@article{492, abstract = {Background: Characterizing root system architecture (RSA) is essential to understanding the development and function of vascular plants. Identifying RSA-associated genes also represents an underexplored opportunity for crop improvement. Software tools are needed to accelerate the pace at which quantitative traits of RSA are estimated from images of root networks.Results: We have developed GiA Roots (General Image Analysis of Roots), a semi-automated software tool designed specifically for the high-throughput analysis of root system images. GiA Roots includes user-assisted algorithms to distinguish root from background and a fully automated pipeline that extracts dozens of root system phenotypes. Quantitative information on each phenotype, along with intermediate steps for full reproducibility, is returned to the end-user for downstream analysis. GiA Roots has a GUI front end and a command-line interface for interweaving the software into large-scale workflows. GiA Roots can also be extended to estimate novel phenotypes specified by the end-user.Conclusions: We demonstrate the use of GiA Roots on a set of 2393 images of rice roots representing 12 genotypes from the species Oryza sativa. We validate trait measurements against prior analyses of this image set that demonstrated that RSA traits are likely heritable and associated with genotypic differences. Moreover, we demonstrate that GiA Roots is extensible and an end-user can add functionality so that GiA Roots can estimate novel RSA traits. In summary, we show that the software can function as an efficient tool as part of a workflow to move from large numbers of root images to downstream analysis.}, author = {Galkovskyi, Taras and Mileyko, Yuriy and Bucksch, Alexander and Moore, Brad and Symonova, Olga and Price, Charles and Topp, Chrostopher and Iyer Pascuzzi, Anjali and Zurek, Paul and Fang, Suqin and Harer, John and Benfey, Philip and Weitz, Joshua}, journal = {BMC Plant Biology}, publisher = {BioMed Central}, title = {{GiA Roots: Software for the high throughput analysis of plant root system architecture}}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2229-12-116}, volume = {12}, year = {2012}, } @article{493, abstract = {The BCI competition IV stands in the tradition of prior BCI competitions that aim to provide high quality neuroscientific data for open access to the scientific community. As experienced already in prior competitions not only scientists from the narrow field of BCI compete, but scholars with a broad variety of backgrounds and nationalities. They include high specialists as well as students.The goals of all BCI competitions have always been to challenge with respect to novel paradigms and complex data. We report on the following challenges: (1) asynchronous data, (2) synthetic, (3) multi-class continuous data, (4) sessionto-session transfer, (5) directionally modulated MEG, (6) finger movements recorded by ECoG. As after past competitions, our hope is that winning entries may enhance the analysis methods of future BCIs.}, author = {Tangermann, Michael and Müller, Klaus and Aertsen, Ad and Birbaumer, Niels and Braun, Christoph and Brunner, Clemens and Leeb, Robert and Mehring, Carsten and Miller, Kai and Müller Putz, Gernot and Nolte, Guido and Pfurtscheller, Gert and Preissl, Hubert and Schalk, Gerwin and Schlögl, Alois and Vidaurre, Carmen and Waldert, Stephan and Blankertz, Benjamin}, journal = {Frontiers in Neuroscience}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, title = {{Review of the BCI competition IV}}, doi = {10.3389/fnins.2012.00055}, volume = {6}, year = {2012}, } @inproceedings{495, abstract = {An automaton with advice is a finite state automaton which has access to an additional fixed infinite string called an advice tape. We refine the Myhill-Nerode theorem to characterize the languages of finite strings that are accepted by automata with advice. We do the same for tree automata with advice.}, author = {Kruckman, Alex and Rubin, Sasha and Sheridan, John and Zax, Ben}, booktitle = {Proceedings GandALF 2012}, location = {Napoli, Italy}, pages = {238 -- 246}, publisher = {Open Publishing Association}, title = {{A Myhill Nerode theorem for automata with advice}}, doi = {10.4204/EPTCS.96.18}, volume = {96}, year = {2012}, } @article{498, abstract = {Understanding patterns and correlates of local adaptation in heterogeneous landscapes can provide important information in the selection of appropriate seed sources for restoration. We assessed the extent of local adaptation of fitness components in 12 population pairs of the perennial herb Rutidosis leptorrhynchoides (Asteraceae) and examined whether spatial scale (0.7-600 km), environmental distance, quantitative (QST) and neutral (FST) genetic differentiation, and size of the local and foreign populations could predict patterns of adaptive differentiation. Local adaptation varied among populations and fitness components. Including all population