3,903 research outputs found
Computing the blocks of a quasi-median graph
Quasi-median graphs are a tool commonly used by evolutionary biologists to
visualise the evolution of molecular sequences. As with any graph, a
quasi-median graph can contain cut vertices, that is, vertices whose removal
disconnect the graph. These vertices induce a decomposition of the graph into
blocks, that is, maximal subgraphs which do not contain any cut vertices. Here
we show that the special structure of quasi-median graphs can be used to
compute their blocks without having to compute the whole graph. In particular
we present an algorithm that, for a collection of aligned sequences of
length , can compute the blocks of the associated quasi-median graph
together with the information required to correctly connect these blocks
together in run time , independent of the size of the
sequence alphabet. Our primary motivation for presenting this algorithm is the
fact that the quasi-median graph associated to a sequence alignment must
contain all most parsimonious trees for the alignment, and therefore
precomputing the blocks of the graph has the potential to help speed up any
method for computing such trees.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
Bucolic Complexes
We introduce and investigate bucolic complexes, a common generalization of
systolic complexes and of CAT(0) cubical complexes. They are defined as simply
connected prism complexes satisfying some local combinatorial conditions. We
study various approaches to bucolic complexes: from graph-theoretic and
topological perspective, as well as from the point of view of geometric group
theory. In particular, we characterize bucolic complexes by some properties of
their 2-skeleta and 1-skeleta (that we call bucolic graphs), by which several
known results are generalized. We also show that locally-finite bucolic
complexes are contractible, and satisfy some nonpositive-curvature-like
properties.Comment: 45 pages, 4 figure
A critical reassessment of the role of mitochondria in tumorigenesis
<p><b>Background:</b> Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is being analyzed by an increasing number of laboratories in order to investigate its potential role as an active marker of tumorigenesis in various types of cancer. Here we question the conclusions drawn in most of these investigations, especially those published in high-rank cancer research journals, under the evidence that a significant number of these medical mtDNA studies are based on obviously flawed sequencing results.</p>
<p><b>Methods and Findings:</b> In our analyses, we take a phylogenetic approach and employ thorough database searches, which together have proven successful for detecting erroneous sequences in the fields of human population genetics and forensics. Apart from conceptual problems concerning the interpretation of mtDNA variation in tumorigenesis, in most cases, blocks of seemingly somatic mutations clearly point to contamination or sample mix-up and, therefore, have nothing to do with tumorigenesis.</p>
<p><b>Conclusion:</b> The role of mitochondria in tumorigenesis remains unclarified. Our findings of laboratory errors in many contributions would represent only the tip of the iceberg since most published studies do not provide the raw sequence data for inspection, thus hindering a posteriori evaluation of the results. There is no precedent for such a concatenation of errors and misconceptions affecting a whole subfield of medical research.</p>
Embedding into the rectilinear plane in optimal O*(n^2)
We present an optimal O*(n^2) time algorithm for deciding if a metric space
(X,d) on n points can be isometrically embedded into the plane endowed with the
l_1-metric. It improves the O*(n^2 log^2 n) time algorithm of J. Edmonds
(2008). Together with some ingredients introduced by J. Edmonds, our algorithm
uses the concept of tight span and the injectivity of the l_1-plane. A
different O*(n^2) time algorithm was recently proposed by D. Eppstein (2009).Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure
On embeddings of CAT(0) cube complexes into products of trees
We prove that the contact graph of a 2-dimensional CAT(0) cube complex of maximum degree can be coloured with at most
colours, for a fixed constant . This implies
that (and the associated median graph) isometrically embeds in the
Cartesian product of at most trees, and that the event
structure whose domain is admits a nice labeling with
labels. On the other hand, we present an example of a
5-dimensional CAT(0) cube complex with uniformly bounded degrees of 0-cubes
which cannot be embedded into a Cartesian product of a finite number of trees.
This answers in the negative a question raised independently by F. Haglund, G.
Niblo, M. Sageev, and the first author of this paper.Comment: Some small corrections; main change is a correction of the
computation of the bounds in Theorem 1. Some figures repaire
COMs: Complexes of Oriented Matroids
In his seminal 1983 paper, Jim Lawrence introduced lopsided sets and featured
them as asymmetric counterparts of oriented matroids, both sharing the key
property of strong elimination. Moreover, symmetry of faces holds in both
structures as well as in the so-called affine oriented matroids. These two
fundamental properties (formulated for covectors) together lead to the natural
notion of "conditional oriented matroid" (abbreviated COM). These novel
structures can be characterized in terms of three cocircuits axioms,
generalizing the familiar characterization for oriented matroids. We describe a
binary composition scheme by which every COM can successively be erected as a
certain complex of oriented matroids, in essentially the same way as a lopsided
set can be glued together from its maximal hypercube faces. A realizable COM is
represented by a hyperplane arrangement restricted to an open convex set. Among
these are the examples formed by linear extensions of ordered sets,
generalizing the oriented matroids corresponding to the permutohedra. Relaxing
realizability to local realizability, we capture a wider class of combinatorial
objects: we show that non-positively curved Coxeter zonotopal complexes give
rise to locally realizable COMs.Comment: 40 pages, 6 figures, (improved exposition
Local search heuristics for multi-index assignment problems with decomposable costs.
The multi-index assignment problem (MIAP) with decomposable costs is a natural generalization of the well-known assignment problem. Applications of the MIAP arise for instance in the field of multi-target multi-sensor tracking. We describe an (exponentially sized) neighborhood for a solution of the MIAP with decomposable costs, and show that one can find a best solution in this neighborhood in polynomial time. Based on this neighborhood, we propose a local search algorithm. We empirically test the performance of published constructive heuristics and the local search algorithm on random instances; a straightforward tabu search is also tested. Finally, we compute lower bounds to our problem, which enable us to assess the quality of the solutions found.Assignment; Costs; Heuristics; Problems; Applications; Performance;
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