TY - JOUR AB - Entomopathogenic fungi are potent biocontrol agents that are widely used against insect pests, many of which are social insects. Nevertheless, theoretical investigations of their particular life history are scarce. We develop a model that takes into account the main distinguishing features between traditionally studied diseases and obligate killing pathogens, like the (biocontrol-relevant) insect-pathogenic fungi Metarhizium and Beauveria. First, obligate killing entomopathogenic fungi produce new infectious particles (conidiospores) only after host death and not yet on the living host. Second, the killing rates of entomopathogenic fungi depend strongly on the initial exposure dosage, thus we explicitly consider the pathogen load of individual hosts. Further, we make the model applicable not only to solitary host species, but also to group living species by incorporating social interactions between hosts, like the collective disease defences of insect societies. Our results identify the optimal killing rate for the pathogen that minimises its invasion threshold. Furthermore, we find that the rate of contact between hosts has an ambivalent effect: dense interaction networks between individuals are considered to facilitate disease outbreaks because of increased pathogen transmission. In social insects, this is compensated by their collective disease defences, i.e., social immunity. For the type of pathogens considered here, we show that even without social immunity, high contact rates between live individuals dilute the pathogen in the host colony and hence can reduce individual pathogen loads below disease-causing levels. AU - Novak, Sebastian AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 1850 IS - 5 JF - Journal of Theoretical Biology TI - Fungal disease dynamics in insect societies: Optimal killing rates and the ambivalent effect of high social interaction rates VL - 372 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider mating strategies for females who search for males sequentially during a season of limited length. We show that the best strategy rejects a given male type if encountered before a time-threshold but accepts him after. For frequency-independent benefits, we obtain the optimal time-thresholds explicitly for both discrete and continuous distributions of males, and allow for mistakes being made in assessing the correct male type. When the benefits are indirect (genes for the offspring) and the population is under frequency-dependent ecological selection, the benefits depend on the mating strategy of other females as well. This case is particularly relevant to speciation models that seek to explore the stability of reproductive isolation by assortative mating under frequency-dependent ecological selection. We show that the indirect benefits are to be quantified by the reproductive values of couples, and describe how the evolutionarily stable time-thresholds can be found. We conclude with an example based on the Levene model, in which we analyze the evolutionarily stable assortative mating strategies and the strength of reproductive isolation provided by them. AU - Priklopil, Tadeas AU - Kisdi, Eva AU - Gyllenberg, Mats ID - 1851 IS - 4 JF - Evolution SN - 0014-3820 TI - Evolutionarily stable mating decisions for sequentially searching females and the stability of reproductive isolation by assortative mating VL - 69 ER - TY - CONF AB - Structural support vector machines (SSVMs) are amongst the best performing models for structured computer vision tasks, such as semantic image segmentation or human pose estimation. Training SSVMs, however, is computationally costly, because it requires repeated calls to a structured prediction subroutine (called \emph{max-oracle}), which has to solve an optimization problem itself, e.g. a graph cut. In this work, we introduce a new algorithm for SSVM training that is more efficient than earlier techniques when the max-oracle is computationally expensive, as it is frequently the case in computer vision tasks. The main idea is to (i) combine the recent stochastic Block-Coordinate Frank-Wolfe algorithm with efficient hyperplane caching, and (ii) use an automatic selection rule for deciding whether to call the exact max-oracle or to rely on an approximate one based on the cached hyperplanes. We show experimentally that this strategy leads to faster convergence to the optimum with respect to the number of requires oracle calls, and that this translates into faster convergence with respect to the total runtime when the max-oracle is slow compared to the other steps of the algorithm. AU - Shah, Neel AU - Kolmogorov, Vladimir AU - Lampert, Christoph ID - 1859 TI - A multi-plane block-coordinate Frank-Wolfe algorithm for training structural SVMs with a costly max-oracle ER - TY - CONF AB - Classifiers for object categorization are usually evaluated by their accuracy on a set of i.i.d. test examples. This provides us with an estimate of the expected error when applying the classifiers to a single new image. In real application, however, classifiers are rarely only used for a single image and then discarded. Instead, they are applied sequentially to many images, and these are typically not i.i.d. samples from a fixed data distribution, but they carry dependencies and their class distribution varies over time. In this work, we argue that the phenomenon of correlated data at prediction time is not a nuisance, but a blessing in disguise. We describe a probabilistic method for adapting classifiers at prediction time without having to retrain them. We also introduce a framework for creating realistically distributed image sequences, which offers a way to benchmark classifier adaptation methods, such as the one we propose. Experiments on the ILSVRC2010 and ILSVRC2012 datasets show that adapting object classification systems at prediction time can significantly reduce their error rate, even with no additional human feedback. AU - Royer, Amélie AU - Lampert, Christoph ID - 1860 TI - Classifier adaptation at prediction time ER - TY - CONF AB - We study