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A cognitive fully adaptive radar (CoFAR) adapts its behavior on its own within a short period of time in response to changes in the target environment. For the CoFAR to function properly, it is critical to understand its operating environment through estimation of the clutter channel impulse response (CCIR). In general, CCIR is sparse but prior works either ignore it or estimate the CCIR by imposing sparsity as an explicit constraint in their optimization problem. In this paper, contrary to these studies, we develop covariance-free Bayesian learning (CoFBL) techniques for estimating sparse CCIR in a CoFAR system. In particular, we consider a multiple measurement vector scenario and estimate a simultaneously sparse (row sparse) CCIR matrix. Our CoFBL framework reduces the complexity of conventional sparse Bayesian learning through the use of the diagonal element estimation rule and conjugate gradient descent algorithm. We show that the framework is applicable to various forms of CCIR sparsity models: group, joint, and joint-cum-group. We evaluate our method through numerical experiments on a data set generated using RFView, a high-fidelity modeling and simulation tool. We derive Bayesian Cram\'{e}r-Rao bounds for the various considered scenarios to benchmark the performance of our algorithms. Our results demonstrate that the proposed CoFBL-based approaches perform better than the existing popular approaches such as multiple focal underdetermined system solver and simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit.

We introduce two global-in-time domain decomposition methods, namely the Steklov-Poincare method and the Robin method, for solving a fluid-structure interaction system. These methods allow us to formulate the coupled system as a space-time interface problem and apply iterative algorithms directly to the evolutionary problem. Each time-dependent subdomain problem is solved independently, which enables the use of different time discretization schemes and time step sizes in the subsystems. This leads to an efficient way of simulating time-dependent phenomena. We present numerical tests for both non-physical and physical problems, with various mesh sizes and time step sizes to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methods.

Electric field-induced giant resistive switching triggered by insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) is one of the promising approaches for developing a new class of electronics often referred to as Mottronics. Achieving this resistive switching by minimal external field at room temperature is of paramount research and technological interest. Mott-IMT is often associated with structural modification, which is very important for optoelectronic and actuator applications. Here, we report a giant resistive switching of about 900 % at room temperature in disordered polycrystalline V2O3-Si thin film stabilized at the IMT phase boundary and associated structural transformation under a small electric field. The increase of electron population in the a1g band under the field is responsible for the Mott gap collapse that drives the structural transition. Furthermore, we also fabricated a room temperature Mott-FET with a channel ON/OFF resistive ratio of about 15. This study provides a fundamental mechanism of the Mott-IMT in V2O3 as well as its device applications., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures

The introduction of transformers has been an important breakthrough for AI research and application as transformers are the foundation behind Generative AI. A promising application domain for transformers is cybersecurity, in particular the malware domain analysis. The reason is the flexibility of the transformer models in handling long sequential features and understanding contextual relationships. However, as the use of transformers for malware analysis is still in the infancy stage, it is critical to evaluate, systematize, and contextualize existing literature to foster future research. This Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of transformer-based approaches designed for malware analysis. Based on our systematic analysis of existing knowledge, we structure and propose taxonomies based on: (a) how different transformers are adapted, organized, and modified across various use cases; and (b) how diverse feature types and their representation capabilities are reflected. We also provide an inventory of datasets used to explore multiple research avenues in the use of transformers for malware analysis and discuss open challenges with future research directions. We believe that this SoK paper will assist the research community in gaining detailed insights from existing work and will serve as a foundational resource for implementing novel research using transformers for malware analysis.

Taking cue from the recent experimental realization of metallic phases in Kagome materials we report the low temperature signatures and thermal scales of Kagome metals and insulators, determined in the framework of the Kagome Hubbard model, using a non perturbative numerical approach. In contrast to the existing consensus we establish a flat band localized insulator in the weak coupling regime which crosses over to a non Fermi liquid (NFL) metal at intermediate coupling, followed by a first order metal-Mott insulator transition in the strong coupling regime. We provide the first accurate estimates of the thermal scales of this model and analyze the NFL phases in terms of resilient quasiparticles and short range magnetic correlations. With our unprecedented access to the low temperature phases and sufficiently large system sizes, we provide the essential benchmarks for the prospective experiments on the Kagome metal and insulators in terms of their thermodynamic, spectroscopic and transport signatures., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures

