@inproceedings{11,
  abstract     = {We report on a novel strategy to derive mean-field limits of quantum mechanical systems in which a large number of particles weakly couple to a second-quantized radiation field. The technique combines the method of counting and the coherent state approach to study the growth of the correlations among the particles and in the radiation field. As an instructional example, we derive the Schrödinger–Klein–Gordon system of equations from the Nelson model with ultraviolet cutoff and possibly massless scalar field. In particular, we prove the convergence of the reduced density matrices (of the nonrelativistic particles and the field bosons) associated with the exact time evolution to the projectors onto the solutions of the Schrödinger–Klein–Gordon equations in trace norm. Furthermore, we derive explicit bounds on the rate of convergence of the one-particle reduced density matrix of the nonrelativistic particles in Sobolev norm.},
  author       = {Leopold, Nikolai K and Pickl, Peter},
  location     = {Munich, Germany},
  pages        = {185 -- 214},
  publisher    = {Springer},
  title        = {{Mean-field limits of particles in interaction with quantised radiation fields}},
  doi          = {10.1007/978-3-030-01602-9_9},
  volume       = {270},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{10286,
  abstract     = {In this paper, we evaluate clock signals generated in ring oscillators and self-timed rings and the way their jitter can be transformed into random numbers. We show that counting the periods of the jittery clock signal produces random numbers of significantly better quality than the methods in which the jittery signal is simply sampled (the case in almost all current methods). Moreover, we use the counter values to characterize and continuously monitor the source of randomness. However, instead of using the widely used statistical variance, we propose to use Allan variance to do so. There are two main advantages: Allan variance is insensitive to low frequency noises such as flicker noise that are known to be autocorrelated and significantly less circuitry is required for its computation than that used to compute commonly used variance. We also show that it is essential to use a differential principle of randomness extraction from the jitter based on the use of two identical oscillators to avoid autocorrelations originating from external and internal global jitter sources and that this fact is valid for both kinds of rings. Last but not least, we propose a method of statistical testing based on high order Markov model to show the reduced dependencies when the proposed randomness extraction is applied.},
  author       = {Allini, Elie Noumon and Skórski, Maciej and Petura, Oto and Bernard, Florent and Laban, Marek and Fischer, Viktor},
  issn         = {2569-2925},
  journal      = {IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems},
  number       = {3},
  pages        = {214--242},
  publisher    = {International Association for Cryptologic Research},
  title        = {{Evaluation and monitoring of free running oscillators serving as source of randomness}},
  doi          = {10.13154/tches.v2018.i3.214-242},
  volume       = {2018},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{10417,
  abstract     = {We present a new dynamic partial-order reduction method for stateless model checking of concurrent programs. A common approach for exploring program behaviors relies on enumerating the traces of the program, without storing the visited states (aka stateless exploration). As the number of distinct traces grows exponentially, dynamic partial-order reduction (DPOR) techniques have been successfully used to partition the space of traces into equivalence classes (Mazurkiewicz partitioning), with the goal of exploring only few representative traces from each class.

We introduce a new equivalence on traces under sequential consistency semantics, which we call the observation equivalence. Two traces are observationally equivalent if every read event observes the same write event in both traces. While the traditional Mazurkiewicz equivalence is control-centric, our new definition is data-centric. We show that our observation equivalence is coarser than the Mazurkiewicz equivalence, and in many cases even exponentially coarser. We devise a DPOR exploration of the trace space, called data-centric DPOR, based on the observation equivalence.},
  author       = {Chalupa, Marek and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Pavlogiannis, Andreas and Sinha, Nishant and Vaidya, Kapil},
  issn         = {2475-1421},
  journal      = {Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages},
  location     = {Los Angeles, CA, United States},
  number       = {POPL},
  publisher    = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  title        = {{Data-centric dynamic partial order reduction}},
  doi          = {10.1145/3158119},
  volume       = {2},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{22,
