TY - JOUR AB - We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) with specifications given as Büchi (liveness) objectives, and examine the problem of computing the set of almost-sure winning vertices such that the objective can be ensured with probability 1 from these vertices. We study for the first time the average-case complexity of the classical algorithm for computing the set of almost-sure winning vertices for MDPs with Büchi objectives. Our contributions are as follows: First, we show that for MDPs with constant out-degree the expected number of iterations is at most logarithmic and the average-case running time is linear (as compared to the worst-case linear number of iterations and quadratic time complexity). Second, for the average-case analysis over all MDPs we show that the expected number of iterations is constant and the average-case running time is linear (again as compared to the worst-case linear number of iterations and quadratic time complexity). Finally we also show that when all MDPs are equally likely, the probability that the classical algorithm requires more than a constant number of iterations is exponentially small. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Joglekar, Manas AU - Shah, Nisarg ID - 1598 IS - 3 JF - Theoretical Computer Science TI - Average case analysis of the classical algorithm for Markov decision processes with Büchi objectives VL - 573 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider the problem of deciding whether the persistent homology group of a simplicial pair (K,L) can be realized as the homology H∗(X) of some complex X with L ⊂ X ⊂ K. We show that this problem is NP-complete even if K is embedded in double-struck R3. As a consequence, we show that it is NP-hard to simplify level and sublevel sets of scalar functions on double-struck S3 within a given tolerance constraint. This problem has relevance to the visualization of medical images by isosurfaces. We also show an implication to the theory of well groups of scalar functions: not every well group can be realized by some level set, and deciding whether a well group can be realized is NP-hard. AU - Attali, Dominique AU - Bauer, Ulrich AU - Devillers, Olivier AU - Glisse, Marc AU - Lieutier, André ID - 1805 IS - 8 JF - Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications TI - Homological reconstruction and simplification in R3 VL - 48 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We present a hybrid intercalation battery based on a sodium/magnesium (Na/Mg) dual salt electrolyte, metallic magnesium anode, and a cathode based on FeS2 nanocrystals (NCs). Compared to lithium or sodium, metallic magnesium anode is safer due to dendrite-free electroplating and offers extremely high volumetric (3833 mAh cm-3) and gravimetric capacities (2205 mAh g-1). Na-ion cathodes, FeS2 NCs in the present study, may serve as attractive alternatives to Mg-ion cathodes due to the higher voltage of operation and fast, highly reversible insertion of Na-ions. In this proof-of-concept study, electrochemical cycling of the Na/Mg hybrid battery was characterized by high rate capability, high Coulombic efficiency of 99.8%, and high energy density. In particular, with an average discharge voltage of ∼1.1 V and a cathodic capacity of 189 mAh g-1 at a current of 200 mA g-1, the presented Mg/FeS2 hybrid battery delivers energy densities of up to 210 Wh kg-1, comparable to commercial Li-ion batteries and approximately twice as high as state-of-the-art Mg-ion batteries based on Mo6S8 cathodes. Further significant gains in the energy density are expected from the development of Na/Mg electrolytes with a broader electrochemical stability window. Fully based on Earth-abundant elements, hybrid Na-Mg batteries are highly promising for large-scale stationary energy storage. AU - Walter, Marc AU - Kravchyk, Kostiantyn AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Kovalenko, Maksym ID - 333 IS - 21 JF - Chemistry of Materials TI - Efficient and inexpensive sodium magnesium hybrid battery VL - 27 ER - TY - JOUR AB - A simple and effective method to introduce precise amounts of doping in nanomaterials produced from the bottom-up assembly of colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) is described. The procedure takes advantage of a ligand displacement step to incorporate controlled concentrations of halide ions while removing carboxylic acids from the NP surface. Upon consolidation of the NPs into dense pellets, halide ions diffuse within the crystal structure, doping the anion sublattice and achieving n-type electrical doping. Through the characterization of the thermoelectric properties of nanocrystalline PbS, we demonstrate this strategy to be effective to control charge transport properties