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1107.0026
IDL-Expressions: A Formalism for Representing and Parsing Finite Languages in Natural Language Processing
cs.AI
We propose a formalism for representation of finite languages, referred to as the class of IDL-expressions, which combines concepts that were only considered in isolation in existing formalisms. The suggested applications are in natural language processing, more specifically in surface natural language generation and in machine translation, where a sentence is obtained by first generating a large set of candidate sentences, represented in a compact way, and then by filtering such a set through a parser. We study several formal properties of IDL-expressions and compare this new formalism with more standard ones. We also present a novel parsing algorithm for IDL-expressions and prove a non-trivial upper bound on its time complexity.
1107.0027
Effective Dimensions of Hierarchical Latent Class Models
cs.AI
Hierarchical latent class (HLC) models are tree-structured Bayesian networks where leaf nodes are observed while internal nodes are latent. There are no theoretically well justified model selection criteria for HLC models in particular and Bayesian networks with latent nodes in general. Nonetheless, empirical studies suggest that the BIC score is a reasonable criterion to use in practice for learning HLC models. Empirical studies also suggest that sometimes model selection can be improved if standard model dimension is replaced with effective model dimension in the penalty term of the BIC score. Effective dimensions are difficult to compute. In this paper, we prove a theorem that relates the effective dimension of an HLC model to the effective dimensions of a number of latent class models. The theorem makes it computationally feasible to compute the effective dimensions of large HLC models. The theorem can also be used to compute the effective dimensions of general tree models.
1107.0029
A Personalized System for Conversational Recommendations
cs.IR cs.AI
Searching for and making decisions about information is becoming increasingly difficult as the amount of information and number of choices increases. Recommendation systems help users find items of interest of a particular type, such as movies or restaurants, but are still somewhat awkward to use. Our solution is to take advantage of the complementary strengths of personalized recommendation systems and dialogue systems, creating personalized aides. We present a system -- the Adaptive Place Advisor -- that treats item selection as an interactive, conversational process, with the program inquiring about item attributes and the user responding. Individual, long-term user preferences are unobtrusively obtained in the course of normal recommendation dialogues and used to direct future conversations with the same user. We present a novel user model that influences both item search and the questions asked during a conversation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system in significantly reducing the time and number of interactions required to find a satisfactory item, as compared to a control group of users interacting with a non-adaptive version of the system.
1107.0030
Coherent Integration of Databases by Abductive Logic Programming
cs.AI
We introduce an abductive method for a coherent integration of independent data-sources. The idea is to compute a list of data-facts that should be inserted to the amalgamated database or retracted from it in order to restore its consistency. This method is implemented by an abductive solver, called Asystem, that applies SLDNFA-resolution on a meta-theory that relates different, possibly contradicting, input databases. We also give a pure model-theoretic analysis of the possible ways to `recover' consistent data from an inconsistent database in terms of those models of the database that exhibit as minimal inconsistent information as reasonably possible. This allows us to characterize the `recovered databases' in terms of the `preferred' (i.e., most consistent) models of the theory. The outcome is an abductive-based application that is sound and complete with respect to a corresponding model-based, preferential semantics, and -- to the best of our knowledge -- is more expressive (thus more general) than any other implementation of coherent integration of databases.
1107.0031
Grounded Semantic Composition for Visual Scenes
cs.AI
We present a visually-grounded language understanding model based on a study of how people verbally describe objects in scenes. The emphasis of the model is on the combination of individual word meanings to produce meanings for complex referring expressions. The model has been implemented, and it is able to understand a broad range of spatial referring expressions. We describe our implementation of word level visually-grounded semantics and their embedding in a compositional parsing framework. The implemented system selects the correct referents in response to natural language expressions for a large percentage of test cases. In an analysis of the system's successes and failures we reveal how visual context influences the semantics of utterances and propose future extensions to the model that take such context into account.
1107.0033
Existence of Multiagent Equilibria with Limited Agents
cs.MA cs.GT
Multiagent learning is a necessary yet challenging problem as multiagent systems become more prevalent and environments become more dynamic. Much of the groundbreaking work in this area draws on notable results from game theory, in particular, the concept of Nash equilibria. Learners that directly learn an equilibrium obviously rely on their existence. Learners that instead seek to play optimally with respect to the other players also depend upon equilibria since equilibria are fixed points for learning. From another perspective, agents with limitations are real and common. These may be undesired physical limitations as well as self-imposed rational limitations, such as abstraction and approximation techniques, used to make learning tractable. This article explores the interactions of these two important concepts: equilibria and limitations in learning. We introduce the question of whether equilibria continue to exist when agents have limitations. We look at the general effects limitations can have on agent behavior, and define a natural extension of equilibria that accounts for these limitations. Using this formalization, we make three major contributions: (i) a counterexample for the general existence of equilibria with limitations, (ii) sufficient conditions on limitations that preserve their existence, (iii) three general classes of games and limitations that satisfy these conditions. We then present empirical results from a specific multiagent learning algorithm applied to a specific instance of limited agents. These results demonstrate that learning with limitations is feasible, when the conditions outlined by our theoretical analysis hold.
1107.0034
Price Prediction in a Trading Agent Competition
cs.AI
The 2002 Trading Agent Competition (TAC) presented a challenging market game in the domain of travel shopping. One of the pivotal issues in this domain is uncertainty about hotel prices, which have a significant influence on the relative cost of alternative trip schedules. Thus, virtually all participants employ some method for predicting hotel prices. We survey approaches employed in the tournament, finding that agents apply an interesting diversity of techniques, taking into account differing sources of evidence bearing on prices. Based on data provided by entrants on their agents' actual predictions in the TAC-02 finals and semifinals, we analyze the relative efficacy of these approaches. The results show that taking into account game-specific information about flight prices is a major distinguishing factor. Machine learning methods effectively induce the relationship between flight and hotel prices from game data, and a purely analytical approach based on competitive equilibrium analysis achieves equal accuracy with no historical data. Employing a new measure of prediction quality, we relate absolute accuracy to bottom-line performance in the game.
1107.0035
Compositional Model Repositories via Dynamic Constraint Satisfaction with Order-of-Magnitude Preferences
cs.AI
The predominant knowledge-based approach to automated model construction, compositional modelling, employs a set of models of particular functional components. Its inference mechanism takes a scenario describing the constituent interacting components of a system and translates it into a useful mathematical model. This paper presents a novel compositional modelling approach aimed at building model repositories. It furthers the field in two respects. Firstly, it expands the application domain of compositional modelling to systems that can not be easily described in terms of interacting functional components, such as ecological systems. Secondly, it enables the incorporation of user preferences into the model selection process. These features are achieved by casting the compositional modelling problem as an activity-based dynamic preference constraint satisfaction problem, where the dynamic constraints describe the restrictions imposed over the composition of partial models and the preferences correspond to those of the user of the automated modeller. In addition, the preference levels are represented through the use of symbolic values that differ in orders of magnitude.
1107.0036
Can We Learn to Beat the Best Stock
cs.AI q-fin.TR
A novel algorithm for actively trading stocks is presented. While traditional expert advice and "universal" algorithms (as well as standard technical trading heuristics) attempt to predict winners or trends, our approach relies on predictable statistical relations between all pairs of stocks in the market. Our empirical results on historical markets provide strong evidence that this type of technical trading can "beat the market" and moreover, can beat the best stock in the market. In doing so we utilize a new idea for smoothing critical parameters in the context of expert learning.
1107.0037
Competitive Coevolution through Evolutionary Complexification
cs.AI
Two major goals in machine learning are the discovery and improvement of solutions to complex problems. In this paper, we argue that complexification, i.e. the incremental elaboration of solutions through adding new structure, achieves both these goals. We demonstrate the power of complexification through the NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) method, which evolves increasingly complex neural network architectures. NEAT is applied to an open-ended coevolutionary robot duel domain where robot controllers compete head to head. Because the robot duel domain supports a wide range of strategies, and because coevolution benefits from an escalating arms race, it serves as a suitable testbed for studying complexification. When compared to the evolution of networks with fixed structure, complexifying evolution discovers significantly more sophisticated strategies. The results suggest that in order to discover and improve complex solutions, evolution, and search in general, should be allowed to complexify as well as optimize.
1107.0038
Dual Modelling of Permutation and Injection Problems
cs.AI
When writing a constraint program, we have to choose which variables should be the decision variables, and how to represent the constraints on these variables. In many cases, there is considerable choice for the decision variables. Consider, for example, permutation problems in which we have as many values as variables, and each variable takes an unique value. In such problems, we can choose between a primal and a dual viewpoint. In the dual viewpoint, each dual variable represents one of the primal values, whilst each dual value represents one of the primal variables. Alternatively, by means of channelling constraints to link the primal and dual variables, we can have a combined model with both sets of variables. In this paper, we perform an extensive theoretical and empirical study of such primal, dual and combined models for two classes of problems: permutation problems and injection problems. Our results show that it often be advantageous to use multiple viewpoints, and to have constraints which channel between them to maintain consistency. They also illustrate a general methodology for comparing different constraint models.
1107.0040
Generalizing Boolean Satisfiability I: Background and Survey of Existing Work
cs.AI
This is the first of three planned papers describing ZAP, a satisfiability engine that substantially generalizes existing tools while retaining the performance characteristics of modern high-performance solvers. The fundamental idea underlying ZAP is that many problems passed to such engines contain rich internal structure that is obscured by the Boolean representation used; our goal is to define a representation in which this structure is apparent and can easily be exploited to improve computational performance. This paper is a survey of the work underlying ZAP, and discusses previous attempts to improve the performance of the Davis-Putnam-Logemann-Loveland algorithm by exploiting the structure of the problem being solved. We examine existing ideas including extensions of the Boolean language to allow cardinality constraints, pseudo-Boolean representations, symmetry, and a limited form of quantification. While this paper is intended as a survey, our research results are contained in the two subsequent articles, with the theoretical structure of ZAP described in the second paper in this series, and ZAP's implementation described in the third.
