title:
Automorphism groups of a class of cubic Cayley graphs on symmetric
  groups

abstract:
  Let $S_n$ denote the symmetric group of degree $n$ with $n\geq 3$. Set
$S=\{c_n=(1\ 2\ldots \ n),c_n^{-1},(1\ 2)\}$. Let
$\Gamma_n=\mathrm{Cay}(S_n,S)$ be the Cayley graph on $S_n$ with respect to
$S$. In this paper, we show that $\Gamma_n$ ($n\geq 13$) is a normal Cayley
graph, and that the full automorphism group of $\Gamma_n$ is equal to
$\mathrm{Aut}(\Gamma_n)=R(S_n)\rtimes \langle\mathrm{Inn}(\phi)\rangle\cong
S_n\rtimes \mathbb{Z}_2$, where $R(S_n)$ is the right regular representation of
$S_n$, $\phi=(1\ 2)(3\ n)(4\ n-1)(5\ n-2)\cdots$ $(\in S_n)$, and
$\mathrm{Inn}(\phi)$ is the inner isomorphism of $S_n$ induced by $\phi$.


title: Effects of grain boundary on the sources of size effects

abstract:
  The present work investigates the role of grain boundary (GB) on the sources
of size effects. Up to now, several studies have been conducted to address the
role of GBs in size effects from the atomistic point of view. However, a study
which addresses the role of GB on different governing mechanisms of size
effects as the sample length scale varies has not been presented yet. The
results show that the main role of GB at larger length scale is to change the
pattern of dislocation structure in a way that the dislocations are piled up
near the GB which increases the hardness.


title: Coupled parametric processes in binary nonlinear photonic structures

abstract:
  We study parametric interactions in a new type of nonlinear photonic
structures, which is realized in the vicinity of a pair of nonlinear crystals.
In this kind of structure, which we call binary, multiple nonlinear optical
processes can be implemented simultaneously, owing to multiple phase-matching
conditions, fulfilled separately in the constituent crystals. The coupling
between the nonlinear processes by means of modes sharing similar frequency is
attained by the spatially-broadband nature of the parametric fields. We
investigate the spatial properties of the fields generated in the binary
structure constructed from periodically poled crystals for the two examples: 1)
single parametric down-conversion, and 2) coupled parametric down-conversion
and up-conversion processes. The efficacy of the fields' generation in these
examples is analyzed through comparison with the cases of traditional single
periodically poled crystal and aperiodic photonic structure, respectively. It
has been shown that the relative shift between the periodic crystal lattices
has a crucial effect on the generated spatial field spectrum and the overall
efficiency. In addition, the influence of the inter-crystal distance on these
characteristics has been studied. Therefore, our study suggests that one can
construct optical elements with sophisticated nonlinear properties from simpler
elements without significant sacrifice of the efficacy.


title:
An OMNeT++ based Framework for Mobility-aware Routing in Mobile Robotic
  Networks

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a cross-layer extension for the INETMANET framework
of OMNeT++, which utilizes mobility control knowledge to enhance the forwarding
of routing messages. The well-known mobility meta-model from Reynolds is used
to provide a realistic representation of the mobility behavior of autonomous
agents with respect to the various influences those agents have to face in
real-world applications. Knowledge about the current mobility properties and
its predicted development is used by mobility-aware routing mechanisms in order
to optimize routing decisions and avoid path losses at runtime. In a proof of
concept evaluation, we show that our proposed methods can achieve significant
improvements to the robustness of communication paths.


title: On the cryptanalysis of Fridrich's chaotic image encryption scheme

abstract:
  Utilizing complex dynamics of chaotic maps and systems in encryption was
studied comprehensively in the past two and a half decades. In 1989, Fridrich's
chaotic image encryption scheme was designed by iterating chaotic position
permutation and value substitution some rounds, which received intensive
attention in the field of chaos-based cryptography. In 2010, Solak \textit{et
al.} proposed a chosen-ciphertext attack on the Fridrich's scheme utilizing
influence network between cipher-pixels and the corresponding plain-pixels.
Based on their creative work, this paper scrutinized some properties of
Fridrich's scheme with concise mathematical language. Then, some minor defects
of the real performance of Solak's attack method were given. The work provides
some bases for further optimizing attack on the Fridrich's scheme and its
variants.


title:
Leveraging Environmental Correlations: The Thermodynamics of Requisite
  Variety

abstract:
  Key to biological success, the requisite variety that confronts an adaptive
organism is the set of detectable, accessible, and controllable states in its
environment. We analyze its role in the thermodynamic functioning of
information ratchets---a form of autonomous Maxwellian Demon capable of
exploiting fluctuations in an external information reservoir to harvest useful
work from a thermal bath. This establishes a quantitative paradigm for
understanding how adaptive agents leverage structured thermal environments for
their own thermodynamic benefit. General ratchets behave as memoryful
communication channels, interacting with their environment sequentially and
storing results to an output. The bulk of thermal ratchets analyzed to date,
however, assume memoryless environments that generate input signals without
temporal correlations. Employing computational mechanics and a new
information-processing Second Law of Thermodynamics (IPSL) we remove these
restrictions, analyzing general finite-state ratchets interacting with
structured environments that generate correlated input signals. On the one
hand, we demonstrate that a ratchet need not have memory to exploit an
uncorrelated environment. On the other, and more appropriate to biological
adaptation, we show that a ratchet must have memory to most effectively
leverage structure and correlation in its environment. The lesson is that to
optimally harvest work a ratchet's memory must reflect the input generator's
memory. Finally, we investigate achieving the IPSL bounds on the amount of work
a ratchet can extract from its environment, discovering that finite-state,
optimal ratchets are unable to reach these bounds. In contrast, we show that
infinite-state ratchets can go well beyond these bounds by utilizing their own
infinite "negentropy". We conclude with an outline of the collective
thermodynamics of information-ratchet swarms.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech cs.IT cs.LG math.DS math.IT nlin.AO


title: Citation Analysis with Microsoft Academic

abstract:
  We explore if and how Microsoft Academic (MA) could be used for bibliometric
analyses. First, we examine the Academic Knowledge API (AK API), an interface
to access MA data, and compare it to Google Scholar (GS). Second, we perform a
comparative citation analysis of researchers by normalizing data from MA and
Scopus. We find that MA offers structured and rich metadata, which facilitates
data retrieval, handling and processing. In addition, the AK API allows
retrieving frequency distributions of citations. We consider these features to
be a major advantage of MA over GS. However, we identify four main limitations
regarding the available metadata. First, MA does not provide the document type
of a publication. Second, the 'fields of study' are dynamic, too specific and
field hierarchies are incoherent. Third, some publications are assigned to
incorrect years. Fourth, the metadata of some publications did not include all
authors. Nevertheless, we show that an average-based indicator (i.e. the
journal normalized citation score; JNCS) as well as a distribution-based
indicator (i.e. percentile rank classes; PR classes) can be calculated with
relative ease using MA. Hence, normalization of citation counts is feasible
with MA. The citation analyses in MA and Scopus yield uniform results. The JNCS
and the PR classes are similar in both databases, and, as a consequence, the
evaluation of the researchers' publication impact is congruent in MA and
Scopus. Given the fast development in the last year, we postulate that MA has
the potential to be used for full-fledged bibliometric analyses.


title: Service Rate Control For Jobs with Decaying Value

abstract:
  The task of completing jobs with decaying value arises in a number of
application areas including healthcare operations, communications engineering,
and perishable inventory control. We consider a system in which a single server
completes a finite sequence of jobs in discrete time while a controller
dynamically adjusts the service rate. During service, the value of the job
decays so that a greater reward is received for having shorter service times.
We incorporate a non-decreasing cost for holding jobs and a non-decreasing cost
on the service rate. The controller aims to minimize the total cost of
servicing the set of jobs. We show that the optimal policy is non-decreasing in
the number of jobs remaining -- when there are more jobs in the system the
controller should use a higher service rate. The optimal policy does not
necessarily vary monotonically with the residual job value, but we give
algebraic conditions which can be used to determine when it does. These
conditions are then simplified in the case that the reward for completion is
constant when the job has positive value and zero otherwise. These algebraic
conditions are interesting because they can be verified without using
algorithms like value iteration and policy iteration to explicitly compute the
optimal policy. We also discuss some future modeling extensions.


title: Abundance of wild historic behavior

abstract:
  Using Caratheodory measures, we associate to each positive orbit ${\mathcal
O}_{f}^{+}(x)$ of a measurable map $f$, a Borel measure $\eta_{x}$. We show
that $\eta_{x}$ is $f$-invariant whenever $f$ is continuous or $\eta_{x}$ is a
probability. These measures are used to study the \emph{historic} points of the
system, that is, \emph{points with no Birkhoff averages}, and we construct
topologically generic subset of \emph{wild historic points} for wide classes of
dynamical models. We use properties of the measure $\eta_x$ to deduce some
features of the dynamical system involved, like the \emph{existence of
heteroclinic connections from the existence of open sets of historic points}.


title:
Fitting Power-laws in empirical data with estimators that work for all
  exponents

abstract:
  It has been repeatedly stated that maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of
exponents of power-law distributions can only be reliably obtained for
exponents smaller than minus one. The main argument that power laws are
otherwise not normalizable, depends on the underlying sample space the data is
drawn from, and is true only for sample spaces that are unbounded from above.
Here we show that power-laws obtained from bounded sample spaces (as is the
case for practically all data related problems) are always free of such
limitations and maximum likelihood estimates can be obtained for arbitrary
powers without restrictions. Here we first derive the appropriate ML estimator
for arbitrary exponents of power-law distributions on bounded discrete sample
spaces. We then show that an almost identical estimator also works perfectly
for continuous data. We implemented this ML estimator and discuss its
performance with previous attempts. We present a general recipe of how to use
these estimators and present the associated computer codes.


title:
Polyelectrolyte Polypeptide Scaling Laws Via Mechanical and Dielectric
  Relaxation Measurements

abstract:
  Experimental results from mechanical viscoelastic as well as dielectric
relaxation times were compared to theoretical expectations utilizing polymer
scaling theory. Viscoelastic relaxation of a hydrogel at 33% relative humidity
fabricated from co-poly-L-(glutamic acid$_{4}$, tyrosine$_{1}$) [PLEY(4:1)]
crosslinked with poly-L-lysine scaled with concentration according to reptation
dynamics. High frequency dielectric relaxation of aqueous copolymer PLEY(4:1)
scaled with concentration as an ideal chain and aqueous Poly-L-glutamic acid
scaled as an extended chain. The study shows that two seemingly different
measurement methods can yield information about the state of polymer chain
conformation in situ.


