Locally recoverable codes deal with the task of reconstructing a lost symbol by relying on a portion of the remaining coordinates smaller than an information set. We consider the case of codes over finite chain rings, generalizing known results and bounds for codes over fields. In particular, we propose a new family of locally recoverable codes by extending a construction proposed in 2014 by Tamo and Barg, and we discuss its optimality.
We present a new estimator for predicting outcomes in different distributional settings under hidden confounding without relying on instruments or exogenous variables. The population definition of our estimator identifies causal parameters, whose empirical version is plugged into a generative model capable of replicating the conditional law within a test environment. We check that the probabilistic affinity between our proposal and test distributions is invariant across interventions. This work enhances the current statistical comprehension of causality by demonstrating that predictions in a test environment can be made without the need for exogenous variables and without specific assumptions regarding the strength of perturbations or the overlap of distributions.
Weak coin flipping is a cryptographic primitive in which two mutually distrustful parties generate a shared random bit to agree on a winner via remote communication. While a stand-alone secure weak coin flipping protocol can be constructed from noiseless communication channels, its composability has not been explored. In this work, we demonstrate that no weak coin flipping protocol can be abstracted into a black box resource with composable security. Despite this, we also establish the overall stand-alone security of weak coin flipping protocols under sequential composition.
In this paper I will develop a lambda-term calculus, lambda-2Int, for a bi-intuitionistic logic and discuss its implications for the notions of sense and denotation of derivations in a bilateralist setting. Thus, I will use the Curry-Howard correspondence, which has been well-established between the simply typed lambda-calculus and natural deduction systems for intuitionistic logic, and apply it to a bilateralist proof system displaying two derivability relations, one for proving and one for refuting. The basis will be the natural deduction system of Wansing's bi-intuitionistic logic 2Int, which I will turn into a term-annotated form. Therefore, we need a type theory that extends to a two-sorted typed lambda-calculus. I will present such a term-annotated proof system for 2Int and prove a Dualization Theorem relating proofs and refutations in this system. On the basis of these formal results I will argue that this gives us interesting insights into questions about sense and denotation as well as synonymy and identity of proofs from a bilateralist point of view.
Mendelian randomization uses genetic variants as instrumental variables to make causal inferences about the effects of modifiable risk factors on diseases from observational data. One of the major challenges in Mendelian randomization is that many genetic variants are only modestly or even weakly associated with the risk factor of interest, a setting known as many weak instruments. Many existing methods, such as the popular inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method, could be biased when the instrument strength is weak. To address this issue, the debiased IVW (dIVW) estimator, which is shown to be robust to many weak instruments, was recently proposed. However, this estimator still has non-ignorable bias when the effective sample size is small. In this paper, we propose a modified debiased IVW (mdIVW) estimator by multiplying a modification factor to the original dIVW estimator. After this simple correction, we show that the bias of the mdIVW estimator converges to zero at a faster rate than that of the dIVW estimator under some regularity conditions. Moreover, the mdIVW estimator has smaller variance than the dIVW estimator.We further extend the proposed method to account for the presence of instrumental variable selection and balanced horizontal pleiotropy. We demonstrate the improvement of the mdIVW estimator over the dIVW estimator through extensive simulation studies and real data analysis.
The Knowledge Till rho CONGEST model is a variant of the classical CONGEST model of distributed computing in which each vertex v has initial knowledge of the radius-rho ball centered at v. The most commonly studied variants of the CONGEST model are KT0 CONGEST in which nodes initially know nothing about their neighbors and KT1 CONGEST in which nodes initially know the IDs of all their neighbors. It has been shown that having access to neighbors' IDs (as in the KT1 CONGEST model) can substantially reduce the message complexity of algorithms for fundamental problems such as BROADCAST and MST. For example, King, Kutten, and Thorup (PODC 2015) show how to construct an MST using just Otilde(n) messages in the KT1 CONGEST model, whereas there is an Omega(m) message lower bound for MST in the KT0 CONGEST model. Building on this result, Gmyr and Pandurangen (DISC 2018) present a family of distributed randomized algorithms for various global problems that exhibit a trade-off between message and round complexity. These algorithms are based on constructing a sparse, spanning subgraph called a danner. Specifically, given a graph G and any delta in [0,1], their algorithm constructs (with high probability) a danner that has diameter Otilde(D + n^{1-delta}) and Otilde(min{m,n^{1+delta}}) edges in Otilde(n^{1-delta}) rounds while using Otilde(min{m,n^{1+\delta}}) messages, where n, m, and D are the number of nodes, edges, and the diameter of G, respectively. In the main result of this paper, we show that if we assume the KT2 CONGEST model, it is possible to substantially improve the time-message trade-off in constructing a danner. Specifically, we show in the KT2 CONGEST model, how to construct a danner that has diameter Otilde(D + n^{1-2delta}) and Otilde(min{m,n^{1+delta}}) edges in Otilde(n^{1-2delta}) rounds while using Otilde(min{m,n^{1+\delta}}) messages for any delta in [0,1/2].
