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1107.5841
Sequential Convex Programming Methods for Solving Nonlinear Optimization Problems with DC constraints
math.OC cs.SY
This paper investigates the relation between sequential convex programming (SCP) as, e.g., defined in [24] and DC (difference of two convex functions) programming. We first present an SCP algorithm for solving nonlinear optimization problems with DC constraints and prove its convergence. Then we combine the proposed algorithm with a relaxation technique to handle inconsistent linearizations. Numerical tests are performed to investigate the behaviour of the class of algorithms.
1107.5850
Confidence-Based Dynamic Classifier Combination For Mean-Shift Tracking
cs.CV
We introduce a novel tracking technique which uses dynamic confidence-based fusion of two different information sources for robust and efficient tracking of visual objects. Mean-shift tracking is a popular and well known method used in object tracking problems. Originally, the algorithm uses a similarity measure which is optimized by shifting a search area to the center of a generated weight image to track objects. Recent improvements on the original mean-shift algorithm involves using a classifier that differentiates the object from its surroundings. We adopt this classifier-based approach and propose an application of a classifier fusion technique within this classifier-based context in this work. We use two different classifiers, where one comes from a background modeling method, to generate the weight image and we calculate contributions of the classifiers dynamically using their confidences to generate a final weight image to be used in tracking. The contributions of the classifiers are calculated by using correlations between histograms of their weight images and histogram of a defined ideal weight image in the previous frame. We show with experiments that our dynamic combination scheme selects good contributions for classifiers for different cases and improves tracking accuracy significantly.
1107.5851
Co-evolution of Content Popularity and Delivery in Mobile P2P Networks
cs.SI cs.MA
Mobile P2P technology provides a scalable approach to content delivery to a large number of users on their mobile devices. In this work, we study the dissemination of a \emph{single} content (e.g., an item of news, a song or a video clip) among a population of mobile nodes. Each node in the population is either a \emph{destination} (interested in the content) or a potential \emph{relay} (not yet interested in the content). There is an interest evolution process by which nodes not yet interested in the content (i.e., relays) can become interested (i.e., become destinations) on learning about the popularity of the content (i.e., the number of already interested nodes). In our work, the interest in the content evolves under the \emph{linear threshold model}. The content is copied between nodes when they make random contact. For this we employ a controlled epidemic spread model. We model the joint evolution of the copying process and the interest evolution process, and derive the joint fluid limit ordinary differential equations. We then study the selection of the parameters under the content provider's control, for the optimization of various objective functions that aim at maximizing content popularity and efficient content delivery.
1107.5869
Piecewise linear car-following modeling
math.OC cs.SY
We present a traffic model that extends the linear car-following model as well as the min-plus traffic model (a model based on the min-plus algebra). A discrete-time car-dynamics describing the traffic on a 1-lane road without passing is interpreted as a dynamic programming equation of a stochastic optimal control problem of a Markov chain. This variational formulation permits to characterize the stability of the car-dynamics and to calculte the stationary regimes when they exist. The model is based on a piecewise linear approximation of the fundamental traffic diagram.
1107.5870
Evolutionary Dynamics of Scientific Collaboration Networks: Multi-Levels and Cross-time Analysis
cs.SI cs.DL physics.soc-ph
Several studies exist which use scientific literature for comparing scientific activities (e.g., productivity, and collaboration). In this study, using co-authorship data over the last 40 years, we present the evolutionary dynamics of multi level (i.e., individual, institutional and national) collaboration networks for exploring the emergence of collaborations in the research field of "steel structures". The collaboration network of scientists in the field has been analyzed using author affiliations extracted from Scopus between 1970 and 2009. We have studied collaboration distribution networks at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels for the 40 years. We compared and analyzed a number of properties of these networks (i.e., density, centrality measures, the giant component and clustering coefficient) for presenting a longitudinal analysis and statistical validation of the evolutionary dynamics of "steel structures" collaboration networks. At all levels, the scientific collaborations network structures were central considering the closeness centralization while betweenness and degree centralization were much lower. In general networks density, connectedness, centralization and clustering coefficient were highest in marco-level and decreasing as the network size grow to the lowest in micro-level. We also find that the average distance between countries about two and institutes five and for authors eight meaning that only about eight steps are necessary to get from one randomly chosen author to another.
1107.5924
Reachability in Biochemical Dynamical Systems by Quantitative Discrete Approximation
cs.SY math.OC q-bio.QM
In this paper a novel computational technique for finite discrete approximation of continuous dynamical systems suitable for a significant class of biochemical dynamical systems is introduced. The method is parameterized in order to affect the imposed level of approximation provided that with increasing parameter value the approximation converges to the original continuous system. By employing this approximation technique, we present algorithms solving the reachability problem for biochemical dynamical systems. The presented method and algorithms are evaluated on several exemplary biological models and on a real case study. This is a full version of the paper published in the proceedings of CompMod 2011.
1107.5928
Extension of the $\nu$-metric for stabilizable plants over $H^\infty$
math.OC cs.SY math.AP math.FA math.RA
An abstract $\nu$-metric was introduced by Ball and Sasane, with a view towards extending the classical $\nu$-metric of Vinnicombe from the case of rational transfer functions to more general nonrational transfer function classes of infinite-dimensional linear control systems. In this short note, we give an important concrete special instance of the abstract $\nu$-metric, by verifying that all the assumptions demanded in the abstract set-up are satisfied when the ring of stable transfer functions is the Hardy algebra $H^\infty$. This settles the open question implicit in \cite{BalSas2}.
1107.5930
Technical Note: Towards ROC Curves in Cost Space
cs.AI
ROC curves and cost curves are two popular ways of visualising classifier performance, finding appropriate thresholds according to the operating condition, and deriving useful aggregated measures such as the area under the ROC curve (AUC) or the area under the optimal cost curve. In this note we present some new findings and connections between ROC space and cost space, by using the expected loss over a range of operating conditions. In particular, we show that ROC curves can be transferred to cost space by means of a very natural way of understanding how thresholds should be chosen, by selecting the threshold such that the proportion of positive predictions equals the operating condition (either in the form of cost proportion or skew). We call these new curves {ROC Cost Curves}, and we demonstrate that the expected loss as measured by the area under these curves is linearly related to AUC. This opens up a series of new possibilities and clarifies the notion of cost curve and its relation to ROC analysis. In addition, we show that for a classifier that assigns the scores in an evenly-spaced way, these curves are equal to the Brier Curves. As a result, this establishes the first clear connection between AUC and the Brier score.
1107.5951
Optimal, scalable forward models for computing gravity anomalies
cs.CE cs.DC physics.geo-ph
We describe three approaches for computing a gravity signal from a density anomaly. The first approach consists of the classical "summation" technique, whilst the remaining two methods solve the Poisson problem for the gravitational potential using either a Finite Element (FE) discretization employing a multilevel preconditioner, or a Green's function evaluated with the Fast Multipole Method (FMM). The methods utilizing the PDE formulation described here differ from previously published approaches used in gravity modeling in that they are optimal, implying that both the memory and computational time required scale linearly with respect to the number of unknowns in the potential field. Additionally, all of the implementations presented here are developed such that the computations can be performed in a massively parallel, distributed memory computing environment. Through numerical experiments, we compare the methods on the basis of their discretization error, CPU time and parallel scalability. We demonstrate the parallel scalability of all these techniques by running forward models with up to $10^8$ voxels on 1000's of cores.
1107.5953
Multivalued Subsets Under Information Theory
cs.IT math.IT
In the fields of finance, engineering and sciences data mining/ machine learning has held an eminent position in predictive analysis. Complex algorithms and adaptive decision models have contributed towards streamlining research as well as improve forecasting. Extensive study in areas surrounding computation and mathematical sciences has primarily been responsible for the field's development. Classification based modeling, which holds a prominent position amongst the different rule-based algorithms, is one of the most widely used decision making tool. The decision tree has a place of profound significance in classification modeling. A number of heuristics have been developed over the years to refine its decision making process. Most heuristics applied to such tree-based learning algorithms derive their roots from Shannon's 'Information Theory'. The current application of this theory is directed towards individual assessment of the attribute-values. The proposed study takes a look at the effects of combining these values with the aim to improve the 'Information Gain'. A search-based heuristic tool is applied for identifying the subsets sharing a better gain value than the ones presented in the GID3 approach. An application towards the feature selection stage of the mining process has been tested and presented with statistical analysis.
1107.5968
Input-Output Finite-Time Stability
cs.SY math.OC
This paper introduces the extension of Finite-Time Stability (FTS) to the input-output case, namely the Input-Output FTS (IO-FTS). The main differences between classic IO stability and IO-FTS are that the latter involves signals defined over a finite time interval, does not necessarily require the inputs and outputs to belong to the same class of signals, and that quantitative bounds on both inputs and outputs must be specified. This paper revises some recent results on IO-FTS, both in the context of linear systems and in the context of switching systems. In the final example the proposed methodology is used to minimize the maximum displacement and velocity of a building subject to an earthquake of given magnitude.
1107.6004
Explicit Bounds for Entropy Concentration under Linear Constraints
cs.IT math.IT physics.data-an
Consider the set of all sequences of $n$ outcomes, each taking one of $m$ values, that satisfy a number of linear constraints. If $m$ is fixed while $n$ increases, most sequences that satisfy the constraints result in frequency vectors whose entropy approaches that of the maximum entropy vector satisfying the constraints. This well-known "entropy concentration" phenomenon underlies the maximum entropy method. Existing proofs of the concentration phenomenon are based on limits or asymptotics and unrealistically assume that constraints hold precisely, supporting maximum entropy inference more in principle than in practice. We present, for the first time, non-asymptotic, explicit lower bounds on $n$ for a number of variants of the concentration result to hold to any prescribed accuracies, with the constraints holding up to any specified tolerance, taking into account the fact that allocations of discrete units can satisfy constraints only approximately. Again unlike earlier results, we measure concentration not by deviation from the maximum entropy value, but by the $\ell_1$ and $\ell_2$ distances from the maximum entropy-achieving frequency vector. One of our results holds independently of the alphabet size $m$ and is based on a novel proof technique using the multi-dimensional Berry-Esseen theorem. We illustrate and compare our results using various detailed examples.
