@article{7301, abstract = {Several problems arise at the O2 (positive) electrode in the Li-air battery, including solvent/electrode decomposition and electrode passivation by insulating Li2O2. Progress partially depends on exploring the basic electrochemistry of O2 reduction. Here we describe the effect of complexing-cations on the electrochemical reduction of O2 in DMSO in the presence and absence of a Li salt. The solubility of alkaline peroxides in DMSO is enhanced by the complexing-cations, consistent with their strong interaction with reduced O2. The complexing-cations also increase the rate of the 1-electron O2 reduction to O2•– by up to six-fold (k° = 2.4 ×10–3 to 1.5 × 10–2 cm s–1) whether or not Li+ ions are present. In the absence of Li+, the complexing-cations also promote the reduction of O2•– to O22–. In the presence of Li+ and complexing-cations, and despite the interaction of the reduced O2 with the latter, SERS confirms that the product is still Li2O2.}, author = {Li, Chunmei and Fontaine, Olivier and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Johnson, Lee and Grugeon, Sylvie and Laruelle, Stéphane and Bruce, Peter G. and Armand, Michel}, issn = {1932-7447}, journal = {The Journal of Physical Chemistry C}, number = {7}, pages = {3393--3401}, publisher = {ACS}, title = {{Aprotic Li–O2 battery: Influence of complexing agents on oxygen reduction in an aprotic solvent}}, doi = {10.1021/jp4093805}, volume = {118}, year = {2014}, } @article{7302, abstract = {Understanding charge carrier transport in Li2O2, the storage material in the non-aqueous Li-O2 battery, is key to the development of this high-energy battery. Here, we studied ionic transport properties and Li self-diffusion in nanocrystalline Li2O2 by conductivity and temperature variable 7Li NMR spectroscopy. Nanostructured Li2O2, characterized by a mean crystallite size of less than 50 nm as estimated from X-ray diffraction peak broadening, was prepared by high-energy ball milling of microcrystalline lithium peroxide with μm sized crystallites. At room temperature the overall conductivity σ of the microcrystalline reference sample turned out to be very low (3.4 × 10−13 S cm−1) which is in agreement with results from temperature-variable 7Li NMR line shape measurements. Ball-milling, however, leads to an increase of σ by approximately two orders of magnitude (1.1 × 10−10 S cm−1); correspondingly, the activation energy decreases from 0.89 eV to 0.82 eV. The electronic contribution σeon, however, is in the order of 9 × 10−12 S cm−1 which makes less than 10% of the total value. Interestingly, 7Li NMR lines of nano-Li2O2 undergo pronounced heterogeneous motional narrowing which manifests in a two-component line shape emerging with increasing temperatures. Most likely, the enhancement in σ can be traced back to the generation of a spin reservoir with highly mobile Li ions; these are expected to reside in the nearest neighbourhood of defects generated or near the structurally disordered and defect-rich interfacial regions formed during mechanical treatment.}, author = {Dunst, A. and Epp, V. and Hanzu, I. and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Wilkening, M.}, issn = {1754-5692}, journal = {Energy & Environmental Science}, number = {8}, pages = {2739--2752}, publisher = {RSC}, title = {{Short-range Li diffusion vs. long-range ionic conduction in nanocrystalline lithium peroxide Li2O2—the discharge product in lithium-air batteries}}, doi = {10.1039/c4ee00496e}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, } @inbook{7303, abstract = {The electrolyte in the non-aqueous (aprotic) lithium air battery has a profound influence on the reactions that occur at the anode and cathode, and hence its overall operation on discharge/charge. It must possess a wide range of attributes, exceeding the requirements of electrolytes for Lithium ion batteries by far. The most important additional issues are stability at both anode and cathode in the presence of O2. The known problems with cycling the Li metal/non-aqueous electrolyte interface are further complicated by O2. New and much less understood are the reactions at the O2 cathode/electrolyte interface where the highly reversible formation/decomposition of Li2O2 on discharge/charge is critical for the operation of the non-aqueous lithium air battery. Many aprotic electrolytes exhibit decomposition at the cathode during discharge and charge due to the presence of reactive reduced O2 species affecting potential, capacity and kinetics on discharge and charge, cyclability and calendar life. Identifying suitable electrolytes is one of the key challenges for the non-aqueous lithium air battery at the present time. Following the realisation that cyclability of such cells in the initially