@inproceedings{10847, abstract = {We study the two-player zero-sum extension of the partially observable stochastic shortest-path problem where one agent has only partial information about the environment. We formulate this problem as a partially observable stochastic game (POSG): given a set of target states and negative rewards for each transition, the player with imperfect information maximizes the expected undiscounted total reward until a target state is reached. The second player with the perfect information aims for the opposite. We base our formalism on POSGs with one-sided observability (OS-POSGs) and give the following contributions: (1) we introduce a novel heuristic search value iteration algorithm that iteratively solves depth-limited variants of the game, (2) we derive the bound on the depth guaranteeing an arbitrary precision, (3) we propose a novel upper-bound estimation that allows early terminations, and (4) we experimentally evaluate the algorithm on a pursuit-evasion game.}, author = {Tomášek, Petr and Horák, Karel and Aradhye, Aditya and Bošanský, Branislav and Chatterjee, Krishnendu}, booktitle = {30th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence}, isbn = {9780999241196}, issn = {1045-0823}, location = {Virtual, Online}, pages = {4182--4189}, publisher = {International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence}, title = {{Solving partially observable stochastic shortest-path games}}, doi = {10.24963/ijcai.2021/575}, year = {2021}, } @article{10852, abstract = { We review old and new results on the Fröhlich polaron model. The discussion includes the validity of the (classical) Pekar approximation in the strong coupling limit, quantum corrections to this limit, as well as the divergence of the effective polaron mass.}, author = {Seiringer, Robert}, issn = {1793-6659}, journal = {Reviews in Mathematical Physics}, keywords = {Mathematical Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics}, number = {01}, publisher = {World Scientific Publishing}, title = {{The polaron at strong coupling}}, doi = {10.1142/s0129055x20600120}, volume = {33}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10853, abstract = {Dynamic Connectivity is a fundamental algorithmic graph problem, motivated by a wide range of applications to social and communication networks and used as a building block in various other algorithms, such as the bi-connectivity and the dynamic minimal spanning tree problems. In brief, we wish to maintain the connected components of the graph under dynamic edge insertions and deletions. In the sequential case, the problem has been well-studied from both theoretical and practical perspectives. However, much less is known about efficient concurrent solutions to this problem. This is the gap we address in this paper. We start from one of the classic data structures used to solve this problem, the Euler Tour Tree. Our first contribution is a non-blocking single-writer implementation of it. We leverage this data structure to obtain the first truly concurrent generalization of dynamic connectivity, which preserves the time complexity of its sequential counterpart, but is also scalable in practice. To achieve this, we rely on three main techniques. The first is to ensure that connectivity queries, which usually dominate real-world workloads, are non-blocking. The second non-trivial technique expands the above idea by making all queries that do not change the connectivity structure non-blocking. The third ingredient is applying fine-grained locking for updating the connected components, which allows operations on disjoint components to occur in parallel. We evaluate the resulting algorithm on various workloads, executing on both real and synthetic graphs. The results show the efficiency of each of the proposed optimizations; the most efficient variant improves the performance of a coarse-grained based implementation on realistic scenarios up to 6x on average and up to 30x when connectivity queries dominate.}, author = {Fedorov, Alexander and Koval, Nikita and Alistarh, Dan-Adrian}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 33rd ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures}, isbn = {9781450380706}, location = {Virtual, Online}, pages = {208--220}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{A scalable concurrent algorithm for dynamic connectivity}}, doi = {10.1145/3409964.3461810}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10854, abstract = {Consider a distributed task where the communication network is fixed but the local inputs given to the nodes of the distributed system may change over time. In this work, we explore the following question: if some of the local inputs change, can an existing solution be updated efficiently, in a dynamic and distributed manner? To address this question, we define the batch dynamic CONGEST model in which we are given a bandwidth-limited communication network and a dynamic edge labelling defines the problem input. The task is to maintain a solution to a graph problem on the labelled graph under batch changes. We investigate, when a batch of alpha edge label changes arrive, - how much time as a function of alpha we need to update an existing solution, and - how much information the nodes have to keep in local memory between batches in order to update the solution quickly. Our work lays the foundations for the theory of input-dynamic distributed network algorithms. We give a general picture of the complexity landscape in this model, design both universal algorithms and algorithms for concrete problems, and present a general framework for lower bounds. The diverse time complexity of our model spans from constant time, through time polynomial in alpha, and to alpha time, which we show to be enough for any task.