1107.6027
Minimax-Optimal Bounds for Detectors Based on Estimated Prior Probabilities
cs.IT math.IT stat.ML
In many signal detection and classification problems, we have knowledge of the distribution under each hypothesis, but not the prior probabilities. This paper is aimed at providing theory to quantify the performance of detection via estimating prior probabilities from either labeled or unlabeled training data. The error or {\em risk} is considered as a function of the prior probabilities. We show that the risk function is locally Lipschitz in the vicinity of the true prior probabilities, and the error of detectors based on estimated prior probabilities depends on the behavior of the risk function in this locality. In general, we show that the error of detectors based on the Maximum Likelihood Estimate (MLE) of the prior probabilities converges to the Bayes error at a rate of $n^{-1/2}$, where $n$ is the number of training data. If the behavior of the risk function is more favorable, then detectors based on the MLE have errors converging to the corresponding Bayes errors at optimal rates of the form $n^{-(1+\alpha)/2}$, where $\alpha>0$ is a parameter governing the behavior of the risk function with a typical value $\alpha = 1$. The limit $\alpha \rightarrow \infty$ corresponds to a situation where the risk function is flat near the true probabilities, and thus insensitive to small errors in the MLE; in this case the error of the detector based on the MLE converges to the Bayes error exponentially fast with $n$. We show the bounds are achievable no matter given labeled or unlabeled training data and are minimax-optimal in labeled case.
1108.0007
A Invertible Dimension Reduction of Curves on a Manifold
cs.CV math.DG
In this paper, we propose a novel lower dimensional representation of a shape sequence. The proposed dimension reduction is invertible and computationally more efficient in comparison to other related works. Theoretically, the differential geometry tools such as moving frame and parallel transportation are successfully adapted into the dimension reduction problem of high dimensional curves. Intuitively, instead of searching for a global flat subspace for curve embedding, we deployed a sequence of local flat subspaces adaptive to the geometry of both of the curve and the manifold it lies on. In practice, the experimental results of the dimension reduction and reconstruction algorithms well illustrate the advantages of the proposed theoretical innovation.
1108.0017
Generating a Diverse Set of High-Quality Clusterings
cs.LG cs.DB
We provide a new framework for generating multiple good quality partitions (clusterings) of a single data set. Our approach decomposes this problem into two components, generating many high-quality partitions, and then grouping these partitions to obtain k representatives. The decomposition makes the approach extremely modular and allows us to optimize various criteria that control the choice of representative partitions.
1108.0024
Achievable Rates and Outer Bound for the Half-Duplex MAC with Generalized Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
This paper provides comprehensive coding and outer bound for the half-duplex multiple access channel with generalized feedback (MAC-GF). Two users communicate with one destination over a discrete memoryless channel using time division. Each transmission block is divided into 3 time slots with variable durations: the destination is always in receive mode, while each user alternatively transmits and receives during the first 2 time slots, then both cooperate to send information during the last one. The paper proposes two decode-forward based coding schemes, analyzes their rate regions, and also derives two outer bounds with rate constraints similar to the achievable regions. Both schemes requires no block Makovity, allowing the destination to decode at the end of each block without any delay. In the first scheme, the codewords in the third time slot are superimposed on the codewords of the first two, whereas in the second scheme, these codewords are independent. While the second scheme is simpler, the first scheme helps emphasize the importance of joint decoding over separate decoding among multiple time slots at the destination. For the Gaussian channel, the two schemes with joint decoding are equivalent, as are the two outer bounds. For physically degraded Gaussian channels, the proposed schemes achieve the capacity. Extension to the m-user half-duplex MAC-GF are provided. Numerical results for the Gaussian channel shows significant rate region improvement over the classical MAC and that the outer bound becomes increasingly tight as the inter-user link quality increases
1108.0027
Revisiting Degree Distribution Models for Social Graph Analysis
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Degree distribution models are incredibly important tools for analyzing and understanding the structure and formation of social networks, and can help guide the design of efficient graph algorithms. In particular, the Power-law degree distribution has long been used to model the structure of online social networks, and is the basis for algorithms and heuristics in graph applications such as influence maximization and social search. Along with recent measurement results, our interest in this topic was sparked by our own experimental results on social graphs that deviated significantly from those predicted by a Power-law model. In this work, we seek a deeper understanding of these deviations, and propose an alternative model with significant implications on graph algorithms and applications. We start by quantifying this artifact using a variety of real social graphs, and show that their structures cannot be accurately modeled using elementary distributions including the Power-law. Instead, we propose the Pareto-Lognormal (PLN) model, verify its goodness-of-fit using graphical and statistical methods, and present an analytical study of its asymptotical differences with the Power-law. To demonstrate the quantitative benefits of the PLN model, we compare the results of three wide-ranging graph applications on real social graphs against those on synthetic graphs generated using the PLN and Power-law models. We show that synthetic graphs generated using PLN are much better predictors of degree distributions in real graphs, and produce experimental results with errors that are orders-of-magnitude smaller than those produced by the Power-law model.
1108.0039
CBR with Commonsense Reasoning and Structure Mapping: An Application to Mediation
cs.AI cs.LG
Mediation is an important method in dispute resolution. We implement a case based reasoning approach to mediation integrating analogical and commonsense reasoning components that allow an artificial mediation agent to satisfy requirements expected from a human mediator, in particular: utilizing experience with cases in different domains; and structurally transforming the set of issues for a better solution. We utilize a case structure based on ontologies reflecting the perceptions of the parties in dispute. The analogical reasoning component, employing the Structure Mapping Theory from psychology, provides a flexibility to respond innovatively in unusual circumstances, in contrast with conventional approaches confined into specialized problem domains. We aim to build a mediation case base incorporating real world instances ranging from interpersonal or intergroup disputes to international conflicts.
1108.0047
Reconstructing Isoform Graphs from RNA-Seq data
q-bio.GN cs.CE cs.DS
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies allow new methodologies for alternative splicing (AS) analysis. Current computational methods for AS from NGS data are mainly focused on predicting splice site junctions or de novo assembly of full-length transcripts. These methods are computationally expensive and produce a huge number of full-length transcripts or splice junctions, spanning the whole genome of organisms. Thus summarizing such data into the different gene structures and AS events of the expressed genes is an hard task. To face this issue in this paper we investigate the computational problem of reconstructing from NGS data, in absence of the genome, a gene structure for each gene that is represented by the isoform graph: we introduce such graph and we show that it uniquely summarizes the gene transcripts. We define the computational problem of reconstructing the isoform graph and provide some conditions that must be met to allow such reconstruction. Finally, we describe an efficient algorithmic approach to solve this problem, validating our approach with both a theoretical and an experimental analysis.
1108.0065
Approximating the Permanent with Fractional Belief Propagation
cs.DM cond-mat.stat-mech cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
We discuss schemes for exact and approximate computations of permanents, and compare them with each other. Specifically, we analyze the Belief Propagation (BP) approach and its Fractional Belief Propagation (FBP) generalization for computing the permanent of a non-negative matrix. Known bounds and conjectures are verified in experiments, and some new theoretical relations, bounds and conjectures are proposed. The Fractional Free Energy (FFE) functional is parameterized by a scalar parameter $\gamma\in[-1;1]$, where $\gamma=-1$ corresponds to the BP limit and $\gamma=1$ corresponds to the exclusion principle (but ignoring perfect matching constraints) Mean-Field (MF) limit. FFE shows monotonicity and continuity with respect to $\gamma$. For every non-negative matrix, we define its special value $\gamma_*\in[-1;0]$ to be the $\gamma$ for which the minimum of the $\gamma$-parameterized FFE functional is equal to the permanent of the matrix, where the lower and upper bounds of the $\gamma$-interval corresponds to respective bounds for the permanent. Our experimental analysis suggests that the distribution of $\gamma_*$ varies for different ensembles but $\gamma_*$ always lies within the $[-1;-1/2]$ interval. Moreover, for all ensembles considered the behavior of $\gamma_*$ is highly distinctive, offering an emprirical practical guidance for estimating permanents of non-negative matrices via the FFE approach.
1108.0072
On the Throughput-Delay Trade-off in Georouting Networks
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
We study the scaling properties of a georouting scheme in a wireless multi-hop network of $n$ mobile nodes. Our aim is to increase the network capacity quasi linearly with $n$ while keeping the average delay bounded. In our model, mobile nodes move according to an i.i.d. random walk with velocity $v$ and transmit packets to randomly chosen destinations. The average packet delivery delay of our scheme is of order $1/v$ and it achieves the network capacity of order $\frac{n}{\log n\log\log n}$. This shows a practical throughput-delay trade-off, in particular when compared with the seminal result of Gupta and Kumar which shows network capacity of order $\sqrt{n/\log n}$ and negligible delay and the groundbreaking result of Grossglausser and Tse which achieves network capacity of order $n$ but with an average delay of order $\sqrt{n}/v$. We confirm the generality of our analytical results using simulations under various interference models.
1108.0100
Explicit Solution of Worst-Case Secrecy Rate for MISO Wiretap Channels with Spherical Uncertainty
cs.IT math.IT
A multiple-input single-output (MISO) wiretap channel model is considered, that includes a multi-antenna transmitter, a single-antenna legitimate receiver and a single-antenna eavesdropper. For the scenario in which spherical uncertainty for both the legitimate and the eavesdropper channels is included, the problem of finding the optimal input covariance that maximizes the worst-case secrecy rate subject to a power constraint, is considered, and an explicit expression for the maximum worst-case secrecy rate is provided.
1108.0128
Delay Optimal Multichannel Opportunistic Access
math.OC cs.SY
The problem of minimizing queueing delay of opportunistic access of multiple continuous time Markov channels is considered. A new access policy based on myopic sensing and adaptive transmission (MS-AT) is proposed. Under the framework of risk sensitive constrained Markov decision process with effective bandwidth as a measure of queueing delay, it is shown that MS-AT achieves simultaneously throughput and delay optimality. It is shown further that both the effective bandwidth and the throughput of MS-AT are two-segment piece-wise linear functions of the collision constraint (maximum allowable conditional collision probability) with the effective bandwidth and throughput coinciding in the regime of tight collision constraints. Analytical and simulations comparisons with the myopic sensing and memoryless transmission (MS-MT) policy which is throughput optimal but delay suboptimal in the regime of tight collision constraints.