title: A Knowledge Ecosystem for the Food, Energy, and Water System

abstract:
  Food, energy, and water (FEW) are key resources to sustain human life and
economic growth. There is an increasing stress on these interconnected
resources due to population growth, natural disasters, and human activities.
New research is necessary to foster more efficient, more secure, and safer use
of FEW resources in the U.S. and globally. In this position paper, we present
the idea of a knowledge ecosystem for enabling the semantic data integration of
heterogeneous datasets in the FEW system to promote knowledge discovery and
superior decision making through semantic reasoning. Rich, diverse datasets
published by U.S. federal agencies will be utilized. Our knowledge ecosystem
will build on Semantic Web technologies and advances in statistical relational
learning to (a) represent, integrate, and harmonize diverse data sources and
(b) perform ontology-based reasoning to discover actionable insights from FEW
datasets.


title:
Regenerative Soot-VII: Population inversion of He I and Ne I in
  regenerative sooting discharges

abstract:
  The mechanisms for population inversion among the excited states of He I and
Ne I in regenerative sooting discharges have been investigated as a function of
the geometry and the physical parameters of the graphite hollow cathode
sources. The effect of the state of sooting of the hollow cathode, the gas
pressure and the role of the cycling of the discharge current idis on the
population inversion of the excited He I and Ne I levels have been
investigated.


title:
Revisiting the Applicability of Metaphysical Identity in Quantum
  Mechanics

abstract:
  We discuss the hypothesis that the debate about the interpretation of the
orthodox formalism of quantum mechanics (QM) might have been misguided right
from the start by a biased metaphysical interpretation of the formalism and its
inner mathematical relations. In particular, we focus on the orthodox
interpretation of the congruence relation, '=', which relates equivalent
classes of different mathematical representations of a vector in Hilbert space,
in terms of metaphysical identity. We will argue that this seemingly "common
sense" interpretation, at the semantic level, has severe difficulties when
considering the syntactic level of the theory.


title:
Mobile Edge Computing via a UAV-Mounted Cloudlet: Optimization of Bit
  Allocation and Path Planning

abstract:
  Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been recently considered as means to
provide enhanced coverage or relaying services to mobile users (MUs) in
wireless systems with limited or no infrastructure. In this paper, a UAV-based
mobile cloud computing system is studied in which a moving UAV is endowed with
computing capabilities to offer computation offloading opportunities to MUs
with limited local processing capabilities. The system aims at minimizing the
total mobile energy consumption while satisfying quality of service
requirements of the offloaded mobile application. Offloading is enabled by
uplink and downlink communications between the mobile devices and the UAV that
take place by means of frequency division duplex (FDD) via orthogonal or
non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes. The problem of jointly
optimizing the bit allocation for uplink and downlink communication as well as
for computing at the UAV, along with the cloudlet's trajectory under latency
and UAV's energy budget constraints is formulated and addressed by leveraging
successive convex approximation (SCA) strategies. Numerical results demonstrate
the significant energy savings that can be accrued by means of the proposed
joint optimization of bit allocation and cloudlet's trajectory as compared to
local mobile execution as well as to partial optimization approaches that
design only the bit allocation or the cloudlet's trajectory.


title:
Hybrid Euler-Hadamard product for quadratic Dirichlet $L$-functions in
  function fields

abstract:
  We develop a hybrid Euler-Hadamard product model for quadratic Dirichlet
$L$--functions over function fields (following the model introduced by Gonek,
Hughes and Keating for the Riemann-zeta function). After computing the first
three twisted moments in this family of $L$--functions, we provide further
evidence for the conjectural asymptotic formulas for the moments of the family.


title:
Concept of a Staged FEL Enabled by Fast Synchrotron Radiation Cooling of
  Laser-Plasma Accelerated Beam by Solenoidal Magnetic Fields in Plasma Bubble

abstract:
  A novel method for generating GigaGauss solenoidal field in laser-plasma
bubble, using screw-shaped laser pulses, has been recently presented in
arXiv:1604.01259 [physics.plasm-ph]. Such magnetic fields enable fast
synchrotron radiation cooling of the beam emittance of laser-plasma accelerated
leptons. This recent finding opens a novel approach for design of laser-plasma
FELs or colliders, where the acceleration stages are interleaved with
laser-plasma emittance cooling stages. In this concept paper we present an
outline of how a staged plasma-acceleration FEL could look like and discuss
further studies needed to investigate the feasibility of the concept in detail.


title: Taming Context-Sensitive Languages with Principled Stateful Parsing

abstract:
  Historically, true context-sensitive parsing has seldom been applied to
programming languages, due to its inherent complexity. However, many mainstream
programming and markup languages (C, Haskell, Python, XML, and more) possess
context-sensitive features. These features are traditionally handled with
ad-hoc code (e.g., custom lexers), outside of the scope of parsing theory.
  Current grammar formalisms struggle to express context-sensitive features.
Most solutions lack context transparency: they make grammars hard to write,
maintain and compose by hardwiring context through the entire grammar. Instead,
we approach context-sensitive parsing through the idea that parsers may recall
previously matched input (or data derived therefrom) in order to make parsing
decisions. We make use of mutable parse state to enable this form of recall.
  We introduce principled stateful parsing as a new transactional discipline
that makes state changes transparent to parsing mechanisms such as backtracking
and memoization. To enforce this discipline, users specify parsers using
formally specified primitive state manipulation operations.
  Our solution is available as a parsing library named Autumn. We illustrate
our solution by implementing some practical context-sensitive grammar features
such as significant whitespace handling and namespace classification.


title:
Finiteness of Associated Primes of Local Cohomology Modules Over
  Stanley-Reisner Rings

abstract:
  Local cohomology modules, even over a Noetherian ring $R$, are typically
unwieldly. As such, it is of interest whether or not they have finitely many
associated primes. We prove the affirmative in the case where $R$ is a
Stanley-Reisner ring over a field, whose associated simplicial complex is a
$T$-space.


title: Solving the Wastewater Treatment Plant Problem with SMT

abstract:
  In this paper we introduce the Wastewater Treatment Plant Problem, a
real-world scheduling problem, and compare the performance of several tools on
it. We show that, for a naive modeling, state-of-the-art SMT solvers outperform
other tools ranging from mathematical programming to constraint programming. We
use both real and randomly generated benchmarks.
  From this and similar results, we claim for the convenience of developing
compiler front-ends being able to translate from constraint programming
languages to the SMT-LIB standard language.


title: Factorial Decay of Iterated Rough Integrals

abstract:
  In this complementary note to [1] (arXiv:1501.05641), we provide an
alternative proof for the factorial decay estimate of iterated integrals for
geometric rough paths without using the neoclassical inequality. This note
intends to aid the readers on the proof in [1] which works also for branched
rough paths. Just as in [1], the proof here is an extension of Lyons 94' [4]
from Young's integration to geometric rough paths.


title: Vector dark matter annihilation with internal bremsstrahlung

abstract:
  We consider scenarios in which the annihilation of self-conjugate spin-1 dark
matter to a Standard Model fermion-antifermion final state is chirality
suppressed, but where this suppression can be lifted by the emission of an
additional photon via internal bremsstrahlung. We find that this scenario can
only arise if the initial dark matter state is polarized, which can occur in
the context of self-interacting dark matter. In particular, this is possible if
the dark matter pair forms a bound state that decays to its ground state before
the constituents annihilate. We show that the shape of the resulting photon
spectrum is the same as for self-conjugate spin-0 and spin-1/2 dark matter, but
the normalization is less heavily suppressed in the limit of heavy mediators.


title:
The Maximin Support Method: An Extension of the D'Hondt Method to
  Approval-Based Multiwinner Elections

abstract:
  We propose the maximin support method, a novel extension of the D'Hondt
apportionment method to approval-based multiwinner elections. The maximin
support method is based on maximizing the support of the least supported
elected candidate. It can be computed efficiently and satisfies (adjusted
versions of) the main properties of the original D'Hondt method: house
monotonicity, population monotonicity, and proportional representation. We also
establish a close relationship between the maximin support method and
Phragm\'{e}n's voting rules.


title: Three-dimensional Modeling of Vacuum Field Emission Nanotriodes

abstract:
  Vacuum nanodevices are devices that the electron transport through them is
based on electron field emission from a nano-eimtter to another opposite
electrode through a vacuum channel. Geometrically asymmetric metal-vacuum-metal
structures were demonstrated to have energy conversion ability for elec-
tromagnetic waves in the optical range. Combining the ability of these
structures to convert optical signals into recti ed current and the ability of
vacuum nanotriodes to control the eld emission current can allow direct
processing on converted optical signals using a single device. In this paper, a
three-dimensional quantum-mechanical method, rather than the approximate
Fowler-Nordheim theory, is used for modeling the eld emission process in
vertical-type vacuum nanotriodes consisting of an emitter, a collector and a
gate. The electron transport through the device is computed using a
transfer-matrix technique. The potentials of vacuum nanotriodes in the current
recti cation and modulation are investigated at low volt- ages. The e ects of
varying the structure geometrical parameters on the recti ed current are also
studied. The obtained results show that a great enhancement in the recti cation
properties is achievable when the gate and the collector are connected through
a DC source. It is also demonstrated that a small variation in the gate voltage
can be used either to modulate the recti ed current or to switch the device
into a resonant tunneling diode.26


title:
Permutation and Grouping Methods for Sharpening Gaussian Process
  Approximations

abstract:
  Vecchia's approximate likelihood for Gaussian process parameters depends on
how the observations are ordered, which can be viewed as a deficiency because
the exact likelihood is permutation-invariant. This article takes the
alternative standpoint that the ordering of the observations can be tuned to
sharpen the approximations. Advantageously chosen orderings can drastically
improve the approximations, and in fact, completely random orderings often
produce far more accurate approximations than default coordinate-based
orderings do. In addition to the permutation results, automatic methods for
grouping calculations of components of the approximation are introduced, having
the result of simultaneously improving the quality of the approximation and
reducing its computational burden. In common settings, reordering combined with
grouping reduces Kullback-Leibler divergence from the target model by a factor
of 80 and computation time by a factor of 2 compared to ungrouped
approximations with default ordering. The claims are supported by theory and
numerical results with comparisons to other approximations, including tapered
covariances and stochastic partial differential equation approximations.
Computational details are provided, including efficiently finding the orderings
and ordered nearest neighbors, and profiling out linear mean parameters and
using the approximations for prediction and conditional simulation. An
application to space-time satellite data is presented.