}, author = {Foerster, Klaus-Tycho and Korhonen, Janne and Paz, Ami and Rybicki, Joel and Schmid, Stefan}, booktitle = {Abstract Proceedings of the 2021 ACM SIGMETRICS / International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems}, isbn = {9781450380720}, location = {Virtual, Online}, pages = {71--72}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Input-dynamic distributed algorithms for communication networks}}, doi = {10.1145/3410220.3453923}, year = {2021}, } @article{10855, abstract = {Consider a distributed task where the communication network is fixed but the local inputs given to the nodes of the distributed system may change over time. In this work, we explore the following question: if some of the local inputs change, can an existing solution be updated efficiently, in a dynamic and distributed manner? To address this question, we define the batch dynamic \congest model in which we are given a bandwidth-limited communication network and a dynamic edge labelling defines the problem input. The task is to maintain a solution to a graph problem on the labeled graph under batch changes. We investigate, when a batch of α edge label changes arrive, \beginitemize \item how much time as a function of α we need to update an existing solution, and \item how much information the nodes have to keep in local memory between batches in order to update the solution quickly. \enditemize Our work lays the foundations for the theory of input-dynamic distributed network algorithms. We give a general picture of the complexity landscape in this model, design both universal algorithms and algorithms for concrete problems, and present a general framework for lower bounds. In particular, we derive non-trivial upper bounds for two selected, contrasting problems: maintaining a minimum spanning tree and detecting cliques.}, author = {Foerster, Klaus-Tycho and Korhonen, Janne and Paz, Ami and Rybicki, Joel and Schmid, Stefan}, issn = {2476-1249}, journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems}, keywords = {Computer Networks and Communications, Hardware and Architecture, Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality, Computer Science (miscellaneous)}, number = {1}, pages = {1--33}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Input-dynamic distributed algorithms for communication networks}}, doi = {10.1145/3447384}, volume = {5}, year = {2021}, } @article{10856, abstract = {We study the properties of the maximal volume k-dimensional sections of the n-dimensional cube [−1, 1]n. We obtain a first order necessary condition for a k-dimensional subspace to be a local maximizer of the volume of such sections, which we formulate in a geometric way. We estimate the length of the projection of a vector of the standard basis of Rn onto a k-dimensional subspace that maximizes the volume of the intersection. We nd the optimal upper bound on the volume of a planar section of the cube [−1, 1]n , n ≥ 2.}, author = {Ivanov, Grigory and Tsiutsiurupa, Igor}, issn = {2299-3274}, journal = {Analysis and Geometry in Metric Spaces}, keywords = {Applied Mathematics, Geometry and Topology, Analysis}, number = {1}, pages = {1--18}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, title = {{On the volume of sections of the cube}}, doi = {10.1515/agms-2020-0103}, volume = {9}, year = {2021}, } @article{10858, abstract = {The cost-effective conversion of low-grade heat into electricity using thermoelectric devices requires developing alternative materials and material processing technologies able to reduce the currently high device manufacturing costs. In this direction, thermoelectric materials that do not rely on rare or toxic elements such as tellurium or lead need to be produced using high-throughput technologies not involving high temperatures and long processes. Bi2Se3 is an obvious possible Te-free alternative to Bi2Te3 for ambient temperature thermoelectric applications, but its performance is still low for practical applications, and additional efforts toward finding proper dopants are required. Here, we report a scalable method to produce Bi2Se3 nanosheets at low synthesis temperatures. We studied the influence of different dopants on the thermoelectric properties of this material. Among the elements tested, we demonstrated that Sn doping resulted in the best performance. Sn incorporation resulted in a significant improvement to the Bi2Se3 Seebeck coefficient and a reduction in the thermal conductivity in the direction of the hot-press axis, resulting in an overall 60% improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit of Bi2Se3.}, author = {Li, Mengyao and Zhang, Yu and Zhang, Ting and Zuo, Yong and Xiao, Ke and Arbiol, Jordi and Llorca, Jordi and Liu, Yu and Cabot, Andreu}, issn = {2079-4991}, journal = {Nanomaterials}, keywords = {General Materials Science, General Chemical Engineering}, number = {7}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Enhanced thermoelectric performance of n-type Bi2Se3 nanosheets through Sn doping}}, doi = {10.3390/nano11071827}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @article{10860, abstract = {A tight frame is the orthogonal projection of some orthonormal basis of Rn onto Rk. We show that a set of vectors is a tight frame if and only if the set of all cross products of these vectors is a tight frame. We reformulate a range of problems on the volume of projections (or sections) of regular polytopes in terms of tight frames and write a first-order necessary condition for local extrema of these problems. As applications, we prove new results for the problem of maximization of the volume of zonotopes.