used organic carbonate electrolytes is due to back-to-back irreversible reactions the stability of the non-aqueous electrolytes became a major focus of research on rechargeable lithium air batteries. This realisation led to the establishment of a suite of experimental and computational methods capable of screening the stability of electrolytes. These allow for greater mechanistic understanding of the reactivity and guide the way towards designing more stable systems. A range of electrolytes based on ethers, amides, sulfones, ionic liquids and dimethyl sulfoxide have been investigated. All are more stable than the organic carbonates, but not all are equally stable. Even though it was soon realised, by a number of groups, that ethers exhibit side reactions on discharge and charge, they still remain the choice in many studies. To date dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethylacetamide were identified as the most stable electrolytes. In conjunction with the investigation of electrolyte stability the importance of electrode stability became more prominent. The stability of the electrolyte cannot be considered in isolation. Its stability depends on the synergy between electrolyte and electrode. Carbon based electrodes promote electrolyte decomposition and decompose on their own. Although great progress has been made in only a few years, future work on aprotic electrolytes for Li-O2 batteries will need to explore other electrolytes in the quest for yet lower cost, higher safety, stability and low volatility.}, author = {Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Chen, Yuhui and Bardé, Fanny and Takechi, Kensuke and Mizuno, Fuminori and Bruce, Peter G.}, booktitle = {The Lithium Air Battery: Fundamentals}, editor = {Imanishi, Nobuyuki and Luntz, Alan C. and Bruce, Peter}, isbn = {9781489980618}, pages = {23--58}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Nonaqueous Electrolytes}}, doi = {10.1007/978-1-4899-8062-5_2}, year = {2014}, } @article{7304, abstract = {Lithium-air batteries have received extraordinary attention recently owing to their theoretical gravimetric energies being considerably higher than those of Li-ion batteries. There are, however, significant challenges to practical implementation, including low energy efficiency, cycle life, and power capability. These are due primarily to the lack of fundamental understanding of oxygen reduction and evolution reaction kinetics and parasitic reactions between oxygen redox intermediate species and nominally inactive battery components such as carbon in the oxygen electrode and electrolytes. In this article, we discuss recent advances in the mechanistic understanding of oxygen redox reactions in nonaqueous electrolytes and the search for electrolytes and electrode materials that are chemically stable in the oxygen electrode. In addition, methods to protect lithium metal against corrosion by water and dendrite formation in aqueous lithium-air batteries are discussed. Further materials innovations lie at the heart of research and development efforts that are needed to enable the development of lithium-oxygen batteries with enhanced round-trip efficiency and cycle life.}, author = {Kwabi, D.G. and Ortiz-Vitoriano, N. and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Chen, Y. and Imanishi, N. and Bruce, P.G. and Shao-Horn, Y.}, issn = {0883-7694}, journal = {MRS Bulletin}, number = {5}, pages = {443--452}, publisher = {CUP}, title = {{Materials challenges in rechargeable lithium-air batteries}}, doi = {10.1557/mrs.2014.87}, volume = {39}, year = {2014}, } @article{7305, abstract = {When lithium–oxygen batteries discharge, O2 is reduced at the cathode to form solid Li2O2. Understanding the fundamental mechanism of O2 reduction in aprotic solvents is therefore essential to realizing their technological potential. Two different models have been proposed for Li2O2 formation, involving either solution or electrode surface routes. Here, we describe a single unified mechanism, which, unlike previous models, can explain O2 reduction across the whole range of solvents and for which the two previous models are limiting cases. We observe that the solvent influences O2 reduction through its effect on the solubility of LiO2, or, more precisely, the free energy of the reaction LiO2* ⇌ Li(sol)+ + O2−(sol) + ion pairs + higher aggregates (clusters). The unified mechanism shows that low-donor-number solvents are likely to lead to premature cell death, and that the future direction of research for lithium–oxygen batteries should focus on the search for new, stable, high-donor-number electrolytes, because they can support higher capacities and can better sustain discharge.