the problem of predicting the future, though only in the probabilistic sense of estimating a future state of a time-varying probability distribution. This is not only an interesting academic problem, but solving this extrapolation problem also has many practical application, e.g. for training classifiers that have to operate under time-varying conditions. Our main contribution is a method for predicting the next step of the time-varying distribution from a given sequence of sample sets from earlier time steps. For this we rely on two recent machine learning techniques: embedding probability distributions into a reproducing kernel Hilbert space, and learning operators by vector-valued regression. We illustrate the working principles and the practical usefulness of our method by experiments on synthetic and real data. We also highlight an exemplary application: training a classifier in a domain adaptation setting without having access to examples from the test time distribution at training time. AU - Lampert, Christoph ID - 1858 TI - Predicting the future behavior of a time-varying probability distribution ER - TY - CONF AB - Sharing information between multiple tasks enables algorithms to achieve good generalization performance even from small amounts of training data. However, in a realistic scenario of multi-task learning not all tasks are equally related to each other, hence it could be advantageous to transfer information only between the most related tasks. In this work we propose an approach that processes multiple tasks in a sequence with sharing between subsequent tasks instead of solving all tasks jointly. Subsequently, we address the question of curriculum learning of tasks, i.e. finding the best order of tasks to be learned. Our approach is based on a generalization bound criterion for choosing the task order that optimizes the average expected classification performance over all tasks. Our experimental results show that learning multiple related tasks sequentially can be more effective than learning them jointly, the order in which tasks are being solved affects the overall performance, and that our model is able to automatically discover the favourable order of tasks. AU - Pentina, Anastasia AU - Sharmanska, Viktoriia AU - Lampert, Christoph ID - 1857 TI - Curriculum learning of multiple tasks ER - TY - JOUR AB - Cultured mammalian cells essential are model systems in basic biology research, production platforms of proteins for medical use, and testbeds in synthetic biology. Flavin cofactors, in particular flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), are critical for cellular redox reactions and sense light in naturally occurring photoreceptors and optogenetic tools. Here, we quantified flavin contents of commonly used mammalian cell lines. We first compared three procedures for extraction of free and noncovalently protein-bound flavins and verified extraction using fluorescence spectroscopy. For separation, two CE methods with different BGEs were established, and detection was performed by LED-induced fluorescence with limit of detections (LODs 0.5-3.8 nM). We found that riboflavin (RF), FMN, and FAD contents varied significantly between cell lines. RF (3.1-14 amol/cell) and FAD (2.2-17.0 amol/cell) were the predominant flavins, while FMN (0.46-3.4 amol/cell) was found at markedly lower levels. Observed flavin contents agree with those previously extracted from mammalian tissues, yet reduced forms of RF were detected that were not described previously. Quantification of flavins in mammalian cell lines will allow a better understanding of cellular redox reactions and optogenetic tools. AU - Hühner, Jens AU - Inglés Prieto, Álvaro AU - Neusüß, Christian AU - Lämmerhofer, Michael AU - Janovjak, Harald L ID - 1867 IS - 4 JF - Electrophoresis TI - Quantification of riboflavin, flavin mononucleotide, and flavin adenine dinucleotide in mammalian model cells by CE with LED-induced fluorescence detection VL - 36 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The plant hormone auxin and its directional transport are known to play a crucial role in defining the embryonic axis and subsequent development of the body plan. Although the role of PIN auxin efflux transporters has been clearly assigned during embryonic shoot and root specification, the role of the auxin influx carriers AUX1 and LIKE-AUX1 (LAX) proteins is not well established. Here, we used chemical and genetic tools on Brassica napus microspore-derived embryos and Arabidopsis thaliana zygotic embryos, and demonstrate that AUX1, LAX1 and LAX2 are required for both shoot and root pole formation, in concert with PIN efflux carriers. Furthermore, we uncovered a positive-feedback loop betweenMONOPTEROS(ARF5)-dependent auxin signalling and auxin transport. ThisMONOPTEROSdependent transcriptional regulation of auxin influx (AUX1, LAX1 and LAX2) and auxin efflux (PIN1 and PIN4) carriers by MONOPTEROS helps to maintain proper auxin transport to the root tip. These results indicate that auxin-dependent cell specification during embryo development requires balanced auxin transport involving both influx and efflux mechanisms, and that this transport is maintained by a positive transcriptional feedback on auxin signalling. AU - Robert, Hélène AU - Grunewald, Wim AU - Sauer, Michael AU - Cannoot, Bernard AU - Soriano, Mercedes AU - Swarup, Ranjan AU - Weijers, Dolf AU - Bennett, Malcolm AU - Boutilier, Kim AU - Friml, Jirí ID - 1865 IS - 4 JF - Development TI - Plant embryogenesis requires AUX/LAX-mediated auxin influx VL - 142 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We investigate high-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems exhibiting multiple resonances under adiabatic parameter variations. Our motivations come from experimental considerations where time-dependent sweeping of parameters is a practical approach to probing and characterizing the bifurcations of the system. The question is whether bifurcations so detected are faithful representations of the bifurcations intrinsic to the original stationary