title:
Blow-up analysis and existence results in the supercritical case for an
  asymmetric mean field equation with variable intensities

abstract:
  A class of equations with exponential nonlinearities on a compact Riemannian
surface is considered. More precisely, we study an asymmetric sinh-Gordon
problem arising as a mean field equation of the equilibrium turbulence of
vortices with variable intensities.
  We start by performing a blow-up analysis in order to derive some information
on the local blow-up masses. As a consequence we get a compactness property in
a supercritical range.
  We next introduce a variational argument based on improved Moser-Trudinger
inequalities which yields existence of solutions for any choice of the
underlying surface.


title: Online Learning of Combinatorial Objects via Extended Formulation

abstract:
  The standard techniques for online learning of combinatorial objects perform
multiplicative updates followed by projections into the convex hull of all the
objects. However, this methodology can be expensive if the convex hull contains
many facets. For example, the convex hull of $n$-symbol Huffman trees is known
to have exponentially many facets (Maurras et al., 2010). We get around this
difficulty by exploiting extended formulations (Kaibel, 2011), which encode the
polytope of combinatorial objects in a higher dimensional "extended" space with
only polynomially many facets. We develop a general framework for converting
extended formulations into efficient online algorithms with good relative loss
bounds. We present applications of our framework to online learning of Huffman
trees and permutations. The regret bounds of the resulting algorithms are
within a factor of $O(\sqrt{\log(n)})$ of the state-of-the-art specialized
algorithms for permutations, and depending on the loss regimes, improve on or
match the state-of-the-art for Huffman trees. Our method is general and can be
applied to other combinatorial objects.


title: SHIELD: Comparing Gas and Star Formation in Low Mass Galaxies

abstract:
  We analyze the relationships between atomic, neutral hydrogen (HI) and star
formation (SF) in the 12 low-mass SHIELD galaxies. We compare high spectral
(~0.82 km/s/channel) and spatial resolution (physical resolutions of 170 pc -
700 pc) HI imaging from the VLA with H\alpha and far-ultraviolet imaging. We
quantify the degree of co-spatiality between star forming regions and regions
of high HI column densities. We calculate the global star formation
efficiencies (SFE, $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ / $\Sigma_{\rm HI}$), and examine the
relationships among the SFE and HI mass, HI column density, and star formation
rate (SFR). The systems are consuming their cold neutral gas on timescales of
order a few Gyr. While we derive an index for the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation of
N ~ 0.68 $\pm$ 0.04 for the SHIELD sample as a whole, the values of N vary
considerably from system to system. By supplementing SHIELD results with those
from other surveys, we find that HI mass and UV-based SFR are strongly
correlated over five orders of magnitude. Identification of patterns within the
SHIELD sample allows us to bin the galaxies into three general categories: 1)
mainly co-spatial HI and SF regions, found in systems with highest peak HI
column densities and highest total HI masses, 2) moderately correlated HI and
SF regions, found in systems with moderate HI column densities, and 3) obvious
offsets between HI and SF peaks, found in systems with the lowest total HI
masses. SF in these galaxies is dominated by stochasticity and random
fluctuations in their ISM.


title: SHIELD: Neutral Gas Kinematics and Dynamics

abstract:
  We present kinematic analyses of the 12 galaxies in the "Survey of HI in
Extremely Low-mass Dwarfs" (SHIELD). We use multi-configuration interferometric
observations of the HI 21cm emission line from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large
Array (VLA) to produce image cubes at a variety of spatial and spectral
resolutions. Both two- and three-dimensional fitting techniques are employed in
an attempt to derive inclination-corrected rotation curves for each galaxy. In
most cases, the comparable magnitudes of velocity dispersion and projected
rotation result in degeneracies that prohibit unambiguous circular velocity
solutions. We thus make spatially resolved position-velocity cuts, corrected
for inclination using the stellar components, to estimate the circular rotation
velocities. We find circular velocities <30 km/s for the entire survey
population. Baryonic masses are calculated using single-dish HI fluxes from
Arecibo and stellar masses derived from HST and Spitzer imaging. Comparison is
made with total dynamical masses estimated from the position-velocity analysis.
The SHIELD galaxies are then placed on the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation.
There exists an empirical threshold rotational velocity <15 km/s, below which
current observations cannot differentiate coherent rotation from pressure
support. The SHIELD galaxies are representative of an important population of
galaxies whose properties cannot be described by current models of
rotationally-dominated galaxy dynamics.


title:
Identifying galaxy candidates in WSRT HI imaging of ultra-compact high
  velocity clouds

abstract:
  Ultra-compact high velocity clouds (UCHVCs) were identified in the ALFALFA HI
survey as potential gas-bearing dark matter halos. Here we present higher
resolution neutral hydrogen (HI) observations of twelve UCHVCS with the
Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). The UCHVCs were selected based on
a combination of size, isolation, large recessional velocity and high column
density as the best candidate dark matter halos. The WSRT data were tapered to
image the UCHVCs at 210" (comparable to Arecibo) and 105" angular resolution.
In a comparison of the single-dish to interferometer data, we find that the
line flux recovered in the WSRT observations is comparable to that from the
single-dish ALFALFA data. In addition, any structure seen in the ALFALFA data
is reproduced in the WSRT maps at the same angular resolution. At 210'"
resolution all the sources are generally compact with a smooth HI morphology,
as expected from their identification as UCHVCs. At the higher angular
resolution, a majority of the sources break into small clumps contained in a
diffuse envelope. These UCHVCs also have no ordered velocity motion and are
most likely Galactic halo clouds. We identify two UCHVCs, AGC 198606 and AGC
249525, as excellent galaxy candidates based on maintaining a smooth HI
morphology at higher angular resolution and showing ordered velocity motion
consistent with rotation. A third source, AGC 249565, lies between these two
populations in properties and is a possible galaxy candidate. If interpreted as
gas-bearing dark matter halos, the three candidate galaxies have rotation
velocities of 8-15 km/s, HI masses of 0.6-50 x 10^5 Msun, HI radii of 0.3-2
kpc, and dynamical masses of 2-20 x 10^7 Msun for a range of plausible
distances. These are the UCHVCs with the highest column density values in the
ALFALFA HI data and we suggest this is the best way to identify further
candidates.


title:
Identifying Influential Links for Event Propagation on Twitter: A
  Network of Networks Approach

abstract:
  Patterns of event propagation in online social networks provide novel
insights on the modeling and analysis of information dissemination over
networks and physical systems. This paper studies the importance of follower
links for event propagation on Twitter. Three recent event propagation traces
are collected with the Twitter user language field being used to identify the
Network of Networks (NoN) structure embedded in the Twitter follower networks.
We first formulate event propagation on Twitter as an iterative state equation,
and then propose an effective score function on follower links accounting for
the containment of event propagation via link removals. Furthermore, we find
that utilizing the NoN model can successfully identify influential follower
links such that their removals lead to a remarkable reduction in event
propagation on Twitter follower networks. Experimental results find that the
between-network follower links, though only account for a small portion of the
total follower links, are crucial to event propagation on Twitter.


title:
A Correction Function Method for the Wave Equation with Interface Jump
  Conditions

abstract:
  In this paper a novel method to solve the constant coefficient wave equation,
subject to interface jump conditions, is presented. In general, such problems
pose issues for standard finite difference solvers, as the inherent
discontinuity in the solution results in erroneous derivative information
wherever the stencils straddle the given interface. Here, however, the recently
proposed Correction Function Method (CFM) is used, in which correction terms
are computed from the interface conditions, and added to affected nodes to
compensate for the discontinuity. In contrast to existing methods, these
corrections are not simply defined at affected nodes, but rather generalized to
a continuous function within a small region surrounding the interface. As a
result, the correction function may be defined in terms of its own governing
partial differential equation (PDE) which may be solved, in principle, to
arbitrary order of accuracy. The resulting scheme is not only arbitrarily high
order, but also robust, having already seen application to Poisson problems and
the heat equation. By extending the CFM to this new class of PDEs, the
treatment of wave interface discontinuities in homogeneous media becomes
possible. This allows, for example, for the straightforward treatment of
infinitesimal source terms and sharp boundaries, free of staircasing errors.
Additionally, new modifications to the CFM are derived, allowing compatibility
with explicit multi-step methods, such as Runge-Kutta (RK4), without a
reduction in accuracy. These results are then verified through numerous
numerical experiments in one and two spatial dimensions.


title: Fe-As bond fluctuations in a double-well potential in LaFeAsO

abstract:
  While for a long time iron based superconductors have been investigated
looking at the average crystalline structure there is now growing interest on
the divergence of local from the average structure. Here we use advanced data
analysis of EXAFS, a fast and local probe, which has key advantages compared to
crystallographic measurements, in unveiling the dynamics of the local
structure. The results show that the Fe-As pair oscillates in the double-well
potential both in undoped and in cobalt doped LaFeAsO crystals. The parameters
and the characteristics of the double-well potential are determined by curve
fits of the polarized EXAFS data. Temperature dependent Fe-As pair distribution
and tunneling frequency are derived from selected model of two potential wells.
We observe the softening of the Fe-As oscillations at the tetragonal to
orthorhombic structural phase transition at 150 K in LaFeAsO. A weak broad
softening is observed while decreasing the temperature from 70 to 40 K in
superconducting LaFe0.89Co0.11AsO which could be correlated with the onset of
short range charge density wave order.


title:
Hydrodynamics of vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates: A defect-gauge
  field approach

abstract:
  This work rectifies the hydrodynamic equations commonly used to describe the
superfluid velocity field in such a way that vortex dynamics are also taken
into account. In the field of quantum turbulence, it is of fundamental
importance to know the correct form of the equations which play similar roles
to the Navier-Stokes equation in classical turbulence. Here, such equations are
obtained by carefully taking into account the frequently overlooked multivalued
nature of the $U(1)$ phase field. Such an approach provides exact analytical
explanations to some numerically observed features involving the dynamics of
quantum vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates, such as the universal $t^{1/2}$
behavior of reconnecting vortex lines. It also expands these results beyond the
Gross-Pitaevskii theory so that some features can be generalized to other
systems such as superfluid $^{4}$He, dipolar condensates, and mixtures of
different superfluid systems.