}, author = {Ivanov, Grigory}, issn = {1496-4287}, journal = {Canadian Mathematical Bulletin}, keywords = {General Mathematics, Tight frame, Grassmannian, zonotope}, number = {4}, pages = {942--963}, publisher = {Canadian Mathematical Society}, title = {{Tight frames and related geometric problems}}, doi = {10.4153/s000843952000096x}, volume = {64}, year = {2021}, } @article{11052, abstract = {In order to combat molecular damage, most cellular proteins undergo rapid turnover. We have previously identified large nuclear protein assemblies that can persist for years in post-mitotic tissues and are subject to age-related decline. Here, we report that mitochondria can be long lived in the mouse brain and reveal that specific mitochondrial proteins have half-lives longer than the average proteome. These mitochondrial long-lived proteins (mitoLLPs) are core components of the electron transport chain (ETC) and display increased longevity in respiratory supercomplexes. We find that COX7C, a mitoLLP that forms a stable contact site between complexes I and IV, is required for complex IV and supercomplex assembly. Remarkably, even upon depletion of COX7C transcripts, ETC function is maintained for days, effectively uncoupling mitochondrial function from ongoing transcription of its mitoLLPs. Our results suggest that modulating protein longevity within the ETC is critical for mitochondrial proteome maintenance and the robustness of mitochondrial function.}, author = {Krishna, Shefali and Arrojo e Drigo, Rafael and Capitanio, Juliana S. and Ramachandra, Ranjan and Ellisman, Mark and HETZER, Martin W}, issn = {1534-5807}, journal = {Developmental Cell}, keywords = {Developmental Biology, Cell Biology, General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Molecular Biology}, number = {21}, pages = {P2952--2965.e9}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Identification of long-lived proteins in the mitochondria reveals increased stability of the electron transport chain}}, doi = {10.1016/j.devcel.2021.10.008}, volume = {56}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{11458, abstract = {The increasing computational requirements of deep neural networks (DNNs) have led to significant interest in obtaining DNN models that are sparse, yet accurate. Recent work has investigated the even harder case of sparse training, where the DNN weights are, for as much as possible, already sparse to reduce computational costs during training. Existing sparse training methods are often empirical and can have lower accuracy relative to the dense baseline. In this paper, we present a general approach called Alternating Compressed/DeCompressed (AC/DC) training of DNNs, demonstrate convergence for a variant of the algorithm, and show that AC/DC outperforms existing sparse training methods in accuracy at similar computational budgets; at high sparsity levels, AC/DC even outperforms existing methods that rely on accurate pre-trained dense models. An important property of AC/DC is that it allows co-training of dense and sparse models, yielding accurate sparse–dense model pairs at the end of the training process. This is useful in practice, where compressed variants may be desirable for deployment in resource-constrained settings without re-doing the entire training flow, and also provides us with insights into the accuracy gap between dense and compressed models. The code is available at: https://github.com/IST-DASLab/ACDC.}, author = {Peste, Elena-Alexandra and Iofinova, Eugenia B and Vladu, Adrian and Alistarh, Dan-Adrian}, booktitle = {35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems}, isbn = {9781713845393}, issn = {1049-5258}, location = {Virtual, Online}, pages = {8557--8570}, publisher = {Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation}, title = {{AC/DC: Alternating Compressed/DeCompressed training of deep neural networks}}, volume = {34}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{11463, abstract = {Efficiently approximating local curvature information of the loss function is a key tool for optimization and compression of deep neural networks. Yet, most existing methods to approximate second-order information have high computational or storage costs, which limits their practicality. In this work, we investigate matrix-free, linear-time approaches for estimating Inverse-Hessian Vector Products (IHVPs) for the case when the Hessian can be approximated as a sum of rank-one matrices, as in the classic approximation of the Hessian by the empirical Fisher matrix. We propose two new algorithms: the first is tailored towards network compression and can compute the IHVP for dimension d, if the Hessian is given as a sum of m rank-one matrices, using O(dm2) precomputation, O(dm) cost for computing the IHVP, and query cost O(m) for any single element of the inverse Hessian. The second algorithm targets an optimization setting, where we wish to compute the product between the inverse Hessian, estimated over a sliding window of optimization steps, and a given gradient direction, as required for preconditioned SGD. We give an algorithm with cost O(dm + m2) for computing the IHVP and O(dm + m3) for adding or removing any gradient from the sliding window. These two algorithms yield state-of-the-art results for network pruning and optimization with lower computational overhead relative to existing second-order methods. Implementations are available at [9] and [17].