Space-based observations show that the solar atmosphere from the solar chromosphere to the solar corona is filled with small-scale jets and is linked with small-scale explosions. These jets may be produced by mechanisms similar to that of large-scale flares and such jets may be related to the heating of corona and chromosphere as well as the acceleration of solar wind. The chromospheric anemone jets on the Sun remain puzzling because their footpoints (or bright knots) have not been well resolved and the formation process of such enigmatic small-scale jets remains unclear. We propose a new model for chromospheric jets using the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations, which show that the continuous, upward rising of small-scale twisted magnetic flux ropes in a magnetized solar chromosphere drive small-scale magnetic reconnection and the launching of several small-scale jets during the evolution of the chromospheric anemone jets. Our new, self-consistent, three-dimensional computer modeling of small-scale, but ever-changing flux rope emergence in the magnetized solar atmosphere is fully consistent with observations and provides a universal mechanism for nanoflare and jet formation., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, Accepted to ApJL

As the world continues to face the challenges of climate change, it is crucial to consider the environmental impact of the technologies we use. In this study, we investigate the performance and computational carbon emissions of various transfer learning models for garbage classification. We examine the MobileNet, ResNet50, ResNet101, and EfficientNetV2S and EfficientNetV2M models. Our findings indicate that the EfficientNetV2 family achieves the highest accuracy, recall, f1-score, and IoU values. However, the EfficientNetV2M model requires more time and produces higher carbon emissions. ResNet50 outperforms ResNet110 in terms of accuracy, recall, f1-score, and IoU, but it has a larger carbon footprint. We conclude that EfficientNetV2S is the most sustainable and accurate model with 96.41% accuracy. Our research highlights the significance of considering the ecological impact of machine learning models in garbage classification., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

We propose a novel self-supervised framework for retargeting non-parameterized 3D garments onto 3D human avatars of arbitrary shapes and poses, enabling 3D virtual try-on (VTON). Existing self-supervised 3D retargeting methods only support parametric and canonical garments, which can only be draped over parametric body, e.g. SMPL. To facilitate the non-parametric garments and body, we propose a novel method that introduces Isomap Embedding based correspondences matching between the garment and the human body to get a coarse alignment between the two meshes. We perform neural refinement of the coarse alignment in a self-supervised setting. Further, we leverage a Laplacian detail integration method for preserving the inherent details of the input garment. For evaluating our 3D non-parametric garment retargeting framework, we propose a dataset of 255 real-world garments with realistic noise and topological deformations. The dataset contains $44$ unique garments worn by 15 different subjects in 5 distinctive poses, captured using a multi-view RGBD capture setup. We show superior retargeting quality on non-parametric garments and human avatars over existing state-of-the-art methods, acting as the first-ever baseline on the proposed dataset for non-parametric 3D garment retargeting.

Developing novel lead-free ferroelectric materials is crucial for next-generation microelectronic technologies that are energy efficient and environment friendly. However, materials discovery and property optimization are typically time-consuming due to the limited throughput of traditional synthesis methods. In this work, we use a high-throughput combinatorial synthesis approach to fabricate lead-free ferroelectric superlattices and solid solutions of (Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 (BCT) and Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 (BZT) phases with continuous variation of composition and layer thickness. High-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) and analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) demonstrate high film quality and well-controlled compositional gradients. Ferroelectric and dielectric property measurements identify the optimal property point achieved at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) with a composition of 48BZT-52BCT. Displacement vector maps reveal that ferroelectric domain sizes are tunable by varying {BCT-BZT}N superlattice geometry. This high-throughput synthesis approach can be applied to many other material systems to expedite new materials discovery and properties optimization, allowing for the exploration of a large area of phase space within a single growth., Comment: submitted

Google's BBR (Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip Propagation Time) approach is used to enhance internet network transmission. It is particularly intended to efficiently handle enormous amounts of data. Traditional TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) algorithms confront the most difficulty in calculating the proper quantity of data to send in order to prevent congestion and bottlenecks. This wastes bandwidth and causes network delays. BBR addresses this issue by adaptively assessing the available bandwidth (also known as bottleneck bandwidth) along the network channel and calculating the round-trip time (RTT) between the sender and receiver. Although when several flows compete for bandwidth, BBR may supply more bandwidth to one flow at the expense of another, resulting in unequal resource distribution. This paper proposes to integrate machine learning with BBR to enhance fairness in resource allocation. This novel strategy can improve bandwidth allocation and provide a more equal distribution of resources among competing flows by using historical BBR data to train an ML model. Further we also implemented a classifier model that is graphic neural network in the congestion control method.

