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  • 16 Feb 2022 Journal Article Nonlinearity

    The distance between the two BBM leaders

    Julien Berestycki, Éric Brunet, Cole Graham, Leonid Mytnik, Jean-Michel Roquejoffre, Lenya Ryzhik
    Abstract

    We study the distance between the two rightmost particles in branching Brownian motion. Derrida and the second author have shown that the long-time limit d12 of this random variable can be expressed in terms of PDEs related to the Fisher–KPP equation. We use such a representation to determine the sharp asymptotics of

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  • 9 Feb 2022 Preprint arXiv

    New Projection-free Algorithms for Online Convex Optimization with Adaptive Regret Guarantees

    Abstract

    We present new efficient \textit{projection-free} algorithms for online convex optimization (OCO), where by projection-free we refer to algorithms that avoid computing orthogonal projections onto the feasible set, and instead relay on different and potentially much more efficient oracles. While most state-of-the-art projection-free algorithms are based on the

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  • 8 Feb 2022 Preprint arXiv

    Efficient Algorithms for High-Dimensional Convex Subspace Optimization via Strict Complementarity

    Abstract

    We consider optimization problems in which the goal is find a $k$-dimensional subspace of $R^n$, $k<<n$, which minimizes a convex and smooth loss. Such problemsgeneralize the fundamental task of principal component analysis (PCA) to include robust and sparse counterparts, and logistic PCA for binary data, among others. While this problem is not convex it admits

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  • 3 Feb 2022 Preprint arXiv

    A Population's Feasible Posterior Beliefs

    Abstract

    We consider a population of Bayesian agents who share a common prior over some finite state space and each agent is exposed to some information about the state. We ask which distributions over empirical distributions of posteriors beliefs in the population are feasible. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for feasibility. We apply this result in several

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  • 2 Feb 2022 Journal Article Optimization Letters

    Matching orderable and separable hypergraphs

    Abstract

    A perfect matching in a hypergraph is a set of edges that partition the set of vertices. We study the complexity of deciding the existence of a perfect matching in orderable and separable hypergraphs. We show that the class of orderable hypergraphs is strictly contained in the class of separable hypergraphs. Accordingly, we show that for each fixed k, deciding perfect

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  • 1 Feb 2022 Preprint medRxiv

    Protection by 4th dose of BNT162b2 against Omicron in Israel

    Yinon M Bar-On, Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Omri Bodenheimer, Ofra Amir, Laurence S Freedman, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Nachman Ash, Amit Huppert, Ron Milo
    Abstract

    BACKGROUND On January 2, 2022, Israel began administering a fourth dose of BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) to people aged over 60 years and at-risk populations, who had received a third dose of vaccine at least 4 months earlier. The effect of the fourth dose on confirmed coronavirus 2019 disease (Covid-19) and severe illness are still unclear. METHODS We extracted

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  • 1 Feb 2022 Journal Article Topics in Cognitive Science

    Editors' Introduction to Networks of the Mind: How Can Network Science Elucidate Our Understanding of Cognition?

    Yoed N Kenett, Thomas T Hills
    Abstract

    Thinking is complex. Over the years, several types of methods and paradigms have developed across the psychological, cognitive, and neural sciences to study such complexity. A rapidly growing multidisciplinary quantitative field of network science offers quantitative methods to represent complex systems as networks, or graphs, and study the network properties of these

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  • 31 Jan 2022 Journal Article Annals of Operations Research

    A multi-product dynamic supply chain inventory model with supplier selection, joint replenishment, and transportation cost

    José A Ventura, Boaz Golany, Abraham Mendoza, Chenxi Li
    Abstract

    The aim of this paper is to solve a multi-period supplier selection and inventory lot-sizing problem with multiple products in a serial supply chain. Compared to previous models proposed in the literature, our research incorporates a richer cost structure involving joint replenishment costs for raw material replenishment and production, and a more realistic description

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  • 30 Jan 2022 Preprint arXiv

    Augmented Business Process Management Systems: A Research Manifesto

    Marlon Dumas, Fabiana Fournier, Lior Limonad, Andrea Marrella, Marco Montali, Jana-Rebecca Rehse, Rafael Accorsi, Diego Calvanese, Giuseppe De Giacomo, Dirk Fahland, Avigdor Gal, Marcello La Rosa, Hagen Völzer, Ingo Weber
    Abstract

    Augmented Business Process Management Systems (ABPMSs) are an emerging class of process-aware information systems that draws upon trustworthy AI technology. An ABPMS enhances the execution of business processes with the aim of making these processes more adaptable, proactive, explainable, and context-sensitive. This manifesto presents a vision for ABPMSs and discusses

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  • 30 Jan 2022 Journal Article Discrete Applied Mathematics

    Starting time minimization for the maximum job variant

    Leah Epstein, Asaf Levin
    Abstract

    We consider a scheduling problem on identical machines, where the cost for each machine is the total size of jobs assigned to it, excluding its largest job. The objective is to minimize the cost of the schedule, which is the maximum cost over all machines. We study online algorithms with and without migration. We design an algorithm with competitive ratio 3 for the

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  • 29 Jan 2022 Journal Article Mathematical Programming

    Generalized self-concordant analysis of Frank–Wolfe algorithms

    Pavel Dvurechensky, Kamil Safin, Shimrit Shtern, Mathias Staudigl
    Abstract

    Projection-free optimization via different variants of the Frank–Wolfe method has become one of the cornerstones of large scale optimization for machine learning and computational statistics. Numerous applications within these fields involve the minimization of functions with self-concordance like properties. Such generalized self-concordant functions do not necessarily

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  • 29 Jan 2022 Journal Article Journal of Psychiatric Research

    Early- and subsequent- response of cognitive functioning in Alzheimer's disease: Individual-participant data from five pivotal randomized clinical trials of donepezil

    Stephen Z Levine, Yair Goldberg, Kazufumi Yoshida, Myrto Samara, Andrea Cipriani, Takeshi Iwatsubo, Stefan Leucht, Toshiaki A Furukawa
    Abstract