title: The Algebra of Open and Interconnected Systems

abstract:
  Herein we develop category-theoretic tools for understanding network-style
diagrammatic languages. The archetypal network-style diagrammatic language is
that of electric circuits; other examples include signal flow graphs, Markov
processes, automata, Petri nets, chemical reaction networks, and so on. The key
feature is that the language is comprised of a number of components with
multiple (input/output) terminals, each possibly labelled with some type, that
may then be connected together along these terminals to form a larger network.
The components form hyperedges between labelled vertices, and so a diagram in
this language forms a hypergraph. We formalise the compositional structure by
introducing the notion of a hypergraph category. Network-style diagrammatic
languages and their semantics thus form hypergraph categories, and semantic
interpretation gives a hypergraph functor.
  The first part of this thesis develops the theory of hypergraph categories.
In particular, we introduce the tools of decorated cospans and corelations.
Decorated cospans allow straightforward construction of hypergraph categories
from diagrammatic languages: the inputs, outputs, and their composition are
modelled by the cospans, while the 'decorations' specify the components
themselves. Not all hypergraph categories can be constructed, however, through
decorated cospans. Decorated corelations are a more powerful version that
permits construction of all hypergraph categories and hypergraph functors.
These are often useful for constructing the semantic categories of diagrammatic
languages and functors from diagrams to the semantics. To illustrate these
principles, the second part of this thesis details applications to linear
time-invariant dynamical systems and passive linear networks.


title:
Measurement of inclusive jet cross sections in pp and PbPb collisions at
  sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

abstract:
  Inclusive jet spectra from pp and PbPb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon
center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC,
are presented. Jets are reconstructed with three different distance parameters
(R = 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) for transverse momentum (pT) greater than 70 GeV and
pseudorapidity abs(eta) < 2. Next-to-leading-order quantum chromodynamic
calculations with non-perturbative corrections are found to over-predict jet
production cross sections in pp for small distance parameters. The jet nuclear
modification factors for PbPb compared to pp collisions, show a steady decrease
from peripheral to central events, along with a weak dependence on the jet pT.
They are found to be independent of the distance parameter in the measured
kinematic range.


title:
Spatiotemporal Stochastic Modeling of IoT Enabled Cellular Networks:
  Scalability and Stability Analysis

abstract:
  The Internet of Things (IoT) is large-scale by nature, which is manifested by
the massive number of connected devices as well as their vast spatial
existence. Cellular networks, which provide ubiquitous, reliable, and efficient
wireless access, are natural candidates to provide the first-mile access for
the data tsunami to be generated by the IoT. However, cellular networks may
have scalability problems to provide uplink connectivity to massive numbers of
connected things. To characterize the scalability of cellular uplink in the
context of IoT networks, this paper develops a traffic-aware spatiotemporal
mathematical model for IoT devices supported by cellular uplink connectivity.
The developed model is based on stochastic geometry and queueing theory to
account for the traffic requirement per IoT device, the different transmission
strategies, and the mutual interference between the IoT devices. To this end,
the developed model is utilized to characterize the extent to which cellular
networks can accommodate IoT traffic as well as to assess and compare three
different transmission strategies that incorporate a combination of
transmission persistency, backoff, and power-ramping. The analysis and the
results clearly illustrate the scalability problem imposed by IoT on cellular
network and offer insights into effective scenarios for each transmission
strategy.


title: Reachability for dynamic parametric processes

abstract:
  In a dynamic parametric process every subprocess may spawn arbitrarily many,
identical child processes, that may communicate either over global variables,
or over local variables that are shared with their parent.
  We show that reachability for dynamic parametric processes is decidable under
mild assumptions. These assumptions are e.g. met if individual processes are
realized by pushdown systems, or even higher-order pushdown systems. We also
provide algorithms for subclasses of pushdown dynamic parametric processes,
with complexity ranging between NP and DEXPTIME.


title: Refined dimensions of cusp forms, and equidistribution and bias of signs

abstract:
  We refine known dimension formulas for spaces of cusp forms of squarefree
level, determining the dimension of subspaces generated by newforms both with
prescribed global root numbers and with prescribed local signs of Atkin-Lehner
operators. This yields precise results on the distribution of signs of global
functional equations and sign patterns of Atkin-Lehner eigenvalues, refining
and generalizing earlier results of Iwaniec, Luo and Sarnak. In particular, we
exhibit a strict bias towards root number +1 and a phenomenon that sign
patterns are biased in the weight but perfectly equidistributed in the level.
Another consequence is lower bounds on the number of Galois orbits.


title:
Spreading Speeds and Traveling waves of a parabolic-elliptic chemotaxis
  system with logistic source on R^N

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the spreading speeds and traveling wave solutions of
the PDE $$ \begin{cases} u_{t}= \Delta u-\chi \nabla \cdot (u \nabla v) +
u(1-u),\ \ x\in\mathbb{R}^N 0=\Delta v-v+u, \ \ x\in\mathbb{R}^N, \end{cases}
$$ where $u(x,t)$ and $v(x,t)$ represent the population and the chemoattractant
densities, respectively, and $\chi$ is the chemotaxis sensitivity. It has been
shown in an earlier work by the authors of the current paper that, when
$0<\chi<1$, for every nonnegative uniformly continuous and bounded function
$u_0(x)$, the system has a unique globally bounded classical solution
$(u(x,t;u_0),v(x,t;u_0))$ with initial condition $u(x,0;u_0)=u_0(x)$.
Furthermore, if $0<\chi<\frac{1}{2}$, then the constant steady-state solution
$(1,1)$ is asymptotically stable with respect to strictly positive
perturbations. In the current paper, we show that if $0<\chi<1$, then there are
nonnegative constants $c_{-}^*(\chi)\leq c_+^*(\chi)$ such that for every
nonnegative initial function $u_0(\cdot)$ with nonempty compact support $$
\lim_{t\to\infty} \sup_{|x|\le ct} \big[|u(x,t;u_0)-1|+|v(x,t;u_0)-1|\big]=0\ \
\forall\ 0<c<c_{-}^*(\chi) $$ and $$ \lim_{t\to\infty}\sup_{|x|\geq ct} \big[
u(x,t;u_0)+v(x,t;u_0)\big]=0\ \ \forall\ c>c_{+}^*(\chi).$$ We also show that
if $0<\chi<\frac{1}{2}$, there is a positive constant $c^*(\chi)$ such that for
every $c\ge c^*(\chi)$, the system has a traveling wave solution
$(u(x,t),v(x,t))$ with speed $c$ and connecting $(1,1)$ and $(0,0)$, that is,
$(u(x,t),v(x,t))=(U(x-ct),V(x-ct))$ for some functions $U(\cdot)$ and
$V(\cdot)$ satisfying $(U(-\infty),V(-\infty))=(1,1)$ and
$(U(\infty),V(\infty))=(0,0)$. Moreover, $$ \lim_{\chi\to
0}c^*(\chi)=\lim_{\chi\to 0}c_+^*(\chi)=\lim_{\chi\to 0}c_-^*(\chi)=2. $$ We
first give a detailed study in the case $N=1$ and next we extend these results
to the case $N\ge 2$.


title: ADAGIO: Fast Data-aware Near-Isometric Linear Embeddings

abstract:
  Many important applications, including signal reconstruction, parameter
estimation, and signal processing in a compressed domain, rely on a
low-dimensional representation of the dataset that preserves {\em all} pairwise
distances between the data points and leverages the inherent geometric
structure that is typically present. Recently Hedge, Sankaranarayanan, Yin and
Baraniuk \cite{hedge2015} proposed the first data-aware near-isometric linear
embedding which achieves the best of both worlds. However, their method NuMax
does not scale to large-scale datasets.
  Our main contribution is a simple, data-aware, near-isometric linear
dimensionality reduction method which significantly outperforms a
state-of-the-art method \cite{hedge2015} with respect to scalability while
achieving high quality near-isometries. Furthermore, our method comes with
strong worst-case theoretical guarantees that allow us to guarantee the quality
of the obtained near-isometry. We verify experimentally the efficiency of our
method on numerous real-world datasets, where we find that our method ($<$10
secs) is more than 3\,000$\times$ faster than the state-of-the-art method
\cite{hedge2015} ($>$9 hours) on medium scale datasets with 60\,000 data points
in 784 dimensions. Finally, we use our method as a preprocessing step to
increase the computational efficiency of a classification application and for
speeding up approximate nearest neighbor queries.


title:
Quantum dynamics of a macroscopic magnet operating as environment of a
  mechanical oscillator

abstract:
  We study the dynamics of a bipartite quantum system in a way such that its
formal description keeps holding even if one of its parts becomes macroscopic:
the problem is related with the analysis of the quantum-to-classical crossover,
but our approach implies that the whole system stays genuinely quantum. Aim of
the work is to understand 1) if, 2) to what extent, and possibly 3) how, the
evolution of a macroscopic environment testifies to the coupling with its
microscopic quantum companion. To this purpose we consider a magnetic
environment made of a large number of spin-1/2 particles, coupled with a
quantum mechanical oscillator, possibly in the presence of an external magnetic
field. We take the value of the total environmental-spin S constant and large,
which allows us to consider the environment as one single macroscopic system,
and further deal with the hurdles of the spin-algebra via approximations that
are valid in the large-S limit. We find an insightful expression for the
propagator of the whole system, where we identify an effective "back-action"
term, i.e. an operator acting on the magnetic environment only, and yet missing
in the absence of the quantum principal system. This operator emerges as a
time-dependent magnetic anisotropy whose character, whether uniaxial or planar,
also depends on the detuning between the level-splitting in the spectrum of the
free magnetic system, induced by the possible presence of the external field,
and the frequency of the oscillator. The time-dependence of the anisotropy is
analysed, and its effects on the dynamics of the magnet, as well as its
relation with the entangling evolution of the overall system, are discussed.


title:
Evidence for a systematic offset of $-$0.25 mas in the Gaia DR1
  parallaxes

abstract:
  We test the parallaxes reported in the Gaia first data release using the
sample of eclipsing binaries with accurate, empirical distances from Stassun \&
Torres (2016). We find an average offset of $-$0.25$\pm$0.05 mas in the sense
of the Gaia parallaxes being too small (i.e., the distances too long). The
offset does not depend strongly on obvious parameters such as color or
brightness. However, we find with high confidence that the offset may depend on
ecliptic latitude: the mean offset is $-$0.38$\pm$0.06 mas in the ecliptic
north and $-$0.05$\pm$0.09 mas in the ecliptic south. The ecliptic latitude
dependence may also be represented by the linear relation, $\Delta\pi \approx
-0.22(\pm0.05) -0.003(\pm0.001)\times\beta$ mas ($\beta$ in degrees). Finally,
there is a possible dependence of the parallax offset on distance, with the
offset becoming negligible for $\pi\lesssim 1$ mas; we discuss whether this
could be caused by a systematic error in the eclipsing binary distance scale,
and reject this interpretation as unlikely.