}, author = {Johnson, Lee and Li, Chunmei and Liu, Zheng and Chen, Yuhui and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Ashok, Praveen C. and Praveen, Bavishna B. and Dholakia, Kishan and Tarascon, Jean-Marie and Bruce, Peter G.}, issn = {1755-4330}, journal = {Nature Chemistry}, number = {12}, pages = {1091--1099}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{The role of LiO2 solubility in O2 reduction in aprotic solvents and its consequences for Li–O2 batteries}}, doi = {10.1038/nchem.2101}, volume = {6}, year = {2014}, } @article{7361, abstract = {Bistable switches are fundamental regulatory elements of complex systems, ranging from electronics to living cells. Designed genetic toggle switches have been constructed from pairs of natural transcriptional repressors wired to inhibit one another. The complexity of the engineered regulatory circuits can be increased using orthogonal transcriptional regulators based on designed DNA-binding domains. However, a mutual repressor-based toggle switch comprising DNA-binding domains of transcription-activator-like effectors (TALEs) did not support bistability in mammalian cells. Here, the challenge of engineering a bistable switch based on monomeric DNA-binding domains is solved via the introduction of a positive feedback loop composed of activators based on the same TALE domains as their opposing repressors and competition for the same DNA operator site. This design introduces nonlinearity and results in epigenetic bistability. This principle could be used to employ other monomeric DNA-binding domains such as CRISPR for applications ranging from reprogramming cells to building digital biological memory.}, author = {Lebar, Tina and Bezeljak, Urban and Golob, Anja and Jerala, Miha and Kadunc, Lucija and Pirš, Boštjan and Stražar, Martin and Vučko, Dušan and Zupančič, Uroš and Benčina, Mojca and Forstnerič, Vida and Gaber, Rok and Lonzarić, Jan and Majerle, Andreja and Oblak, Alja and Smole, Anže and Jerala, Roman}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{A bistable genetic switch based on designable DNA-binding domains}}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms6007}, volume = {5}, year = {2014}, } @article{7455, abstract = {The reaction between NiO and (0001)- and ([1\bar102])-oriented Al2O3 single crystals has been investigated on model experimental systems by using the ReflEXAFS technique. Depth-sensitive information is obtained by collecting data above and below the critical angle for total reflection. A systematic protocol for data analysis, based on the recently developed CARD code, was implemented, and a detailed description of the reactive systems was obtained. In particular, for ([1\bar102])-oriented Al2O3, the reaction with NiO is almost complete after heating for 6 h at 1273 K, and an almost uniform layer of spinel is found below a mixed (NiO + spinel) layer at the very upmost part of the sample. In the case of the (0001)-oriented Al2O3, for the same temperature and heating time, the reaction shows a lower advancement degree and a residual fraction of at least 30% NiO is detected in the ReflEXAFS spectra. }, author = {Costanzo, Tommaso and Benzi, Federico and Ghigna, Paolo and Pin, Sonia and Spinolo, Giorgio and d'Acapito, Francesco}, issn = {1600-5775}, journal = {Journal of Synchrotron Radiation}, number = {2}, pages = {395--400}, publisher = {International Union of Crystallography}, title = {{Studying the surface reaction between NiO and Al2O3viatotal reflection EXAFS (ReflEXAFS)}}, doi = {10.1107/s1600577513031299}, volume = {21}, year = {2014}, } @article{7598, author = {Tan, Shutang and Xue, Hong-Wei}, issn = {2211-1247}, journal = {Cell Reports}, number = {5}, pages = {1692--1702}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Casein kinase 1 regulates ethylene synthesis by phosphorylating and promoting the turnover of ACS5}}, doi = {10.1016/j.celrep.2014.10.047}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, } @inproceedings{768, abstract = {Task allocation is a classic distributed problem in which a set of p potentially faulty processes must cooperate to perform a set of tasks. This paper considers a new dynamic version of the problem, in which tasks are injected adversarially during an asynchronous execution. We give the first asynchronous shared-memory algorithm for dynamic task allocation, and we prove that our solution is optimal within logarithmic factors. The main algorithmic idea is a randomized concurrent data structure called a dynamic to-do tree, which allows processes to pick new tasks to perform at random from the set of available tasks, and to insert tasks at random empty locations in the data structure. Our analysis shows that these properties avoid duplicating work unnecessarily. On the other hand, since the adversary controls the input as well the scheduling, it can induce executions where lots of processes contend for a few available tasks, which is inefficient. However, we prove that every algorithm has the same problem: given an arbitrary input, if OPT is the worst-case complexity of the optimal algorithm on that input, then the expected work complexity of our algorithm on the same input is O(OPT log3 m), where m is an upper bound on the number of tasks that are present in the system at any given time.