1107.0041
PHA*: Finding the Shortest Path with A* in An Unknown Physical Environment
cs.AI
We address the problem of finding the shortest path between two points in an unknown real physical environment, where a traveling agent must move around in the environment to explore unknown territory. We introduce the Physical-A* algorithm (PHA*) for solving this problem. PHA* expands all the mandatory nodes that A* would expand and returns the shortest path between the two points. However, due to the physical nature of the problem, the complexity of the algorithm is measured by the traveling effort of the moving agent and not by the number of generated nodes, as in standard A*. PHA* is presented as a two-level algorithm, such that its high level, A*, chooses the next node to be expanded and its low level directs the agent to that node in order to explore it. We present a number of variations for both the high-level and low-level procedures and evaluate their performance theoretically and experimentally. We show that the travel cost of our best variation is fairly close to the optimal travel cost, assuming that the mandatory nodes of A* are known in advance. We then generalize our algorithm to the multi-agent case, where a number of cooperative agents are designed to solve the problem. Specifically, we provide an experimental implementation for such a system. It should be noted that the problem addressed here is not a navigation problem, but rather a problem of finding the shortest path between two points for future usage.
1107.0042
Restricted Value Iteration: Theory and Algorithms
cs.AI
Value iteration is a popular algorithm for finding near optimal policies for POMDPs. It is inefficient due to the need to account for the entire belief space, which necessitates the solution of large numbers of linear programs. In this paper, we study value iteration restricted to belief subsets. We show that, together with properly chosen belief subsets, restricted value iteration yields near-optimal policies and we give a condition for determining whether a given belief subset would bring about savings in space and time. We also apply restricted value iteration to two interesting classes of POMDPs, namely informative POMDPs and near-discernible POMDPs.
1107.0043
A Maximal Tractable Class of Soft Constraints
cs.AI
Many researchers in artificial intelligence are beginning to explore the use of soft constraints to express a set of (possibly conflicting) problem requirements. A soft constraint is a function defined on a collection of variables which associates some measure of desirability with each possible combination of values for those variables. However, the crucial question of the computational complexity of finding the optimal solution to a collection of soft constraints has so far received very little attention. In this paper we identify a class of soft binary constraints for which the problem of finding the optimal solution is tractable. In other words, we show that for any given set of such constraints, there exists a polynomial time algorithm to determine the assignment having the best overall combined measure of desirability. This tractable class includes many commonly-occurring soft constraints, such as 'as near as possible' or 'as soon as possible after', as well as crisp constraints such as 'greater than'. Finally, we show that this tractable class is maximal, in the sense that adding any other form of soft binary constraint which is not in the class gives rise to a class of problems which is NP-hard.
1107.0044
Towards Understanding and Harnessing the Potential of Clause Learning
cs.AI
Efficient implementations of DPLL with the addition of clause learning are the fastest complete Boolean satisfiability solvers and can handle many significant real-world problems, such as verification, planning and design. Despite its importance, little is known of the ultimate strengths and limitations of the technique. This paper presents the first precise characterization of clause learning as a proof system (CL), and begins the task of understanding its power by relating it to the well-studied resolution proof system. In particular, we show that with a new learning scheme, CL can provide exponentially shorter proofs than many proper refinements of general resolution (RES) satisfying a natural property. These include regular and Davis-Putnam resolution, which are already known to be much stronger than ordinary DPLL. We also show that a slight variant of CL with unlimited restarts is as powerful as RES itself. Translating these analytical results to practice, however, presents a challenge because of the nondeterministic nature of clause learning algorithms. We propose a novel way of exploiting the underlying problem structure, in the form of a high level problem description such as a graph or PDDL specification, to guide clause learning algorithms toward faster solutions. We show that this leads to exponential speed-ups on grid and randomized pebbling problems, as well as substantial improvements on certain ordering formulas.
1107.0045
Graduality in Argumentation
cs.AI
Argumentation is based on the exchange and valuation of interacting arguments, followed by the selection of the most acceptable of them (for example, in order to take a decision, to make a choice). Starting from the framework proposed by Dung in 1995, our purpose is to introduce 'graduality' in the selection of the best arguments, i.e., to be able to partition the set of the arguments in more than the two usual subsets of 'selected' and 'non-selected' arguments in order to represent different levels of selection. Our basic idea is that an argument is all the more acceptable if it can be preferred to its attackers. First, we discuss general principles underlying a 'gradual' valuation of arguments based on their interactions. Following these principles, we define several valuation models for an abstract argumentation system. Then, we introduce 'graduality' in the concept of acceptability of arguments. We propose new acceptability classes and a refinement of existing classes taking advantage of an available 'gradual' valuation.
1107.0046
Explicit Learning Curves for Transduction and Application to Clustering and Compression Algorithms
cs.AI
Inductive learning is based on inferring a general rule from a finite data set and using it to label new data. In transduction one attempts to solve the problem of using a labeled training set to label a set of unlabeled points, which are given to the learner prior to learning. Although transduction seems at the outset to be an easier task than induction, there have not been many provably useful algorithms for transduction. Moreover, the precise relation between induction and transduction has not yet been determined. The main theoretical developments related to transduction were presented by Vapnik more than twenty years ago. One of Vapnik's basic results is a rather tight error bound for transductive classification based on an exact computation of the hypergeometric tail. While tight, this bound is given implicitly via a computational routine. Our first contribution is a somewhat looser but explicit characterization of a slightly extended PAC-Bayesian version of Vapnik's transductive bound. This characterization is obtained using concentration inequalities for the tail of sums of random variables obtained by sampling without replacement. We then derive error bounds for compression schemes such as (transductive) support vector machines and for transduction algorithms based on clustering. The main observation used for deriving these new error bounds and algorithms is that the unlabeled test points, which in the transductive setting are known in advance, can be used in order to construct useful data dependent prior distributions over the hypothesis space.
1107.0047
Decentralized Control of Cooperative Systems: Categorization and Complexity Analysis
cs.AI
Decentralized control of cooperative systems captures the operation of a group of decision makers that share a single global objective. The difficulty in solving optimally such problems arises when the agents lack full observability of the global state of the system when they operate. The general problem has been shown to be NEXP-complete. In this paper, we identify classes of decentralized control problems whose complexity ranges between NEXP and P. In particular, we study problems characterized by independent transitions, independent observations, and goal-oriented objective functions. Two algorithms are shown to solve optimally useful classes of goal-oriented decentralized processes in polynomial time. This paper also studies information sharing among the decision-makers, which can improve their performance. We distinguish between three ways in which agents can exchange information: indirect communication, direct communication and sharing state features that are not controlled by the agents. Our analysis shows that for every class of problems we consider, introducing direct or indirect communication does not change the worst-case complexity. The results provide a better understanding of the complexity of decentralized control problems that arise in practice and facilitate the development of planning algorithms for these problems.
1107.0048
Reinforcement Learning for Agents with Many Sensors and Actuators Acting in Categorizable Environments
cs.AI
In this paper, we confront the problem of applying reinforcement learning to agents that perceive the environment through many sensors and that can perform parallel actions using many actuators as is the case in complex autonomous robots. We argue that reinforcement learning can only be successfully applied to this case if strong assumptions are made on the characteristics of the environment in which the learning is performed, so that the relevant sensor readings and motor commands can be readily identified. The introduction of such assumptions leads to strongly-biased learning systems that can eventually lose the generality of traditional reinforcement-learning algorithms. In this line, we observe that, in realistic situations, the reward received by the robot depends only on a reduced subset of all the executed actions and that only a reduced subset of the sensor inputs (possibly different in each situation and for each action) are relevant to predict the reward. We formalize this property in the so called 'categorizability assumption' and we present an algorithm that takes advantage of the categorizability of the environment, allowing a decrease in the learning time with respect to existing reinforcement-learning algorithms. Results of the application of the algorithm to a couple of simulated realistic-robotic problems (landmark-based navigation and the six-legged robot gait generation) are reported to validate our approach and to compare it to existing flat and generalization-based reinforcement-learning approaches.
1107.0050
Additive Pattern Database Heuristics
cs.AI
We explore a method for computing admissible heuristic evaluation functions for search problems. It utilizes pattern databases, which are precomputed tables of the exact cost of solving various subproblems of an existing problem. Unlike standard pattern database heuristics, however, we partition our problems into disjoint subproblems, so that the costs of solving the different subproblems can be added together without overestimating the cost of solving the original problem. Previously, we showed how to statically partition the sliding-tile puzzles into disjoint groups of tiles to compute an admissible heuristic, using the same partition for each state and problem instance. Here we extend the method and show that it applies to other domains as well. We also present another method for additive heuristics which we call dynamically partitioned pattern databases. Here we partition the problem into disjoint subproblems for each state of the search dynamically. We discuss the pros and cons of each of these methods and apply both methods to three different problem domains: the sliding-tile puzzles, the 4-peg Towers of Hanoi problem, and finding an optimal vertex cover of a graph. We find that in some problem domains, static partitioning is most effective, while in others dynamic partitioning is a better choice. In each of these problem domains, either statically partitioned or dynamically partitioned pattern database heuristics are the best known heuristics for the problem.
1107.0051
On Prediction Using Variable Order Markov Models
cs.AI
This paper is concerned with algorithms for prediction of discrete sequences over a finite alphabet, using variable order Markov models. The class of such algorithms is large and in principle includes any lossless compression algorithm. We focus on six prominent prediction algorithms, including Context Tree Weighting (CTW), Prediction by Partial Match (PPM) and Probabilistic Suffix Trees (PSTs). We discuss the properties of these algorithms and compare their performance using real life sequences from three domains: proteins, English text and music pieces. The comparison is made with respect to prediction quality as measured by the average log-loss. We also compare classification algorithms based on these predictors with respect to a number of large protein classification tasks. Our results indicate that a "decomposed" CTW (a variant of the CTW algorithm) and PPM outperform all other algorithms in sequence prediction tasks. Somewhat surprisingly, a different algorithm, which is a modification of the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm, significantly outperforms all algorithms on the protein classification problems.
1107.0052
Ordered Landmarks in Planning
cs.AI
Many known planning tasks have inherent constraints concerning the best order in which to achieve the goals. A number of research efforts have been made to detect such constraints and to use them for guiding search, in the hope of speeding up the planning process. We go beyond the previous approaches by considering ordering constraints not only over the (top-level) goals, but also over the sub-goals that will necessarily arise during planning. Landmarks are facts that must be true at some point in every valid solution plan. We extend Koehler and Hoffmann's definition of reasonable orders between top level goals to the more general case of landmarks. We show how landmarks can be found, how their reasonable orders can be approximated, and how this information can be used to decompose a given planning task into several smaller sub-tasks. Our methodology is completely domain- and planner-independent. The implementation demonstrates that the approach can yield significant runtime performance improvements when used as a control loop around state-of-the-art sub-optimal planning systems, as exemplified by FF and LPG.
