1,602 research outputs found
A Computational Comparison of Optimization Methods for the Golomb Ruler Problem
The Golomb ruler problem is defined as follows: Given a positive integer n,
locate n marks on a ruler such that the distance between any two distinct pair
of marks are different from each other and the total length of the ruler is
minimized. The Golomb ruler problem has applications in information theory,
astronomy and communications, and it can be seen as a challenge for
combinatorial optimization algorithms. Although constructing high quality
rulers is well-studied, proving optimality is a far more challenging task. In
this paper, we provide a computational comparison of different optimization
paradigms, each using a different model (linear integer, constraint programming
and quadratic integer) to certify that a given Golomb ruler is optimal. We
propose several enhancements to improve the computational performance of each
method by exploring bound tightening, valid inequalities, cutting planes and
branching strategies. We conclude that a certain quadratic integer programming
model solved through a Benders decomposition and strengthened by two types of
valid inequalities performs the best in terms of solution time for small-sized
Golomb ruler problem instances. On the other hand, a constraint programming
model improved by range reduction and a particular branching strategy could
have more potential to solve larger size instances due to its promising
parallelization features
Statistical GGP Game Decomposition
International audienceThis paper presents a statistical approach for the decomposition of games in the General Game Playing framework. General game players can drastically decrease game search cost if they hold a decomposed version of the game. Previous works on decomposition rely on syn-tactical structures, which can be missing from the game description, or on the disjunctive normal form of the rules, which is very costly to compute. We offer an approach to decompose single or multi-player games which can handle the different classes of compound games described in Game Description Language (parallel games, serial games, multiple games). Our method is based on a statistical analysis of relations between actions and fluents. We tested our program on 597 games. Given a timeout of 1 hour and few playouts (1k), our method successfully provides an expert-like decomposition for 521 of them. With a 1 minute timeout and 5k playouts, it provides a decomposition for 434 of them
An Improved BKW Algorithm for LWE with Applications to Cryptography and Lattices
In this paper, we study the Learning With Errors problem and its binary
variant, where secrets and errors are binary or taken in a small interval. We
introduce a new variant of the Blum, Kalai and Wasserman algorithm, relying on
a quantization step that generalizes and fine-tunes modulus switching. In
general this new technique yields a significant gain in the constant in front
of the exponent in the overall complexity. We illustrate this by solving p
within half a day a LWE instance with dimension n = 128, modulus ,
Gaussian noise and binary secret, using
samples, while the previous best result based on BKW claims a time
complexity of with samples for the same parameters. We then
introduce variants of BDD, GapSVP and UniqueSVP, where the target point is
required to lie in the fundamental parallelepiped, and show how the previous
algorithm is able to solve these variants in subexponential time. Moreover, we
also show how the previous algorithm can be used to solve the BinaryLWE problem
with n samples in subexponential time . This
analysis does not require any heuristic assumption, contrary to other algebraic
approaches; instead, it uses a variant of an idea by Lyubashevsky to generate
many samples from a small number of samples. This makes it possible to
asymptotically and heuristically break the NTRU cryptosystem in subexponential
time (without contradicting its security assumption). We are also able to solve
subset sum problems in subexponential time for density , which is of
independent interest: for such density, the previous best algorithm requires
exponential time. As a direct application, we can solve in subexponential time
the parameters of a cryptosystem based on this problem proposed at TCC 2010.Comment: CRYPTO 201
Simple Encrypted Arithmetic Library - SEAL v2.1
Achieving fully homomorphic encryption was a longstanding open problem in cryptography until it was resolved by Gentry in 2009. Soon after, several homomorphic encryption schemes were proposed. The early homomorphic encryption schemes were extremely impractical, but recently new implementations, new data encoding techniques, and a better understanding of the applications have started to change the situation. In this paper we introduce the most recent version (v2.1) of Simple Encrypted Arithmetic Library - SEAL, a homomorphic encryption library developed by Microsoft Research, and describe some of its core functionality
