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1109.2156
Approximate Policy Iteration with a Policy Language Bias: Solving Relational Markov Decision Processes
cs.AI
We study an approach to policy selection for large relational Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). We consider a variant of approximate policy iteration (API) that replaces the usual value-function learning step with a learning step in policy space. This is advantageous in domains where good policies are easier to represent and learn than the corresponding value functions, which is often the case for the relational MDPs we are interested in. In order to apply API to such problems, we introduce a relational policy language and corresponding learner. In addition, we introduce a new bootstrapping routine for goal-based planning domains, based on random walks. Such bootstrapping is necessary for many large relational MDPs, where reward is extremely sparse, as API is ineffective in such domains when initialized with an uninformed policy. Our experiments show that the resulting system is able to find good policies for a number of classical planning domains and their stochastic variants by solving them as extremely large relational MDPs. The experiments also point to some limitations of our approach, suggesting future work.
1109.2215
Finding missing edges and communities in incomplete networks
cs.SI physics.data-an physics.soc-ph
Many algorithms have been proposed for predicting missing edges in networks, but they do not usually take account of which edges are missing. We focus on networks which have missing edges of the form that is likely to occur in real networks, and compare algorithms that find these missing edges. We also investigate the effect of this kind of missing data on community detection algorithms.
1109.2227
A radial version of the Central Limit Theorem
cs.IT cs.CV math.IT math.PR
In this note, we give a probabilistic interpretation of the Central Limit Theorem used for approximating isotropic Gaussians in [1].
1109.2229
A Learning Theory Approach to Non-Interactive Database Privacy
cs.DS cs.CR cs.LG
In this paper we demonstrate that, ignoring computational constraints, it is possible to privately release synthetic databases that are useful for large classes of queries -- much larger in size than the database itself. Specifically, we give a mechanism that privately releases synthetic data for a class of queries over a discrete domain with error that grows as a function of the size of the smallest net approximately representing the answers to that class of queries. We show that this in particular implies a mechanism for counting queries that gives error guarantees that grow only with the VC-dimension of the class of queries, which itself grows only logarithmically with the size of the query class. We also show that it is not possible to privately release even simple classes of queries (such as intervals and their generalizations) over continuous domains. Despite this, we give a privacy-preserving polynomial time algorithm that releases information useful for all halfspace queries, given a slight relaxation of the utility guarantee. This algorithm does not release synthetic data, but instead another data structure capable of representing an answer for each query. We also give an efficient algorithm for releasing synthetic data for the class of interval queries and axis-aligned rectangles of constant dimension. Finally, inspired by learning theory, we introduce a new notion of data privacy, which we call distributional privacy, and show that it is strictly stronger than the prevailing privacy notion, differential privacy.
1109.2237
The World is Either Algorithmic or Mostly Random
cs.IT math.IT physics.data-an physics.pop-ph
I will propose the notion that the universe is digital, not as a claim about what the universe is made of but rather about the way it unfolds. Central to the argument will be the concepts of symmetry breaking and algorithmic probability, which will be used as tools to compare the way patterns are distributed in our world to the way patterns are distributed in a simulated digital one. These concepts will provide a framework for a discussion of the informational nature of reality. I will argue that if the universe were analog, then the world would likely be random, making it largely incomprehensible. The digital model has, however, an inherent beauty in its imposition of an upper limit and in the convergence in computational power to a maximal level of sophistication. Even if deterministic, that it is digital doesn't mean that the world is trivial or predictable, but rather that it is built up from operations that at the lowest scale are very simple but that at a higher scale look complex and even random, though only in appearance.
1109.2271
Feature-Based Matrix Factorization
cs.AI cs.IR
Recommender system has been more and more popular and widely used in many applications recently. The increasing information available, not only in quantities but also in types, leads to a big challenge for recommender system that how to leverage these rich information to get a better performance. Most traditional approaches try to design a specific model for each scenario, which demands great efforts in developing and modifying models. In this technical report, we describe our implementation of feature-based matrix factorization. This model is an abstract of many variants of matrix factorization models, and new types of information can be utilized by simply defining new features, without modifying any lines of code. Using the toolkit, we built the best single model reported on track 1 of KDDCup'11.
1109.2275
On Phase Transition of Compressed Sensing in the Complex Domain
cs.IT math.IT
The phase transition is a performance measure of the sparsity-undersampling tradeoff in compressed sensing (CS). This letter reports our first observation and evaluation of an empirical phase transition of the $\ell_1$ minimization approach to the complex valued CS (CVCS), which is positioned well above the known phase transition of the real valued CS in the phase plane. This result can be considered as an extension of the existing phase transition theory of the block-sparse CS (BSCS) based on the universality argument, since the CVCS problem does not meet the condition required by the phase transition theory of BSCS but its observed phase transition coincides with that of BSCS. Our result is obtained by applying the recently developed ONE-L1 algorithms to the empirical evaluation of the phase transition of CVCS.
1109.2288
Heterogeneity for Increasing Performance and Reliability of Self-Reconfigurable Multi-Robot Organisms
cs.RO cs.SY
Homogeneity and heterogeneity represent a well-known trade-off in the design of modular robot systems. This work addresses the heterogeneity concept, its rationales, design choices and performance evaluation. We introduce challenges for self-reconfigurable systems, show advances of mechatronic and software design of heterogeneous platforms and discuss experiments, which intend to demonstrate usability and performance of this system.
1109.2296
Bandits with an Edge
cs.LG
We consider a bandit problem over a graph where the rewards are not directly observed. Instead, the decision maker can compare two nodes and receive (stochastic) information pertaining to the difference in their value. The graph structure describes the set of possible comparisons. Consequently, comparing between two nodes that are relatively far requires estimating the difference between every pair of nodes on the path between them. We analyze this problem from the perspective of sample complexity: How many queries are needed to find an approximately optimal node with probability more than $1-\delta$ in the PAC setup? We show that the topology of the graph plays a crucial in defining the sample complexity: graphs with a low diameter have a much better sample complexity.
1109.2304
Efficient Minimization of Higher Order Submodular Functions using Monotonic Boolean Functions
cs.DS cs.CV cs.DM
Submodular function minimization is a key problem in a wide variety of applications in machine learning, economics, game theory, computer vision, and many others. The general solver has a complexity of $O(n^3 \log^2 n . E +n^4 {\log}^{O(1)} n)$ where $E$ is the time required to evaluate the function and $n$ is the number of variables \cite{Lee2015}. On the other hand, many computer vision and machine learning problems are defined over special subclasses of submodular functions that can be written as the sum of many submodular cost functions defined over cliques containing few variables. In such functions, the pseudo-Boolean (or polynomial) representation \cite{BorosH02} of these subclasses are of degree (or order, or clique size) $k$ where $k \ll n$. In this work, we develop efficient algorithms for the minimization of this useful subclass of submodular functions. To do this, we define novel mapping that transform submodular functions of order $k$ into quadratic ones. The underlying idea is to use auxiliary variables to model the higher order terms and the transformation is found using a carefully constructed linear program. In particular, we model the auxiliary variables as monotonic Boolean functions, allowing us to obtain a compact transformation using as few auxiliary variables as possible.
