Synchronization of Deterministic Visibly Push-Down Automata

We generalize the concept of synchronizing words for finite automata, which map all states of the automata to the same state, to deterministic visibly push-down automata. Here, a synchronizing word w does not only map all states to the same state but also fulfills some conditions on the stack content of each run after reading w. We consider three types of these stack constraints: after reading w, the stack (1) is empty in each run, (2) contains the same sequence of stack symbols in each run, or (3) contains an arbitrary sequence which is independent of the other runs. We show that in contrast to general deterministic push-down automata, it is decidable for deterministic visibly push-down automata whether there exists a synchronizing word with each of these stack constraints, more precisely, the problems are in EXPTIME. Under the constraint (1), the problem is even in P. For the sub-classes of deterministic very visibly push-down automata, the problem is in P for all three types of constraints. We further study variants of the synchronization problem where the number of turns in the stack height behavior caused by a synchronizing word is restricted, as well as the problem of synchronizing a variant of a sequential transducer, which shows some visibly behavior, by a word that synchronizes the states and produces the same output on all runs

Synchronizing Deterministic Push-Down Automata Can Be Really Hard

The question if a deterministic finite automaton admits a software reset in the form of a so-called synchronizing word can be answered in polynomial time. In this paper, we extend this algorithmic question to deterministic automata beyond finite automata. We prove that the question of synchronizability becomes undecidable even when looking at deterministic one-counter automata. This is also true for another classical mild extension of regularity, namely that of deterministic one-turn push-down automata. However, when we combine both restrictions, we arrive at scenarios with a PSPACE-complete (and hence decidable) synchronizability problem. Likewise, we arrive at a decidable synchronizability problem for (partially) blind deterministic counter automata. There are several interpretations of what synchronizability should mean for deterministic push-down automata. This is depending on the role of the stack: should it be empty on synchronization, should it be always the same or is it arbitrary? For the automata classes studied in this paper, the complexity or decidability status of the synchronizability problem is mostly independent of this technicality, but we also discuss one class of automata where this makes a difference

The standard of living among the poor across Europe: Does employment make a difference?

Employment does not always guarantee sufficient income and a decent standard of living anymore. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between income poverty and material deprivation for employed and unemployed individuals across Europe. To do so, we focus on relevant mechanisms at the individual and institutional levels. We examine how economic, structural and institutional factors shape the relationship between employment, poverty and deprivation. We explore our subject using EU-SILC data from 2015 and cross-national macro-level data from the OECD, Eurostat and UNECE. According to our findings, employment is associated with a higher standard of living even among the poor and when controlling for savings and income level, which may point to the non-monetary benefits of employment. At the macro level, we show that the impact of employment on the living standard of the poor varies according to economic conditions and institutional settings. Our results suggest that policies that promote integration into the labour market without taking into account the quality of jobs and working conditions devalue gainful employment in terms of maintaining a decent standard of living

Cell entry and trafficking of human adenovirus bound to blood factor X is determined by the fiber serotype and not hexon: heparan sulfate interaction

Human adenovirus serotype 5 (HAdV5)-based vectors administered intravenously accumulate in the liver as the result of their direct binding to blood coagulation factor X (FX) and subsequent interaction of the FX-HAdV5 complex with heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) at the surface of liver cells. Intriguingly, the serotype 35 fiber-pseudotyped vector HAdV5F35 has liver transduction efficiencies 4-logs lower than HAdV5, even though both vectors carry the same hexon capsomeres. In order to reconcile this apparent paradox, we investigated the possible role of other viral capsid proteins on the FX/HSPG-mediated cellular uptake of HAdV5-based vectors. Using CAR- and CD46-negative CHO cells varying in HSPG expression, we confirmed that FX bound to serotype 5 hexon protein and to HAdV5 and HAdV5F35 virions via its Gla-domain, and enhanced the binding of both vectors to surface-immobilized hypersulfated heparin and cellular HSPG. Using penton mutants, we found that the positive effect of FX on HAdV5 binding to HSPG and cell transduction did not depend on the penton base RGD and fiber shaft KKTK motifs. However, we found that FX had no enhancing effect on the HAdV5F35-mediated cell transduction, but a negative effect which did not involve the cell attachment or endocytic step, but the intracellular trafficking and nuclear import of the FX-HAdV5F35 complex. By cellular imaging, HAdV5F35 particles were observed to accumulate in the late endosomal compartment, and were released in significant amounts into the extracellular medium via exocytosis. We showed that the stability of serotype 5 hexon:FX interaction was higher at low pH compared to neutral pH, which could account for the retention of FX-HAdV5F35 complexes in the late endosomes. Our results suggested that, despite the high affinity interaction of hexon capsomeres to FX and cell surface HSPG, the adenoviral fiber acted as the dominant determinant of the internalization and trafficking pathway of HAdV5-based vectors

