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A tensor-based formula for solving the linear system involving Kronecker sum is proposed. It is shown that the linear system involving Kronecker sum of matrices is directly related to the matrix and tensor forms of Sylvester equation. The new tensor-based formula indicates that a Sylvester tensor equation has a unique solution if the sum of spectra of the matrices does not contain zero. As an application, we solve the discretized Poisson equation on a rectangular domain and Dirichlet boundary conditions. In 2d, we show that both the new formula and the fast Poisson solver based on diagonalization have the same cost $\mathcal {O}(n^{3/2})$. In 3d, the new formula has the cost $\mathcal {O}(n^{4/3})$ while cyclic reduction and successive over-relaxation methods have a complexity of $\mathcal {O}(n^{3/2})$.

Accurate modeling is essential in integer-valued real phenomena, including the distribution of entire data, zero-inflated (ZI) data, and discrete exceedances. The Poisson and Negative Binomial distributions, along with their ZI variants, are considered suitable for modeling the entire data distribution, but they fail to capture the heavy tail behavior effectively alongside the bulk of the distribution. In contrast, the discrete generalized Pareto distribution (DGPD) is preferred for high threshold exceedances, but it becomes less effective for low threshold exceedances. However, in some applications, the selection of a suitable high threshold is challenging, and the asymptotic conditions required for using DGPD are not always met. To address these limitations, extended versions of DGPD are proposed. These extensions are designed to model one of three scenarios: first, the entire distribution of the data, including both bulk and tail and bypassing the threshold selection step; second, the entire distribution along with ZI; and third, the tail of the distribution for low threshold exceedances. The proposed extensions offer improved estimates across all three scenarios compared to existing models, providing more accurate and reliable results in simulation studies and real data applications., Comment: 17 pages, Figures 8, tables 3

Personalized Federated Learning (pFL) holds immense promise for tailoring machine learning models to individual users while preserving data privacy. However, achieving optimal performance in pFL often requires a careful balancing act between memory overhead costs and model accuracy. This paper delves into the trade-offs inherent in pFL, offering valuable insights for selecting the right algorithms for diverse real-world scenarios. We empirically evaluate ten prominent pFL techniques across various datasets and data splits, uncovering significant differences in their performance. Our study reveals interesting insights into how pFL methods that utilize personalized (local) aggregation exhibit the fastest convergence due to their efficiency in communication and computation. Conversely, fine-tuning methods face limitations in handling data heterogeneity and potential adversarial attacks while multi-objective learning methods achieve higher accuracy at the cost of additional training and resource consumption. Our study emphasizes the critical role of communication efficiency in scaling pFL, demonstrating how it can significantly affect resource usage in real-world deployments.

In recent years, financial analysts have been trying to develop models to predict the movement of a stock price index. The task becomes challenging in vague economic, social, and political situations like in Pakistan. In this study, we employed efficient models of machine learning such as long short-term memory (LSTM) and quantum long short-term memory (QLSTM) to predict the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100 index by taking monthly data of twenty-six economic, social, political, and administrative indicators from February 2004 to December 2020. The comparative results of LSTM and QLSTM predicted values of the KSE 100 index with the actual values suggested QLSTM a potential technique to predict stock market trends.

This study leverages convolutional neural networks to enhance the temporal resolution of 3D angiography in intracranial aneurysms focusing on the reconstruction of volumetric contrast data from sparse and limited projections. Three patient-specific IA geometries were segmented and converted into stereolithography files to facilitate computational fluid dynamics simulations. These simulations first modeled blood flow under steady conditions with varying inlet velocities: 0.25 m/s, 0.35 m/s, and 0.45 m/s. Subsequently, 3D angiograms were simulated by labeling inlet particles to represent contrast bolus injections over durations of 0.5s, 1.0s, 1.5s, and 2.0s. The angiographic simulations were then used within a simulated cone beam C arm CT system to generate in-silico rotational DSAs, capturing projections every 10 ms over a 220-degree arc at 27 frames per second. From these simulations, both fully sampled (108 projections) and truncated projection datasets were generated the latter using a maximum of 49 projections. High fidelity volumetric images were reconstructed using a Parker weighted Feldkamp Davis Kress algorithm. A modified U Net CNN was subsequently trained on these datasets to reconstruct 3D angiographic volumes from the truncated projections. The network incorporated multiple convolutional layers with ReLU activations and Max pooling, complemented by upsampling and concatenation to preserve spatial detail. Model performance was evaluated using mean squared error (MSE). Evaluating our U net model across the test set yielded a MSE of 0.0001, indicating good agreement with ground truth reconstructions and demonstrating acceptable capabilities in capturing relevant transient angiographic features. This study confirms the feasibility of using CNNs for reconstructing 3D angiographic images from truncated projections.

We study in-depth those rings $R$ for which, there exists a fixed $n\geq 1$, such that $u^n-1$ lies in the subring $\Delta(R)$ of $R$ for every unit $u\in R$. We succeeded to describe for any $n\geq 1$ all reduced $\pi$-regular $(2n-1)$-$\Delta$U rings by showing that they satisfy the equation $x^{2n}=x$ as well as to prove that the property of being exchange and clean are tantamount in the class of $(2n-1)$-$\Delta$U rings. These achievements considerably extend results established by Danchev (Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Pol. Torino, 2019) and Ko\c{s}an et al. (Hacettepe J. Math. \& Stat., 2020). Some other closely related results of this branch are also established., Comment: 19 pages