1109.2313
Convergence Analysis of Saddle Point Problems in Time Varying Wireless Systems - Control Theoretical Approach
cs.IT math.IT
Saddle point problems arise from many wireless applications, and primal-dual iterative algorithms are widely applied to find the saddle points. In the existing literature, the convergence results of such algorithms are established assuming the problem specific parameters remain unchanged during the iterations. However, this assumption is unrealistic in time varying wireless systems, as explicit message passing is usually involved in the iterations and the channel state information (CSI) may change in a time scale comparable to the algorithm update period. This paper investigates the convergence behavior and the tracking error of primal-dual iterative algorithms under time varying CSI. The convergence results are established by studying the stability of an equivalent virtual dynamic system derived in the paper, and the Lyapunov theory is applied for the stability analysis. We show that the average tracking error is proportional to the time variation rate of the CSI. Based on these analyses, we also derive an adaptive primal-dual algorithm by introducing a compensation term to reduce the tracking error under the time varying CSI.
1109.2317
An Overview of Codes Tailor-made for Better Repairability in Networked Distributed Storage Systems
cs.DC cs.IT math.IT
The continuously increasing amount of digital data generated by today's society asks for better storage solutions. This survey looks at a new generation of coding techniques designed specifically for the needs of distributed networked storage systems, trying to reach the best compromise among storage space efficiency, fault tolerance, and maintenance overheads. Four families of codes tailor-made for distributed settings, namely - pyramid, hierarchical, regenerating and self-repairing codes - are presented at a high level, emphasizing the main ideas behind each of these codes, and discussing their pros and cons, before concluding with a quantitative comparison among them. This survey deliberately excluded technical details for the codes, nor does it provide an exhaustive summary of the numerous works. Instead, it provides an overview of the major code families in a manner easily accessible to a broad audience, by presenting the big picture of advances in coding techniques for distributed storage solutions.
1109.2321
Visualizing Domain Ontology using Enhanced Anaphora Resolution Algorithm
cs.IR
Enormous explosion in the number of the World Wide Web pages occur every day and since the efficiency of most of the information processing systems is found to be less, the potential of the Internet applications is often underutilized. Efficient utilization of the web can be exploited when similar web pages are rigorously, exhaustively organized and clustered based on some domain knowledge (semantic-based) .Ontology which is a formal representation of domain knowledge aids in such efficient utilization. The performance of almost all the semantic-based clustering techniques depends on the constructed ontology, describing the domain knowledge . The proposed methodology provides an enhanced pronominal anaphora resolution, one of the key aspects of semantic analysis in Natural Language Processing for obtaining cross references within a web page providing better ontology construction. The experimental data sets exhibits better efficiency of the proposed method compared to earlier traditional algorithms.
1109.2346
Linking Search Space Structure, Run-Time Dynamics, and Problem Difficulty: A Step Toward Demystifying Tabu Search
cs.AI
Tabu search is one of the most effective heuristics for locating high-quality solutions to a diverse array of NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. Despite the widespread success of tabu search, researchers have a poor understanding of many key theoretical aspects of this algorithm, including models of the high-level run-time dynamics and identification of those search space features that influence problem difficulty. We consider these questions in the context of the job-shop scheduling problem (JSP), a domain where tabu search algorithms have been shown to be remarkably effective. Previously, we demonstrated that the mean distance between random local optima and the nearest optimal solution is highly correlated with problem difficulty for a well-known tabu search algorithm for the JSP introduced by Taillard. In this paper, we discuss various shortcomings of this measure and develop a new model of problem difficulty that corrects these deficiencies. We show that Taillards algorithm can be modeled with high fidelity as a simple variant of a straightforward random walk. The random walk model accounts for nearly all of the variability in the cost required to locate both optimal and sub-optimal solutions to random JSPs, and provides an explanation for differences in the difficulty of random versus structured JSPs. Finally, we discuss and empirically substantiate two novel predictions regarding tabu search algorithm behavior. First, the method for constructing the initial solution is highly unlikely to impact the performance of tabu search. Second, tabu tenure should be selected to be as small as possible while simultaneously avoiding search stagnation; values larger than necessary lead to significant degradations in performance.
1109.2347
Breaking Instance-Independent Symmetries In Exact Graph Coloring
cs.AI
Code optimization and high level synthesis can be posed as constraint satisfaction and optimization problems, such as graph coloring used in register allocation. Graph coloring is also used to model more traditional CSPs relevant to AI, such as planning, time-tabling and scheduling. Provably optimal solutions may be desirable for commercial and defense applications. Additionally, for applications such as register allocation and code optimization, naturally-occurring instances of graph coloring are often small and can be solved optimally. A recent wave of improvements in algorithms for Boolean satisfiability (SAT) and 0-1 Integer Linear Programming (ILP) suggests generic problem-reduction methods, rather than problem-specific heuristics, because (1) heuristics may be upset by new constraints, (2) heuristics tend to ignore structure, and (3) many relevant problems are provably inapproximable. Problem reductions often lead to highly symmetric SAT instances, and symmetries are known to slow down SAT solvers. In this work, we compare several avenues for symmetry breaking, in particular when certain kinds of symmetry are present in all generated instances. Our focus on reducing CSPs to SAT allows us to leverage recent dramatic improvement in SAT solvers and automatically benefit from future progress. We can use a variety of black-box SAT solvers without modifying their source code because our symmetry-breaking techniques are static, i.e., we detect symmetries and add symmetry breaking predicates (SBPs) during pre-processing. An important result of our work is that among the types of instance-independent SBPs we studied and their combinations, the simplest and least complete constructions are the most effective. Our experiments also clearly indicate that instance-independent symmetries should mostly be processed together with instance-specific symmetries rather than at the specification level, contrary to what has been suggested in the literature.
1109.2355
Decision-Theoretic Planning with non-Markovian Rewards
cs.AI
A decision process in which rewards depend on history rather than merely on the current state is called a decision process with non-Markovian rewards (NMRDP). In decision-theoretic planning, where many desirable behaviours are more naturally expressed as properties of execution sequences rather than as properties of states, NMRDPs form a more natural model than the commonly adopted fully Markovian decision process (MDP) model. While the more tractable solution methods developed for MDPs do not directly apply in the presence of non-Markovian rewards, a number of solution methods for NMRDPs have been proposed in the literature. These all exploit a compact specification of the non-Markovian reward function in temporal logic, to automatically translate the NMRDP into an equivalent MDP which is solved using efficient MDP solution methods. This paper presents NMRDPP (Non-Markovian Reward Decision Process Planner), a software platform for the development and experimentation of methods for decision-theoretic planning with non-Markovian rewards. The current version of NMRDPP implements, under a single interface, a family of methods based on existing as well as new approaches which we describe in detail. These include dynamic programming, heuristic search, and structured methods. Using NMRDPP, we compare the methods and identify certain problem features that affect their performance. NMRDPPs treatment of non-Markovian rewards is inspired by the treatment of domain-specific search control knowledge in the TLPlan planner, which it incorporates as a special case. In the First International Probabilistic Planning Competition, NMRDPP was able to compete and perform well in both the domain-independent and hand-coded tracks, using search control knowledge in the latter.