  abstract     = {Conventional ultra-high sensitivity detectors in the millimeter-wave range are usually cooled as their own thermal noise at room temperature would mask the weak received radiation. The need for cryogenic systems increases the cost and complexity of the instruments, hindering the development of, among others, airborne and space applications. In this work, the nonlinear parametric upconversion of millimeter-wave radiation to the optical domain inside high-quality (Q) lithium niobate whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonators is proposed for ultra-low noise detection. We experimentally demonstrate coherent upconversion of millimeter-wave signals to a 1550 nm telecom carrier, with a photon conversion efficiency surpassing the state-of-the-art by 2 orders of magnitude. Moreover, a theoretical model shows that the thermal equilibrium of counterpropagating WGMs is broken by overcoupling the millimeter-wave WGM, effectively cooling the upconverted mode and allowing ultra-low noise detection. By theoretically estimating the sensitivity of a correlation radiometer based on the presented scheme, it is found that room-temperature radiometers with better sensitivity than state-of-the-art high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT)-based radiometers can be designed. This detection paradigm can be used to develop room-temperature instrumentation for radio astronomy, earth observation, planetary missions, and imaging systems.},
  author       = {Botello, Gabriel and Sedlmeir, Florian and Rueda Sanchez, Alfredo R and Abdalmalak, Kerlos and Brown, Elliott and Leuchs, Gerd and Preu, Sascha and Segovia Vargas, Daniel and Strekalov, Dmitry and Munoz, Luis and Schwefel, Harald},
  issn         = {2334-2536},
  journal      = {Optica},
  number       = {10},
  pages        = {1210--1219},
  title        = {{Sensitivity limits of millimeter-wave photonic radiometers based on efficient electro-optic upconverters}},
  doi          = {10.1364/OPTICA.5.001210},
  volume       = {5},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{24,
  abstract     = {Partially-observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) with discounted-sum payoff are a standard framework to model a wide range of problems related to decision making under uncertainty. Traditionally, the goal has been to obtain policies that optimize the expectation of the discounted-sum payoff. A key drawback of the expectation measure is that even low probability events with extreme payoff can significantly affect the expectation, and thus the obtained policies are not necessarily risk-averse. An alternate approach is to optimize the probability that the payoff is above a certain threshold, which allows obtaining risk-averse policies, but ignores optimization of the expectation. We consider the expectation optimization with probabilistic guarantee (EOPG) problem, where the goal is to optimize the expectation ensuring that the payoff is above a given threshold with at least a specified probability. We present several results on the EOPG problem, including the first algorithm to solve it.},
  author       = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Elgyütt, Adrian and Novotny, Petr and Rouillé, Owen},
  location     = {Stockholm, Sweden},
  pages        = {4692 -- 4699},
  publisher    = {IJCAI},
  title        = {{Expectation optimization with probabilistic guarantees in POMDPs with discounted-sum objectives}},
  doi          = {10.24963/ijcai.2018/652},
  volume       = {2018},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{25,
  abstract     = {Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are the standard models for planning under uncertainty with both finite and infinite horizon. Besides the well-known discounted-sum objective, indefinite-horizon objective (aka Goal-POMDPs) is another classical objective for POMDPs. In this case, given a set of target states and a positive cost for each transition, the optimization objective is to minimize the expected total cost until a target state is reached. In the literature, RTDP-Bel or heuristic search value iteration (HSVI) have been used for solving Goal-POMDPs. Neither of these algorithms has theoretical convergence guarantees, and HSVI may even fail to terminate its trials. We give the following contributions: (1) We discuss the challenges introduced in Goal-POMDPs and illustrate how they prevent the original HSVI from converging. (2) We present a novel algorithm inspired by HSVI, termed Goal-HSVI, and show that our algorithm has convergence guarantees. (3) We show that Goal-HSVI outperforms RTDP-Bel on a set of well-known examples.},
  author       = {Horák, Karel and Bošanský, Branislav and Chatterjee, Krishnendu},
  booktitle    = {Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence},
  location     = {Stockholm, Sweden},
  pages        = {4764 -- 4770},
  publisher    = {IJCAI},
  title        = {{Goal-HSVI: Heuristic search value iteration for goal-POMDPs}},
  doi          = {10.24963/ijcai.2018/662},
  volume       = {2018-July},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{155,
  abstract     = {There is currently significant interest in operating devices in the quantum regime, where their behaviour cannot be explained through classical mechanics. Quantum states, including entangled states, are fragile and easily disturbed by excessive thermal noise. Here we address the question of whether it is possible to create non-reciprocal devices that encourage the flow of thermal noise towards or away from a particular quantum device in a network. Our work makes use of the cascaded systems formalism to answer this question in the affirmative, showing how a three-port device can be used as an effective thermal transistor, and illustrates how this formalism maps onto an experimentally-realisable optomechanical system. Our results pave the way to more resilient quantum devices and to the use of thermal noise as a resource.},
