593 research outputs found
Prioritized Repairing and Consistent Query Answering in Relational Databases
A consistent query answer in an inconsistent database is an answer obtained
in every (minimal) repair. The repairs are obtained by resolving all conflicts
in all possible ways. Often, however, the user is able to provide a preference
on how conflicts should be resolved. We investigate here the framework of
preferred consistent query answers, in which user preferences are used to
narrow down the set of repairs to a set of preferred repairs. We axiomatize
desirable properties of preferred repairs. We present three different families
of preferred repairs and study their mutual relationships. Finally, we
investigate the complexity of preferred repairing and computing preferred
consistent query answers.Comment: Accepted to the special SUM'08 issue of AMA
The contribution of CXCL12-expressing radial glia cells to neuro-vascular patterning during human cerebral cortex development
This study was conducted on human developing brain by laser confocal and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to make a detailed analysis of important features of blood-brain barrier (BBB) microvessels and possible control mechanisms of vessel growth and differentiation during cerebral cortex vascularization. The BBB status of cortex microvessels was examined at a defined stage of cortex development, at the end of neuroblast waves of migration, and before cortex lamination, with BBB-endothelial cell markers, namely tight junction (TJ) proteins (occludin and claudin-5) and influx and efflux transporters (Glut-1 and P-glycoprotein), the latter supporting evidence for functional effectiveness of the fetal BBB. According to the well-known roles of astroglia cells on microvessel growth and differentiation, the early composition of astroglia/endothelial cell relationships was analyzed by detecting the appropriate astroglia, endothelial, and pericyte markers. GFAP, chemokine CXCL12, and connexin 43 (Cx43) were utilized as markers of radial glia cells, CD105 (endoglin) as a marker of angiogenically activated endothelial cells (ECs), and proteoglycan NG2 as a marker of immature pericytes. Immunolabeling for CXCL12 showed the highest level of the ligand in radial glial (RG) fibers in contact with the growing cortex microvessels. These specialized contacts, recognizable on both perforating radial vessels and growing collaterals, appeared as CXCL12-reactive en passant, symmetrical and asymmetrical, vessel-specific RG fiber swellings. At the highest confocal resolution, these RG varicosities showed a CXCL12-reactive dot-like content whose microvesicular nature was confirmed by ultrastructural observations. A further analysis of RG varicosities reveals colocalization of CXCL12 with Cx43, which is possibly implicated in vessel-specific chemokine signaling
The complexity of dominating set reconfiguration
Suppose that we are given two dominating sets and of a graph
whose cardinalities are at most a given threshold . Then, we are asked
whether there exists a sequence of dominating sets of between and
such that each dominating set in the sequence is of cardinality at most
and can be obtained from the previous one by either adding or deleting
exactly one vertex. This problem is known to be PSPACE-complete in general. In
this paper, we study the complexity of this decision problem from the viewpoint
of graph classes. We first prove that the problem remains PSPACE-complete even
for planar graphs, bounded bandwidth graphs, split graphs, and bipartite
graphs. We then give a general scheme to construct linear-time algorithms and
show that the problem can be solved in linear time for cographs, trees, and
interval graphs. Furthermore, for these tractable cases, we can obtain a
desired sequence such that the number of additions and deletions is bounded by
, where is the number of vertices in the input graph
Algorithmic aspects of disjunctive domination in graphs
For a graph , a set is called a \emph{disjunctive
dominating set} of if for every vertex , is either
adjacent to a vertex of or has at least two vertices in at distance
from it. The cardinality of a minimum disjunctive dominating set of is
called the \emph{disjunctive domination number} of graph , and is denoted by
. The \textsc{Minimum Disjunctive Domination Problem} (MDDP)
is to find a disjunctive dominating set of cardinality .
Given a positive integer and a graph , the \textsc{Disjunctive
Domination Decision Problem} (DDDP) is to decide whether has a disjunctive
dominating set of cardinality at most . In this article, we first propose a
linear time algorithm for MDDP in proper interval graphs. Next we tighten the
NP-completeness of DDDP by showing that it remains NP-complete even in chordal
graphs. We also propose a -approximation
algorithm for MDDP in general graphs and prove that MDDP can not be
approximated within for any unless NP
DTIME. Finally, we show that MDDP is
APX-complete for bipartite graphs with maximum degree
Analysis of the Complications in Patients Undergoing Orthognathic Surgery by Piezosurgery(R): A 13 Years Retrospective Study
Orthognathic surgery is a branch of maxillo-facial surgery increasingly in demand, which deals with the correction of skeletal deformities. The aim of the present study is to identify the most common post-operative complications following orthognathic bimaxillary surgery performed by means of Piezosurgery(R). Furthermore, through an examination of the available scientific literature, we wanted to establish whether the frequency of postoperative complications were consistent with those already reported. A retrospective study on 58 patients who underwent orthognathic surgery with a bilateral sagittal osteotomy (BSSO) of the mandibular bone branch, maxillary surgery with Le Fort I mono-segmented or multi-segmented approach, and genioplasty technique using Piezosurgery(R). The complications taken into consideration were disorders of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), paraesthesia and hypoesthesia, asymmetries, nose enlargement, nasal septum deviation, nasal obstruction, dental discolorations, pulpal necrosis, occlusion and masticatory efficiency, gingival recession, periodontal problems, dysgeusia, nausea and vomiting, weeping alterations, hearing problems, delayed healing, superinfection, removal of synthesis means, reoperation, cicatricial outcome, and bilateral pneumothorax. It has been highlighted that a number and type of postoperative complications matched those reported by the most recent literature reviews. Temporomandibular disorders and paraesthesia were the most common ones. The only complication rate that differed from the literature was nerve damage, which was significantly lower. Post-surgical complications depend on the used surgical techniques, clinical work, and treatment methods. The use of piezoelectric devices in orthognathic surgery operations provides an innovative, safe, and effective technique compared to traditional methods
A SAT-based System for Consistent Query Answering
An inconsistent database is a database that violates one or more integrity
constraints, such as functional dependencies. Consistent Query Answering is a
rigorous and principled approach to the semantics of queries posed against
inconsistent databases. The consistent answers to a query on an inconsistent
database is the intersection of the answers to the query on every repair, i.e.,
on every consistent database that differs from the given inconsistent one in a
minimal way. Computing the consistent answers of a fixed conjunctive query on a
given inconsistent database can be a coNP-hard problem, even though every fixed
conjunctive query is efficiently computable on a given consistent database.
We designed, implemented, and evaluated CAvSAT, a SAT-based system for
consistent query answering. CAvSAT leverages a set of natural reductions from
the complement of consistent query answering to SAT and to Weighted MaxSAT. The
system is capable of handling unions of conjunctive queries and arbitrary
denial constraints, which include functional dependencies as a special case. We
report results from experiments evaluating CAvSAT on both synthetic and
real-world databases. These results provide evidence that a SAT-based approach
can give rise to a comprehensive and scalable system for consistent query
answering.Comment: 25 pages including appendix, to appear in the 22nd International
Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testin
Rainbow domination and related problems on some classes of perfect graphs
Let and let be a graph. A function is a rainbow function if, for every vertex with
, . The rainbow domination number
is the minimum of over all rainbow
functions. We investigate the rainbow domination problem for some classes of
perfect graphs
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