Numerical wave functions (WFs), root mean square (RMS) radii, $E1$ and $M1$ radiative transitions, and branching ratios of $S, P, D$ and $F$ states of toponium mesons ($t\overline{t}$) are calculated using a non-relativistic quark potential model (NRQPM). Shooting method is used to solve the radial Schrodinger equation to find the radial wave functions which are used in the calculation of properties of mesons. Calculated masses are compared with the theoretical available data., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 13 tables

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) enables non-invasive information-rich 3D refractive index (RI) reconstruction of unimpaired transparent biological and technical samples, crucial in biomedical research, optical metrology, materials sciences, and other fields. ODT bypasses the inherent limitations of 2D integrated quantitative phase imaging methods. To increase the signal-to-noise ratio easy-to-implement common-path shearing interferometry setups are successfully combined with low spatiotemporal coherence of illumination. The need for self-interference generated holograms, with small shear values, critically impedes the analysis of dense and thick samples, e.g., cell cultures, tissue sections, and embryos/organoids. Phase gradient imaging techniques, deployed as a popular solution in the small shear regime, up to now were constrained to 2D integrated quasi-quantitative phase imaging and z-scanning for depth resolution. To fill this significant scientific gap, we propose a novel gradient optical diffraction tomography (GODT) method. The GODT uses coherence-tailored illumination-scanning sequence of phase gradient measurements to tomographically reconstruct, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a derivative of the 3D RI distribution (in the shear direction) with clearly visible 3D sample structure and high sensitivity to its spatial variations. We present a mathematically rigorous theory based on the first-order Rytov approximation behind the new method, validate it using simulations deploying numerical Shepp-Logan target and corroborate experimentally via successful tomographic imaging of the calibrated nano-printed cell phantom and efficient examination of neural cells. This novel imaging modality opens new possibilities in biomedical quantitative phase imaging, advancing the field and putting forward a first of a kind contrast domain: 3D RI gradient., Comment: no comments

Classical simulations of quantum circuits are essential for verifying and benchmarking quantum algorithms, particularly for large circuits, where computational demands increase exponentially with the number of qubits. Among available methods, the classical simulation of quantum circuits inspired by density functional theory -- the so-called QC-DFT method, shows promise for large circuit simulations as it approximates the quantum circuits using single-qubit reduced density matrices to model multi-qubit systems. However, the QC-DFT method performs very poorly when dealing with multi-qubit gates. In this work, we introduce a novel CNOT "functional" that leverages neural networks to generate unitary transformations, effectively mitigating the simulation errors observed in the original QC-DFT method. For random circuit simulations, our modified QC-DFT enables efficient computation of single-qubit marginal measurement probabilities, or single-qubit probability (SQPs), and achieves lower SQP errors and higher fidelities than the original QC-DFT method. Despite limitations in capturing full entanglement and joint probability distributions, we find potential applications of SQPs in simulating Shor's and Grover's algorithms for specific solution classes. These findings advance the capabilities of classical simulations for some quantum problems and provide insights into managing entanglement and gate errors in practical quantum computing., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, and supplemental materials

The rapid advancement of Large Language Models (LLMs) and their potential integration into autonomous driving systems necessitates understanding their moral decision-making capabilities. While our previous study examined four prominent LLMs using the Moral Machine experimental framework, the dynamic landscape of LLM development demands a more comprehensive analysis. Here, we evaluate moral judgments across 51 different LLMs, including multiple versions of proprietary models (GPT, Claude, Gemini) and open-source alternatives (Llama, Gemma), to assess their alignment with human moral preferences in autonomous driving scenarios. Using a conjoint analysis framework, we evaluated how closely LLM responses aligned with human preferences in ethical dilemmas and examined the effects of model size, updates, and architecture. Results showed that proprietary models and open-source models exceeding 10 billion parameters demonstrated relatively close alignment with human judgments, with a significant negative correlation between model size and distance from human judgments in open-source models. However, model updates did not consistently improve alignment with human preferences, and many LLMs showed excessive emphasis on specific ethical principles. These findings suggest that while increasing model size may naturally lead to more human-like moral judgments, practical implementation in autonomous driving systems requires careful consideration of the trade-off between judgment quality and computational efficiency. Our comprehensive analysis provides crucial insights for the ethical design of autonomous systems and highlights the importance of considering cultural contexts in AI moral decision-making., Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures

Large and Small Language Models (LMs) are typically pretrained using extensive volumes of text, which are sourced from publicly accessible platforms such as Wikipedia, Book Corpus, or through web scraping. These models, due to their exposure to a wide range of language data, exhibit impressive generalization capabilities and can perform a multitude of tasks simultaneously. However, they often fall short when it comes to domain-specific tasks due to their broad training data. This paper introduces SecEncoder, a specialized small language model that is pretrained using security logs. SecEncoder is designed to address the domain-specific limitations of general LMs by focusing on the unique language and patterns found in security logs. Experimental results indicate that SecEncoder outperforms other LMs, such as BERTlarge, DeBERTa-v3-large and OpenAI's Embedding (textembedding-ada-002) models, which are pretrained mainly on natural language, across various tasks. Furthermore, although SecEncoder is primarily pretrained on log data, it outperforms models pretrained on natural language for a range of tasks beyond log analysis, such as incident prioritization and threat intelligence document retrieval. This suggests that domain specific pretraining with logs can significantly enhance the performance of LMs in security. These findings pave the way for future research into security-specific LMs and their potential applications.

This paper introduces TIPS: Threat Actor Informed Prioritization using SecEncoder, a specialized language model for security. TIPS combines the strengths of both encoder and decoder language models to detect and prioritize compromised applications. By integrating threat actor intelligence, TIPS enhances the accuracy and relevance of its detections. Extensive experiments with a real-world benchmark dataset of applications demonstrate TIPS's high efficacy, achieving an F-1 score of 0.90 in identifying malicious applications. Additionally, in real-world scenarios, TIPS significantly reduces the backlog of investigations for security analysts by 87%, thereby streamlining the threat response process and improving overall security posture.