title:
Search for narrow resonances in dilepton mass spectra in proton-proton
  collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV and combination with 8 TeV data

abstract:
  A search for narrow resonances in dielectron and dimuon invariant mass
spectra has been performed using data obtained from proton-proton collisions at
sqrt(s) = 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector. The integrated luminosity for
the dielectron sample is 2.7 inverse femtobarns and for the dimuon sample 2.9
inverse femtobarns. The sensitivity of the search is increased by combining
these data with a previously analysed set of data obtained at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV
and corresponding to a luminosity of 20 inverse femtobarns. No evidence for
non-standard-model physics is found, either in the 13 TeV data set alone, or in
the combined data set. Upper limits on the product of production cross section
and branching fraction have also been calculated in a model-independent manner
to enable interpretation in models predicting a narrow dielectron or dimuon
resonance structure. Limits are set on the masses of hypothetical particles
that could appear in new-physics scenarios. For the Z'[SSM] particle, which
arises in the sequential standard model, and for the superstring inspired
Z'[psi] particle, 95% confidence level lower mass limits for the combined data
sets and combined channels are found to be 3.37 and 2.82 TeV, respectively. The
corresponding limits for Kaluza-Klein gravitons arising in the Randall-Sundrum
model of extra dimensions with coupling parameters 0.01 and 0.10 are 1.46 and
3.11 TeV, respectively. These results significantly exceed the limits based on
the 8 TeV LHC data.


title:
Unsteady rotating laminar flow: analytical solution of Navier-Stokes
  equations

abstract:
  We provide a integration of Navier-Stokes equations concerning the
unsteady-state laminar flow of an incompressible, isothermal (newtonian) fluid
in a cylindrical vessel spinning about its symmetry axis, say $z$, and inside
which the liquid velocity starts with a non-zero axial component as well. Basic
physical assumptions are that the pressure axial gradient keeps itself on its
hydrostatic value and that no radial velocity exists. In such a way the PDEs
become uncoupled and can be faced separately from each other. We succeed in
computing both the unsteady velocities, i.e. the axial $v_z$ and the
circumferential $v_\theta$ as well, by means of infinite series expansions of
Fourier-Bessel type under time exponential damping. Following this, we also
find the unsteady surfaces of dynamical equilibrium, the wall shear stress and
the Stokesian streamlines


title:
Study of Buffer-Aided Distributed Space-Time Coding for Cooperative
  Wireless Networks

abstract:
  This work proposes adaptive buffer-aided distributed space-time coding
schemes and algorithms with feedback for wireless networks equipped with
buffer-aided relays. The proposed schemes employ a maximum likelihood receiver
at the destination and adjustable codes subject to a power constraint with an
amplify-and-forward cooperative strategy at the relays. Each relay is equipped
with a buffer and is capable of storing blocks of received symbols and
forwarding the data to the destination if selected. Different antenna
configurations and wireless channels, such as static block fading channels, are
considered. The effects of using buffer-aided relays to improve the bit error
rate (BER) performance are also studied. Adjustable relay selection and
optimization algorithms that exploit the extra degrees of freedom of relays
equipped with buffers are developed to improve the BER performance. We also
analyze the pairwise error probability and diversity of the system when using
the proposed schemes and algorithms in a cooperative network. Simulation
results show that the proposed schemes and algorithms obtain performance gains
over previously reported techniques.


title:
Predicting Future Shanghai Stock Market Price using ANN in the Period
  21-Sep-2016 to 11-Oct-2016

abstract:
  Predicting the prices of stocks at any stock market remains a quest for many
investors and researchers. Those who trade at the stock market tend to use
technical, fundamental or time series analysis in their predictions. These
methods usually guide on trends and not the exact likely prices. It is for this
reason that Artificial Intelligence systems, such as Artificial Neural Network,
that is feedforward multi-layer perceptron with error backpropagation, can be
used for such predictions. A difficulty in neural network application is the
determination of suitable network parameters. A previous research by the author
already determined the network parameters as 5:21:21:1 with 80% training data
or 4-year of training data as a good enough model for stock prediction. This
model has been put to the test in predicting selected Shanghai Stock Exchange
stocks in the future period of 21-Sep-2016 to 11-Oct-2016, about one week after
the publication of these predictions. The research aims at confirming that
simple neural network systems can be quite powerful in typical stock market
predictions.


title: Quantum speed limit vs. classical displacement energy

abstract:
  We discuss a link between symplectic displacement energy, a fundamental
notion of symplectic topology, and the quantum speed limit, a universal
constraint on the speed of quantum-mechanical processes. The link is provided
by the quantum-classical correspondence formalized within the framework of the
Berezin-Toeplitz quantization.


title: A Deep Metric for Multimodal Registration

abstract:
  Multimodal registration is a challenging problem in medical imaging due the
high variability of tissue appearance under different imaging modalities. The
crucial component here is the choice of the right similarity measure. We make a
step towards a general learning-based solution that can be adapted to specific
situations and present a metric based on a convolutional neural network. Our
network can be trained from scratch even from a few aligned image pairs. The
metric is validated on intersubject deformable registration on a dataset
different from the one used for training, demonstrating good generalization. In
this task, we outperform mutual information by a significant margin.


title: Global Steady Prandtl Expansion Over a Moving Boundary

abstract:
  In this three-part monograph, we prove that steady, incompressible
Navier-Stokes flows posed over the moving boundary, $y = 0$, can be decomposed
into Euler and Prandtl flows in the inviscid limit globally in $[1,\infty)
\times [0,\infty)$, assuming a sufficiently small velocity mismatch. Sharp
decay rates and self-similar asymptotics are extracted for both Prandtl and
Eulerian layers. We then develop a functional framework to capture precise
decay rates of the remainders, and prove the corresponding embedding theorems
by establishing weighted estimates for their higher order tangential
derivatives. These tools are then used in conjunction with a third order energy
analysis, which in particular enables us to control the nonlinearity $vu_y$
globally.


title:
The Kepler Cepheid V1154 Cyg revisited: light curve modulation and
  detection of granulation

abstract:
  We present a detailed analysis of the bright Cepheid-type variable star V1154
Cygni using 4 years of continuous observations by the Kepler space telescope.
We detected 28 frequencies using standard Fourier transform method.We
identified modulation of the main pulsation frequency and its harmonics with a
period of ~159 d. This modulation is also present in the Fourier parameters of
the light curve and the O-C diagram. We detected another modulation with a
period of about 1160 d. The star also shows significant power in the
low-frequency region that we identified as granulation noise. The effective
timescale of the granulation agrees with the extrapolated scalings of red giant
stars. Non-detection of solar-like oscillations indicates that the pulsation
inhibits other oscillations. We obtained new radial velocity observations which
are in a perfect agreement with previous years data, suggesting that there is
no high mass star companion of V1154 Cygni. Finally, we discuss the possible
origin of the detected frequency modulations.


title:
Evaluating Trajectory Collision Probability through Adaptive Importance
  Sampling for Safe Motion Planning

abstract:
  This paper presents a tool for addressing a key component in many algorithms
for planning robot trajectories under uncertainty: evaluation of the safety of
a robot whose actions are governed by a closed-loop feedback policy near a
nominal planned trajectory. We describe an adaptive importance sampling Monte
Carlo framework that enables the evaluation of a given control policy for
satisfaction of a probabilistic collision avoidance constraint which also
provides an associated certificate of accuracy (in the form of a confidence
interval). In particular this adaptive technique is well-suited to addressing
the complexities of rigid-body collision checking applied to non-linear robot
dynamics. As a Monte Carlo method it is amenable to parallelization for
computational tractability, and is generally applicable to a wide gamut of
simulatable systems, including alternative noise models. Numerical experiments
demonstrating the effectiveness of the adaptive importance sampling procedure
are presented and discussed.


title:
Compact wavelength add-drop multiplexers using Bragg gratings in coupled
  dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides

abstract:
  We report a novel design of a compact wavelength add-drop multiplexer
utilizing dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs). The
DLSPPW-based configuration exploits routing properties of directional couplers
and filtering abilities of Bragg gratings. We present practical realization of
a 20-$\mu$m-long device operating at telecom wavelengths that can reroute
optical signals separated by approximately 70 nm in the wavelength band. We
characterize the performance of the fabricated structures using scanning
near-field optical microscopy as well as leakage-radiation microscopy and
support our findings with numerical simulations.


title:
Applications of Data Mining (DM) in Science and Engineering: State of
  the art and perspectives

abstract:
  The continuous increase in the availability of data of any kind, coupled with
the development of networks of high-speed communications, the popularization of
cloud computing and the growth of data centers and the emergence of
high-performance computing does essential the task to develop techniques that
allow more efficient data processing and analyzing of large volumes datasets
and extraction of valuable information. In the following pages we will discuss
about development of this field in recent decades, and its potential and
applicability present in the various branches of scientific research. Also, we
try to review briefly the different families of algorithms that are included in
data mining research area, its scalability with increasing dimensionality of
the input data and how they can be addressed and what behavior different
methods in a scenario in which the information is distributed or decentralized
processed so as to increment performance optimization in heterogeneous
environments.


title:
Understanding Stability of Noisy Networks through Centrality Measures
  and Local Connections

abstract:
  Networks created from real-world data contain some inaccuracies or noise,
manifested as small changes in the network structure. An important question is
whether these small changes can significantly affect the analysis results. In
this paper, we study the effect of noise in changing ranks of the high
centrality vertices. We compare, using the Jaccard Index (JI), how many of the
top-k high centrality nodes from the original network are also part of the
top-k ranked nodes from the noisy network. We deem a network as stable if the
JI value is high. We observe two features that affect the stability. First, the
stability is dependent on the number of top-ranked vertices considered. When
the vertices are ordered according to their centrality values, they group into
clusters. Perturbations to the network can change the relative ranking within
the cluster, but vertices rarely move from one cluster to another. Second, the
stability is dependent on the local connections of the high ranking vertices.
The network is highly stable if the high ranking vertices are connected to each
other. Our findings show that the stability of a network is affected by the
local properties of high centrality vertices, rather than the global properties
of the entire network. Based on these local properties we can identify the
stability of a network, without explicitly applying a noise model.