Thermodynamically accessible titanium clusters TiN, N = 2-32
We have performed a genetic algorithm search on the tight-binding interatomic potential energy surface (PES) for small TiN (N = 2-32) clusters. The low energy candidate clusters were further refined using density functional theory (DFT) calculations with the PBEsol exchange-correlation functional and evaluated with the PBEsol0 hybrid functional. The resulting clusters were analysed in terms of their structural features, growth mechanism and surface area. The results suggest a growth mechanism that is based on forming coordination centres by interpenetrating icosahedra, icositetrahedra and Frank-Kasper polyhedra. We identify centres of coordination, which act as centres of bulk nucleation in medium sized clusters and determine the morphological features of the cluster
Haptoglobin Phenotype, Preeclampsia Risk and the Efficacy of Vitamin C and E Supplementation to Prevent Preeclampsia in a Racially Diverse Population
Haptoglobin's (Hp) antioxidant and pro-angiogenic properties differ between the 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2 phenotypes. Hp phenotype affects cardiovascular disease risk and treatment response to antioxidant vitamins in some non-pregnant populations. We previously demonstrated that preeclampsia risk was doubled in white Hp 2-1 women, compared to Hp 1-1 women. Our objectives were to determine whether we could reproduce this finding in a larger cohort, and to determine whether Hp phenotype influences lack of efficacy of antioxidant vitamins in preventing preeclampsia and serious complications of pregnancy-associated hypertension (PAH). This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial in which 10,154 low-risk women received daily vitamin C and E, or placebo, from 9-16 weeks gestation until delivery. Hp phenotype was determined in the study prediction cohort (n = 2,393) and a case-control cohort (703 cases, 1,406 controls). The primary outcome was severe PAH, or mild or severe PAH with elevated liver enzymes, elevated serum creatinine, thrombocytopenia, eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, medically indicated preterm birth or perinatal death. Preeclampsia was a secondary outcome. Odds ratios were estimated by logistic regression. Sampling weights were used to reduce bias from an overrepresentation of women with preeclampsia or the primary outcome. There was no relationship between Hp phenotype and the primary outcome or preeclampsia in Hispanic, white/other or black women. Vitamin supplementation did not reduce the risk of the primary outcome or preeclampsia in women of any phenotype. Supplementation increased preeclampsia risk (odds ratio 3.30; 95% confidence interval 1.61-6.82, p<0.01) in Hispanic Hp 2-2 women. Hp phenotype does not influence preeclampsia risk, or identify a subset of women who may benefit from vitamin C and E supplementation to prevent preeclampsia
Mature Care and Nursing in Psychiatry: Notions Regarding Reciprocity in Asymmetric Professional Relationships
The idea behind this article is to discuss the importance and to develop the concept of reciprocity in asymmetric professional relationships. As an empirical starting point for an examination of the possible forms of reciprocity between patients and nurses in psychiatry, we chose two qualitative in-depth interviews with two different patients. The manners in which these two patients relate to medical personnel—one is dependent, the other is independent—show that this presents challenges to nurses. The theoretical context is provided by the notion of mature care as it has been developed by feminist-oriented ethics of care, in contrast to the notion of altruistic care. In relation to the concept of mature care, we discuss how nursing can be perceived in demanding relationships with patients in psychiatry. Reciprocity implies that, in principle, the interests of the nurses also matter in a nurse-patient relationship. We show that reciprocity—in practice—is complicated and challenging in a number of different ways. Mature care—with its systematic inclusion of relationships and reciprocity—provides an alternative understanding of what takes place between patients and nurses compared with an altruistic notion of care. As such, mature care can be regarded as an useful paradigm for nurse-patient relationships in psychiatry