pairs, local adaptation was observed for seedling survival, but not for biomass, while foreign genotype advantage was observed for reproduction (number of inflorescences). Among population pairs, local adaptation increased with QST and local population size for biomass. QST was associated with environmental distance, suggesting ecological selection for phenotypic divergence. However, low FST and variation in population structure in small populations demonstrates the interaction of gene flow and drift in constraining local adaptation in R. leptorrhynchoides. Our study indicates that for species in heterogeneous landscapes, collecting seed from large populations from similar environments to candidate sites is likely to provide the most appropriate seed sources for restoration.}, author = {Pickup, Melinda and Field, David and Rowell, David and Young, Andrew}, journal = {Evolutionary Applications}, number = {8}, pages = {913 -- 924}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, title = {{Predicting local adaptation in fragmented plant populations: Implications for restoration genetics}}, doi = {10.1111/j.1752-4571.2012.00284.x}, volume = {5}, year = {2012}, } @inproceedings{496, abstract = {We study the expressive power of logical interpretations on the class of scattered trees, namely those with countably many infinite branches. Scattered trees can be thought of as the tree analogue of scattered linear orders. Every scattered tree has an ordinal rank that reflects the structure of its infinite branches. We prove, roughly, that trees and orders of large rank cannot be interpreted in scattered trees of small rank. We consider a quite general notion of interpretation: each element of the interpreted structure is represented by a set of tuples of subsets of the interpreting tree. Our trees are countable, not necessarily finitely branching, and may have finitely many unary predicates as labellings. We also show how to replace injective set-interpretations in (not necessarily scattered) trees by 'finitary' set-interpretations.}, author = {Rabinovich, Alexander and Rubin, Sasha}, location = {Dubrovnik, Croatia}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Interpretations in trees with countably many branches}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS.2012.65}, year = {2012}, } @article{494, abstract = {We solve the longstanding open problems of the blow-up involved in the translations, when possible, of a nondeterministic Büchi word automaton (NBW) to a nondeterministic co-Büchi word automaton (NCW) and to a deterministic co-Büchi word automaton (DCW). For the NBW to NCW translation, the currently known upper bound is 2o(nlog n) and the lower bound is 1.5n. We improve the upper bound to n2n and describe a matching lower bound of 2ω(n). For the NBW to DCW translation, the currently known upper bound is 2o(nlog n). We improve it to 2 o(n), which is asymptotically tight. Both of our upper-bound constructions are based on a simple subset construction, do not involve intermediate automata with richer acceptance conditions, and can be implemented symbolically. We continue and solve the open problems of translating nondeterministic Streett, Rabin, Muller, and parity word automata to NCW and to DCW. Going via an intermediate NBW is not optimal and we describe direct, simple, and asymptotically tight constructions, involving a 2o(n) blow-up. The constructions are variants of the subset construction, providing a unified approach for translating all common classes of automata to NCW and DCW. Beyond the theoretical importance of the results, we point to numerous applications of the new constructions. In particular, they imply a simple subset-construction based translation, when possible, of LTL to deterministic Büchi word automata.}, author = {Boker, Udi and Kupferman, Orna}, journal = {ACM Transactions on Computational Logic (TOCL)}, number = {4}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Translating to Co-Büchi made tight, unified, and useful}}, doi = {10.1145/2362355.2362357}, volume = {13}, year = {2012}, } @article{506, author = {Sixt, Michael K}, journal = {Journal of Cell Biology}, number = {3}, pages = {347 -- 349}, publisher = {Rockefeller University Press}, title = {{Cell migration: Fibroblasts find a new way to get ahead}}, doi = {10.1083/jcb.201204039}, volume = {197}, year = {2012}, } @inproceedings{497, abstract = {One central issue in the formal design and analysis of reactive systems is the notion of refinement that asks whether all behaviors of the implementation is allowed by the specification. The local interpretation of behavior leads to the notion of simulation. Alternating transition systems (ATSs) provide a general model for composite reactive systems, and the simulation relation for ATSs is known as alternating simulation. The simulation relation for fair transition systems is called fair simulation. In this work our main contributions are as follows: (1) We present an improved algorithm for fair simulation with Büchi fairness constraints; our algorithm requires O(n 3·m) time as compared to the previous known O(n 6)-time algorithm, where n is the number of states and m is the number of transitions. (2) We present a game based algorithm for alternating simulation that requires O(m2)-time as compared to the previous known O((n·m)2)-time algorithm, where n is the number of states and m is the size of transition relation. (3) We present an iterative algorithm for alternating simulation that matches the time complexity of the game based algorithm, but is more space efficient than the game based algorithm. © Krishnendu Chatterjee, Siddhesh Chaubal, and Pritish Kamath.