In observational studies, covariates with substantial missing data are often omitted, despite their strong predictive capabilities. These excluded covariates are generally believed not to simultaneously affect both treatment and outcome, indicating that they are not genuine confounders and do not impact the identification of the average treatment effect (ATE). In this paper, we introduce an alternative doubly robust (DR) estimator that fully leverages non-confounding predictive covariates to enhance efficiency, while also allowing missing values in such covariates. Beyond the double robustness property, our proposed estimator is designed to be more efficient than the standard DR estimator. Specifically, when the propensity score model is correctly specified, it achieves the smallest asymptotic variance among the class of DR estimators, and brings additional efficiency gains by further integrating predictive covariates. Simulation studies demonstrate the notable performance of the proposed estimator over current popular methods. An illustrative example is provided to assess the effectiveness of right heart catheterization (RHC) for critically ill patients.
Vessel segmentation and centerline extraction are two crucial preliminary tasks for many computer-aided diagnosis tools dealing with vascular diseases. Recently, deep-learning based methods have been widely applied to these tasks. However, classic deep-learning approaches struggle to capture the complex geometry and specific topology of vascular networks, which is of the utmost importance in most applications. To overcome these limitations, the clDice loss, a topological loss that focuses on the vessel centerlines, has been recently proposed. This loss requires computing, with a proposed soft-skeleton algorithm, the skeletons of both the ground truth and the predicted segmentation. However, the soft-skeleton algorithm provides suboptimal results on 3D images, which makes the clDice hardly suitable on 3D images. In this paper, we propose to replace the soft-skeleton algorithm by a U-Net which computes the vascular skeleton directly from the segmentation. We show that our method provides more accurate skeletons than the soft-skeleton algorithm. We then build upon this network a cascaded U-Net trained with the clDice loss to embed topological constraints during the segmentation. The resulting model is able to predict both the vessel segmentation and centerlines with a more accurate topology.
In the context of interactive theorem provers based on a dependent type theory, automation tactics (dedicated decision procedures, call of automated solvers, ...) are often limited to goals which are exactly in some expected logical fragment. This very often prevents users from applying these tactics in other contexts, even similar ones. This paper discusses the design and the implementation of pre-processing operations for automating formal proofs in the Coq proof assistant. It presents the implementation of a wide variety of predictible, atomic goal transformations, which can be composed in various ways to target different backends. A gallery of examples illustrates how it helps to expand significantly the power of automation engines.
By computing a feedback control via the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) approach and simulating a non-linear non-autonomous closed-loop system using this feedback, we combine two numerically challenging tasks. For the first task, the computation of the feedback control, we use the non-autonomous generalized differential Riccati equation (DRE), whose solution determines the time-varying feedback gain matrix. Regarding the second task, we want to be able to simulate non-linear closed-loop systems for which it is known that the regulator is only valid for sufficiently small perturbations. Thus, one easily runs into numerical issues in the integrators when the closed-loop control varies greatly. For these systems, e.g., the A-stable implicit Euler methods fails.\newline On the one hand, we implement non-autonomous versions of splitting schemes and BDF methods for the solution of our non-autonomous DREs. These are well-established DRE solvers in the autonomous case. On the other hand, to tackle the numerical issues in the simulation of the non-linear closed-loop system, we apply a fractional-step-theta scheme with time-adaptivity tuned specifically to this kind of challenge. That is, we additionally base the time-adaptivity on the activity of the control. We compare this approach to the more classical error-based time-adaptivity.\newline We describe techniques to make these two tasks computable in a reasonable amount of time and are able to simulate closed-loop systems with strongly varying controls, while avoiding numerical issues. Our time-adaptivity approach requires fewer time steps than the error-based alternative and is more reliable.
Accurate triangulation of the domain plays a pivotal role in computing the numerical approximation of the differential operators. A good triangulation is the one which aids in reducing discretization errors. In a standard collocation technique, the smooth curved domain is typically triangulated with a mesh by taking points on the boundary to approximate them by polygons. However, such an approach often leads to geometrical errors which directly affect the accuracy of the numerical approximation. To restrict such geometrical errors, \textit{isoparametric}, \textit{subparametric}, and \textit{iso-geometric} methods were introduced which allow the approximation of the curved surfaces (or curved line segments). In this paper, we present an efficient finite element method to approximate the solution to the elliptic boundary value problem (BVP), which governs the response of an elastic solid containing a v-notch and inclusions. The algebraically nonlinear constitutive equation along with the balance of linear momentum reduces to second-order quasi-linear elliptic partial differential equation. Our approach allows us to represent the complex curved boundaries by smooth \textit{one-of-its-kind} point transformation. The main idea is to obtain higher-order shape functions which enable us to accurately compute the entries in the finite element matrices and vectors. A Picard-type linearization is utilized to handle the nonlinearities in the governing differential equation. The numerical results for the test cases show considerable improvement in the accuracy.