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Aspnes, James and Bender, Michael and Gelashvili, Rati and Gilbert, Seth}, pages = {416 -- 435}, publisher = {SIAM}, title = {{Dynamic task allocation in asynchronous shared memory}}, doi = {10.1137/1.9781611973402.31}, year = {2014}, } @article{769, abstract = {This article presents the first tight bounds on the time complexity of shared-memory renaming, a fundamental problem in distributed computing in which a set of processes need to pick distinct identifiers from a small namespace. We first prove an individual lower bound of ω(k) process steps for deterministic renaming into any namespace of size subexponential in k, where k is the number of participants. The bound is tight: it draws an exponential separation between deterministic and randomized solutions, and implies new tight bounds for deterministic concurrent fetch-and-increment counters, queues, and stacks. The proof is based on a new reduction from renaming to another fundamental problem in distributed computing: mutual exclusion. We complement this individual bound with a global lower bound of ω(klog(k/c)) on the total step complexity of renaming into a namespace of size ck, for any c = 1. This result applies to randomized algorithms against a strong adversary, and helps derive new global lower bounds for randomized approximate counter implementations, that are tight within logarithmic factors. On the algorithmic side, we give a protocol that transforms any sorting network into a randomized strong adaptive renaming algorithm, with expected cost equal to the depth of the sorting network. This gives a tight adaptive renaming algorithm with expected step complexity O(log k), where k is the contention in the current execution. This algorithm is the first to achieve sublinear time, and it is time-optimal as per our randomized lower bound. Finally, we use this renaming protocol to build monotone-consistent counters with logarithmic step complexity and linearizable fetch-and-increment registers with polylogarithmic cost.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Aspnes, James and Censor Hillel, Keren and Gilbert, Seth and Guerraoui, Rachid}, journal = {Journal of the ACM}, number = {3}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Tight bounds for asynchronous renaming}}, doi = {10.1145/2597630}, volume = {61}, year = {2014}, } @article{7699, author = {Sweeney, Lora Beatrice Jaeger and Kelley, Darcy B}, issn = {0959-4388}, journal = {Current Opinion in Neurobiology}, number = {10}, pages = {34--41}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Harnessing vocal patterns for social communication}}, doi = {10.1016/j.conb.2014.06.006}, volume = {28}, year = {2014}, } @inproceedings{770, abstract = {Dynamic memory reclamation is arguably the biggest open problem in concurrent data structure design: All known solutions induce high overhead, or must be customized to the specific data structure by the programmer, or both. This paper presents StackTrack, the first concurrent memory reclamation scheme that can be applied automatically by a compiler, while maintaining efficiency. StackTrack eliminates most of the expensive bookkeeping required for memory reclamation by leveraging the power of hardware transactional memory (HTM) in a new way: it tracks thread variables dynamically, and in an atomic fashion. This effectively makes all memory references visible without having threads pay the overhead of writing out this information. Our empirical results show that this new approach matches or outperforms prior, non-automated, techniques.