Distributed storage systems provide reliable access to data through redundancy spread over individually unreliable nodes. Application scenarios include data centers, peer-to-peer storage systems, and storage in wireless networks. Storing data using an erasure code, in fragments spread across nodes, requires less redundancy than simple replication for the same level of reliability. However, since fragments must be periodically replaced as nodes fail, a key question is how to generate encoded fragments in a distributed way while transferring as little data as possible across the network. For an erasure coded system, a common practice to repair from a node failure is for a new node to download subsets of data stored at a number of surviving nodes, reconstruct a lost coded block using the downloaded data, and store it at the new node. We show that this procedure is sub-optimal. We introduce the notion of regenerating codes, which allow a new node to download functions of the stored data from the surviving nodes. We show that regenerating codes can significantly reduce the repair bandwidth. Further, we show that there is a fundamental tradeoff between storage and repair bandwidth which we theoretically characterize using flow arguments on an appropriately constructed graph. By invoking constructive results in network coding, we introduce regenerating codes that can achieve any point in this optimal tradeoff. I.

This paper builds on the structural equations, treatment effect, and machine learning literatures to provide a causal framework that permits the identification and estimation of causal effects from observational studies. We begin by providing a causal interpretation for standard exogenous regressors and standard “valid” and “relevant” instrumental variables. We then build on this interpretation to characterize extended instrumental variables (EIV) methods, that is methods that make use of variables that need not be valid instruments in the standard sense, but that are nevertheless instrumental in the recovery of causal effects of interest. After examining special cases of single and double EIV methods, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the identification of causal effects by means of EIV and provide consistent and asymptotically normal estimators for the effects of interest.

A set S of vertices in a digraph D = (V, A) is a kernel if S is independent and every vertex in V − S has an out-neighbor in S. We show that there exist O(n2 19.1 √ k + n 4)time and O(2 19.1 √ k k 9 + n 2)-time algorithms for checking whether a planar digraph D of order n has a kernel with at most k vertices. Moreover, if D has a kernel of size at most k, the algorithms find such a kernel of minimal size. 1

For digraphs D and H, a mapping f: V (D)→V (H) is a homomorphism of D to H if uv ∈ A(D) implies f(u)f(v) ∈ A(H). Let H be a fixed directed or undirected graph. The homomorphism problem for H asks whether a directed or undirected graph input digraph D admits a homomorphism to H. The list homomorphism problem for H is a generalization of the homomorphism problem for H, where every vertex x ∈ V (D) is assigned a set Lx of possible colors (vertices of H). The following optimization version of these decision problems was introduced in [16], where it was motivated by a real-world problem in defence logistics. Suppose we are given a pair of digraphs D, H and a positive cost ci(u) for each u ∈ V (D) and i ∈ V (H). The cost of a homomorphism f of D to H is � u∈V (D) cf(u)(u). For a fixed digraph H, the minimum cost homomorphism problem for H, MinHOMP(H), is stated as follows: For an input digraph D and costs ci(u) for each u ∈ V (D) and i ∈ V (H), verify whether there is a homomorphism of D to H and, if it exists, find

The parameterized feedback vertex (arc) set problem is to find whether there are k vertices (arcs) in a given graph whose removal makes the graph acyclic. The parameterized complexity of this problem in general directed graphs is a long standing open problem. We investigate the problems on tournaments, a well studied class of directed graphs. We consider both weighted and unweighted versions. We also address the parametric dual problems which are also natural optimization problems. We show that they are fixed parameter tractable not just in tournaments but in oriented directed graphs (where there is at most one directed arc between a pair of vertices). More specifically, the dual problem we show fixed parameter tractable are: Given an oriented directed graph, is there a subset of k vertices (arcs) that forms an acyclic directed subgraph of the graph? Our main results include: • an O((2.4143) k n ω) 1 algorithm for weighted feedback vertex set problem, and an O((2.415) k n ω) algorithm for weighted feedback arc set problem in tournaments; • an O((e2 k /k) k k 2 + min{m lg n,n 2}) algorithm for the dual of feedback vertex set problem (maximum vertex induced acyclic graph) in oriented directed graphs, and an O(4 k k +m) algorithm for the dual of feedback arc set problem (maximum arc induced acyclic graph) in general directed graphs. We also show that the dual of feedback vertex set is W[1]−hard in general directed graphs and the feedback arc set problem is fixed parameter tractable in dense directed graphs. Our results are the first non trivial results for these problems. Key words: tournaments, feedback vertex set, feedback arc set, parameterized complexity 1 ω is the exponent of the best matrix multiplication algorithm. Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science 12 May 2005 1