Carrying the insights of conditional probability to the quantum realm is notoriously difficult due to the non-commutative nature of quantum observables. Nevertheless, conditional expectations on von Neumann algebras have played a significant role in the development of quantum information theory, and especially the study of quantum error correction. In quantum gravity, it has been suggested that conditional expectations may be used to implement the holographic map algebraically, with quantum error correction underlying the emergence of spacetime through the generalized entropy formula. However, the requirements for exact error correction are almost certainly too strong for realistic theories of quantum gravity. In this note, we present a relaxed notion of quantum conditional expectation which implements approximate error correction. We introduce a generalization of Connes' spatial theory adapted to completely positive maps, and derive a chain rule allowing for the non-commutative factorization of relative modular operators into a marginal and conditional part, constituting a quantum Bayes' law. This allows for an exact quantification of the information gap occurring in the data processing inequality for arbitrary quantum channels. When applied to algebraic inclusions, this also provides an approach to factorizing the entropy of states into a sum of terms which, in the gravitational context, may be interpreted as a generalized entropy. We illustrate that the emergent area operator is fully non-commutative rather than central, except under the conditions of exact error correction. We provide some comments on how this result may be used to construct a fully algebraic quantum extremal surface prescription and to probe the quantum nature of black holes., Comment: V1: 30 pages, 1 figure

The Purcell effect, a common issue in qubit-resonator systems leading to fidelity loss is studied while its suppression is achieved using a novel qubit readout circuit design. Our approach utilizes a unique coupling architecture in which, the qubit first interacts with a filter resonator before linking to the readout resonator. This configuration enables precise control over the Purcell decay rate and ac Stark factor without impacting on measuring time. The mentioned factor is highly sensitive to the coupling strength between the readout resonator and the filter, meaning that the factor adjustment directly impacts the qubit state detection. A major advantage of this design is that tuning the resonator-filter coupling strength is relatively straightforward, offering flexibility in fine-tuning ac Stark factor.

The following paper presents a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system model scenario, where a base station communicates with a user, and a bi-static sensing unit, i.e. the passive radar (PR), senses targets using downlink signals. Given that the RIS aids with communication and sensing tasks, this paper introduces new interfering paths that can overwhelm the PR with unnecessarily high power, namely the path interference (PI), \textit{which is itself a combination of two interfering paths, the direct path interference (DPI) and the reflected path interference (RPI)}. For this, we formulate an optimization framework that allows the system to carry on with its ISAC tasks, through analog space-time beamforming at the sensing unit, in collaboration with RIS phase shift and statistical transmit covariance matrix optimization, while minimizing the PI power. As the proposed optimization problem is non-convex, we tailor a block-cyclic coordinate descent (BCCD) method to decouple the non-convex sub-problem from the convex one. A Riemannian conjugate gradient method is devised to generate the RIS and PR space-time beamforming phase shifts per BCCD iteration, while the convex sub-problem is solved via off-the-shelf solvers. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solver when compared with benchmarking ones., Comment: accepted in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications

Using thermodynamics-gravity conjecture, we present the formal derivation of the modified Friedmann equations inspired by the Barrow entropy, $S\sim A ^{1+\delta/2}$, where $0\leq\delta\leq 1$ is the Barrow exponent and $A$ is the horizon area. We then constrain the exponent $\delta$ by using Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) observational data. In order to impose the upper bound on the Barrow exponent $\delta$, we set the observational bound on $\left| \frac{\delta T_f} {T_f }\right|$. We find out that the Barrow parameter $\delta$ should be around $ \delta \simeq 0.01$ in order not to spoil the BBN era. Next we derive the bound on the Barrow exponent $\delta$ in a different approach in which we analyze the effects of Barrow cosmology on the primordial abundances of light elements i.e. Helium $_{}^{4}\textit{He}$, Deuterium $D$ and Lithium $_{}^{7}\textit{Li}$. We observe that the deviation from standard Bekenstein-Hawking expression is small as expected. Additionally we present the relation between cosmic time $t$ and temperature $T$ in the context of modified Barrow cosmology. We confirm that the temperature of the early universe increases as the Barrow exponent $\delta$ (fractal structure of the horizon) increases, too., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

This paper reports on the shared tasks organized by the 21st IWSLT Conference. The shared tasks address 7 scientific challenges in spoken language translation: simultaneous and offline translation, automatic subtitling and dubbing, speech-to-speech translation, dialect and low-resource speech translation, and Indic languages. The shared tasks attracted 18 teams whose submissions are documented in 26 system papers. The growing interest towards spoken language translation is also witnessed by the constantly increasing number of shared task organizers and contributors to the overview paper, almost evenly distributed across industry and academia., Comment: IWSLT 2024; 59 pages

This paper reports on the theoretical investigation of charged Higgs bosons and their coupling to fermions within the Two Higgs Doublet Model (THDM). The study focuses on the discovery potential of charged Higgs bosons predicted in Types III and IV at the future Circular Hadron-Hadron Collider (FCC-hh) with a center-of-mass energy of (\sqrt{s} = 100) TeV. By analyzing their decays, couplings to fermions, branching ratios, and production cross-section via (pp \rightarrow tH^-), we investigate the signatures of charged Higgs bosons, including kinematical distributions based on the background processes of (b\bar{b}) quarks., Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, 1 table

This paper studies the problem of optimal geographic placement of water quality (WQ) sensors in drinking water distribution networks (WDNs), with a specific focus on chlorine transport, decay, and reaction models. Such models are traditionally used as suitable proxies for WQ. The literature on this topic is indeed inveterate, but has a key limitation: it utilizes simplified single-species decay and reaction models that do not capture WQ transients for nonlinear, multi-species interactions. This results in sensor placements that do not account for nonlinear WQ dynamics. Furthermore, and as WQ simulations are parameterized by hydraulic profiles and demand patterns, the placement of sensors are often hydraulics-dependent. This study produces a simple algorithm that addresses the two aforementioned limitations. The presented algorithm is grounded in nonlinear dynamic system sciences and observability theory, and yields sensor placements that are robust to hydraulic changes. Thorough case studies on benchmark water networks are provided. The key findings provide practical recommendations for WDN operators.