system. Utilizing a harmonically forced, closed fluid flow system that possesses multiple resonances and solving the Navier-Stokes equation under proper boundary conditions, we uncover the phenomenon of the early effect. Specifically, as a control parameter, e.g., the driving frequency, is adiabatically increased from an initial value, resonances emerge at frequency values that are lower than those in the corresponding stationary system. The phenomenon is established by numerical characterization of physical quantities through the resonances, which include the kinetic energy and the vorticity field, and a heuristic analysis based on the concept of instantaneous frequency. A simple formula is obtained which relates the resonance points in the time-dependent and time-independent systems. Our findings suggest that, in general, any true bifurcation of a nonlinear dynamical system can be unequivocally uncovered through adiabatic parameter sweeping, in spite of a shift in the bifurcation point, which is of value to experimental studies of nonlinear dynamical systems. AU - Park, Youngyong AU - Do, Younghae AU - Altmeyer, Sebastian AU - Lai, Yingcheng AU - Lee, Gyuwon ID - 1868 IS - 2 JF - Physical Review E SN - 1539-3755 TI - Early effect in time-dependent, high-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems with multiple resonances VL - 91 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The Altshuler–Shklovskii formulas (Altshuler and Shklovskii, BZh Eksp Teor Fiz 91:200, 1986) predict, for any disordered quantum system in the diffusive regime, a universal power law behaviour for the correlation functions of the mesoscopic eigenvalue density. In this paper and its companion (Erdős and Knowles, The Altshuler–Shklovskii formulas for random band matrices I: the unimodular case, 2013), we prove these formulas for random band matrices. In (Erdős and Knowles, The Altshuler–Shklovskii formulas for random band matrices I: the unimodular case, 2013) we introduced a diagrammatic approach and presented robust estimates on general diagrams under certain simplifying assumptions. In this paper, we remove these assumptions by giving a general estimate of the subleading diagrams. We also give a precise analysis of the leading diagrams which give rise to the Altschuler–Shklovskii power laws. Moreover, we introduce a family of general random band matrices which interpolates between real symmetric (β = 1) and complex Hermitian (β = 2) models, and track the transition for the mesoscopic density–density correlation. Finally, we address the higher-order correlation functions by proving that they behave asymptotically according to a Gaussian process whose covariance is given by the Altshuler–Shklovskii formulas. AU - Erdös, László AU - Knowles, Antti ID - 1864 IS - 3 JF - Annales Henri Poincare TI - The Altshuler–Shklovskii formulas for random band matrices II: The general case VL - 16 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Continuous-time Markov chains are commonly used in practice for modeling biochemical reaction networks in which the inherent randomness of themolecular interactions cannot be ignored. This has motivated recent research effort into methods for parameter inference and experiment design for such models. The major difficulty is that such methods usually require one to iteratively solve the chemical master equation that governs the time evolution of the probability distribution of the system. This, however, is rarely possible, and even approximation techniques remain limited to relatively small and simple systems. An alternative explored in this article is to base methods on only some low-order moments of the entire probability distribution. We summarize the theory behind such moment-based methods for parameter inference and experiment design and provide new case studies where we investigate their performance. AU - Ruess, Jakob AU - Lygeros, John ID - 1861 IS - 2 JF - ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation TI - Moment-based methods for parameter inference and experiment design for stochastic biochemical reaction networks VL - 25 ER - TY - JOUR AU - Henzinger, Thomas A AU - Raskin, Jean ID - 1866 IS - 2 JF - Communications of the ACM TI - The equivalence problem for finite automata: Technical perspective VL - 58 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The plant hormone auxin is a key regulator of plant growth and development. Differences in auxin distribution within tissues are mediated by the polar auxin transport machinery, and cellular auxin responses occur depending on changes in cellular auxin levels. Multiple receptor systems at the cell surface and in the interior operate to sense and interpret fluctuations in auxin distribution that occur during plant development. Until now, three proteins or protein complexes that can bind auxin have been identified. SCFTIR1 [a SKP1-cullin-1-F-box complex that contains transport inhibitor response 1 (TIR1) as the F-box protein] and S-phase-kinaseassociated protein 2 (SKP2) localize to the nucleus, whereas auxinbinding protein 1 (ABP1), predominantly associates with the endoplasmic reticulum and cell surface. In this Cell Science at a Glance article, we summarize recent discoveries in the field of auxin transport and signaling that have led to the identification of new components of these pathways, as well as their mutual interaction. AU - Grones, Peter AU - Friml, Jirí ID - 1871 IS - 1 JF - Journal of Cell Science TI - Auxin transporters and binding proteins at a glance VL - 128 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The hippocampal region, comprising the hippocampal formation and the parahippocampal region, has been one of the most intensively studied parts of the brain for decades. Better understanding of its functional diversity and complexity has led to an increased demand for specificity in experimental procedures and manipulations. In view of the complex 3D structure of the hippocampal region, precisely positioned experimental approaches require a fine-grained architectural description that is