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We present an O(n³ g² log g + m) + Õ(n^{ω + 1}) time deterministic algorithm to find the minimum cycle basis of a directed graph embedded on an orientable surface of genus g. This result improves upon the previous fastest known running time of O(m³ n + m² n² log n) applicable to general directed graphs. While an O(n^ω + 2^{2g} n² + m) time deterministic algorithm was known for undirected graphs, the use of the underlying field ℚ in the directed case (as opposed to ℤ₂ for the undirected case) presents extra challenges. It turns out that some of our new observations are useful for both variants of the problem, so we present an O(n^ω + n² g² log g + m) time deterministic algorithm for undirected graphs as well. 

We consider the problem of solving the Min-Sum Submodular Cover problem using local search. The Min-Sum Submodular Cover problem generalizes the NP-complete Min-Sum Set Cover problem, replacing the input set cover instance with a monotone submodular set function. A simple greedy algorithm achieves an approximation factor of 4, which is tight unless P=NP [Streeter and Golovin, NeurIPS, 2008]. We complement the greedy algorithm with analysis of a local search algorithm. Building on work of Munagala et al. [ICDT, 2005], we show that, using simple initialization, a straightforward local search algorithm achieves a (4+ε)-approximate solution in time O(n³log(n/ε)), provided that the monotone submodular set function is also second-order supermodular. Second-order supermodularity has been shown to hold for a number of submodular functions of practical interest, including functions associated with set cover, matching, and facility location. We present experiments on two special cases of Min-Sum Submodular Cover and find that the local search algorithm can outperform the greedy algorithm on small data sets.