1109.2363
Sensor Management: Past, Present, and Future
stat.AP cs.RO cs.SY math.OC
Sensor systems typically operate under resource constraints that prevent the simultaneous use of all resources all of the time. Sensor management becomes relevant when the sensing system has the capability of actively managing these resources; i.e., changing its operating configuration during deployment in reaction to previous measurements. Examples of systems in which sensor management is currently used or is likely to be used in the near future include autonomous robots, surveillance and reconnaissance networks, and waveform-agile radars. This paper provides an overview of the theory, algorithms, and applications of sensor management as it has developed over the past decades and as it stands today.
1109.2388
MIS-Boost: Multiple Instance Selection Boosting
cs.LG cs.CV
In this paper, we present a new multiple instance learning (MIL) method, called MIS-Boost, which learns discriminative instance prototypes by explicit instance selection in a boosting framework. Unlike previous instance selection based MIL methods, we do not restrict the prototypes to a discrete set of training instances but allow them to take arbitrary values in the instance feature space. We also do not restrict the total number of prototypes and the number of selected-instances per bag; these quantities are completely data-driven. We show that MIS-Boost outperforms state-of-the-art MIL methods on a number of benchmark datasets. We also apply MIS-Boost to large-scale image classification, where we show that the automatically selected prototypes map to visually meaningful image regions.
1109.2389
A Probabilistic Framework for Discriminative Dictionary Learning
cs.CV cs.LG
In this paper, we address the problem of discriminative dictionary learning (DDL), where sparse linear representation and classification are combined in a probabilistic framework. As such, a single discriminative dictionary and linear binary classifiers are learned jointly. By encoding sparse representation and discriminative classification models in a MAP setting, we propose a general optimization framework that allows for a data-driven tradeoff between faithful representation and accurate classification. As opposed to previous work, our learning methodology is capable of incorporating a diverse family of classification cost functions (including those used in popular boosting methods), while avoiding the need for involved optimization techniques. We show that DDL can be solved by a sequence of updates that make use of well-known and well-studied sparse coding and dictionary learning algorithms from the literature. To validate our DDL framework, we apply it to digit classification and face recognition and test it on standard benchmarks.
1109.2397
Structured sparsity through convex optimization
cs.LG stat.ML
Sparse estimation methods are aimed at using or obtaining parsimonious representations of data or models. While naturally cast as a combinatorial optimization problem, variable or feature selection admits a convex relaxation through the regularization by the $\ell_1$-norm. In this paper, we consider situations where we are not only interested in sparsity, but where some structural prior knowledge is available as well. We show that the $\ell_1$-norm can then be extended to structured norms built on either disjoint or overlapping groups of variables, leading to a flexible framework that can deal with various structures. We present applications to unsupervised learning, for structured sparse principal component analysis and hierarchical dictionary learning, and to supervised learning in the context of non-linear variable selection.
1109.2415
Convergence Rates of Inexact Proximal-Gradient Methods for Convex Optimization
cs.LG math.OC
We consider the problem of optimizing the sum of a smooth convex function and a non-smooth convex function using proximal-gradient methods, where an error is present in the calculation of the gradient of the smooth term or in the proximity operator with respect to the non-smooth term. We show that both the basic proximal-gradient method and the accelerated proximal-gradient method achieve the same convergence rate as in the error-free case, provided that the errors decrease at appropriate rates.Using these rates, we perform as well as or better than a carefully chosen fixed error level on a set of structured sparsity problems.
1109.2417
Internet and political communication - Macedonian case
cs.SI
Analysis how to use Internet influence to the process of political communication, marketing and the management of public relations, what kind of online communication methods are used by political parties, and to assess satisfaction, means of communication and the services they provide to their partys voters (people) and other interest groups and whether social networks can affect the political and economic changes in the state, and the political power of one party.
1109.2418
Facebook and political communication -- Macedonian case
cs.SI
Analysis how to use Internet influence to the process of political communication, marketing and the management of public relations, what kind of online communication methods are used by political parties, and to assess satisfaction, means of communication and the services they provide to their partys voters (people) and other interest groups and whether social networks can affect the political and economic changes in the state, and the political power of one party.
1109.2425
Query processing in distributed, taxonomy-based information sources
cs.DC cs.DB
We address the problem of answering queries over a distributed information system, storing objects indexed by terms organized in a taxonomy. The taxonomy consists of subsumption relationships between negation-free DNF formulas on terms and negation-free conjunctions of terms. In the first part of the paper, we consider the centralized case, deriving a hypergraph-based algorithm that is efficient in data complexity. In the second part of the paper, we consider the distributed case, presenting alternative ways implementing the centralized algorithm. These ways descend from two basic criteria: direct vs. query re-writing evaluation, and centralized vs. distributed data or taxonomy allocation. Combinations of these criteria allow to cover a wide spectrum of architectures, ranging from client-server to peer-to-peer. We evaluate the performance of the various architectures by simulation on a network with O(10^4) nodes, and derive final results. An extensive review of the relevant literature is finally included.
1109.2427
Maximal frequent itemset generation using segmentation approach
cs.DB
Finding frequent itemsets in a data source is a fundamental operation behind Association Rule Mining. Generally, many algorithms use either the bottom-up or top-down approaches for finding these frequent itemsets. When the length of frequent itemsets to be found is large, the traditional algorithms find all the frequent itemsets from 1-length to n-length, which is a difficult process. This problem can be solved by mining only the Maximal Frequent Itemsets (MFS). Maximal Frequent Itemsets are frequent itemsets which have no proper frequent superset. Thus, the generation of only maximal frequent itemsets reduces the number of itemsets and also time needed for the generation of all frequent itemsets as each maximal itemset of length m implies the presence of 2m-2 frequent itemsets. Furthermore, mining only maximal frequent itemset is sufficient in many data mining applications like minimal key discovery and theory extraction. In this paper, we suggest a novel method for finding the maximal frequent itemset from huge data sources using the concept of segmentation of data source and prioritization of segments. Empirical evaluation shows that this method outperforms various other known methods.
1109.2449
Multi-Hypothesis CRF-Segmentation of Neural Tissue in Anisotropic EM Volumes
cs.CV
We present an approach for the joint segmentation and grouping of similar components in anisotropic 3D image data and use it to segment neural tissue in serial sections electron microscopy (EM) images. We first construct a nested set of neuron segmentation hypotheses for each slice. A conditional random field (CRF) then allows us to evaluate both the compatibility of a specific segmentation and a specific inter-slice assignment of neuron candidates with the underlying observations. The model is solved optimally for an entire image stack simultaneously using integer linear programming (ILP), which yields the maximum a posteriori solution in amortized linear time in the number of slices. We evaluate the performance of our approach on an annotated sample of the Drosophila larva neuropil and show that the consideration of different segmentation hypotheses in each slice leads to a significant improvement in the segmentation and assignment accuracy.