title: F-Noetherian Rings and Skew Quantum Ring Extensions

abstract:
  A ring R shall be called F-noetherian if every finite subset of R is
contained in a (left and right) noetherian subring of R . For example, every
commutative ring is tightly F-noetherian in the sense that every finite subset
of R generates a noetherian subring of R .
  F-noetherian rings have many interesting linear algebra properties which we
refer to as the full strong rank condition, fully stably finite, and more
generally the basic condition. We also study some basic ring-theoretic
properties of F-noetherian rings such as localizations of F-noetherian rings.
  The F-noetherian property is preserved under some \emph{skew} quantum ring
extensions including some iterated Ore extensions, some skew-Laurent
extensions, and some quantum almost-normalizing extensions. For example, let R=
S[ x_1, ..., x_n ] be a finitely generated ring \textit {over a subring S} such
that (1) for i < j,
  \[ x_j x_i -q_{ji} x_i x_j \in S [ x_1, ..., x_{j-1}] + Sx_j \] for some
units q_{ji} \in S, (2) for all i, Sx_i +S= S+ x_i S, and (3) each x_i commutes
with a subring A of S such that S is finitely generated as a ring over A .
Then, if S is F-noetherian, so is R .
  We also discuss some skew quadratic extensions related to the quantum group
\mathcal{O}_q(G) where G is a connected complex semisimple algebraic group.
Finally, we show many examples and some generalizations of some quantum groups
like \mathcal{O}_q(M_n(k)) over an F-noetherian ring k where each variable
x_{ij} \textit{may not commute} with the elements of k .


title:
Robust Partial Quadratic Eigenvalue Assignment Problem: Spectrum
  Sensitivity Approach

abstract:
  We propose an optimization approach to the solution of the partial quadratic
eigenvalue assignment problem (PQEVAP) for active vibration control design with
robustness (RPQEVAP). The proposed cost function is based on the concept of
sensitivities over the sum and the product of the closed-loop eigenvalues,
introduced recently in our paper. Explicit gradient formula for the solutions
using state feedback and derivative feedback are derived as functions of a free
parameter. These formulas are then used to build algorithms to solve RPQEVAP in
a numerically efficient way, with no need to compute new eigenvectors, for both
state feedback and state-derivative feedback designs. Numerical experiments are
carried out in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithms and to
compare the proposed method with other methods in the literature, thus showing
its effectiveness.


title:
Influence of apical oxygen on the extent of in-plane exchange
  interaction in cuprate superconductors

abstract:
  In high Tc superconductors the magnetic and electronic properties are
determined by the probability that valence electrons virtually jump from site
to site in the CuO2 planes, a mechanism opposed by on-site Coulomb repulsion
and favored by hopping integrals. The spatial extent of the latter is related
to transport properties, including superconductivity, and to the dispersion
relation of spin excitations (magnons). Here, for three antiferromagnetic
parent compounds (single-layer Bi2Sr0.99La1.1CuO6+delta, double-layer
Nd1.2Ba1.8Cu3O6 and infinite-layer CaCuO2) differing by the number of apical
atoms, we compare the magnetic spectra measured by resonant inelastic x-ray
scattering over a significant portion of the reciprocal space and with
unprecedented accuracy. We observe that the absence of apical oxygens increases
the in-plane hopping range and, in CaCuO2, it leads to a genuine 3D
exchange-bond network. These results establish a corresponding relation between
the exchange interactions and the crystal structure, and provide fresh insight
into the materials dependence of the superconducting transition temperature.


title: Picard groups of b-symplectic manifolds

abstract:
  We compute the Picard group of a stable b-symplectic manifold $M$ by
introducing a collection of discrete invariants $\mathfrak{Gr}$ which classify
$M$ up to Morita equivalence.


title:
Preconditioned steepest descent-like methods for symmetric indefinite
  systems

abstract:
  This paper addresses the question of what exactly is an analogue of the
preconditioned steepest descent (PSD) algorithm in the case of a symmetric
indefinite system with an SPD preconditioner. We show that a basic PSD-like
scheme for an SPD-preconditioned symmetric indefinite system is mathematically
equivalent to the restarted PMINRES, where restarts occur after every two
steps. A convergence bound is derived. If certain information on the spectrum
of the preconditioned system is available, we present a simpler PSD-like
algorithm that performs only one-dimensional residual minimization. Our primary
goal is to bridge the theoretical gap between optimal (PMINRES) and PSD-like
methods for solving symmetric indefinite systems, as well as point out
situations where the PSD-like schemes can be used in practice.


title:
Comment on "Communication: Simple and accurate uniform electron gas
  correlation energy for the full range of densities" [J. Chem. Phys. 145,
  021101 (2016)]

abstract:
  A simple expression for the uniform electron gas (UEG) correlation energy,
recently presented in Ref. [J. Chem. Phys. 145, 021101 (2016)], deviates from
the reference quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) data at large r_s. We propose to define
one of the parameters from a requirement to match the large-rs QMC data.
Functional with the new parameter provides much better agreement with the QMC
data at large r_s without deterioration of the functional quality at small and
intermediate r_s.


title:
Combinatorial Sums $\sum_{k\equiv r(\mbox{mod} m)}{n\choose k}a^k$ and
  Lucas Quotients (II)

abstract:
  In [16], we obtained some congruences for Lucas quotients of two infinite
families of Lucas sequences by studying the combinatorial sum $$\sum_{k\equiv
r(\mbox{mod}m)}{n\choose k}a^k.$$ In this paper, we show that the sum can be
expressed in terms of some recurrent sequences with orders not exceeding
$\varphi{(m)}$ and give some new congruences.


title: A new integrable equation valued on a Cayley-Dickson algebra

abstract:
  We introduce a new integrable equation valued on a Cayley-Dickson (C-D)
algebra. In the particular case in which the algebra reduces to the complex one
the new interacting term in the equation cancells and the equation becomes the
known Korteweg-de Vries equation. For each C-D algebra the equation has an
infinite sequence of local conserved quantities. We obtain a B\"{a}cklund
transformation in the sense of Walhquist-Estabrook for the equation for any
Cayley-Dickson algebra, and relate it to a generalized Gardner equation. From
it, the infinite sequence of conserved quantities follows directly. We give the
explicit expression for the first few of them. From the B\"{a}cklund
transformation we get the Lax pair and the one-soliton and two-soliton
solutions generalizing the known solutions for the quaternion valued KdV
equation. From the Gardner equation we obtain the generalized modified KdV
equation which also has an infinite sequence of conserved quantities. The new
integrable equation is preserved under a subgroup of the automorphisms of the
C-D algebra. In the particular case of the algebra of octonions, the equation
is invariant under $SU(3)$.


title: Determinacy from strong compactness of $\omega_1$

abstract:
  In the absence of the Axiom of Choice, the "small" cardinal $\omega_1$ can
exhibit properties more usually associated with large cardinals, such as strong
compactness and supercompactness. For a local version of strong compactness, we
say that $\omega_1$ is $X$-strongly compact (where $X$ is any set) if there is
a fine, countably complete measure on $\mathcal{P}_{\omega_1}(X)$. Working in
$\mathsf{ZF} + \mathsf{DC}$, we prove that the $\mathcal{P}(\omega_1)$-strong
compactness and $\mathcal{P}(\mathbb{R})$-strong compactness of $\omega_1$ are
equiconsistent with $\mathsf{AD}$ and $\mathsf{AD}_\mathbb{R} + \mathsf{DC}$
respectively, where $\mathsf{AD}$ denotes the Axiom of Determinacy and
$\mathsf{AD}_\mathbb{R}$ denotes the Axiom of Real Determinacy. The
$\mathcal{P}(\mathbb{R})$-supercompactness of $\omega_1$ is shown to be
slightly stronger than $\mathsf{AD}_\mathbb{R} + \mathsf{DC}$, but its
consistency strength is not computed precisely. An equiconsistency result at
the level of $\mathsf{AD}_\mathbb{R}$ without $\mathsf{DC}$ is also obtained.


title: A solar flare disturbing a light wall above a sunspot light bridge

abstract:
  With the high-resolution data from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph,
we detect a light wall above a sunspot light bridge in the NOAA active region
(AR) 12403. In the 1330 A slit-jaw images, the light wall is brighter than the
ambient areas while the wall top and base are much brighter than the wall body,
and it keeps oscillating above the light bridge. A C8.0 flare caused by a
filament activation occurred in this AR with the peak at 02:52 UT on 2015
August 28, and the flare's one ribbon overlapped the light bridge which was the
observational base of the light wall. Consequently, the oscillation of the
light wall was evidently disturbed. The mean projective oscillation amplitude
of the light wall increased from 0.5 Mm to 1.6 Mm before the flare, and
decreased to 0.6 Mm after the flare. We suggest that the light wall shares a
group of magnetic field lines with the flare loops, which undergo a magnetic
reconnection process, and they constitute a coupled system. When the magnetic
field lines are pushed upwards at the pre-flare stage, the light wall turns to
the vertical direction, resulting in the increase of the light wall's
projective oscillation amplitude. After the magnetic reconnection takes place,
a group of new field lines with smaller scales are formed underneath the
reconnection site and the light wall inclines. Thus, the projective amplitude
decreases remarkably at the post-flare stage.


title:
Stereotypes in Search Engine Results: Understanding The Role of Local
  and Global Factors

abstract:
  The internet has been blurring the lines between local and global cultures,
affecting in different ways the perception of people about themselves and
others. In the global context of the internet, search engine platforms are a
key mediator between individuals and information. In this paper, we examine the
local and global impact of the internet on the formation of female physical
attractiveness stereotypes in search engine results. By investigating datasets
of images collected from two major search engines in 42 countries, we identify
a significant fraction of replicated images. We find that common images are
clustered around countries with the same language. We also show that existence
of common images among countries is practically eliminated when the queries are
limited to local sites. In summary, we show evidence that results from search
engines are biased towards the language used to query the system, which leads
to certain attractiveness stereotypes that are often quite different from the
majority of the female population of the country.


title: Topological nodal line semimetals

abstract:
  We review the recent, mainly theoretical, progress in the study of
topological nodal line semimetals in three dimensions. In these semimetals, the
conduction and the valence bands cross each other along a one-dimensional curve
in the three-dimensional Brillouin zone, and any perturbation that preserves a
certain symmetry group (generated by either spatial symmetries or time-reversal
symmetry) cannot remove this crossing line and open a full direct gap between
the two bands. The nodal line(s) is hence topologically protected by the
symmetry group, and can be associated with a topological invariant. In this
Review, (i) we enumerate the symmetry groups that may protect a topological
nodal line; (ii) we write down the explicit form of the topological invariant
for each of these symmetry groups in terms of the wave functions on the Fermi
surface, establishing a topological classification; (iii) for certain classes,
we review the proposals for the realization of these semimetals in real
materials and (iv) we discuss different scenarios that when the protecting
symmetry is broken, how a topological nodal line semimetal becomes Weyl
semimetals, Dirac semimetals and other topological phases and (v) we discuss
the possible physical effects accessible to experimental probes in these
materials.