1107.0053
Finding Approximate POMDP solutions Through Belief Compression
cs.AI
Standard value function approaches to finding policies for Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) are generally considered to be intractable for large models. The intractability of these algorithms is to a large extent a consequence of computing an exact, optimal policy over the entire belief space. However, in real-world POMDP problems, computing the optimal policy for the full belief space is often unnecessary for good control even for problems with complicated policy classes. The beliefs experienced by the controller often lie near a structured, low-dimensional subspace embedded in the high-dimensional belief space. Finding a good approximation to the optimal value function for only this subspace can be much easier than computing the full value function. We introduce a new method for solving large-scale POMDPs by reducing the dimensionality of the belief space. We use Exponential family Principal Components Analysis (Collins, Dasgupta and Schapire, 2002) to represent sparse, high-dimensional belief spaces using small sets of learned features of the belief state. We then plan only in terms of the low-dimensional belief features. By planning in this low-dimensional space, we can find policies for POMDP models that are orders of magnitude larger than models that can be handled by conventional techniques. We demonstrate the use of this algorithm on a synthetic problem and on mobile robot navigation tasks.
1107.0054
A Comprehensive Trainable Error Model for Sung Music Queries
cs.AI
We propose a model for errors in sung queries, a variant of the hidden Markov model (HMM). This is a solution to the problem of identifying the degree of similarity between a (typically error-laden) sung query and a potential target in a database of musical works, an important problem in the field of music information retrieval. Similarity metrics are a critical component of query-by-humming (QBH) applications which search audio and multimedia databases for strong matches to oral queries. Our model comprehensively expresses the types of error or variation between target and query: cumulative and non-cumulative local errors, transposition, tempo and tempo changes, insertions, deletions and modulation. The model is not only expressive, but automatically trainable, or able to learn and generalize from query examples. We present results of simulations, designed to assess the discriminatory potential of the model, and tests with real sung queries, to demonstrate relevance to real-world applications.
1107.0055
Phase Transitions and Backbones of the Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem
cs.AI
In recent years, there has been much interest in phase transitions of combinatorial problems. Phase transitions have been successfully used to analyze combinatorial optimization problems, characterize their typical-case features and locate the hardest problem instances. In this paper, we study phase transitions of the asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem (ATSP), an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem that has many real-world applications. Using random instances of up to 1,500 cities in which intercity distances are uniformly distributed, we empirically show that many properties of the problem, including the optimal tour cost and backbone size, experience sharp transitions as the precision of intercity distances increases across a critical value. Our experimental results on the costs of the ATSP tours and assignment problem agree with the theoretical result that the asymptotic cost of assignment problem is pi ^2 /6 the number of cities goes to infinity. In addition, we show that the average computational cost of the well-known branch-and-bound subtour elimination algorithm for the problem also exhibits a thrashing behavior, transitioning from easy to difficult as the distance precision increases. These results answer positively an open question regarding the existence of phase transitions in the ATSP, and provide guidance on how difficult ATSP problem instances should be generated.
1107.0062
Optimal Multi-Robot Path Planning with Temporal Logic Constraints
cs.RO
In this paper we present a method for automatically planning optimal paths for a group of robots that satisfy a common high level mission specification. Each robot's motion in the environment is modeled as a weighted transition system. The mission is given as a Linear Temporal Logic formula. In addition, an optimizing proposition must repeatedly be satisfied. The goal is to minimize the maximum time between satisfying instances of the optimizing proposition. Our method is guaranteed to compute an optimal set of robot paths. We utilize a timed automaton representation in order to capture the relative position of the robots in the environment. We then obtain a bisimulation of this timed automaton as a finite transition system that captures the joint behavior of the robots and apply our earlier algorithm for the single robot case to optimize the group motion. We present a simulation of a persistent monitoring task in a road network environment.
1107.0078
Optimization of UAV Heading for the Ground-to-Air Uplink
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we consider a collection of single-antenna ground nodes communicating with a multi-antenna unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over a multiple-access ground-to-air wireless communications link. The UAV uses beamforming to mitigate the inter-user interference and achieve spatial division multiple access (SDMA). First, we consider a simple scenario with two static ground nodes and analytically investigate the effect of the UAV heading on the system sum rate. We then study a more general setting with multiple mobile ground-based terminals, and develop an algorithm for dynamically adjusting the UAV heading in order to maximize a lower bound on the ergodic sum rate of the uplink channel, using a Kalman filter to track the positions of the mobile ground nodes. Fairness among the users can be guaranteed through weighting the bound for each user's ergodic rate with a factor inversely proportional to their average data rate. For the common scenario where a high $K$-factor channel exists between the ground nodes and UAV, we use an asymptotic analysis to find simplified versions of the algorithm for low and high SNR. We present simulation results that demonstrate the benefits of adapting the UAV heading in order to optimize the uplink communications performance. The simulation results also show that the simplified algorithms perform near-optimal performance.
1107.0082
A case of combination of evidence in the Dempster-Shafer theory inconsistent with evaluation of probabilities
math.PR cs.AI
The Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence accumulation is one of the main tools for combining data obtained from multiple sources. In this paper a special case of combination of two bodies of evidence with non-zero conflict coefficient is considered. It is shown that application of the Dempster-Shafer rule of combination in this case leads to an evaluation of masses of the combined bodies that is different from the evaluation of the corresponding probabilities obtained by application of the law of total probability. This finding supports the view that probabilistic interpretation of results of the Dempster-Shafer analysis in the general case is not appropriate.
1107.0089
Towards a Reliable Framework of Uncertainty-Based Group Decision Support System
cs.SY cs.AI
This study proposes a framework of Uncertainty-based Group Decision Support System (UGDSS). It provides a platform for multiple criteria decision analysis in six aspects including (1) decision environment, (2) decision problem, (3) decision group, (4) decision conflict, (5) decision schemes and (6) group negotiation. Based on multiple artificial intelligent technologies, this framework provides reliable support for the comprehensive manipulation of applications and advanced decision approaches through the design of an integrated multi-agents architecture.
1107.0098
A Probabilistic Attack on NP-complete Problems
cs.CC cs.AI cs.DM cs.DS
Using the probability theory-based approach, this paper reveals the equivalence of an arbitrary NP-complete problem to a problem of checking whether a level set of a specifically constructed harmonic cost function (with all diagonal entries of its Hessian matrix equal to zero) intersects with a unit hypercube in many-dimensional Euclidean space. This connection suggests the possibility that methods of continuous mathematics can provide crucial insights into the most intriguing open questions in modern complexity theory.
1107.0124
A Gel'fand-type spectral radius formula and stability of linear constrained switching systems
math.OC cs.SY math.DS math.RA
Using ergodic theory, in this paper we present a Gel'fand-type spectral radius formula which states that the joint spectral radius is equal to the generalized spectral radius for a matrix multiplicative semigroup $\bS^+$ restricted to a subset that need not carry the algebraic structure of $\bS^+$. This generalizes the Berger-Wang formula. Using it as a tool, we study the absolute exponential stability of a linear switched system driven by a compact subshift of the one-sided Markov shift associated to $\bS$.
1107.0132
Pointwise Stabilization of Discrete-time Stationary Matrix-valued Markovian Chains
math.PR cs.SY math.DS math.OC
We study the pointwise stabilizability of a discrete-time, time-homogeneous, and stationary Markovian jump linear system. By using measure theory, ergodic theory and a splitting theorem of state space we show in a relatively simple way that if the system is essentially product-bounded, then it is pointwise convergent if and only if it is pointwise exponentially convergent.
1107.0134
The Influence of Global Constraints on Similarity Measures for Time-Series Databases
cs.AI
A time series consists of a series of values or events obtained over repeated measurements in time. Analysis of time series represents and important tool in many application areas, such as stock market analysis, process and quality control, observation of natural phenomena, medical treatments, etc. A vital component in many types of time-series analysis is the choice of an appropriate distance/similarity measure. Numerous measures have been proposed to date, with the most successful ones based on dynamic programming. Being of quadratic time complexity, however, global constraints are often employed to limit the search space in the matrix during the dynamic programming procedure, in order to speed up computation. Furthermore, it has been reported that such constrained measures can also achieve better accuracy. In this paper, we investigate two representative time-series distance/similarity measures based on dynamic programming, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and Longest Common Subsequence (LCS), and the effects of global constraints on them. Through extensive experiments on a large number of time-series data sets, we demonstrate how global constrains can significantly reduce the computation time of DTW and LCS. We also show that, if the constraint parameter is tight enough (less than 10-15% of time-series length), the constrained measure becomes significantly different from its unconstrained counterpart, in the sense of producing qualitatively different 1-nearest neighbor graphs. This observation explains the potential for accuracy gains when using constrained measures, highlighting the need for careful tuning of constraint parameters in order to achieve a good trade-off between speed and accuracy.
1107.0161
Quadratic order conditions for bang-singular extremals
math.OC cs.SY
This paper deals with optimal control problems for systems affine in the control variable. We consider nonnegativity constraints on the control, and finitely many equality and inequality constraints on the final state. First, we obtain second order necessary optimality conditions. Secondly, we derive a second order sufficient condition for the scalar control case.
1107.0169
Unstructured Human Activity Detection from RGBD Images
cs.RO cs.CV
Being able to detect and recognize human activities is essential for several applications, including personal assistive robotics. In this paper, we perform detection and recognition of unstructured human activity in unstructured environments. We use a RGBD sensor (Microsoft Kinect) as the input sensor, and compute a set of features based on human pose and motion, as well as based on image and pointcloud information. Our algorithm is based on a hierarchical maximum entropy Markov model (MEMM), which considers a person's activity as composed of a set of sub-activities. We infer the two-layered graph structure using a dynamic programming approach. We test our algorithm on detecting and recognizing twelve different activities performed by four people in different environments, such as a kitchen, a living room, an office, etc., and achieve good performance even when the person was not seen before in the training set.
1107.0192
Multiple Space Debris Collecting Mission - Debris selection and Trajectory optimization
cs.SY math.OC
A possible mean to stabilize the LEO debris population is to remove each year 5 heavy debris like spent satellites or launchers stages from that space region. This paper investigates the DeltaV requirement for such a Space Debris Collecting mission. The optimization problem is intrinsically hard since it mixes combinatorial optimization to select the debris among a list of candidates and functional optimization to define the orbital maneuvers. The solving methodology proceeds in two steps : firstly a generic transfer strategy with impulsive maneuvers is defined so that the problem becomes of finite dimension, secondly the problem is linearized around an initial reference solution. A Branch and Bound algorithm is then applied to optimize simultaneously the debris selection and the orbital maneuvers, yielding a new reference solution. The process is iterated until the solution stabilizes on the optimal path. The trajectory controls and dates are finally re-optimized in order to refine the solution. The method is applicable whatever the numbers of debris (candidate and to deorbit) and whatever the mission duration. It is exemplified on an application case consisting in selecting 5 SSO debris among a list of 11.