1108.0129
Identifiability and inference of non-parametric rates-across-sites models on large-scale phylogenies
math.PR cs.CE cs.DS math.ST q-bio.PE stat.TH
Mutation rate variation across loci is well known to cause difficulties, notably identifiability issues, in the reconstruction of evolutionary trees from molecular sequences. Here we introduce a new approach for estimating general rates-across-sites models. Our results imply, in particular, that large phylogenies are typically identifiable under rate variation. We also derive sequence-length requirements for high-probability reconstruction. Our main contribution is a novel algorithm that clusters sites according to their mutation rate. Following this site clustering step, standard reconstruction techniques can be used to recover the phylogeny. Our results rely on a basic insight: that, for large trees, certain site statistics experience concentration-of-measure phenomena.
1108.0155
Reasoning in the OWL 2 Full Ontology Language using First-Order Automated Theorem Proving
cs.AI
OWL 2 has been standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a family of ontology languages for the Semantic Web. The most expressive of these languages is OWL 2 Full, but to date no reasoner has been implemented for this language. Consistency and entailment checking are known to be undecidable for OWL 2 Full. We have translated a large fragment of the OWL 2 Full semantics into first-order logic, and used automated theorem proving systems to do reasoning based on this theory. The results are promising, and indicate that this approach can be applied in practice for effective OWL reasoning, beyond the capabilities of current Semantic Web reasoners. This is an extended version of a paper with the same title that has been published at CADE 2011, LNAI 6803, pp. 446-460. The extended version provides appendices with additional resources that were used in the reported evaluation.
1108.0170
Optimization of Lyapunov Invariants in Verification of Software Systems
cs.SY math.OC
The paper proposes a control-theoretic framework for verification of numerical software systems, and puts forward software verification as an important application of control and systems theory. The idea is to transfer Lyapunov functions and the associated computational techniques from control systems analysis and convex optimization to verification of various software safety and performance specifications. These include but are not limited to absence of overflow, absence of division-by-zero, termination in finite time, presence of dead-code, and certain user-specified assertions. Central to this framework are Lyapunov invariants. These are properly constructed functions of the program variables, and satisfy certain properties-resembling those of Lyapunov functions-along the execution trace. The search for the invariants can be formulated as a convex optimization problem. If the associated optimization problem is feasible, the result is a certificate for the specification.
1108.0186
Differentially Private Search Log Sanitization with Optimal Output Utility
cs.DB
Web search logs contain extremely sensitive data, as evidenced by the recent AOL incident. However, storing and analyzing search logs can be very useful for many purposes (i.e. investigating human behavior). Thus, an important research question is how to privately sanitize search logs. Several search log anonymization techniques have been proposed with concrete privacy models. However, in all of these solutions, the output utility of the techniques is only evaluated rather than being maximized in any fashion. Indeed, for effective search log anonymization, it is desirable to derive the optimal (maximum utility) output while meeting the privacy standard. In this paper, we propose utility-maximizing sanitization based on the rigorous privacy standard of differential privacy, in the context of search logs. Specifically, we utilize optimization models to maximize the output utility of the sanitization for different applications, while ensuring that the production process satisfies differential privacy. An added benefit is that our novel randomization strategy ensures that the schema of the output is identical to that of the input. A comprehensive evaluation on real search logs validates the approach and demonstrates its robustness and scalability.
1108.0194
Optimal Utilization of a Cognitive Shared Channel with a Rechargeable Primary Source Node
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers the scenario in which a set of nodes share a common channel. Some nodes have a rechargeable battery and the others are plugged to a reliable power supply and, thus, have no energy limitations. We consider two source-destination pairs and apply the concept of cognitive radio communication in sharing the common channel. Specifically, we give high-priority to the energy-constrained source-destination pair, i.e., primary pair, and low-priority to the pair which is free from such constraint, i.e., secondary pair. In contrast to the traditional notion of cognitive radio, in which the secondary transmitter is required to relinquish the channel as soon as the primary is detected, the secondary transmitter not only utilizes the idle slots of primary pair but also transmits along with the primary transmitter with probability $p$. This is possible because we consider the general multi-packet reception model. Given the requirement on the primary pair's throughput, the probability $p$ is chosen to maximize the secondary pair's throughput. To this end, we obtain two-dimensional maximum stable throughput region which describes the theoretical limit on rates that we can push into the network while maintaining the queues in the network to be stable. The result is obtained for both cases in which the capacity of the battery at the primary node is infinite and also finite.
1108.0239
Stability Criteria via Common Non-strict Lyapunov Matrix for Discrete-time Linear Switched Systems
math.OC cs.SY math.DS
In this paper, we consider the stability of discrete-time linear switched systems with a common non-strict Lyapunov matrix.
1108.0261
FIFA World Cup 2010: A Network Analysis of the Champion Team Play
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We analyze the pass network among the players of the Spanish team (the world champion in the FIFA World Cup 2010), with the objective of explaining the results obtained from the behavior at the complex network level. The team is considered a network with players as nodes and passes as (directed) edges, and a temporal analysis of the resulting passes network is done, looking at the number of passes, length of the chain of passes, and the centrality of players in the turf. Results of the last three matches indicate that the clustering coefficient of the pass network increases with time, and stays high, indicating possession by Spanish players, which eventually leads to victory, even as the density of the pass network decreases with time.
1108.0294
Scaling Inference for Markov Logic with a Task-Decomposition Approach
cs.AI cs.DB
Motivated by applications in large-scale knowledge base construction, we study the problem of scaling up a sophisticated statistical inference framework called Markov Logic Networks (MLNs). Our approach, Felix, uses the idea of Lagrangian relaxation from mathematical programming to decompose a program into smaller tasks while preserving the joint-inference property of the original MLN. The advantage is that we can use highly scalable specialized algorithms for common tasks such as classification and coreference. We propose an architecture to support Lagrangian relaxation in an RDBMS which we show enables scalable joint inference for MLNs. We empirically validate that Felix is significantly more scalable and efficient than prior approaches to MLN inference by constructing a knowledge base from 1.8M documents as part of the TAC challenge. We show that Felix scales and achieves state-of-the-art quality numbers. In contrast, prior approaches do not scale even to a subset of the corpus that is three orders of magnitude smaller.
1108.0333
Fuzzy Consensus and Synchronization: Theory and Application to Critical Infrastructure Protection Problems
cs.SY cs.MA math.OC
In this paper the Distributed Consensus and Synchronization problems with fuzzy-valued initial conditions are introduced, in order to obtain a shared estimation of the state of a system based on partial and distributed observations, in the case where such a state is affected by ambiguity and/or vagueness. The Discrete-Time Fuzzy Systems (DFS) are introduced as an extension of scalar fuzzy difference equations and some conditions for their stability and representation are provided. The proposed framework is then applied in the field of Critical Infrastructures; the consensus framework is used to represent a scenario where human operators, each able to observe directly the state of a given infrastructure (or of a given area considering vast and geographically dispersed infrastructures), reach an agreement on the overall situation, whose severity is expressed in a linguistic, fuzzy way; conversely synchronization is used to provide a distributed interdependency estimation system, where an array of interdependency models is synchronized via partial observation.
1108.0342
Black-Box Complexities of Combinatorial Problems
cs.NE
Black-box complexity is a complexity theoretic measure for how difficult a problem is to be optimized by a general purpose optimization algorithm. It is thus one of the few means trying to understand which problems are tractable for genetic algorithms and other randomized search heuristics. Most previous work on black-box complexity is on artificial test functions. In this paper, we move a step forward and give a detailed analysis for the two combinatorial problems minimum spanning tree and single-source shortest paths. Besides giving interesting bounds for their black-box complexities, our work reveals that the choice of how to model the optimization problem is non-trivial here. This in particular comes true where the search space does not consist of bit strings and where a reasonable definition of unbiasedness has to be agreed on.
1108.0347
Entropy Semiring Forward-backward Algorithm for HMM Entropy Computation
cs.IT math.IT
The paper presents Entropy Semiring Forwardbackward algorithm (ESRFB) and its application for memory efficient computation of the subsequence constrained entropy and state sequence entropy of a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) when an observation sequence is given. ESRFB is based on forward-backward recursion over the entropy semiring, having the lower memory requirement than the algorithm developed by Mann and MacCallum, with the same time complexity. Furthermore, when it is used with forward pass only, it is applicable for the computation of HMM entropy for a given observation sequence, with the same time and memory complexity as the previously developed algorithm by Hernando et al
1108.0353
Cross-moments computation for stochastic context-free grammars
cs.CL
In this paper we consider the problem of efficient computation of cross-moments of a vector random variable represented by a stochastic context-free grammar. Two types of cross-moments are discussed. The sample space for the first one is the set of all derivations of the context-free grammar, and the sample space for the second one is the set of all derivations which generate a string belonging to the language of the grammar. In the past, this problem was widely studied, but mainly for the cross-moments of scalar variables and up to the second order. This paper presents new algorithms for computing the cross-moments of an arbitrary order, and the previously developed ones are derived as special cases.
1108.0355
Using Java for distributed computing in the Gaia satellite data processing
cs.CE astro-ph.IM cs.MS
In recent years Java has matured to a stable easy-to-use language with the flexibility of an interpreter (for reflection etc.) but the performance and type checking of a compiled language. When we started using Java for astronomical applications around 1999 they were the first of their kind in astronomy. Now a great deal of astronomy software is written in Java as are many business applications. We discuss the current environment and trends concerning the language and present an actual example of scientific use of Java for high-performance distributed computing: ESA's mission Gaia. The Gaia scanning satellite will perform a galactic census of about 1000 million objects in our galaxy. The Gaia community has chosen to write its processing software in Java. We explore the manifold reasons for choosing Java for this large science collaboration. Gaia processing is numerically complex but highly distributable, some parts being embarrassingly parallel. We describe the Gaia processing architecture and its realisation in Java. We delve into the astrometric solution which is the most advanced and most complex part of the processing. The Gaia simulator is also written in Java and is the most mature code in the system. This has been successfully running since about 2005 on the supercomputer "Marenostrum" in Barcelona. We relate experiences of using Java on a large shared machine. Finally we discuss Java, including some of its problems, for scientific computing.
1108.0363
Typesafe Modeling in Text Mining
cs.PL cs.IR
Based on the concept of annotation-based agents, this report introduces tools and a formal notation for defining and running text mining experiments using a statically typed domain-specific language embedded in Scala. Using machine learning for classification as an example, the framework is used to develop and document text mining experiments, and to show how the concept of generic, typesafe annotation corresponds to a general information model that goes beyond text processing.
