar-type
stellar acoustic modes includes a significant frequency-dependent term known as
the surface term that is also related to the inverse mode inertia. We
parametrize both the surface term and the frequency variations for low-degree
solar data from Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON) and medium-degree
data from the Global Oscillations Network Group (GONG) using the mode inertia
together with cubic and inverse frequency terms. We find that for the central
frequency of rotationally split multiplets the cubic term dominates both the
average surface term and the temporal variation, but for the medium-degree case
the inverse term improves the fit to the temporal variation. We also examine
the variation of the even-order splitting coefficients for the medium-degree
data and find that, as for the central frequency, the latitude-dependent
frequency variation, which reflects the changing latitudinal distribution of
magnetic activity over the solar cycle, can be described by the combination of
a cubic and an inverse function of frequency scaled by inverse mode inertia.
The results suggest that this simple parametrization could be used to assess
the activity-related frequency variation in solar-like asteroseismic targets.


title:
Monte Carlo Simulations of Spin Transport in a Strained Nanoscale InGaAs
  Field Effect Transistor

abstract:
  Spin-based logic devices could operate at very high speed with very low
energy consumption and hold significant promise for quantum information
processing and metrology. Here, an in-house developed, experimentally verified,
ensemble self-consistent Monte Carlo device simulator with a Bloch equation
model using a spin-orbit interaction Hamiltonian accounting for Dresselhaus and
Rashba couplings is developed and applied to a spin field effect transistor
(spinFET) operating under externally applied voltages on a gate and a drain. In
particular, we simulate electron spin transport in a \SI{25}{nm} gate length
\chem{In_{0.7}Ga_{0.3}As} metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor
(MOSFET) with a CMOS compatible architecture. We observe non-uniform decay of
the net magnetization between the source and gate and a magnetization recovery
effect due to spin refocusing induced by a high electric field between the gate
and drain. We demonstrate coherent control of the polarization vector of the
drain current via the source-drain and gate voltages, and show that the
magnetization of the drain current is strain-sensitive and can be increased
twofold by strain induced into the channel.


title:
Distributed Hybrid Scheduling in Multi-Cloud Networks using Conflict
  Graphs

abstract:
  Recent studies on cloud-radio access networks assume either signal-level or
scheduling-level coordination. This paper considers a hybrid coordinated scheme
as a means to benefit from both policies. Consider the downlink of a
multi-cloud radio access network, where each cloud is connected to several
base-stations (BSs) via high capacity links, and, therefore, allows for joint
signal processing within the cloud transmission. Across the multiple clouds,
however, only scheduling-level coordination is permitted, as low levels of
backhaul communication are feasible. The frame structure of every BS is
composed of various time/frequency blocks, called power-zones (PZs), which are
maintained at a fixed power level. The paper addresses the problem of
maximizing a network-wide utility by associating users to clouds and scheduling
them to the PZs, under the practical constraints that each user is scheduled to
a single cloud at most, but possibly to many BSs within the cloud, and can be
served by one or more distinct PZs within the BSs' frame. The paper solves the
problem using graph theory techniques by constructing the conflict graph. The
considered scheduling problem is, then, shown to be equivalent to a
maximum-weight independent set problem in the constructed graph, which can be
solved using efficient techniques. The paper then proposes solving the problem
using both optimal and heuristic algorithms that can be implemented in a
distributed fashion across the network. The proposed distributed algorithms
rely on the well-chosen structure of the constructed conflict graph utilized to
solve the maximum-weight independent set problem. Simulation results suggest
that the proposed optimal and heuristic hybrid scheduling strategies provide
appreciable gain as compared to the scheduling-level coordinated networks, with
a negligible degradation to signal-level coordination.