1107.0193
On the origin of ambiguity in efficient communication
cs.CL
This article studies the emergence of ambiguity in communication through the concept of logical irreversibility and within the framework of Shannon's information theory. This leads us to a precise and general expression of the intuition behind Zipf's vocabulary balance in terms of a symmetry equation between the complexities of the coding and the decoding processes that imposes an unavoidable amount of logical uncertainty in natural communication. Accordingly, the emergence of irreversible computations is required if the complexities of the coding and the decoding processes are balanced in a symmetric scenario, which means that the emergence of ambiguous codes is a necessary condition for natural communication to succeed.
1107.0194
Law of Connectivity in Machine Learning
cs.AI
We present in this paper our law that there is always a connection present between two entities, with a selfconnection being present at least in each node. An entity is an object, physical or imaginary, that is connected by a path (or connection) and which is important for achieving the desired result of the scenario. In machine learning, we state that for any scenario, a subject entity is always, directly or indirectly, connected and affected by single or multiple independent / dependent entities, and their impact on the subject entity is dependent on various factors falling into the categories such as the existenc
1107.0237
Team Decision Problems with Classical and Quantum Signals
quant-ph cs.IT econ.TH math-ph math.IT math.MP
We study team decision problems where communication is not possible, but coordination among team members can be realized via signals in a shared environment. We consider a variety of decision problems that differ in what team members know about one another's actions and knowledge. For each type of decision problem, we investigate how different assumptions on the available signals affect team performance. Specifically, we consider the cases of perfectly correlated, i.i.d., and exchangeable classical signals, as well as the case of quantum signals. We find that, whereas in perfect-recall trees (Kuhn [1950], [1953]) no type of signal improves performance, in imperfect-recall trees quantum signals may bring an improvement. Isbell [1957] proved that in non-Kuhn trees, classical i.i.d. signals may improve performance. We show that further improvement may be possible by use of classical exchangeable or quantum signals. We include an example of the effect of quantum signals in the context of high-frequency trading.
1107.0268
Simple Algorithm Portfolio for SAT
cs.AI
The importance of algorithm portfolio techniques for SAT has long been noted, and a number of very successful systems have been devised, including the most successful one --- SATzilla. However, all these systems are quite complex (to understand, reimplement, or modify). In this paper we propose a new algorithm portfolio for SAT that is extremely simple, but in the same time so efficient that it outperforms SATzilla. For a new SAT instance to be solved, our portfolio finds its k-nearest neighbors from the training set and invokes a solver that performs the best at those instances. The main distinguishing feature of our algorithm portfolio is the locality of the selection procedure --- the selection of a SAT solver is based only on few instances similar to the input one.
1107.0300
The Compute-and-Forward Protocol: Implementation and Practical Aspects
cs.IT math.IT
In a recent work, Nazer and Gastpar proposed the Compute-and-Forward strategy as a physical-layer network coding scheme. They described a code structure based on nested lattices whose algebraic structure makes the scheme reliable and efficient. In this work, we consider the implementation of their scheme for real Gaussian channels and one dimensional lattices. We relate the maximization of the transmission rate to the lattice shortest vector problem. We explicit, in this case, the maximum likelihood criterion and show that it can be implemented by using an Inhomogeneous Diophantine Approximation algorithm.
1107.0390
On Linear Index Coding for Random Graphs
cs.IT math.IT
A sender wishes to broadcast an n character word x in F^n (for a field F) to n receivers R_1,...,R_n. Every receiver has some side information on x consisting of a subset of the characters of x. The side information of the receivers is represented by a graph G on n vertices in which {i,j} is an edge if R_i knows x_j. In the index coding problem the goal is to encode x using a minimum number of characters in F in a way that enables every R_i to retrieve the ith character x_i using the encoded message and the side information. An index code is linear if the encoding is linear, and in this case the minimum possible length is known to be equal to a graph parameter called minrank (Bar-Yossef et al., FOCS'06). Several bounds on the minimum length of an index code for side information graphs G were shown in the study of index coding. However, the minimum length of an index code for the random graph G(n,p) is far from being understood. In this paper we initiate the study of the typical minimum length of a linear index code for G(n,p) over a field F. First, we prove that for every constant size field F and a constant p, the minimum length of a linear index code for G(n,p) over F is almost surely Omega(\sqrt{n}). Second, we introduce and study the following two restricted models of index coding: 1. A locally decodable index code is an index code in which the receivers are allowed to query at most q characters from the encoded message. 2. A low density index code is a linear index code in which every character of the word x affects at most q characters in the encoded message. Equivalently, it is a linear code whose generator matrix has at most q nonzero entries in each row.
1107.0399
Vision-Based Navigation I: A navigation filter for fusing DTM/correspondence updates
cs.CV cs.AI
An algorithm for pose and motion estimation using corresponding features in images and a digital terrain map is proposed. Using a Digital Terrain (or Digital Elevation) Map (DTM/DEM) as a global reference enables recovering the absolute position and orientation of the camera. In order to do this, the DTM is used to formulate a constraint between corresponding features in two consecutive frames. The utilization of data is shown to improve the robustness and accuracy of the inertial navigation algorithm. Extended Kalman filter was used to combine results of inertial navigation algorithm and proposed vision-based navigation algorithm. The feasibility of this algorithms is established through numerical simulations.
1107.0416
Beamforming on the MISO interference channel with multi-user decoding capability
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers the multiple-input-single-output interference channel (MISO-IC) with interference decoding capability (IDC), so that the interference signal can be decoded and subtracted from the received signal. On the MISO-IC with single user decoding, transmit beamforming vectors are classically designed to reach a compromise between mitigating the generated interference (zero forcing of the interference) or maximizing the energy at the desired user. The particularly intriguing problem arising in the multi-antenna IC with IDC is that transmitters may now have the incentive to amplify the interference generated at the non-intended receivers, in the hope that Rxs have a better chance of decoding the interference and removing it. This notion completely changes the previous paradigm of balancing between maximizing the desired energy and reducing the generated interference, thus opening up a new dimension for the beamforming design strategy. Our contributions proceed by proving that the optimal rank of the transmit precoders, optimal in the sense of Pareto optimality and therefore sum rate optimality, is rank one. Then, we investigate suitable transmit beamforming strategies for different decoding structures and characterize the Pareto boundary. As an application of this characterization, we obtain a candidate set of the maximum sum rate point} which at least contains the set of sum rate optimal beamforming vectors. We derive the Maximum-Ratio-Transmission (MRT) optimality conditions. Inspired by the MRT optimality conditions, we propose a simple algorithm that achieves maximum sum rate in certain scenarios and suboptimal, in other scenarios comparing to the maximum sum rate.
1107.0420
Stable Restoration and Separation of Approximately Sparse Signals
cs.IT math.IT
This paper develops new theory and algorithms to recover signals that are approximately sparse in some general dictionary (i.e., a basis, frame, or over-/incomplete matrix) but corrupted by a combination of interference having a sparse representation in a second general dictionary and measurement noise. The algorithms and analytical recovery conditions consider varying degrees of signal and interference support-set knowledge. Particular applications covered by the proposed framework include the restoration of signals impaired by impulse noise, narrowband interference, or saturation/clipping, as well as image in-painting, super-resolution, and signal separation. Two application examples for audio and image restoration demonstrate the efficacy of the approach.
1107.0429
Small world yields the most effective information spreading
physics.soc-ph cs.SI physics.data-an
Spreading dynamics of information and diseases are usually analyzed by using a unified framework and analogous models. In this paper, we propose a model to emphasize the essential difference between information spreading and epidemic spreading, where the memory effects, the social reinforcement and the non-redundancy of contacts are taken into account. Under certain conditions, the information spreads faster and broader in regular networks than in random networks, which to some extent supports the recent experimental observation of spreading in online society [D. Centola, Science {\bf 329}, 1194 (2010)]. At the same time, simulation result indicates that the random networks tend to be favorable for effective spreading when the network size increases. This challenges the validity of the above-mentioned experiment for large-scale systems. More significantly, we show that the spreading effectiveness can be sharply enhanced by introducing a little randomness into the regular structure, namely the small-world networks yield the most effective information spreading. Our work provides insights to the understanding of the role of local clustering in information spreading.
1107.0434
Abstraction Super-structuring Normal Forms: Towards a Theory of Structural Induction
cs.AI cs.FL cs.LG
Induction is the process by which we obtain predictive laws or theories or models of the world. We consider the structural aspect of induction. We answer the question as to whether we can find a finite and minmalistic set of operations on structural elements in terms of which any theory can be expressed. We identify abstraction (grouping similar entities) and super-structuring (combining topologically e.g., spatio-temporally close entities) as the essential structural operations in the induction process. We show that only two more structural operations, namely, reverse abstraction and reverse super-structuring (the duals of abstraction and super-structuring respectively) suffice in order to exploit the full power of Turing-equivalent generative grammars in induction. We explore the implications of this theorem with respect to the nature of hidden variables, radical positivism and the 2-century old claim of David Hume about the principles of connexion among ideas.
1107.0478
Polar Codes with Mixed-Kernels
cs.IT math.IT
A generalization of the polar coding scheme called mixed-kernels is introduced. This generalization exploits several homogeneous kernels over alphabets of different sizes. An asymptotic analysis of the proposed scheme shows that its polarization properties are strongly related to the ones of the constituent kernels. Simulation of finite length instances of the scheme indicate their advantages both in error correction performance and complexity compared to the known polar coding structures.
1107.0539
Corporate competition: A self-organized network
physics.soc-ph cs.SI nlin.AO
A substantial number of studies have extended the work on universal properties in physical systems to complex networks in social, biological, and technological systems. In this paper, we present a complex networks perspective on interfirm organizational networks by mapping, analyzing and modeling the spatial structure of a large interfirm competition network across a variety of sectors and industries within the United States. We propose two micro-dynamic models that are able to reproduce empirically observed characteristics of competition networks as a natural outcome of a minimal set of general mechanisms governing the formation of competition networks. Both models, which utilize different approaches yet apply common principles to network formation give comparable results. There is an asymmetry between companies that are considered competitors, and companies that consider others as their competitors. All companies only consider a small number of other companies as competitors; however, there are a few companies that are considered as competitors by many others. Geographically, the density of corporate headquarters strongly correlates with local population density, and the probability two firms are competitors declines with geographic distance. We construct these properties by growing a corporate network with competitive links using random incorporations modulated by population density and geographic distance. Our new analysis, methodology and empirical results are relevant to various phenomena of social and market behavior, and have implications to research fields such as economic geography, economic sociology, and regional economic development.