We determine parameters of the renormalization group-consistent (RG-consistent) three-flavor color-superconducting Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model that are suited to investigate possible compact-star configurations. Our goal is to provide viable quark-matter equation of state (EoS) that can generally be used for hybrid-star constructions. To that end, we mainly focus on quark-star properties in this work. By varying the vector and diquark coupling constants, we analyze their impact on the EoS, speed of sound (SoS), the maximum diquark gap, and the mass-radius relation. In almost all configurations, a stable color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase appears in the core of the maximum-mass configurations, typically spanning several kms in radius. In other cases, the star's two-flavor color-superconducting (2SC) branch of the EoS becomes unstable before reaching the CFL transition density. At neutron-star densities, the SoS squared reaches up to 0.6 and the CFL diquark gap up to 250 MeV. We argue that adding a hadronic EoS at lower densities by performing a Maxwell construction, does not increase the maximum mass substantially, thus we use the 2 solar mass constraint to constrain the NJL model parameters that are suited for the construction of hybrid-star EoS. We construct three examples of the hybrid star model, demonstrating that there is room for different CSC compositions. The hybrid EoS obtained in this way can have no 2SC matter or different ratios of 2SC and CFL quark matter in the core. We show that early hadron-quark transitions are possible that can modify the tidal deformability at 1.4 solar mass. We will provide tabulated EoS of the RG-consistent NJL model for these three parameter sets. We find that these EoS are consistent with the imposed constraints from astrophysics and perturbative QCD. They allow for different hybrid-star scenarios with a hadronic EoS that is soft at low densities., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables Comments are welcomed

Research in vision and language has made considerable progress thanks to benchmarks such as COCO. COCO captions focused on unambiguous facts in English; ArtEmis introduced subjective emotions and ArtELingo introduced some multilinguality (Chinese and Arabic). However we believe there should be more multilinguality. Hence, we present ArtELingo-28, a vision-language benchmark that spans $\textbf{28}$ languages and encompasses approximately $\textbf{200,000}$ annotations ($\textbf{140}$ annotations per image). Traditionally, vision research focused on unambiguous class labels, whereas ArtELingo-28 emphasizes diversity of opinions over languages and cultures. The challenge is to build machine learning systems that assign emotional captions to images. Baseline results will be presented for three novel conditions: Zero-Shot, Few-Shot and One-vs-All Zero-Shot. We find that cross-lingual transfer is more successful for culturally-related languages. Data and code are provided at www.artelingo.org., Comment: 9 pages, Accepted at EMNLP 24, for more details see www.artelingo.org

This study investigates the use of symbolic computation in Matrix Structural Analysis (MSA) for continuous beams, leveraging the MATLAB Symbolic Math Toolbox. By employing symbolic MSA, analytical expressions for displacements, support reactions, and internal forces are derived, offering deeper insights into structural behavior. This approach facilitates efficient and scalable sensitivity analysis, where partial derivatives of outputs concerning input parameters can be directly computed, enhancing design exploration. The development includes an open-source MATLAB program, hosted on GitHub, enabling symbolic analysis of continuous beams subjected to point and uniform loads. This approach is invaluable for both engineering practice and pedagogy, enriching the understanding of structural mechanics and aiding in education by illustrating clear parameter relationships. The program supports deriving influence lines and identifying maximum response values.

In this work, we statistically analyze the radar cross section (RCS) of different test targets present in an indoor factory (InF) scenario specified by 3rd Generation Partnership Project considering bistatic configuration. The test targets that we consider are drones, humans, quadruped robot and a robotic arm. We consider two drones of different sizes and five human subjects for RCS characterization. For the drones, we measure the RCS when they are are flying over a given point and while they are rotating over the same point. For human subjects, we measure the RCS while standing still, sitting still and walking. For quadruped robot and robotic arm, we consider a continuous random motion emulating different tasks which they are supposed to perfom in typical InF scenario. We employ different distributions, such as Normal, Lognormal, Gamma, Rician, Weibull, Rayleigh and Exponential to fit the measurement data. From the statistical analysis, we gather that Lognormal distribution can fit all the considered targets in the InF scenario., Comment: the results are not correct

This paper presents a novel real-time, delay-aware cooperative perception system designed for intelligent mobility platforms operating in dynamic indoor environments. The system contains a network of multi-modal sensor nodes and a central node that collectively provide perception services to mobility platforms. The proposed Hierarchical Clustering Considering the Scanning Pattern and Ground Contacting Feature based Lidar Camera Fusion improve intra-node perception for crowded environment. The system also features delay-aware global perception to synchronize and aggregate data across nodes. To validate our approach, we introduced the Indoor Pedestrian Tracking dataset, compiled from data captured by two indoor sensor nodes. Our experiments, compared to baselines, demonstrate significant improvements in detection accuracy and robustness against delays. The dataset is available in the repository: https://github.com/NingMingHao/MVSLab-IndoorCooperativePerception