    The association between early improvement and subsequent change in cognition is unexamined in antidementia clinical trials. We aimed to examine the consequences of early-response to antidementia medication in Alzheimer's disease. Participant-level data were analyzed from five pivotal clinical trials of donepezil for Alzheimer's disease lasting up to 24 weeks

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  • 28 Jan 2022 Journal Article European Neuropsychopharmacology

    Cognitive impairment networks in Alzheimer's disease: Analysis of three double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trials of donepezil

    Anat Rotstein, Stephen Z Levine, Myrto Samara, Kazufumi Yoshida, Yair Goldberg, Andrea Cipriani, Takeshi Iwatsubo, Stefan Leucht, Toshiaki A Furukawa
    Abstract

    Psychometric network analysis is an alternative theoretically-driven analytic approach that has the potential to conceptualize cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease differently than was previously assumed and consequently detect unknown treatment effects. Based on individual participant data, extracted from three double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled clinical

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  • 28 Jan 2022 Journal Article Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications

    Minimum Mixed Time–Energy Trajectory Planning of a Nonlinear Vehicle Subject to 2D Disturbances

    Abstract

    The problem of a planar vehicle moving on a surface, such as aerial drones or small naval vessels, can be treated as a series of trajectory planning problems between way-points. While nominally the movement between each two fourth-dimensional points (positions and velocities) can be treated as a 1D projection of the movement on the vector connecting the two points, in

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  • 28 Jan 2022 Preprint Social Science Research Network

    Motivational drivers for serial position effects in high-stake legal decisions

    Ori Plonsky, Daniel L Chen, Liat Netzer, Talya Steiner, Yuval Feldman
    Abstract

    Experts and workers in many domains make multiple similar but independent decisions in sequence. Often, the serial position of the case in the sequence influences the decision. Explanations for these serial position effects tend to focus on the role of decision makers’ fatigue, but these effects emerge also when fatigue is unlikely. Here, we suggest that serial position

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  • 27 Jan 2022 Preprint Social Science Research Network

    Waiting Experience in Open-Shop Service Networks: Improvements via Flow Analytics & Automation

    Manlu Chen, Opher Baron, Avishai Mandelbaum, Jianfu Wang, Galit B Yom-Tov, Nadir Arber
    Abstract

    Waiting-for-service is a central, typically detrimental, factor in service experiences, and multiple delays will most likely amplify customers' poor impressions of a service. Yet multi-delay experiences are commonly assessed via macro measurements, e.g., overall waiting, as opposed to micro measurements that account for individual delays, e.g., maximal or most-recent

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  • 22 Jan 2022 Preprint arXiv

    Long-term Data Sharing under Exclusivity Attacks

    Abstract

    The quality of learning generally improves with the scale and diversity of data. Companies and institutions can therefore benefit from building models over shared data. Many cloud and blockchain platforms, as well as government initiatives, are interested in providing this type of service. These cooperative efforts face a challenge, which we call ``exclusivity attacks''

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  • 20 Jan 2022 Journal Article IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

    Walking Direction Estimation using Smartphone Sensors: a Deep Network-Based Framework

    Adi Manos, Tamir Hazan, Itzik Klein
    Abstract

    Smartphone-based inertial and magnetic sensors can be the basis for pedestrian navigation, whenever external positioning signals are limited or unavailable. Such navigation solutions are typically accomplished by a practice known as pedestrian dead reckoning, wherein step length and heading angle are estimated to form the horizontal trajectory of the user. One of the

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  • 19 Jan 2022 Preprint arXiv

    Welfare vs. Representation in Participatory Budgeting

    Roy Fairstein, Reshef Meir, Dan Vilenchik, Kobi Gal
    Abstract

    Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process for allocating funds to projects based on the votes of members of the community. Different rules have been used to aggregate participants' votes. Past research has studied the trade-off between notions of social welfare and fairness in the multi-winner setting (a special case of participatory budgeting with identical

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  • 15 Jan 2022 Journal Article Theory and Decision

    The impact of experience on decisions based on pre-choice samples and the face-or-cue hypothesis

    Ido Erev, Ofir Yakobi, Nathaniel J S Ashby, Nick Chater
    Abstract

    The growing literature on how people learn to make decisions based on experience focuses on two types of paradigms. In one paradigm, people are faced with a choice, and must retrospectively consult past experience of similar choices to decide what to do. In the other paradigm, people are faced with a choice, and then have the opportunity prospectively to gather new

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  • 13 Jan 2022 Preprint arXiv

    Cardinality Constrained Scheduling in Online Models

    Leah Epstein, Alexandra Lassota, Asaf Levin, Marten Maack, Lars Rohwedder
    Abstract

    Makespan minimization on parallel identical machines is a classical and intensively studied problem in scheduling, and a classic example for online algorithm analysis with Graham's famous list scheduling algorithm dating back to the 1960s. In this problem, jobs arrive over a list and upon an arrival, the algorithm needs to assign the job to a machine. The goal is to

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  • 11 Jan 2022 Journal Article Logical Methods in Computer Science

    Integrity Constraints Revisited: From Exact to Approximate Implication

    Dan Suciu, Batya Kenig
    Abstract

    Integrity constraints such as functional dependencies (FD) and multi-valued dependencies (MVD) are fundamental in database schema design. Likewise, probabilistic conditional independences (CI) are crucial for reasoning about multivariate probability distributions. The implication problem studies whether a set of constraints (antecedents) implies another constraint

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  • 1 Jan 2022 Journal Article Safety Science

    Architectural features and indoor evacuation wayfinding: The starting point matters

    Abstract

    Effective indoor wayfinding in the event of an emergency is key to guaranteeing safe and timely evacuation. However, despite the increasing number of evacuation studies, only a limited number focus on the influence of architectural elements. Through a virtual reality experiment, we create a link between human factors in indoor emergency wayfinding and architectural

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  • Jan 2022 Conference Paper Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV)