on thermoelectric nanomaterials assembled from NP building blocks. This approach is subsequently extended to PbTexSe1-x@PbS core-shell NPs, where a significant enhancement of the thermoelectric figure of merit is achieved. AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Korkosz, Rachel AU - Luo, Zhishan AU - Riba, Pau AU - Cadavid, Doris AU - Ortega, Silvia AU - Cabot, Andreu AU - Kanatzidis, Mercouri ID - 354 IS - 12 JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society TI - Electron doping in bottom up engineered thermoelectric nanomaterials through HCl mediated ligand displacement VL - 137 ER - TY - JOUR AB - A cation exchange-based route was used to produce Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS)-Ag2S nanoparticles with controlled composition. We report a detailed study of the formation of such CZTS-Ag2S nanoheterostructures and of their photocatalytic properties. When compared to pure CZTS, the use of nanoscale p-n heterostructures as light absorbers for photocatalytic water splitting provides superior photocurrents. We associate this experimental fact to a higher separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. We believe this and other type-II nanoheterostructures will open the door to the use of CZTS, with excellent light absorption properties and made of abundant and environmental friendly elements, to the field of photocatalysis. AU - Yu, Xuelian AU - Liu, Jingjing AU - Genç, Aziz AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Luo, Zhishan AU - Shavel, Alexey AU - Arbiol, Jordi AU - Zhang, Guangjin AU - Zhang, Yihe AU - Cabot, Andreu ID - 360 IS - 38 JF - Langmuir TI - Cu2ZnSnS4-Ag2S nanoscale p-n heterostructures as sensitizers for photoelectrochemical water splitting VL - 31 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Monodisperse Pd2Sn nanorods with tuned size and aspect ratio were prepared by co-reduction of metal salts in the presence of trioctylphosphine, amine, and chloride ions. Asymmetric Pd2Sn nanostructures were achieved by the selective desorption of a surfactant mediated by chlorine ions. A preliminary evaluation of the geometry influence on catalytic properties evidenced Pd2Sn nanorods to have improved catalytic performance. In view of these results, Pd2Sn nanorods were also evaluated for water denitration. AU - Lu, Zhishan AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Antolín, Ana AU - Genç, Aziz AU - Shavel, Alexey AU - Contreras, Sandra AU - Medina, Francesc AU - Arbiol, Jordi AU - Cabot, Andreu ID - 362 IS - 13 JF - Langmuir TI - Size and aspect ratio control of Pd inf 2 inf Sn nanorods and their water denitration properties VL - 31 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider two-player zero-sum games on graphs. These games can be classified on the basis of the information of the players and on the mode of interaction between them. On the basis of information the classification is as follows: (a) partial-observation (both players have partial view of the game); (b) one-sided complete-observation (one player has complete observation); and (c) complete-observation (both players have complete view of the game). On the basis of mode of interaction we have the following classification: (a) concurrent (both players interact simultaneously); and (b) turn-based (both players interact in turn). The two sources of randomness in these games are randomness in transition function and randomness in strategies. In general, randomized strategies are more powerful than deterministic strategies, and randomness in transitions gives more general classes of games. In this work we present a complete characterization for the classes of games where randomness is not helpful in: (a) the transition function probabilistic transition can be simulated by deterministic transition); and (b) strategies (pure strategies are as powerful as randomized strategies). As consequence of our characterization we obtain new undecidability results for these games. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Doyen, Laurent AU - Gimbert, Hugo AU - Henzinger, Thomas A ID - 1731 IS - 12 JF - Information and Computation TI - Randomness for free VL - 245 ER - TY - JOUR AB - A cation exchange-based route was used to produce Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS)-Ag2S nanoparticles with controlled composition. We report a detailed study of the formation of such CZTS-Ag2S nanoheterostructures and of their photocatalytic properties. When compared to pure CZTS, the use of nanoscale p-n heterostructures as light absorbers for photocatalytic water splitting provides superior photocurrents. We associate this experimental fact to a higher separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. We believe this and other type-II