1107.0550
3D Terrestrial lidar data classification of complex natural scenes using a multi-scale dimensionality criterion: applications in geomorphology
cs.CV physics.geo-ph
3D point clouds of natural environments relevant to problems in geomorphology often require classification of the data into elementary relevant classes. A typical example is the separation of riparian vegetation from ground in fluvial environments, the distinction between fresh surfaces and rockfall in cliff environments, or more generally the classification of surfaces according to their morphology. Natural surfaces are heterogeneous and their distinctive properties are seldom defined at a unique scale, prompting the use of multi-scale criteria to achieve a high degree of classification success. We have thus defined a multi-scale measure of the point cloud dimensionality around each point, which characterizes the local 3D organization. We can thus monitor how the local cloud geometry behaves across scales. We present the technique and illustrate its efficiency in separating riparian vegetation from ground and classifying a mountain stream as vegetation, rock, gravel or water surface. In these two cases, separating the vegetation from ground or other classes achieve accuracy larger than 98 %. Comparison with a single scale approach shows the superiority of the multi-scale analysis in enhancing class separability and spatial resolution. The technique is robust to missing data, shadow zones and changes in point density within the scene. The classification is fast and accurate and can account for some degree of intra-class morphological variability such as different vegetation types. A probabilistic confidence in the classification result is given at each point, allowing the user to remove the points for which the classification is uncertain. The process can be both fully automated, but also fully customized by the user including a graphical definition of the classifiers. Although developed for fully 3D data, the method can be readily applied to 2.5D airborne lidar data.
1107.0622
Modelling and Control of Blowing-Venting Operations in Manned Submarines
math.OC cs.SY
Motivated by the study of the potential use of blowing and venting operations of ballast tanks in manned submarines as a complementary or alternative control system for manoeuvring, we first propose a mathematical model for these operations. Then we consider the coupling of blowing and venting with the Feldman, variable mass, coefficient based hydrodynamic model for the equations of motion. The final complete model is composed of a system of twenty-four nonlinear ordinary differential equations. In a second part, we carry out a rigorous mathematical analysis of the model: existence of a solution is proved. As one of the possible applications of this model in naval engineering problems, we consider the problem of roll control in an emergency rising manoeuvre by using only blowing and venting. To this end, we formulate a suitable constrained, nonlinear, optimal control problem where controls are linked to the variable aperture of blowing and venting valves of each of the tanks. Existence of a solution for this problem is also proved. Finally, we address the numerical resolution of the control problem by using a descent algorithm. Numerical experiments seem to indicate that, indeed, an appropriate use of blowing and venting operations may help in the control of this emergency manoeuvre.
1107.0624
Infinitely many constrained inequalities for the von Neumann entropy
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
We exhibit infinitely many new, constrained inequalities for the von Neumann entropy, and show that they are independent of each other and the known inequalities obeyed by the von Neumann entropy (basically strong subadditivity). The new inequalities were proved originally by Makarychev et al. [Commun. Inf. Syst., 2(2):147-166, 2002] for the Shannon entropy, using properties of probability distributions. Our approach extends the proof of the inequalities to the quantum domain, and includes their independence for the quantum and also the classical cases.
1107.0639
Bounds on the capacity of OFDM underspread frequency selective fading channels
cs.IT math.IT
The analysis of the channel capacity in the absence of prior channel knowledge (noncoherent channel) has gained increasing interest in recent years, but it is still unknown for the general case. In this paper we derive bounds on the capacity of the noncoherent, underspread complex Gaussian, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), wide sense stationary channel with uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS), under a peak power constraint or a constraint on the second and fourth moments of the transmitted signal. These bounds are characterized only by the system signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and by a newly defined quantity termed effective coherence time. Analysis of the effective coherence time reveals that it can be interpreted as the length of a block in the block fading model in which a system with the same SNR will achieve the same capacity as in the analyzed channel. Unlike commonly used coherence time definitions, it is shown that the effective coherence time depends on the SNR, and is a nonincreasing function of it. We show that for low SNR the capacity is proportional to the effective coherence time, while for higher SNR the coherent channel capacity can be achieved provided that the effective coherence time is large enough.
1107.0674
"Memory foam" approach to unsupervised learning
nlin.AO cs.LG
We propose an alternative approach to construct an artificial learning system, which naturally learns in an unsupervised manner. Its mathematical prototype is a dynamical system, which automatically shapes its vector field in response to the input signal. The vector field converges to a gradient of a multi-dimensional probability density distribution of the input process, taken with negative sign. The most probable patterns are represented by the stable fixed points, whose basins of attraction are formed automatically. The performance of this system is illustrated with musical signals.
1107.0681
Does Quantum Interference exist in Twitter?
cs.SI cs.IT math.IT physics.soc-ph
It becomes more difficult to explain the social information transfer phenomena using the classic models based merely on Shannon Information Theory (SIT) and Classic Probability Theory (CPT), because the transfer process in the social world is rich of semantic and highly contextualized. This paper aims to use twitter data to explore whether the traditional models can interpret information transfer in social networks, and whether quantum-like phenomena can be spotted in social networks. Our main contributions are: (1) SIT and CPT fail to interpret the information transfer occurring in Twitter; and (2) Quantum interference exists in Twitter, and (3) a mathematical model is proposed to elucidate the spotted quantum phenomena.
1107.0789
Distributed Matrix Completion and Robust Factorization
cs.LG cs.DS cs.NA math.NA stat.ML
If learning methods are to scale to the massive sizes of modern datasets, it is essential for the field of machine learning to embrace parallel and distributed computing. Inspired by the recent development of matrix factorization methods with rich theory but poor computational complexity and by the relative ease of mapping matrices onto distributed architectures, we introduce a scalable divide-and-conquer framework for noisy matrix factorization. We present a thorough theoretical analysis of this framework in which we characterize the statistical errors introduced by the "divide" step and control their magnitude in the "conquer" step, so that the overall algorithm enjoys high-probability estimation guarantees comparable to those of its base algorithm. We also present experiments in collaborative filtering and video background modeling that demonstrate the near-linear to superlinear speed-ups attainable with this approach.
1107.0803
Motion Planning via Manifold Samples
cs.CG cs.RO
We present a general and modular algorithmic framework for path planning of robots. Our framework combines geometric methods for exact and complete analysis of low-dimensional configuration spaces, together with practical, considerably simpler sampling-based approaches that are appropriate for higher dimensions. In order to facilitate the transfer of advanced geometric algorithms into practical use, we suggest taking samples that are entire low-dimensional manifolds of the configuration space that capture the connectivity of the configuration space much better than isolated point samples. Geometric algorithms for analysis of low-dimensional manifolds then provide powerful primitive operations. The modular design of the framework enables independent optimization of each modular component. Indeed, we have developed, implemented and optimized a primitive operation for complete and exact combinatorial analysis of a certain set of manifolds, using arrangements of curves of rational functions and concepts of generic programming. This in turn enabled us to implement our framework for the concrete case of a polygonal robot translating and rotating amidst polygonal obstacles. We demonstrate that the integration of several carefully engineered components leads to significant speedup over the popular PRM sampling-based algorithm, which represents the more simplistic approach that is prevalent in practice. We foresee possible extensions of our framework to solving high-dimensional problems beyond motion planning.
1107.0845
Automatic Road Lighting System (ARLS) Model Based on Image Processing of Moving Object
cs.CV
Using a vehicle toy (in next future called vehicle) as a moving object an automatic road lighting system (ARLS) model is constructed. A digital video camera with 25 fps is used to capture the vehicle motion as it moves in the test segment of the road. Captured images are then processed to calculate vehicle speed. This information of the speed together with position of vehicle is then used to control the lighting system along the path that passes by the vehicle. Length of the road test segment is 1 m, the video camera is positioned about 1.1 m above the test segment, and the vehicle toy dimension is 13 cm \times 9.3 cm. In this model, the maximum speed that ARLS can handle is about 1.32 m/s, and the highest performance is obtained about 91% at speed 0.93 m/s.
1107.0878
Learning to play public good games
physics.soc-ph cs.SI q-bio.PE
We extend recent analyses of stochastic effects in game dynamical learning to cases of multi-player games, and to games defined on networked structures. By means of an expansion in the noise strength we consider the weak-noise limit, and present an analytical computation of spectral properties of fluctuations in multi-player public good games. This extends existing work on two-player games. In particular we show that coherent cycles may emerge driven by noise in the adaptation dynamics. These phenomena are not too dissimilar from cyclic strategy switching observed in experiments of behavioural game theory.
1107.0922
GraphLab: A Distributed Framework for Machine Learning in the Cloud
cs.LG
Machine Learning (ML) techniques are indispensable in a wide range of fields. Unfortunately, the exponential increase of dataset sizes are rapidly extending the runtime of sequential algorithms and threatening to slow future progress in ML. With the promise of affordable large-scale parallel computing, Cloud systems offer a viable platform to resolve the computational challenges in ML. However, designing and implementing efficient, provably correct distributed ML algorithms is often prohibitively challenging. To enable ML researchers to easily and efficiently use parallel systems, we introduced the GraphLab abstraction which is designed to represent the computational patterns in ML algorithms while permitting efficient parallel and distributed implementations. In this paper we provide a formal description of the GraphLab parallel abstraction and present an efficient distributed implementation. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation of GraphLab on three state-of-the-art ML algorithms using real large-scale data and a 64 node EC2 cluster of 512 processors. We find that GraphLab achieves orders of magnitude performance gains over Hadoop while performing comparably or superior to hand-tuned MPI implementations.
1107.0927
Application of Predictive Model Selection to Coupled Models
stat.AP cs.IT math.IT physics.data-an
A predictive Bayesian model selection approach is presented to discriminate coupled models used to predict an unobserved quantity of interest (QoI). The need for accurate predictions arises in a variety of critical applications such as climate, aerospace and defense. A model problem is introduced to study the prediction yielded by the coupling of two physics/sub-components. For each single physics domain, a set of model classes and a set of sensor observations are available. A goal-oriented algorithm using a predictive approach to Bayesian model selection is then used to select the combination of single physics models that best predict the QoI. It is shown that the best coupled model for prediction is the one that provides the most robust predictive distribution for the QoI.