1109.2475
Statistical Physics for Humanities: A Tutorial
physics.pop-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI physics.ed-ph physics.soc-ph
The image of physics is connected with simple "mechanical" deterministic events: that an apple always falls down, that force equals mass times acceleleration. Indeed, applications of such concept to social or historical problems go back two centuries (population growth and stabilisation, by Malthus and by Verhulst) and use "differential equations", as recently revierwed by Vitanov and Ausloos [2011]. However, since even today's computers cannot follow the motion of all air molecules within one cubic centimeter, the probabilistic approach has become fashionable since Ludwig Boltzmann invented Statistical Physics in the 19th century. Computer simulations in Statistical Physics deal with single particles, a method called agent-based modelling in fields which adopted it later. Particularly simple are binary models where each particle has only two choices, called spin up and spin down by physicists, bit zero and bit one by computer scientists, and voters for the Republicans or for the Democrats in American politics (where one human is simulated as one particle). Neighbouring particles may influence each other, and the Ising model of 1925 is the best-studied example of such models. This text will explain to the reader how to program the Ising model on a square lattice (in Fortran language); starting from there the readers can build their own computer programs. Some applications of Statistical Physics outside the natural sciences will be listed.
1109.2499
The Evolution of the Cuban HIV/AIDS Network
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
An individual detected as HIV positive in Cuba is asked to provide a list of his/her sexual contacts for the previous 2 years. This allows one to gather detailed information on the spread of the HIV epidemic. Here we study the evolution of the sexual contact graph of detected individuals and also the directed graph of HIV infections. The study covers the Cuban HIV epidemic between the years 1986 and 2004 inclusive and is motivated by an earlier study on the static properties of the network at the end of 2004. We use a variety of advanced graph algorithms to paint a picture of the growth of the epidemic, including an examination of diameters, geodesic distances, community structure and centrality amongst others characteristics. The analysis contrasts the HIV network with other real networks, and graphs generated using the configuration model. We find that the early epidemic starts in the heterosexual population and then grows mainly through MSM (Men having Sex with Men) contact. The epidemic exhibits a giant component which is shown to have degenerate chains of vertices and after 1989, diameters are larger than that expected by the equivalent configuration model graphs. In 1997 there is an significant increase in the detection rate from 73 to 256 detections/year covering mainly MSMs which results in a rapid increase of distances and diameters in the giant component.
1109.2543
Optimal Index Assignment for Multiple Description Scalar Quantization
cs.IT math.IT
We provide a method for designing an optimal index assignment for scalar K-description coding. The method stems from a construction of translated scalar lattices, which provides a performance advantage by exploiting a so-called staggered gain. Interestingly, generation of the optimal index assignment is based on a lattice in K-1 dimensional space. The use of the K-1 dimensional lattice facilitates analytic insight into the performance and eliminates the need for a greedy optimization of the index assignment. It is shown that that the optimal index assignment is not unique. This is illustrated for the two-description case, where a periodic index assignment is selected from possible optimal assignments and described in detail. The new index assignment is applied to design of a K-description quantizer, which is found to outperform a reference K-description quantizer at high rates. The performance advantage due to the staggered gain increases with increasing redundancy among the descriptions.
1109.2567
Quantization of Prior Probabilities for Collaborative Distributed Hypothesis Testing
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies the quantization of prior probabilities, drawn from an ensemble, for distributed detection and data fusion. Design and performance equivalences between a team of N agents tied by a fixed fusion rule and a more powerful single agent are obtained. Effects of identical quantization and diverse quantization are compared. Consideration of perceived common risk enables agents using diverse quantizers to collaborate in hypothesis testing, and it is proven that the minimum mean Bayes risk error is achieved by diverse quantization. The comparison shows that optimal diverse quantization with K cells per quantizer performs as well as optimal identical quantization with N(K-1)+1 cells per quantizer. Similar results are obtained for maximum Bayes risk error as the distortion criterion.
1109.2577
The Organization of Strong Links in Complex Networks
physics.soc-ph cs.SI q-bio.NC
A small-world topology characterizes many complex systems including the structural and functional organization of brain networks. The topology allows simultaneously for local and global efficiency in the interaction of the system constituents. However, it ignores the gradations of interactions commonly quantified by the link weight, w. Here, we identify an integrative weight organization for brain, gene, social, and language networks, in which strong links preferentially occur between nodes with overlapping neighbourhoods and the small-world properties are robust to removal of a large fraction of the weakest links. We also determine local learning rules that dynamically establish such weight organization in response to past activity and capacity demands, while preserving efficient local and global communication.
1109.2583
Optimal Backpressure Scheduling in Wireless Networks using Mutual Information Accumulation
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
In this paper we develop scheduling policies that maximize the stability region of a wireless network under the assumption that mutual information accumulation is implemented at the physical layer. When the link quality between nodes is not sufficiently high that a packet can be decoded within a single slot, the system can accumulate information across multiple slots, eventually decoding the packet. The result is an expanded stability region. The accumulation process over weak links is temporally coupled and therefore does not satisfy the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d) assumption that underlies many previous analysis in this area. Therefore the problem setting also poses new analytic challenges. We propose two dynamic scheduling algorithms to cope with the non-i.i.d nature of the decoding. The first performs scheduling every $T$ slots, and approaches the boundary of the stability region as $T$ gets large, but at the cost of increased average delay. The second introduces virtual queues for each link and constructs a virtual system wherein two virtual nodes are introduced for each link. The constructed virtual system is shown to have the same stability region as the original system. Through controlling the virtual queues in the constructed system, we avoid the non-i.i.d analysis difficulty and attain the full stability region. We derive performance bounds for both algorithms and compare them through simulation results.
1109.2591
Polar codes for classical-quantum channels
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Holevo, Schumacher, and Westmoreland's coding theorem guarantees the existence of codes that are capacity-achieving for the task of sending classical data over a channel with classical inputs and quantum outputs. Although they demonstrated the existence of such codes, their proof does not provide an explicit construction of codes for this task. The aim of the present paper is to fill this gap by constructing near-explicit "polar" codes that are capacity-achieving. The codes exploit the channel polarization phenomenon observed by Arikan for the case of classical channels. Channel polarization is an effect in which one can synthesize a set of channels, by "channel combining" and "channel splitting," in which a fraction of the synthesized channels are perfect for data transmission while the other fraction are completely useless for data transmission, with the good fraction equal to the capacity of the channel. The channel polarization effect then leads to a simple scheme for data transmission: send the information bits through the perfect channels and "frozen" bits through the useless ones. The main technical contributions of the present paper are threefold. First, we leverage several known results from the quantum information literature to demonstrate that the channel polarization effect occurs for channels with classical inputs and quantum outputs. We then construct linear polar codes based on this effect, and the encoding complexity is O(N log N), where N is the blocklength of the code. We also demonstrate that a quantum successive cancellation decoder works well, in the sense that the word error rate decays exponentially with the blocklength of the code. For this last result, we exploit Sen's recent "non-commutative union bound" that holds for a sequence of projectors applied to a quantum state.