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Eugster, Patrick and Herlihy, Maurice and Matveev, Alexander and Shavit, Nir}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{StackTrack: An automated transactional approach to concurrent memory reclamation}}, doi = {10.1145/2592798.2592808}, year = {2014}, } @inproceedings{771, abstract = {We consider the following natural problem: n failure-prone servers, communicating synchronously through message passing, must assign themselves one-to-one to n distinct items. Existing literature suggests two possible approaches to this problem. First, model it as an instance of tight renaming in synchronous message-passing systems; for deterministic solutions, a tight bound of ©(logn) communication rounds is known. Second, model the scenario as an instance of randomized load-balancing, for which elegant sub-logarithmic solutions exist. However, careful examination reveals that known load-balancing schemes do not apply to our scenario, because they either do not tolerate faults or do not ensure one-to-one allocation. It is thus natural to ask if sublogarithmic solutions exist for this apparently simple but intriguing problem. In this paper, we combine the two approaches to provide a new randomized solution for tight renaming, which terminates in O (log log n) communication rounds with high probability, against a strong adaptive adversary. Our solution, called Balls-into-Leaves, combines the deterministic approach with a new randomized scheme to obtain perfectly balanced allocations. The algorithm arranges the items as leaves of a tree, and participants repeatedly perform random choices among the leaves. The algorithm exchanges information in each round to split the participants into progressively smaller groups whose random choices do not conflict. We then extend the algorithm to terminate early in O(log log) rounds w.h.p., where is the actual number of failures. These results imply an exponential separation between deterministic and randomized algorithms for the tight renaming problem in message-passing systems.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Denysyuk, Oksana and Rodrígues, Luís and Shavit, Nir}, pages = {232 -- 241}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Balls-into-Leaves: Sub-logarithmic renaming in synchronous message-passing systems}}, doi = {10.1145/2611462.2611499}, year = {2014}, } @inproceedings{772, abstract = {Lock-free concurrent algorithms guarantee that some concurrent operation will always make progress in a finite number of steps. Yet programmers prefer to treat concurrent code as if it were wait-free, guaranteeing that all operations always make progress. Unfortunately, designing wait-free algorithms is generally a very complex task, and the resulting algorithms are not always efficient. While obtaining efficient wait-free algorithms has been a long-time goal for the theory community, most non-blocking commercial code is only lock-free. This paper suggests a simple solution to this problem. We show that, for a large class of lock-free algorithms, under scheduling conditions which approximate those found in commercial hardware architectures, lock-free algorithms behave as if they are wait-free. In other words, programmers can keep on designing simple lock-free algorithms instead of complex wait-free ones, and in practice, they will get wait-free progress. Our main contribution is a new way of analyzing a general class of lock-free algorithms under a stochastic scheduler. Our analysis relates the individual performance of processes with the global performance of the system using Markov chain lifting between a complex per-process chain and a simpler system progress chain. We show that lock-free algorithms are not only wait-free with probability 1, but that in fact a general subset of lock-free algorithms can be closely bounded in terms of the average number of steps required until an operation completes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to analyze progress conditions, typically stated in relation to a worst case adversary, in a stochastic model capturing their expected asymptotic behavior.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Censor Hillel, Keren and Shavit, Nir}, pages = {714 -- 723}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Are lock-free concurrent algorithms practically wait-free?}}, doi = {10.1145/2591796.2591836}, year = {2014}, } @inproceedings{773, abstract = {We describe a new randomized consensus protocol with expected message complexity O(n2log2n) when fewer than n/2 processes may fail by crashing. This is an almost-linear improvement over the best previously known protocol, and within logarithmic factors of a known Ω(n2) message lower bound. The protocol further ensures that no process sends more than O(n log3n) messages in expectation, which is again within logarithmic factors of optimal.We also present a generalization of the algorithm to an arbitrary number of failures t, which uses expected O(nt + t2log2t) total messages. Our protocol uses messages of size O(log n), and can therefore scale to large networks. We consider the problem of consensus in the challenging classic model. In this model, the adversary is adaptive; it can choose which processors crash at any point during the course of the algorithm. Further, communication is via asynchronous message passing: there is no known upper bound on the time to send a message from one processor to