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Chaubal, Siddhesh and Kamath, Pritish}, location = {Fontainebleau, France}, pages = {167 -- 182}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik}, title = {{Faster algorithms for alternating refinement relations}}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2012.167}, volume = {16}, year = {2012}, } @inproceedings{3165, abstract = {Computing the winning set for Büchi objectives in alternating games on graphs is a central problem in computer aided verification with a large number of applications. The long standing best known upper bound for solving the problem is Õ(n·m), where n is the number of vertices and m is the number of edges in the graph. We are the first to break the Õ(n·m) boundary by presenting a new technique that reduces the running time to O(n 2). This bound also leads to O(n 2) time algorithms for computing the set of almost-sure winning vertices for Büchi objectives (1) in alternating games with probabilistic transitions (improving an earlier bound of Õ(n·m)), (2) in concurrent graph games with constant actions (improving an earlier bound of O(n 3)), and (3) in Markov decision processes (improving for m > n 4/3 an earlier bound of O(min(m 1.5, m·n 2/3)). We also show that the same technique can be used to compute the maximal end-component decomposition of a graph in time O(n 2), which is an improvement over earlier bounds for m > n 4/3. Finally, we show how to maintain the winning set for Büchi objectives in alternating games under a sequence of edge insertions or a sequence of edge deletions in O(n) amortized time per operation. This is the first dynamic algorithm for this problem.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Monika H}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms}, location = {Kyoto, Japan}, pages = {1386 -- 1399}, publisher = {SIAM}, title = {{An O(n2) time algorithm for alternating Büchi games}}, doi = {10.1137/1.9781611973099.109}, year = {2012}, } @inproceedings{2956, abstract = {Two-player games on graphs are central in many problems in formal verification and program analysis such as synthesis and verification of open systems. In this work we consider solving recursive game graphs (or pushdown game graphs) that can model the control flow of sequential programs with recursion. While pushdown games have been studied before with qualitative objectives, such as reachability and parity objectives, in this work we study for the first time such games with the most well-studied quantitative objective, namely, mean payoff objectives. In pushdown games two types of strategies are relevant: (1) global strategies, that depend on the entire global history; and (2) modular strategies, that have only local memory and thus do not depend on the context of invocation, but only on the history of the current invocation of the module. Our main results are as follows: (1) One-player pushdown games with mean-payoff objectives under global strategies are decidable in polynomial time. (2) Two-player pushdown games with mean-payoff objectives under global strategies are undecidable. (3) One-player pushdown games with mean-payoff objectives under modular strategies are NP-hard. (4) Two-player pushdown games with mean-payoff objectives under modular strategies can be solved in NP (i.e., both one-player and two-player pushdown games with mean-payoff objectives under modular strategies are NP-complete). We also establish the optimal strategy complexity showing that global strategies for mean-payoff objectives require infinite memory even in one-player pushdown games; and memoryless modular strategies are sufficient in two-player pushdown games. Finally we also show that all the problems have the same computational complexity if the stack boundedness condition is added, where along with the mean-payoff objective the player must also ensure that the stack height is bounded.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Velner, Yaron}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2012 27th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science}, location = {Dubrovnik, Croatia }, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Mean payoff pushdown games}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS.2012.30}, year = {2012}, }