Strong Conflict-Free Coloring for Intervals

We consider the \(k\) -strong conflict-free ( \(k\) -SCF) coloring of a set of points on a line with respect to a family of intervals: Each point on the line must be assigned a color so that the coloring is conflict-free in the following sense: in every interval \(I\) of the family there are at least \(k\) colors each appearing exactly once in \(I\) . We first present a polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the general problem; the algorithm has approximation ratio 2 when \(k=1\) and \(5-\frac{2}{k}\) when \(k\ge 2\) . In the special case of a family that contains all possible intervals on the given set of points, we show that a 2-approximation algorithm exists, for any \(k \ge 1\) . We also provide, in case \(k=O({{\mathrm{polylog}}}(n))\) , a quasipolynomial time algorithm to decide the existence of a \(k\) -SCF coloring that uses at most \(q\) colors.     

Fault tolerance of hypercubes and folded hypercubes

Let \(G = (V,E)\) be a connected graph. The conditional edge connectivity \(\lambda _\delta ^k(G)\) is the cardinality of the minimum edge cuts, if any, whose deletion disconnects \(G\) and each component of \(G - F\) has \(\delta \ge k\) . We assume that \(F \subseteq E\) is an edge set, \(F\) is called edge extra-cut, if \(G - F\) is not connected and each component of \(G - F\) has more than \(k\) vertices. The edge extraconnectivity \(\lambda _\mathrm{e}^k(G)\) is the cardinality of the minimum edge extra-cuts. In this paper, we study the conditional edge connectivity and edge extraconnectivity of hypercubes and folded hypercubes.     

The Local Discontinuous Galerkin Method for the Fourth-Order Euler–Bernoulli Partial Differential Equation in One Space Dimension. Part II: A Posteriori Error Estimation

In this paper new a posteriori error estimates for the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method for one-dimensional fourth-order Euler–Bernoulli partial differential equation are presented and analyzed. These error estimates are computationally simple and are obtained by solving a local steady problem with no boundary condition on each element. We use the optimal error estimates and the superconvergence results proved in Part I to show that the significant parts of the discretization errors for the LDG solution and its spatial derivatives (up to third order) are proportional to \((k+1)\) -degree Radau polynomials, when polynomials of total degree not exceeding \(k\) are used. These results allow us to prove that the \(k\) -degree LDG solution and its derivatives are \(\mathcal O (h^{k+3/2})\) superconvergent at the roots of \((k+1)\) -degree Radau polynomials. We use these results to construct asymptotically exact a posteriori error estimates. We further apply the results proved in Part I to prove that, for smooth solutions, these a posteriori LDG error estimates for the solution and its spatial derivatives at a fixed time \(t\) converge to the true errors at \(\mathcal O (h^{k+5/4})\) rate. We also prove that the global effectivity indices, for the solution and its derivatives up to third order, in the \(L^2\) -norm converge to unity at \(\mathcal O (h^{1/2})\) rate. Our proofs are valid for arbitrary regular meshes and for \(P^k\) polynomials with \(k\ge 1\) , and for periodic and other classical mixed boundary conditions. Our computational results indicate that the observed numerical convergence rates are higher than the theoretical rates. Finally, we present a local adaptive procedure that makes use of our local a posteriori error estimate.     

Parameterized complexity of three edge contraction problems with degree constraints

For any graph class \(\mathcal{H}\) , the \(\mathcal{H}\) -Contraction problem takes as input a graph \(G\) and an integer \(k\) , and asks whether there exists a graph \(H\in \mathcal{H}\) such that \(G\) can be modified into \(H\) using at most \(k\) edge contractions. We study the parameterized complexity of \(\mathcal{H}\) -Contraction for three different classes \(\mathcal{H}\) : the class \(\mathcal{H}_{\le d}\) of graphs with maximum degree at most  \(d\) , the class \(\mathcal{H}_{=d}\) of \(d\) -regular graphs, and the class of \(d\) -degenerate graphs. We completely classify the parameterized complexity of all three problems with respect to the parameters \(k\) , \(d\) , and \(d+k\) . Moreover, we show that \(\mathcal{H}\) -Contraction admits an \(O(k)\) vertex kernel on connected graphs when \(\mathcal{H}\in \{\mathcal{H}_{\le 2},\mathcal{H}_{=2}\}\) , while the problem is \(\mathsf{W}[2]\) -hard when \(\mathcal{H}\) is the class of \(2\) -degenerate graphs and hence is expected not to admit a kernel at all. In particular, our results imply that \(\mathcal{H}\) -Contraction admits a linear vertex kernel when \(\mathcal{H}\) is the class of cycles.     