available and readable to experimentalists lacking detailed anatomical experience. In this paper, we provide the first cyto- and chemoarchitectural description of the hippocampal formation and parahippocampal region in the rat at high resolution and in the three standard sectional planes: coronal, horizontal and sagittal. The atlas uses a series of adjacent sections stained for neurons and for a number of chemical marker substances, particularly parvalbumin and calbindin. All the borders defined in one plane have been cross-checked against their counterparts in the other two planes. The entire dataset will be made available as a web-based interactive application through the Rodent Brain WorkBench (http://www.rbwb.org) which, together with this paper, provides a unique atlas resource. AU - Boccara, Charlotte AU - Kjønigsen, Lisa AU - Hammer, Ingvild AU - Bjaalie, Jan AU - Leergaard, Trygve AU - Witter, Menno ID - 1874 IS - 7 JF - Hippocampus TI - A three-plane architectonic atlas of the rat hippocampal region VL - 25 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) with limit-average payoff, where a reward value in the interval [0,1] is associated with every transition, and the payoff of an infinite path is the long-run average of the rewards. We consider two types of path constraints: (i) a quantitative constraint defines the set of paths where the payoff is at least a given threshold λ1ε(0,1]; and (ii) a qualitative constraint which is a special case of the quantitative constraint with λ1=1. We consider the computation of the almost-sure winning set, where the controller needs to ensure that the path constraint is satisfied with probability 1. Our main results for qualitative path constraints are as follows: (i) the problem of deciding the existence of a finite-memory controller is EXPTIME-complete; and (ii) the problem of deciding the existence of an infinite-memory controller is undecidable. For quantitative path constraints we show that the problem of deciding the existence of a finite-memory controller is undecidable. We also present a prototype implementation of our EXPTIME algorithm and experimental results on several examples. AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Chmelik, Martin ID - 1873 JF - Artificial Intelligence TI - POMDPs under probabilistic semantics VL - 221 ER - TY - JOUR AB - When electron microscopy (EM) was introduced in the 1930s it gave scientists their first look into the nanoworld of cells. Over the last 80 years EM has vastly increased our understanding of the complex cellular structures that underlie the diverse functions that cells need to maintain life. One drawback that has been difficult to overcome was the inherent lack of volume information, mainly due to the limit on the thickness of sections that could be viewed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). For many years scientists struggled to achieve three-dimensional (3D) EM using serial section reconstructions, TEM tomography, and scanning EM (SEM) techniques such as freeze-fracture. Although each technique yielded some special information, they required a significant amount of time and specialist expertise to obtain even a very small 3D EM dataset. Almost 20 years ago scientists began to exploit SEMs to image blocks of embedded tissues and perform serial sectioning of these tissues inside the SEM chamber. Using first focused ion beams (FIB) and subsequently robotic ultramicrotomes (serial block-face, SBF-SEM) microscopists were able to collect large volumes of 3D EM information at resolutions that could address many important biological questions, and do so in an efficient manner. We present here some examples of 3D EM taken from the many diverse specimens that have been imaged in our core facility. We propose that the next major step forward will be to efficiently correlate functional information obtained using light microscopy (LM) with 3D EM datasets to more completely investigate the important links between cell structures and their functions. AU - Kremer, A AU - Lippens, Stefaan AU - Bartunkova, Sonia AU - Asselbergh, Bob AU - Blanpain, Cendric AU - Fendrych, Matyas AU - Goossens, A AU - Holt, Matthew AU - Janssens, Sophie AU - Krols, Michiel AU - Larsimont, Jean AU - Mc Guire, Conor AU - Nowack, Moritz AU - Saelens, Xavier AU - Schertel, Andreas AU - Schepens, B AU - Slezak, M AU - Timmerman, Vincent AU - Theunis, Clara AU - Van Brempt, Ronald AU - Visser, Y AU - Guérin, Christophe ID - 1879 IS - 2 JF - Journal of Microscopy TI - Developing 3D SEM in a broad biological context VL - 259 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We investigate the relation between Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) and superfluidity in the ground state of a one-dimensional model of interacting bosons in a strong random potential. We prove rigorously that in a certain parameter regime the superfluid fraction can be arbitrarily small while complete BEC prevails. In another regime there is both complete BEC and complete superfluidity, despite the strong disorder AU - Könenberg, Martin AU - Moser, Thomas AU - Seiringer, Robert AU - Yngvason, Jakob ID - 1880 JF - New Journal of Physics TI - Superfluid behavior of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential VL - 17 ER - TY - CONF AB - We provide a framework for compositional and iterative design and verification of systems with quantitative information, such as rewards, time or energy. It is based on disjunctive modal transition systems where we allow actions to bear various types of quantitative information. Throughout the design process the actions can be further refined and the information made more precise. We show how to compute the results of standard operations on the systems, including the quotient (residual), which has not been previously considered for quantitative non-deterministic systems. Our quantitative framework has close connections to the modal nu-calculus and is compositional with respect to general notions of distances between systems and the standard operations. AU - Fahrenberg, Uli AU - Kretinsky, Jan AU - Legay, Axel AU - Traonouez, Louis ID - 1882 TI - Compositionality for quantitative specifications VL - 8997 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We introduce a one-parametric family of tree growth models, in which branching probabilities decrease with branch age τ as τ-α. Depending on the exponent α, the scaling of tree depth with tree size n displays a transition between the logarithmic scaling of random trees and an algebraic growth. At the transition (α=1) tree depth grows as (logn)2. This anomalous scaling is in good agreement with the trend observed in evolution of biological species, thus providing a theoretical support for age-dependent speciation and associating it to the occurrence of a critical point. AU - Keller-Schmidt, Stephanie AU - Tugrul, Murat AU - Eguíluz, Víctor AU - Hernandez Garcia, Emilio AU - Klemm, Konstantin ID - 1883 IS - 2 JF - Physical Review E Statistical Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics TI - Anomalous scaling in an age-dependent branching model VL - 91 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Petrocoptis is a small genus of chasmophytic plants endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, with some localized populations in the French Pyrenees. Within the genus, a dozen species have been recognized based on morphological diversity, most of them with limited distribution area, in small populations and frequently with potential threats to their survival. To date, however, a molecular evaluation of the current systematic treatments has not been carried out. The aim of the present study is to infer phylogenetic relationships among its subordinate taxa by using plastidial rps16 intron and nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) DNA sequences; and evaluate the phylogenetic placement of the genus Petrocoptis within the family Caryophyllaceae. The monophyly of Petrocoptis is supported by both ITS and rps16 intron sequence analyses. Furthermore, time estimates using BEAST analyses indicate a Middle to Late Miocene diversification (10.59 Myr, 6.44–15.26 Myr highest posterior densities [HPD], for ITS; 14.30 Myr, 8.61–21.00 Myr HPD, for rps16 intron). AU - Cires Rodriguez, Eduardo AU - Prieto, José ID - 1878 IS - 2 JF - Journal of Plant Research TI - Phylogenetic relationships of Petrocoptis A. Braun ex Endl. (Caryophyllaceae), a discussed genus from the Iberian Peninsula VL - 128 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The concept of positional information is central to our understanding of how cells determine their location in a multicellular structure and thereby their developmental fates. Nevertheless, positional information has neither been defined mathematically nor quantified in a principled way. Here we provide an information-theoretic definition in the context of developmental gene expression patterns and examine the features of expression patterns that affect positional information quantitatively. We connect positional information with the concept of positional error and develop tools to directly measure information and error from experimental data. We illustrate our framework for the case of gap gene expression patterns in the early Drosophila embryo and show how information that is distributed among only four genes is sufficient to determine developmental fates with nearly single-cell resolution. Our approach can be generalized to a variety of different model systems; procedures and examples are discussed in detail. AU - Tkacik, Gasper AU - Dubuis, Julien AU - Petkova, Mariela AU - Gregor, Thomas ID - 1885 IS - 1 JF - Genetics TI - Positional information, positional error, and readout precision in morphogenesis: A mathematical framework VL - 199 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We typically think of cells as responding to external signals independently by regulating their gene expression levels, yet they often locally exchange information and coordinate. Can such spatial coupling be of benefit for conveying signals subject to gene regulatory noise? Here we extend our information-theoretic framework for gene regulation to spatially extended systems. As an example, we consider a lattice of nuclei responding to a concentration field of a transcriptional regulator (the "input") by expressing a single diffusible target gene. When input concentrations are low, diffusive coupling markedly improves information transmission; optimal gene activation functions also systematically change. A qualitatively new regulatory strategy emerges where individual cells respond to the input in a nearly step-like fashion that is subsequently averaged out by strong diffusion. While motivated by early patterning events in the Drosophila embryo, our framework is generically applicable to spatially coupled stochastic gene expression models. AU - Sokolowski, Thomas R AU - Tkacik, Gasper ID - 1940 IS - 6 JF - Physical Review E Statistical Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics TI - Optimizing information flow in small genetic networks. IV. Spatial coupling VL - 91 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We numerically investigate the distribution of extrema of 'chaotic' Laplacian eigenfunctions on two-dimensional manifolds. Our contribution is two-fold: (a) we count extrema on grid graphs with a small number of randomly added edges and show the behavior to coincide with the 1957 prediction of Longuet-Higgins for the continuous case and (b) we compute the regularity of their spatial distribution using discrepancy, which is a classical measure from the theory of Monte Carlo integration. The first part suggests that grid graphs with randomly added edges should behave like two-dimensional surfaces with ergodic geodesic flow; in the second part we show that the extrema are more regularly distributed in space than the grid Z2. AU - Pausinger, Florian AU - Steinerberger, Stefan ID - 1938 IS - 6 JF - Physics Letters, Section A TI - On the distribution of local extrema in quantum chaos VL - 379 ER - TY - JOUR AU - Rakusová, Hana AU - Fendrych, Matyas AU - Friml, Jirí