    Video and Text Matching With Conditioned Embeddings

    Ameen Ali, Idan Schwartz, Tamir Hazan, Lior Wolf
    Abstract

    We present a method for matching a text sentence from a given corpus to a given video clip and vice versa. Traditionally video and text matching is done by learning a shared embedding space and the encoding of one modality is independent of the other. In this work, we encode the dataset data in a way that takes into account the query's relevant information. The power

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  • Jan 2022 Journal Article ACM Transactions on Information Systems

    Topic Difficulty: Collection and Query Formulation Effects

    J Shane Culpepper, Guglielmo Faggioli, Nicola Ferro, Oren Kurland
    Abstract

    Several recent studies have explored the interaction effects between topics, systems, corpora, and components when measuring retrieval effectiveness. However, all of these previous studies assume that a topic or information need is represented by a single query. In reality, users routinely reformulate queries to satisfy an information need. In recent years, there has

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  • 2022 Journal Article Decision

    Intertemporal decisions from experience versus description: Similarities and differences

    Yael Shavit, Yafim Roth, Jerome Busemeyer, Kinneret Teodorescu
    Abstract

    Intertemporal trade-offs between small, temporally proximate benefits and larger, delayed benefits are frequent in our everyday lives. Most research on intertemporal choices has been focused on “one-shot” descriptive and hypothetical scenarios which involve large scales of both money and time. Yet, in daily life, many small intertemporal decisions are made repeatedly

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  • 31 Dec 2021 Journal Article Alzheimer's & Dementia

    Late-onset schizophrenia and the competing risks of dementia and death: A national cohort study

    Stephen Z Levine, Galit Weinstein, Anat Rotstein, Yair Goldberg, Abraham Reichenberg, Sven Sandin, Arad Kodesh
    Abstract

    Background

    Knowledge is limited regarding the association between very-late onset schizophrenia and the risks of risks of death and dementia. We aimed examine the associations between very-late onset schizophrenia and the risks of death and dementia.

    Method

    A prospective Israeli cohort study (N=94,120) of persons without either dementia or schizophrenia (2002 to

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  • 28 Dec 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Optimal minimax random designs for weighted least squares estimators

    Abstract

    This work studies an experimental design problem where $x$'s are to be selected with the goal of estimating a function $m(x)$, which is observed with noise. A linear model is fitted to $m(x)$ but it is not assumed that the model is correctly specified. It follows that the quantity of interest is the best linear approximation of $m(x)$, which is denoted by $\ell(x)$. It

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  • 26 Dec 2021 Preprint arXiv

    The chemical distance in random interlacements in the low-intensity regime

    Abstract

    In $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with $d\ge 5$, we consider the time constant $\rho_u$ associated to the chemical distance in random interlacements at low intensity $u \ll 1$. We prove an upper bound of order $u^{-1/2}$ and a lower bound of order $u^{-1/2+\varepsilon}$. The upper bound agrees with the conjectured scale in which $u^{1/2}\rho_u$ converges to a constant multiple of the

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  • 23 Dec 2021 Journal Article Journal of Data and Information Quality

    Knowledge-Driven Data Ecosystems Toward Data Transparency

    Sandra Geisler, Maria-Esther Vidal, Cinzia Cappiello, Bernadette Farias Lóscio, Avigdor Gal, Matthias Jarke, Maurizio Lenzerini, Paolo Missier, Boris Otto, Elda Paja, Barbara Pernici, Jakob Rehof
    Abstract

    A data ecosystem (DE) offers a keystone-player or alliance-driven infrastructure that enables the interaction of different stakeholders and the resolution of interoperability issues among shared data. However, despite years of research in data governance and management, trustability is still affected by the absence of transparent and traceable data-driven pipelines. In

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  • 23 Dec 2021 Journal Article The New England Journal of Medicine

    Protection against Covid-19 by BNT162b2 booster across age groups

    Yinon M Bar-On, Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Omri Bodenheimer, Laurence S Freedman, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Nachman Ash, Amit Huppert, Ron Milo
    Abstract

    BACKGROUND After promising initial results from the administration of a third (booster) dose of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech) to persons 60 years of age or older, the booster campaign in Israel was gradually expanded to persons in younger age groups who had received a second dose at least 5 months earlier. METHODS We extracted data for the period

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  • 21 Dec 2021 Preprint medRxiv

    Protection following BNT162b2 booster substantially exceeds that of a fresh 2-dose vaccine: a quasi-experimental study

    Ofra Amir, Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Yinon M Bar-On, Omri Bodenheimer, Nachman Ash, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Amit Huppert, Ron Milo
    Abstract

    Israel began administering a BNT162b2 booster dose to restore protection following the waning of the 2-dose vaccine. Biological studies have shown that a fresh booster leads to increased antibody levels compared to a fresh 2-dose vaccine, which may suggest increased effectiveness. To compare the real-world effectiveness of a fresh booster dose with that of a fresh 2-dose

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  • 17 Dec 2021 Conference Paper WINE 2021 - The 17th Conference on Web and Internet Economics

    Optimal DSIC Auctions for Correlated Private Values: Ex-Post vs. Ex-Interim IR

    Ido Feldman, Ron Lavi
    Abstract

    We study Dominant-Strategy Incentive-Compatible (DSIC) revenue-maximizing auctions ("optimal" auctions) for a single-item and correlated private values. We give tight bounds on the ratio of the revenue of the optimal Ex-Post Individually Rational (EPIR) auction and the revenue of the optimal Ex-Interim Individually Rational (EIIR) auction. This bound is expressed as a

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  • 15 Dec 2021 Preprint bioRxiv

    Simulated visual hallucinations in virtual reality enhance cognitive flexibility

    Clara Rastelli, Antonino Greco, Yoed N Kenett, Chiara Finocchiaro, Nicola De Pisapia
    Abstract

    Historically, psychedelic drugs are known to modulate cognitive flexibility, a central aspect of cognition permitting adaptation to changing environmental demands. Despite proof suggesting phenomenological similarities between artificially-induced and actual psychedelic altered perception, experimental evidence is still lacking about whether the former is also able to