title:
Quantitative Molecular Scaling Theory of Protein Amino Acid Sequences,
  Structure, and Functionality

abstract:
  Here we review the development of protein scaling theory, starting from
backgrounds in mathematics and statistical mechanics, and leading to biomedical
applications. Evolution has organized each protein family in different ways,
but scaling theory is both simple and effective in providing readily
transferable dynamical insights complementary for many proteins represented in
the 90 thousand static structures contained in the online Protein Data Base
(PDB). Scaling theory is a simplifying magic wand that enables one to search
the hundreds of millions of protein articles in the Web of Science, and
identify those proteins that present new cost-effective methods for early
detection and/or treatment of disease through individual protein sequences
(personalized medicine). Critical point theory is general, and recently it has
proved to be the most effective way of describing protein networks that have
evolved towards nearly perfect functionality in given environments
(self-organized criticality). Evolutionary patterns are governed by common
scaling principles, which can be quantified using scales that have been
developed bioinformatically by studying thousands of PDB structures. The most
effective scales involve either hydropathic globular sculpting interactions
averaged over length scales centered on membrane dimensions, or exposed beta
strand propensities associated with aggregative (strong) protein-protein
interactions.


title: A comparison of adic spaces and Berkovich spaces

abstract:
  This paper reviews the equivalence between the category of taut adic spaces
that are locally of finite type and the category of strictly analytic Berkovich
spaces. An explicit construction of this functor is provided by using the
terminology of valuative spaces.


title: A remark on orbital free entropy

abstract:
  A lower estimate of the orbital free entropy $\chi_\mathrm{orb}$ under
unitary conjugation is proved, and it together with Voiculescu's observation
shows that the conjectural exact formula relating $\chi_\mathrm{orb}$ to the
free entropy $\chi$ breaks in general in contrast to the case when given random
multi-variables are all hyperfinite.


title:
Band offsets at the crystalline/amorphous silicon interface from
  first-principles

abstract:
  The band offsets between crystalline and hydrogenated amorphous silicon
(a-Si:H) are key parameters governing the charge transport in modern silicon
hetrojunction solar cells. They are an important input for macroscopic
simulators that are used to further optimize the solar cell. Past experimental
studies, using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and capacitance-voltage
measurements, have yielded conflicting results on the band offset. Here we
present a computational study on the band offsets. It is based on atomistic
models and density-functional theory (DFT). The amorphous part of the interface
is obtained by relatively long DFT first-principles molecular-dynamics (MD)
runs at an elevated temperature on 30 statistically independent samples. In
order to obtain a realistic conduction band position the electronic structure
of the interface is calculated with a hybrid functional. We find a slight
asymmetry in the band offsets, where the offset in the valence band (0.30 eV)
is larger than in the conduction band (0.17 eV). Our results are in agreement
with the latest XPS measurements that report a valence band offset of 0.3 eV
[M. Liebhaber et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 031601 (2015)].


title:
Exploiting Sentence and Context Representations in Deep Neural Models
  for Spoken Language Understanding

abstract:
  This paper presents a deep learning architecture for the semantic decoder
component of a Statistical Spoken Dialogue System. In a slot-filling dialogue,
the semantic decoder predicts the dialogue act and a set of slot-value pairs
from a set of n-best hypotheses returned by the Automatic Speech Recognition.
Most current models for spoken language understanding assume (i) word-aligned
semantic annotations as in sequence taggers and (ii) delexicalisation, or a
mapping of input words to domain-specific concepts using heuristics that try to
capture morphological variation but that do not scale to other domains nor to
language variation (e.g., morphology, synonyms, paraphrasing ). In this work
the semantic decoder is trained using unaligned semantic annotations and it
uses distributed semantic representation learning to overcome the limitations
of explicit delexicalisation. The proposed architecture uses a convolutional
neural network for the sentence representation and a long-short term memory
network for the context representation. Results are presented for the publicly
available DSTC2 corpus and an In-car corpus which is similar to DSTC2 but has a
significantly higher word error rate (WER).


title: Embedded real-time stereo estimation via Semi-Global Matching on the GPU

abstract:
  Dense, robust and real-time computation of depth information from
stereo-camera systems is a computationally demanding requirement for robotics,
advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles. Semi-Global
Matching (SGM) is a widely used algorithm that propagates consistency
constraints along several paths across the image. This work presents a
real-time system producing reliable disparity estimation results on the new
embedded energy-efficient GPU devices. Our design runs on a Tegra X1 at 42
frames per second (fps) for an image size of 640x480, 128 disparity levels, and
using 4 path directions for the SGM method.