another, and all messages and coin flips are seen by the adversary. Our approach is to build a message-efficient, resilient mechanism for aggregating individual processor votes, implementing the message-passing equivalent of a weak shared coin. Roughly, in our protocol, a processor first announces its votes to small groups, then propagates them to increasingly larger groups as it generates more and more votes. To bound the number of messages that an individual process might have to send or receive, the protocol progressively increases the weight of generated votes. The main technical challenge is bounding the impact of votes that are still “in flight” (generated, but not fully propagated) on the final outcome of the shared coin, especially since such votes might have different weights. We achieve this by leveraging the structure of the algorithm, and a technical argument based on martingale concentration bounds. Overall, we show that it is possible to build an efficient message-passing implementation of a shared coin, and in the process (almost-optimally) solve the classic consensus problem in the asynchronous message-passing model.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Aspnes, James and King, Valerie and Saia, Jared}, editor = {Kuhn, Fabian}, location = {Austin, USA}, pages = {61 -- 75}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Communication-efficient randomized consensus}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-45174-8_5}, volume = {8784}, year = {2014}, } @inproceedings{774, abstract = {Lock-free concurrent algorithms guarantee that some concurrent operation will always make progress in a finite number of steps. Yet programmers would prefer to treat concurrent code as if it were wait-free, guaranteeing that all operations always make progress. Unfortunately, designing wait-free algorithms is in general a complex undertaking, and the resulting algorithms are not always efficient, so most non-blocking commercial code is only lock-free, and the design of efficient wait-free algorithms has been left to the academic community. In [2], we suggest a solution to this problem. We show that, for a large class of lock-free algorithms, under scheduling conditions which approximate those found in commercial hardware architectures, lock-free algorithms behave as if they are wait-free. In other words, programmers can keep on designing simple lock-free algorithms instead of complex wait-free ones, and in practice, they will get wait-free progress. Our main contribution is a new way of analyzing a general class of lock-free algorithms under a stochastic scheduler. Our analysis relates the individual performance of processes with the global performance of the system using Markov chain lifting between a complex per-process chain and a simpler system progress chain. We show that lock-free algorithms are not only wait-free with probability 1, but that in fact a broad subset of lock-free algorithms can be closely bounded in terms of the average number of steps required until an operation completes.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Censor Hille, Keren and Shavit, Nir}, pages = {50 -- 52}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Brief announcement: Are lock-free concurrent algorithms practically wait-free?}}, doi = {10.1145/2611462.2611502}, year = {2014}, } @inbook{7743, abstract = {Experimental studies have demonstrated that environmental variation can create genotype‐environment interactions (GEIs) in the traits involved in sexual selection. Understanding the genetic architecture of phenotype across environments will require statistical tests that can describe both changes in genetic variance and covariance across environments. This chapter outlines the theoretical framework for the processes of sexual selection in the wild, identifying key parameters in wild systems, and highlighting the potential effects of the environment. It describes the proposed approaches for the estimation of these key parameters in a quantitative genetic framework within naturally occurring pedigreed populations. The chapter provides a worked example for a range of analysis methods. It aims to provide an overview of the analytical methods that can be used to model GEIs for traits involved in sexual selection in naturally occurring pedigreed populations.}, author = {Robinson, Matthew Richard and Qvarnström, Anna}, booktitle = {Genotype-by-Environment Interactions and Sexual Selection}, editor = {Hunt, John and Hosken, David}, isbn = {9780470671795}, pages = {137--168}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Influence of the environment on the genetic architecture of traits involved in sexual selection within wild populations}}, doi = {10.1002/9781118912591.ch6}, year = {2014}, } @article{7744, author = {Robinson, Matthew Richard and Wray, Naomi R. and Visscher, Peter M.