Contributions on secretary problems, independent sets of rectangles and related problems

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mathematics, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-198).We study three problems arising from different areas of combinatorial optimization. We first study the matroid secretary problem, which is a generalization proposed by Babaioff, Immorlica and Kleinberg of the classical secretary problem. In this problem, the elements of a given matroid are revealed one by one. When an element is revealed, we learn information about its weight and decide to accept it or not, while keeping the accepted set independent in the matroid. The goal is to maximize the expected weight of our solution. We study different variants for this problem depending on how the elements are presented and on how the weights are assigned to the elements. Our main result is the first constant competitive algorithm for the random-assignment random-order model. In this model, a list of hidden nonnegative weights is randomly assigned to the elements of the matroid, which are later presented to us in uniform random order, independent of the assignment. The second problem studied is the jump number problem. Consider a linear extension L of a poset P. A jump is a pair of consecutive elements in L that are not comparable in P. Finding a linear extension minimizing the number of jumps is NP-hard even for chordal bipartite posets. For the class of posets having two directional orthogonal ray comparability graphs, we show that this problem is equivalent to finding a maximum independent set of a well-behaved family of rectangles. Using this, we devise combinatorial and LP-based algorithms for the jump number problem, extending the class of bipartite posets for which this problem is polynomially solvable and improving on the running time of existing algorithms for certain subclasses. The last problem studied is the one of finding nonempty minimizers of a symmetric submodular function over any family of sets closed under inclusion. We give an efficient O(ns)-time algorithm for this task, based on Queyranne's pendant pair technique for minimizing unconstrained symmetric submodular functions. We extend this algorithm to report all inclusion-wise nonempty minimal minimizers under hereditary constraints of slightly more general functions.by José Antonio Soto.Ph.D

A statistical modeling framework for analyzing tree-indexed data: Application to plant development on microscopic and macroscopic scales

We address statistical models for tree-indexed data.In Virtual Plants team, the host team for this thesis, applications of interest focus on plant development and its modulation by environmental and genetic factors.We thus focus on plant developmental applications both at a microscopic level with the study of the cell lineage in the biological tissue responsible for the plant growth, and at a macroscopic level with the mechanism of branch production.Far fewer models are available for tree-indexed data than for path-indexed data.This thesis therefore aims to propose a statistical modeling framework for studying patterns in tree-indexed data.To this end, two different classes of statistical models, Markov and change-point models, are investigatedNous nous intéressons à des modèles statistiques pour données indexées par des arborescences. Dans le contexte de l'équipe Virtual Plants, les applications portent sur le développement de la plante et sa modulation par des facteurs génétiques et environnementaux. Les modèles statistiques pour données indexées par des arborescences sont beaucoup moins développés que ceux pour séquences ou séries temporelles. Cette thèse vise à proposer un cadre de modélisation statistique pour l'identification de patterns dans des données indexées par des arborescences. Deux classes de modèles statistiques, les modèles de Markov et leur extension aux modèles de Markov cachés et les modèles de détection de ruptures multiples, sont étudiés. Nous proposons notamment de nouvelles méthodes dinférence de la structure dindépendance conditionnelle entre nuds parent et enfants dans les modèles de Markov reposant sur des algorithmes de sélection de graphes dans des modèles graphiques probabilistes. Les modèles étudiés sont appliqués dune part à des arborescences de lignage cellulaire à léchelle microscopique et dautre part à des systèmes ramifiés à léchelle macroscopique

A Polyhedral Study of Mixed 0-1 Set

We consider a variant of the well-known single node fixed charge network flow set with constant capacities. This set arises from the relaxation of more general mixed integer sets such as lot-sizing problems with multiple suppliers. We provide a complete polyhedral characterization of the convex hull of the given set