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  • 14 Dec 2021 Journal Article Operations Research

    Naive Learning Through Probability Overmatching

    Itai Arieli, Yakov Babichenko, Manuel Mueller-Frank
    Abstract

    We analyze boundedly rational updating in a repeated interaction network model with binary actions and binary states. Agents form beliefs according to discretized DeGroot updating and apply a decision rule that assigns a (mixed) action to each belief. We first show that under weak assumptions, random decision rules are sufficient to achieve agreement in finite time in

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  • 10 Dec 2021 Preprint Social Science Research Network

    The Co-Production of Service: Modeling Service Times in Contact Centers Using Hawkes Processes

    Andrew Daw, Antonio Castellanos, Galit B Yom-Tov, Jamol Pender, Leor Gruendlinger
    Abstract

    In customer support contact centers, a successful service interaction involves a messaging dialogue between a customer and an agent. Both parties depend on one another for information and problem solving, and this interaction defines a co-produced service process. In this paper, we propose, develop, and compare new stochastic models for service co-production in a contact center. A… show more

    In customer support contact centers, a successful service interaction involves a messaging dialogue between a customer and an agent. Both parties depend on one another for information and problem solving, and this interaction defines a co-produced service process. In this paper, we propose, develop, and compare new stochastic models for service co-production in a contact center. A key observation is that the customer and agent’s co-produced service has cross- and self-exciting dynamics within each conversation. The cross-excitation stems from the two parties responding to one another, and the self-excitation captures one party sending follow-ups to their own prior message. Hence, messages beget messages, and we capture this phenomenon by introducing Hawkes point process models of the conversational services. These models distinguish between the role of the customer and of the agent, reflect the service process's dynamic evolution over time based on its own history, and include additional behavioral and operational aspects, including the agent's number of simultaneous assignments and measures of the amount of information and sentiment each message contains.

    To evaluate our service co-production models, we apply them to an industry contact center dataset containing nearly 5 million messages. We show that the Hawkes models better represent the service dynamics than do the classic Poisson and phase-type models. Indeed, we find that service interactions are characterized by strong agent-customer dependency and the centrality of the process's cross- and self-excitation attributes. Finally, we use the proposed models to improve upon routing algorithms used in contact centers. We show how an activity-based dynamic routing based on predicted information easily computed from our models can outperform well-known and widely used concurrency-based routing rules and substantially reduce customer waiting time, demonstrating how these history-dependent stochastic models can improve operational decision making in practice.

  • 9 Dec 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Latent Space Explanation by Intervention

    Abstract

    The success of deep neural nets heavily relies on their ability to encode complex relations between their input and their output. While this property serves to fit the training data well, it also obscures the mechanism that drives prediction. This study aims to reveal hidden concepts by employing an intervention mechanism that shifts the predicted class based on discrete

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  • 9 Dec 2021 Journal Article Npj Science of Learning

    Education shapes the structure of semantic memory and impacts creative thinking

    Solange Denervaud, Alexander P Christensen, Yoed N Kenett, Roger E Beaty
    Abstract

    Education is central to the acquisition of knowledge, such as when children learn new concepts. It is unknown, however, whether educational differences impact not only what concepts children learn, but how those concepts come to be represented in semantic memory—a system that supports higher cognitive functions, such as creative thinking. Here we leverage computational

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  • 9 Dec 2021 Journal Article New England Journal of Medicine

    Waning Immunity after the BNT162b2 Vaccine in Israel

    Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Yinon M Bar-On, Omri Bodenheimer, Laurence S Freedman, Eric J Haas, Ron Milo, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Nachman Ash, Amit Huppert
    Abstract

    Abstract Background In December 2020, Israel began a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) by administering the BNT162b2 vaccine, which led to a sharp curtailing of ...

  • 6 Dec 2021 Conference Paper 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021)

    Learning Generalized Gumbel-max Causal Mechanisms

    Guy Lorberbom, Daniel Johnson, Chris J Maddison, Daniel Tarlow, Tamir Hazan
    Abstract

    To perform counterfactual reasoning in Structural Causal Models (SCMs), one needs to know the causal mechanisms, which provide factorizations of conditional distributions into noise sources and deterministic functions mapping realizations of noise to samples. Unfortunately, the causal mechanism is not uniquely identified by data that can be gathered by observing and

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  • 6 Dec 2021 Conference Paper 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021)

    Low-Rank Extragradient Method for Nonsmooth and Low-Rank Matrix Optimization Problems

    Abstract

    Low-rank and nonsmooth matrix optimization problems capture many fundamental tasks in statistics and machine learning. While significant progress has been made in recent years in developing efficient methods for\textit {smooth} low-rank optimization problems that avoid maintaining high-rank matrices and computing expensive high-rank SVDs, advances for nonsmooth problems

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  • 6 Dec 2021 Preprint PsyArXiv

    Dynamic changes in semantic memory structure support successful problem-solving

    Theophile Bieth, Yoed N Kenett, Marcela Ovando Tellez, Alizée Lopez-Persem, Célia Lacaux, Delphine Oudiette, Emmanuelle Volle
    Abstract

    While problem-solving is central in our daily life, its underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Restructuration (i.e., reinterpretation and reorganization of problem-related representations) is theoretically considered as one such mechanism, yet empirical evidence supporting it is scarce. We investigated restructuration as a mechanism underlying problem-solving

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  • 5 Dec 2021 Preprint MedRxiv

    Protection and waning of natural and hybrid COVID-19 immunity

    Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Yinon M Bar-On, Omri Bodenheimer, Laurence S Freedman, Nachman Ash, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Amit Huppert, Ron Milo
    Abstract

    BACKGROUND Infection with SARS-CoV-2 provides substantial natural immunity against reinfection. Recent studies have shown strong waning of the immunity provided by the BNT162b2 vaccine. The time course of natural and hybrid immunity is unknown. METHODS Data on confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections were extracted from the Israeli Ministry of Health database for the period

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  • 1 Dec 2021 Journal Article Artificial Intelligence

    Local and global explanations of agent behavior: Integrating strategy summaries with saliency maps