title:
Chandra ACIS Survey of X-ray Point Sources in Nearby Galaxies. II. X-ray
  Luminosity Functions and Ultraluminous X-ray Sources

abstract:
  Based on the recently completed {\it Chandra}/ACIS survey of X-ray point
sources in nearby galaxies, we study the X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) for
X-ray point sources in different types of galaxies and the statistical
properties of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). Uniform procedures are
developed to compute the detection threshold, to estimate the
foreground/background contamination, and to calculate the XLFs for individual
galaxies and groups of galaxies, resulting in an XLF library for 343 galaxies
of different types. With the large number of surveyed galaxies, we have studied
the XLFs and ULX properties across different host galaxy types, and confirm
with good statistics that the XLF slope flattens from lenticular
($\alpha\sim1.50\pm0.07$) to elliptical ($\sim1.21\pm0.02$), to spirals
($\sim0.80\pm0.02$), to peculiars ($\sim0.55\pm0.30$), and to irregulars
($\sim0.26\pm0.10$). The XLF break dividing the neutron star and black hole
binaries is also confirmed, albeit at quite different break luminosities for
different types of galaxies. A radial dependency is found for ellipticals, with
a flatter XLF slope for sources located between $D_{25}$ and 2$D_{25}$,
suggesting the XLF slopes in the outer region of early-type galaxies are
dominated by low-mass X-ray binaries in globular clusters. This study shows
that the ULX rate in early-type galaxies is $0.24\pm0.05$ ULXs per surveyed
galaxy, on a $5\sigma$ confidence level. The XLF for ULXs in late-type galaxies
extends smoothly until it drops abruptly around $4\times10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$,
and this break may suggest a mild boundary between the stellar black hole
population possibly including 30 $M_\odot$ black holes with super-Eddington
radiation and intermediate mass black holes.


title:
Semiclassical soliton ensembles for the three-wave resonant interaction
  equations

abstract:
  The three-wave resonant interaction equations are a non-dispersive system of
partial differential equations with quadratic coupling describing the time
evolution of the complex amplitudes of three resonant wave modes. Collisions of
wave packets induce energy transfer between different modes via pumping and
decay. We analyze the collision of two or three packets in the semiclassical
limit by applying the inverse-scattering transform. Using WKB analysis, we
construct an associated semiclassical soliton ensemble, a family of
reflectionless solutions defined through their scattering data, intended to
accurately approximate the initial data in the semiclassical limit. The map
from the initial packets to the soliton ensemble is explicit and amenable to
asymptotic and numerical analysis. Plots of the soliton ensembles indicate the
space-time plane is partitioned into regions containing either quiescent,
slowly varying, or rapidly oscillatory waves. This behavior resembles the
well-known generation of dispersive shock waves in equations such as the
Korteweg-de Vries and nonlinear Schrodinger equations, although the physical
mechanism must be different in the absence of dispersion.


title:
Evaluation of blackbody radiation shift with temperature associated
  fractional uncertainty at 10E-18 level for 40Ca+ ion optical clock

abstract:
  In this paper, blackbody radiation (BBR) temperature rise seen by the
$^{40}$Ca$^+$ ion confined in a miniature Paul trap and its uncertainty have
been evaluated via finite-element method (FEM) modelling. The FEM model was
validated by comparing with thermal camera measurements, which were calibrated
by PT1000 resistance thermometer, at several points on a dummy trap. The input
modelling parameters were analyzed carefully in detail, and their contributions
to the uncertainty of environment temperature were evaluated on the validated
FEM model. The result shows that the temperature rise seen by $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ion
is 1.72 K with an uncertainty of 0.46 K. It results in a contribution of 2.2
mHz to the systematic uncertainty of $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ion optical clock,
corresponding to a fractional uncertainty 5.4$\times$10$^{-18}$. This is much
smaller than the uncertainty caused by the BBR shift coefficient, which is
evaluated to be 4.8 mHz and at 10$^{-17}$ level in fractional frequency units.


title:
Nonhomogeneous Boundary Value Problems of Nonlinear Schr\"odinger
  Equations in a Half Plane

abstract:
  This paper discusses the initial-boundary-value problems (IBVP) of nonlinear
Schr\"odinger equations posed in a half plane $\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^+$
with nonhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. For any given $s \ge 0$, if
the initial data $\varphi (x, y)$ are in Sobolev space $H^s(\mathbb{R}\times
\mathbb{R}^+) $ with the boundary data $ h ( x, t) $ in an optimal space ${\cal
H}^s(0,T)$ as defined in the introduction, which is slightly weaker than the
space $$H^{(2s+1)/4}_{t} ([0, T]; L_x^2(\mathbb{R} ) ) \cap L^2_t ( [ 0, T];
H^{s+ 1/2} _x ( \mathbb{R} ) ),$$ the local well-posedness of the IBVP in $ C (
[0, T] ; H^s ( \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^+ ) )$ is proved. The global
well-posedness is also discussed for $s = 1$. The main idea of the proof is to
derive a boundary integral operator for the corresponding nonhomogeneous
boundary condition and obtain the Strichartz's estimates for this operator. The
results presented in the paper hold for the IBVP posed in a half space $
\mathbb{R}^n\times \mathbb{R}^+$ with any $n>1$.


title: Enumeration of cubic Cayley graphs on dihedral groups

abstract:
  Let $p$ be an odd prime, and $D_{2p}=\langle a,b\mid
a^p=b^2=1,bab=a^{-1}\rangle$ the dihedral group of order $2p$. In this paper,
we completely classify the cubic Cayley graphs on $D_{2p}$ up to isomorphism by
means of spectral method. By the way, we show that two cubic Cayley graphs on
$D_{2p}$ are isomorphic if and only if they are cospectral. Moreover, we obtain
the number of isomorphic classes of cubic Cayley graphs on $D_{2p}$ by using
Gauss' celebrated law of quadratic reciprocity.


title: Pose from Action: Unsupervised Learning of Pose Features based on Motion

abstract:
  Human actions are comprised of a sequence of poses. This makes videos of
humans a rich and dense source of human poses. We propose an unsupervised
method to learn pose features from videos that exploits a signal which is
complementary to appearance and can be used as supervision: motion. The key
idea is that humans go through poses in a predictable manner while performing
actions. Hence, given two poses, it should be possible to model the motion that
caused the change between them. We represent each of the poses as a feature in
a CNN (Appearance ConvNet) and generate a motion encoding from optical flow
maps using a separate CNN (Motion ConvNet). The data for this task is
automatically generated allowing us to train without human supervision. We
demonstrate the strength of the learned representation by finetuning the
trained model for Pose Estimation on the FLIC dataset, for static image action
recognition on PASCAL and for action recognition in videos on UCF101 and
HMDB51.


title:
Spintronics Detection of Interfacial Magnetic Switching in a
  Paramagnetic Tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)iron(III) Thin Film

abstract:
  Organic semiconductors find increasing importance in spin transport devices
due to the modulation and control of their properties through chemical
synthetic versatility. The organic materials are used as interlayers between
two ferromagnet (FM) electrodes in organic spin valves (OSV), as well as for
magnetic spin manipulation of metal-organic complexes at the molecular level.
In the latter, specifically, the substrate-induced magnetic switching in a
paramagnetic molecule has been evoked extensively, but studied by delicate
surface spectroscopies. Here we present evidence of the substantial magnetic
switching in a nanosized thin film of the paramagnetic molecule,
tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)iron(III) (Feq3) deposited on a FM substrate, using the
magnetoresistance response of electrical spin-injection in an OSV structure,
and the inverse-spin-Hall effect induced by state-of-art pulsed microwave
spin-pumping. We show that interfacial spin control at the molecular level may
lead to a macroscopic organic spin transport device, thus, bridging the gap
between organic spintronics and molecular spintronics.


title:
Large deviations for Gibbs measures with singular Hamiltonians and
  emergence of Kahler-Einstein metrics

abstract:
  In the present paper and the companion paper [9] a probabilistic
(statistical-mechanical) approach to the construction of canonical metrics on a
complex algebraic varieties X is introduced, by sampling "temperature deformed"
determinantal point processes. The main new ingredient is a large deviation
principle for Gibbs measures with singular Hamiltonians, which is proved in the
present paper. As an application we show that the unique Kahler-Einstein metric
with negative Ricci curvature on a canonically polarized algebraic manifold X
emerges in the many particle limit of the canonical point processes on X. In
the companion paper [9] the extension to algebraic varieties X with positive
Kodaira dimension is given and a conjectural picture relating negative
temperature states to the existence problem for Kahler-Einstein metrics with
positive Ricci curvature is developed.


title:
An adaptive numerical method for free surface flows passing rigidly
  mounted obstacles

abstract:
  The paper develops a method for the numerical simulation of a free-surface
flow of incompressible viscous fluid around a streamlined body. The body is a
rigid stationary construction partially submerged in the fluid. The application
we are interested in the paper is a flow around a surface mounted offshore oil
platform. The numerical method builds on a hybrid finite volume / finite
difference discretization using adaptive octree cubic meshes. The mesh is
dynamically refined towards the free surface and the construction. Special care
is taken to devise a discretization for the case of curvilinear boundaries and
interfaces immersed in the octree Cartesian background computational mesh. To
demonstrate the accuracy of the method, we show the results for two benchmark
problems: the sloshing 3D container and the channel laminar flow passing the 3D
cylinder of circular cross-section. Further, we simulate numerically a flow
with surface waves around an offshore oil platform for the realistic set of
geophysical data.


title: Recent Heavy Flavor Results Utilizing the FVTX in PHENIX at RHIC

abstract:
  Heavy flavor and quarkona production are important hard probes to test the
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and measure the properties of the Quark Gluon
Plasma (QGP) created in high energy heavy ion collisions. The new PHENIX mid-
and forward-rapidity silicon vertex detectors provide precise Distance of
Closest Approach (DCA) determination, allowing charm and bottom yields
identification, and improve di-muon mass resolution for charmonia studies. The
relative $\psi(2S)$ over $J/\psi$(1S) yields measured in $p$+$p$, $p$+Al and
$p$+Au data at $\sqrt{s}=$200 GeV help us to understand final state effects on
the charmonia production. Direct access to B-meson production has been enabled
via measurements of non-prompt $J/\psi \to \mu^{+} + \mu^{-}$ in $p$+$p$
collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 510$ GeV and Cu+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$
GeV. The fraction of B-meson decays in J/$\psi$ yields in the $p$+$p$
measurement agrees with higher energy results from Tevatron and LHC. This
fraction is enhanced in Cu+Au collisions suggesting the B-meson yield is not
modified by the medium whereas J/$\psi$ is strongly suppressed.