  author       = {Xuereb, André and Aquilina, Matteo and Barzanjeh, Shabir},
  editor       = {Andrews, D L and Ostendorf, A and Bain, A J and Nunzi, J M},
  location     = {Strasbourg, France},
  publisher    = {SPIE},
  title        = {{Routing thermal noise through quantum networks}},
  doi          = {10.1117/12.2309928},
  volume       = {10672},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{156,
  abstract     = {Imprecision in timing can sometimes be beneficial: Metric interval temporal logic (MITL), disabling the expression of punctuality constraints, was shown to translate to timed automata, yielding an elementary decision procedure. We show how this principle extends to other forms of dense-time specification using regular expressions. By providing a clean, automaton-based formal framework for non-punctual languages, we are able to recover and extend several results in timed systems. Metric interval regular expressions (MIRE) are introduced, providing regular expressions with non-singular duration constraints. We obtain that MIRE are expressively complete relative to a class of one-clock timed automata, which can be determinized using additional clocks. Metric interval dynamic logic (MIDL) is then defined using MIRE as temporal modalities. We show that MIDL generalizes known extensions of MITL, while translating to timed automata at comparable cost.},
  author       = {Ferrere, Thomas},
  location     = {Oxford, UK},
  pages        = {147 -- 164},
  publisher    = {Springer},
  title        = {{The compound interest in relaxing punctuality}},
  doi          = {10.1007/978-3-319-95582-7_9},
  volume       = {10951},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{157,
  abstract     = {Social dilemmas occur when incentives for individuals are misaligned with group interests 1-7 . According to the 'tragedy of the commons', these misalignments can lead to overexploitation and collapse of public resources. The resulting behaviours can be analysed with the tools of game theory 8 . The theory of direct reciprocity 9-15 suggests that repeated interactions can alleviate such dilemmas, but previous work has assumed that the public resource remains constant over time. Here we introduce the idea that the public resource is instead changeable and depends on the strategic choices of individuals. An intuitive scenario is that cooperation increases the public resource, whereas defection decreases it. Thus, cooperation allows the possibility of playing a more valuable game with higher payoffs, whereas defection leads to a less valuable game. We analyse this idea using the theory of stochastic games 16-19 and evolutionary game theory. We find that the dependence of the public resource on previous interactions can greatly enhance the propensity for cooperation. For these results, the interaction between reciprocity and payoff feedback is crucial: neither repeated interactions in a constant environment nor single interactions in a changing environment yield similar cooperation rates. Our framework shows which feedbacks between exploitation and environment - either naturally occurring or designed - help to overcome social dilemmas.},
  author       = {Hilbe, Christian and Šimsa, Štepán and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Nowak, Martin},
  journal      = {Nature},
  number       = {7713},
  pages        = {246 -- 249},
  publisher    = {Nature Publishing Group},
  title        = {{Evolution of cooperation in stochastic games}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41586-018-0277-x},
  volume       = {559},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{158,
  abstract     = {The angiosperm seed is composed of three genetically distinct tissues: the diploid embryo that originates from the fertilized egg cell, the triploid endosperm that is produced from the fertilized central cell, and the maternal sporophytic integuments that develop into the seed coat1. At the onset of embryo development in Arabidopsis thaliana, the zygote divides asymmetrically, producing a small apical embryonic cell and a larger basal cell that connects the embryo to the maternal tissue2. The coordinated and synchronous development of the embryo and the surrounding integuments, and the alignment of their growth axes, suggest communication between maternal tissues and the embryo. In contrast to animals, however, where a network of maternal factors that direct embryo patterning have been identified3,4, only a few maternal mutations have been described to affect embryo development in plants5–7. Early embryo patterning in Arabidopsis requires accumulation of the phytohormone auxin in the apical cell by directed transport from the suspensor8–10. However, the origin of this auxin has remained obscure. Here we investigate the source of auxin for early embryogenesis and provide evidence that the mother plant coordinates seed development by supplying auxin to the early embryo from the integuments of the ovule. We show that auxin response increases in ovules after fertilization, due to upregulated auxin biosynthesis in the integuments, and this maternally produced auxin is required for correct embryo development.},
  author       = {Robert, Hélène and Park, Chulmin and Gutièrrez, Carla and Wójcikowska, Barbara and Pěnčík, Aleš and Novák, Ondřej and Chen, Junyi and Grunewald, Wim and Dresselhaus, Thomas and Friml, Jirí and Laux, Thomas},