An integrated GA-DEA algorithm for determining the most effective maintenance policy for a k -out-of- n problem

This paper presents a novel hybrid GA-DEA algorithm in order to solve multi-objective \(k\) -out-of- \(n\) problem and determine preferred policy. The proposed algorithm maximizes overall system reliability and availability, while minimizing system cost and queue length, simultaneously. To meet these objectives, an adaptive hybrid GA-DEA algorithm is developed to identify the optimal solutions and improve computation efficiency. In order to improve computation efficiency genetic algorithm (GA) is used to simulate a series production line and find the Pareto-optimal solutions which are different values of \(k\) and \(n\) of \(k\) -out-of- \(n\) problem. Data envelopment analysis is used to find the best \(k\) and \(n\) from Genetic Algorithm’s Pareto solutions. An illustrative example is applied to show the flexibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm of this study would help managers to identify the preferred policy considering and investigating various parameters and scenarios in logical time. Also considering different objectives result in Pareto-optimal solutions that would help decision makers to select the preferred solution based on their situation and preference.     

Universal regular control for generic semilinear systems

We consider discrete-time projective semilinear control systems \(\xi _{t+1} = A(u_t) \cdot \xi _t\) , where the states \(\xi _t\) are in projective space \(\mathbb {R}\hbox {P}^{d-1}\) , inputs \(u_t\) are in a manifold \(\mathcal {U}\) of arbitrary finite dimension, and \(A :\mathcal {U}\rightarrow \hbox {GL}(d,\mathbb {R})\) is a differentiable mapping. An input sequence \((u_0,\ldots ,u_{N-1})\) is called universally regular if for any initial state \(\xi _0 \in \mathbb {R}\hbox {P}^{d-1}\) , the derivative of the time- \(N\) state with respect to the inputs is onto. In this paper, we deal with the universal regularity of constant input sequences \((u_0, \ldots , u_0)\) . Our main result states that generically in the space of such systems, for sufficiently large \(N\) , all constant inputs of length \(N\) are universally regular, with the exception of a discrete set. More precisely, the conclusion holds for a \(C^2\) -open and \(C^\infty \) -dense set of maps \(A\) , and \(N\) only depends on \(d\) and on the dimension of \(\mathcal {U}\) . We also show that the inputs on that discrete set are nearly universally regular; indeed, there is a unique non-regular initial state, and its corank is 1. In order to establish the result, we study the spaces of bilinear control systems. We show that the codimension of the set of systems for which the zero input is not universally regular coincides with the dimension of the control space. The proof is based on careful matrix analysis and some elementary algebraic geometry. Then the main result follows by applying standard transversality theorems.     

Some kinds of primitive and non-primitive words

If the length of a primitive word \(p\) is equal to the length of another primitive word \(q\) , then \(p^{n}q^{m}\) is a primitive word for any \(n,m\ge 1\) and \((n,m)\ne (1,1)\) . This was obtained separately by Tetsuo Moriya in 2008 and Shyr and Yu in 1994. In this paper, we prove that if the length of \(p\) is divisible by the length of \(q\) and the length of \(p\) is less than or equal to \(m\) times the length of \(q\) , then \(p^{n}q^{m}\) is a primitive word for any \(n,m\ge 1\) and \((n,m)\ne (1,1)\) . Then we show that if \(uv,u\) are non-primitive words and the length of \(u\) is divisible by the length \(v\) or one of the length of \(u\) and \(uv\) is odd for any two nonempty words \(u\) and \(v\) , then \(u\) is a power of \(v\) .     

