Boolean Satisfiability in Electronic Design Automation

Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) is often used as the underlying model for a significant and increasing number of applications in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) as well as in many other fields of Computer Science and Engineering. In recent years, new and efficient algorithms for SAT have been developed, allowing much larger problem instances to be solved. SAT “packages” are currently expected to have an impact on EDA applications similar to that of BDD packages since their introduction more than a decade ago. This tutorial paper is aimed at introducing the EDA professional to the Boolean satisfiability problem. Specifically, we highlight the use of SAT models to formulate a number of EDA problems in such diverse areas as test pattern generation, circuit delay computation, logic optimization, combinational equivalence checking, bounded model checking and functional test vector generation, among others. In addition, we provide an overview of the algorithmic techniques commonly used for solving SAT, including those that have seen widespread use in specific EDA applications. We categorize these algorithmic techniques, indicating which have been shown to be best suited for which tasks

Gene silencing and large-scale domain structure of the E. coli genome

The H-NS chromosome-organizing protein in E. coli can stabilize genomic DNA loops, and form oligomeric structures connected to repression of gene expression. Motivated by the link between chromosome organization, protein binding and gene expression, we analyzed publicly available genomic data sets of various origins, from genome-wide protein binding profiles to evolutionary information, exploring the connections between chromosomal organization, genesilencing, pseudo-gene localization and horizontal gene transfer. We report the existence of transcriptionally silent contiguous areas corresponding to large regions of H-NS protein binding along the genome, their position indicates a possible relationship with the known large-scale features of chromosome organization

Generalized Dynamical Spin Chain and 4-Loop Integrability in N=6 Superconformal Chern-Simons Theory

We revisit unitary representation of centrally extended (2 | 2) excitation superalgebra. We find most generally that `pseudo-momentum', not lattice momentum, diagonalizes spin chain Hamiltonian and leads to generalized dynamic spin chain. All known results point to lattice momentum diagonalization for N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Having different interacting structure, we ask if N=6 superconformal Chern-Simons theory provides an example of pseudo-momentum diagonalization. For SO(6) sector, we study maximal shuffling and next-to-maximal shuffling terms in the dilatation operator and compare them with results expected from psu(2|2) superalgebbra and integrability. At two loops, we rederive maximal shuffling term (3-site) and find perfect agreement with known results. At four loops, we first find absence of next-to-maximal shuffling term (4-site), in agreement with prediction based on integrability. We next extract maximal shuffling term (5-site), the most relevant term for checking the possibility of pseudo-momentum diagonalization. Curiously, we find that result agrees with integraility prediction based on lattice momentum, as in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Consistency of our results is fully ensured by checks of renormalizability up to six loops.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, v2. references added and conclusion changed; v3. references updated, v4. final published versio

Algorithmic Debugging of Real-World Haskell Programs: Deriving Dependencies from the Cost Centre Stack

Existing algorithmic debuggers for Haskell require a transformation of all modules in a program, even libraries that the user does not want to debug and which may use language features not supported by the debugger. This is a pity, because a promising ap- proach to debugging is therefore not applicable to many real-world programs. We use the cost centre stack from the Glasgow Haskell Compiler profiling environment together with runtime value observations as provided by the Haskell Object Observation Debugger (HOOD) to collect enough information for algorithmic debugging. Program annotations are in suspected modules only. With this technique algorithmic debugging is applicable to a much larger set of Haskell programs. This demonstrates that for functional languages in general a simple stack trace extension is useful to support tasks such as profiling and debugging

Neoclassical versus frontier production models? Testing for the skewness of regression residuals

The empirical literature on production and cost functions is divided into two strands: 1) the neoclassical approach that concentrates on model parameters, 2) the frontier approach that decomposes the disturbance term to a symmetric noise term and a positively skewed inefficiency term. We propose a theoretical justification for the skewness of the inefficiency term, arguing that this skewness is the key testable hypothesis of the frontier approach. We propose to test the regression residuals for skewness to distinguish the two competing approaches. Our test builds directly upon the asymmetry of regression residuals and does not require any prior distributional assumptions.Firms and production; Frontier estimation; Hypotheses testing; Production function; Productive efficiency analysis

Participation in Universal Prevention Programs

We analyze the decision to participate in community-based universal prevention programs through the framework of prospect theory, with family functionality, and related risk status, providing the reference point. We find that participation probability depends on the relative ratios of the weighting and valuation functions. Using data from the Strengthening Families Program and the Washington Healthy Youth Survey, we empirically test the implications of our model. We find that family functionality affects the participation decision in complex and, in some cases, non-linear ways. We discuss the implication of these findings for cost-effectiveness analysis, and suggest directions for further research.Prospect Theory, Treatment Outcomes, Risk Status