}, issn = {0168-9525}, journal = {Trends in Genetics}, number = {4}, pages = {124--132}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Explaining additional genetic variation in complex traits}}, doi = {10.1016/j.tig.2014.02.003}, volume = {30}, year = {2014}, } @inproceedings{775, abstract = {The long-lived renaming problem appears in shared-memory systems where a set of threads need to register and deregister frequently from the computation, while concurrent operations scan the set of currently registered threads. Instances of this problem show up in concurrent implementations of transactional memory, flat combining, thread barriers, and memory reclamation schemes for lock-free data structures. In this paper, we analyze a randomized solution for long-lived renaming. The algorithmic technique we consider, called the Level Array, has previously been used for hashing and one-shot (single-use) renaming. Our main contribution is to prove that, in long-lived executions, where processes may register and deregister polynomially many times, the technique guarantees constant steps on average and O (log log n) steps with high probability for registering, unit cost for deregistering, and O (n) steps for collect queries, where n is an upper bound on the number of processes that may be active at any point in time. We also show that the algorithm has the surprising property that it is self-healing: under reasonable assumptions on the schedule, operations running while the data structure is in a degraded state implicitly help the data structure re-balance itself. This subtle mechanism obviates the need for expensive periodic rebuilding procedures. Our benchmarks validate this approach, showing that, for typical use parameters, the average number of steps a process takes to register is less than two and the worst-case number of steps is bounded by six, even in executions with billions of operations. We contrast this with other randomized implementations, whose worst-case behavior we show to be unreliable, and with deterministic implementations, whose cost is linear in n.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Kopinsky, Justin and Matveev, Alexander and Shavit, Nir}, pages = {348 -- 357}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{The levelarray: A fast, practical long-lived renaming algorithm}}, doi = {10.1109/ICDCS.2014.43}, year = {2014}, } @article{468, abstract = {Invasive alien parasites and pathogens are a growing threat to biodiversity worldwide, which can contribute to the extinction of endemic species. On the Galápagos Islands, the invasive parasitic fly Philornis downsi poses a major threat to the endemic avifauna. Here, we investigated the influence of this parasite on the breeding success of two Darwin's finch species, the warbler finch (Certhidea olivacea) and the sympatric small tree finch (Camarhynchus parvulus), on Santa Cruz Island in 2010 and 2012. While the population of the small tree finch appeared to be stable, the warbler finch has experienced a dramatic decline in population size on Santa Cruz Island since 1997. We aimed to identify whether warbler finches are particularly vulnerable during different stages of the breeding cycle. Contrary to our prediction, breeding success was lower in the small tree finch than in the warbler finch. In both species P. downsi had a strong negative impact on breeding success and our data suggest that heavy rain events also lowered the fledging success. On the one hand parents might be less efficient in compensating their chicks' energy loss due to parasitism as they might be less efficient in foraging on days of heavy rain. On the other hand, intense rainfalls might lead to increased humidity and more rapid cooling of the nests. In the case of the warbler finch we found that the control of invasive plant species with herbicides had a significant additive negative impact on the breeding success. It is very likely that the availability of insects (i.e. food abundance) is lower in such controlled areas, as herbicide usage led to the removal of the entire understory. Predation seems to be a minor factor in brood loss.}, author = {Cimadom, Arno and Ulloa, Angel and Meidl, Patrick and Zöttl, Markus and Zöttl, Elisabet and Fessl, Birgit and Nemeth, Erwin and Dvorak, Michael and Cunninghame, Francesca and Tebbich, Sabine}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {9}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, title = {{Invasive parasites habitat change and heavy rainfall reduce breeding success in Darwin's finches}}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0107518}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, }