  journal      = {Nature Plants},
  number       = {8},
  pages        = {548 -- 553},
  publisher    = {Nature Publishing Group},
  title        = {{Maternal auxin supply contributes to early embryo patterning in Arabidopsis}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41477-018-0204-z},
  volume       = {4},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{159,
  abstract     = {L-type Ca2+ channels (LTCCs) play a crucial role in excitation-contraction coupling and release of hormones from secretory cells. They are targets of antihypertensive and antiarrhythmic drugs such as diltiazem. Here, we present a photoswitchable diltiazem, FHU-779, which can be used to reversibly block endogenous LTCCs by light. FHU-779 is as potent as diltiazem and can be used to place pancreatic β-cell function and cardiac activity under optical control.},
  author       = {Fehrentz, Timm and Huber, Florian and Hartrampf, Nina and Bruegmann, Tobias and Frank, James and Fine, Nicholas and Malan, Daniela and Danzl, Johann G and Tikhonov, Denis and Sumser, Maritn and Sasse, Philipp and Hodson, David and Zhorov, Boris and Klocker, Nikolaj and Trauner, Dirk},
  journal      = {Nature Chemical Biology},
  number       = {8},
  pages        = {764 -- 767},
  publisher    = {Nature Publishing Group},
  title        = {{Optical control of L-type Ca2+ channels using a diltiazem photoswitch}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41589-018-0090-8},
  volume       = {14},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{16,
  abstract     = {We report quantitative evidence of mixing-layer elastic instability in a viscoelastic fluid flow between two widely spaced obstacles hindering a channel flow at Re 1 and Wi 1. Two mixing layers with nonuniform shear velocity profiles are formed in the region between the obstacles. The mixing-layer instability arises in the vicinity of an inflection point on the shear velocity profile with a steep variation in the elastic stress. The instability results in an intermittent appearance of small vortices in the mixing layers and an amplification of spatiotemporal averaged vorticity in the elastic turbulence regime. The latter is characterized through scaling of friction factor with Wi and both pressure and velocity spectra. Furthermore, the observations reported provide improved understanding of the stability of the mixing layer in a viscoelastic fluid at large elasticity, i.e., Wi 1 and Re 1 and oppose the current view of suppression of vorticity solely by polymer additives.},
  author       = {Varshney, Atul and Steinberg, Victor},
  journal      = {Physical Review Fluids},
  number       = {10},
  publisher    = {American Physical Society},
  title        = {{Mixing layer instability and vorticity amplification in a creeping viscoelastic flow}},
  doi          = {10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.103303},
  volume       = {3},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{161,
  abstract     = {Which properties of metabolic networks can be derived solely from stoichiometry? Predictive results have been obtained by flux balance analysis (FBA), by postulating that cells set metabolic fluxes to maximize growth rate. Here we consider a generalization of FBA to single-cell level using maximum entropy modeling, which we extend and test experimentally. Specifically, we define for Escherichia coli metabolism a flux distribution that yields the experimental growth rate: the model, containing FBA as a limit, provides a better match to measured fluxes and it makes a wide range of predictions: on flux variability, regulation, and correlations; on the relative importance of stoichiometry vs. optimization; on scaling relations for growth rate distributions. We validate the latter here with single-cell data at different sub-inhibitory antibiotic concentrations. The model quantifies growth optimization as emerging from the interplay of competitive dynamics in the population and regulation of metabolism at the level of single cells.},
  author       = {De Martino, Daniele and Mc, Andersson Anna and Bergmiller, Tobias and Guet, Calin C and Tkacik, Gasper},
  journal      = {Nature Communications},
  number       = {1},
  publisher    = {Springer Nature},
  title        = {{Statistical mechanics for metabolic networks during steady state growth}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41467-018-05417-9},
  volume       = {9},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{162,
  abstract     = {Facial shape is the basis for facial recognition and categorization. Facial features reflect the underlying geometry of the skeletal structures. Here, we reveal that cartilaginous nasal capsule (corresponding to upper jaw and face) is shaped by signals generated by neural structures: brain and olfactory epithelium. Brain-derived Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) enables the induction of nasal septum and posterior nasal capsule, whereas the formation of a capsule roof is controlled by signals from the olfactory epithelium. Unexpectedly, the cartilage of the nasal capsule turned out to be important for shaping membranous facial bones during development. This suggests that conserved neurosensory structures could benefit from protection and have evolved signals inducing cranial cartilages encasing them. Experiments with mutant mice revealed that the genomic regulatory regions controlling production of SHH in the nervous system contribute to facial cartilage morphogenesis, which might be a mechanism responsible for the adaptive evolution of animal faces and snouts.},