1108.0391
The Channel Capacity Increases with Power
cs.IT math.IT
It is proved that for memoryless vector channels, maximizing the mutual information over all source distributions with a certain average power or over the larger set of source distributions with upperbounded average power yields the same channel capacity in both cases. Hence, the channel capacity cannot decrease with increasing average transmitted power, not even for channels with severe nonlinear distortion.
1108.0404
Exploiting Agent and Type Independence in Collaborative Graphical Bayesian Games
cs.AI cs.GT
Efficient collaborative decision making is an important challenge for multiagent systems. Finding optimal joint actions is especially challenging when each agent has only imperfect information about the state of its environment. Such problems can be modeled as collaborative Bayesian games in which each agent receives private information in the form of its type. However, representing and solving such games requires space and computation time exponential in the number of agents. This article introduces collaborative graphical Bayesian games (CGBGs), which facilitate more efficient collaborative decision making by decomposing the global payoff function as the sum of local payoff functions that depend on only a few agents. We propose a framework for the efficient solution of CGBGs based on the insight that they posses two different types of independence, which we call agent independence and type independence. In particular, we present a factor graph representation that captures both forms of independence and thus enables efficient solutions. In addition, we show how this representation can provide leverage in sequential tasks by using it to construct a novel method for decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes. Experimental results in both random and benchmark tasks demonstrate the improved scalability of our methods compared to several existing alternatives.
1108.0442
Diffusive Logistic Model Towards Predicting Information Diffusion in Online Social Networks
cs.SI math.AP physics.soc-ph
Online social networks have recently become an effective and innovative channel for spreading information and influence among hundreds of millions of end users. Many prior work have carried out empirical studies and proposed diffusion models to understand the information diffusion process in online social networks. However, most of these studies focus on the information diffusion in temporal dimension, that is, how the information propagates over time. Little attempt has been given on understanding information diffusion over both temporal and spatial dimensions. In this paper, we propose a Partial Differential Equation (PDE), specifically, a Diffusive Logistic (DL) equation to model the temporal and spatial characteristics of information diffusion in online social networks. To be more specific, we develop a PDE-based theoretical framework to measure and predict the density of influenced users at a given distance from the original information source after a time period. The density of influenced users over time and distance provides valuable insight on the actual information diffusion process. We present the temporal and spatial patterns in a real dataset collected from Digg social news site, and validate the proposed DL equation in terms of predicting the information diffusion process. Our experiment results show that the DL model is indeed able to characterize and predict the process of information propagation in online social networks. For example, for the most popular news with 24,099 votes in Digg, the average prediction accuracy of DL model over all distances during the first 6 hours is 92.08%. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to use PDE-based model to study the information diffusion process in both temporal and spatial dimensions in online social networks.
1108.0443
Sparse Recovery with Graph Constraints: Fundamental Limits and Measurement Construction
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
This paper addresses the problem of sparse recovery with graph constraints in the sense that we can take additive measurements over nodes only if they induce a connected subgraph. We provide explicit measurement constructions for several special graphs. A general measurement construction algorithm is also proposed and evaluated. For any given graph $G$ with $n$ nodes, we derive order optimal upper bounds of the minimum number of measurements needed to recover any $k$-sparse vector over $G$ ($M^G_{k,n}$). Our study suggests that $M^G_{k,n}$ may serve as a graph connectivity metric.
1108.0454
Digital Shearlet Transform
math.NA cs.IT math.IT
Over the past years, various representation systems which sparsely approximate functions governed by anisotropic features such as edges in images have been proposed. We exemplarily mention the systems of contourlets, curvelets, and shearlets. Alongside the theoretical development of these systems, algorithmic realizations of the associated transforms were provided. However, one of the most common shortcomings of these frameworks is the lack of providing a unified treatment of the continuum and digital world, i.e., allowing a digital theory to be a natural digitization of the continuum theory. In fact, shearlet systems are the only systems so far which satisfy this property, yet still deliver optimally sparse approximations of cartoon-like images. In this chapter, we provide an introduction to digital shearlet theory with a particular focus on a unified treatment of the continuum and digital realm. In our survey we will present the implementations of two shearlet transforms, one based on band-limited shearlets and the other based on compactly supported shearlets. We will moreover discuss various quantitative measures, which allow an objective comparison with other directional transforms and an objective tuning of parameters. The codes for both presented transforms as well as the framework for quantifying performance are provided in the Matlab toolbox ShearLab.
1108.0476
Specifying and Staging Mixed-Initiative Dialogs with Program Generation and Transformation
cs.PL cs.AI cs.HC
Specifying and implementing flexible human-computer dialogs, such as those used in kiosks and smart phone apps, is challenging because of the numerous and varied directions in which each user might steer a dialog. The objective of this research is to improve dialog specification and implementation. To do so we enriched a notation based on concepts from programming languages, especially partial evaluation, for specifying a variety of unsolicited reporting, mixed-initiative dialogs in a concise representation that serves as a design for dialog implementation. We also built a dialog mining system that extracts a specification in this notation from requirements. To demonstrate that such a specification provides a design for dialog implementation, we built a system that automatically generates an implementation of the dialog, called a stager, from it. These two components constitute a dialog modeling toolkit that automates dialog specification and implementation. These results provide a proof of concept and demonstrate the study of dialog specification and implementation from a programming languages perspective. The ubiquity of dialogs in domains such as travel, education, and health care combined with the demand for smart phone apps provide a landscape for further investigation of these results.
1108.0477
Asymptotic Analysis of Complex LASSO via Complex Approximate Message Passing (CAMP)
cs.IT math.IT
Recovering a sparse signal from an undersampled set of random linear measurements is the main problem of interest in compressed sensing. In this paper, we consider the case where both the signal and the measurements are complex. We study the popular reconstruction method of $\ell_1$-regularized least squares or LASSO. While several studies have shown that the LASSO algorithm offers desirable solutions under certain conditions, the precise asymptotic performance of this algorithm in the complex setting is not yet known. In this paper, we extend the approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm to the complex signals and measurements and obtain the complex approximate message passing algorithm (CAMP). We then generalize the state evolution framework recently introduced for the analysis of AMP, to the complex setting. Using the state evolution, we derive accurate formulas for the phase transition and noise sensitivity of both LASSO and CAMP.
1108.0488
A Kalman Decomposition for Possibly Controllable Uncertain Linear Systems
cs.SY math.OC
This paper considers the structure of uncertain linear systems building on concepts of robust unobservability and possible controllability which were introduced in previous papers. The paper presents a new geometric characterization of the possibly controllable states. When combined with previous geometric results on robust unobservability, the results of this paper lead to a general Kalman type decomposition for uncertain linear systems which can be applied to the problem of obtaining reduced order uncertain system models.
1108.0502
An Efficient Real Time Method of Fingertip Detection
cs.CV cs.AI cs.MM
Fingertips detection has been used in many applications, and it is very popular and commonly used in the area of Human Computer Interaction these days. This paper presents a novel time efficient method that will lead to fingertip detection after cropping the irrelevant parts of input image. Binary silhouette of the input image is generated using HSV color space based skin filter and hand cropping done based on histogram of the hand image. The cropped image will be used to figure out the fingertips.
1108.0535
Universal Rateless Codes From Coupled LT Codes
cs.IT math.IT
It was recently shown that spatial coupling of individual low-density parity-check codes improves the belief-propagation threshold of the coupled ensemble essentially to the maximum a posteriori threshold of the underlying ensemble. We study the performance of spatially coupled low-density generator-matrix ensembles when used for transmission over binary-input memoryless output-symmetric channels. We show by means of density evolution that the threshold saturation phenomenon also takes place in this setting. Our motivation for studying low-density generator-matrix codes is that they can easily be converted into rateless codes. Although there are already several classes of excellent rateless codes known to date, rateless codes constructed via spatial coupling might offer some additional advantages. In particular, by the very nature of the threshold phenomenon one expects that codes constructed on this principle can be made to be universal, i.e., a single construction can uniformly approach capacity over the class of binary-input memoryless output-symmetric channels. We discuss some necessary conditions on the degree distribution which universal rateless codes based on the threshold phenomenon have to fulfill. We then show by means of density evolution and some simulation results that indeed codes constructed in this way perform very well over a whole range of channel types and channel conditions.
1108.0631
Serialising the ISO SynAF Syntactic Object Model
cs.CL
This paper introduces, an XML format developed to serialise the object model defined by the ISO Syntactic Annotation Framework SynAF. Based on widespread best practices we adapt a popular XML format for syntactic annotation, TigerXML, with additional features to support a variety of syntactic phenomena including constituent and dependency structures, binding, and different node types such as compounds or empty elements. We also define interfaces to other formats and standards including the Morpho-syntactic Annotation Framework MAF and the ISOCat Data Category Registry. Finally a case study of the German Treebank TueBa-D/Z is presented, showcasing the handling of constituent structures, topological fields and coreference annotation in tandem.
1108.0679
A characterization of entanglement-assisted quantum low-density parity-check codes
cs.IT math.CO math.IT quant-ph
As in classical coding theory, quantum analogues of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have offered good error correction performance and low decoding complexity by employing the Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) construction. However, special requirements in the quantum setting severely limit the structures such quantum codes can have. While the entanglement-assisted stabilizer formalism overcomes this limitation by exploiting maximally entangled states (ebits), excessive reliance on ebits is a substantial obstacle to implementation. This paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of quantum LDPC codes which are obtainable from pairs of identical LDPC codes and consume only one ebit, and studies the spectrum of attainable code parameters.
1108.0729
Estudo de Viabilidade de uma Plataforma de Baixo Custo para Data Warehouse
cs.DB
Often corporations need tools to improve their decision making in a competitive market. In general, these tools are based on data warehouse platforms to mange and analyze large amounts of data. However, several of these corporations do not have enough resources to buy such platforms because of the high cost. This work is dedicated to a feasibility study of a low cost platform to data warehouse. We consider as a low cost platform the use of open source software like the PostgreSQL database system and the GNU/Linux operational system. We verify the feasibility of this platform by executing two benchmarks that simulate a data warehouse workload. The workload reproduces a multi-user environment with the execution of complex queries, which executes: aggregations, nested sub queries, multi joins, in-line views and more. Considering the results we were able to highlight some problems on the PostgreSQL database system, and discuss improvements in the context of data warehouse.