1107.0989
Geometry of Complex Networks and Topological Centrality
cs.DM cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We explore the geometry of complex networks in terms of an n-dimensional Euclidean embedding represented by the Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse of the graph Laplacian $(\bb L^+)$. The squared distance of a node $i$ to the origin in this n-dimensional space $(l^+_{ii})$, yields a topological centrality index $(\mathcal{C}^{*}(i) = 1/l^+_{ii})$ for node $i$. In turn, the sum of reciprocals of individual node structural centralities, $\sum_{i}1/\mathcal{C}^*(i) = \sum_{i} l^+_{ii}$, i.e. the trace of $\bb L^+$, yields the well-known Kirchhoff index $(\mathcal{K})$, an overall structural descriptor for the network. In addition to this geometric interpretation, we provide alternative interpretations of the proposed indices to reveal their true topological characteristics: first, in terms of forced detour overheads and frequency of recurrences in random walks that has an interesting analogy to voltage distributions in the equivalent electrical network; and then as the average connectedness of $i$ in all the bi-partitions of the graph. These interpretations respectively help establish the topological centrality $(\mathcal{C}^{*}(i))$ of node $i$ as a measure of its overall position as well as its overall connectedness in the network; thus reflecting the robustness of node $i$ to random multiple edge failures. Through empirical evaluations using synthetic and real world networks, we demonstrate how the topological centrality is better able to distinguish nodes in terms of their structural roles in the network and, along with Kirchhoff index, is appropriately sensitive to perturbations/rewirings in the network.
1107.0998
An Information Theoretic Representation of Agent Dynamics as Set Intersections
cs.IT cs.AI math.IT
We represent agents as sets of strings. Each string encodes a potential interaction with another agent or environment. We represent the total set of dynamics between two agents as the intersection of their respective strings, we prove complexity properties of player interactions using Algorithmic Information Theory. We show how the proposed construction is compatible with Universal Artificial Intelligence, in that the AIXI model can be seen as universal with respect to interaction.
1107.1011
Hamilton-Jacobi Equations and Two-Person Zero-Sum Differential Games with Unbounded Controls
math.OC cs.SY
A two-person zero-sum differential game with unbounded controls is considered. Under proper coercivity conditions, the upper and lower value functions are characterized as the unique viscosity solutions to the corresponding upper and lower Hamilton--Jacobi--Isaacs equations, respectively. Consequently, when the Isaacs' condition is satisfied, the upper and lower value functions coincide, leading to the existence of the value function. Due to the unboundedness of the controls, the corresponding upper and lower Hamiltonians grow super linearly in the gradient of the upper and lower value functions, respectively. A uniqueness theorem of viscosity solution to Hamilton--Jacobi equations involving such kind of Hamiltonian is proved, without relying on the convexity/concavity of the Hamiltonian. Also, it is shown that the assumed coercivity conditions guaranteeing the finiteness of the upper and lower value functions are sharp in some sense.
1107.1020
A Novel Multicriteria Group Decision Making Approach With Intuitionistic Fuzzy SIR Method
cs.AI
The superiority and inferiority ranking (SIR) method is a generation of the well-known PROMETHEE method, which can be more efficient to deal with multi-criterion decision making (MCDM) problem. Intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), as an important extension of fuzzy sets (IFs), include both membership functions and non-membership functions and can be used to, more precisely describe uncertain information. In real world, decision situations are usually under uncertain environment and involve multiple individuals who have their own points of view on handing of decision problems. In order to solve uncertainty group MCDM problem, we propose a novel intuitionistic fuzzy SIR method in this paper. This approach uses intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators and SIR ranking methods to handle uncertain information; integrate individual opinions into group opinions; make decisions on multiple-criterion; and finally structure a specific decision map. The proposed approach is illustrated in a simulation of group decision making problem related to supply chain management.
1107.1058
Online Vehicle Detection For Estimating Traffic Status
cs.CV
We propose a traffic congestion estimation system based on unsupervised on-line learning algorithm. The system does not rely on background extraction or motion detection. It extracts local features inside detection regions of variable size which are drawn on lanes in advance. The extracted features are then clustered into two classes using K-means and Gaussian Mixture Models(GMM). A Bayes classifier is used to detect vehicles according to the previous cluster information which keeps updated whenever system is running by on-line EM algorithm. Experimental result shows that our system can be adapted to various traffic scenes for estimating traffic status.
1107.1066
Families of twisted tensor product codes
math.CO cs.IT math.IT
Using geometric properties of the variety $\cV_{r,t}$, the image under the Grassmannian map of a Desarguesian $(t-1)$-spread of $\PG(rt-1,q)$, we introduce error correcting codes related to the twisted tensor product construction, producing several families of constacyclic codes. We exactly determine the parameters of these codes and characterise the words of minimum weight.
1107.1081
Spatial Features for Multi-Font/Multi-Size Kannada Numerals and Vowels Recognition
cs.CV
This paper presents multi-font/multi-size Kannada numerals and vowels recognition based on spatial features. Directional spatial features viz stroke density, stroke length and the number of stokes in an image are employed as potential features to characterize the printed Kannada numerals and vowels. Based on these features 1100 numerals and 1400 vowels are classified with Multi-class Support Vector Machines (SVM). The proposed system achieves the recognition accuracy as 98.45% and 90.64% for numerals and vowels respectively.
1107.1104
SERIMI - Resource Description Similarity, RDF Instance Matching and Interlinking
cs.DB
The interlinking of datasets published in the Linked Data Cloud is a challenging problem and a key factor for the success of the Semantic Web. Manual rule-based methods are the most effective solution for the problem, but they require skilled human data publishers going through a laborious, error prone and time-consuming process for manually describing rules mapping instances between two datasets. Thus, an automatic approach for solving this problem is more than welcome. In this paper, we propose a novel interlinking method, SERIMI, for solving this problem automatically. SERIMI matches instances between a source and a target datasets, without prior knowledge of the data, domain or schema of these datasets. Experiments conducted with benchmark collections demonstrate that our approach considerably outperforms state-of-the-art automatic approaches for solving the interlinking problem on the Linked Data Cloud.
1107.1119
Integrating Generic Sensor Fusion Algorithms with Sound State Representations through Encapsulation of Manifolds
cs.RO cs.CV cs.MS
Common estimation algorithms, such as least squares estimation or the Kalman filter, operate on a state in a state space S that is represented as a real-valued vector. However, for many quantities, most notably orientations in 3D, S is not a vector space, but a so-called manifold, i.e. it behaves like a vector space locally but has a more complex global topological structure. For integrating these quantities, several ad-hoc approaches have been proposed. Here, we present a principled solution to this problem where the structure of the manifold S is encapsulated by two operators, state displacement [+]:S x R^n --> S and its inverse [-]: S x S --> R^n. These operators provide a local vector-space view \delta; --> x [+] \delta; around a given state x. Generic estimation algorithms can then work on the manifold S mainly by replacing +/- with [+]/[-] where appropriate. We analyze these operators axiomatically, and demonstrate their use in least-squares estimation and the Unscented Kalman Filter. Moreover, we exploit the idea of encapsulation from a software engineering perspective in the Manifold Toolkit, where the [+]/[-] operators mediate between a "flat-vector" view for the generic algorithm and a "named-members" view for the problem specific functions.
1107.1128
AISMOTIF-An Artificial Immune System for DNA Motif Discovery
cs.CE
Discovery of transcription factor binding sites is a much explored and still exploring area of research in functional genomics. Many computational tools have been developed for finding motifs and each of them has their own advantages as well as disadvantages. Most of these algorithms need prior knowledge about the data to construct background models. However there is not a single technique that can be considered as best for finding regulatory motifs. This paper proposes an artificial immune system based algorithm for finding the transcription factor binding sites or motifs and two new weighted scores for motif evaluation. The algorithm is enumerative, but sufficient pruning of the pattern search space has been incorporated using immune system concepts. The performance of AISMOTIF has been evaluated by comparing it with eight state of art composite motif discovery algorithms and found that AISMOTIF predicts known motifs as well as new motifs from the benchmark dataset without any prior knowledge about the data.
1107.1149
The dimension of ergodic random sequences
cs.IT math.IT
Let \mu be a computable ergodic shift-invariant measure over the Cantor space. Providing a constructive proof of Shannon-McMillan-Breiman theorem, V'yugin proved that if a sequence x is Martin-L\"of random w.r.t. \mu then the strong effective dimension Dim(x) of x equals the entropy of \mu. Whether its effective dimension dim(x) also equals the entropy was left as an problem question. In this paper we settle this problem, providing a positive answer. A key step in the proof consists in extending recent results on Birkhoff's ergodic theorem for Martin-L\"of random sequences.
1107.1155
Limits of modularity maximization in community detection
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
Modularity maximization is the most popular technique for the detection of community structure in graphs. The resolution limit of the method is supposedly solvable with the introduction of modified versions of the measure, with tunable resolution parameters. We show that multiresolution modularity suffers from two opposite coexisting problems: the tendency to merge small subgraphs, which dominates when the resolution is low; the tendency to split large subgraphs, which dominates when the resolution is high. In benchmark networks with heterogeneous distributions of cluster sizes, the simultaneous elimination of both biases is not possible and multiresolution modularity is not capable to recover the planted community structure, not even when it is pronounced and easily detectable by other methods, for any value of the resolution parameter. This holds for other multiresolution techniques and it is likely to be a general problem of methods based on global optimization.
1107.1163
Conditional Gradient Algorithms for Rank-One Matrix Approximations with a Sparsity Constraint
math.OC cs.SY
The sparsity constrained rank-one matrix approximation problem is a difficult mathematical optimization problem which arises in a wide array of useful applications in engineering, machine learning and statistics, and the design of algorithms for this problem has attracted intensive research activities. We introduce an algorithmic framework, called ConGradU, that unifies a variety of seemingly different algorithms that have been derived from disparate approaches, and allows for deriving new schemes. Building on the old and well-known conditional gradient algorithm, ConGradU is a simplified version with unit step size and yields a generic algorithm which either is given by an analytic formula or requires a very low computational complexity. Mathematical properties are systematically developed and numerical experiments are given.