Complementing recent progress on classical complexity and polynomial-time approximability of feedback set problems in (bipartite) tournaments, we extend and improve fixed-parameter tractability results for these problems. We show that Feedback Vertex Set in tournaments (FVST) is amenable to the novel iterative compression technique, and we provide a depth-bounded search tree for Feedback Arc Set in bipartite tournaments based on a new forbidden subgraph characterization. Moreover, we apply the iterative compression technique to d-Hitting Set, which generalizes Feedback Vertex Set in tournaments, and obtain improved upper bounds for the time needed to solve 4-Hitting Set and 5-Hitting Set. Using our parameterized algorithm for Feedback Vertex Set in tournaments, we also give an exact (not parameterized) algorithm for it running in O(1.709 n) time, where n is the number of input graph vertices, answering a question of Woeginger [Discrete Appl. Math. 156(3):397–405, 2008].

Throughout the early history of neurology and neuroscience, most theoretical accounts of brain function have emphasized either aspects of localization or distributed properties [1]. Instead, modern views focus extensively on the structure and dynamics of large-scale neuronal networks, especially those of the cerebral cortex and associated thalamocortical

Abstract. We prove that finding a rooted subtree with at least k leaves in a digraph is a fixed parameter tractable problem. A similar result holds for finding rooted spanning trees with many leaves in digraphs from a wide family L that includes all strong and acyclic digraphs. This settles completely an open question of Fellows and solves another one for digraphs in L. Our algorithms are based on the following combinatorial result which can be viewed as a generalization of many results for a ‘spanning tree with many leaves ’ in the undirected case, and which is interesting on its own: If a digraph D ∈ L of order n with minimum in-degree at least 3 contains a rooted spanning tree, then D contains one with at least (n/2) 1/5 − 1 leaves. 1

Abstract. The Directed Maximum Leaf Out-Branching problem is to find an out-branching (i.e. a rooted oriented spanning tree) in a given digraph with the maximum number of leaves. In this paper, we improve known parameterized algorithms and combinatorial bounds on the number of leaves in out-branchings. We show that – every strongly connected digraph D of order n with minimum indegree at least 3 has an out-branching with at least (n/4) 1/3 − 1 leaves; – if a strongly connected digraph D does not contain an out-branching with k leaves, then the pathwidth of its underlying graph is O(k log k); – it can be decided in time 2 O(k log2 k) · n O(1) whether a strongly connected digraph on n vertices has an out-branching with at least k leaves. All improvements use properties of extremal structures obtained after applying local search and properties of some out-branching decompositions. 1

Abstract. We consider the following problem. Given a 2-CNF formula, is it possible to remove at most k clauses so that the resulting 2-CNF formula is satisfiable? This problem is known to different research communities in Theoretical Computer Science under the names ’Almost 2-SAT’, ’All-but-k 2-SAT’, ’2-CNF deletion’, ’2-SAT deletion’. The status of fixed-parameter tractability of this problem is a long-standing open question in the area of Parameterized Complexity. We resolve this open question by proposing an algorithm which solves this problem in O(15 k ∗ k ∗ m 3) and thus we show that this problem is fixed-parameter tractable. 1