Hoai Nam Nguyen, Grazia Galleri, Antonio Rassu
et al.
Pathological mutations in the LRRK2 gene are the major genetic cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although several animal models with either LRRK2 down- or over-expression have been developed, the physiological function of LRRK2 remains elusive. LRRK2 is constitutively expressed in various tissues including neurons and glial cells, but importantly, it is expressed at low levels in dopaminergic neurons, further contributing to the cryptic function of LRRK2. Significant levels of LRRK2 protein and mRNA have been detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, lymph nodes, the spleen, and primary microglia, strongly suggesting the contribution of inflammatory cells to neuronal degeneration. In this research article, using Drosophila LRRK2 models, we were able to demonstrate a significant contribution of glial cells to the LRRK2 pathological phenotype. Furthermore, in Drosophila, neurodegeneration is associated with a significant and important increase in specific inflammatory peptides. Finally, levetiracetam, a compound widely used in human therapy to treat epilepsy, was able to rescue both neuronal degeneration and neuroinflammation.
We present a generalization of the Tamari lattice to parabolic quotients of the symmetric group. More precisely, we generalize the notions of 231-avoiding permutations, noncrossing set partitions, and nonnesting set partitions to parabolic quotients, and show bijectively that these sets are equinumerous. Furthermore, the restriction of weak order on the parabolic quotient to the parabolic 231-avoiding permutations is a lattice quotient. Lastly, we suggest how to extend these constructions to all Coxeter groups.
Velleda Baldoni, Nicole Berline, Brandon Dutra
et al.
For a given sequence $\alpha = [\alpha_1,\alpha_2,\ldots , \alpha_N, \alpha_{N+1}]$ of $N+1$ positive integers, we consider the combinatorial function $E(\alpha)(t)$ that counts the nonnegative integer solutions of the equation $\alpha_1x_1+\alpha_2 x_2+ \ldots+ \alpha_Nx_N+ \alpha_{N+1}x_{N+1}=t$, where the right-hand side $t$ is a varying nonnegative integer. It is well-known that $E(\alpha)(t)$ is a quasipolynomial function of $t$ of degree $N$. In combinatorial number theory this function is known as the $\textit{denumerant}$. Our main result is a new algorithm that, for every fixed number $k$, computes in polynomial time the highest $k+1$ coefficients of the quasi-polynomial $E(\alpha)(t)$ as step polynomials of $t$. Our algorithm is a consequence of a nice poset structure on the poles of the associated rational generating function for $E(\alpha)(t)$ and the geometric reinterpretation of some rational generating functions in terms of lattice points in polyhedral cones. Experiments using a $\texttt{MAPLE}$ implementation will be posted separately.
Erdős and Rényi conjectured in 1960 that the limiting probability $p$ that a random graph with $n$ vertices and $M=n/2$ edges is planar exists. It has been shown that indeed p exists and is a constant strictly between 0 and 1. In this paper we answer completely this long standing question by finding an exact expression for this probability, whose approximate value turns out to be $p ≈0.99780$. More generally, we compute the probability of planarity at the critical window of width $n^{2/3}$ around the critical point $M=n/2$. We extend these results to some classes of graphs closed under taking minors. As an example, we show that the probability of being series-parallel converges to 0.98003. Our proofs rely on exploiting the structure of random graphs in the critical window, obtained previously by Janson, Łuczak and Wierman, by means of generating functions and analytic methods. This is a striking example of how analytic combinatorics can be applied to classical problems on random graphs.
We study convolution powers $\mathtt{id}^{\ast n}$ of the identity of graded connected Hopf algebras $H$. (The antipode corresponds to $n=-1$.) The chief result is a complete description of the characteristic polynomial - both eigenvalues and multiplicity - for the action of the operator $\mathtt{id}^{\ast n}$ on each homogeneous component $H_m$. The multiplicities are independent of $n$. This follows from considering the action of the (higher) Eulerian idempotents on a certain Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ associated to $H$. In case $H$ is cofree, we give an alternative (explicit and combinatorial) description in terms of palindromic words in free generators of $\mathfrak{g}$. We obtain identities involving partitions and compositions by specializing $H$ to some familiar combinatorial Hopf algebras.
The periodic patterns of a map are the permutations realized by the relative order of the points in its periodic orbits. We give a combinatorial description of the periodic patterns of an arbitrary signed shift, in terms of the structure of the descent set of a certain transformation of the pattern. Signed shifts are an important family of one-dimensional dynamical systems. For particular types of signed shifts, namely shift maps, reverse shift maps, and the tent map, we give exact enumeration formulas for their periodic patterns. As a byproduct of our work, we recover some results of Gessel and Reutenauer and obtain new results on the enumeration of pattern-avoiding cycles.
The degree chromatic polynomial $P_m(G,k)$ of a graph $G$ counts the number of $k$ -colorings in which no vertex has m adjacent vertices of its same color. We prove Humpert and Martin's conjecture on the leading terms of the degree chromatic polynomial of a tree.
Many parameters of trees are additive in the sense that they can be computed recursively from the sum of the branches plus a certain toll function. For instance, such parameters occur very frequently in the analysis of divide-and-conquer algorithms. Here we are interested in the situation that the toll function is small (the average over all trees of a given size $n$ decreases exponentially with $n$). We prove a general central limit theorem for random labelled trees and apply it to a number of examples. The main motivation is the study of the number of subtrees in a random labelled tree, but it also applies to classical instances such as the number of leaves.