    Tobias Huber, Katharina Weitz, Elisabeth André, Ofra Amir
    Abstract

    With advances in reinforcement learning (RL), agents are now being developed in high-stakes application domains such as healthcare and transportation. Explaining the behavior of these agents is challenging, as the environments in which they act have large state spaces, and their decision-making can be affected by delayed rewards, making it difficult to analyze their

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  • 1 Dec 2021 Journal Article Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference

    Optimal rerandomization designs via a criterion that provides insurance against failed experiments

    Adam Kapelner, Abba M Krieger, Michael Sklar, David Azriel
    Abstract

    We present an optimized rerandomization design procedure for a non-sequential treatment-control experiment. Randomized experiments are the gold standard for finding causal effects in nature. But sometimes random assignments result in unequal partitions of the treatment and control group visibly seen as imbalance in observed covariates. There can additionally be imbalance

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  • 1 Dec 2021 Journal Article Algorithmica

    Approximation Schemes for the Generalized Extensible Bin Packing Problem

    Abstract

    We present a new generalization of the extensible bin packing with unequal bin sizes problem. In our generalization the cost of exceeding the bin size (also known as the bin capacity) depends on the index of the bin and not only on the amount in which the size of the bin is exceeded. This generalization does not satisfy the assumptions on the cost function that were

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  • 30 Nov 2021 Journal Article Journal of Business Ethics

    Who Do I (Dis)Trust and Monitor for Ethical Misconduct? Status, Power, and the Structural Paradox

    Kelly Raz, Alison R Fragale, Liat Levontin
    Abstract

    A wealth of research documents the critical role of trust for social exchange and cooperative behavior. The ability to inspire trust in others can often be elusive, and distrust can have adverse interpersonal and ethical consequences. Drawing from the literature on social hierarchy and interpersonal judgments, the current research explores the predictive role of a

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  • 22 Nov 2021 Journal Article Advances in Mathematics

    Fisher-KPP equation with small data and the extremal process of branching Brownian motion

    Leonid Mytnik, Jean-Michel Roquejoffre, Lenya Ryzhik
    Abstract

    We consider the limiting extremal process X of the particles of the binary branching Brownian motion. We show that after a shift by the logarithm of the derivative martingale Z, the rescaled “density” of particles, which are at distance n + x from a position close to the tip of X , converges

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  • 18 Nov 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Multi-Channel Bayesian Persuasion

    Abstract

    The celebrated Bayesian persuasion model considers strategic communication between an informed agent (the sender) and uniformed decision makers (the receivers). The current rapidly-growing literature assumes a dichotomy: either the sender is powerful enough to communicate separately with each receiver (a.k.a. private persuasion), or she cannot communicate separately at

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  • 18 Nov 2021 Preprint arXiv

    A limit law for the most favorite point of simple random walk on a regular tree

    Marek Biskup, Oren Louidor
    Abstract

    We consider a continuous-time random walk on a regular tree of finite depth and study its favorite points among the leaf vertices. For the walk started from a leaf vertex and stopped upon hitting the root we prove that, in the limit as as the depth of the tree tends to infinity, the suitably scaled and centered maximal time spent at any leaf converges to a randomly-shifted

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  • 15 Nov 2021 Journal Article Discrete Applied Mathematics

    Efficiently enumerating minimal triangulations

    Abstract

    We present an algorithm that enumerates all the minimal triangulations of a graph in incremental polynomial time. Consequently, we get an algorithm for enumerating all the proper tree decompositions, in incremental polynomial time, where “proper” means that the tree decomposition cannot be improved by removing or splitting a bag. The algorithm can incorporate any method

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  • 15 Nov 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Enumerating Minimal Separators in Ranked Order

    Abstract

    Let $G$ be an $n$-vertex graph, and $s,t$ vertices of $G$. We present an efficient algorithm which enumerates the set of minimal $st$-separators of $G$ in ascending order of cardinality, with a delay of $O(n^{3.5})$ per separator. In particular, we present an algorithm that lists, in ascending order of cardinality, all minimal separators with at most $k$ vertices. In

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  • 12 Nov 2021 Preprint arXiv

    EPTAS for parallel identical machine scheduling with time restrictions

    Abstract

    We consider the non-preemptive scheduling problem on identical machines where there is a parameter B and each machine in every unit length time interval can process up to B different jobs. The goal function we consider is the makespan minimization and we develop an EPTAS for this problem. Prior to our work a PTAS was known only for the case of one machine and constant

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  • 12 Nov 2021 Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology

    On the Effect of Practice on Exploration and Exploitation of Options and Strategies

    Doron Cohen, Kinneret Teodorescu
    Abstract

    Insufficient exploration of one’s surroundings is at the root of many real-life problems, as demonstrated by many famous biases (e.g., the status quo bias, learned helplessness). The current work focuses on the emergence of this phenomenon at the strategy level: the tendency to under-explore the set of available choice strategies. We demonstrate that insufficient

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  • 11 Nov 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Open surgery tool classification and hand utilization using a multi-camera system

    Abstract

    Purpose: The goal of this work is to use multi-camera video to classify open surgery tools as well as identify which tool is held in each hand. Multi-camera systems help prevent occlusions in open surgery video data. Furthermore, combining multiple views such as a Top-view camera covering the full operative field and a Close-up camera focusing on hand motion and anatomy

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  • 4 Nov 2021 Preprint bioRxiv

    Evaluating the heterogeneous effect of extended incubation to blastocyst transfer on the implantation outcome via causal inference

    Yoav Kan-Tor, Naama Srebnik, Matan Gavish, Uri Shalit, Amnon Buxboim
    Abstract

    In IVF treatments, extended culture to single blastocyst-transfer is the recommended protocol over cleavage-stage transfer. However, evidence-based criteria for assessing the heterogeneous implications on implantation outcome are lacking. To estimate the causal effect of blastocyst-transfer on implantation outcome, we assembled a multicenter dataset of embryo time-lapse

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  • 4 Nov 2021 Journal Article Journal of Scheduling