title: Modules and Structures of Planar Upper Triangular Rook Monoids

abstract:
  In this paper, we discuss modules and structures of the planar upper
triangular rook monoid B_n. We first show that the order of B_n is a Catalan
number, then we investigate the properties of a module V over B_n generated by
a set of elements v_S indexed by the power set of {1, ..., n}. We find that
every nonzero submodule of V is cyclic and completely decomposable; we give a
necessary and sufficient condition for a submodule of V to be indecomposable.
We show that every irreducible submodule of V is 1-dimensional. Furthermore, we
give a formula for calculating the dimension of every submodule of V. In
particular, we provide a recursive formula for calculating the dimension of the
cyclic module generated by v_S, and show that some dimensions are Catalan
numbers, giving rise to new combinatorial identities.


title:
Ionic channels in biological membranes. Electrostatic analysis of a
  natural nanotube

abstract:
  A simple theory of ion permeation through a channel is presented, in which
diffusion occurs according to Fick's law and drift according to Ohm's law, in
the electric field determined by all the charges present. This theory accounts
for permeation in the channels studied to date in a wide range of solutions.
Interestingly, the theory works because the shape of the electric field is a
sensitive function of experimental conditions, e.g., ion concentration. Rate
constants for flux are sensitive functions of ionic concentration because the
fixed charge of the channel protein is shielded by the ions in an near it. Such
shielding effects are not included in traditional theories of ionic channels,
or other proteins, for that matter.


title: GPU-accelerated real-time stixel computation

abstract:
  The Stixel World is a medium-level, compact representation of road scenes
that abstracts millions of disparity pixels into hundreds or thousands of
stixels. The goal of this work is to implement and evaluate a complete
multi-stixel estimation pipeline on an embedded, energy-efficient,
GPU-accelerated device. This work presents a full GPU-accelerated
implementation of stixel estimation that produces reliable results at 26 frames
per second (real-time) on the Tegra X1 for disparity images of 1024x440 pixels
and stixel widths of 5 pixels, and achieves more than 400 frames per second on
a high-end Titan X GPU card.


title: Gaussian impurity moving through a Bose-Einstein superfluid

abstract:
  In this paper a Gaussian impurity moving through an equilibrium Bose-Einstein
condensate at T = 0 is studied. The problem can be described by a
Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which is solved perturbatively. The analysis is done
for systems of 2 and 3 spatial dimensions and generalises the work by [G.E.
Astrakharchik and L.P. Pitaevskii, Phys. Rev. A 70, 013608 (2004)]. The
Bogoliubov equation solutions for the condensate perturbed by a finite impurity
are calculated in the co-moving frame, which are formally equivalent up to a
dimension dependent form factor for general dimensions. From those solutions
the total energy of the perturbed system is determined as a function of the
width and the amplitude of the moving Gaussian impurity and its velocity.
Finally we derive the drag force the Gaussian impurity approximately
experiences as it moves through the superfluid, which proofs the existence of a
superfluid phase for finite extensions of the impurities below the speed of
sound and that the force increases monotonically with velocity until it
decreases again.


title: Causality, Non-Locality and Negative Refraction

abstract:
  The importance of spatial non-locality in the description of negative
refraction in electromagnetic materials has been put forward recently. We
develop a theory of negative refraction in homogeneous and isotropic media,
based on first principles, and that includes non-locality in its full
generality. The theory shows that both dissipation and spatial non-locality are
necessary conditions for the existence of negative refraction. It also provides
a sufficient condition in materials with weak spatial non-locality. These
fundamental results should have broad implications in the theoretical and
practical analyses of negative refraction of electromagnetic and other kinds of
waves.


title: The Maz'ya-Shaposhnikova limit in the magnetic setting

abstract:
  We prove a magnetic version of the Maz'ya-Shaposhnikova singular limit of
nonlocal norms with vanishing fractional parameter. This complements a general
convergence result recently obtained by authors when the parameter approaches
one.