1109.2657
From Contracts in Structured English to CL Specifications
cs.CL cs.FL cs.LO
In this paper we present a framework to analyze conflicts of contracts written in structured English. A contract that has manually been rewritten in a structured English is automatically translated into a formal language using the Grammatical Framework (GF). In particular we use the contract language CL as a target formal language for this translation. In our framework CL specifications could then be input into the tool CLAN to detect the presence of conflicts (whether there are contradictory obligations, permissions, and prohibitions. We also use GF to get a version in (restricted) English of CL formulae. We discuss the implementation of such a framework.
1109.2676
Dynamic Decentralized Algorithms for Cognitive Radio Relay Networks
cs.NI cs.IT math.IT
We propose a distributed spectrum access algorithm for cognitive radio relay networks with multiple primary users (PU) and multiple secondary users (SU). The key idea behind the proposed algorithm is that the PUs negotiate with the SUs on both the amount of monetary compensation, and the amount of time the SUs are either (i) allowed spectrum access, or (ii) cooperatively relaying the PU's data, such that both the PUs' and the SUs' minimum rate requirement are satisfied. The proposed algorithm is shown to be flexible in prioritizing either the primary or the secondary users. We prove that the proposed algorithm will result in the best possible stable matching and is weak Pareto optimal. Numerical analysis also reveal that the distributed algorithm can achieve a performance comparable to an optimal centralized solution, but with significantly less overhead and complexity.
1109.2684
YouTube and political communication -- Macedonian case
cs.SI
Analysis how to use Internet influence to the process of political communication, marketing and the management of public relations, what kind of online communication methods are used by political parties, and to assess satisfaction, means of communication and the services they provide to their party's voters (people) and other interest groups and whether social networks can affect the political and economic changes in the state, and the political power of one party.
1109.2697
Selection of Model in Developing Information Security Criteria for Smart Grid Security System
cs.CR cs.SY
At present, the "Smart Grid" has emerged as one of the best advanced energy supply chains. This paper looks into the security system of smart grid via the smart planet system. The scope focused on information security criteria that impact on consumer trust and satisfaction. The importance of information security criteria is perceived as the main aspect to impact on customer trust throughout the entire smart grid system. On one hand, this paper also focuses on the selection of the model for developing information security criteria on a smart grid.
1109.2720
Capacity Pre-Log of SIMO Correlated Block-Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We establish an upper bound on the noncoherent capacity pre-log of temporally correlated block-fading single-input multiple-output (SIMO) channels. The upper bound matches the lower bound recently reported in Riegler et al. (2011), and, hence, yields a complete characterization of the SIMO noncoherent capacity pre-log, provided that the channel covariance matrix satisfies a mild technical condition. This result allows one to determine the optimal number of receive antennas to be used to maximize the capacity pre-log for a given block-length and a given rank of the channel covariance matrix.
1109.2752
On Validating Boolean Optimizers
cs.AI
Boolean optimization finds a wide range of application domains, that motivated a number of different organizations of Boolean optimizers since the mid 90s. Some of the most successful approaches are based on iterative calls to an NP oracle, using either linear search, binary search or the identification of unsatisfiable sub-formulas. The increasing use of Boolean optimizers in practical settings raises the question of confidence in computed results. For example, the issue of confidence is paramount in safety critical settings. One way of increasing the confidence of the results computed by Boolean optimizers is to develop techniques for validating the results. Recent work studied the validation of Boolean optimizers based on branch-and-bound search. This paper complements existing work, and develops methods for validating Boolean optimizers that are based on iterative calls to an NP oracle. This entails implementing solutions for validating both satisfiable and unsatisfiable answers from the NP oracle. The work described in this paper can be applied to a wide range of Boolean optimizers, that find application in Pseudo-Boolean Optimization and in Maximum Satisfiability. Preliminary experimental results indicate that the impact of the proposed method in overall performance is negligible.
1109.2766
Secure Broadcasting With Side-Information
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we derive information-theoretic performance limits for secure and reliable communications over the general two-user discrete memoryless broadcast channel with side-information at the transmitter. The sender wishes to broadcast two independent messages to two receivers, under the constraint that each message should be kept confidential from the unintended receiver. Furthermore, the encoder has side-information - for example, fading in the wireless medium, interference caused by neighboring nodes in the network, etc. - provided to it in a noncausal manner, i.e., before the process of transmission. We derive an inner bound on the capacity region of this channel, by employing an extension of Marton's coding technique used for the classical two-user broadcast channel, in conjunction with a stochastic encoder to satisfy confidentiality constraints. Based on previously known results, we discuss a procedure to present a schematic of the achievable rate region. The rate-penalties for dealing with side-information and confidentiality constraints make the achievable region for this channel strictly smaller than the rate regions of those channels where one or both of these constraints are relaxed.
1109.2777
Connectivity Structure of Systems
math.OC cs.SY
In this paper, we consider to what degree the structure of a linear system is determined by the system's input/output behavior. The structure of a linear system is a directed graph where the vertices represent the variables in the system and an edge (x,y) exists if x directly influences y. In a number of studies, researchers have attempted to identify such structures using input/output data. Thus, our main aim is to consider to what degree the results of such studies are valid. We begin by showing that in many cases, applying a linear transformation to a system will change the system's graph. Furthermore, we show that even the graph's components and their interactions are not determined by input/output behavior. From these results, we conclude that without further assumptions, very few aspects, if any, of a system's structure are determined by its input/output relation. We consider a number of such assumptions. First, we show that for a number of parameterizations, we can characterize when two systems have the same structure. Second, in many applications, we can use domain knowledge to exclude certain interactions. In these cases, we can assume that a certain variable x does not influence another variable y. We show that these assumptions cannot be sufficient to identify a system's parameters using input/output data. We conclude that identifying a system's structure from input/output data may not be possible given only assumptions of the form x does not influence y.
1109.2782
Two Classes of Broadcast Channels With Side-Information: Capacity Outer Bounds
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we derive outer bounds on the capacity region of two classes of the general two-user discrete memoryless broadcast channels with side-information at the transmitter. The first class comprises the classical broadcast channel where a sender transmits two independent messages to two receivers. A constraint that each message must be kept confidential from the unintended receiver constitutes the second class. For both classes, the conditional distribution characterizing the channel depends on a state process and the encoder has side-information provided to it in a noncausal manner. For the first class of channels, an outer bound is derived employing techniques used to prove the converse theorem for the Gel'fand-Pinsker's channel with random parameters; the bounds are tight for individual rate constraints, but can be improved upon for the sum rate. The technique for deriving outer bounds for the second class of channels hinges on the confidentiality requirements; we also derive a genie-aided outer bound, where a hypothetical genie gives the unintended message to a receiver which treats it as side-information during equivocation computation. For both classes of channels, Csisz\'{a}r's sum identity plays a central role in establishing the capacity outer bounds.