1107.1222
On the information-theoretic structure of distributed measurements
cs.IT cs.DC cs.NE math.CT math.IT nlin.CG
The internal structure of a measuring device, which depends on what its components are and how they are organized, determines how it categorizes its inputs. This paper presents a geometric approach to studying the internal structure of measurements performed by distributed systems such as probabilistic cellular automata. It constructs the quale, a family of sections of a suitably defined presheaf, whose elements correspond to the measurements performed by all subsystems of a distributed system. Using the quale we quantify (i) the information generated by a measurement; (ii) the extent to which a measurement is context-dependent; and (iii) whether a measurement is decomposable into independent submeasurements, which turns out to be equivalent to context-dependence. Finally, we show that only indecomposable measurements are more informative than the sum of their submeasurements.
1107.1229
Characteristic Characteristics
stat.AP cs.IR physics.data-an
While five-factor models of personality are widespread, there is still not universal agreement on this as a structural framework. Part of the reason for the lingering debate is its dependence on factor analysis. In particular, derivation or refutation of the model via other statistical means is a worthwhile project. In this paper we use the methodology of spectral clustering to articulate the structure in the dataset of responses of 20,993 subjects on a 300-item item version of the IPIP NEO personality questionnaire, and we compare our results to those obtained from a factor analytic solution. We found support for five- and six-cluster solutions. The five-cluster solution was similar to a conventional five-factor solution, but the six-cluster and six-factor solutions differed significantly, and only the six-cluster solution was readily interpretable: it gave a model similar to the HEXACO model. We suggest that spectral clustering provides a robust alternative view of personality data.
1107.1257
Evidence-Based Filters for Signal Detection: Application to Evoked Brain Responses
physics.comp-ph cs.CV physics.med-ph
Template-based signal detection most often relies on computing a correlation, or a dot product, between an incoming data stream and a signal template. Such a correlation results in an ongoing estimate of the magnitude of the signal in the data stream. However, it does not directly indicate the presence or absence of the signal. The problem is really one of model-testing, and the relevant quantity is the Bayesian evidence (marginal likelihood) of the signal model. Given a signal template and an ongoing data stream, we have developed an evidence-based filter that computes the Bayesian evidence that a signal is present in the data. We demonstrate this algorithm by applying it to brain-machine interface (BMI) data obtained by recording human brain electrical activity, or electroencephalography (EEG). A very popular and effective paradigm in EEG-based BMI is based on the detection of the P300 evoked brain response which is generated in response to particular sensory stimuli. The goal is to detect the presence of a P300 signal in ongoing EEG activity as accurately and as fast as possible. Our algorithm uses a subject-specific P300 template to compute the Bayesian evidence that a applying window of EEG data contains the signal. The efficacy of this algorithm is demonstrated by comparing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of the evidence-based filter to the usual correlation method. Our results show a significant improvement in single-trial P300 detection. The evidence-based filter promises to improve the accuracy and speed of the detection of evoked brain responses in BMI applications as well the detection of template signals in more general signal processing applications
1107.1270
High-Dimensional Gaussian Graphical Model Selection: Walk Summability and Local Separation Criterion
cs.LG math.ST stat.TH
We consider the problem of high-dimensional Gaussian graphical model selection. We identify a set of graphs for which an efficient estimation algorithm exists, and this algorithm is based on thresholding of empirical conditional covariances. Under a set of transparent conditions, we establish structural consistency (or sparsistency) for the proposed algorithm, when the number of samples n=omega(J_{min}^{-2} log p), where p is the number of variables and J_{min} is the minimum (absolute) edge potential of the graphical model. The sufficient conditions for sparsistency are based on the notion of walk-summability of the model and the presence of sparse local vertex separators in the underlying graph. We also derive novel non-asymptotic necessary conditions on the number of samples required for sparsistency.
1107.1276
Experiment-driven Characterization of Full-Duplex Wireless Systems
cs.IT math.IT
We present an experiment-based characterization of passive suppression and active self-interference cancellation mechanisms in full-duplex wireless communication systems. In particular, we consider passive suppression due to antenna separation at the same node, and active cancellation in analog and/or digital domain. First, we show that the average amount of cancellation increases for active cancellation techniques as the received self-interference power increases. Our characterization of the average cancellation as a function of the self-interference power allows us to show that for a constant signal-to-interference ratio at the receiver antenna (before any active cancellation is applied), the rate of a full-duplex link increases as the self-interference power increases. Second, we show that applying digital cancellation after analog cancellation can sometimes increase the self-interference, and thus digital cancellation is more effective when applied selectively based on measured suppression values. Third, we complete our study of the impact of self-interference cancellation mechanisms by characterizing the probability distribution of the self-interference channel before and after cancellation.
1107.1283
Spectral Methods for Learning Multivariate Latent Tree Structure
cs.LG stat.ML
This work considers the problem of learning the structure of multivariate linear tree models, which include a variety of directed tree graphical models with continuous, discrete, and mixed latent variables such as linear-Gaussian models, hidden Markov models, Gaussian mixture models, and Markov evolutionary trees. The setting is one where we only have samples from certain observed variables in the tree, and our goal is to estimate the tree structure (i.e., the graph of how the underlying hidden variables are connected to each other and to the observed variables). We propose the Spectral Recursive Grouping algorithm, an efficient and simple bottom-up procedure for recovering the tree structure from independent samples of the observed variables. Our finite sample size bounds for exact recovery of the tree structure reveal certain natural dependencies on underlying statistical and structural properties of the underlying joint distribution. Furthermore, our sample complexity guarantees have no explicit dependence on the dimensionality of the observed variables, making the algorithm applicable to many high-dimensional settings. At the heart of our algorithm is a spectral quartet test for determining the relative topology of a quartet of variables from second-order statistics.
1107.1322
Text Classification: A Sequential Reading Approach
cs.AI cs.IR cs.LG
We propose to model the text classification process as a sequential decision process. In this process, an agent learns to classify documents into topics while reading the document sentences sequentially and learns to stop as soon as enough information was read for deciding. The proposed algorithm is based on a modelisation of Text Classification as a Markov Decision Process and learns by using Reinforcement Learning. Experiments on four different classical mono-label corpora show that the proposed approach performs comparably to classical SVM approaches for large training sets, and better for small training sets. In addition, the model automatically adapts its reading process to the quantity of training information provided.
1107.1345
Distances and Riemannian metrics for multivariate spectral densities
math.OC cs.SY math.ST stat.TH
We first introduce a class of divergence measures between power spectral density matrices. These are derived by comparing the suitability of different models in the context of optimal prediction. Distances between "infinitesimally close" power spectra are quadratic, and hence, they induce a differential-geometric structure. We study the corresponding Riemannian metrics and, for a particular case, provide explicit formulae for the corresponding geodesics and geodesic distances. The close connection between the geometry of power spectra and the geometry of the Fisher-Rao metric is noted.
1107.1347
Sequential, successive, and simultaneous decoders for entanglement-assisted classical communication
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Bennett et al. showed that allowing shared entanglement between a sender and receiver before communication begins dramatically simplifies the theory of quantum channels, and these results suggest that it would be worthwhile to study other scenarios for entanglement-assisted classical communication. In this vein, the present paper makes several contributions to the theory of entanglement-assisted classical communication. First, we rephrase the Giovannetti-Lloyd-Maccone sequential decoding argument as a more general "packing lemma" and show that it gives an alternate way of achieving the entanglement-assisted classical capacity. Next, we show that a similar sequential decoder can achieve the Hsieh-Devetak-Winter region for entanglement-assisted classical communication over a multiple access channel. Third, we prove the existence of a quantum simultaneous decoder for entanglement-assisted classical communication over a multiple access channel with two senders. This result implies a solution of the quantum simultaneous decoding conjecture for unassisted classical communication over quantum multiple access channels with two senders, but the three-sender case still remains open (Sen recently and independently solved this unassisted two-sender case with a different technique). We then leverage this result to recover the known regions for unassisted and assisted quantum communication over a quantum multiple access channel, though our proof exploits a coherent quantum simultaneous decoder. Finally, we determine an achievable rate region for communication over an entanglement-assisted bosonic multiple access channel and compare it with the Yen-Shapiro outer bound for unassisted communication over the same channel.
1107.1358
On the Furthest Hyperplane Problem and Maximal Margin Clustering
cs.CC cs.DS cs.LG
This paper introduces the Furthest Hyperplane Problem (FHP), which is an unsupervised counterpart of Support Vector Machines. Given a set of n points in Rd, the objective is to produce the hyperplane (passing through the origin) which maximizes the separation margin, that is, the minimal distance between the hyperplane and any input point. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper achieving provable results regarding FHP. We provide both lower and upper bounds to this NP-hard problem. First, we give a simple randomized algorithm whose running time is n^O(1/{\theta}^2) where {\theta} is the optimal separation margin. We show that its exponential dependency on 1/{\theta}^2 is tight, up to sub-polynomial factors, assuming SAT cannot be solved in sub-exponential time. Next, we give an efficient approxima- tion algorithm. For any {\alpha} \in [0, 1], the algorithm produces a hyperplane whose distance from at least 1 - 5{\alpha} fraction of the points is at least {\alpha} times the optimal separation margin. Finally, we show that FHP does not admit a PTAS by presenting a gap preserving reduction from a particular version of the PCP theorem.
1107.1382
Operations-Based Planning for Placement and Sizing of Energy Storage in a Grid With a High Penetration of Renewables
math.OC cs.SY physics.soc-ph
As the penetration level of transmission-scale time-intermittent renewable generation resources increases, control of flexible resources will become important to mitigating the fluctuations due to these new renewable resources. Flexible resources may include new or existing synchronous generators as well as new energy storage devices. The addition of energy storage, if needed, should be done optimally to minimize the integration cost of renewable resources, however, optimal placement and sizing of energy storage is a difficult optimization problem. The fidelity of such results may be questionable because optimal planning procedures typically do not consider the effect of the time dynamics of operations and controls. Here, we use an optimal energy storage control algorithm to develop a heuristic procedure for energy storage placement and sizing. We generate many instances of intermittent generation time profiles and allow the control algorithm access to unlimited amounts of storage, both energy and power, at all nodes. Based on the activity of the storage at each node, we restrict the number of storage node in a staged procedure seeking the minimum number of storage nodes and total network storage that can still mitigate the effects of renewable fluctuations on network constraints. The quality of the heuristic is explored by comparing our results to seemingly "intuitive" placements of storage.
