23,731 research outputs found
The Average State Complexity of Rational Operations on Finite Languages
Submitted, 21 pages.International audienceConsidering the uniform distribution on sets of m non-empty words whose sum of lengths is n, we establish that the average state complexities of the rational operations are asymptotically linear
Sparse approaches for the exact distribution of patterns in long state sequences generated by a Markov source
We present two novel approaches for the computation of the exact distribution
of a pattern in a long sequence. Both approaches take into account the sparse
structure of the problem and are two-part algorithms. The first approach relies
on a partial recursion after a fast computation of the second largest
eigenvalue of the transition matrix of a Markov chain embedding. The second
approach uses fast Taylor expansions of an exact bivariate rational
reconstruction of the distribution. We illustrate the interest of both
approaches on a simple toy-example and two biological applications: the
transcription factors of the Human Chromosome 5 and the PROSITE signatures of
functional motifs in proteins. On these example our methods demonstrate their
complementarity and their hability to extend the domain of feasibility for
exact computations in pattern problems to a new level
Comparator automata in quantitative verification
The notion of comparison between system runs is fundamental in formal
verification. This concept is implicitly present in the verification of
qualitative systems, and is more pronounced in the verification of quantitative
systems. In this work, we identify a novel mode of comparison in quantitative
systems: the online comparison of the aggregate values of two sequences of
quantitative weights. This notion is embodied by {\em comparator automata}
({\em comparators}, in short), a new class of automata that read two infinite
sequences of weights synchronously and relate their aggregate values.
We show that {aggregate functions} that can be represented with B\"uchi
automaton result in comparators that are finite-state and accept by the B\"uchi
condition as well. Such {\em -regular comparators} further lead to
generic algorithms for a number of well-studied problems, including the
quantitative inclusion and winning strategies in quantitative graph games with
incomplete information, as well as related non-decision problems, such as
obtaining a finite representation of all counterexamples in the quantitative
inclusion problem.
We study comparators for two aggregate functions: discounted-sum and
limit-average. We prove that the discounted-sum comparator is -regular
iff the discount-factor is an integer. Not every aggregate function, however,
has an -regular comparator. Specifically, we show that the language of
sequence-pairs for which limit-average aggregates exist is neither
-regular nor -context-free. Given this result, we introduce the
notion of {\em prefix-average} as a relaxation of limit-average aggregation,
and show that it admits -context-free comparators
Incomplete Transition Complexity of Basic Operations on Finite Languages
The state complexity of basic operations on finite languages (considering
complete DFAs) has been in studied the literature. In this paper we study the
incomplete (deterministic) state and transition complexity on finite languages
of boolean operations, concatenation, star, and reversal. For all operations we
give tight upper bounds for both description measures. We correct the published
state complexity of concatenation for complete DFAs and provide a tight upper
bound for the case when the right automaton is larger than the left one. For
all binary operations the tightness is proved using family languages with a
variable alphabet size. In general the operational complexities depend not only
on the complexities of the operands but also on other refined measures.Comment: 13 page
Controlled non uniform random generation of decomposable structures
Consider a class of decomposable combinatorial structures, using different
types of atoms \Atoms = \{\At_1,\ldots ,\At_{|{\Atoms}|}\}. We address the
random generation of such structures with respect to a size and a targeted
distribution in of its \emph{distinguished} atoms. We consider two
variations on this problem. In the first alternative, the targeted distribution
is given by real numbers \TargFreq_1, \ldots, \TargFreq_k such that 0 <
\TargFreq_i < 1 for all and \TargFreq_1+\cdots+\TargFreq_k \leq 1. We
aim to generate random structures among the whole set of structures of a given
size , in such a way that the {\em expected} frequency of any distinguished
atom \At_i equals \TargFreq_i. We address this problem by weighting the
atoms with a -tuple \Weights of real-valued weights, inducing a weighted
distribution over the set of structures of size . We first adapt the
classical recursive random generation scheme into an algorithm taking
\bigO{n^{1+o(1)}+mn\log{n}} arithmetic operations to draw structures from
the \Weights-weighted distribution. Secondly, we address the analytical
computation of weights such that the targeted frequencies are achieved
asymptotically, i. e. for large values of . We derive systems of functional
equations whose resolution gives an explicit relationship between \Weights
and \TargFreq_1, \ldots, \TargFreq_k. Lastly, we give an algorithm in
\bigO{k n^4} for the inverse problem, {\it i.e.} computing the frequencies
associated with a given -tuple \Weights of weights, and an optimized
version in \bigO{k n^2} in the case of context-free languages. This allows
for a heuristic resolution of the weights/frequencies relationship suitable for
complex specifications. In the second alternative, the targeted distribution is
given by a natural numbers such that
where is the number of undistinguished atoms.