The categories L-\mathbf{Top}_{0} and L-\mathbf{Sob} as epireflective hulls

We show that the category \(L\) - \(\mathbf{Top}_{0}\) of \(T_{0}\) - \(L\) -topological spaces is the epireflective hull of Sierpinski \(L\) -topological space in the category \(L\) - \(\mathbf{Top}\) of \(L\) -topological spaces and the category \(L\) - \(\mathbf{Sob}\) of sober \(L\) -topological spaces is the epireflective hull of Sierpinski \(L\) -topological space in the category \(L\) - \(\mathbf{Top}_{0}\) .     

Optimality of partial adiabatic search and its circuit model

In this paper, we first uncover a fact that a partial adiabatic quantum search with \(O(\sqrt{N/M})\) time complexity is in fact optimal, in which \(N\) is the total number of elements in an unstructured database, and \(M\) ( \(M\ge 1\) ) of them are the marked ones(one) \((N\gg M)\) . We then discuss how to implement a partial adiabatic search algorithm on the quantum circuit model. From the implementing procedure on the circuit model, we can find out that the approximating steps needed are always in the same order of the time complexity of the adiabatic algorithm.     

Informational correlation between two parties of a quantum system: spin-1/2 chains

We introduce the informational correlation \(E^{AB}\) between two interacting quantum subsystems \(A\) and \(B\) of a quantum system as the number of arbitrary parameters \(\varphi _i\) of a unitary transformation \(U^A\) (locally performed on the subsystem \(A\) ) which may be detected in the subsystem \(B\) by the local measurements. This quantity indicates whether the state of the subsystem \(B\) may be effected by means of the unitary transformation applied to the subsystem \(A\) . Emphasize that \(E^{AB}\ne E^{BA}\) in general. The informational correlations in systems with tensor product initial states are studied in more details. In particular, it is shown that the informational correlation may be changed by the local unitary transformations of the subsystem \(B\) . However, there is some non-reducible part of \(E^{AB}(t)\) which may not be decreased by any unitary transformation of the subsystem \(B\) at a fixed time instant \(t\) . Two examples of the informational correlations between two parties of the four-node spin-1/2 chain with mixed initial states are studied. The long chains with a single initially excited spin (the pure initial state) are considered as well.     

Frequency capping in online advertising

We study the following online problem. There are n advertisers. Each advertiser \(a_i\) has a total demand \(d_i\) and a value \(v_i\) for each supply unit. Supply units arrive one by one in an online fashion, and must be allocated to an agent immediately. Each unit is associated with a user, and each advertiser \(a_i\) is willing to accept no more than \(f_i\) units associated with any single user (the value \(f_i\) is called the frequency cap of advertiser \(a_i\) ). The goal is to design an online allocation algorithm maximizing the total value. We first show a deterministic \(3/4\) -competitiveness upper bound, which holds even when all frequency caps are \(1\) , and all advertisers share identical values and demands. A competitive ratio approaching \(1-1/e\) can be achieved via a reduction to a different model considered by Goel and Mehta (WINE ‘07: Workshop on Internet and Network, Economics: 335–340, 2007). Our main contribution is analyzing two \(3/4\) -competitive greedy algorithms for the cases of equal values, and arbitrary valuations with equal integral demand to frequency cap ratios. Finally, we give a primal-dual algorithm which may serve as a good starting point for improving upon the ratio of \(1-1/e\) .     

Deriving length two path centered surface area for the arrangement graph: a generating function approach

We discuss the notion of \(H\) -centered surface area of a graph \(G\) , where \(H\) is a subgraph of \(G\) , i.e., the number of vertices in \(G\) at a certain distance from \(H\) , and focus on the special case when \(H\) is a length two path to derive an explicit formula for the length two path centered surface area of the general and scalable arrangement graph, following a generating function approach.     