1109.2788
Developing a supervised training algorithm for limited precision feed-forward spiking neural networks
cs.NE
Spiking neural networks have been referred to as the third generation of artificial neural networks where the information is coded as time of the spikes. There are a number of different spiking neuron models available and they are categorized based on their level of abstraction. In addition, there are two known learning methods, unsupervised and supervised learning. This thesis focuses on supervised learning where a new algorithm is proposed, based on genetic algorithms. The proposed algorithm is able to train both synaptic weights and delays and also allow each neuron to emit multiple spikes thus taking full advantage of the spatial-temporal coding power of the spiking neurons. In addition, limited synaptic precision is applied; only six bits are used to describe and train a synapse, three bits for the weights and three bits for the delays. Two limited precision schemes are investigated. The proposed algorithm is tested on the XOR classification problem where it produces better results for even smaller network architectures than the proposed ones. Furthermore, the algorithm is benchmarked on the Fisher iris classification problem where it produces higher classification accuracies compared to SpikeProp, QuickProp and Rprop. Finally, a hardware implementation on a microcontroller is done for the XOR problem as a proof of concept. Keywords: Spiking neural networks, supervised learning, limited synaptic precision, genetic algorithms, hardware implementation.
1109.2793
Finding missing edges in networks based on their community structure
cs.IR cs.SI physics.data-an physics.soc-ph
Many edge prediction methods have been proposed, based on various local or global properties of the structure of an incomplete network. Community structure is another significant feature of networks: Vertices in a community are more densely connected than average. It is often true that vertices in the same community have "similar" properties, which suggests that missing edges are more likely to be found within communities than elsewhere. We use this insight to propose a strategy for edge prediction that combines existing edge prediction methods with community detection. We show that this method gives better prediction accuracy than existing edge prediction methods alone.
1109.2806
Using the DiaSpec design language and compiler to develop robotics systems
cs.RO cs.SE
A Sense/Compute/Control (SCC) application is one that interacts with the physical environment. Such applications are pervasive in domains such as building automation, assisted living, and autonomic computing. Developing an SCC application is complex because: (1) the implementation must address both the interaction with the environment and the application logic; (2) any evolution in the environment must be reflected in the implementation of the application; (3) correctness is essential, as effects on the physical environment can have irreversible consequences. The SCC architectural pattern and the DiaSpec domain-specific design language propose a framework to guide the design of such applications. From a design description in DiaSpec, the DiaSpec compiler is capable of generating a programming framework that guides the developer in implementing the design and that provides runtime support. In this paper, we report on an experiment using DiaSpec (both the design language and compiler) to develop a standard robotics application. We discuss the benefits and problems of using DiaSpec in a robotics setting and present some changes that would make DiaSpec a better framework in this setting.
1109.2816
Designing MPC controllers by reverse-engineering existing LTI controllers
math.OC cs.SY
This technical report presents a method for designing a constrained output-feedback model predictive controller (MPC) that behaves in the same way as an existing baseline stabilising linear time invariant output-feedback controller when constraints are inactive. The baseline controller is cast into an observer-compensator form and an inverse-optimal cost function is used as the basis of the MPC controller. The available degrees of design freedom are explored, and some guidelines provided for the selection of an appropriate observer-compensator realisation that will best allow exploitation of the constraint-handling and redundancy management capabilities of MPC. Consideration is given to output setpoint tracking, and the method is demonstrated with three different multivariable plants of varying complexity.
1109.2843
A Novel Relay-Aided Transmission Scheme in Cognitive Radio Networks
cs.NI cs.IT math.IT
In underlay cognitive radio networks, unlicensed secondary users are allowed to share the spectrum with licensed primary users when the interference induced on the primary transmission is limited. In this paper, we propose a new cooperative transmission scheme for cognitive radio networks where a relay node is able to help both the primary and secondary transmissions. We derive exact closed-form and upper bound expressions of the conditional primary and secondary outage probabilities over Rayleigh fading channels. Furthermore, we proposed a simple power allocation algorithm. Finally, using numerical evaluation and simulation results we show the potential of our cooperative transmission scheme in improving the secondary outage probability without harming the primary one.
1109.2891
On the nonexistence of $[\binom{2m}{m-1}, 2m, \binom{2m-1}{m-1}]$, $m$ odd, complex orthogonal design
cs.IT math.IT
Complex orthogonal designs (CODs) are used to construct space-time block codes. COD $\mathcal{O}_z$ with parameter $[p, n, k]$ is a $p\times n$ matrix, where nonzero entries are filled by $\pm z_i$ or $\pm z^*_i$, $i = 1, 2,..., k$, such that $\mathcal{O}^H_z \mathcal{O}_z = (|z_1|^2+|z_2|^2+...+|z_k|^2)I_{n \times n}$. Adams et al. in "The final case of the decoding delay problem for maximum rate complex orthogonal designs," IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 103-122, Jan. 2010, first proved the nonexistence of $[\binom{2m}{m-1}, 2m, \binom{2m-1}{m-1}]$, $m$ odd, COD. Combining with the previous result that decoding delay should be an integer multiple of $\binom{2m}{m-1}$, they solved the final case $n \equiv 2 \pmod 4$ of the decoding delay problem for maximum rate complex orthogonal designs. In this paper, we give another proof of the nonexistence of COD with parameter $[\binom{2m}{m-1}, 2m, \binom{2m-1}{m-1}]$, $m$ odd. Our new proof is based on the uniqueness of $[\binom{2m}{m-1}, 2m-1, \binom{2m-1}{m-1}]$ under equivalence operation, where an explicit-form representation is proposed to help the proof. Then, by proving it's impossible to add an extra orthogonal column on COD $[\binom{2m}{m-1}, 2m-1, \binom{2m-1}{m-1}]$ when $m$ is odd, we complete the proof of the nonexistence of COD $[\binom{2m}{m-1}, 2m, \binom{2m-1}{m-1}]$.
1109.2944
Real Interference Alignment and Degrees of Freedom Region of Wireless X Networks
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a single hop wireless X network with $K$ transmitters and $J$ receivers, all with single antenna. Each transmitter conveys for each receiver an independent message. The channel is assumed to have constant coefficients. We develop interference alignment scheme for this setup and derived several achievable degrees of freedom regions. We show that in some cases, the derived region meets a previous outer bound and are hence the DoF region. For our achievability schemes, we divide each message into streams and use real interference alignment on the streams. Several previous results on the DoF region and total DoF for various special cases can be recovered from our result.
1109.2950
The Physics of Communicability in Complex Networks
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI math-ph math.MP
A fundamental problem in the study of complex networks is to provide quantitative measures of correlation and information flow between different parts of a system. To this end, several notions of communicability have been introduced and applied to a wide variety of real-world networks in recent years. Several such communicability functions are reviewed in this paper. It is emphasized that communication and correlation in networks can take place through many more routes than the shortest paths, a fact that may not have been sufficiently appreciated in previously proposed correlation measures. In contrast to these, the communicability measures reviewed in this paper are defined by taking into account all possible routes between two nodes, assigning smaller weights to longer ones. This point of view naturally leads to the definition of communicability in terms of matrix functions, such as the exponential, resolvent, and hyperbolic functions, in which the matrix argument is either the adjacency matrix or the graph Laplacian associated with the network. Considerable insight on communicability can be gained by modeling a network as a system of oscillators and deriving physical interpretations, both classical and quantum-mechanical, of various communicability functions. Applications of communicability measures to the analysis of complex systems are illustrated on a variety of biological, physical and social networks. The last part of the paper is devoted to a review of the notion of locality in complex networks and to computational aspects that by exploiting sparsity can greatly reduce the computational efforts for the calculation of communicability functions for large networks.