1108.0748
Binary Particle Swarm Optimization based Biclustering of Web usage Data
cs.IR cs.SY
Web mining is the nontrivial process to discover valid, novel, potentially useful knowledge from web data using the data mining techniques or methods. It may give information that is useful for improving the services offered by web portals and information access and retrieval tools. With the rapid development of biclustering, more researchers have applied the biclustering technique to different fields in recent years. When biclustering approach is applied to the web usage data it automatically captures the hidden browsing patterns from it in the form of biclusters. In this work, swarm intelligent technique is combined with biclustering approach to propose an algorithm called Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) based Biclustering for Web Usage Data. The main objective of this algorithm is to retrieve the global optimal bicluster from the web usage data. These biclusters contain relationships between web users and web pages which are useful for the E-Commerce applications like web advertising and marketing. Experiments are conducted on real dataset to prove the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.
1108.0775
Optimization with Sparsity-Inducing Penalties
cs.LG math.OC stat.ML
Sparse estimation methods are aimed at using or obtaining parsimonious representations of data or models. They were first dedicated to linear variable selection but numerous extensions have now emerged such as structured sparsity or kernel selection. It turns out that many of the related estimation problems can be cast as convex optimization problems by regularizing the empirical risk with appropriate non-smooth norms. The goal of this paper is to present from a general perspective optimization tools and techniques dedicated to such sparsity-inducing penalties. We cover proximal methods, block-coordinate descent, reweighted $\ell_2$-penalized techniques, working-set and homotopy methods, as well as non-convex formulations and extensions, and provide an extensive set of experiments to compare various algorithms from a computational point of view.
1108.0779
Basketball scoring in NBA games: an example of complexity
physics.soc-ph cs.SI physics.data-an
Scoring in a basketball game is a process highly dynamic and non-linear type. The level of NBA teams improve each season. They incorporate to their rosters the best players in the world. These and other mechanisms, make the scoring in the NBA basketball games be something exciting, where, on rare occasions, we really know what will be the result at the end of the game. We analyzed all the games of the 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 NBA regular seasons (6150 games). We have studied the evolution of the scoring and the time intervals between points. These do not behave uniformly, but present more predictable areas. In turn, we have analyzed the scoring in the games regarding the differences in points. Exists different areas of behavior related with the scorea and each zone has a different nature. There are point that we can consider as tipping points. The presence of these critical points suggests that there are phase transitions where the dynamic scoring of the games varies significantly.
1108.0786
All good things come in threes - Three beads learn to swim with lattice Boltzmann and a rigid body solver
cs.CE cond-mat.soft physics.flu-dyn
We simulate the self-propulsion of devices in a fluid in the regime of low Reynolds numbers. Each device consists of three bodies (spheres or capsules) connected with two damped harmonic springs. Sinusoidal driving forces compress the springs which are resolved within a rigid body physics engine. The latter is consistently coupled to a 3D lattice Boltzmann framework for the fluid dynamics. In simulations of three-sphere devices, we find that the propulsion velocity agrees well with theoretical predictions. In simulations where some or all spheres are replaced by capsules, we find that the asymmetry of the design strongly affects the propelling efficiency.
1108.0831
Towards Spatio-Temporal SOLAP
cs.DB
The integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP), denoted SOLAP, is aimed at exploring and analyzing spatial data. In real-world SOLAP applications, spatial and non-spatial data are subject to changes. In this paper we present a temporal query language for SOLAP, called TPiet-QL, supporting so-called discrete changes (for example, in land use or cadastral applications there are situations where parcels are merged or split). TPiet-QL allows expressing integrated GIS-OLAP queries in an scenario where spatial objects change across time.
1108.0840
Searching for Voltage Graph-Based LDPC Tailbiting Codes with Large Girth
cs.IT math.IT
The relation between parity-check matrices of quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and biadjacency matrices of bipartite graphs supports searching for powerful LDPC block codes. Using the principle of tailbiting, compact representations of bipartite graphs based on convolutional codes can be found. Bounds on the girth and the minimum distance of LDPC block codes constructed in such a way are discussed. Algorithms for searching iteratively for LDPC block codes with large girth and for determining their minimum distance are presented. Constructions based on all-ones matrices, Steiner Triple Systems, and QC block codes are introduced. Finally, new QC regular LDPC block codes with girth up to 24 are given.
1108.0870
Noisy-Interference Sum-Rate Capacity for Vector Gaussian Interference Channels
cs.IT math.IT
New sufficient conditions for a vector Gaussian interference channel to achieve the sum-rate capacity by treating interference as noise are derived, which generalize the existing results. More concise conditions for multiple-input-single-output, and single-input-multiple-output scenarios are obtained.
1108.0894
Evader Interdiction and Collateral Damage
cs.SI
In network interdiction problems, evaders (e.g., hostile agents or data packets) may be moving through a network towards targets and we wish to choose locations for sensors in order to intercept the evaders before they reach their destinations. The evaders might follow deterministic routes or Markov chains, or they may be reactive}, i.e., able to change their routes in order to avoid sensors placed to detect them. The challenge in such problems is to choose sensor locations economically, balancing security gains with costs, including the inconvenience sensors inflict upon innocent travelers. We study the objectives of 1) maximizing the number of evaders captured when limited by a budget on sensing cost and 2) capturing all evaders as cheaply as possible. We give optimal sensor placement algorithms for several classes of special graphs and hardness and approximation results for general graphs, including for deterministic or Markov chain-based and reactive or oblivious evaders. In a similar-sounding but fundamentally different problem setting posed by Rubinstein and Glazer where both evaders and innocent travelers are reactive, we again give optimal algorithms for special cases and hardness and approximation results on general graphs.
1108.0895
Accurate Estimators for Improving Minwise Hashing and b-Bit Minwise Hashing
stat.ML cs.DB cs.IR cs.LG
Minwise hashing is the standard technique in the context of search and databases for efficiently estimating set (e.g., high-dimensional 0/1 vector) similarities. Recently, b-bit minwise hashing was proposed which significantly improves upon the original minwise hashing in practice by storing only the lowest b bits of each hashed value, as opposed to using 64 bits. b-bit hashing is particularly effective in applications which mainly concern sets of high similarities (e.g., the resemblance >0.5). However, there are other important applications in which not just pairs of high similarities matter. For example, many learning algorithms require all pairwise similarities and it is expected that only a small fraction of the pairs are similar. Furthermore, many applications care more about containment (e.g., how much one object is contained by another object) than the resemblance. In this paper, we show that the estimators for minwise hashing and b-bit minwise hashing used in the current practice can be systematically improved and the improvements are most significant for set pairs of low resemblance and high containment.
1108.0982
Outage Constrained Robust Transmit Optimization for Multiuser MISO Downlinks: Tractable Approximations by Conic Optimization
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we consider a probabilistic signal-to-interference and-noise ratio (SINR) constrained problem for transmit beamforming design in the presence of imperfect channel state information (CSI), under a multiuser multiple-input single-output (MISO) downlink scenario. In particular, we deal with outage-based quality-of-service constraints, where the probability of each user's SINR not satisfying a service requirement must not fall below a given outage probability specification. The study of solution approaches to the probabilistic SINR constrained problem is important because CSI errors are often present in practical systems and they may cause substantial SINR outages if not handled properly. However, a major technical challenge is how to process the probabilistic SINR constraints. To tackle this, we propose a novel relaxation- restriction (RAR) approach, which consists of two key ingredients-semidefinite relaxation (SDR), and analytic tools for conservatively approximating probabilistic constraints. The underlying goal is to establish approximate probabilistic SINR constrained formulations in the form of convex conic optimization problems, so that they can be readily implemented by available solvers. Using either an intuitive worst-case argument or specialized probabilistic results, we develop various conservative approximation schemes for processing probabilistic constraints with quadratic uncertainties. Consequently, we obtain several RAR alternatives for handling the probabilistic SINR constrained problem. Our techniques apply to both complex Gaussian CSI errors and i.i.d. bounded CSI errors with unknown distribution. Moreover, results obtained from our extensive simulations show that the proposed RAR methods significantly improve upon existing ones, both in terms of solution quality and computational complexity.
1108.1022
Information Complexity and Estimation
cs.IT math.IT
We consider an input $x$ generated by an unknown stationary ergodic source $X$ that enters a signal processing system $J$, resulting in $w=J(x)$. We observe $w$ through a noisy channel, $y=z(w)$; our goal is to estimate x from $y$, $J$, and knowledge of $f_{Y|W}$. This is universal estimation, because $f_X$ is unknown. We provide a formulation that describes a trade-off between information complexity and noise. Initial theoretical, algorithmic, and experimental evidence is presented in support of our approach.
1108.1045
A Data Mining Approach to the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis by Cascading Clustering and Classification
cs.AI cs.DB
In this paper, a methodology for the automated detection and classification of Tuberculosis(TB) is presented. Tuberculosis is a disease caused by mycobacterium which spreads through the air and attacks low immune bodies easily. Our methodology is based on clustering and classification that classifies TB into two categories, Pulmonary Tuberculosis(PTB) and retroviral PTB(RPTB) that is those with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. Initially K-means clustering is used to group the TB data into two clusters and assigns classes to clusters. Subsequently multiple different classification algorithms are trained on the result set to build the final classifier model based on K-fold cross validation method. This methodology is evaluated using 700 raw TB data obtained from a city hospital. The best obtained accuracy was 98.7% from support vector machine (SVM) compared to other classifiers. The proposed approach helps doctors in their diagnosis decisions and also in their treatment planning procedures for different categories.
1108.1065
Onset of coherent attitude layers in a population of sports fans
cs.SI
The aim of this paper was to empirically investigate the behavior of fans, globally coupled to a common environmental source of information. The environmental stimuli were given in a form of referee's decisions list. The sample of fans had to respond on each stimulus by associating points signifying his/her own opinion, emotion and action that referee's decisions provoke. Data were fitted by the Brillouin function which was a solution of an adapted model of quantum statistical physics to social phenomena. Correlation and a principal component analysis were performed in order to detect any collective behavior of the social ensemble of fans. Results showed that fans behaved as a system subject to a phase transition where the neutral state in the opinion, emotional and action space has been destabilized and a new stable state of coherent attitudes was formed. The enhancement of fluctuations and the increase of social susceptibility (responsiveness) to referee's decisions were connected to the first few decisions. The subsequent reduction of values in these parameters signified the onset of coherent layering within the attitude space of the social ensemble of fans. In the space of opinions fan coherence was maximal as only one layer of coherence emerged. In the emotional and action spaces the number of coherent levels was 2 and 4 respectively. The principal component analysis revealed a strong collective behavior and a high degree of integration within and between the opinion, emotional and action spaces of the sample of fans. These results point to one possible way of how different proto-groups, violent and moderate, may be formed as a consequence of global coupling to a common source of information.
