The Least-core and Nucleolus of Path Cooperative Games

Cooperative games provide an appropriate framework for fair and stable profit distribution in multiagent systems. In this paper, we study the algorithmic issues on path cooperative games that arise from the situations where some commodity flows through a network. In these games, a coalition of edges or vertices is successful if it enables a path from the source to the sink in the network, and lose otherwise. Based on dual theory of linear programming and the relationship with flow games, we provide the characterizations on the CS-core, least-core and nucleolus of path cooperative games. Furthermore, we show that the least-core and nucleolus are polynomially solvable for path cooperative games defined on both directed and undirected network

Analytical Solution of Electron Spin Decoherence Through Hyperfine Interaction in a Quantum Dot

We analytically solve the {\it Non-Markovian} single electron spin dynamics due to hyperfine interaction with surrounding nuclei in a quantum dot. We use the equation-of-motion method assisted with a large field expansion, and find that virtual nuclear spin flip-flops mediated by the electron contribute significantly to a complete decoherence of transverse electron spin correlation function. Our results show that a 90% nuclear polarization can enhance the electron spin $T_2$ time by almost two orders of magnitude. In the long time limit, the electron spin correlation function has a non-exponential $1/t^2$ decay in the presence of both polarized and unpolarized nuclei.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Coreness of Cooperative Games with Truncated Submodular Profit Functions

Coreness represents solution concepts related to core in cooperative games, which captures the stability of players. Motivated by the scale effect in social networks, economics and other scenario, we study the coreness of cooperative game with truncated submodular profit functions. Specifically, the profit function $f(\cdot)$ is defined by a truncation of a submodular function $\sigma(\cdot)$: $f(\cdot)=\sigma(\cdot)$ if $\sigma(\cdot)\geq\eta$ and $f(\cdot)=0$ otherwise, where $\eta$ is a given threshold. In this paper, we study the core and three core-related concepts of truncated submodular profit cooperative game. We first prove that whether core is empty can be decided in polynomial time and an allocation in core also can be found in polynomial time when core is not empty. When core is empty, we show hardness results and approximation algorithms for computing other core-related concepts including relative least-core value, absolute least-core value and least average dissatisfaction value

The preview control of a class of linear systems and its application in the fault-tolerant control theory

In the fault-tolerant control theory based on model following control, the desired signal of the control system is the output of a reference system. This paper is concerned with the design of the preview controller for a class of fault system

How model sets can be determined by their two-point and three-point correlations

We show that real model sets with real internal spaces are determined, up to translation and changes of density zero by their two- and three-point correlations. We also show that there exist pairs of real (even one dimensional) aperiodic model sets with internal spaces that are products of real spaces and finite cyclic groups whose two- and three-point correlations are identical but which are not related by either translation or inversion of their windows. All these examples are pure point diffractive. Placed in the context of ergodic uniformly discrete point processes, the result is that real point processes of model sets based on real internal windows are determined by their second and third moments.Comment: 19 page

Computing Stable Coalitions: Approximation Algorithms for Reward Sharing

Consider a setting where selfish agents are to be assigned to coalitions or projects from a fixed set P. Each project k is characterized by a valuation function; v_k(S) is the value generated by a set S of agents working on project k. We study the following classic problem in this setting: "how should the agents divide the value that they collectively create?". One traditional approach in cooperative game theory is to study core stability with the implicit assumption that there are infinite copies of one project, and agents can partition themselves into any number of coalitions. In contrast, we consider a model with a finite number of non-identical projects; this makes computing both high-welfare solutions and core payments highly non-trivial. The main contribution of this paper is a black-box mechanism that reduces the problem of computing a near-optimal core stable solution to the purely algorithmic problem of welfare maximization; we apply this to compute an approximately core stable solution that extracts one-fourth of the optimal social welfare for the class of subadditive valuations. We also show much stronger results for several popular sub-classes: anonymous, fractionally subadditive, and submodular valuations, as well as provide new approximation algorithms for welfare maximization with anonymous functions. Finally, we establish a connection between our setting and the well-studied simultaneous auctions with item bidding; we adapt our results to compute approximate pure Nash equilibria for these auctions.Comment: Under Revie

Comparative Analysis of V-Akt Murine Thymoma Viral Oncogene Homolog 3 (AKT3) Gene between Cow and Buffalo Reveals Substantial Differences for Mastitis

AKT3 gene is a constituent of the serine/threonine protein kinase family and plays a crucial role in synthesis of milk fats and cholesterol by regulating activity of the sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP). AKT3 is highly conserved in mammals and its expression levels during the lactation periods of cattle are markedly increased. AKT3 is highly expressed in the intestine followed by mammary gland and it is also expressed in immune cells. It is involved in the TLR pathways as effectively as proinflammatory cytokines. The aims of this study were to investigate the sequences differences between buffalo and cow. Our results showed that there were substantial differences between buffalo and cow in some exons and noteworthy differences of the gene size in different regions. We also identified the important consensus sequence motifs, variation in 2000 upstream of ATG, substantial difference in the “3′UTR” region, and miRNA association in the buffalo sequences compared with the cow. In addition, genetic analyses, such as gene structure, phylogenetic tree, position of different motifs, and functional domains, were performed to establish their correlation with other species. This may indicate that a buffalo breed has potential resistance to disease, environment changes, and airborne microorganisms and some good production and reproductive traits

INVESTIGATION OF SELF-HEALING BY USING ETHYL CELLULOSE ENCAPSULATED BACTERIUM IN CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS

Abstract: A new approach to microcapsule based microbial self-healing system is presented that aims to heal the crack in cementitious materials. In this work, ethyl cellulose (EC) was designed to fabricate microcapsule as a protection strategy to encapsulate an alkaliphilic spore-forming bacterium. The technical feasibility of encapsulated spores and the influence factors were studied by calcium precipitation activity (CPA) of the bacterium. The CPA of broken/unbroken microcapsules was evaluated. The micro-morphology of the precipitation produced by the bacterium was investigated through Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) was applied to trace the crack development and self-healing behavior of encapsulated mineralization bacterium in cement paste specimens in three dimensions. The experimental results showed that compared with unbroken microcapsules, higher CPA was achieved by breaking the microcapsule to release the bacterium, suggesting good protection for the encapsulated spores. Subsequent production of calcium carbonate confirmed by ESEM and EDS indicated activation of encapsulated mineralization bacterium. The XCT results showed that formation of crack successfully triggered the breakage of embedded microcapsules. Compared with the specimens without embedded bacterium, the healed crack area of specimens embedded with bacterial microcapsules was monitored, suggesting effective self healing of concrete crack can be achieved by introducing encapsulated mineralization microorganisms into concrete structures

On low temperature kinetic theory; spin diffusion, Bose Einstein condensates, anyons

The paper considers some typical problems for kinetic models evolving through pair-collisions at temperatures not far from absolute zero, which illustrate specific quantum behaviours. Based on these examples, a number of differences between quantum and classical Boltzmann theory is then discussed in more general terms.Comment: 25 pages, minor updates of previous versio