ID - 1944 IS - 2 JF - Current Opinion in Plant Biology TI - Intracellular trafficking and PIN-mediated cell polarity during tropic responses in plants VL - 23 ER - TY - CONF AB - We present a method and a tool for generating succinct representations of sets of concurrent traces. We focus on trace sets that contain all correct or all incorrect permutations of events from a given trace. We represent trace sets as HB-Formulas that are Boolean combinations of happens-before constraints between events. To generate a representation of incorrect interleavings, our method iteratively explores interleavings that violate the specification and gathers generalizations of the discovered interleavings into an HB-Formula; its complement yields a representation of correct interleavings. We claim that our trace set representations can drive diverse verification, fault localization, repair, and synthesis techniques for concurrent programs. We demonstrate this by using our tool in three case studies involving synchronization synthesis, bug summarization, and abstraction refinement based verification. In each case study, our initial experimental results have been promising. In the first case study, we present an algorithm for inferring missing synchronization from an HB-Formula representing correct interleavings of a given trace. The algorithm applies rules to rewrite specific patterns in the HB-Formula into locks, barriers, and wait-notify constructs. In the second case study, we use an HB-Formula representing incorrect interleavings for bug summarization. While the HB-Formula itself is a concise counterexample summary, we present additional inference rules to help identify specific concurrency bugs such as data races, define-use order violations, and two-stage access bugs. In the final case study, we present a novel predicate learning procedure that uses HB-Formulas representing abstract counterexamples to accelerate counterexample-guided abstraction refinement (CEGAR). In each iteration of the CEGAR loop, the procedure refines the abstraction to eliminate multiple spurious abstract counterexamples drawn from the HB-Formula. AU - Gupta, Ashutosh AU - Henzinger, Thomas A AU - Radhakrishna, Arjun AU - Samanta, Roopsha AU - Tarrach, Thorsten ID - 1992 SN - 978-1-4503-3300-9 TI - Succinct representation of concurrent trace sets ER - TY - JOUR AB - We prove that the three-state toric homogeneous Markov chain model has Markov degree two. In algebraic terminology this means, that a certain class of toric ideals is generated by quadratic binomials. This was conjectured by Haws, Martin del Campo, Takemura and Yoshida, who proved that they are generated by degree six binomials. AU - Noren, Patrik ID - 1997 IS - May-June JF - Journal of Symbolic Computation TI - The three-state toric homogeneous Markov chain model has Markov degree two VL - 68/Part 2 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The paper describes a generalized iterative proportional fitting procedure that can be used for maximum likelihood estimation in a special class of the general log-linear model. The models in this class, called relational, apply to multivariate discrete sample spaces that do not necessarily have a Cartesian product structure and may not contain an overall effect. When applied to the cell probabilities, the models without the overall effect are curved exponential families and the values of the sufficient statistics are reproduced by the MLE only up to a constant of proportionality. The paper shows that Iterative Proportional Fitting, Generalized Iterative Scaling, and Improved Iterative Scaling fail to work for such models. The algorithm proposed here is based on iterated Bregman projections. As a by-product, estimates of the multiplicative parameters are also obtained. An implementation of the algorithm is available as an R-package. AU - Klimova, Anna AU - Rudas, Tamás ID - 2008 IS - 3 JF - Scandinavian Journal of Statistics TI - Iterative scaling in curved exponential families VL - 42 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The monotone secant conjecture posits a rich class of polynomial systems, all of whose solutions are real. These systems come from the Schubert calculus on flag manifolds, and the monotone secant conjecture is a compelling generalization of the Shapiro conjecture for Grassmannians (Theorem of Mukhin, Tarasov, and Varchenko). We present some theoretical evidence for this conjecture, as well as computational evidence obtained by 1.9 teraHertz-years of computing, and we discuss some of the phenomena we observed in our data. AU - Hein, Nicolas AU - Hillar, Christopher AU - Martin Del Campo Sanchez, Abraham AU - Sottile, Frank AU - Teitler, Zach ID - 2006 IS - 3 JF - Experimental Mathematics TI - The monotone secant conjecture in the real Schubert calculus VL - 24 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The concepts of faithfulness and strong-faithfulness are important for statistical learning of graphical models. Graphs are not sufficient for describing the association structure of a discrete distribution. Hypergraphs representing hierarchical log-linear models are considered instead, and the concept of parametric (strong-) faithfulness with respect to a hypergraph is introduced. Strong-faithfulness ensures the existence of uniformly consistent parameter estimators and enables building uniformly consistent procedures for a hypergraph search. The strength of association in a discrete distribution can be quantified with various measures, leading to different concepts of strong-faithfulness. Lower and upper bounds for the proportions of distributions that do not satisfy strong-faithfulness are computed for different parameterizations and measures of association. AU - Klimova, Anna AU - Uhler, Caroline AU - Rudas, Tamás ID - 2014 IS - 7 JF - Computational Statistics & Data Analysis TI - Faithfulness and learning hypergraphs from discrete distributions VL - 87 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Small GTP-binding proteins of the Ras superfamily play diverse roles in intracellular