1108.1066
On the scalability and convergence of simultaneous parameter identification and synchronization of dynamical systems
cs.SY math.DS math.OC nlin.CD
The synchronization of dynamical systems is a method that allows two systems to have identical state trajectories, appart from an error converging to zero. This method consists in an appropriate unidirectional coupling from one system (drive) to the other (response). This requires that the response system shares the same dynamical model with the drive. For the cases where the drive is unknown, Chen proposed in 2002 a method to adapt the response system such that synchronization is achieved, provided that (1) the response dynamical model is linear with a vector of parameters, and (2) there is a parameter vector that makes both system dynamics identical. However, this method has two limitations: first, it does not scale well for complex parametric models (e.g., if the number of parameters is greater than the state dimension), and second, the model parameters are not guaranteed to converge, namely as the synchronization error approaches zero. This paper presents an adaptation law addressing these two limitations. Stability and convergence proofs, using Lyapunov's second method, support the proposed adaptation law. Finally, numerical simulations illustrate the advantages of the proposed method, namely showing cases where the Chen's method fail, while the proposed one does not.
1108.1121
Analysis, Dimensioning and Robust Control of Shunt Active Filter for Harmonic Currents Compensation in Electrical Mains
cs.SY math.OC
In this chapter some results related to Shunt Active Filters (SAFs) and obtained by the authors and some coauthors are reported. SAFs are complex power electronics equipments adopted to compensate for cur-rent harmonic pollution in electric mains, due to nonlinear loads. By using a proper "floating" capacitor as energy reservoir, the SAF purpose is to inject in the line grid currents canceling the polluting har-monics. Control algorithms play a key role for such devices and, in general, in many power electronics applications. Moreover, systems theory is crucial, since it is the mathematical tool that enables a deep understanding of the involved dynamics of such systems, allowing a correct dimensioning, beside an effective control. As a matter of facts, current injection objective can be straightforwardly formulated as an output tracking control problem. In this fashion, the structural and insidious marginally-stable internal/zero dynamics of SAFs can be immediately highlighted and characterized in terms of sizing and control issues. For what concerns the control design strictly, time-scale separation among output and internal dynamics can be effectively exploited to split the control design in different stages that can be later aggregated, by using singular perturbation analysis. In addition, for robust asymptotic output tracking the Internal Model Principle is adopted.
1108.1122
Leveraging Billions of Faces to Overcome Performance Barriers in Unconstrained Face Recognition
cs.CV
We employ the face recognition technology developed in house at face.com to a well accepted benchmark and show that without any tuning we are able to considerably surpass state of the art results. Much of the improvement is concentrated in the high-valued performance point of zero false positive matches, where the obtained recall rate almost doubles the best reported result to date. We discuss the various components and innovations of our system that enable this significant performance gap. These components include extensive utilization of an accurate 3D reconstructed shape model dealing with challenges arising from pose and illumination. In addition, discriminative models based on billions of faces are used in order to overcome aging and facial expression as well as low light and overexposure. Finally, we identify a challenging set of identification queries that might provide useful focus for future research.
1108.1136
Capacity Region of Vector Gaussian Interference Channels with Generally Strong Interference
cs.IT math.IT
An interference channel is said to have strong interference if for all input distributions, the receivers can fully decode the interference. This definition of strong interference applies to discrete memoryless, scalar and vector Gaussian interference channels. However, there exist vector Gaussian interference channels that may not satisfy the strong interference condition but for which the capacity can still be achieved by jointly decoding the signal and the interference. This kind of interference is called generally strong interference. Sufficient conditions for a vector Gaussian interference channel to have generally strong interference are derived. The sum-rate capacity and the boundary points of the capacity region are also determined.
1108.1161
On generic erasure correcting sets and related problems
cs.IT math.IT
Motivated by iterative decoding techniques for the binary erasure channel Hollmann and Tolhuizen introduced and studied the notion of generic erasure correcting sets for linear codes. A generic $(r,s)$--erasure correcting set generates for all codes of codimension $r$ a parity check matrix that allows iterative decoding of all correctable erasure patterns of size $s$ or less. The problem is to derive bounds on the minimum size $F(r,s)$ of generic erasure correcting sets and to find constructions for such sets. In this paper we continue the study of these sets. We derive better lower and upper bounds. Hollmann and Tolhuizen also introduced the stronger notion of $(r,s)$--sets and derived bounds for their minimum size $G(r,s)$. Here also we improve these bounds. We observe that these two conceps are closely related to so called $s$--wise intersecting codes, an area, in which $G(r,s)$ has been studied primarily with respect to ratewise performance. We derive connections. Finally, we observed that hypergraph covering can be used for both problems to derive good upper bounds.
1108.1169
Learning Representations by Maximizing Compression
cs.CV
We give an algorithm that learns a representation of data through compression. The algorithm 1) predicts bits sequentially from those previously seen and 2) has a structure and a number of computations similar to an autoencoder. The likelihood under the model can be calculated exactly, and arithmetic coding can be used directly for compression. When training on digits the algorithm learns filters similar to those of restricted boltzman machines and denoising autoencoders. Independent samples can be drawn from the model by a single sweep through the pixels. The algorithm has a good compression performance when compared to other methods that work under random ordering of pixels.
1108.1170
Convex Optimization without Projection Steps
math.OC cs.AI cs.SY
For the general problem of minimizing a convex function over a compact convex domain, we will investigate a simple iterative approximation algorithm based on the method by Frank & Wolfe 1956, that does not need projection steps in order to stay inside the optimization domain. Instead of a projection step, the linearized problem defined by a current subgradient is solved, which gives a step direction that will naturally stay in the domain. Our framework generalizes the sparse greedy algorithm of Frank & Wolfe and its primal-dual analysis by Clarkson 2010 (and the low-rank SDP approach by Hazan 2008) to arbitrary convex domains. We give a convergence proof guaranteeing {\epsilon}-small duality gap after O(1/{\epsilon}) iterations. The method allows us to understand the sparsity of approximate solutions for any l1-regularized convex optimization problem (and for optimization over the simplex), expressed as a function of the approximation quality. We obtain matching upper and lower bounds of {\Theta}(1/{\epsilon}) for the sparsity for l1-problems. The same bounds apply to low-rank semidefinite optimization with bounded trace, showing that rank O(1/{\epsilon}) is best possible here as well. As another application, we obtain sparse matrices of O(1/{\epsilon}) non-zero entries as {\epsilon}-approximate solutions when optimizing any convex function over a class of diagonally dominant symmetric matrices. We show that our proposed first-order method also applies to nuclear norm and max-norm matrix optimization problems. For nuclear norm regularized optimization, such as matrix completion and low-rank recovery, we demonstrate the practical efficiency and scalability of our algorithm for large matrix problems, as e.g. the Netflix dataset. For general convex optimization over bounded matrix max-norm, our algorithm is the first with a convergence guarantee, to the best of our knowledge.
1108.1228
An index for regular expression queries: Design and implementation
cs.DB cs.IR
The like regular expression predicate has been part of the SQL standard since at least 1989. However, despite its popularity and wide usage, database vendors provide only limited indexing support for regular expression queries which almost always require a full table scan. In this paper we propose a rigorous and robust approach for providing indexing support for regular expression queries. Our approach consists of formulating the indexing problem as a combinatorial optimization problem. We begin with a database, abstracted as a collection of strings. From this data set we generate a query workload. The input to the optimization problem is the database and the workload. The output is a set of multigrams (substrings) which can be used as keys to records which satisfy the query workload. The multigrams can then be integrated with the data structure (like B+ trees) to provide indexing support for the queries. We provide a deterministic and a randomized approximation algorithm (with provable guarantees) to solve the optimization problem. Extensive experiments on synthetic data sets demonstrate that our approach is accurate and efficient. We also present a case study on PROSITE patterns - which are complex regular expression signatures for classes of proteins. Again, we are able to demonstrate the utility of our indexing approach in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Thus, perhaps for the first time, there is a robust and practical indexing mechanism for an important class of database queries.
1108.1262
1st International Workshop on Complex Systems in Sports - Proceedings
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Online proceedings for the first workshop on complex systems in sports; index pointing to the papers that will be presented and discussed in that workshop. The papers deal with sports from a complex systems point of view, and include papers on a network analysis of the performance of the Spanish team in the 2010 world cup and basketball scoring, study of populations of sports fans, try to select attributes for sports forecasting and finally try to analyze the physical condition from the perspective of complexity.
1108.1275
Neutral evolution: A null model for language dynamics
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
We review the task of aligning simple models for language dynamics with relevant empirical data, motivated by the fact that this is rarely attempted in practice despite an abundance of abstract models. We propose that one way to meet this challenge is through the careful construction of null models. We argue in particular that rejection of a null model must have important consequences for theories about language dynamics if modelling is truly to be worthwhile. Our main claim is that the stochastic process of neutral evolution (also known as genetic drift or random copying) is a viable null model for language dynamics. We survey empirical evidence in favour and against neutral evolution as a mechanism behind historical language changes, highlighting the theoretical implications in each case.
1108.1331
Three-term Method and Dual Estimate on Static Problems of Continuum Bodies
cs.CE math.OC
This work aims to provide standard formulations for direct minimization approaches on various types of static problems of continuum mechanics. Particularly, form-finding problems of tension structures are discussed in the first half and the large deformation problems of continuum bodies are discussed in the last half. In the first half, as the standards of iterative direct minimization strategies, two types of simple recursive methods are presented, namely the two-term method and the three-term method. The dual estimate is also introduced as a powerful means of involving equally constraint conditions into minimization problems. As examples of direct minimization approaches on usual engineering issues, some form finding problems of tension structures which can be solved by the presented strategies are illustrated. Additionally, it is pointed out that while the two-term method sometimes becomes useless, the three-term method always provides remarkable rate of global convergence efficiency. Then, to show the potential ability of the three-term method, in the last part of this work, some principle of virtual works which usually appear in the continuum mechanics are approximated and discretized in a common manner, which are suitable to be solved by the three-term method. Finally, some large deformation analyses of continuum bodies which can be solved by the three-term method are presented.