We give in a particular case a combinatorial proof of a recent algebraicity result of Kontsevich; the proof uses generalized one-sided and two-sided Dyck words, or equivalently, excursions and bridges. We indicate a noncommutative version of these notions, which could lead to a full proof. We show also a relation with pointed planar maps.
Let $P$ be a poset and let $P^*$ be the set of all finite length words over $P$. Generalized subword order is the partial order on $P^*$ obtained by letting $u≤ w$ if and only if there is a subword $u'$ of $w$ having the same length as $u$ such that each element of $u$ is less than or equal to the corresponding element of $u'$ in the partial order on $P$. Classical subword order arises when $P$ is an antichain, while letting $P$ be a chain gives an order on compositions. For any finite poset $P$, we give a simple formula for the Möbius function of $P^*$ in terms of the Möbius function of $P$. This permits us to rederive in an easy and uniform manner previous results of Björner, Sagan and Vatter, and Tomie. We are also able to determine the homotopy type of all intervals in $P^*$ for any finite $P$ of rank at most 1.
We give explicit formulas for the number $U_n(N)$ of closed polygonal paths of length $N$ (starting from the origin) whose steps are $n^{\textrm{th}}$ roots of unity, as well as asymptotic expressions for these numbers when $N \rightarrow \infty$. We also prove that the sequences $(U_n(N))_{N \geq 0}$ are $P$-recursive for each fixed $n \geq 1$ and leave open the problem of determining the values of $N$ for which the $\textit{dual}$ sequences $(U_n(N))_{n \geq 1}$ are $P$-recursive.
We define a new lattice structure (W,\preceq ) on the elements of a finite Coxeter group W. This lattice, called the \emphshard intersection order, is weaker than the weak order and has the noncrossing partition lattice \NC (W) as a sublattice. The new construction of \NC (W) yields a new proof that \NC (W) is a lattice. The shard intersection order is graded and its rank generating function is the W-Eulerian polynomial. Many order-theoretic properties of (W,\preceq ), like Möbius number, number of maximal chains, etc., are exactly analogous to the corresponding properties of \NC (W). There is a natural dimension-preserving bijection between simplices in the order complex of (W,\preceq ) (i.e. chains in <mbox>(W,\preceq )</mbox>) and simplices in a certain pulling triangulation of the W-permutohedron. Restricting the bijection to the order complex of \NC (W) yields a bijection to simplices in a pulling triangulation of the W-associahedron. The lattice (W,\preceq ) is defined indirectly via the polyhedral geometry of the reflecting hyperplanes of W\!. Indeed, most of the results of the paper are proven in the more general setting of simplicial hyperplane arrangements.
In this paper we focus on the intuitionistic propositional logic with one propositional variable. More precisely we consider the standard fragment $\{ \to ,\vee ,\bot \}$ of this logic and compute the proportion of tautologies among all formulas. It turns out that this proportion is different from the analog one in the classical logic case.
Let $W \ltimes L$ be an irreducible affine Weyl group with Coxeter complex $\Sigma$, where $W$ denotes the associated finite Weyl group and $L$ the translation subgroup. The Steinberg torus is the Boolean cell complex obtained by taking the quotient of $\Sigma$ by the lattice $L$. We show that the ordinary and flag $h$-polynomials of the Steinberg torus (with the empty face deleted) are generating functions over $W$ for a descent-like statistic first studied by Cellini. We also show that the ordinary $h$-polynomial has a nonnegative $\gamma$-vector, and hence, symmetric and unimodal coefficients. In the classical cases, we also provide expansions, identities, and generating functions for the $h$-polynomials of Steinberg tori.
We consider samples of n geometric random variables $(Γ _1, Γ _2, \dots Γ _n)$ where $\mathbb{P}\{Γ _j=i\}=pq^{i-1}$, for $1≤j ≤n$, with $p+q=1$. The parameter we study is the position of the first occurrence of the maximum value in a such a sample. We derive a probability generating function for this position with which we compute the first two (factorial) moments. The asymptotic technique known as Rice's method then yields the main terms as well as the Fourier expansions of the fluctuating functions arising in the expected value and the variance.
The administration of MPSS is advocated both for limiting spinal cord injury from Hansen Type I intervertebral disk protrusion (T1‐IVD) and from the potential surgical trauma associated with laminectomy. Recent studies suggest that treatment with MPSS does not significantly alter functional outcome and is associated with significant complications including gastrointestinal bleeding, pancreatic necrosis, and increased rates of infection. The purpose of this prospective study was to report the results of laminectomy without MPSS treatment in non‐ambulatory dogs with T1‐IVD. The study group involved dogs weighing less than 15 kg that had a laminectomy between T11‐T12 and L4‐L5 for T1‐IVD. Dogs included had not been treated with MPSS, were unable to walk but able to sense “deep pain”. The dogs were evaluated post‐operatively for the ability to walk (stand and advance pelvic limbs), pain (reaction to paraspinal palpation or movement), and incontinence (dribbling urine/feces or failure to completely void urine). Fifty‐one dogs met the inclusion criteria. Prior to surgery 0% of the dogs could walk (26 paralyzed, 25 paretic), and 98% were painful. Incontinence was not assessed or was unknown in most cases. Ten days following surgery, 90% were walking, 98% were pain‐free, and 82% were fully continent. By 6 weeks, 100% were walking, 6% were painful, and 86% fully continent. By 16 weeks, 96% were pain‐free, and 88% were fully continent. These results obtained with laminectomy alone are comparable or superior to reports of those with MPSS administration and suggest that MPSS is not necessary for a successful outcome in dogs receiving laminectomy for T1‐IVD.