    More on ordered open end bin packing

    János Balogh, Leah Epstein, Asaf Levin
    Abstract

    We consider the Ordered Open End Bin Packing problem. Items of sizes in (0, 1] are presented one by one, to be assigned to bins in this order. An item can be assigned to any bin for which the current total size is strictly below 1. This means also that the bin can be overloaded by its last packed item. We improve lower and upper bounds on the asymptotic competitive

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  • 4 Nov 2021 Journal Article Theoretical Computer Science

    Golden games

    Urban Larsson, Yakov Babichenko
    Abstract

    We consider extensive form 2-player win-lose games, with alternating moves, of perfect and complete information. The games are played over a complete binary-tree of depth n, where 0/1 payoffs in the leaves are drawn according to an i.i.d. Bernoulli distribution with probability p. Whenever p differs from the golden ratio, asymptotically as n

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  • 3 Nov 2021 Conference Paper 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021)

    Causal-BALD: Deep Bayesian Active Learning of Outcomes to Infer Treatment-Effects from Observational Data

    Andrew Jesson, Panagiotis Tigas, Joost van Amersfoort, Andreas Kirsch, Uri Shalit, Yarin Gal
    Abstract

    Estimating personalized treatment effects from high-dimensional observational data is essential in situations where experimental designs are infeasible, unethical, or expensive. Existing approaches rely on fitting deep models on outcomes observed for treated and control populations. However, when measuring individual outcomes is costly, as is the case of a tumor biopsy

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  • 2 Nov 2021 Journal Article Psychopharmacology

    The effect of methylphenidate and mixed amphetamine salts on cognitive reflection: a field study

    Abstract

    Rationale

    Methylphenidate (MPH) and mixed D,L-amphetamine salts (MASs; Adderall) were previously found to have unreliable effects on judgment and decision processes.

    Objective

    We predicted that MPH and MASs have a specific effect of reducing heuristic responses, which should lead to increased performance on the cognitive reflection test (CRT). The CRT is considered

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  • 1 Nov 2021 Journal Article Brazilian Journal of Probability and Statistics

    Absolute continuity of the super-Brownian motion with infinite mean

    Rustam Mamin, Leonid Mytnik
    Abstract

    In this work, we prove that for any dimension d 1 and any γ ( 0 , 1 ) super-Brownian motion corresponding to the log-Laplace equation

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  • 1 Nov 2021 Journal Article Operations Research Letters

    Parameterized complexity of configuration integer programs

    Dušan Knop, Martin Koutecký, Asaf Levin, Matthias Mnich, Shmuel Onn
    Abstract

    Configuration integer programs (IP) have been key in the design of algorithms for NP-hard high-multiplicity problems. First, we develop fast exact (exponential-time) algorithms for Configuration IP and matching hardness results. Second, we showcase the implications of these results to bin-packing and facility-location-like problems.

  • 1 Nov 2021 Journal Article Journal of Organizational Behavior

    When do service employees smile? Response-dependent emotion regulation in emotional labor

    Abstract

    We advance the theoretical and practical understanding of affect in service interactions by conceptualizing employees and customers as concurrent participants in the same interaction. We analyzed employees' emotional labor requirements, which comprise both the well-recognized requirement to display positive affect (i.e., acting is response independent) and the

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  • Nov 2021 Journal Article Context Sensitive Health Informatics: The Role of Informatics in Global Pandemics

    Information Chaos: An Adapted Framework Describing Citizens’ Experiences with Information During COVID-19

    Helen Monkman, Andre W Kushniruk, Avi Parush, Blake J Lesselroth
    Abstract

    With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, clinicians, public officials, and citizens alike struggled to stay abreast of the constant and evolving stream of information about the clinical manifestations of illness, epidemiology of the disease, and the public health response. In this paper, we adapted (ie, added and modified elements) Beasley and colleagues’ information

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  • Nov 2021 Conference Paper Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on AI for Geographic Knowledge Discovery

    Location Classification Based on Tweets

    Elad Kravi, Yaron Kanza, Benny Kimelfeld, Roi Reichart
    Abstract

    Location classification is used for associating type to locations, to enrich maps and support a plethora of geospatial applications that rely on location types. Classification can be performed by humans, but using machine learning is more efficient and faster to react to changes than human-based classification. Machine learning can be used in lieu of human classification

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  • 29 Oct 2021 Journal Article Sustainability

    Workspace Integration and Sustainability: Linking the Symbolic and Social Affordances of the Workspace to Employee Wellbeing

    Iris Vilnai-Yavetz, Anat Rafaeli
    Abstract

    Our goal in this paper is to connect workspace design to employee wellbeing and social sustainability. Toward this connection, we introduce and empirically test a new concept of “workspace integration”. This concept refers to the continuum of integration of an employee’s workspace with the organizational, physical space. We further define three workspace affordances

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  • 28 Oct 2021 Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

    Frequency of enforcement is more important than the severity of punishment in reducing violation behaviors

    Kinneret Teodorescu, Ori Plonsky, Shahar Ayal, Rachel Barkan
    Abstract

    External enforcement policies aimed to reduce violations differ on two key components: the probability of inspection and the severity of the punishment. Different lines of research offer different insights regarding the relative importance of each component. In four studies, students and Prolific crowdsourcing participants (Ntotal = 816) repeatedly faced temptations to

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  • 26 Oct 2021 Conference Paper CIKM '21: Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management

    From Limited Annotated Raw Material Data to Quality Production Data: A Case Study in the Milk Industry

    Abstract

    Industry 4.0 offers opportunities to combine multiple sensor data sources using IoT technologies for better utilization of raw material in production lines. A common belief that data is readily available (the big data phenomenon), is oftentimes challenged by the need to effectively acquire quality data under severe constraints. In this paper we propose a design methodology

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  • 26 Oct 2021 Conference Paper CIKM '21: Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management