nanoheterostructures will open the door to the use of CZTS, with excellent light absorption properties and made of abundant and environmental friendly elements, to the field of photocatalysis. AU - Yu, Xuelian AU - Liu, Jingjing AU - Genç, Aziz AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Luo, Zhishan AU - Shavel, Alexey AU - Arbiol, Jordi AU - Zhang, Guangjin AU - Zhang, Yihe AU - Cabot, Andreu ID - 334 IS - 38 JF - Langmuir TI - Cu2ZnSnS4–Ag2S Nanoscale p–n heterostructures as sensitizers for photoelectrochemical water splitting VL - 31 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We report the synthesis and photocatalytic and magnetic characterization of colloidal nanoheterostructures formed by combining a Pt-based magnetic metal alloy (PtCo, PtNi) with Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). While CZTS is one of the main candidate materials for solar energy conversion, the introduction of a Pt-based alloy on its surface strongly influences its chemical and electronic properties, ultimately determining its functionality. In this regard, up to a 15-fold increase of the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity was obtained with CZTS–PtCo when compared with CZTS. Furthermore, two times higher hydrogen evolution rates were obtained for CZTS–PtCo when compared with CZTS–Pt, in spite of the lower precious metal loading of the former. Besides, the magnetic properties of the PtCo nanoparticles attached to the CZTS nanocrystals were retained in the heterostructures, which could facilitate catalyst purification and recovery for its posterior recycling and/or reutilization. AU - Yu, Xuelian AU - An, Xiaoqiang AU - Genç, Aziz AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Arbiol, Jordi AU - Zhang, Yihe AU - Cabot, Andreu ID - 361 IS - 38 JF - Journal of Physical Chemistry C TI - Cu2ZnSnS4–PtM (M = Co, Ni) nanoheterostructures for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution VL - 119 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The traditional synthesis question given a specification asks for the automatic construction of a system that satisfies the specification, whereas often there exists a preference order among the different systems that satisfy the given specification. Under a probabilistic assumption about the possible inputs, such a preference order is naturally expressed by a weighted automaton, which assigns to each word a value, such that a system is preferred if it generates a higher expected value. We solve the following optimal synthesis problem: given an omega-regular specification, a Markov chain that describes the distribution of inputs, and a weighted automaton that measures how well a system satisfies the given specification under the input assumption, synthesize a system that optimizes the measured value. For safety specifications and quantitative measures that are defined by mean-payoff automata, the optimal synthesis problem reduces to finding a strategy in a Markov decision process (MDP) that is optimal for a long-run average reward objective, which can be achieved in polynomial time. For general omega-regular specifications along with mean-payoff automata, the solution rests on a new, polynomial-time algorithm for computing optimal strategies in MDPs with mean-payoff parity objectives. Our algorithm constructs optimal strategies that consist of two memoryless strategies and a counter. The counter is in general not bounded. To obtain a finite-state system, we show how to construct an ε-optimal strategy with a bounded counter, for all ε > 0. Furthermore, we show how to decide in polynomial time if it is possible to construct an optimal finite-state system (i.e., a system without a counter) for a given specification. We have implemented our approach and the underlying algorithms in a tool that takes qualitative and quantitative specifications and automatically constructs a system that satisfies the qualitative specification and optimizes the quantitative specification, if such a system exists. We present some experimental results showing optimal systems that were automatically generated in this way. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Henzinger, Thomas A AU - Jobstmann, Barbara AU - Singh, Rohit ID - 1856 IS - 1 JF - Journal of the ACM TI - Measuring and synthesizing systems in probabilistic environments VL - 62 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We use ultrafast optical spectroscopy to observe binding of charged single-particle excitations (SE) in the magnetically frustrated Mott insulator Na2IrO3. Above the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature (TN) the system response is due to both Hubbard excitons (HE) and their constituent unpaired SE. The SE response becomes strongly suppressed immediately below TN. We argue that this increase in binding energy is due to a unique interplay between the frustrated Kitaev and the weak Heisenberg-type ordering term in the Hamiltonian, mediating an effective interaction between the spin-singlet SE. This interaction grows with distance causing the SE to become trapped in the HE, similar to quark confinement inside hadrons. This binding of charged particles, induced by magnetic ordering, is a result of a confinement-deconfinement transition of spin excitations. This observation provides evidence for spin liquid type behavior which is expected in Na2IrO3. AU - Alpichshev, Zhanybek AU - Mahmood, Fahad AU - Cao, Gang AU - Gedik, Nuh ID - 388 IS - 1 JF - Physical Review Letters TI - Confinement deconfinement transition as an indication of spin liquid type behavior in Na2IrO3 VL - 114 ER - TY - CONF AB - The computation of the winning set for one-pair Streett objectives and for k-pair Streett objectives in (standard) graphs as well as in game graphs are central problems in computer-aided verification, with application to the verification of closed systems with strong fairness conditions, the verification of open systems, checking interface compatibility, well-formed ness of specifications, and the synthesis of reactive systems. We give faster algorithms for the computation of the winning set for (1) one-pair Streett objectives (aka parity-3 problem) in game graphs and (2) for k-pair Streett objectives in graphs. For both problems this represents the first improvement in asymptotic running time in 15 years. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Henzinger, Monika H AU - Loitzenbauer, Veronika ID - 1661 T2 - Proceedings - Symposium on Logic in Computer Science TI - Improved algorithms for one-pair and k-pair Streett objectives VL - 2015-July ER - TY - JOUR AB - We prove that nonlinear Gibbs measures can be obtained from the corresponding many-body, grand-canonical, quantum Gibbs states, in a mean-field limit where the temperature T diverges and the interaction strength behaves as 1/T. We proceed by characterizing the interacting Gibbs state as minimizing a functional counting the free-energy relatively to the non-interacting case. We then perform an infinite-dimensional analogue of phase-space semiclassical analysis, using fine properties of the quantum relative entropy, the link between quantum de Finetti measures and upper/lower symbols in a coherent state basis, as well as Berezin-Lieb type inequalities. Our results cover the measure built on the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger functional on a finite interval, as well as smoother interactions in dimensions d 2. AU - Lewin, Mathieu AU - Phan Thanh, Nam AU - Rougerie, Nicolas ID - 473 JF - Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique - Mathematiques TI - Derivation of nonlinear gibbs measures from many-body quantum mechanics VL - 2 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Dendritic cells are potent antigen-presenting cells endowed with the unique ability to initiate adaptive immune responses upon inflammation. Inflammatory processes are often associated with an increased production of serotonin, which operates by activating specific receptors. However, the functional role of serotonin receptors in regulation of dendritic cell functions is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that expression of serotonin receptor 5-HT7 (5-HT7TR) as well as its downstream effector Cdc42 is upregulated in dendritic cells upon maturation. Although dendritic cell maturation was independent of 5-HT7TR, receptor stimulation affected dendritic cell morphology through Cdc42-mediated signaling. In addition, basal activity of 5-HT7TR was required for the proper expression of the chemokine receptor CCR7, which is a key factor that controls dendritic cell migration. Consistent with this, we observed that 5-HT7TR enhances chemotactic motility of dendritic cells in vitro by modulating their directionality and migration velocity. Accordingly, migration of dendritic cells in murine colon explants was abolished after pharmacological receptor inhibition. Our results indicate that there is a crucial role for 5-HT7TR-Cdc42-mediated signaling in the regulation of dendritic cell morphology and motility, suggesting that 5-HT7TR could be a new target for treatment of a variety of inflammatory and immune disorders. AU - Holst, Katrin AU - Guseva, Daria AU - Schindler, Susann AU - Sixt, Michael K AU - Braun, Armin AU - Chopra, Himpriya AU - Pabst, Oliver AU - Ponimaskin, Evgeni ID - 477 IS - 15 JF - Journal of Cell Science TI - The serotonin receptor 5-HT7R regulates the morphology and migratory properties of dendritic cells VL - 128 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider two-player games played on weighted directed graphs with mean-payoff and total-payoff objectives, two classical quantitative objectives. While for single-dimensional games the complexity and memory bounds for both objectives coincide, we show that in contrast to multi-dimensional mean-payoff games that are known to be coNP-complete, multi-dimensional total-payoff games are undecidable. We introduce conservative approximations of these objectives, where the payoff is considered over a local finite window sliding along a play, instead of the whole play. For single dimension, we show that (i) if the window size is polynomial, deciding the winner takes polynomial time, and (ii) the existence of a bounded window can be decided in NP ∩ coNP, and is at least as hard as solving mean-payoff games. For multiple dimensions, we show that (i) the problem with fixed window size is EXPTIME-complete, and (ii) there is no primitive-recursive algorithm to decide the existence of a bounded window. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Doyen, Laurent AU - Randour, Mickael AU - Raskin, Jean ID - 523 IS - 6 JF - Information and Computation TI - Looking at mean-payoff and total-payoff through windows VL - 242 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Ethylene is a gaseous phytohormone that plays vital roles in plant growth and development. Previous studies uncovered EIN2 as an essential signal transducer linking ethylene perception on ER to transcriptional regulation in the nucleus through a “cleave and shuttle” model. In this study, we report another mechanism of EIN2-mediated ethylene signaling, whereby EIN2 imposes the translational repression of EBF1 and EBF2 mRNA. We find that the EBF1/2 3′ UTRs mediate EIN2-directed translational repression and identify multiple poly-uridylates (PolyU) motifs as functional cis elements of 3′ UTRs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ethylene induces EIN2 to associate with 3′ UTRs and target EBF1/2 mRNA to cytoplasmic processing-body (P-body) through interacting with multiple P-body factors, including EIN5 and PABs. Our study illustrates translational regulation as a key step in ethylene signaling and presents mRNA 3′ UTR functioning as a “signal transducer” to sense and relay cellular signaling in plants. AU - Li, Wenyang AU - Ma, Mengdi AU - Feng, Ying AU - Li, Hongjiang AU - Wang, Yichuan AU - Ma, Yutong AU - Li, Mingzhe AU - An, Fengying AU - Guo, Hongwei ID - 532 IS - 3 JF - Cell TI - EIN2-directed translational regulation of ethylene signaling in arabidopsis VL - 163 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider concurrent games played by two players on a finite-state graph, where in every round the players simultaneously choose a move, and the current state along with the joint moves determine the successor state. We study the most fundamental objective for concurrent games, namely, mean-payoff or limit-average objective, where a reward is associated to each transition, and the goal of player 1 is to maximize the long-run average of the rewards, and the objective of player 2 is strictly the opposite (i.e., the games are zero-sum). The path constraint for player 1 could be qualitative, i.e., the mean-payoff is the maximal reward, or arbitrarily close to it; or quantitative, i.e., a given threshold between the minimal and maximal reward. We consider the computation of the almost-sure (resp. positive) winning sets, where player 1 can ensure that the path constraint is satisfied with probability 1 (resp. positive probability). Almost-sure winning with qualitative constraint exactly corresponds to the question of whether there exists a strategy to ensure that the payoff is the maximal reward of the game. Our main results for qualitative path constraints are as follows: (1) we establish qualitative determinacy results that show that for every state either player 1 has a strategy to ensure almost-sure (resp. positive) winning against all player-2 strategies, or player 2 has a spoiling strategy to falsify almost-sure (resp. positive) winning against all player-1 strategies; (2) we present optimal strategy complexity results that precisely characterize the classes of strategies required for almost-sure and positive winning for both players; and (3) we present quadratic time algorithms to compute the almost-sure and the positive winning sets, matching the best known bound of the algorithms for much simpler problems (such as reachability objectives). For quantitative constraints we show that a polynomial time solution for the almost-sure or the positive winning set would imply a solution to a long-standing open problem (of solving the value problem of turn-based deterministic mean-payoff games) that is not known to be solvable in polynomial time. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus ID - 524 IS - 6 JF - Information and Computation TI - Qualitative analysis of concurrent mean payoff games VL - 242 ER - TY - CONF AB - Simple board games, like Tic-Tac-Toe and CONNECT-4, play an important role not only in the development of mathematical and logical skills, but also in the emotional and social development. In this paper, we address the problem of generating targeted starting positions for such games. This can facilitate new approaches for bringing novice players to mastery, and also leads to discovery of interesting game variants. We present an approach that generates starting states of varying hardness levels for player 1 in a two-player board game, given rules of the board game, the desired number of steps required for player 1 to win, and the expertise levels of the two players. Our approach leverages symbolic methods and iterative simulation to efficiently search the extremely large state space. We present experimental results that include discovery of states of varying hardness levels for several simple grid-based board games. The presence of such states for standard game variants like 4×4 Tic-Tac-Toe opens up new games to be played that have never been played as the default start state is heavily biased. AU - Ahmed, Umair AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Gulwani, Sumit ID - 1481 T2 - Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence TI - Automatic generation of alternative starting positions for simple traditional board games VL - 2 ER - TY - CONF AB - We consider partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs), that are a standard framework for robotics applications to model uncertainties present in the real world, with temporal logic specifications. All temporal logic specifications in linear-time temporal logic (LTL) can be expressed as parity objectives. We study the qualitative analysis problem for POMDPs with parity objectives that asks whether there is a controller (policy) to ensure that the objective holds with probability 1 (almost-surely). While the qualitative analysis of POMDPs with parity objectives is undecidable, recent results show that when restricted to finite-memory policies the problem is EXPTIME-complete. While the problem is intractable in theory, we present a practical approach to solve the qualitative analysis problem. We designed several heuristics to deal with the exponential complexity, and have used our implementation on a number of well-known POMDP examples for robotics applications. Our results provide the first practical approach to solve the qualitative analysis of robot motion planning with LTL properties in the presence of uncertainty. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Chmelik, Martin AU - Gupta, Raghav AU - Kanodia, Ayush ID - 1732 TI - Qualitative analysis of POMDPs with temporal logic specifications for robotics applications ER - TY - GEN AB - We consider finite-state concurrent stochastic games, played by k>=2 players for an infinite number of rounds, where in every round, each player simultaneously and independently of the other players chooses an action, whereafter the successor state is determined by a probability distribution given by the current state and the chosen actions. We consider reachability objectives that given a target set of states require that some state in the target set is visited, and the dual safety objectives that given a target set require that only states in the target set are visited. We are interested in the complexity of stationary strategies measured by their patience, which is defined as the inverse of the smallest non-zero probability employed. Our main results are as follows: We show that in two-player zero-sum concurrent stochastic games (with reachability objective for one player and the complementary safety objective for the other player): (i) the optimal bound on the patience of optimal and epsilon-optimal strategies, for both players is doubly exponential; and (ii) even in games with a single non-absorbing state exponential (in the number of actions) patience is necessary. In general we study the class of non-zero-sum games admitting epsilon-Nash equilibria. We show that if there is at least one player with reachability objective, then doubly-exponential patience is needed in general for epsilon-Nash equilibrium strategies, whereas in contrast if all players have safety objectives, then the optimal bound on patience for epsilon-Nash equilibrium strategies is only exponential. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus AU - Hansen, Kristoffer ID - 5431 SN - 2664-1690 TI - The patience of concurrent stochastic games with safety and reachability objectives ER -