In this paper, we explore a multi-task semantic communication (SemCom) system for distributed sources, extending the existing focus on collaborative single-task execution. We build on the cooperative multi-task processing introduced in [1], which divides the encoder into a common unit (CU) and multiple specific units (SUs). While earlier studies in multi-task SemCom focused on full observation settings, our research explores a more realistic case where only distributed partial observations are available, such as in a production line monitored by multiple sensing nodes. To address this, we propose an SemCom system that supports multi-task processing through cooperation on the transmitter side via split structure and collaboration on the receiver side. We have used an information-theoretic perspective with variational approximations for our end-to-end data-driven approach. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed cooperative and collaborative multi-task (CCMT) SemCom system significantly improves task execution accuracy, particularly in complex datasets, if the noise introduced from the communication channel is not limiting the task performance too much. Our findings contribute to a more general SemCom framework capable of handling distributed sources and multiple tasks simultaneously, advancing the applicability of SemCom systems in real-world scenarios., Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication

In this paper, we propose an approach that combines Vision Language Models (VLMs) and Behavior Trees (BTs) to address failures in robotics. Current robotic systems can handle known failures with pre-existing recovery strategies, but they are often ill-equipped to manage unknown failures or anomalies. We introduce VLMs as a monitoring tool to detect and identify failures during task execution. Additionally, VLMs generate missing conditions or skill templates that are then incorporated into the BT, ensuring the system can autonomously address similar failures in future tasks. We validate our approach through simulations in several failure scenarios.

This paper presents ARN-LSTM, a novel multi-stream action recognition model designed to address the challenge of simultaneously capturing spatial motion and temporal dynamics in action sequences. Traditional methods often focus solely on spatial or temporal features, limiting their ability to comprehend complex human activities fully. Our proposed model integrates joint, motion, and temporal information through a multi-stream fusion architecture. Specifically, it comprises a joint stream for extracting skeleton features, a temporal stream for capturing dynamic temporal features, and an ARN-LSTM block that utilizes Time-Distributed Long Short-Term Memory (TD-LSTM) layers followed by an Attention Relation Network (ARN) to model temporal relations. The outputs from these streams are fused in a fully connected layer to provide the final action prediction. Evaluations on the NTU RGB+D 60 and NTU RGB+D 120 datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our model, achieving effective performance, particularly in group activity recognition.

Chlorine, the most widely used disinfectant, needs to be adequately distributed in water distribution networks (WDNs) to maintain consistent residual levels and ensure water safety. This is performed through control node injections at the treatment plant via booster stations scattered in WDNs. While previous studies have applied various optimization metrics for booster station placement, many have failed to consider the coverage of the station injections and the dynamic nature of WDNs. In particular, variations in hydraulics and demand significantly impact the reachability and efficacy of chlorine injections which then impact optimal placement of booster stations. This study introduces a novel formulation that combines control- and graph-theoretic approaches to solve the booster station placement problem. Unlike traditional methods, our approach emphasizes maximizing the system's ability to control disinfectant levels with minimal energy, taking into account the time-varying hydraulic profiles that lead to different optimal station placements. We propose a simple weighting technique to determine the placements by assessing the structural controllability of each configuration, based on the network's topology and independent of specific parameters like decay rates or pipe roughness. This method ensures effective chlorine coverage across the network. Our approach is validated on different networks, demonstrating its operational effectiveness, scalability, and practicality.

In this paper, we derive a novel Schwarzschild-like black hole (BH) solution describing a static and asymptotically flat BH surrounded by a dark matter (DM) halo with a Dehnen-type density distribution in the surrounding environment. We investigate the properties of the obtained BH by studying the curvature properties and energy conditions in Einstein gravity. Furthermore, we explore the features of a novel Schwarzschild-like BH embedded in a DM halo with Dehnen-type density profile by analyzing the timelike geodesics of particles along with BH observable properties., Comment: 20 pages, 7 captioned figures

We present TaxaBind, a unified embedding space for characterizing any species of interest. TaxaBind is a multimodal embedding space across six modalities: ground-level images of species, geographic location, satellite image, text, audio, and environmental features, useful for solving ecological problems. To learn this joint embedding space, we leverage ground-level images of species as a binding modality. We propose multimodal patching, a technique for effectively distilling the knowledge from various modalities into the binding modality. We construct two large datasets for pretraining: iSatNat with species images and satellite images, and iSoundNat with species images and audio. Additionally, we introduce TaxaBench-8k, a diverse multimodal dataset with six paired modalities for evaluating deep learning models on ecological tasks. Experiments with TaxaBind demonstrate its strong zero-shot and emergent capabilities on a range of tasks including species classification, cross-model retrieval, and audio classification. The datasets and models are made available at https://github.com/mvrl/TaxaBind., Comment: Accepted to WACV 2025

In ill-posed imaging inverse problems, there can exist many hypotheses that fit both the observed measurements and prior knowledge of the true image. Rather than returning just one hypothesis of that image, posterior samplers aim to explore the full solution space by generating many probable hypotheses, which can later be used to quantify uncertainty or construct recoveries that appropriately navigate the perception/distortion trade-off. In this work, we propose a fast and accurate posterior-sampling conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) that, through a novel form of regularization, aims for correctness in the posterior mean as well as the trace and K principal components of the posterior covariance matrix. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms contemporary cGANs and diffusion models in imaging inverse problems like denoising, large-scale inpainting, and accelerated MRI recovery. The code for our model can be found here: https://github.com/matt-bendel/pcaGAN., Comment: To appear at NeurIPS 2024