title:
Search for Two-Photon Interaction with Axionlike Particles Using
  High-Repetition Pulsed Magnets and Synchrotron X Rays

abstract:
  We report on new results of a search for two-photon interaction with
axionlike particles (ALPs). The experiment was carried out at a synchrotron
radiation facility using a "light shining through a wall (LSW)" technique. For
this purpose, we have developed a novel pulsed-magnet system, composed of
multiple racetrack-magnets and a transportable power supply. It produces fields
of about 10 T over 0.8 m with a high repetition rate of 0.2 Hz and yields a new
method of probing vacuum with high intensity fields. The data obtained with a
total of 27,676 pulses provide a limit on the ALP-two-photon coupling constant
that is more stringent by a factor of 5.2 compared to a previous x-ray LSW
limit for the ALP mass below 0.1 eV.


title:
Nanoantenna enhanced radiative and anisotropic decay rates in
  monolayer-quantum dots

abstract:
  Nanoantenna enhanced ultrafast emission from colloidal quantum dots as
quantum emitters is required for fast quantum communications. On chip
integration of such devices require a scalable and high throughput technology.
We report self-assembly lithography technique of preparing hybrid of
gold-nanorods antenna over a com- pact CdSe quantum dot monolayer. We
demonstrate resonant and off resonant gold nanorod antenna enhanced radiative
and anisotropic decay. Extensive simulations explain the mechanism of the decay
rates and the role of antenna in both random and a compact monolayer of quantum
dots. The study could find applications in quantum dots display and quantum
communications devices.


title: Quantum Transport in Presence of Bound States -- Noise Power

abstract:
  The impact of bound states in Landauer-Buttiker scattering approach to
non-equilibrium quantum transport is investigated. We show that the noise power
at frequency $\nu$ is sensitive to all bound states with energies $\omega_b$
satisfying $|\omega_b| < \nu$. We derive the exact expression of the bound
state contribution and compare it to the one produced by the scattering states
alone. It turns out that the bound states lead to specific modifications of
both space and frequency dependence of the total noise power. The theoretical
and experimental consequences of this result are discussed.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.str-el math-ph math.MP


title:
Bounds for the extremal parameter of nonlinear eigenvalue problems and
  application to the explosion problem in a flow

abstract:
  We consider the nonlinear eigenvalue problem $ L u = \lambda f(u) $, posed in
a smooth bounded domain $ \Omega \subseteq \Bbb{R}^{N} $ with Dirichlet
boundary condition, where $ L $ is a uniformly elliptic second-order linear
differential operator, $ \lambda > 0 $ and $ f:[0,a_{f}) \rightarrow
\Bbb{R}_{+} $ $ (0 < a_{f} \leqslant \infty)$ is a smooth, increasing and
convex nonlinearity such that $ f(0) > 0 $ and which blows up at $ a_{f} $.
First we present some upper and lower bounds for the extremal parameter $
\lambda^{*} $ and the extremal solution $ u^{*} $. Then we apply the results to
the operator $ L_A = - \Delta + A c(x) $ with $ A>0 $ and $ c(x) $ is a
divergence-free flow in $ \Omega $. We show that, if $\psi_{A,\Omega}$ is the
maximum of the solution $\psi_{A}(x)$ of the equation $ L_A u = 1 $ in $\Omega$
with Dirichlet boundary condition, then for any incompressible flow $ c(x) $ we
have, $\psi_{A,\Omega} \longrightarrow 0$ as $A \longrightarrow \infty$ if and
only if $c(x)$ has no non-zero first integrals in $H_{0}^{1}(\Omega)$. Also,
taking $ c(x)=-x\rho(|x|) $ where $\rho$ is a smooth real function on $[0,1]$
then $c(x)$ is never divergence-free in unit ball $ B\subset \Bbb{R}^{N} $, but
our results completely determine the behaviour of the extremal parameter $
\lambda^{*}_{A} $ as $ A \longrightarrow \infty $.


title:
Describing upper body motions based on the Labanotation for
  learning-from-observation robots

abstract:
  We have been developing a paradigm, which we refer to as
Learning-from-observation, for a robot to automatically acquire what-to-do
through observation of human performance. Since a simple mimicking method to
repeat exact joint angles does not work due to the kinematic and dynamic
difference between a human and a robot, the method introduces an intermediate
symbolic representation, task models, to conceptually represent what-to-do
through observation. Then, these task models are mapped appropriate robot
motions depending on each robot hardware. This paper presents task models,
designed based on the Labanotation, for upper body movements of humanoid
robots. Given a human motion sequence, we first analyze the motions of the
upper body, and extract certain fixed poses at certain key frames. These key
poses are translated into states represented by Labanotation symbols. Then,
task models, identified from the state transitions, are mapped to robot
movements on a particular robot hardware. Since the task models based on
Labanotation are independent from different robot hardware, we can share the
same observation module; we only need task mapping modules depending on
different robot hardware. The system was implemented and demonstrated that
three different robots can automatically mimic human upper body motions with
satisfactory level of resemblance.


title:
Treating reflective indicators as causal-formative indicators in order
  to compute factor score estimates or unit-weighted scales

abstract:
  Individual scores on common factors are required in some applied settings
(e.g., business and marketing settings). Common factors are based on reflective
indicators, but their scores cannot unambiguously be determined. Therefore,
factor score estimates and unit-weighted scales are used in order to provide
individual scores. It is shown that these scores are based on treating the
reflective indicators as if they were causal-formative indicators. This
modification of the causal status of the indicators should be justified.
Therefore, the fit of the models implied by factor score estimates and
unit-weighted scales should be investigated in order to ascertain the validity
of the scores.


title:
Kinetics of dislocation annealing and the effect of trapped hydrogen,
  investigated with in-situ diffraction

abstract:
  In-situ powder diffraction was used to study the annealing of dislocations in
the archetypal hydrogen absorbers Pd and LaNi5. The relationship between
dislocations and trapped hydrogen was explored using thermally induced
desorption. It was found that the dislocations in Pd caused by hydrogen
absorption anneal over a wide range of temperatures and that although they
start to anneal below 250 $^\circ$C, temperatures well above 750 $^\circ$C are
required to fully anneal the metal. It was shown that allowing further time at
lower temperatures does not further anneal the metal. It is suggested that this
is due to dislocation tangling and pinning, causing different temperatures to
be required for different pinning defects. It was found that hydrogen trapped
in LaNi5 is released in a wide range of temperatures and it was therefore
concluded that hydrogen is trapped in the dislocation strain field and
dislocation core as well as vacancies. The direct comparison of deuterium
release and dislocation density showed no correlation, in agreement with
previous indirect comparisons. Dislocations in LaNi5 were shown to anneal at
temperatures as low as 150 $^\circ$C, in contrast to previous reports which
suggested more than 500 $^\circ$C was required. This lower annealing
temperature for dislocations at least partly explains why low temperature
ageing increases the pressure hysteresis in hydrogen cycled LaNi5.


title:
On the cancellation of Newtonian singularities in higher-derivative
  gravity

abstract:
  Recently there has been a growing interest in quantum gravity theories with
more than four derivatives, including both their quantum and classical aspects.
In this work we extend the recent results concerning the non-singularity of the
modified Newtonian potential to the most relevant case in which the propagator
has complex poles. The model we consider is Einstein-Hilbert action augmented
by curvature-squared higher-derivative terms which contain polynomials on the
d'Alembert operator. We show that the classical potential of these theories is
a real quantity and it is regular at the origin disregard the (complex or real)
nature or the multiplicity of the massive poles. The expression for the
potential is explicitly derived for some interesting particular cases. Finally,
the issue of the mechanism behind the cancellation of the singularity is
discussed; specifically we argue that the regularity of the potential can hold
even if the number of massive tensor modes and scalar ones is not the same.


title: Coherent systems of finite support iterations

abstract:
  We introduce a forcing technique to construct three-dimensional arrays of
generic extensions through FS (finite support) iterations of ccc posets, which
we refer to as 3D-coherent systems. We use them to produce models of new
constellations in Cicho\'n's diagram, in particular, a model where the diagram
can be separated into 7 different values. Furthermore, we show that this
constellation of 7 values is consistent with the existence of a $\Delta^1_3$
well-order of the reals.


title: Consistent Discretization and Minimization of the L1 Norm on Manifolds

abstract:
  The L1 norm has been tremendously popular in signal and image processing in
the past two decades due to its sparsity-promoting properties. More recently,
its generalization to non-Euclidean domains has been found useful in shape
analysis applications. For example, in conjunction with the minimization of the
Dirichlet energy, it was shown to produce a compactly supported quasi-harmonic
orthonormal basis, dubbed as compressed manifold modes. The continuous L1 norm
on the manifold is often replaced by the vector l1 norm applied to sampled
functions. We show that such an approach is incorrect in the sense that it does
not consistently discretize the continuous norm and warn against its
sensitivity to the specific sampling. We propose two alternative
discretizations resulting in an iteratively-reweighed l2 norm. We demonstrate
the proposed strategy on the compressed modes problem, which reduces to a
sequence of simple eigendecomposition problems not requiring non-convex
optimization on Stiefel manifolds and producing more stable and accurate
results.


title:
When are two fermions a simple boson? New Gross-Pitaevskii actions for
  cold Fermi condensates

abstract:
  The BEC regime of a cold fermi gas is characterised by coupled atoms (dimers)
which, superficially, look like elementary bosons. We examine how
simply-bosonic they really are; firstly, in the Bogoliubov approximation and
further, through new actions for the BEC regime in which dimers are represented
by coupled Gross-Pitaevskii fields. We find identity at the level of the
Bogoliubov approximation in the deep BEC regime, permitting a simple
Gross-Pitaevskii description. This fails rapidly as we move towards the BCS
regime. However, even in the deep BEC regime there is an intrinsic difference
if we go beyond the Bogoliubov approximation. To exemplify this we construct
vortex solutions.


title:
Regenerative Soot: A cusp field, graphite hollow cathode, carbon cluster
  ion source

abstract:
  An all carbon hollow cathode ion source with a specially designed cusp
magnetic field Bz as a function of radius and theta is described. Velocity
spectra from this source has shown that carbon cluster synthesis is taking
place as a function of the source design, discharge parameters and the state of
sooting. The cusp magnetic field seems to establish two distinct discharge
regions within the source. The first is a narrow annular ring that is 2 mm
thick and 15-20 mm long with restricted axial and radial extent of the cusp
field. Here the source gas ionizes. The carbon atoms sputter of the cathode
walls and subsequently get ionized. The other one is a cylindrical plasma
region with the entire axial range of Bz. In this region the dynamics of the
soot formation from the plasma constituent on the cathode walls seems to be
related to the carbon clustering processes