4,167 research outputs found
Long-time limit for a class of quadratic infinite-dimensional dynamical systems inspired by models of viscoelastic fluids
We study a class of quadratic, infinite-dimensional dynamical systems,
inspired by models for viscoelastic fluids. We prove that these equations
define a semi-flow on the cone of positive, essentially bounded functions. As
time tends to infinity, the solutions tend to an equilibrium manifold in the
-norm. Convergence to a particular function on the equilibrium manifold is
only proved under additional assumptions. We discuss several possible
generalizations
Superpolynomial lower bounds for general homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic circuits
In this paper, we prove superpolynomial lower bounds for the class of
homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic circuits. We give an explicit polynomial in VNP
of degree in variables such that any homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic
circuit computing it must have size .
Our results extend the works of Nisan-Wigderson [NW95] (which showed
superpolynomial lower bounds for homogeneous depth 3 circuits),
Gupta-Kamath-Kayal-Saptharishi and Kayal-Saha-Saptharishi [GKKS13, KSS13]
(which showed superpolynomial lower bounds for homogeneous depth 4 circuits
with bounded bottom fan-in), Kumar-Saraf [KS13a] (which showed superpolynomial
lower bounds for homogeneous depth 4 circuits with bounded top fan-in) and
Raz-Yehudayoff and Fournier-Limaye-Malod-Srinivasan [RY08, FLMS13] (which
showed superpolynomial lower bounds for multilinear depth 4 circuits). Several
of these results in fact showed exponential lower bounds.
The main ingredient in our proof is a new complexity measure of {\it bounded
support} shifted partial derivatives. This measure allows us to prove
exponential lower bounds for homogeneous depth 4 circuits where all the
monomials computed at the bottom layer have {\it bounded support} (but possibly
unbounded degree/fan-in), strengthening the results of Gupta et al and Kayal et
al [GKKS13, KSS13]. This new lower bound combined with a careful "random
restriction" procedure (that transforms general depth 4 homogeneous circuits to
depth 4 circuits with bounded support) gives us our final result
Deliberate use of placebos in clinical practice: what we really know
Increasingly a focus of research as well as media reports and online forums, the use of placebos in clinical medicine extends beyond sugar pills and saline injections. Physician surveys conducted in various countries invariably report that placebos are routinely used clinically, impure placebos more frequently than the pure ones, and that physicians consider them to be of legitimate therapeutic value. Inconsistent study methodologies and physician conceptualisations of placebos may complicate the interpretation of survey data, but hardly negate the valuable insights these research findings provide. Because impure placebos are often not recognised as such by practitioners, they remain at the fringe of many placebo-related debates, hence quietly absent from discussions concerning policy and regulation. The apparent popularity of impure placebos used in clinical practice thus presents unresolved ethical concerns and should direct future discussion and research
New Approximability Results for the Robust k-Median Problem
We consider a robust variant of the classical -median problem, introduced
by Anthony et al. \cite{AnthonyGGN10}. In the \emph{Robust -Median problem},
we are given an -vertex metric space and client sets . The objective is to open a set of
facilities such that the worst case connection cost over all client sets is
minimized; in other words, minimize . Anthony
et al.\ showed an approximation algorithm for any metric and
APX-hardness even in the case of uniform metric. In this paper, we show that
their algorithm is nearly tight by providing
approximation hardness, unless . This hardness result holds even for uniform and line
metrics. To our knowledge, this is one of the rare cases in which a problem on
a line metric is hard to approximate to within logarithmic factor. We
complement the hardness result by an experimental evaluation of different
heuristics that shows that very simple heuristics achieve good approximations
for realistic classes of instances.Comment: 19 page
Simple extractors via constructions of cryptographic pseudo-random generators
Trevisan has shown that constructions of pseudo-random generators from hard
functions (the Nisan-Wigderson approach) also produce extractors. We show that
constructions of pseudo-random generators from one-way permutations (the
Blum-Micali-Yao approach) can be used for building extractors as well. Using
this new technique we build extractors that do not use designs and
polynomial-based error-correcting codes and that are very simple and efficient.
For example, one extractor produces each output bit separately in
time. These extractors work for weak sources with min entropy , for
arbitrary constant , have seed length , and their
output length is .Comment: 21 pages, an extended abstract will appear in Proc. ICALP 2005; small
corrections, some comments and references adde
OtherâSacrificing Options
I argue that you can be permitted to discount the interests of your adversaries even though doing so would be impartially suboptimal. This means that, in addition to the kinds of moral options that the literature traditionally recognises, there exist what I call other-sacrificing options. I explore the idea that you cannot discount the interests of your adversaries as much as you can favour the interests of your intimates; if this is correct, then there is an asymmetry between negative partiality toward your adversaries and positive partiality toward your intimates
On the NP-Hardness of Approximating Ordering Constraint Satisfaction Problems
We show improved NP-hardness of approximating Ordering Constraint
Satisfaction Problems (OCSPs). For the two most well-studied OCSPs, Maximum
Acyclic Subgraph and Maximum Betweenness, we prove inapproximability of
and .
An OCSP is said to be approximation resistant if it is hard to approximate
better than taking a uniformly random ordering. We prove that the Maximum
Non-Betweenness Problem is approximation resistant and that there are width-
approximation-resistant OCSPs accepting only a fraction of
assignments. These results provide the first examples of
approximation-resistant OCSPs subject only to P \NP
Long-range entanglement generation via frequent measurements
A method is introduced whereby two non-interacting quantum subsystems, that
each interact with a third subsystem, are entangled via repeated projective
measurements of the state of the third subsystem. A variety of physical
examples are presented. The method can be used to establish long range
entanglement between distant parties in one parallel measurement step, thus
obviating the need for entanglement swapping.Comment: 7 pages, incl. 2 figures. v2: added a few small clarifications and a
referenc
Counting dependent and independent strings
The paper gives estimations for the sizes of the the following sets: (1) the
set of strings that have a given dependency with a fixed string, (2) the set of
strings that are pairwise \alpha independent, (3) the set of strings that are
mutually \alpha independent. The relevant definitions are as follows: C(x) is
the Kolmogorov complexity of the string x. A string y has \alpha -dependency
with a string x if C(y) - C(y|x) \geq \alpha. A set of strings {x_1, \ldots,
x_t} is pairwise \alpha-independent if for all i different from j, C(x_i) -
C(x_i | x_j) \leq \alpha. A tuple of strings (x_1, \ldots, x_t) is mutually
\alpha-independent if C(x_{\pi(1)} \ldots x_{\pi(t)}) \geq C(x_1) + \ldots +
C(x_t) - \alpha, for every permutation \pi of [t]
- âŠ