While recent advancements have highlighted the role of low-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) in integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems, the specific impact of ADC resolution on hybrid radar fusion (HRF) remains relatively unexplored. The uplink (UL) paths in HRF, comprising both direct and reflected signals within the same frequency band, pose unique challenges, particularly given that the reflected signal is often significantly weaker than the direct path, making HRF systems susceptible to ADC resolution. To investigate the influence of quantization and ADC resolution on HRF, we employ the quantized Cram\'er-Rao bound (CRB) as a metric for sensing accuracy. This work derives the quantized CRB specifically for HRF systems and the quantized communication rate. We extend our analysis to obtain lower bounds on the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) and UL communication rates, which we use to characterize quantized HRF systems. Using these derived bounds, we analyze quantized HRF systems through the lens of CRB-rate boundaries. We obtain the CRB-rate boundary through two optimization problems, where each solution point represents a trade-off boundary between the sensing accuracy and the communication rate. Extensive simulations illustrate the influence of ADC resolution, DR, and various system parameters on the CRB-rate boundary of HRF systems. These results offer critical insights into the design of efficient and high-performance HRF systems.

The upcoming ATLAS Phase II upgrade mandates replacing the tracking system with the all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITK), featuring a pixel detector as its core element. The monitoring data of the new system will be aggregated from an on-detector ASIC, Monitoring Of Pixel System (MOPS), and channeled to the Detector Control System (DCS) via a newly developed FPGA-based interface known as MOPS-Hub. The mitigation strategies for addressing potential Single-Event Upset (SEU) issues in the new system, along with the proton irradiation results, are presented.

Deep learning has been proven to be a powerful tool for addressing the most significant issues in cognitive radio networks, such as spectrum sensing, spectrum sharing, resource allocation, and security attacks. The utilization of deep learning techniques in cognitive radio networks can significantly enhance the network's capability to adapt to changing environments and improve the overall system's efficiency and reliability. As the demand for higher data rates and connectivity increases, B5G/6G wireless networks are expected to enable new services and applications significantly. Therefore, the significance of deep learning in addressing cognitive radio network challenges cannot be overstated. This review article provides valuable insights into potential solutions that can serve as a foundation for the development of future B5G/6G services. By leveraging the power of deep learning, cognitive radio networks can pave the way for the next generation of wireless networks capable of meeting the ever-increasing demands for higher data rates, improved reliability, and security., Comment: The article has been accepted for publication in "Journal of Network and Computer Applications" during October 2024

Hardware-level memory vulnerabilities severely threaten computing systems. However, hardware patching is inefficient or difficult postfabrication. We investigate the effectiveness of hardware fuzzing in detecting hardware memory vulnerabilities and highlight challenges and potential future research directions to enhance hardware fuzzing for memory safety.

Microarchitectural attacks represent a challenging and persistent threat to modern processors, exploiting inherent design vulnerabilities in processors to leak sensitive information or compromise systems. Of particular concern is the susceptibility of Speculative Execution, a fundamental part of performance enhancement, to such attacks. We introduce Specure, a novel pre-silicon verification method composing hardware fuzzing with Information Flow Tracking (IFT) to address speculative execution leakages. Integrating IFT enables two significant and non-trivial enhancements over the existing fuzzing approaches: i) automatic detection of microarchitectural information leakages vulnerabilities without golden model and ii) a novel Leakage Path coverage metric for efficient vulnerability detection. Specure identifies previously overlooked speculative execution vulnerabilities on the RISC-V BOOM processor and explores the vulnerability search space 6.45x faster than existing fuzzing techniques. Moreover, Specure detected known vulnerabilities 20x faster.

Mixture experiments often involve process variables, such as different chemical reactors in a laboratory or varying mixing speeds in a production line. Organizing the runs in orthogonal blocks allows the mixture model to be fitted independently of the process effects, ensuring clearer insights into the role of each mixture component. Current literature on mixture designs in orthogonal blocks ignores the order of addition of mixture components in mixture blends. This paper considers the order of addition of components in mixture and mixture-amount experiments, using the variable total amount taken into orthogonal blocks. The response depends on both the mixture proportions or the amounts of the components and the order of their addition. Mixture designs in orthogonal blocks are constructed to enable the estimation of mixture or component-amount model parameters and the order-of-addition effects. The G-efficiency criterion is used to assess how well the design supports precise and unbiased estimation of the model parameters. The fraction of the Design Space plot is used to provide a visual assessment of the prediction capabilities of a design across the entire design space., Comment: 15, 1

Advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing the development of autonomous agentic systems by enabling dynamic, context-aware task decomposition and automated tool selection. These sophisticated systems possess significant automation potential across various industries, managing complex tasks, interacting with external systems to enhance knowledge, and executing actions independently. This paper presents three primary contributions to advance this field: - Advanced Agentic Framework: A system that handles multi-hop queries, generates and executes task graphs, selects appropriate tools, and adapts to real-time changes. - Novel Evaluation Metrics: Introduction of Node F1 Score, Structural Similarity Index (SSI), and Tool F1 Score to comprehensively assess agentic systems. - Specialized Dataset: Development of an AsyncHow-based dataset for analyzing agent behavior across different task complexities. Our findings reveal that asynchronous and dynamic task graph decomposition significantly enhances system responsiveness and scalability, particularly for complex, multi-step tasks. Detailed analysis shows that structural and node-level metrics are crucial for sequential tasks, while tool-related metrics are more important for parallel tasks. Specifically, the Structural Similarity Index (SSI) is the most significant predictor of performance in sequential tasks, and the Tool F1 Score is essential for parallel tasks. These insights highlight the need for balanced evaluation methods that capture both structural and operational dimensions of agentic systems. Additionally, our evaluation framework, validated through empirical analysis and statistical testing, provides valuable insights for improving the adaptability and reliability of agentic systems in dynamic environments., Comment: 38th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2024), NeurIPS 2024 Workshop on Open-World Agents

