@inproceedings{8297, abstract = {Designing a secure permissionless distributed ledger (blockchain) that performs on par with centralized payment processors, such as Visa, is a challenging task. Most existing distributed ledgers are unable to scale-out, i.e., to grow their totalprocessing capacity with the number of validators; and those that do, compromise security or decentralization. We present OmniLedger, a novel scale-out distributed ledger that preserves longterm security under permissionless operation. It ensures security and correctness by using a bias-resistant public-randomness protocol for choosing large, statistically representative shards that process transactions, and by introducing an efficient crossshard commit protocol that atomically handles transactions affecting multiple shards. OmniLedger also optimizes performance via parallel intra-shard transaction processing, ledger pruning via collectively-signed state blocks, and low-latency “trust-butverify” validation for low-value transactions. An evaluation ofour experimental prototype shows that OmniLedger’s throughput scales linearly in the number of active validators, supporting Visa-level workloads and beyond, while confirming typical transactions in under two seconds.}, author = {Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios and Jovanovic, Philipp and Gasser, Linus and Gailly, Nicolas and Syta, Ewa and Ford, Bryan}, booktitle = {2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy}, isbn = {9781538643532}, issn = {2375-1207}, location = {San Francisco, CA, United States}, pages = {583--598}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{OmniLedger: A secure, scale-out, decentralized ledger via sharding}}, doi = {10.1109/sp.2018.000-5}, year = {2018}, } @phdthesis{83, abstract = {A proof system is a protocol between a prover and a verifier over a common input in which an honest prover convinces the verifier of the validity of true statements. Motivated by the success of decentralized cryptocurrencies, exemplified by Bitcoin, the focus of this thesis will be on proof systems which found applications in some sustainable alternatives to Bitcoin, such as the Spacemint and Chia cryptocurrencies. In particular, we focus on proofs of space and proofs of sequential work. Proofs of space (PoSpace) were suggested as more ecological, economical, and egalitarian alternative to the energy-wasteful proof-of-work mining of Bitcoin. However, the state-of-the-art constructions of PoSpace are based on sophisticated graph pebbling lower bounds, and are therefore complex. Moreover, when these PoSpace are used in cryptocurrencies like Spacemint, miners can only start mining after ensuring that a commitment to their space is already added in a special transaction to the blockchain. Proofs of sequential work (PoSW) are proof systems in which a prover, upon receiving a statement x and a time parameter T, computes a proof which convinces the verifier that T time units had passed since x was received. Whereas Spacemint assumes synchrony to retain some interesting Bitcoin dynamics, Chia requires PoSW with unique proofs, i.e., PoSW in which it is hard to come up with more than one accepting proof for any true statement. In this thesis we construct simple and practically-efficient PoSpace and PoSW. When using our PoSpace in cryptocurrencies, miners can start mining on the fly, like in Bitcoin, and unlike current constructions of PoSW, which either achieve efficient verification of sequential work, or faster-than-recomputing verification of correctness of proofs, but not both at the same time, ours achieve the best of these two worlds.}, author = {Abusalah, Hamza M}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {59}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Proof systems for sustainable decentralized cryptocurrencies}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:TH_1046}, year = {2018}, } @article{8420, abstract = {We show that in the space of all convex billiard boundaries, the set of boundaries with rational caustics is dense. More precisely, the set of billiard boundaries with caustics of rotation number 1/q is polynomially sense in the smooth case, and exponentially dense in the analytic case.}, author = {Kaloshin, Vadim and Zhang, Ke}, issn = {0951-7715}, journal = {Nonlinearity}, keywords = {Mathematical Physics, General Physics and Astronomy, Applied Mathematics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics}, number = {11}, pages = {5214--5234}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{Density of convex billiards with rational caustics}}, doi = {10.1088/1361-6544/aadc12}, volume = {31}, year = {2018}, } @article{8421, abstract = {The classical Birkhoff conjecture claims that the boundary of a strictly convex integrable billiard table is necessarily an ellipse (or a circle as a special case). In this article we prove a complete local version of this conjecture: a small integrable perturbation of an ellipse must be an ellipse. This extends and completes the result in Avila-De Simoi-Kaloshin, where nearly circular domains were considered. One of the crucial ideas in the proof is to extend action-angle coordinates for elliptic billiards into complex domains (with respect to the angle), and to thoroughly analyze the nature of their complex singularities. As an application, we are able to prove some spectral rigidity results for elliptic domains.