Query reverse engineering

In this paper, we introduce a new problem termed query reverse engineering (QRE). Given a database \(D\) and a result table \(T\) —the output of some known or unknown query \(Q\) on \(D\) —the goal of QRE is to reverse-engineer a query \(Q'\) such that the output of query \(Q'\) on database \(D\) (denoted by \(Q'(D)\) ) is equal to \(T\) (i.e., \(Q(D)\) ). The QRE problem has useful applications in database usability, data analysis, and data security. In this work, we propose a data-driven approach, TALOS for Tree-based classifier with At Least One Semantics, that is based on a novel dynamic data classification formulation and extend the approach to efficiently support the three key dimensions of the QRE problem: whether the input query is known/unknown, supporting different query fragments, and supporting multiple database versions.     

Richardson Extrapolation on Some Recent Numerical Quadrature Formulas for Singular and Hypersingular Integrals and Its Study of Stability

Recently, we derived some new numerical quadrature formulas of trapezoidal rule type for the integrals \(I^{(1)}[g]=\int ^b_a \frac{g(x)}{x-t}\,dx\) and \(I^{(2)}[g]=\int ^b_a \frac{g(x)}{(x-t)^2}\,dx\) . These integrals are not defined in the regular sense; \(I^{(1)}[g]\) is defined in the sense of Cauchy Principal Value while \(I^{(2)}[g]\) is defined in the sense of Hadamard Finite Part. With \(h=(b-a)/n, \,n=1,2,\ldots \) , and \(t=a+kh\) for some \(k\in \{1,\ldots ,n-1\}, \,t\) being fixed, the numerical quadrature formulas \({Q}^{(1)}_n[g]\) for \(I^{(1)}[g]\) and \(Q^{(2)}_n[g]\) for \(I^{(2)}[g]\) are $$\begin{aligned} {Q}^{(1)}_n[g]=h\sum ^n_{j=1}f(a+jh-h/2),\quad f(x)=\frac{g(x)}{x-t}, \end{aligned}$$ and $$\begin{aligned} Q^{(2)}_n[g]=h\sum ^n_{j=1}f(a+jh-h/2)-\pi ^2g(t)h^{-1},\quad f(x)=\frac{g(x)}{(x-t)^2}. \end{aligned}$$ We provided a complete analysis of the errors in these formulas under the assumption that \(g\in C^\infty [a,b]\) . We actually show that $$\begin{aligned} I^{(k)}[g]-{Q}^{(k)}_n[g]\sim \sum ^\infty _{i=1} c^{(k)}_ih^{2i}\quad \text {as}\,n \rightarrow \infty , \end{aligned}$$ the constants \(c^{(k)}_i\) being independent of \(h\) . In this work, we apply the Richardson extrapolation to \({Q}^{(k)}_n[g]\) to obtain approximations of very high accuracy to \(I^{(k)}[g]\) . We also give a thorough analysis of convergence and numerical stability (in finite-precision arithmetic) for them. In our study of stability, we show that errors committed when computing the function \(g(x)\) , which form the main source of errors in the rest of the computation, propagate in a relatively mild fashion into the extrapolation table, and we quantify their rate of propagation. We confirm our conclusions via numerical examples.     

Finding peculiar compositions of two frequent strings with background texts

We consider mining unusual patterns from a set  \(T\) of target texts. A typical method outputs unusual patterns if their observed frequencies are far from their expectation estimated under an assumed probabilistic model. However, it is difficult for the method to deal with the zero frequency and thus it suffers from data sparseness. We employ another set  \(B\) of background texts to define a composition  \(xy\) to be peculiar if both \(x\) and  \(y\) are more frequent in  \(B\) than in  \(T\) and conversely \(xy\) is more frequent in  \(T\) . \(xy\) is unusual because \(x\) and  \(y\) are infrequent in  \(T\) while \(xy\) is unexpectedly frequent compared to  \(xy\) in  \(B\) . To find frequent subpatterns and infrequent patterns simultaneously, we develop a fast algorithm using the suffix tree and show that it scales almost linearly under practical settings of parameters. Experiments using DNA sequences show that found peculiar compositions basically appear in rRNA while patterns found by an existing method seem not to relate to specific biological functions. We also show that discovered patterns have similar lengths at which the distribution of frequencies of fixed length substrings begins to skew. This fact explains why our method can find long peculiar compositions.     