In this paper, we propose an accurate and robust perception module for Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) for drivable space extraction. Perception is crucial in autonomous driving, where many deep learning-based methods, while accurate on benchmark datasets, fail to generalize effectively, especially in diverse and unpredictable environments. Our work introduces a robust easy-to-generalize perception module that leverages LiDAR, camera, and HD map data fusion to deliver a safe and reliable drivable space in all weather conditions. We present an adaptive ground removal and curb detection method integrated with HD map data for enhanced obstacle detection reliability. Additionally, we propose an adaptive DBSCAN clustering algorithm optimized for precipitation noise, and a cost-effective LiDAR-camera frustum association that is resilient to calibration discrepancies. Our comprehensive drivable space representation incorporates all perception data, ensuring compatibility with vehicle dimensions and road regulations. This approach not only improves generalization and efficiency, but also significantly enhances safety in autonomous vehicle operations. Our approach is tested on a real dataset and its reliability is verified during the daily (including harsh snowy weather) operation of our autonomous shuttle, WATonoBus

We investigate a beyond Standard Model (SM) featuring four new fields. Three fields with different spins - scalar ($ S $), spinor ($ \psi $), and vector ($ V_{\mu} $) - together form the three-component dark matter (DM), while the fourth scalar field ($ \phi $) carries a unit charge under a dark $ U_{D}(1) $ gauge symmetry, enabling SM-DM interactions via the Higgs portal. Although the model maintains classical scale invariance, loop effects break electroweak symmetry. The parameter space is constrained by scale invariance, DM relic density, and direct detection results. Our study aims to identify feasible model regions and evaluate detectability in future experiments. We analyze processes like DM annihilations, semi-annihilations, and conversions, integrating them into Boltzmann equations to calculate DM abundances. Random parameter scans reveal regions compatible with current data, including constraints from direct detection experiments like XENONnT and PandaX-4T . Our results show the model's viability across a broad range of DM masses., Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures

Lately, the continuous development of deep learning models by many researchers in the area of computer vision has attracted more researchers to further improve the accuracy of these models. FasterRCNN [32] has already provided a state-of-the-art approach to improve the accuracy and detection of 80 different objects given in the COCO dataset. To further improve the performance of person detection we have conducted a different approach which gives the state-of-the-art conclusion. An ROI is a step in FasterRCNN that extract the features from the given image with a fixed size and transfer into for further classification. To enhance the ROI performance, we have conducted an approach that implements dense pooling and converts the image into a 3D model to further transform into UV(ultra Violet) images which makes it easy to extract the right features from the images. To implement our approach we have approached the state-of-the-art COCO datasets and extracted 6982 images that include a person object and our final achievements conclude that using our approach has made significant results in detecting the person object in the given image

Understanding the complex ionization structure and chemical composition of \hii\ regions poses a significant challenge in astrophysics. The abundance discrepancy problem, characterized by inconsistencies between abundances derived from recombination lines (RLs) and collisionally excited lines (CELs), has long been a puzzle in the field. In this theoretical study, we present novel photoionization models that incorporate temperature, density, and chemical inhomogeneities within a single cloud to comprehensively address this discrepancy. By accounting for the intricate interplay between ionization, excitation, and chemistry, our models successfully reproduce both observed RLs and CELs with with an average difference between our models and the observations of 25% -- within uncertainties inherent in Galactic archival long-slit and new SDSS-V Local Volume Mapper observations. Through comparisons between generic inhomogeneous model predictions and observations, demonstrating the ability of our theoretical framework to analyze the abundance discrepancy problem within \hii\ regions. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating spatially resolved temperature, density, and chemical structures when interpreting the physical processes governing emission line spectra in these astrophysical environments.

Diagnosing knee osteoarthritis (OA) early is crucial for managing symptoms and preventing further joint damage, ultimately improving patient outcomes and quality of life. In this paper, a bioimpedance-based diagnostic tool that combines precise hardware and deep learning for effective non-invasive diagnosis is proposed. system features a relay-based circuit and strategically placed electrodes to capture comprehensive bioimpedance data. The data is processed by a neural network model, which has been optimized using convolutional layers, dropout regularization, and the Adam optimizer. This approach achieves a 98% test accuracy, making it a promising tool for detecting knee osteoarthritis musculoskeletal disorders.

The deployment of large-scale models, such as large language models (LLMs) and sophisticated image generation systems, incurs substantial costs due to their computational demands. To mitigate these costs and address challenges related to scalability and data security, there is a growing shift towards decentralized systems for deploying such models. In these decentralized environments, efficient inference acceleration becomes crucial to manage computational resources effectively and enhance system responsiveness. In this work, we address the challenge of selecting optimal acceleration methods in decentralized systems by introducing a meta-learning-based framework. This framework automates the selection process by learning from historical performance data of various acceleration techniques across different tasks. Unlike traditional methods that rely on random selection or expert intuition, our approach systematically identifies the best acceleration strategies based on the specific characteristics of each task. We demonstrate that our meta-learning framework not only streamlines the decision-making process but also consistently outperforms conventional methods in terms of efficiency and performance. Our results highlight the potential of meta-learning to revolutionize inference acceleration in decentralized AI systems, offering a path towards more democratic and economically feasible artificial intelligence solutions.