1108.1353
Real time face recognition using adaboost improved fast PCA algorithm
cs.CV
This paper presents an automated system for human face recognition in a real time background world for a large homemade dataset of persons face. The task is very difficult as the real time background subtraction in an image is still a challenge. Addition to this there is a huge variation in human face image in terms of size, pose and expression. The system proposed collapses most of this variance. To detect real time human face AdaBoost with Haar cascade is used and a simple fast PCA and LDA is used to recognize the faces detected. The matched face is then used to mark attendance in the laboratory, in our case. This biometric system is a real time attendance system based on the human face recognition with a simple and fast algorithms and gaining a high accuracy rate..
1108.1361
Variability of location management costs with different mobilities and timer periods to update locations
cs.SI
In this article, we examine the Location Management costs in mobile communication networks utilizing the timer-based method. From the study of the probabilities that a mobile terminal changes a number of Location Areas between two calls, we identify a threshold value of 0.7 for the Call-to-Mobility Ratio (CMR) below which the application of the timer-based method is most appropriate. We characterize the valley appearing in the evolution of the costs with the timeout period, showing that the time interval required to reach 90% of the stabilized costs grows with the mobility index, the paging cost per Location Area and the movement dimension, in opposition to the behavior presented by the time interval that achieves the minimum of the costs. The results obtained for CMRs below the suggested 0.7 threshold show that the valley appearing in the costs tends to disappear for CMRs within [0.001, 0.7] in onedimensional movements and within [0.2, 0.7] in two-dimensional ones, and when the normalized paging cost per Location Area is below 0.3.
1108.1367
Savings in location management costs leveraging user statistics
cs.NI cs.SI
The growth in the number of users in mobile communications networks and the rise in the traffic generated by each user, are responsible for the increasing importance of Mobility Management. Within Mobility Management, the main objective of Location Management is to enable the roaming of the user in the coverage area. In this paper, we analyze the savings in Location Management costs obtained leveraging the users' statistics, in comparison with the classical strategy. In particular, we introduce two novel algorithms to obtain the Beta parameters (useful terms in the calculation of location update costs for different Location Management strategies), utilizing a geographical study of relative positions of the cells within the location areas. Eventually, we discuss the influence of the different network parameters on the total Location Management costs savings for both the radio interface and the fixed network part, providing useful guidelines for the optimum design of the networks.
1108.1378
An Efficient Architecture for Information Retrieval in P2P Context Using Hypergraph
cs.DB cs.PF
Peer-to-peer (P2P) Data-sharing systems now generate a significant portion of Internet traffic. P2P systems have emerged as an accepted way to share enormous volumes of data. Needs for widely distributed information systems supporting virtual organizations have given rise to a new category of P2P systems called schema-based. In such systems each peer is a database management system in itself, ex-posing its own schema. In such a setting, the main objective is the efficient search across peer databases by processing each incoming query without overly consuming bandwidth. The usability of these systems depends on successful techniques to find and retrieve data; however, efficient and effective routing of content-based queries is an emerging problem in P2P networks. This work was attended as an attempt to motivate the use of mining algorithms in the P2P context may improve the significantly the efficiency of such methods. Our proposed method based respectively on combination of clustering with hypergraphs. We use ECCLAT to build approximate clustering and discovering meaningful clusters with slight overlapping. We use an algorithm MTMINER to extract all minimal transversals of a hypergraph (clusters) for query routing. The set of clusters improves the robustness in queries routing mechanism and scalability in P2P Network. We compare the performance of our method with the baseline one considering the queries routing problem. Our experimental results prove that our proposed methods generate impressive levels of performance and scalability with with respect to important criteria such as response time, precision and recall.
1108.1410
Distributed Detection over Noisy Networks: Large Deviations Analysis
cs.IT math.IT
We study the large deviations performance of consensus+innovations distributed detection over noisy networks, where sensors at a time step k cooperate with immediate neighbors (consensus) and assimilate their new observations (innovation.) We show that, even under noisy communication, \emph{all sensors} can achieve exponential decay e^{-k C_{\mathrm{dis}}} of the detection error probability, even when certain (or most) sensors cannot detect the event of interest in isolation. We achieve this by designing a single time scale stochastic approximation type distributed detector with the optimal weight sequence {\alpha_k}, by which sensors weigh their neighbors' messages. The optimal design of {\alpha_k} balances the opposing effects of communication noise and information flow from neighbors: larger, slowly decaying \alpha_k improves information flow but injects more communication noise. Further, we quantify the best achievable C_{\mathrm{dis}} as a function of the sensing signal and noise, communication noise, and network connectivity. Finally, we find a threshold on the communication noise power below which a sensor that can detect the event in isolation still improves its detection by cooperation through noisy links.
1108.1421
On the Secrecy Degrees of Freedom of Multi-Antenna Wiretap Channels with Delayed CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
The secrecy degrees of freedom (SDoF) of the Gaussian multiple-input and single-output (MISO) wiretap channel is studied under the assumption that delayed channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitter and each receiver knows its own instantaneous channel. We first show that a strictly positive SDoF can be guaranteed whenever the transmitter has delayed CSI (either on the legitimate channel or/and the eavesdropper channel). In particular, in the case with delayed CSI on both channels, it is shown that the optimal SDoF is 2/3. We then generalize the result to the two-user Gaussian MISO broadcast channel with confidential messages and characterize the SDoF region when the transmitter has delayed CSI of both receivers. Interestingly, the artificial noise schemes exploiting several time instances are shown to provide the optimal SDoF region by masking the confidential message to the unintended receiver while aligning the interference at each receiver.
1108.1434
A Novel Approach for Authenticating Textual or Graphical Passwords Using Hopfield Neural Network
cs.CR cs.NE
Password authentication using Hopfield Networks is presented in this paper. In this paper we discussed the Hopfield Network Scheme for Textual and graphical passwords, for which input Password will be converted in to probabilistic values. We observed how to get password authentication using Probabilistic values for Textual passwords and Graphical passwords. This study proposes the use of a Hopfield neural network technique for password authentication. In comparison to existing layered neural network techniques, the proposed method provides better accuracy and quicker response time to registration and password changes.
1108.1440
Clustering in large networks does not promote upstream reciprocity
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
Upstream reciprocity (also called generalized reciprocity) is a putative mechanism for cooperation in social dilemma situations with which players help others when they are helped by somebody else. It is a type of indirect reciprocity. Although upstream reciprocity is often observed in experiments, most theories suggest that it is operative only when players form short cycles such as triangles, implying a small population size, or when it is combined with other mechanisms that promote cooperation on their own. An expectation is that real social networks, which are known to be full of triangles and other short cycles, may accommodate upstream reciprocity. In this study, I extend the upstream reciprocity game proposed for a directed cycle by Boyd and Richerson to the case of general networks. The model is not evolutionary and concerns the conditions under which the unanimity of cooperative players is a Nash equilibrium. I show that an abundance of triangles or other short cycles in a network does little to promote upstream reciprocity. Cooperation is less likely for a larger population size even if triangles are abundant in the network. In addition, in contrast to the results for evolutionary social dilemma games on networks, scale-free networks lead to less cooperation than networks with a homogeneous degree distribution.
1108.1441
Spatial Degrees of Freedom of the Multicell MIMO Multiple Access Channel
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a homogeneous multiple cellular scenario with multiple users per cell, i.e., $K\geq 1$ where $K$ denotes the number of users in a cell. In this scenario, a degrees of freedom outer bound as well as an achievable scheme that attains the degrees of freedom outer bound of the multicell multiple access channel (MAC) with constant channel coefficients are investigated. The users have $M$ antennas, and the base stations are equipped with $N$ antennas. The found outer bound is general in that it characterizes a degrees of freedom upper bound for $K\geq 1$ and $L>1$ where $L$ denotes the number of cells. The achievability of the degrees of freedom outer bound is studied for two cell case (i.e., L=2). The achievable schemes that attains the degrees of freedom outer bound for L=2 are based on two approaches. The first scheme is a simple zero forcing with $M=K\beta+\beta$ and $N=K\beta$, and the second approach is null space interference alignment with $M=K\beta$ and $N=K\beta+\beta$ where $\beta>0$ is a positive integer.
1108.1464
Cutaneous Force Feedback as a Sensory Subtraction Technique in Haptics
cs.RO
A novel sensory substitution technique is presented. Kinesthetic and cutaneous force feedback are substituted by cutaneous feedback (CF) only, provided by two wearable devices able to apply forces to the index finger and the thumb, while holding a handle during a teleoperation task. The force pattern, fed back to the user while using the cutaneous devices, is similar, in terms of intensity and area of application, to the cutaneous force pattern applied to the finger pad while interacting with a haptic device providing both cutaneous and kinesthetic force feedback. The pattern generated using the cutaneous devices can be thought as a subtraction between the complete haptic feedback (HF) and the kinesthetic part of it. For this reason, we refer to this approach as sensory subtraction instead of sensory substitution. A needle insertion scenario is considered to validate the approach. The haptic device is connected to a virtual environment simulating a needle insertion task. Experiments show that the perception of inserting a needle using the cutaneous-only force feedback is nearly indistinguishable from the one felt by the user while using both cutaneous and kinesthetic feedback. As most of the sensory substitution approaches, the proposed sensory subtraction technique also has the advantage of not suffering from stability issues of teleoperation systems due, for instance, to communication delays. Moreover, experiments show that the sensory subtraction technique outperforms sensory substitution with more conventional visual feedback (VF).
1108.1488
'Just Enough' Ontology Engineering
cs.AI
This paper introduces 'just enough' principles and 'systems engineering' approach to the practice of ontology development to provide a minimal yet complete, lightweight, agile and integrated development process, supportive of stakeholder management and implementation independence.
1108.1500
Gender Recognition Based on Sift Features
cs.AI cs.CV
This paper proposes a robust approach for face detection and gender classification in color images. Previous researches about gender recognition suppose an expensive computational and time-consuming pre-processing step in order to alignment in which face images are aligned so that facial landmarks like eyes, nose, lips, chin are placed in uniform locations in image. In this paper, a novel technique based on mathematical analysis is represented in three stages that eliminates alignment step. First, a new color based face detection method is represented with a better result and more robustness in complex backgrounds. Next, the features which are invariant to affine transformations are extracted from each face using scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) method. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, experiments have been conducted by employing a SVM classifier on a database of face images which contains 500 images from distinct people with equal ratio of male and female.