}, author = {Frantar, Elias and Kurtic, Eldar and Alistarh, Dan-Adrian}, booktitle = {35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems}, isbn = {9781713845393}, issn = {1049-5258}, location = {Virtual, Online}, pages = {14873--14886}, publisher = {Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation}, title = {{M-FAC: Efficient matrix-free approximations of second-order information}}, volume = {34}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{11464, abstract = {We consider a standard distributed optimisation setting where N machines, each holding a d-dimensional function fi, aim to jointly minimise the sum of the functions ∑Ni=1fi(x). This problem arises naturally in large-scale distributed optimisation, where a standard solution is to apply variants of (stochastic) gradient descent. We focus on the communication complexity of this problem: our main result provides the first fully unconditional bounds on total number of bits which need to be sent and received by the N machines to solve this problem under point-to-point communication, within a given error-tolerance. Specifically, we show that Ω(Ndlogd/Nε) total bits need to be communicated between the machines to find an additive ϵ-approximation to the minimum of ∑Ni=1fi(x). The result holds for both deterministic and randomised algorithms, and, importantly, requires no assumptions on the algorithm structure. The lower bound is tight under certain restrictions on parameter values, and is matched within constant factors for quadratic objectives by a new variant of quantised gradient descent, which we describe and analyse. Our results bring over tools from communication complexity to distributed optimisation, which has potential for further applications.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Korhonen, Janne}, booktitle = {35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems}, isbn = {9781713845393}, issn = {1049-5258}, location = {Virtual, Online}, pages = {7254--7266}, publisher = {Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation}, title = {{Towards tight communication lower bounds for distributed optimisation}}, volume = {34}, year = {2021}, } @article{12186, abstract = {Activation of cell-surface and intracellular receptor-mediated immunity results in rapid transcriptional reprogramming that underpins disease resistance. However, the mechanisms by which co-activation of both immune systems lead to transcriptional changes are not clear. Here, we combine RNA-seq and ATAC-seq to define changes in gene expression and chromatin accessibility. Activation of cell-surface or intracellular receptor-mediated immunity, or both, increases chromatin accessibility at induced defence genes. Analysis of ATAC-seq and RNA-seq data combined with publicly available information on transcription factor DNA-binding motifs enabled comparison of individual gene regulatory networks activated by cell-surface or intracellular receptor-mediated immunity, or by both. These results and analyses reveal overlapping and conserved transcriptional regulatory mechanisms between the two immune systems.}, author = {Ding, Pingtao and Sakai, Toshiyuki and Krishna Shrestha, Ram and Manosalva Perez, Nicolas and Guo, Wenbin and Ngou, Bruno Pok Man and He, Shengbo and Liu, Chang and Feng, Xiaoqi and Zhang, Runxuan and Vandepoele, Klaas and MacLean, Dan and Jones, Jonathan D G}, issn = {0022-0957}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Botany}, keywords = {Plant Science, Physiology}, number = {22}, pages = {7927--7941}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {{Chromatin accessibility landscapes activated by cell-surface and intracellular immune receptors}}, doi = {10.1093/jxb/erab373}, volume = {72}, year = {2021}, } @article{12187, abstract = {Genomes of germ cells present an existential vulnerability to organisms because germ cell mutations will propagate to future generations. Transposable elements are one source of such mutations. In the small flowering plant Arabidopsis, Long et al. found that genome methylation in the male germline is directed by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) imperfectly transcribed from transposons (see the Perspective by Mosher). These germline siRNAs silence germline transposons and establish inherited methylation patterns in sperm, thus maintaining the integrity of the plant genome across generations.}, author = {Long, Jincheng and Walker, James and She, Wenjing and Aldridge, Billy and Gao, Hongbo and Deans, Samuel and Vickers, Martin and Feng, Xiaoqi}, issn = {1095-9203}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {Multidisciplinary}, number = {6550}, publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science}, title = {{Nurse cell-derived small RNAs define paternal epigenetic inheritance in Arabidopsis}}, doi = {10.1126/science.abh0556}, volume = {373}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{12767, abstract = {Several problems in planning and reactive synthesis can be reduced to the analysis of two-player quantitative graph games. Optimization is one form of analysis. We argue that in many cases it may be better to replace the optimization problem with the satisficing problem, where instead of searching for optimal solutions, the goal is to search for solutions that adhere to a given threshold bound. This work defines and investigates the satisficing problem on a two-player graph game with the discounted-sum cost model. We show that while the satisficing problem can be solved using numerical methods just like the optimization problem, this approach does not render compelling benefits over optimization. When the discount factor is, however, an integer, we present another approach to satisficing, which is purely based on automata methods. We show that this approach is algorithmically more performant – both theoretically and empirically – and demonstrates the broader applicability of satisficing over optimization.