All Paths Lead to Rome

All roads lead to Rome is the core idea of the puzzle game Roma. It is played on an $n \times n$ grid consisting of quadratic cells. Those cells are grouped into boxes of at most four neighboring cells and are either filled, or to be filled, with arrows pointing in cardinal directions. The goal of the game is to fill the empty cells with arrows such that each box contains at most one arrow of each direction and regardless where we start, if we follow the arrows in the cells, we will always end up in the special Roma-cell. In this work, we study the computational complexity of the puzzle game Roma and show that completing a Roma board according to the rules is an \NP-complete task, counting the number of valid completions is #Ptime-complete, and determining the number of preset arrows needed to make the instance \emph{uniquely} solvable is $\Sigma_2^P$-complete. We further show that the problem of completing a given Roma instance on an $n\times n$ board cannot be solved in time $\mathcal{O}\left(2^{{o}(n)}\right)$ under ETH and give a matching dynamic programming algorithm based on the idea of Catalan structures

Antibiotics with Interleukin-15 inhibition reduces joint inflammation and bone erosions but not cartilage destruction in Staphylococcus aureus-induced arthritis

Background: Staphylococcus aureus-induced arthritis causes rapid joint destruction, often leading to disabling joint damage despite antibiotics. We have previously shown that IL-15 inhibition without antibiotics is beneficial in S. aureus-induced arthritis. We therefore hypothesized that inhibition of IL-15, in combination with antibiotics, might represent a useful therapy that would both reduce inflammation and joint destruction, but preserve the host's ability to clear the infection. Methods: Female wildtype C57BL/6 mice were intravenously inoculated with the TSST-1-producing LS-1 strain of S. aureus with 0.8x108 S. aureus LS-1/mouse. Three days later the treatment was started consisting of cloxacillin followed by flucloxacillin, together with either anti-IL-15 antibodies (aIL-15ab) or control antibodies. Outcomes included survival, weight change, bacterial clearance, and joint damage. Results: The addition of aIL-15ab to antibiotics in S. aureus-induced arthritis reduced synovitis and bone erosions compared to controls. The number of bone-resorbing osteoclasts in the joints was reduced, whereas cartilage destruction was not significantly altered. Importantly, the combination therapy did not adversely affect the clinical outcome of S. aureus-induced arthritis, such as survival, weight change or compromise the host's ability to clear the infection. Conclusions: As the clinical outcome of S. aureus-induced arthritis was not affected, the addition of aIL-15ab to antibiotics ought to be safe. Taken together, the combination of aIL-15ab and antibiotics is a beneficial, but not optimal, treatment of S. aureus-induced arthritis as it reduces synovitis and bone erosions but has a limited effect on cartilage destruction

Order Reconfiguration Under Width Constraints

In this work, we consider the following order reconfiguration problem: Given a graph G together with linear orders ? and ?\u27 of the vertices of G, can one transform ? into ?\u27 by a sequence of swaps of adjacent elements in such a way that at each time step the resulting linear order has cutwidth (pathwidth) at most k? We show that this problem always has an affirmative answer when the input linear orders ? and ?\u27 have cutwidth (pathwidth) at most k/2. Using this result, we establish a connection between two apparently unrelated problems: the reachability problem for two-letter string rewriting systems and the graph isomorphism problem for graphs of bounded cutwidth. This opens an avenue for the study of the famous graph isomorphism problem using techniques from term rewriting theory

Defensive Alliances in Signed Networks

The analysis of (social) networks and multi-agent systems is a central theme in Artificial Intelligence. Some line of research deals with finding groups of agents that could work together to achieve a certain goal. To this end, different notions of so-called clusters or communities have been introduced in the literature of graphs and networks. Among these, defensive alliance is a kind of quantitative group structure. However, all studies on the alliance so for have ignored one aspect that is central to the formation of alliances on a very intuitive level, assuming that the agents are preconditioned concerning their attitude towards other agents: they prefer to be in some group (alliance) together with the agents they like, so that they are happy to help each other towards their common aim, possibly then working against the agents outside of their group that they dislike. Signed networks were introduced in the psychology literature to model liking and disliking between agents, generalizing graphs in a natural way. Hence, we propose the novel notion of a defensive alliance in the context of signed networks. We then investigate several natural algorithmic questions related to this notion. These, and also combinatorial findings, connect our notion to that of correlation clustering, which is a well-established idea of finding groups of agents within a signed network. Also, we introduce a new structural parameter for signed graphs, signed neighborhood diversity snd, and exhibit a parameterized algorithm that finds a smallest defensive alliance in a signed graph