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Documents authored by Zirondelli, Elia C.

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2023.17
Cut Paths and Their Remainder Structure, with Applications

Authors: Massimo Cairo, Shahbaz Khan, Romeo Rizzi, Sebastian Schmidt, Alexandru I. Tomescu, and Elia C. Zirondelli

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 254, 40th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2023)

Abstract
In a strongly connected graph G = (V,E), a cut arc (also called strong bridge) is an arc e ∈ E whose removal makes the graph no longer strongly connected. Equivalently, there exist u,v ∈ V, such that all u-v walks contain e. Cut arcs are a fundamental graph-theoretic notion, with countless applications, especially in reachability problems. In this paper we initiate the study of cut paths, as a generalisation of cut arcs, which we naturally define as those paths P for which there exist u,v ∈ V, such that all u-v walks contain P as subwalk. We first prove various properties of cut paths and define their remainder structures, which we use to present a simple O(m)-time verification algorithm for a cut path (|V| = n, |E| = m). Secondly, we apply cut paths and their remainder structures to improve several reachability problems from bioinformatics, as follows. A walk is called safe if it is a subwalk of every node-covering closed walk of a strongly connected graph. Multi-safety is defined analogously, by considering node-covering sets of closed walks instead. We show that cut paths provide simple O(m)-time algorithms verifying if a walk is safe or multi-safe. For multi-safety, we present the first linear time algorithm, while for safety, we present a simple algorithm where the state-of-the-art employed complex data structures. Finally we show that the simultaneous computation of remainder structures of all subwalks of a cut path can be performed in linear time, since they are related in a structured way. These properties yield an O(mn)-time algorithm outputting all maximal multi-safe walks, improving over the state-of-the-art algorithm running in time O(m²+n³). The results of this paper only scratch the surface in the study of cut paths, and we believe a rich structure of a graph can be revealed, considering the perspective of a path, instead of just an arc.
Cite as

Massimo Cairo, Shahbaz Khan, Romeo Rizzi, Sebastian Schmidt, Alexandru I. Tomescu, and Elia C. Zirondelli. Cut Paths and Their Remainder Structure, with Applications. In 40th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 254, pp. 17:1-17:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{cairo_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2023.17,
  author =	{Cairo, Massimo and Khan, Shahbaz and Rizzi, Romeo and Schmidt, Sebastian and Tomescu, Alexandru I. and Zirondelli, Elia C.},
  title =	{{Cut Paths and Their Remainder Structure, with Applications}},
  booktitle =	{40th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2023)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-266-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{254},
  editor =	{Berenbrink, Petra and Bouyer, Patricia and Dawar, Anuj and Kant\'{e}, Mamadou Moustapha},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2023.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-176690},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2023.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: reachability, cut arc, strong bridge, covering walk, safety, persistence, essentiality, genome assembly}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.43
Genome Assembly, from Practice to Theory: Safe, Complete and Linear-Time

Authors: Massimo Cairo, Romeo Rizzi, Alexandru I. Tomescu, and Elia C. Zirondelli

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 198, 48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021)

Abstract
Genome assembly asks to reconstruct an unknown string from many shorter substrings of it. Even though it is one of the key problems in Bioinformatics, it is generally lacking major theoretical advances. Its hardness stems both from practical issues (size and errors of real data), and from the fact that problem formulations inherently admit multiple solutions. Given these, at their core, most state-of-the-art assemblers are based on finding non-branching paths (unitigs) in an assembly graph. While such paths constitute only partial assemblies, they are likely to be correct. More precisely, if one defines a genome assembly solution as a closed arc-covering walk of the graph, then unitigs appear in all solutions, being thus safe partial solutions. Until recently, it was open what are all the safe walks of an assembly graph. Tomescu and Medvedev (RECOMB 2016) characterized all such safe walks (omnitigs), thus giving the first safe and complete genome assembly algorithm. Even though omnitig finding was later improved to quadratic time, it remained open whether the crucial linear-time feature of finding unitigs can be attained with omnitigs. We answer this question affirmatively, by describing a surprising O(m)-time algorithm to identify all maximal omnitigs of a graph with n nodes and m arcs, notwithstanding the existence of families of graphs with Θ(mn) total maximal omnitig size. This is based on the discovery of a family of walks (macrotigs) with the property that all the non-trivial omnitigs are univocal extensions of subwalks of a macrotig. This has two consequences: (1) A linear-time output-sensitive algorithm enumerating all maximal omnitigs. (2) A compact O(m) representation of all maximal omnitigs, which allows, e.g., for O(m)-time computation of various statistics on them. Our results close a long-standing theoretical question inspired by practical genome assemblers, originating with the use of unitigs in 1995. We envision our results to be at the core of a reverse transfer from theory to practical and complete genome assembly programs, as has been the case for other key Bioinformatics problems.
Cite as

Massimo Cairo, Romeo Rizzi, Alexandru I. Tomescu, and Elia C. Zirondelli. Genome Assembly, from Practice to Theory: Safe, Complete and Linear-Time. In 48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 198, pp. 43:1-43:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{cairo_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.43,
  author =	{Cairo, Massimo and Rizzi, Romeo and Tomescu, Alexandru I. and Zirondelli, Elia C.},
  title =	{{Genome Assembly, from Practice to Theory: Safe, Complete and Linear-Time}},
  booktitle =	{48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021)},
  pages =	{43:1--43:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-195-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{198},
  editor =	{Bansal, Nikhil and Merelli, Emanuela and Worrell, James},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.43},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-141122},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.43},
  annote =	{Keywords: Graph algorithm, strong connectivity, reachability under failures}
}
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