Human Epidermal Neural Crest Stem Cells (hEPI-NCSC)—Characterization and Directed Differentiation into Osteocytes and Melanocytes
Here we describe the isolation, characterisation and ex-vivo expansion of human epidermal neural crest stem cells (hEPI-NCSC) and we provide protocols for their directed differentiation into osteocytes and melanocytes. hEPI-NCSC are neural crest-derived multipotent stem cells that persist into adulthood in the bulge of hair follicles. Multipotency and self-renewal were determined by in vitro clonal analyses. hEPI-NCSC generate all major neural crest derivatives, including bone/cartilage cells, neurons, Schwann cells, myofibroblasts and melanocytes. Furthermore, hEPI-NCSC express additional neural crest stem cell markers and global stem cell genes. To variable degrees and in a donor-dependent manner, hEPI-NCSC express the six essential pluripotency genes C-MYC, KLF4, SOX2, LIN28, OCT-4/POU5F1 and NANOG. hEPI-NCSC can be expanded ex vivo into millions of stem cells that remain mulitpotent and continue to express stem cell genes. The novelty of hEPI-NCSC lies in the combination of their highly desirable traits. hEPI-NCSC are embryonic remnants in a postnatal location, the bulge of hair follicles. Therefore they are readily accessible in the hairy skin by minimal invasive procedure. hEPI-NCSC are multipotent somatic stem cells that can be isolated reproducibly and with high yield. By taking advantage of their migratory ability, hEPI-NCSC can be isolated as a highly pure population of stem cells. hEPI-NCSC can undergo robust ex vivo expansion and directed differentiation. As somatic stem cells, hEPI-NCSC are conducive to autologous transplantation, which avoids graft rejection. Together, these traits make hEPI-NCSC novel and attractive candidates for future cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine
Chiral U(1) flavor models and flavored Higgs doublets: the top FB asymmetry and the Wjj
We present U(1) flavor models for leptophobic Z' with flavor dependent
couplings to the right-handed up-type quarks in the Standard Model, which can
accommodate the recent data on the top forward-backward (FB) asymmetry and the
dijet resonance associated with a W boson reported by CDF Collaboration. Such
flavor-dependent leptophobic charge assignments generally require extra chiral
fermions for anomaly cancellation. Also the chiral nature of U(1)' flavor
symmetry calls for new U(1)'-charged Higgs doublets in order for the SM
fermions to have realistic renormalizable Yukawa couplings. The stringent
constraints from the top FB asymmetry at the Tevatron and the same sign top
pair production at the LHC can be evaded due to contributions of the extra
Higgs doublets. We also show that the extension could realize cold dark matter
candidates.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures, added 1 figure and extended discussion,
accepted for publication in JHE
Cisplatin-induced emesis: systematic review and meta-analysis of the ferret model and the effects of 5-HT3 receptor antagonists
PURPOSE: The ferret cisplatin emesis model has been used for ~30 years and enabled identification of clinically used anti-emetics. We provide an objective assessment of this model including efficacy of 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists to assess its translational validity. METHODS: A systematic review identified available evidence and was used to perform meta-analyses. RESULTS: Of 182 potentially relevant publications, 115 reported cisplatin-induced emesis in ferrets and 68 were included in the analysis. The majority (n = 53) used a 10 mg kg(−1) dose to induce acute emesis, which peaked after 2 h. More recent studies (n = 11) also used 5 mg kg(−1), which induced a biphasic response peaking at 12 h and 48 h. Overall, 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists reduced cisplatin (5 mg kg(−1)) emesis by 68% (45–91%) during the acute phase (day 1) and by 67% (48–86%) and 53% (38–68%, all P < 0.001), during the delayed phase (days 2, 3). In an analysis focused on the acute phase, the efficacy of ondansetron was dependent on the dosage and observation period but not on the dose of cisplatin. CONCLUSION: Our analysis enabled novel findings to be extracted from the literature including factors which may impact on the applicability of preclinical results to humans. It reveals that the efficacy of ondansetron is similar against low and high doses of cisplatin. Additionally, we showed that 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists have a similar efficacy during acute and delayed emesis, which provides a novel insight into the pharmacology of delayed emesis in the ferret
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