760 research outputs found
Expanding the expressive power of Monadic Second-Order logic on restricted graph classes
We combine integer linear programming and recent advances in Monadic
Second-Order model checking to obtain two new algorithmic meta-theorems for
graphs of bounded vertex-cover. The first shows that cardMSO1, an extension of
the well-known Monadic Second-Order logic by the addition of cardinality
constraints, can be solved in FPT time parameterized by vertex cover. The
second meta-theorem shows that the MSO partitioning problems introduced by Rao
can also be solved in FPT time with the same parameter. The significance of our
contribution stems from the fact that these formalisms can describe problems
which are W[1]-hard and even NP-hard on graphs of bounded tree-width.
Additionally, our algorithms have only an elementary dependence on the
parameter and formula. We also show that both results are easily extended from
vertex cover to neighborhood diversity.Comment: Accepted for IWOCA 201
The Claims Culture: A Taxonomy of Industry Attitudes
This paper presents an analysis of a familiar aspect of construction industry culture that we have dubbed 'the claims culture'. This is a culture of contract administration that lays a strong emphasis on the planning and management of claims. The principal elements of the analysis are two sets of distinctions. The first comprises economic and occupational orders, referring to two kinds of control that are exercised over the construction process; predicated respectively on economic ownership and occupational competence. The second refers to contrasting attitudes towards relationships and problem solving within these orders: respectively 'distributive' and 'integrative'. The concepts of economic and occupational order entail further sub-categories. The various attitudes associated with these categories and sub-categories are described. They are assessed as to their consequences for change initiatives in the industry
Conjunctions of Among Constraints
Many existing global constraints can be encoded as a conjunction of among
constraints. An among constraint holds if the number of the variables in its
scope whose value belongs to a prespecified set, which we call its range, is
within some given bounds. It is known that domain filtering algorithms can
benefit from reasoning about the interaction of among constraints so that
values can be filtered out taking into consideration several among constraints
simultaneously. The present pa- per embarks into a systematic investigation on
the circumstances under which it is possible to obtain efficient and complete
domain filtering algorithms for conjunctions of among constraints. We start by
observing that restrictions on both the scope and the range of the among
constraints are necessary to obtain meaningful results. Then, we derive a
domain flow-based filtering algorithm and present several applications. In
particular, it is shown that the algorithm unifies and generalizes several
previous existing results.Comment: 15 pages plus appendi
Statistical Inference in a Directed Network Model with Covariates
Networks are often characterized by node heterogeneity for which nodes
exhibit different degrees of interaction and link homophily for which nodes
sharing common features tend to associate with each other. In this paper, we
propose a new directed network model to capture the former via node-specific
parametrization and the latter by incorporating covariates. In particular, this
model quantifies the extent of heterogeneity in terms of outgoingness and
incomingness of each node by different parameters, thus allowing the number of
heterogeneity parameters to be twice the number of nodes. We study the maximum
likelihood estimation of the model and establish the uniform consistency and
asymptotic normality of the resulting estimators. Numerical studies demonstrate
our theoretical findings and a data analysis confirms the usefulness of our
model.Comment: 29 pages. minor revisio
Kernelization and Parameterized Algorithms for 3-Path Vertex Cover
A 3-path vertex cover in a graph is a vertex subset such that every path
of three vertices contains at least one vertex from . The parameterized
3-path vertex cover problem asks whether a graph has a 3-path vertex cover of
size at most . In this paper, we give a kernel of vertices and an
-time and polynomial-space algorithm for this problem, both new
results improve previous known bounds.Comment: in TAMC 2016, LNCS 9796, 201
Closest string with outliers
Background: Given n strings s1, …, sn each of length ℓ and a nonnegative integer d, the CLOSEST STRING problem asks to find a center string s such that none of the input strings has Hamming distance greater than d from s. Finding a common pattern in many – but not necessarily all – input strings is an important task that plays a role in many applications in bioinformatics. Results: Although the closest string model is robust to the oversampling of strings in the input, it is severely affected by the existence of outliers. We propose a refined model, the CLOSEST STRING WITH OUTLIERS (CSWO) problem, to overcome this limitation. This new model asks for a center string s that is within Hamming distance d to at least n – k of the n input strings, where k is a parameter describing the maximum number of outliers. A CSWO solution not only provides the center string as a representative for the set of strings but also reveals the outliers of the set. We provide fixed parameter algorithms for CSWO when d and k are parameters, for both bounded and unbounded alphabets. We also show that when the alphabet is unbounded the problem is W[1]-hard with respect to n – k, ℓ, and d. Conclusions: Our refined model abstractly models finding common patterns in several but not all input strings
Toward Improving Safety in Neurosurgery with an Active Handheld Instrument
Microsurgical procedures, such as petroclival meningioma resection, require careful surgical actions in order to remove tumor tissue, while avoiding brain and vessel damaging. Such procedures are currently performed under microscope magnification. Robotic tools are emerging in order to filter surgeons’ unintended movements and prevent tools from entering forbidden regions such as vascular structures. The present work investigates the use of a handheld robotic tool (Micron) to automate vessel avoidance in microsurgery. In particular, we focused on vessel segmentation, implementing a deep-learning-based segmentation strategy in microscopy images, and its integration with a feature-based passive 3D reconstruction algorithm to obtain accurate and robust vessel position. We then implemented a virtual-fixture-based strategy to control the handheld robotic tool and perform vessel avoidance. Clay vascular phantoms, lying on a background obtained from microscopy images recorded during petroclival meningioma surgery, were used for testing the segmentation and control algorithms. When testing the segmentation algorithm on 100 different phantom images, a median Dice similarity coefficient equal to 0.96 was achieved. A set of 25 Micron trials of 80 s in duration, each involving the interaction of Micron with a different vascular phantom, were recorded, with a safety distance equal to 2 mm, which was comparable to the median vessel diameter. Micron’s tip entered the forbidden region 24% of the time when the control algorithm was active. However, the median penetration depth was 16.9 μm, which was two orders of magnitude lower than median vessel diameter. Results suggest the system can assist surgeons in performing safe vessel avoidance during neurosurgical procedures
The Interplanetary Network Supplement to the BeppoSAX Gamma-Ray Burst Catalogs
Between 1996 July and 2002 April, one or more spacecraft of the
interplanetary network detected 787 cosmic gamma-ray bursts that were also
detected by the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor and/or Wide-Field X-Ray Camera
experiments aboard the BeppoSAX spacecraft. During this period, the network
consisted of up to six spacecraft, and using triangulation, the localizations
of 475 bursts were obtained. We present the localization data for these events.Comment: 89 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal
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