  author       = {Kaucka, Marketa and Petersen, Julian and Tesarova, Marketa and Szarowska, Bara and Kastriti, Maria and Xie, Meng and Kicheva, Anna and Annusver, Karl and Kasper, Maria and Symmons, Orsolya and Pan, Leslie and Spitz, Francois and Kaiser, Jozef and Hovorakova, Maria and Zikmund, Tomas and Sunadome, Kazunori and Matise, Michael P and Wang, Hui and Marklund, Ulrika and Abdo, Hind and Ernfors, Patrik and Maire, Pascal and Wurmser, Maud and Chagin, Andrei S and Fried, Kaj and Adameyko, Igor},
  journal      = {eLife},
  publisher    = {eLife Sciences Publications},
  title        = {{Signals from the brain and olfactory epithelium control shaping of the mammalian nasal capsule cartilage}},
  doi          = {10.7554/eLife.34465},
  volume       = {7},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{163,
  abstract     = {For ultrafast fixation of biological samples to avoid artifacts, high-pressure freezing (HPF) followed by freeze substitution (FS) is preferred over chemical fixation at room temperature. After HPF, samples are maintained at low temperature during dehydration and fixation, while avoiding damaging recrystallization. This is a notoriously slow process. McDonald and Webb demonstrated, in 2011, that sample agitation during FS dramatically reduces the necessary time. Then, in 2015, we (H.G. and S.R.) introduced an agitation module into the cryochamber of an automated FS unit and demonstrated that the preparation of algae could be shortened from days to a couple of hours. We argued that variability in the processing, reproducibility, and safety issues are better addressed using automated FS units. For dissemination, we started low-cost manufacturing of agitation modules for two of the most widely used FS units, the Automatic Freeze Substitution Systems, AFS(1) and AFS2, from Leica Microsystems, using three dimensional (3D)-printing of the major components. To test them, several labs independently used the modules on a wide variety of specimens that had previously been processed by manual agitation, or without agitation. We demonstrate that automated processing with sample agitation saves time, increases flexibility with respect to sample requirements and protocols, and produces data of at least as good quality as other approaches.},
  author       = {Reipert, Siegfried and Goldammer, Helmuth and Richardson, Christine and Goldberg, Martin and Hawkins, Timothy and Hollergschwandtner, Elena and Kaufmann, Walter and Antreich, Sebastian and Stierhof, York},
  issn         = {0022-1554},
  journal      = {Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry},
  number       = {12},
  pages        = {903--921},
  publisher    = {SAGE Publications},
  title        = {{Agitation modules: Flexible means to accelerate automated freeze substitution}},
  doi          = {10.1369/0022155418786698},
  volume       = {66},
  year         = {2018},
}

@article{17,
  abstract     = {Creeping flow of polymeric fluid without inertia exhibits elastic instabilities and elastic turbulence accompanied by drag enhancement due to elastic stress produced by flow-stretched polymers. However, in inertia-dominated flow at high Re and low fluid elasticity El, a reduction in turbulent frictional drag is caused by an intricate competition between inertial and elastic stresses. Here we explore the effect of inertia on the stability of viscoelastic flow in a broad range of control parameters El and (Re,Wi). We present the stability diagram of observed flow regimes in Wi-Re coordinates and find that the instabilities' onsets show an unexpectedly nonmonotonic dependence on El. Further, three distinct regions in the diagram are identified based on El. Strikingly, for high-elasticity fluids we discover a complete relaminarization of flow at Reynolds number in the range of 1 to 10, different from a well-known turbulent drag reduction. These counterintuitive effects may be explained by a finite polymer extensibility and a suppression of vorticity at high Wi. Our results call for further theoretical and numerical development to uncover the role of inertial effect on elastic turbulence in a viscoelastic flow.},
  author       = {Varshney, Atul and Steinberg, Victor},
  journal      = {Physical Review Fluids},
  number       = {10},
  publisher    = {American Physical Society},
  title        = {{Drag enhancement and drag reduction in viscoelastic flow}},
  doi          = {10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.103302},
  volume       = {3},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{78,
  abstract     = {We provide a procedure for detecting the sub-segments of an incrementally observed Boolean signal ω that match a given temporal pattern ϕ. As a pattern specification language, we use timed regular expressions, a formalism well-suited for expressing properties of concurrent asynchronous behaviors embedded in metric time. We construct a timed automaton accepting the timed language denoted by ϕ and modify it slightly for the purpose of matching. We then apply zone-based reachability computation to this automaton while it reads ω, and retrieve all the matching segments from the results. Since the procedure is automaton based, it can be applied to patterns specified by other formalisms such as timed temporal logics reducible to timed automata or directly encoded as timed automata. The procedure has been implemented and its performance on synthetic examples is demonstrated.},