1109.2954
A New Framework for Network Disruption
cs.SI math.CO math.OC physics.soc-ph
Traditional network disruption approaches focus on disconnecting or lengthening paths in the network. We present a new framework for network disruption that attempts to reroute flow through critical vertices via vertex deletion, under the assumption that this will render those vertices vulnerable to future attacks. We define the load on a critical vertex to be the number of paths in the network that must flow through the vertex. We present graph-theoretic and computational techniques to maximize this load, firstly by removing either a single vertex from the network, secondly by removing a subset of vertices.
1109.2957
Downlink Performance and Capacity of Distributed Antenna Systems
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates the performance of the downlink channel in distributed antenna systems. We first establish the ergodic capacity of distributed antennas, under different channel side information (CSI) assumptions. We consider a generalized distributed antenna system with $N$ distributed ports, each of which is equipped with an array of $L$ transmit antennas and constrained by a fixed transmit power. For this system we calculate the downlink capacity to a single antenna receiver, under different assumptions about the availability of the channel states at the transmitter. Having established this information theoretic analysis of the ergodic capacity of distributed antenna systems, this paper also investigates the effect of antenna placement on the performance of such systems. In particular, we investigate the optimal placement of the transmit antennas in distributed antenna systems. We present a fairly general framework for this optimization with no constraint on the location of the antennas. Based on stochastic approximation theory, we adopt a formulation that is suitable for node placement optimization in various wireless network scenarios. We show that optimal placement of antennas inside the coverage region can significantly improve the power efficiency of wireless networks.
1109.2963
Unveiling the Relationship Between Structure and Dynamics in Complex Networks
physics.data-an cs.SI nlin.CD physics.soc-ph stat.ME
Over the last years, a great deal of attention has been focused on complex networked systems, characterized by intricate structure and dynamics. The latter has been often represented in terms of overall statistics (e.g. average and standard deviations) of the time signals. While such approaches have led to many insights, they have failed to take into account that signals at different parts of the system can undergo distinct evolutions, which cannot be properly represented in terms of average values. A novel framework for identifying the principal aspects of the dynamics and how it is influenced by the network structure is proposed in this work. The potential of this approach is illustrated with respect to three important models (Integrate-and-Fire, SIS and Kuramoto), allowing the identification of highly structured dynamics, in the sense that different groups of nodes not only presented specific dynamics but also felt the structure of the network in different ways.
1109.2964
Performance of Multi-Antenna MMSE Receivers in Non-homogeneous Poisson Networks
cs.IT math.IT
A technique to compute the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise-Ratio (SINR) for a wireless link with a multi-antenna, Linear, Minimum-Mean-Square-Error (MMSE) receiver in the presence of interferers distributed according to a non-homogenous Poisson point process on the plane, and independent Rayleigh fading between antennas is presented. This technique is used to compute the CDF of the SINR for several different models of intensity functions, in particular, power-law intensity functions, circular-symmetric Gaussian intensity functions and intensity functions described by a polynomial in a bounded domain. Additionally it is shown that if the number of receiver antennas is scaled linearly with the intensity function, the SINR converges in probability to a limit determined by the "shape" of the underlying intensity function. This work generalizes known results for homogenous Poisson networks to non-homogenous Poisson networks.
1109.2984
A Statistically Modelling Method for Performance Limits in Sensor Localization
cs.SY math.OC
In this paper, we study performance limits of sensor localization from a novel perspective. Specifically, we consider the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) in single-hop sensor localization using measurements from received signal strength (RSS), time of arrival (TOA) and bearing, respectively, but differently from the existing work, we statistically analyze the trace of the associated CRLB matrix (i.e. as a scalar metric for performance limits of sensor localization) by assuming anchor locations are random. By the Central Limit Theorems for $U$-statistics, we show that as the number of the anchors increases, this scalar metric is asymptotically normal in the RSS/bearing case, and converges to a random variable which is an affine transformation of a chi-square random variable of degree 2 in the TOA case. Moreover, we provide formulas quantitatively describing the relationship among the mean and standard deviation of the scalar metric, the number of the anchors, the parameters of communication channels, the noise statistics in measurements and the spatial distribution of the anchors. These formulas, though asymptotic in the number of the anchors, in many cases turn out to be remarkably accurate in predicting performance limits, even if the number is small. Simulations are carried out to confirm our results.
1109.2993
A Delay-Constrained General Achievable Rate and Certain Capacity Results for UWB Relay Channel
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we derive UWB version of (i) general best achievable rate for the relay channel with decode-andforward strategy and (ii) max-flow min-cut upper bound, such that the UWB relay channel can be studied considering the obtained lower and upper bounds. Then, we show that by appropriately choosing the noise correlation coefficients, our new upper bound coincides with the lower bound in special cases of degraded and reversely degraded UWB relay channels. Finally, some numerical results are illustrated.
1109.3041
Asymptotic analysis of the stochastic block model for modular networks and its algorithmic applications
cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.dis-nn cs.SI physics.soc-ph
In this paper we extend our previous work on the stochastic block model, a commonly used generative model for social and biological networks, and the problem of inferring functional groups or communities from the topology of the network. We use the cavity method of statistical physics to obtain an asymptotically exact analysis of the phase diagram. We describe in detail properties of the detectability/undetectability phase transition and the easy/hard phase transition for the community detection problem. Our analysis translates naturally into a belief propagation algorithm for inferring the group memberships of the nodes in an optimal way, i.e., that maximizes the overlap with the underlying group memberships, and learning the underlying parameters of the block model. Finally, we apply the algorithm to two examples of real-world networks and discuss its performance.
1109.3069
Directional Variance Adjustment: improving covariance estimates for high-dimensional portfolio optimization
q-fin.PM cs.CE q-fin.ST
Robust and reliable covariance estimates play a decisive role in financial and many other applications. An important class of estimators is based on Factor models. Here, we show by extensive Monte Carlo simulations that covariance matrices derived from the statistical Factor Analysis model exhibit a systematic error, which is similar to the well-known systematic error of the spectrum of the sample covariance matrix. Moreover, we introduce the Directional Variance Adjustment (DVA) algorithm, which diminishes the systematic error. In a thorough empirical study for the US, European, and Hong Kong market we show that our proposed method leads to improved portfolio allocation.
1109.3070
Sufficient conditions for the genericity of feedback stabilisability of switching systems via Lie-algebraic solvability
cs.SY math.OC
This paper addresses the stabilisation of discrete-time switching linear systems (DTSSs) with control inputs under arbitrary switching, based on the existence of a common quadratic Lyapunov function (CQLF). The authors have begun a line of work dealing with control design based on the Lie-algebraic solvability property. The present paper expands on earlier work by deriving sufficient conditions under which the closed-loop system can be caused to satisfy the Lie-algebraic solvability property generically, i.e. for almost every set of system parameters, furthermore admitting straightforward and efficient numerical implementation.