Fine-grained power estimation in multicore Systems on Chips (SoCs) is crucial for efficient thermal management. BPI (Blind Power Identification) is a recent approach that determines the power consumption of different cores and the thermal model of the chip using only thermal sensor measurements and total power consumption. BPI relies on steady-state thermal data along with a naive initialization in its Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) process, which negatively impacts the power estimation accuracy of BPI. This paper proposes a two-fold approach to reduce these impacts on BPI. First, this paper introduces an innovative approach for NMF initializing, i.e., density-oriented spatial clustering to identify centroid data points of active cores as initial values. This enhances BPI accuracy by focusing on dense regions in the dataset and excluding outlier data points. Second, it proposes the utilization of steady-state temperature data points to enhance the power estimation accuracy by leveraging the physical relationship between temperature and power consumption. Our extensive simulations of real-world cases demonstrate that our approach enhances BPI accuracy in estimating the power per core with no performance cost. For instance, in a four-core processor, the proposed approach reduces the error rate by 76% compared to BPI and by 24% compared to the state of the art in the literature, namely, Blind Power Identification Steady State (BPISS). The results underline the potential of integrating advanced clustering techniques in thermal model identification, paving the way for more accurate and reliable thermal management in multicores and SoCs.

Identifying the dominant ionizing sources in galaxies is essential for understanding their formation and evolution. Traditionally, spectra are classified based on their dominant ionizing source using strong emission lines and Baldwin, Phillips, \& Terlevich (BPT) diagrams. The ionizing source is traditionally determined by the emission line ratios using the BPT diagrams. Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-line Regions (LINERs) are a class of ionizing mechanisms that is observationally identified but with a poorly understood origin, unlike the case of star forming regions and active galactic nuclei (AGN). LINERs, typically found in early-type galaxies, are often associated with low-luminosity AGN activity but may also be powered by aging stellar populations, particularly post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (p-AGB) stars. In this study, we employ a machine-learning-based encoder, Spender, to analyze the full MaNGA IFU spectra and identify key spectral features of LINERs. By examining the continuum and line emission of these spaxels, our approach aims to uncover hidden patterns and better understand the dominant ionizing sources. We show in this work that the neural network-based encoder was able identify LINER sources from the stellar continuum alone. The characteristics of the stellar population underlying LINER regions are consistent with evolved low mass stars implying that the source driving LINER emission is probably p-AGB stars rather than AGN activity.

GPT-4o is an autoregressive omni model that accepts as input any combination of text, audio, image, and video, and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. It's trained end-to-end across text, vision, and audio, meaning all inputs and outputs are processed by the same neural network. GPT-4o can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which is similar to human response time in conversation. It matches GPT-4 Turbo performance on text in English and code, with significant improvement on text in non-English languages, while also being much faster and 50\% cheaper in the API. GPT-4o is especially better at vision and audio understanding compared to existing models. In line with our commitment to building AI safely and consistent with our voluntary commitments to the White House, we are sharing the GPT-4o System Card, which includes our Preparedness Framework evaluations. In this System Card, we provide a detailed look at GPT-4o's capabilities, limitations, and safety evaluations across multiple categories, focusing on speech-to-speech while also evaluating text and image capabilities, and measures we've implemented to ensure the model is safe and aligned. We also include third-party assessments on dangerous capabilities, as well as discussion of potential societal impacts of GPT-4o's text and vision capabilities.

Automatically recognizing emotional intent using facial expression has been a thoroughly investigated topic in the realm of computer vision. Facial Expression Recognition (FER), being a supervised learning task, relies heavily on substantially large data exemplifying various socio-cultural demographic attributes. Over the past decade, several real-world in-the-wild FER datasets that have been proposed were collected through crowd-sourcing or web-scraping. However, most of these practically used datasets employ a manual annotation methodology for labeling emotional intent, which inherently propagates individual demographic biases. Moreover, these datasets also lack an equitable representation of various socio-cultural demographic groups, thereby inducing a class imbalance. Bias analysis and its mitigation have been investigated across multiple domains and problem settings, however, in the FER domain, this is a relatively lesser explored area. This work leverages representation learning based on latent spaces to mitigate bias in facial expression recognition systems, thereby enhancing a deep learning model's fairness and overall accuracy.

Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive form of brain cancer characterized by rapid progression and poor prognosis. Despite advances in treatment, the underlying genetic mechanisms driving this aggressiveness remain poorly understood. In this study, we employed multimodal deep learning approaches to investigate glioblastoma heterogeneity using joint image/RNA-seq analysis. Our results reveal novel genes associated with glioblastoma. By leveraging a combination of whole-slide images and RNA-seq, as well as introducing novel methods to encode RNA-seq data, we identified specific genetic profiles that may explain different patterns of glioblastoma progression. These findings provide new insights into the genetic mechanisms underlying glioblastoma heterogeneity and highlight potential targets for therapeutic intervention.

Global allocations in the upper mid-band spectrum (4--24 GHz) necessitate a comprehensive exploration of the propagation behavior to meet the promise of coverage and capacity. This paper presents an extensive Urban Microcell (UMi) outdoor propagation measurement campaign at 6.75 GHz and 16.95 GHz conducted in Downtown Brooklyn, USA, using a 1 GHz bandwidth sliding correlation channel sounder over 40--880 m propagation distance, encompassing 7 Line of Sight (LOS) and 13 Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) locations. Analysis of the path loss (PL) reveals lower directional and omnidirectional PL exponents compared to mmWave and sub-THz frequencies in the UMi environment, using the close-in PL model with a 1 m reference distance. Additionally, a decreasing trend in root mean square (RMS) delay spread (DS) and angular spread (AS) with increasing frequency was observed. The NLOS RMS DS and RMS AS mean values are obtained consistently lower compared to 3GPP model predictions. Point data for all measured statistics at each TX-RX location are provided to supplement the models and results. The spatio-temporal statistics evaluated here offer valuable insights for the design of next-generation wireless systems and networks., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables