Table of Contents

Abstract: The problem of finding the maximum number of vertex-disjoint uni-color paths in an edge-colored graph has been recently introduced in literature, motivated by applications in social network analysis. In this paper we investigate the approximation and parameterized complexity of the problem. First, we show that, for any constant ε > 0, the problem is not approximable within factor c^1-ε, where c is the number of colors, and that the corresponding decision problem is W[1]-hard when parametrized by the number of disjoint paths. Then, we present a fixed-parameter algorithm for the problem parameterized by the number and the length of the disjoint paths.

Abstract: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is widely used for identifying the major components of statistically distributed point clouds. Robust versions of PCA, often based in part on the ℓ¹ norm (rather than the ℓ2 norm), are increasingly used, especially for point clouds with many outliers. Neither standard PCA nor robust PCAs can provide, without additional assumptions, reliable information for outlier-rich point clouds and for distributions with several main directions (spokes). We carry out a fundamental and complete reformulation of the PCA approach in a framework based exclusively on the ℓ¹ norm and heavy-tailed distributions. The ℓ¹ Major Component Detection and Analysis (ℓ¹ MCDA) that we propose can determine the main directions and the radial extent of 2D data from single or multiple superimposed Gaussian or heavy-tailed distributions without and with patterned artificial outliers (clutter). In nearly all cases in the computational results, 2D ℓ¹ MCDA has accuracy superior to that of standard PCA and of two robust PCAs, namely, the projection-pursuit method of Croux and Ruiz-Gazen and the ℓ¹ factorization method of Ke and Kanade. (Standard PCA is, of course, superior to ℓ¹ MCDA for Gaussian-distributed point clouds.) The computing time of ℓ¹ MCDA is competitive with the computing times of the two robust PCAs.

Abstract: The dominating set problem is a core NP-hard problem in combinatorial optimization and graph theory, and has many important applications. Baker [JACM 41,1994] introduces a k-outer planar graph decomposition-based framework for designing polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) for a class of NP-hard problems in planar graphs. It is mentioned that the framework can be applied to obtain an O(2ckn) time, c is a constant, (1+1/k)-approximation algorithm for the planar dominating set problem. We show that the approximation ratio achieved by the mentioned application of the framework is not bounded by any constant for the planar dominating set problem. We modify the application of the framework to give a PTAS for the planar dominating set problem. With k-outer planar graph decompositions, the modified PTAS has an approximation ratio (1 + 2/k). Using 2k-outer planar graph decompositions, the modified PTAS achieves the approximation ratio (1+1/k) in O(22ckn) time. We report a computational study on the modified PTAS. Our results show that the modified PTAS is practical.

Abstract: A graph is said to be an intersection graph if there is a set of objects such that each vertex corresponds to an object and two vertices are adjacent if and only if the corresponding objects have a nonempty intersection. There are several natural graph classes that have geometric intersection representations. The geometric representations sometimes help to prove tractability/intractability of problems on graph classes. In this paper, we show some results proved by using geometric representations.

Abstract: We study the problem of finding the minimum-length curvature constrained closed path through a set of regions in the plane. This problem is referred to as the Dubins Traveling Salesperson Problem with Neighborhoods (DTSPN). An algorithm is presented that uses sampling to cast this infinite dimensional combinatorial optimization problem as a Generalized Traveling Salesperson Problem (GTSP) with intersecting node sets. The GTSP is then converted to an Asymmetric Traveling Salesperson Problem (ATSP) through a series of graph transformations, thus allowing the use of existing approximation algorithms. This algorithm is shown to perform no worse than the best existing DTSPN algorithm and is shown to perform significantly better when the regions overlap. We report on the application of this algorithm to route an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with a radio to collect data from sparsely deployed ground sensors in a field demonstration of autonomous detection, localization, and verification of multiple acoustic events.

Abstract: The eccentricity of a node in a graph is defined as the length of a longest shortest path starting at that node. The eccentricity distribution over all nodes is a relevant descriptive property of the graph, and its extreme values allow the derivation of measures such as the radius, diameter, center and periphery of the graph. This paper describes two new methods for computing the eccentricity distribution of large graphs such as social networks, web graphs, biological networks and routing networks.We first propose an exact algorithm based on eccentricity lower and upper bounds, which achieves significant speedups compared to the straightforward algorithm when computing both the extreme values of the distribution as well as the eccentricity distribution as a whole. The second algorithm that we describe is a hybrid strategy that combines the exact approach with an efficient sampling technique in order to obtain an even larger speedup on the computation of the entire eccentricity distribution. We perform an extensive set of experiments on a number of large graphs in order to measure and compare the performance of our algorithms, and demonstrate how we can efficiently compute the eccentricity distribution of various large real-world graphs.

Abstract: The maximum common connected edge subgraph problem is to find a connected graph with the maximum number of edges that is isomorphic to a subgraph of each of the two input graphs, where it has applications in pattern recognition and chemistry. This paper presents a dynamic programming algorithm for the problem when the two input graphs are outerplanar graphs of a bounded vertex degree, where it is known that the problem is NP-hard, even for outerplanar graphs of an unbounded degree. Although the algorithm repeatedly modifies input graphs, it is shown that the number of relevant subproblems is polynomially bounded, and thus, the algorithm works in polynomial time.

Abstract: Image reconstruction is a key component in many medical imaging modalities. The problem of image reconstruction can be viewed as a special inverse problem where the unknown image pixel intensities are estimated from the observed measurements. Since the measurements are usually noise contaminated, statistical reconstruction methods are preferred. In this paper we review some non-negatively constrained simultaneous iterative algorithms for maximum penalized likelihood reconstructions, where all measurements are used to estimate all pixel intensities in each iteration.

Abstract: We extend the stable flow model of Fleiner to multicommodity flows. In addition to the preference lists of agents on trading partners for each commodity, every trading pair has a preference list on the commodities that the seller can sell to the buyer. A blocking walk (with respect to a certain commodity) may include saturated arcs, provided that a positive amount of less preferred commodity is traded along the arc. We prove that a stable multicommodity flow always exists, although it is PPAD-hard to find one.

Abstract: Portfolio optimization is one of the problems most frequently encountered by financial practitioners. The main goal of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature by providing a well-documented, step-by-step open-source implementation of Critical Line Algorithm (CLA) in scientific language. The code is implemented as a Python class object, which allows it to be imported like any other Python module, and integrated seamlessly with pre-existing code. We discuss the logic behind CLA following the algorithm’s decision flow. In addition, we developed several utilities that support finding answers to recurrent practical problems. We believe this publication will offer a better alternative to financial practitioners, many of whom are currently relying on generic-purpose optimizers which often deliver suboptimal solutions. The source code discussed in this paper can be downloaded at the authors’ websites (see Appendix).