    Driving the Herd: Search Engines as Content Influencers

    Gregory Goren, Oren Kurland, Moshe Tennenholtz, Fiana Raiber
    Abstract

    In competitive search settings such as the Web, many documents' authors (publishers) opt to have their documents highly ranked for some queries. To this end, they modify the documents --- specifically, their content --- in response to induced rankings. Thus, the search engine affects the content in the corpus via its ranking decisions. We present a first study of the

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  • 26 Oct 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Video-based fully automatic assessment of open surgery suturing skills

    Adam Goldbraikh, Anne-Lise D D'Angelo, Carla M Pugh, Shlomi Laufer
    Abstract

    The goal of this study was to develop new reliable open surgery suturing simulation system for training medical students in situation where resources are limited or in the domestic setup. Namely, we developed an algorithm for tools and hands localization as well as identifying the interactions between them based on simple webcam video data, calculating motion metrics

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  • 19 Oct 2021 Journal Article Psychological Medicine

    Attempted suicide rates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: interrupted time series analysis of a nationally representative sample

    Yael Travis-Lumer, Arad Kodesh, Yair Goldberg, Sophia Frangou, Stephen Z Levine
    Abstract
    Background To characterize the association between the protracted biopsychosocial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exposures and incident suicide attempt rates. Methods Data were from a nationally representative cohort based on electronic health records from January 2013 to February 2021 (N = 852 233), with an interrupted time series study design. For the… show more
  • 13 Oct 2021 Preprint arXiv

    On Covariate Shift of Latent Confounders in Imitation and Reinforcement Learning

    Guy Tennenholtz, Assaf Hallak, Gal Dalal, Shie Mannor, Gal Chechik, Uri Shalit
    Abstract

    We consider the problem of using expert data with unobserved confounders for imitation and reinforcement learning. We begin by defining the problem of learning from confounded expert data in a contextual MDP setup. We analyze the limitations of learning from such data with and without external reward, and propose an adjustment of standard imitation learning algorithms

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  • 7 Oct 2021 Journal Article The New England Journal of Medicine

    Protection of BNT162b2 Vaccine Booster against Covid-19 in Israel

    Yinon M Bar-On, Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Omri Bodenheimer, Laurence S Freedman, Nir Kalkstein, Barak Mizrahi, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Nachman Ash, Ron Milo, Amit Huppert
    Abstract
    BACKGROUND On July 30, 2021, the administration of a third (booster) dose of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech) was approved in Israel for persons who were 60 years of age or older and who had received a second dose of vaccine at least 5 months earlier. Data are needed regarding the effect of the booster dose on the rate of confirmed coronavirus 2019… show more
  • 7 Oct 2021 Preprint medRxiv

    Protection Across Age Groups of BNT162b2 Vaccine Booster against Covid-19

    Yinon M Bar-On, Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Omri Bodenheimer, Laurence S Freedman, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Nachman Ash, Amit Huppert, Ron Milo
    Abstract
    BACKGROUND Following administration to persons 60+ years of age, the booster vaccination campaign in Israel was gradually expanded to younger age groups who received a second dose >5 months earlier. We study the booster effect on COVID-19 outcomes. METHODS We extracted data for the period July 30, 2021 to October 6, 2021 from the Israeli Ministry of Health database… show more
  • 7 Oct 2021 Journal Article Decision

    On the effect of perceived patterns in decisions from sampling

    Doron Cohen, Kinneret Teodorescu
    Abstract

    Many real-life choices are based on previous experiences. Research devoted to these decisions from experience has typically employed static settings, where the probability of a given outcome is constant across trials. However, recent studies of repeated choice suggest that people tend to follow perceived patterns of outcomes even when true patterns do not exist (i.e.

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  • 5 Oct 2021 Journal Article Information Processing Letters

    Robust algorithms for preemptive scheduling on uniform machines of non-increasing job sizes

    Abstract

    Preemptive scheduling problems of minimizing the makespan on parallel machines are basic problems. Motivated by sensitivity analysis and online algorithms, we investigate the problem of designing robust algorithms that are faced with the input one job at a time, but unlike online algorithms they are allowed to modify a small portion of the solution whenever a new job

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  • 2 Oct 2021 Journal Article Human Factors

    Object-Process Methodology as an Alternative to Human Factors Task Analysis

    Dov Dori, Ahmad Jbara, Yongkai E Yang, Andrew Liu, Charles M Oman
    Abstract

    Objective

    We define and demonstrate the use of OPM-TA—a model-based task analysis (TA) framework that uses object-process methodology (OPM) ISO 19450 as a viable alternative to traditional TA techniques.

    Background

    A variety of different TA methods exist in human factors engineering, and several of them are often applied successively for a broad task representation

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  • 1 Oct 2021 Journal Article Clinical Microbiology and Infection

    Socioeconomic disparities and COVID-19 vaccination acceptance: a nationwide ecologic study

    Gil Caspi, Avshalom Dayan, Yael Eshal, Sigal Liverant-Taub, Gilad Twig, Uri Shalit, Yair Lewis, Avi Shina, Oren Caspi
    Abstract

    Objective To analyze the correlation between COVID-19 vaccination percentage and socioeconomic status (SES). Methods A nationwide ecologic study based on open-sourced, anonymized, aggregated data provided by the Israel Ministry of Health. The correlations between municipal SES, vaccination percentage, and active COVID-19 cases during the vaccination campaign were analyzed

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  • Oct 2021 Journal Article Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

    Agile Robotics for Industrial Applications: Editorial

    Craig I Schlenoff, Zeid Kootbally, Erez Karpas
    Abstract

    Advances in automation have provided for sustained productivity increases and manufacturing growth over the past decade. Sustaining this growth will require automation to become more agile and flexible, enabling the automation of tasks that require a high degree of human dexterity and the ability to react to unforeseen circumstances. Applying robots is one promising

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  • Oct 2021 Conference Paper Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference MECC 2021

    Time Optimal Control for a Non-Linear Planar Vehicle Subject to Disturbances

    Abstract

    The problem of an autonomous agent moving on a planar surface, such as an aerial drone or a small naval vessel can be treated as navigation between a series of points. While nominally the movement between each pair of points can be treated as a 1D projection of the movement on the vector connecting the two points, in the presence of arbitrary constant disturbance the

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  • 28 Sep 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Unified Fair Allocation of Goods and Chores via Copies

    Abstract

    We consider fair allocation of indivisible items in a model with goods, chores, and copies, as a unified framework for studying: (1)~the existence of EFX and other solution concepts for goods with copies; (2)~the existence of EFX and other solution concepts for chores. We establish a tight relation between these issues via two conceptual contributions: First, a refinement

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  • 24 Sep 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Continuity and uniqueness of percolation critical parameters in Finitary Random Interlacements

    Z Cai, Eviatar B Procaccia, Yuan Zhang
    Abstract

    We prove that the critical percolation parameter for Finitary Random Interlacements (FRI) is continuous with respect to the path length parameter T. The proof uses a result which is interesting on its own right; equality of natural critical parameters for FRI percolation phase transition.

