Sorting is a fundamental algorithmic pre-processing technique which often allows to represent data more compactly and, at the same time, speeds up search queries on it. In this paper, we focus on the well-studied problem of sorting and indexing string sets. Since the introduction of suffix trees in 1973, dozens of suffix sorting algorithms have been described in the literature. In 2017, these techniques were extended to sets of strings described by means of finite automata: the theory of Wheeler graphs [Gagie et al., TCS'17] introduced automata whose states can be totally-sorted according to the co-lexicographic (co-lex in the following) order of the prefixes of words accepted by the automaton. More recently, in [Cotumaccio, Prezza, SODA'21] it was shown how to extend these ideas to arbitrary automata by means of partial co-lex orders. This work showed that a co-lex order of minimum width (thus optimizing search query times) on deterministic finite automata (DFAs) can be computed in O(m² + n^{5/2}) time, m being the number of transitions and n the number of states of the input DFA. In this paper, we exhibit new combinatorial properties of the minimum-width co-lex order of DFAs and exploit them to design faster prefix sorting algorithms. In particular, we describe two algorithms sorting arbitrary DFAs in O(mn) and O(n² log n) time, respectively, and an algorithm sorting acyclic DFAs in O(m log n) time. Within these running times, all algorithms compute also a smallest chain partition of the partial order (required to index the DFA). We present an experiment result to show that an optimized implementation of the O(n² log n)-time algorithm exhibits a nearly-linear behaviour on large deterministic pan-genomic graphs and is thus also of practical interest.

Wheeler nondeterministic finite automata (WNFAs) were introduced as a generalization of prefix sorting from strings to labeled graphs. WNFAs admit optimal solutions to classic hard problems on labeled graphs and languages. The problem of deciding whether a given NFA is Wheeler is known to be NP-complete. Recently, however, Alanko et al. showed how to side-step this complexity by switching to preorders: letting $Q$ be the set of states, $E$ the set of transitions, $|Q|=n$, and $|E|=m$, they provided a $O(mn^2)$-time algorithm computing a totally-ordered partition of the WNFA's states such that (1) equivalent states recognize the same regular language, and (2) the order of non-equivalent states is consistent with any Wheeler order, when one exists. Then, the output is a preorder of the states as useful for pattern matching as standard Wheeler orders. Further research generalized these concepts to arbitrary NFAs by introducing co-lex partial preorders: any NFA admits a partial preorder of its states reflecting the co-lex order of their accepted strings; the smaller the width of such preorder is, the faster regular expression matching queries can be performed. To date, the fastest algorithm for computing the smallest-width partial preorder on NFAs runs in $O(m^2+n^{5/2})$ time, while on DFAs the same can be done in $O(\min(n^2\log n,mn))$ time. In this paper, we provide much more efficient solutions to the problem above. Our results are achieved by extending a classic algorithm for the relational coarsest partition refinement problem to work with ordered partitions. Specifically, we provide a $O(m\log n)$-time algorithm computing a co-lex total preorder when the input is a WNFA, and an algorithm with the same time complexity computing the smallest-width co-lex partial order of any DFA. Also, we present implementations of our algorithms and show that they are very efficient in practice.

Theoretical advances in the science of consciousness have proposed that it is concomitant with balanced cortical integration and differentiation, enabled by efficient networks of information transfer across multiple scales. Here, we apply graph theory to compare key signatures of such networks in high-density electroencephalographic data from 32 patients with chronic disorders of consciousness, against normative data from healthy controls. Based on connectivity within canonical frequency bands, we found that patient networks had reduced local and global efficiency, and fewer hubs in the alpha band. We devised a novel topographical metric, termed modular span, which showed that the alpha network modules in patients were also spatially circumscribed, lacking the structured long-distance interactions commonly observed in the healthy controls. Importantly however, these differences between graph-theoretic metrics were partially reversed in delta and theta band networks, which were also significantly more similar to each other in patients than controls. Going further, we found that metrics of alpha network efficiency also correlated with the degree of behavioural awareness. Intriguingly, some patients in behaviourally unresponsive vegetative states who demonstrated evidence of covert awareness with functional neuroimaging stood out from this trend: they had alpha networks that were remarkably well preserved and similar to those observed in the controls. Taken together, our findings inform current understanding of disorders of consciousness by highlighting the distinctive brain networks that characterise them. In the significant minority of vegetative patients who follow commands in neuroimaging tests, they point to putative network mechanisms that could support cognitive function and consciousness despite profound behavioural impairment.