1107.1383
Algorithms for Synthesizing Priorities in Component-based Systems
cs.LO cs.SY
We present algorithms to synthesize component-based systems that are safe and deadlock-free using priorities, which define stateless-precedence between enabled actions. Our core method combines the concept of fault-localization (using safety-game) and fault-repair (using SAT for conflict resolution). For complex systems, we propose three complementary methods as preprocessing steps for priority synthesis, namely (a) data abstraction to reduce component complexities, (b) alphabet abstraction and #-deadlock to ignore components, and (c) automated assumption learning for compositional priority synthesis.
1107.1409
Fluctuations of spiked random matrix models and failure diagnosis in sensor networks
cs.IT math.IT
In this article, the joint fluctuations of the extreme eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a large dimensional sample covariance matrix are analyzed when the associated population covariance matrix is a finite-rank perturbation of the identity matrix, corresponding to the so-called spiked model in random matrix theory. The asymptotic fluctuations, as the matrix size grows large, are shown to be intimately linked with matrices from the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE). When the spiked population eigenvalues have unit multiplicity, the fluctuations follow a central limit theorem. This result is used to develop an original framework for the detection and diagnosis of local failures in large sensor networks, for known or unknown failure magnitude.
1107.1445
Bayesian experimental design for the active nitridation of graphite by atomic nitrogen
physics.data-an cs.IT math.IT stat.AP
The problem of optimal data collection to efficiently learn the model parameters of a graphite nitridation experiment is studied in the context of Bayesian analysis using both synthetic and real experimental data. The paper emphasizes that the optimal design can be obtained as a result of an information theoretic sensitivity analysis. Thus, the preferred design is where the statistical dependence between the model parameters and observables is the highest possible. In this paper, the statistical dependence between random variables is quantified by mutual information and estimated using a k-nearest neighbor based approximation. It is shown, that by monitoring the inference process via measures such as entropy or Kullback-Leibler divergence, one can determine when to stop the data collection process. The methodology is applied to select the most informative designs on both a simulated data set and on an experimental data set, previously published in the literature. It is also shown that the sequential Bayesian analysis used in the experimental design can also be useful in detecting conflicting information between measurements and model predictions.
1107.1456
Answering Non-Monotonic Queries in Relational Data Exchange
cs.DB cs.LO
Relational data exchange is the problem of translating relational data from a source schema into a target schema, according to a specification of the relationship between the source data and the target data. One of the basic issues is how to answer queries that are posed against target data. While consensus has been reached on the definitive semantics for monotonic queries, this issue turned out to be considerably more difficult for non-monotonic queries. Several semantics for non-monotonic queries have been proposed in the past few years. This article proposes a new semantics for non-monotonic queries, called the GCWA*-semantics. It is inspired by semantics from the area of deductive databases. We show that the GCWA*-semantics coincides with the standard open world semantics on monotonic queries, and we further explore the (data) complexity of evaluating non-monotonic queries under the GCWA*-semantics. In particular, we introduce a class of schema mappings for which universal queries can be evaluated under the GCWA*-semantics in polynomial time (data complexity) on the core of the universal solutions.
1107.1467
Geometry of Injection Regions of Power Networks
math.OC cs.IT cs.SY math.IT
We investigate the constraints on power flow in networks and its implications to the optimal power flow problem. The constraints are described by the injection region of a network; this is the set of all vectors of power injections, one at each bus, that can be achieved while satisfying the network and operation constraints. If there are no operation constraints, we show the injection region of a network is the set of all injections satisfying the conservation of energy. If the network has a tree topology, e.g., a distribution network, we show that under voltage magnitude, line loss constraints, line flow constraints and certain bus real and reactive power constraints, the injection region and its convex hull have the same Pareto-front. The Pareto-front is of interest since these are the the optimal solutions to the minimization of increasing functions over the injection region. For non-tree networks, we obtain a weaker result by characterize the convex hull of the voltage constraint injection region for lossless cycles and certain combinations of cycles and trees.
1107.1470
Vision-Based Navigation II: Error Analysis for a Navigation Algorithm based on Optical-Flow and a Digital Terrain Map
cs.CV cs.AI
The paper deals with the error analysis of a navigation algorithm that uses as input a sequence of images acquired by a moving camera and a Digital Terrain Map (DTM) of the region been imaged by the camera during the motion. The main sources of error are more or less straightforward to identify: camera resolution, structure of the observed terrain and DTM accuracy, field of view and camera trajectory. After characterizing and modeling these error sources in the framework of the CDTM algorithm, a closed form expression for their effect on the pose and motion errors of the camera can be found. The analytic expression provides a priori measurements for the accuracy in terms of the parameters mentioned above.
1107.1525
Accelerating Lossless Data Compression with GPUs
cs.IT cs.GR cs.PF math.IT
Huffman compression is a statistical, lossless, data compression algorithm that compresses data by assigning variable length codes to symbols, with the more frequently appearing symbols given shorter codes than the less. This work is a modification of the Huffman algorithm which permits uncompressed data to be decomposed into indepen- dently compressible and decompressible blocks, allowing for concurrent compression and decompression on multiple processors. We create implementations of this modified algorithm on a current NVIDIA GPU using the CUDA API as well as on a current Intel chip and the performance results are compared, showing favorable GPU performance for nearly all tests. Lastly, we discuss the necessity for high performance data compression in today's supercomputing ecosystem.
1107.1529
Decoding of Matrix-Product Codes
cs.IT math.IT
We propose a decoding algorithm for the $(u\mid u+v)$-construction that decodes up to half of the minimum distance of the linear code. We extend this algorithm for a class of matrix-product codes in two different ways. In some cases, one can decode beyond the error correction capability of the code.
1107.1535
Multilevel Polarization of Polar Codes Over Arbitrary Discrete Memoryless Channels
cs.IT math.IT
It is shown that polar codes achieve the symmetric capacity of discrete memoryless channels with arbitrary input alphabet sizes. It is shown that in general, channel polarization happens in several, rather than only two levels so that the synthesized channels are either useless, perfect or "partially perfect". Any subset of the channel input alphabet which is closed under addition, induces a coset partition of the alphabet through its shifts. For any such partition of the input alphabet, there exists a corresponding partially perfect channel whose outputs uniquely determine the coset to which the channel input belongs. By a slight modification of the encoding and decoding rules, it is shown that perfect transmission of certain information symbols over partially perfect channels is possible. Our result is general regarding both the cardinality and the algebraic structure of the channel input alphabet; i.e we show that for any channel input alphabet size and any Abelian group structure on the alphabet, polar codes are optimal. It is also shown through an example that polar codes when considered as group/coset codes, do not achieve the capacity achievable using coset codes over arbitrary channels.
1107.1544
Cooperative Jamming for Secure Communications in MIMO Relay Networks
cs.IT math.IT
Secure communications can be impeded by eavesdroppers in conventional relay systems. This paper proposes cooperative jamming strategies for two-hop relay networks where the eavesdropper can wiretap the relay channels in both hops. In these approaches, the normally inactive nodes in the relay network can be used as cooperative jamming sources to confuse the eavesdropper. Linear precoding schemes are investigated for two scenarios where single or multiple data streams are transmitted via a decode-and-forward (DF) relay, under the assumption that global channel state information (CSI) is available. For the case of single data stream transmission, we derive closed-form jamming beamformers and the corresponding optimal power allocation. Generalized singular value decomposition (GSVD)-based secure relaying schemes are proposed for the transmission of multiple data streams. The optimal power allocation is found for the GSVD relaying scheme via geometric programming. Based on this result, a GSVD-based cooperative jamming scheme is proposed that shows significant improvement in terms of secrecy rate compared to the approach without jamming. Furthermore, the case involving an eavesdropper with unknown CSI is also investigated in this paper. Simulation results show that the secrecy rate is dramatically increased when inactive nodes in the relay network participate in cooperative jamming.
1107.1561
Analysis and Improvement of Low Rank Representation for Subspace segmentation
cs.CV
We analyze and improve low rank representation (LRR), the state-of-the-art algorithm for subspace segmentation of data. We prove that for the noiseless case, the optimization model of LRR has a unique solution, which is the shape interaction matrix (SIM) of the data matrix. So in essence LRR is equivalent to factorization methods. We also prove that the minimum value of the optimization model of LRR is equal to the rank of the data matrix. For the noisy case, we show that LRR can be approximated as a factorization method that combines noise removal by column sparse robust PCA. We further propose an improved version of LRR, called Robust Shape Interaction (RSI), which uses the corrected data as the dictionary instead of the noisy data. RSI is more robust than LRR when the corruption in data is heavy. Experiments on both synthetic and real data testify to the improved robustness of RSI.
1107.1563
Designing Nonlinear Turbo Codes with a Target Ones Density
cs.IT math.IT
Certain binary asymmetric channels, such as Z-channels in which one of the two crossover probabilities is zero, demand optimal ones densities different from 50%. Some broadcast channels, such as broadcast binary symmetric channels (BBSC) where each component channel is a binary symmetric channel, also require a non-uniform input distribution due to the superposition coding scheme, which is known to achieve the boundary of capacity region. This paper presents a systematic technique for designing nonlinear turbo codes that are able to support ones densities different from 50%. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our design technique, we design and simulate nonlinear turbo codes for the Z-channel and the BBSC. The best nonlinear turbo code is less than 0.02 bits from capacity.
1107.1564
Polyceptron: A Polyhedral Learning Algorithm
cs.LG cs.NE
In this paper we propose a new algorithm for learning polyhedral classifiers which we call as Polyceptron. It is a Perception like algorithm which updates the parameters only when the current classifier misclassifies any training data. We give both batch and online version of Polyceptron algorithm. Finally we give experimental results to show the effectiveness of our approach.
1107.1580
Controller Synthesis for Robust Invariance of Polynomial Dynamical Systems using Linear Programming
math.OC cs.SY
In this paper, we consider a control synthesis problem for a class of polynomial dynamical systems subject to bounded disturbances and with input constraints. More precisely, we aim at synthesizing at the same time a controller and an invariant set for the controlled system under all admissible disturbances. We propose a computational method to solve this problem. Given a candidate polyhedral invariant, we show that controller synthesis can be formulated as an optimization problem involving polynomial cost functions over bounded polytopes for which effective linear programming relaxations can be obtained. Then, we propose an iterative approach to compute the controller and the polyhedral invariant at once. Each iteration of the approach mainly consists in solving two linear programs (one for the controller and one for the invariant) and is thus computationally tractable. Finally, we show with several examples the usefulness of our method in applications.