}, author = {Bansal, Suguman and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Vardi, Moshe Y.}, booktitle = {27th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783030720155}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Luxembourg City, Luxembourg}, pages = {20--37}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{On satisficing in quantitative games}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-72016-2_2}, volume = {12651}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{12909, author = {Schlögl, Alois and Elefante, Stefano and Hornoiu, Andrei and Stadlbauer, Stephan}, booktitle = {ASHPC21 – Austrian-Slovenian HPC Meeting 2021}, isbn = {978-961-6980-77-7}, location = {Virtual}, pages = {5}, publisher = {University of Ljubljana}, title = {{Managing software on a heterogenous HPC cluster}}, doi = {10.3359/2021hpc}, year = {2021}, } @misc{12987, abstract = {Chromosomal inversion polymorphisms, segments of chromosomes that are flipped in orientation and occur in reversed order in some individuals, have long been recognized to play an important role in local adaptation. They can reduce recombination in heterozygous individuals and thus help to maintain sets of locally adapted alleles. In a wide range of organisms, populations adapted to different habitats differ in frequency of inversion arrangements. However, getting a full understanding of the importance of inversions for adaptation requires confirmation of their influence on traits under divergent selection. Here, we studied a marine snail, Littorina saxatilis, that has evolved ecotypes adapted to wave exposure or crab predation. These two types occur in close proximity on different parts of the shore. Gene flow between them exists in contact zones. However, they exhibit strong phenotypic divergence in several traits under habitat-specific selection, including size, shape and behaviour. We used crosses between these ecotypes to identify genomic regions that explain variation in these traits by using QTL analysis and variance partitioning across linkage groups. We could show that previously detected inversion regions contribute to adaptive divergence. Some inversions influenced multiple traits suggesting that they contain sets of locally adaptive alleles. Our study also identified regions without known inversions that are important for phenotypic divergence. Thus, we provide a more complete overview of the importance of inversions in relation to the remaining genome.}, author = {Koch, Eva and Morales, Hernán E. and Larsson, Jenny and Westram, Anja M and Faria, Rui and Lemmon, Alan R. and Lemmon, E. Moriarty and Johannesson, Kerstin and Butlin, Roger K.}, publisher = {Dryad}, title = {{Data from: Genetic variation for adaptive traits is associated with polymorphic inversions in Littorina saxatilis}}, doi = {10.5061/DRYAD.ZGMSBCCB4}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13057, abstract = {This dataset comprises all data shown in the figures of the submitted article "Geometric superinductance qubits: Controlling phase delocalization across a single Josephson junction". Additional raw data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.}, author = {Peruzzo, Matilda and Hassani, Farid and Szep, Grisha and Trioni, Andrea and Redchenko, Elena and Zemlicka, Martin and Fink, Johannes M}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Geometric superinductance qubits: Controlling phase delocalization across a single Josephson junction}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.5592103}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13058, abstract = {The zip file includes source data used in the main text of the manuscript "Theory of branching morphogenesis by local interactions and global guidance", as well as a representative Jupyter notebook to reproduce the main figures. A sample script for the simulations of branching and annihilating random walks is also included (Sample_script_for_simulations_of_BARWs.ipynb) to generate exemplary branched networks under external guidance. A detailed description of the simulation setup is provided in the supplementary information of the manuscipt.}, author = {Ucar, Mehmet C}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Source data for the manuscript "Theory of branching morphogenesis by local interactions and global guidance"}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.5257160}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13061, abstract = {Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism’s development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing “superorganisms” – incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen’s immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen-exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen’s pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism.}, author = {Casillas Perez, Barbara E and Pull, Christopher and Naiser, Filip and Naderlinger, Elisabeth and Matas, Jiri and Cremer, Sylvia}, publisher = {Dryad}, title = {{Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies}}, doi = {10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ}, year = {2021}, }