trafficking. Among them, the Rab, Arf, and Rho families function in successive steps of vesicle transport, in forming vesicles from donor membranes, directing vesicle trafficking toward target membranes and docking vesicles onto target membranes. These proteins act as molecular switches that are controlled by a cycle of GTP binding and hydrolysis regulated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs). In this study we explored the role of GAPs in the regulation of the endocytic pathway using fluorescently labeled yeast mating pheromone α-factor. Among 25 non-essential GAP mutants, we found that deletion of the GLO3 gene, encoding Arf-GAP protein, caused defective internalization of fluorescently labeled α-factor. Quantitative analysis revealed that glo3Δ cells show defective α-factor binding to the cell surface. Interestingly, Ste2p, the α-factor receptor, was mis-localized from the plasma membrane to the vacuole in glo3Δ cells. Domain deletion mutants of Glo3p revealed that a GAP-independent function, as well as the GAP activity, of Glo3p is important for both α-factor binding and Ste2p localization at the cell surface. Additionally, we found that deletion of the GLO3 gene affects the size and number of Arf1p-residing Golgi compartments and causes a defect in transport from the TGN to the plasma membrane. Furthermore, we demonstrated that glo3Δ cells were defective in the late endosome-to-TGN transport pathway, but not in the early endosome-to-TGN transport pathway. These findings suggest novel roles for Arf-GAP Glo3p in endocytic recycling of cell surface proteins. AU - Kawada, Daiki AU - Kobayashi, Hiromu AU - Tomita, Tsuyoshi AU - Nakata, Eisuke AU - Nagano, Makoto AU - Siekhaus, Daria E AU - Toshima, Junko AU - Toshimaa, Jiro ID - 2025 IS - 1 JF - Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Molecular Cell Research TI - The yeast Arf-GAP Glo3p is required for the endocytic recycling of cell surface proteins VL - 1853 ER - TY - JOUR AB - A hybrid-parallel direct-numerical-simulation method with application to turbulent Taylor-Couette flow is presented. The Navier-Stokes equations are discretized in cylindrical coordinates with the spectral Fourier-Galerkin method in the axial and azimuthal directions, and high-order finite differences in the radial direction. Time is advanced by a second-order, semi-implicit projection scheme, which requires the solution of five Helmholtz/Poisson equations, avoids staggered grids and renders very small slip velocities. Nonlinear terms are evaluated with the pseudospectral method. The code is parallelized using a hybrid MPI-OpenMP strategy, which, compared with a flat MPI parallelization, is simpler to implement, allows to reduce inter-node communications and MPI overhead that become relevant at high processor-core counts, and helps to contain the memory footprint. A strong scaling study shows that the hybrid code maintains scalability up to more than 20,000 processor cores and thus allows to perform simulations at higher resolutions than previously feasible. In particular, it opens up the possibility to simulate turbulent Taylor-Couette flows at Reynolds numbers up to O(105). This enables to probe hydrodynamic turbulence in Keplerian flows in experimentally relevant regimes. AU - Shi, Liang AU - Rampp, Markus AU - Hof, Björn AU - Avila, Marc ID - 2030 IS - 1 JF - Computers and Fluids TI - A hybrid MPI-OpenMP parallel implementation for pseudospectral simulations with application to Taylor-Couette flow VL - 106 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Considering a continuous self-map and the induced endomorphism on homology, we study the eigenvalues and eigenspaces of the latter. Taking a filtration of representations, we define the persistence of the eigenspaces, effectively introducing a hierarchical organization of the map. The algorithm that computes this information for a finite sample is proved to be stable, and to give the correct answer for a sufficiently dense sample. Results computed with an implementation of the algorithm provide evidence of its practical utility. AU - Edelsbrunner, Herbert AU - Jablonski, Grzegorz AU - Mrozek, Marian ID - 2035 IS - 5 JF - Foundations of Computational Mathematics TI - The persistent homology of a self-map VL - 15 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Opacity is a generic security property, that has been defined on (non-probabilistic) transition systems and later on Markov chains with labels. For a secret predicate, given as a subset of runs, and a function describing the view of an external observer, the value of interest for opacity is a measure of the set of runs disclosing the secret. We extend this definition to the richer framework of Markov decision processes, where non-deterministicchoice is combined with probabilistic transitions, and we study related decidability problems with partial or complete observation hypotheses for the schedulers. We prove that all questions are decidable with complete observation and ω-regular secrets. With partial observation, we prove that all quantitative questions are undecidable but the question whether a system is almost surely non-opaquebecomes decidable for a restricted class of ω-regular secrets, as well as for all ω-regular secrets under finite-memory schedulers. AU - Bérard, Béatrice AU - Chatterjee, Krishnendu AU - Sznajder, Nathalie ID - 2034 IS - 1 JF - Information Processing Letters TI - Probabilistic opacity for Markov decision processes VL - 115 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study the spectrum of a large system of N identical bosons interacting via a two-body potential with strength 1/N. In this mean-field regime, Bogoliubov's theory predicts that the spectrum of the N-particle Hamiltonian can be approximated by that of an effective quadratic Hamiltonian acting on Fock space, which describes the fluctuations around a condensed state. Recently, Bogoliubov's theory has been justified rigorously in the case that the low-energy eigenvectors of the N-particle Hamiltonian display complete condensation in the