}, author = {Kaloshin, Vadim and Sorrentino, Alfonso}, issn = {0003-486X}, journal = {Annals of Mathematics}, keywords = {Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty, Statistics and Probability}, number = {1}, pages = {315--380}, publisher = {Annals of Mathematics, Princeton U}, title = {{On the local Birkhoff conjecture for convex billiards}}, doi = {10.4007/annals.2018.188.1.6}, volume = {188}, year = {2018}, } @article{8422, abstract = {The Birkhoff conjecture says that the boundary of a strictly convex integrable billiard table is necessarily an ellipse. In this article, we consider a stronger notion of integrability, namely integrability close to the boundary, and prove a local version of this conjecture: a small perturbation of an ellipse of small eccentricity which preserves integrability near the boundary, is itself an ellipse. This extends the result in Avila et al. (Ann Math 184:527–558, ADK16), where integrability was assumed on a larger set. In particular, it shows that (local) integrability near the boundary implies global integrability. One of the crucial ideas in the proof consists in analyzing Taylor expansion of the corresponding action-angle coordinates with respect to the eccentricity parameter, deriving and studying higher order conditions for the preservation of integrable rational caustics.}, author = {Huang, Guan and Kaloshin, Vadim and Sorrentino, Alfonso}, issn = {1016-443X}, journal = {Geometric and Functional Analysis}, keywords = {Geometry and Topology, Analysis}, number = {2}, pages = {334--392}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Nearly circular domains which are integrable close to the boundary are ellipses}}, doi = {10.1007/s00039-018-0440-4}, volume = {28}, year = {2018}, } @article{8426, abstract = {For any strictly convex planar domain Ω ⊂ R2 with a C∞ boundary one can associate an infinite sequence of spectral invariants introduced by Marvizi–Merlose [5]. These invariants can generically be determined using the spectrum of the Dirichlet problem of the Laplace operator. A natural question asks if this collection is sufficient to determine Ω up to isometry. In this paper we give a counterexample, namely, we present two nonisometric domains Ω and Ω¯ with the same collection of Marvizi–Melrose invariants. Moreover, each domain has countably many periodic orbits {Sn}n≥1 (resp. {S¯n}n⩾1) of period going to infinity such that Sn and S¯n have the same period and perimeter for each n.}, author = {Buhovsky, Lev and Kaloshin, Vadim}, issn = {1560-3547}, journal = {Regular and Chaotic Dynamics}, pages = {54--59}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Nonisometric domains with the same Marvizi-Melrose invariants}}, doi = {10.1134/s1560354718010057}, volume = {23}, year = {2018}, } @inproceedings{85, abstract = {Concurrent accesses to shared data structures must be synchronized to avoid data races. Coarse-grained synchronization, which locks the entire data structure, is easy to implement but does not scale. Fine-grained synchronization can scale well, but can be hard to reason about. Hand-over-hand locking, in which operations are pipelined as they traverse the data structure, combines fine-grained synchronization with ease of use. However, the traditional implementation suffers from inherent overheads. This paper introduces snapshot-based synchronization (SBS), a novel hand-over-hand locking mechanism. SBS decouples the synchronization state from the data, significantly improving cache utilization. Further, it relies on guarantees provided by pipelining to minimize synchronization that requires cross-thread communication. Snapshot-based synchronization thus scales much better than traditional hand-over-hand locking, while maintaining the same ease of use.}, author = {Gilad, Eran and Brown, Trevor A and Oskin, Mark and Etsion, Yoav}, issn = {03029743}, location = {Turin, Italy}, pages = {465 -- 479}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Snapshot based synchronization: A fast replacement for Hand-over-Hand locking}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-96983-1_33}, volume = {11014}, year = {2018}, } @unpublished{8547, abstract = {The cerebral cortex contains multiple hierarchically organized areas with distinctive cytoarchitectonical patterns, but the cellular mechanisms underlying the emergence of this diversity remain unclear. Here, we have quantitatively investigated the neuronal output of individual progenitor cells in the ventricular zone of the developing mouse neocortex using a combination of methods that together circumvent the biases and limitations of individual approaches. We found that individual cortical progenitor cells show a high degree of stochasticity and generate pyramidal cell lineages that adopt a wide range of laminar configurations. Mathematical modelling these lineage data suggests that a small number of progenitor cell populations, each generating pyramidal cells following different stochastic developmental programs, suffice to generate the heterogenous complement of pyramidal cell lineages that collectively build the complex cytoarchitecture of the neocortex.