This paper describes a novel approach for generating accurate floor plans and 3D models of building interiors using scanned mesh data. Unlike previous methods, which begin with a high resolution point cloud from a laser range-finder, our approach begins with triangle mesh data, as from a Microsoft HoloLens. It generates two types of floor plans, a "pen-and-ink" style that preserves details and a drafting-style that reduces clutter. It processes the 3D model for use in applications by aligning it with coordinate axes, annotating important objects, dividing it into stories, and removing the ceiling. Its performance is evaluated on commercial and residential buildings, with experiments to assess quality and dimensional accuracy. Our approach demonstrates promising potential for automatic digitization and orientation of scanned mesh data, enabling floor plan and 3D model generation in various applications such as navigation, interior design, furniture placement, facilities management, building construction, and HVAC design., Comment: Computer Graphics International 2023

As the global population continues to expand, the demand for natural resources increases. Unfortunately, human activities account for 23% of greenhouse gas emissions. On a positive note, remote sensing technologies have emerged as a valuable tool in managing our environment. These technologies allow us to monitor land use, plan urban areas, and drive advancements in areas such as agriculture, climate change mitigation, disaster recovery, and environmental monitoring. Recent advances in AI, computer vision, and earth observation data have enabled unprecedented accuracy in land use mapping. By using transfer learning and fine-tuning with RGB bands, we achieved an impressive 99.19% accuracy in land use analysis. Such findings can be used to inform conservation and urban planning policies., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

Open clusters are excellent tools to probe the history of the Galactic disk and properties of star formation. In this work, we present a study of an old age open cluster Berkley 39 using the observations from UVOT instrument of the Neil Gehrels Swift observatory. Making use of a machine learning algorithm, ML-MOC, we have identified a total of 861 stars as cluster members out of which 17 are blue straggler stars. In this work, we present a characterisation of 2 blue straggler stars. To estimate the fundamental parameters of blue straggler stars and their companions (if any), we constructed spectral energy distributions using UV data from swift/UVOT and GALEX, optical data from Gaia DR3, and infrared (IR) data from 2MASS, Spitzer/IRAC, and WISE. We find excess flux in UV in one blue straggler star, implying the possibility of a hot companion.

A methodical inquiry of the outcome of oxygen plasma exposure in low bandwidth compounds belonging to the perovskite family Pr1-xSrxMnO3 manganites where x = 0.5, has been presented in this communication by comparing the structural and transport properties of the untreated and plasma treated samples. It is witnessed that the high-temperature transmission is carried out by small polarons while the low-temperature transmission is attributed to variable range polarons. The changes in the transport properties may be attributed to the structural modification due to plasma exposure as revealed by the Rietveld analysis of the X-ray diffraction pattern. Further, oxygen plasma exposure boosts the conductivity due to the integration of oxygen ions in the plasma-exposed samples, thereby rendering them oxygen-rich., Comment: 21 pages, 9 Figures, 3 Tables

Hybrid precoder and combiner designs are conceived for decentralized parameter estimation in millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless sensor networks (WSNs). More explicitly, efficient pre- and post-processing of the sensor observations and received signal are proposed for the minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation of a parameter vector. The proposed techniques exploit the limited scattering nature of the mmWave MIMO channel for formulating the hybrid transceiver design framework as a multiple measurement vectors (MMV)-based sparse signal recovery problem. This is then solved using the iterative appealingly low-complexity simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit (SOMP). Tailor-made designs are presented for WSNs operating under both total and per-sensor power constraints, while considering ideal noiseless as well as realistic noisy sensors. Furthermore, both the Bayesian Cramer-Rao lower bound and the centralized MMSE bound are derived for benchmarking the proposed decentralized estimation schemes. Our simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the designs advocated and verify the analytical findings.

