9,012 research outputs found
Relative Stability of Network States in Boolean Network Models of Gene Regulation in Development
Progress in cell type reprogramming has revived the interest in Waddington's
concept of the epigenetic landscape. Recently researchers developed the
quasi-potential theory to represent the Waddington's landscape. The
Quasi-potential U(x), derived from interactions in the gene regulatory network
(GRN) of a cell, quantifies the relative stability of network states, which
determine the effort required for state transitions in a multi-stable dynamical
system. However, quasi-potential landscapes, originally developed for
continuous systems, are not suitable for discrete-valued networks which are
important tools to study complex systems. In this paper, we provide a framework
to quantify the landscape for discrete Boolean networks (BNs). We apply our
framework to study pancreas cell differentiation where an ensemble of BN models
is considered based on the structure of a minimal GRN for pancreas development.
We impose biologically motivated structural constraints (corresponding to
specific type of Boolean functions) and dynamical constraints (corresponding to
stable attractor states) to limit the space of BN models for pancreas
development. In addition, we enforce a novel functional constraint
corresponding to the relative ordering of attractor states in BN models to
restrict the space of BN models to the biological relevant class. We find that
BNs with canalyzing/sign-compatible Boolean functions best capture the dynamics
of pancreas cell differentiation. This framework can also determine the genes'
influence on cell state transitions, and thus can facilitate the rational
design of cell reprogramming protocols.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl
Algebras for Agent Norm-Regulation
An abstract architecture for idealized multi-agent systems whose behaviour is
regulated by normative systems is developed and discussed. Agent choices are
determined partially by the preference ordering of possible states and
partially by normative considerations: The agent chooses that act which leads
to the best outcome of all permissible actions. If an action is non-permissible
depends on if the result of performing that action leads to a state satisfying
a condition which is forbidden, according to the norms regulating the
multi-agent system. This idea is formalized by defining set-theoretic
predicates characterizing multi-agent systems. The definition of the predicate
uses decision theory, the Kanger-Lindahl theory of normative positions, and an
algebraic representation of normative systems.Comment: 25 page
Generalizations of Swierczkowski's lemma and the arity gap of finite functions
Swierczkowski's Lemma - as it is usually formulated - asserts that if f is an
at least quaternary operation on a finite set A and every operation obtained
from f by identifying a pair of variables is a projection, then f is a
semiprojection. We generalize this lemma in various ways. First, it is extended
to B-valued functions on A instead of operations on A and to essentially at
most unary functions instead of projections. Then we characterize the arity gap
of functions of small arities in terms of quasi-arity, which in turn provides a
further generalization of Swierczkowski's Lemma. Moreover, we explicitly
classify all pseudo-Boolean functions according to their arity gap. Finally, we
present a general characterization of the arity gaps of B-valued functions on
arbitrary finite sets A.Comment: 11 pages, proofs simplified, contents reorganize
On the Error Resilience of Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams
Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (OBDDs) are a data structure that is used in
an increasing number of fields of Computer Science (e.g., logic synthesis,
program verification, data mining, bioinformatics, and data protection) for
representing and manipulating discrete structures and Boolean functions. The
purpose of this paper is to study the error resilience of OBDDs and to design a
resilient version of this data structure, i.e., a self-repairing OBDD. In
particular, we describe some strategies that make reduced ordered OBDDs
resilient to errors in the indexes, that are associated to the input variables,
or in the pointers (i.e., OBDD edges) of the nodes. These strategies exploit
the inherent redundancy of the data structure, as well as the redundancy
introduced by its efficient implementations. The solutions we propose allow the
exact restoring of the original OBDD and are suitable to be applied to
classical software packages for the manipulation of OBDDs currently in use.
Another result of the paper is the definition of a new canonical OBDD model,
called {\em Index-resilient Reduced OBDD}, which guarantees that a node with a
faulty index has a reconstruction cost , where is the number of nodes
with corrupted index
Observation of implicit complexity by non confluence
We propose to consider non confluence with respect to implicit complexity. We
come back to some well known classes of first-order functional program, for
which we have a characterization of their intentional properties, namely the
class of cons-free programs, the class of programs with an interpretation, and
the class of programs with a quasi-interpretation together with a termination
proof by the product path ordering. They all correspond to PTIME. We prove that
adding non confluence to the rules leads to respectively PTIME, NPTIME and
PSPACE. Our thesis is that the separation of the classes is actually a witness
of the intentional properties of the initial classes of programs
Join-irreducible Boolean functions
This paper is a contribution to the study of a quasi-order on the set
of Boolean functions, the \emph{simple minor} quasi-order. We look at
the join-irreducible members of the resulting poset . Using a
two-way correspondence between Boolean functions and hypergraphs,
join-irreducibility translates into a combinatorial property of hypergraphs. We
observe that among Steiner systems, those which yield join-irreducible members
of are the -2-monomorphic Steiner systems. We also describe
the graphs which correspond to join-irreducible members of .Comment: The current manuscript constitutes an extension to the paper
"Irreducible Boolean Functions" (arXiv:0801.2939v1
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