unique minimizer of the corresponding Hartree functional. In this paper, we shall justify Bogoliubov's theory for the high-energy part of the spectrum of the N-particle Hamiltonian corresponding to (non-linear) excited states of the Hartree functional. Moreover, we shall extend the existing results on the excitation spectrum to the case of non-uniqueness and/or degeneracy of the Hartree minimizer. In particular, the latter covers the case of rotating Bose gases, when the rotation speed is large enough to break the symmetry and to produce multiple quantized vortices in the Hartree minimizer. AU - Nam, Phan AU - Seiringer, Robert ID - 2085 IS - 2 JF - Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis TI - Collective excitations of Bose gases in the mean-field regime VL - 215 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider the spectral statistics of large random band matrices on mesoscopic energy scales. We show that the correlation function of the local eigenvalue density exhibits a universal power law behaviour that differs from the Wigner-Dyson- Mehta statistics. This law had been predicted in the physics literature by Altshuler and Shklovskii in (Zh Eksp Teor Fiz (Sov Phys JETP) 91(64):220(127), 1986); it describes the correlations of the eigenvalue density in general metallic sampleswith weak disorder. Our result rigorously establishes the Altshuler-Shklovskii formulas for band matrices. In two dimensions, where the leading term vanishes owing to an algebraic cancellation, we identify the first non-vanishing term and show that it differs substantially from the prediction of Kravtsov and Lerner in (Phys Rev Lett 74:2563-2566, 1995). The proof is given in the current paper and its companion (Ann. H. Poincaré. arXiv:1309.5107, 2014). AU - Erdös, László AU - Knowles, Antti ID - 2166 IS - 3 JF - Communications in Mathematical Physics TI - The Altshuler-Shklovskii formulas for random band matrices I: the unimodular case VL - 333 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Linearizability of concurrent data structures is usually proved by monolithic simulation arguments relying on the identification of the so-called linearization points. Regrettably, such proofs, whether manual or automatic, are often complicated and scale poorly to advanced non-blocking concurrency patterns, such as helping and optimistic updates. In response, we propose a more modular way of checking linearizability of concurrent queue algorithms that does not involve identifying linearization points. We reduce the task of proving linearizability with respect to the queue specification to establishing four basic properties, each of which can be proved independently by simpler arguments. As a demonstration of our approach, we verify the Herlihy and Wing queue, an algorithm that is challenging to verify by a simulation proof. AU - Chakraborty, Soham AU - Henzinger, Thomas A AU - Sezgin, Ali AU - Vafeiadis, Viktor ID - 1832 IS - 1 JF - Logical Methods in Computer Science TI - Aspect-oriented linearizability proofs VL - 11 ER - TY - JOUR AB - A class of valued constraint satisfaction problems (VCSPs) is characterised by a valued constraint language, a fixed set of cost functions on a finite domain. Finite-valued constraint languages contain functions that take on rational costs and general-valued constraint languages contain functions that take on rational or infinite costs. An instance of the problem is specified by a sum of functions from the language with the goal to minimise the sum. This framework includes and generalises well-studied constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) and maximum constraint satisfaction problems (Max-CSPs). Our main result is a precise algebraic characterisation of valued constraint languages whose instances can be solved exactly by the basic linear programming relaxation (BLP). For a general-valued constraint language Γ, BLP is a decision procedure for Γ if and only if Γ admits a symmetric fractional polymorphism of every arity. For a finite-valued constraint language Γ, BLP is a decision procedure if and only if Γ admits a symmetric fractional polymorphism of some arity, or equivalently, if Γ admits a symmetric fractional polymorphism of arity 2. Using these results, we obtain tractability of several novel and previously widely-open classes of VCSPs, including problems over valued constraint languages that are: (1) submodular on arbitrary lattices; (2) bisubmodular (also known as k-submodular) on arbitrary finite domains; (3) weakly (and hence strongly) tree-submodular on arbitrary trees. AU - Kolmogorov, Vladimir AU - Thapper, Johan AU - Živný, Stanislav ID - 2271 IS - 1 JF - SIAM Journal on Computing TI - The power of linear programming for general-valued CSPs VL - 44 ER - TY - JOUR AB - For suitable pairs of diagonal quadratic forms in eight variables we use the circle method to investigate the density of simultaneous integer solutions and relate this to the problem of estimating linear correlations among sums of two squares. AU - Timothy Browning AU - Munshi, Ritabrata ID - 257 IS - 4 JF - Forum Mathematicum TI - Pairs of diagonal quadratic forms and linear correlations among sums of two squares VL - 27 ER - TY - CHAP AB - Given a number field k and a projective algebraic variety X defined over k, the question of whether X contains a k-rational point is both very natural and very difficult. In the event that the set X(k) of k-rational points is not empty, one can also ask how the points of X(k) are distributed. Are they dense in X under the Zariski topology? Are they dense in the set. AU - Browning, Timothy D ID - 258 T2 - Arithmetic and Geometry TI - A survey of applications of the circle method to rational points ER - TY - JOUR AB - The Hasse principle and weak approximation is established for non-singular cubic hypersurfaces X over the function field AU - Timothy Browning AU - Vishe, Pankaj ID - 259 IS - 3 JF - Geometric and Functional Analysis TI - Rational points on cubic hypersurfaces over F_q(t) VL - 25 ER - 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 -