The structures must be generated uniformly among the set of structures of size
that contain {\em exactly} atoms \At_i (). We give
a \bigO{r^2\prod_{i=1}^k n_i^2 +m n k \log n} algorithm for generating
structures, which simplifies into a \bigO{r\prod_{i=1}^k n_i +m n} for
regular specifications
Mean-payoff Automaton Expressions
Quantitative languages are an extension of boolean languages that assign to
each word a real number. Mean-payoff automata are finite automata with
numerical weights on transitions that assign to each infinite path the long-run
average of the transition weights. When the mode of branching of the automaton
is deterministic, nondeterministic, or alternating, the corresponding class of
quantitative languages is not robust as it is not closed under the pointwise
operations of max, min, sum, and numerical complement. Nondeterministic and
alternating mean-payoff automata are not decidable either, as the quantitative
generalization of the problems of universality and language inclusion is
undecidable.
We introduce a new class of quantitative languages, defined by mean-payoff
automaton expressions, which is robust and decidable: it is closed under the
four pointwise operations, and we show that all decision problems are decidable
for this class. Mean-payoff automaton expressions subsume deterministic
mean-payoff automata, and we show that they have expressive power incomparable
to nondeterministic and alternating mean-payoff automata. We also present for
the first time an algorithm to compute distance between two quantitative
languages, and in our case the quantitative languages are given as mean-payoff
automaton expressions
The power of linear programming for general-valued CSPs
Let , called the domain, be a fixed finite set and let , called
the valued constraint language, be a fixed set of functions of the form
, where different functions might have
different arity . We study the valued constraint satisfaction problem
parametrised by , denoted by VCSP. These are minimisation
problems given by variables and the objective function given by a sum of
functions from , each depending on a subset of the variables.
Finite-valued constraint languages contain functions that take on only rational
values and not infinite values.
Our main result is a precise algebraic characterisation of valued constraint
languages whose instances can be solved exactly by the basic linear programming
relaxation (BLP). For a valued constraint language , BLP is a decision
procedure for if and only if admits a symmetric fractional
polymorphism of every arity. For a finite-valued constraint language ,
BLP is a decision procedure if and only if admits a symmetric
fractional polymorphism of some arity, or equivalently, if admits a
symmetric fractional polymorphism of arity 2.
Using these results, we obtain tractability of several novel classes of
problems, including problems over valued constraint languages that are: (1)
submodular on arbitrary lattices; (2) -submodular on arbitrary finite
domains; (3) weakly (and hence strongly) tree-submodular on arbitrary trees.Comment: A full version of a FOCS'12 paper by the last two authors
(arXiv:1204.1079) and an ICALP'13 paper by the first author (arXiv:1207.7213)
to appear in SIAM Journal on Computing (SICOMP
Flexible RNA design under structure and sequence constraints using formal languages
The problem of RNA secondary structure design (also called inverse folding)
is the following: given a target secondary structure, one aims to create a
sequence that folds into, or is compatible with, a given structure. In several
practical applications in biology, additional constraints must be taken into
account, such as the presence/absence of regulatory motifs, either at a
specific location or anywhere in the sequence. In this study, we investigate
the design of RNA sequences from their targeted secondary structure, given
these additional sequence constraints. To this purpose, we develop a general
framework based on concepts of language theory, namely context-free grammars
and finite automata. We efficiently combine a comprehensive set of constraints
into a unifying context-free grammar of moderate size. From there, we use
generic generic algorithms to perform a (weighted) random generation, or an
exhaustive enumeration, of candidate sequences. The resulting method, whose
complexity scales linearly with the length of the RNA, was implemented as a
standalone program. The resulting software was embedded into a publicly
available dedicated web server. The applicability demonstrated of the method on
a concrete case study dedicated to Exon Splicing Enhancers, in which our
approach was successfully used in the design of \emph{in vitro} experiments.Comment: ACM BCB 2013 - ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational
Biology and Biomedical Informatics (2013
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