Isomorphisms and functors of fuzzy sets and cut systems

Any fuzzy set \(X\) in a classical set \(A\) with values in a complete (residuated) lattice \( Q\) can be identified with a system of \(\alpha \) -cuts \(X_{\alpha }\) , \(\alpha \in Q\) . Analogical results were proved for sets with similarity relations with values in \( Q\) (e.g. \( Q\) -sets), which are objects of two special categories \({\mathbf K}={Set}( Q)\) or \({SetR}( Q)\) of \( Q\) -sets, and for fuzzy sets defined as morphisms from an \( Q\) -set into a special \(Q\) -set \(( Q,\leftrightarrow )\) . These fuzzy sets can be defined equivalently as special cut systems \((C_{\alpha })_{\alpha }\) , called f-cuts. This equivalence then represents a natural isomorphism between covariant functor of fuzzy sets \(\mathcal{F}_{\mathbf K}\) and covariant functor of f-cuts \(\mathcal{C}_{\mathbf K}\) . In this paper, we prove that analogical natural isomorphism exists also between contravariant versions of these functors. We are also interested in relationships between sets of fuzzy sets and sets of f-cuts in an \(Q\) -set \((A,\delta )\) in the corresponding categories \({Set}( Q)\) and \({SetR}( Q)\) , which are endowed with binary operations extended either from binary operations in the lattice \(Q\) , or from binary operations defined in a set \(A\) by the generalized Zadeh’s extension principle. We prove that the resulting binary structures are (under some conditions) isomorphic.     

A note on tensor chain approximation

This paper deals with the approximation of \(d\) -dimensional tensors, as discrete representations of arbitrary functions \(f(x_1,\ldots ,x_d)\) on \([0,1]^d\) , in the so-called tensor chain format. The main goal of this paper is to show that the construction of a tensor chain approximation is possible using skeleton/cross approximation type methods. The complete algorithm is described, computational issues are discussed in detail and the complexity of the algorithm is shown to be linear in \(d\) . Some numerical examples are given to validate the theoretical results.     

Thermal entanglement of the mixed spin-1/2 and spin-5/2 Heisenberg model under an external magnetic field

We use the concept of negativity to study the entanglement of spin-1/2 and spin-5/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with an inhomogeneous magnetic field. Analytical conclusions of the model are acquired. It is found that the critical temperature \(T_\mathrm{c}\) goes up, as the increase of anisotropy parameter \(k\) . The temperature \(T_\mathrm{c}\) becomes bigger than the results of spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 Heisenberg XXZ chain for the same value of \(k\) . And we can gain more entanglement at higher temperature by coordinating the value of inhomogeneity \(b\) .     

Single-processor scheduling with time restrictions

We consider the following list scheduling problem. We are given a set \(S\) of jobs which are to be scheduled sequentially on a single processor. Each job has an associated processing time which is required for its processing. Given a particular permutation of the jobs in \(S\) , the jobs are processed in that order with each job started as soon as possible, subject only to the following constraint: For a fixed integer \(B \ge 2\) , no unit time interval \([x, x+1)\) is allowed to intersect more than \(B\) jobs for any real \(x\) . It is not surprising that this problem is NP-hard when the value \(B\) is variable (which is typical of many scheduling problems). There are several real world situations for which this restriction is natural. For example, suppose in addition to our jobs being executed sequentially on a single main processor, each job also requires the use of one of \(B\) identical subprocessors during its execution. Each time a job is completed, the subprocessor it was using requires one unit of time in order to reset itself. In this way, it is never possible for more than \(B\) jobs to be worked on during any unit interval. In this paper we carry out a classical worst-case analysis for this situation. In particular, we show that any permutation of the jobs can be processed within a factor of \(2-1/(B-1)\) of the optimum (plus an additional small constant) when \(B \ge 3\) and this factor is best possible. For the case \(B=2\) , the situation is rather different, and in this case the corresponding factor we establish is \(4/3\) (plus an additional small constant), which is also best possible. It is fairly rare that best possible bounds can be obtained for the competitive ratios of list scheduling problems of this general type.