}, author = {Llorca, Alfredo and Ciceri, Gabriele and Beattie, Robert J and Wong, Fong K. and Diana, Giovanni and Serafeimidou, Eleni and Fernández-Otero, Marian and Streicher, Carmen and Arnold, Sebastian J. and Meyer, Martin and Hippenmeyer, Simon and Maravall, Miguel and Marín, Oscar}, booktitle = {bioRxiv}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, title = {{Heterogeneous progenitor cell behaviors underlie the assembly of neocortical cytoarchitecture}}, doi = {10.1101/494088}, year = {2018}, } @inbook{86, abstract = {Responsiveness—the requirement that every request to a system be eventually handled—is one of the fundamental liveness properties of a reactive system. Average response time is a quantitative measure for the responsiveness requirement used commonly in performance evaluation. We show how average response time can be computed on state-transition graphs, on Markov chains, and on game graphs. In all three cases, we give polynomial-time algorithms.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Thomas A and Otop, Jan}, booktitle = {Principles of Modeling}, editor = {Lohstroh, Marten and Derler, Patricia and Sirjani, Marjan}, pages = {143 -- 161}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Computing average response time}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-95246-8_9}, volume = {10760}, year = {2018}, } @article{8618, abstract = {The reversibly switchable fluorescent proteins (RSFPs) commonly used for RESOLFT nanoscopy have been developed from fluorescent proteins of the GFP superfamily. These proteins are bright, but exhibit several drawbacks such as relatively large size, oxygen-dependence, sensitivity to low pH, and limited switching speed. Therefore, RSFPs from other origins with improved properties need to be explored. Here, we report the development of two RSFPs based on the LOV domain of the photoreceptor protein YtvA from Bacillus subtilis. LOV domains obtain their fluorescence by association with the abundant cellular cofactor flavin mononucleotide (FMN). Under illumination with blue and ultraviolet light, they undergo a photocycle, making these proteins inherently photoswitchable. Our first improved variant, rsLOV1, can be used for RESOLFT imaging, whereas rsLOV2 proved useful for STED nanoscopy of living cells with a resolution of down to 50 nm. In addition to their smaller size compared to GFP-related proteins (17 kDa instead of 27 kDa) and their usability at low pH, rsLOV1 and rsLOV2 exhibit faster switching kinetics, switching on and off 3 times faster than rsEGFP2, the fastest-switching RSFP reported to date. Therefore, LOV-domain-based RSFPs have potential for applications where the switching speed of GFP-based proteins is limiting.}, author = {Gregor, Carola and Sidenstein, Sven C. and Andresen, Martin and Sahl, Steffen J. and Danzl, Johann G and Hell, Stefan W.}, issn = {2045-2322}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, keywords = {Multidisciplinary}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Novel reversibly switchable fluorescent proteins for RESOLFT and STED nanoscopy engineered from the bacterial photoreceptor YtvA}}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-19947-1}, volume = {8}, year = {2018}, } @article{87, abstract = {Using the geodesic distance on the n-dimensional sphere, we study the expected radius function of the Delaunay mosaic of a random set of points. Specifically, we consider the partition of the mosaic into intervals of the radius function and determine the expected number of intervals whose radii are less than or equal to a given threshold. We find that the expectations are essentially the same as for the Poisson–Delaunay mosaic in n-dimensional Euclidean space. Assuming the points are not contained in a hemisphere, the Delaunay mosaic is isomorphic to the boundary complex of the convex hull in Rn+1, so we also get the expected number of faces of a random inscribed polytope. As proved in Antonelli et al. [Adv. in Appl. Probab. 9–12 (1977–1980)], an orthant section of the n-sphere is isometric to the standard n-simplex equipped with the Fisher information metric. It follows that the latter space has similar stochastic properties as the n-dimensional Euclidean space. Our results are therefore relevant in information geometry and in population genetics.}, author = {Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Nikitenko, Anton}, journal = {Annals of Applied Probability}, number = {5}, pages = {3215 -- 3238}, publisher = {Institute of Mathematical Statistics}, title = {{Random inscribed polytopes have similar radius functions as Poisson-Delaunay mosaics}}, doi = {10.1214/18-AAP1389}, volume = {28}, year = {2018}, } @phdthesis{9, abstract = {Immune cells migrating to the sites of infection navigate through diverse tissue architectures and switch their migratory mechanisms upon demand. However, little is known about systemic regulators that could allow the acquisition of these mechanisms. We performed a genetic screen in Drosophila melanogaster to identify regulators of germband invasion by embryonic macrophages into the confined space between the ectoderm and mesoderm. We have found that bZIP circadian transcription factors (TFs) Kayak (dFos) and Vrille (dNFIL3) have opposite effects on macrophage germband infiltration: Kayak facilitated and Vrille inhibited it. These TFs are enriched in the macrophages during migration and genetically interact to control it. Kayak sets a less coordinated mode of migration of the macrophage group and increases the probability and length of Levy walks. Intriguingly, the motility of kayak mutant macrophages was also strongly affected during initial germband invasion but not along another less confined route. Inhibiting Rho1 signaling within the tail ectoderm partially rescued the Kayak mutant phenotype, strongly suggesting that migrating macrophages have to overcome a barrier imposed by the stiffness of the ectoderm. Also, Kayak appeared to be important for the maintenance of the round cell shape and the rear edge translocation of the macrophages invading the germband. Complementary to this, the cortical actin cytoskeleton of Kayak- deficient macrophages was strongly affected. RNA sequencing revealed the filamin Cheerio and tetraspanin TM4SF to be downstream of Kayak. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and immunostaining revealed that the formin Diaphanous is another downstream target of Kayak. Immunostaining revealed that the formin Diaphanous is another downstream target of Kayak. Indeed, Cheerio, TM4SF and Diaphanous are required within macrophages for germband invasion, and expression of constitutively active Diaphanous in macrophages was able to rescue the kayak mutant phenotype. Moreover, Cher and Diaphanous are also reduced in the macrophages overexpressing Vrille. We hypothesize that Kayak, through its targets, increases actin polymerization and cortical tension in macrophages and thus allows extra force generation necessary for macrophage dissemination and migration through confined stiff tissues, while Vrille counterbalances it.}, author = {Belyaeva, Vera}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {96}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Transcriptional regulation of macrophage migration in the Drosophila melanogaster embryo }}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:th1064}, 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}, } @article{176, abstract = {For a general class of non-negative functions defined on integral ideals of number fields, upper bounds are established for their average over the values of certain principal ideals that are associated to irreducible binary forms with integer coefficients.}, author = {Browning, Timothy D and Sofos, Efthymios}, journal = {International Journal of Nuber Theory}, number = {3}, pages = {547--567}, publisher = {World Scientific Publishing}, title = {{Averages of arithmetic functions over principal ideals}}, doi = {10.1142/S1793042119500283}, volume = {15}, year = {2018}, } @article{178, abstract = {We give an upper bound for the number of rational points of height at most B, lying on a surface defined by a quadratic form Q. The bound shows an explicit dependence on Q. It is optimal with respect to B, and is also optimal for typical forms Q.}, author = {Browning, Timothy D and Heath-Brown, Roger}, issn = {2397-3129}, journal = {Discrete Analysis}, pages = {1 -- 29}, publisher = {Alliance of Diamond Open Access Journals}, title = {{Counting rational points on quadric surfaces}}, doi = {10.19086/da.4375}, volume = {15}, year = {2018}, } @article{18, abstract = {An N-superconcentrator is a directed, acyclic graph with N input nodes and N output nodes such that every subset of the inputs and every subset of the outputs of same cardinality can be connected by node-disjoint paths. It is known that linear-size and bounded-degree superconcentrators exist. We prove the existence of such superconcentrators with asymptotic density 25.3 (where the density is the number of edges divided by N). The previously best known densities were 28 [12] and 27.4136 [17].}, author = {Kolmogorov, Vladimir and Rolinek, Michal}, issn = {0381-7032}, journal = {Ars Combinatoria}, number = {10}, pages = {269 -- 304}, publisher = {Charles Babbage Research Centre}, title = {{Superconcentrators of density 25.3}}, volume = {141}, year = {2018}, } @article{180, abstract = {In this paper we define and study the classical Uniform Electron Gas (UEG), a system of infinitely many electrons whose density is constant everywhere in space. The UEG is defined differently from Jellium, which has a positive constant background but no constraint on the density. We prove that the UEG arises in Density Functional Theory in the limit of a slowly varying density, minimizing the indirect Coulomb energy. We also construct the quantum UEG and compare it to the classical UEG at low density.}, author = {Lewi, Mathieu and Lieb, Élliott and Seiringer, Robert}, issn = {2270-518X}, journal = {Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique - Mathematiques}, pages = {79 -- 116}, publisher = {Ecole Polytechnique}, title = {{Statistical mechanics of the uniform electron gas}}, doi = {10.5802/jep.64}, volume = {5}, year = {2018}, } @article{181, abstract = {We consider large random matrices X with centered, independent entries but possibly di erent variances. We compute the normalized trace of f(X)g(X∗) for f, g functions analytic on the spectrum of X. We use these results to compute the long time asymptotics for systems of coupled di erential equations with random coe cients. We show that when the coupling is critical, the norm squared of the solution decays like t−1/2.}, author = {Erdös, László and Krüger, Torben H and Renfrew, David T}, journal = {SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis}, number = {3}, pages = {3271 -- 3290}, publisher = {Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics }, title = {{Power law decay for systems of randomly coupled differential equations}}, doi = {10.1137/17M1143125}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, }