Zero Textures of the Neutrino Mass Matrix from Cyclic Family Symmetry

We present the symmetry realization of the phenomenologically viable Frampton-Glashow-Marfatia (FGM) two zero texture neutrino mass matrices in the flavor basis within the framework of the type (I+II) seesaw mechanism natural to SO(10) grand unification. A small Abelian cyclic symmetry group $Z_3$ is used to realize these textures except for class C for which the symmetry is enlarged to $Z_4$. The scalar sector is restricted to the Standard Model (SM) Higgs doublet to suppress the flavor changing neutral currents. Other scalar fields used for symmetry realization are at the most two scalar triplets and, in some cases, a complex scalar singlet. Symmetry realization of one zero textures has, also, been presented.Comment: Phys. Lett. B (to appear

A Mixed Integer Linear Program for Airport Departure Scheduling

Aircraft departing from an airport are subject to numerous constraints while scheduling departure times. These constraints include wake-separation constraints for successive departures, miles-in-trail separation for aircraft bound for the same departure fixes, and time-window or prioritization constraints for individual flights. Besides these, emissions as well as increased fuel consumption due to inefficient scheduling need to be included. Addressing all the above constraints in a single framework while allowing for resequencing of the aircraft using runway queues is critical to the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transport System (NextGen) concepts. Prior work on airport departure scheduling has addressed some of the above. However, existing methods use pre-determined runway queues, and schedule aircraft from these departure queues. The source of such pre-determined queues is not explicit, and could potentially be a subjective controller input. Determining runway queues and scheduling within the same framework would potentially result in better scheduling. This paper presents a mixed integer linear program (MILP) for the departure-scheduling problem. The program takes as input the incoming sequence of aircraft for departure from a runway, along with their earliest departure times and an optional prioritization scheme based on time-window of departure for each aircraft. The program then assigns these aircraft to the available departure queues and schedules departure times, explicitly considering wake separation and departure fix restrictions to minimize total delay for all aircraft. The approach is generalized and can be used in a variety of situations, and allows for aircraft prioritization based on operational as well as environmental considerations. We present the MILP in the paper, along with benefits over the first-come-first-serve (FCFS) scheme for numerous randomized problems based on real-world settings. The MILP results in substantially reduced delays as compared to FCFS, and the magnitude of the savings depends on the queue and departure fix structure. The MILP assumes deterministic aircraft arrival times at the runway queues. However, due to taxi time uncertainty, aircraft might arrive either earlier or later than these deterministic times. Thus, to incorporate this uncertainty, we present a method for using the MILP with "overlap discounted rolling planning horizon". The approach is based on valuing near-term decision results more than future ones. We develop a model of taxitime uncertainty based on real-world data, and then compare the baseline FCFS delays with delays using the above MILP in a simple rolling-horizon method and in the overlap discounted scheme

Crop Planning using Stochastic Visual Optimization

As the world population increases and arable land decreases, it becomes vital to improve the productivity of the agricultural land available. Given the weather and soil properties, farmers need to take critical decisions such as which seed variety to plant and in what proportion, in order to maximize productivity. These decisions are irreversible and any unusual behavior of external factors, such as weather, can have catastrophic impact on the productivity of crop. A variety which is highly desirable to a farmer might be unavailable or in short supply, therefore, it is very critical to evaluate which variety or varieties are more likely to be chosen by farmers from a growing region in order to meet demand. In this paper, we present our visual analytics tool, ViSeed, showcased on the data given in Syngenta 2016 crop data challenge 1 . This tool helps to predict optimal soybean seed variety or mix of varieties in appropriate proportions which is more likely to be chosen by farmers from a growing region. It also allows to analyse solutions generated from our approach and helps in the decision making process by providing insightful visualizationsComment: 5 page