1108.1502
Generalized Louvain Method for Community Detection in Large Networks
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
In this paper we present a novel strategy to discover the community structure of (possibly, large) networks. This approach is based on the well-know concept of network modularity optimization. To do so, our algorithm exploits a novel measure of edge centrality, based on the k-paths. This technique allows to efficiently compute a edge ranking in large networks in near linear time. Once the centrality ranking is calculated, the algorithm computes the pairwise proximity between nodes of the network. Finally, it discovers the community structure adopting a strategy inspired by the well-known state-of-the-art Louvain method (henceforth, LM), efficiently maximizing the network modularity. The experiments we carried out show that our algorithm outperforms other techniques and slightly improves results of the original LM, providing reliable results. Another advantage is that its adoption is naturally extended even to unweighted networks, differently with respect to the LM.
1108.1510
How Hidden are Hidden Processes? A Primer on Crypticity and Entropy Convergence
physics.data-an cond-mat.stat-mech cs.IT math.DS math.IT math.ST nlin.CD stat.TH
We investigate a stationary process's crypticity---a measure of the difference between its hidden state information and its observed information---using the causal states of computational mechanics. Here, we motivate crypticity and cryptic order as physically meaningful quantities that monitor how hidden a hidden process is. This is done by recasting previous results on the convergence of block entropy and block-state entropy in a geometric setting, one that is more intuitive and that leads to a number of new results. For example, we connect crypticity to how an observer synchronizes to a process. We show that the block-causal-state entropy is a convex function of block length. We give a complete analysis of spin chains. We present a classification scheme that surveys stationary processes in terms of their possible cryptic and Markov orders. We illustrate related entropy convergence behaviors using a new form of foliated information diagram. Finally, along the way, we provide a variety of interpretations of crypticity and cryptic order to establish their naturalness and pervasiveness. Hopefully, these will inspire new applications in spatially extended and network dynamical systems.
1108.1522
Wireless MIMO Switching with Zero-forcing Relaying and Network-coded Relaying
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
A wireless relay with multiple antennas is called a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) switch if it maps its input links to its output links using "precode-and-forward." Namely, the MIMO switch precodes the received signal vector in the uplink using some matrix for transmission in the downlink. This paper studies the scenario of $K$ stations and a MIMO switch, which has full channel state information. The precoder at the MIMO switch is either a zero-forcing matrix or a network-coded matrix. With the zero-forcing precoder, each destination station receives only its desired signal with enhanced noise but no interference. With the network-coded precoder, each station receives not only its desired signal and noise, but possibly also self-interference, which can be perfectly canceled. Precoder design for optimizing the received signal-to-noise ratios at the destinations is investigated. For zero-forcing relaying, the problem is solved in closed form in the two-user case, whereas in the case of more users, efficient algorithms are proposed and shown to be close to what can be achieved by extensive random search. For network-coded relaying, we present efficient iterative algorithms that can boost the throughput further.
1108.1530
Evolving A-Type Artificial Neural Networks
cs.NE
We investigate Turing's notion of an A-type artificial neural network. We study a refinement of Turing's original idea, motivated by work of Teuscher, Bull, Preen and Copeland. Our A-types can process binary data by accepting and outputting sequences of binary vectors; hence we can associate a function to an A-type, and we say the A-type {\em represents} the function. There are two modes of data processing: clamped and sequential. We describe an evolutionary algorithm, involving graph-theoretic manipulations of A-types, which searches for A-types representing a given function. The algorithm uses both mutation and crossover operators. We implemented the algorithm and applied it to three benchmark tasks. We found that the algorithm performed much better than a random search. For two out of the three tasks, the algorithm with crossover performed better than a mutation-only version.
1108.1535
Robust Coding for Lossy Computing with Receiver-Side Observation Costs
cs.IT math.IT
An encoder wishes to minimize the bit rate necessary to guarantee that a decoder is able to calculate a symbolwise function of a sequence available only at the encoder and a sequence that can be measured only at the decoder. This classical problem, first studied by Yamamoto, is addressed here by including two new aspects: (i) The decoder obtains noisy measurements of its sequence, where the quality of such measurements can be controlled via a cost-constrained "action" sequence; (ii) Measurement at the decoder may fail in a way that is unpredictable to the encoder, thus requiring robust encoding. The considered scenario generalizes known settings such as the Heegard-Berger-Kaspi and the "source coding with a vending machine" problems. The rate-distortion-cost function is derived and numerical examples are also worked out to obtain further insight into the optimal system design.
1108.1549
A frequency approach to topological identification and graphical modeling
cs.SY cs.SI math.OC
This works explores and illustrates recent results developed by the author in field of dynamical network analysis. The considered approach is blind, i.e., no a priori assumptions on the interconnected systems are available. Moreover, the perspective is that of a simple "observer" who can perform no kind of test on the network in order to study the related response, that is no action or forcing input aimed to reveal particular responses of the system can be performed. In such a scenario a frequency based method of investigation is developed to obtain useful insights on the network. The information thus derived can be fruitfully exploited to build acyclic graphical models, which can be seen as extension of Bayesian Networks or Markov Chains. Moreover, it is shown that the topology of polytree linear networks can be exactly identified via the same mathematical tools. In this respect, it is worth observing that important real systems, such as all the transportation networks, fit this class.
1108.1572
Optimal Rate for Irregular LDPC Codes in Binary Erasure Channel
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we introduce a new practical and general method for solving the main problem of designing the capacity approaching, optimal rate, irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) code ensemble over binary erasure channel (BEC). Compared to some new researches, which are based on application of asymptotic analysis tools out of optimization process, the proposed method is much simpler, faster, accurate and practical. Because of not using any relaxation or any approximate solution like previous works, the found answer with this method is optimal. We can construct optimal variable node degree distribution for any given binary erasure rate, {\epsilon}, and any check node degree distribution. The presented method is implemented and works well in practice. The time complexity of this method is of polynomial order. As a result, we obtain some degree distribution which their rates are close to the capacity.
1108.1589
Imitation of Life: Advanced system for native Artificial Evolution
cs.NE q-bio.PE
A model for artificial evolution in native x86 Windows systems has been developed at the end of 2010. In this text, further improvements and additional analogies to natural microbiologic processes are presented. Several experiments indicate the capability of the system - and raise the question of possible countermeasures.
1108.1597
Evolving network models under a dynamic growth rule
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
Evolving network models under a dynamic growth rule which comprises the addition and deletion of nodes are investigated. By adding a node with a probability $P_a$ or deleting a node with the probability $P_d=1-P_a$ at each time step, where $P_a$ and $P_d$ are determined by the Logistic population equation, topological properties of networks are studied. All the fat-tailed degree distributions observed in real systems are obtained, giving the evidence that the mechanism of addition and deletion can lead to the diversity of degree distribution of real systems. Moreover, it is found that the networks exhibit nonstationary degree distributions, changing from the power-law to the exponential one or from the exponential to the Gaussian one. These results can be expected to shed some light on the formation and evolution of real complex real-world networks.
1108.1636
A new embedding quality assessment method for manifold learning
cs.CV cs.LG
Manifold learning is a hot research topic in the field of computer science. A crucial issue with current manifold learning methods is that they lack a natural quantitative measure to assess the quality of learned embeddings, which greatly limits their applications to real-world problems. In this paper, a new embedding quality assessment method for manifold learning, named as Normalization Independent Embedding Quality Assessment (NIEQA), is proposed. Compared with current assessment methods which are limited to isometric embeddings, the NIEQA method has a much larger application range due to two features. First, it is based on a new measure which can effectively evaluate how well local neighborhood geometry is preserved under normalization, hence it can be applied to both isometric and normalized embeddings. Second, it can provide both local and global evaluations to output an overall assessment. Therefore, NIEQA can serve as a natural tool in model selection and evaluation tasks for manifold learning. Experimental results on benchmark data sets validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
1108.1645
A joint time-invariant filtering approach to the linear Gaussian relay problem
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, the linear Gaussian relay problem is considered. Under the linear time-invariant (LTI) model the problem is formulated in the frequency domain based on the Toeplitz distribution theorem. Under the further assumption of realizable input spectra, the LTI Gaussian relay problem is converted to a joint design problem of source and relay filters under two power constraints, one at the source and the other at the relay, and a practical solution to this problem is proposed based on the projected subgradient method. Numerical results show that the proposed method yields a noticeable gain over the instantaneous amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme in inter-symbol interference (ISI) channels. Also, the optimality of the AF scheme within the class of one-tap relay filters is established in flat-fading channels.
1108.1656
Emergent bipartiteness in a society of knights and knaves
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI
We propose a simple model of a social network based on so-called knights-and-knaves puzzles. The model describes the formation of networks between two classes of agents where links are formed by agents introducing their neighbours to others of their own class. We show that if the proportion of knights and knaves is within a certain range, the network self-organizes to a perfectly bipartite state. However, if the excess of one of the two classes is greater than a threshold value, bipartiteness is not observed. We offer a detailed theoretical analysis for the behaviour of the model, investigate its behaviou r in the thermodynamic limit, and argue that it provides a simple example of a topology-driven model whose behaviour is strongly reminiscent of a first-order phase transitions far from equilibrium.
1108.1676
Sub-modularity and Antenna Selection in MIMO systems
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we show that the optimal receive antenna subset selection problem for maximizing the mutual information in a point-to-point MIMO system is sub-modular. Consequently, a greedy step-wise optimization approach, where at each step an antenna that maximizes the incremental gain is added to the existing antenna subset, is guaranteed to be within a (1 - 1/e) fraction of the global optimal value. For a single antenna equipped source and destination with multiple relays, we show that the relay antenna selection problem to maximize the mutual information is modular, when complete channel state information is available at the relays. As a result a greedy step-wise optimization approach leads to an optimal solution for the relay antenna selection problem with linear complexity in comparison to the brute force search that incurs exponential complexity.
1108.1689
A nonlinear preconditioner for experimental design problems
math.OC cs.SY
We address the slow convergence and poor stability of quasi-newton sequential quadratic programming (SQP) methods that is observed when solving experimental design problems, in particular when they are large. Our findings suggest that this behavior is due to the fact that these problems often have bad absolute condition numbers. To shed light onto the structure of the problem close to the solution, we formulate a model problem (based on the $A$-criterion), that is defined in terms of a given initial design that is to be improved. We prove that the absolute condition number of the model problem grows without bounds as the quality of the initial design improves. Additionally, we devise a preconditioner that ensures that the condition number will instead stay uniformly bounded. Using numerical experiments, we study the effect of this reformulation on relevant cases of the general problem, and find that it leads to significant improvements in stability and convergence behavior.