  • 24 Sep 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Discrete $\ell^{1}$ Double Bubble solution is at most ceiling +2 of the continuous solution"

    Parker Duncan, Rory O'Dwyer, Eviatar B Procaccia
    Abstract

    In this paper we show that the solution of the discrete Double Bubble problem over $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is at most the ceiling function plus two of the continuous solution to the Double Bubble problem, with respect to the $\ell^1$ norm, found in [11] and [6].

  • 23 Sep 2021 Journal Article Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research

    Worst-case Bounds on Power vs. Proportion in Weighted Voting Games with an Application to False-name Manipulation

    Abstract

    Weighted voting games apply to a wide variety of multi-agent settings. They enable the formalization of power indices which quantify the coalitional power of players. We take a novel approach to the study of the power of big vs. small players in these games. We model small (big) players as having single (multiple) votes. The aggregate relative power of big players is

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  • 17 Sep 2021 Journal Article Formal Methods in System Design

    Vacuity in synthesis

    Roderick Bloem, Hana Chockler, Masoud Ebrahimi, Ofer Strichman
    Abstract

    In reactive synthesis, one begins with a temporal specification \(\varphi \), and automatically synthesizes a system \(M\) such that \(M\models \varphi \). As many systems can satisfy a given specification, it is natural to seek ways to force the synthesis tool to synthesize systems that are of a higher quality, in some well-defined sense. In this article we focus on

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  • 16 Sep 2021 Journal Article Topics in Cognitive Science

    Is the Mind a Network? Maps, Vehicles, and Skyhooks in Cognitive Network Science

    Thomas T Hills, Yoed N Kenett
    Abstract

    Cognitive researchers often carve cognition up into structures and processes. Cognitive processes operate on structures, like vehicles driving over a map. Language alongside semantic and episodic memory are proposed to have structure, as are perceptual systems. Over these structures, processes operate to construct memory and solve problems by retrieving and manipulating

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  • 15 Sep 2021 Journal Article IIR 2021: The 11th Italian Information Retrieval Workshop

    Do Hard Topics Exist? A Statistical Analysis

    J Shane Culpepper, Guglielmo Faggioli, Nicola Ferro, Oren Kurland
    Abstract

    Several recent studies have explored the interaction effects between topics, systems, corpora, and components when measuring retrieval effectiveness. However, all of these previous studies assume that a topic or information need is represented by a single query. In reality, users routinely reformulate queries to satisfy an information need. Recently there has been

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  • 15 Sep 2021 Preprint arXiv

    PoWareMatch: a Quality-aware Deep Learning Approach to Improve Human Schema Matching

    Abstract

    Schema matching is a core task of any data integration process. Being investigated in the fields of databases, AI, Semantic Web and data mining for many years, the main challenge remains the ability to generate quality matches among data concepts (e.g., database attributes). In this work, we examine a novel angle on the behavior of humans as matchers, studying match

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  • 14 Sep 2021 Journal Article Vietnam Journal of Mathematics

    The Complexity of Vector Partition

    Abstract

    We consider the vector partition problem, where n agents, each with a d-dimensional attribute vector, are to be partitioned into p parts so as to minimize cost which is a given function on the sums of attribute vectors in each part. The problem has applications in a variety of areas including clustering, logistics and health care. We consider the complexity and

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  • 13 Sep 2021 Journal Article Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications

    A Dynamic Alternating Direction of Multipliers for Nonconvex Minimization with Nonlinear Functional Equality Constraints

    Eyal Cohen, Nadav Hallak, Marc Teboulle
    Abstract

    This paper studies the minimization of a broad class of nonsmooth nonconvex objective functions subject to nonlinear functional equality constraints, where the gradients of the differentiable parts in the objective and the constraints are only locally Lipschitz continuous. We propose a specific proximal linearized alternating direction method of multipliers in which

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  • 12 Sep 2021 Preprint arXiv

    Mixing between the Cross Entropy and the Expectation Loss Terms

    Barak Battash, Lior Wolf, Tamir Hazan
    Abstract

    The cross entropy loss is widely used due to its effectiveness and solid theoretical grounding. However, as training progresses, the loss tends to focus on hard to classify samples, which may prevent the network from obtaining gains in performance. While most work in the field suggest ways to classify hard negatives, we suggest to strategically leave hard negatives

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  • 7 Sep 2021 Preprint SSRN

    Herd Design

    Itai Arieli, Ronen Gradwohl, Rann Smorodinsky
    Abstract

    The classical herding model examines the asymptotic behavior of agents who observe their predecessors' actions as well as a private signal from an exogenous information structure. In this paper, we introduce a self-interested sender into the model and study her problem of designing this information structure. If agents cannot observe each other the model reduces to the

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  • 6 Sep 2021 Preprint International Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms (WAOA)

    EPTAS for load balancing problem on parallel machines with a non-renewable resource

    Abstract

    The problem considered is the non-preemptive scheduling of independent jobs that consume a resource (which is non-renewable and replenished regularly) on parallel uniformly related machines. The input defines the speed of machines, size of jobs, the quantity of resource required by the jobs, the replenished quantities, and replenishment dates of the resource. Every job

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