Hybrid transceivers are designed for linear decentralized estimation (LDE) in a mmWave multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) IoT network (IoTNe). For a noiseless fusion center (FC), it is demonstrated that the MSE performance is determined by the number of RF chains used at each IoT node (IoTNo). Next, the minimum-MSE RF transmit precoders (TPCs) and receive combiner (RC) matrices are designed for this setup using the dominant array response vectors, and subsequently, a closed-form expression is obtained for the baseband (BB) TPC at each IoTNo using Cauchy's interlacing theorem. For a realistic noisy FC, it is shown that the resultant mean squared error (MSE) minimization problem is non-convex. To address this challenge, a block-coordinate descent-based iterative scheme is proposed to obtain the fully digital TPC and RC matrices followed by the simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit (SOMP) technique for decomposing the fully-digital transceiver into its corresponding RF and BB components. A theoretical proof of the convergence is also presented for the proposed iterative design procedure. Furthermore, robust hybrid transceiver designs are also derived for a practical scenario in the face of channel state information (CSI) uncertainty. The centralized MMSE lower bound has also been derived that benchmarks the performance of the proposed LDE schemes. Finally, our numerical results characterize the performance of the proposed transceivers as well as corroborate our various analytical propositions., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

In the electronic packaging and energy storage sectors, the study of Cu6Sn5 intermetallic compound (IMC) is getting more attention. At temperatures above 186 oC, this IMC exists in a hexagonal closed packed (HCP) crystalline structure. Crystal plasticity finite element simulations are performed on Cu6Sn5 IMC by taking the information about its lattice parameters and direction dependent elastic properties. Three types of models corresponding to deformations in basal, prismatic and pyramidal modes are developed. With the same type of loading in the elastic regime and boundary conditions, the results of the computations reveal the differences in displacement magnitudes among the three model types.

In digital forensics, file fragment classification is an important step toward completing file carving process. There exist several techniques to identify the type of file fragments without relying on meta-data, such as using features like header/footer and N-gram to identify the fragment type. Recently, convolutional neural network (CNN) models have been used to build classification models to achieve this task. However, the number of parameters in CNNs tends to grow exponentially as the number of layers increases. This results in a dramatic increase in training and inference time. In this paper, we propose light-weight file fragment classification models based on depthwise separable CNNs. The evaluation results show that our proposed models provide faster inference time with comparable accuracy as compared to the state-of-art CNN based models. In particular, our models were able to achieve an accuracy of 79\% on the FFT-75 dataset with nearly 100K parameters and 164M FLOPs, which is 4x smaller and 6x faster than the state-of-the-art classifier in the literature., Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures

We present a short overview of the TeV-Halos objects as a discovery and a relevant contribution of the High Altitude Water \v{C}erenkov (HAWC) observatory to TeV astrophysics. We discuss history, discovery, knowledge, and the next step through a new and more detailed analysis than the original study in 2017. TeV-Halos will contribute to resolving the problem of the local positron excess observed on the Earth. To clarify the latter, understanding the diffusion process is mandatory., Comment: Work presented in the 21st International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions(ISVHECRI 2022) as part of the Ph. D. Thesis of Ramiro Torres-Escobedo (SJTU, Shanghai, China). Accepted for publication in SciPost Physics Proceedings (ISSN 2666-4003). 11 pages, 3 Figures. Short overview of HAWC and TeV Halos objects until 2022

Computer vision methods have shown to be effective in classifying garbage into recycling categories for waste processing, existing methods are costly, imprecise, and unclear. To tackle this issue, we introduce MWaste, a mobile application that uses computer vision and deep learning techniques to classify waste materials as trash, plastic, paper, metal, glass or cardboard. Its effectiveness was tested on various neural network architectures and real-world images, achieving an average precision of 92\% on the test set. This app can help combat climate change by enabling efficient waste processing and reducing the generation of greenhouse gases caused by incorrect waste disposal.