  author       = {Bakhirkin, Alexey and Ferrere, Thomas and Nickovic, Dejan and Maler, Oded and Asarin, Eugene},
  isbn         = {978-3-030-00150-6},
  location     = {Bejing, China},
  pages        = {215 -- 232},
  publisher    = {Springer},
  title        = {{Online timed pattern matching using automata}},
  doi          = {10.1007/978-3-030-00151-3_13},
  volume       = {11022},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{7812,
  abstract     = {Deep neural networks (DNNs) continue to make significant advances, solving tasks from image classification to translation or reinforcement learning. One aspect of the field receiving considerable attention is efficiently executing deep models in resource-constrained environments, such as mobile or embedded devices. This paper focuses on this problem, and proposes two new compression methods, which jointly leverage weight quantization and distillation of larger teacher networks into smaller student networks. The first method we propose is called quantized distillation and leverages distillation during the training process, by incorporating distillation loss, expressed with respect to the teacher, into the training of a student network whose weights are quantized to a limited set of levels. The second method,  differentiable quantization, optimizes the location of quantization points through stochastic gradient descent, to better fit the behavior of the teacher model.  We validate both methods through experiments on convolutional and recurrent architectures. We show that quantized shallow students can reach similar accuracy levels to full-precision teacher models, while providing order of magnitude compression, and inference speedup that is linear in the depth reduction. In sum, our results enable DNNs for resource-constrained environments to leverage architecture and accuracy advances developed on more powerful devices.},
  author       = {Polino, Antonio and Pascanu, Razvan and Alistarh, Dan-Adrian},
  booktitle    = {6th International Conference on Learning Representations},
  location     = {Vancouver, Canada},
  title        = {{Model compression via distillation and quantization}},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{79,
  abstract     = {Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are a popular class of models suitable for solving control decision problems in probabilistic reactive systems. We consider parametric MDPs (pMDPs) that include parameters in some of the transition probabilities to account for stochastic uncertainties of the environment such as noise or input disturbances. We study pMDPs with reachability objectives where the parameter values are unknown and impossible to measure directly during execution, but there is a probability distribution known over the parameter values. We study for the first time computing parameter-independent strategies that are expectation optimal, i.e., optimize the expected reachability probability under the probability distribution over the parameters. We present an encoding of our problem to partially observable MDPs (POMDPs), i.e., a reduction of our problem to computing optimal strategies in POMDPs. We evaluate our method experimentally on several benchmarks: a motivating (repeated) learner model; a series of benchmarks of varying configurations of a robot moving on a grid; and a consensus protocol.},
  author       = {Arming, Sebastian and Bartocci, Ezio and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Katoen, Joost P and Sokolova, Ana},
  location     = {Beijing, China},
  pages        = {53--70},
  publisher    = {Springer},
  title        = {{Parameter-independent strategies for pMDPs via POMDPs}},
  doi          = {10.1007/978-3-319-99154-2_4},
  volume       = {11024},
  year         = {2018},
}

@inproceedings{81,
  abstract     = {We solve the offline monitoring problem for timed propositional temporal logic (TPTL), interpreted over dense-time Boolean signals. The variant of TPTL we consider extends linear temporal logic (LTL) with clock variables and reset quantifiers, providing a mechanism to specify real-time constraints. We first describe a general monitoring algorithm based on an exhaustive computation of the set of satisfying clock assignments as a finite union of zones. We then propose a specialized monitoring algorithm for the one-variable case using a partition of the time domain based on the notion of region equivalence, whose complexity is linear in the length of the signal, thereby generalizing a known result regarding the monitoring of metric temporal logic (MTL). The region and zone representations of time constraints are known from timed automata verification and can also be used in the discrete-time case. Our prototype implementation appears to outperform previous discrete-time implementations of TPTL monitoring,},
  author       = {Elgyütt, Adrian and Ferrere, Thomas and Henzinger, Thomas A},
  location     = {Beijing, China},
  pages        = {53 -- 70},
  publisher    = {Springer},
  title        = {{Monitoring temporal logic with clock variables}},
  doi          = {10.1007/978-3-030-00151-3_4},
  volume       = {11022},
  year         = {2018},
}