1109.3071
Oscillations of simple networks
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.SI nlin.CD
To describe the flow of a miscible quantity on a network, we introduce the graph wave equation where the standard continuous Laplacian is replaced by the graph Laplacian. This is a natural description of an array of inductances and capacities, of fluid flow in a network of ducts and of a system of masses and springs. The structure of the graph influences strongly the dynamics which is naturally described using the basis of the eigenvectors. In particular, we show that if two outer nodes are connected to a common third node with the same coupling, then this coupling is an eigenvalue of the Laplacian. Assuming the graph is forced and damped at specific nodes, we derive the amplitude equations. These are analyzed for two simple non trivial networks: a tree and a graph with a cycle. Forcing the network at a resonant frequency reveals that damping can be ineffective if applied to the wrong node, leading to a disastrous resonance and destruction of the network. These results could be useful for complex physical networks and engineering networks like power grids.
1109.3094
On the use of reference points for the biobjective Inventory Routing Problem
cs.AI
The article presents a study on the biobjective inventory routing problem. Contrary to most previous research, the problem is treated as a true multi-objective optimization problem, with the goal of identifying Pareto-optimal solutions. Due to the hardness of the problem at hand, a reference point based optimization approach is presented and implemented into an optimization and decision support system, which allows for the computation of a true subset of the optimal outcomes. Experimental investigation involving local search metaheuristics are conducted on benchmark data, and numerical results are reported and analyzed.
1109.3095
Convolutional Network Coding Based on Matrix Power Series Representation
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, convolutional network coding is formulated by means of matrix power series representation of the local encoding kernel (LEK) matrices and global encoding kernel (GEK) matrices to establish its theoretical fundamentals for practical implementations. From the encoding perspective, the GEKs of a convolutional network code (CNC) are shown to be uniquely determined by its LEK matrix $K(z)$ if $K_0$, the constant coefficient matrix of $K(z)$, is nilpotent. This will simplify the CNC design because a nilpotent $K_0$ suffices to guarantee a unique set of GEKs. Besides, the relation between coding topology and $K(z)$ is also discussed. From the decoding perspective, the main theme is to justify that the first $L+1$ terms of the GEK matrix $F(z)$ at a sink $r$ suffice to check whether the code is decodable at $r$ with delay $L$ and to start decoding if so. The concomitant decoding scheme avoids dealing with $F(z)$, which may contain infinite terms, as a whole and hence reduces the complexity of decodability check. It potentially makes CNCs applicable to wireless networks.
1109.3102
Approximation of L\"owdin Orthogonalization to a Spectrally Efficient Orthogonal Overlapping PPM Design for UWB Impulse Radio
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we consider the design of spectrally efficient time-limited pulses for ultrawideband (UWB) systems using an overlapping pulse position modulation scheme. For this we investigate an orthogonalization method, which was developed in 1950 by Per-Olov L\"owdin. Our objective is to obtain a set of N orthogonal (L\"owdin) pulses, which remain time-limited and spectrally efficient for UWB systems, from a set of N equidistant translates of a time-limited optimal spectral designed UWB pulse. We derive an approximate L\"owdin orthogonalization (ALO) by using circulant approximations for the Gram matrix to obtain a practical filter implementation. We show that the centered ALO and L\"owdin pulses converge pointwise to the same Nyquist pulse as N tends to infinity. The set of translates of the Nyquist pulse forms an orthonormal basis or the shift-invariant space generated by the initial spectral optimal pulse. The ALO transform provides a closed-form approximation of the L\"owdin transform, which can be implemented in an analog fashion without the need of analog to digital conversions. Furthermore, we investigate the interplay between the optimization and the orthogonalization procedure by using methods from the theory of shift-invariant spaces. Finally we develop a connection between our results and wavelet and frame theory.
1109.3119
Persistent Data Layout and Infrastructure for Efficient Selective Retrieval of Event Data in ATLAS
physics.data-an cs.CE cs.DB hep-ex
The ATLAS detector at CERN has completed its first full year of recording collisions at 7 TeV, resulting in billions of events and petabytes of data. At these scales, physicists must have the capability to read only the data of interest to their analyses, with the importance of efficient selective access increasing as data taking continues. ATLAS has developed a sophisticated event-level metadata infrastructure and supporting I/O framework allowing event selections by explicit specification, by back navigation, and by selection queries to a TAG database via an integrated web interface. These systems and their performance have been reported on elsewhere. The ultimate success of such a system, however, depends significantly upon the efficiency of selective event retrieval. Supporting such retrieval can be challenging, as ATLAS stores its event data in column-wise orientation using ROOT trees for a number of reasons, including compression considerations, histogramming use cases, and more. For 2011 data, ATLAS will utilize new capabilities in ROOT to tune the persistent storage layout of event data, and to significantly speed up selective event reading. The new persistent layout strategy and its implications for I/O performance are described in this paper.
1109.3125
The mathematical law of evolutionary information dynamics and an observer's evolution regularities
cs.IT math.IT math.OC nlin.AO
An interactive stochastics, evaluated by an entropy functional (EF) of a random field and informational process' path functional (IPF), allows us modeling the evolutionary information processes and revealing regularities of evolution dynamics. Conventional Shannon's information measure evaluates a sequence of the process' static events for each information state and do not reveal hidden dynamic connections between these events. The paper formulates the mathematical forms of the information regularities, based on a minimax variation principle (VP) for IPF, applied to the evolution's both random microprocesses and dynamic macroprocesses. The paper shows that the VP single form of the mathematical law leads to the following evolutionary regularities: -creation of the order from stochastics through the evolutionary macrodynamics, described by a gradient of dynamic potential, evolutionary speed and the evolutionary conditions of a fitness and diversity; -the evolutionary hierarchy with growing information values and potential adaptation; -the adaptive self-controls and a self-organization with a mechanism of copying to a genetic code. This law and the regularities determine unified functional informational mechanisms of evolution dynamics. By introducing both objective and subjective information observers, we consider the observers' information acquisition, interactive cognitive evolution dynamics, and neurodynamics, based on the EF-IPF approach. An evolution improvement consists of the subjective observer s ability to attract and encode information whose value progressively increases. The specific properties of a common information structure of evolution processes are identifiable for each particular object-organism by collecting a behavioral data from these organisms.
1109.3126
A Non-Iterative Solution to the Four-Point Three-Views Pose Problem in Case of Collinear Cameras
cs.CV
We give a non-iterative solution to a particular case of the four-point three-views pose problem when three camera centers are collinear. Using the well-known Cayley representation of orthogonal matrices, we derive from the epipolar constraints a system of three polynomial equations in three variables. The eliminant of that system is a multiple of a 36th degree univariate polynomial. The true (unique) solution to the problem can be expressed in terms of one of real roots of that polynomial. Experiments on synthetic data confirm that our method is robust enough even in case of planar configurations.
1109.3138
Folksodriven Structure Network
cs.IR
Nowadays folksonomy is used as a system derived from user-generated electronic tags or keywords that annotate and describe online content. But it is not a classification system as an ontology. To consider it as a classification system it would be necessary to share a representation of contexts by all the users. This paper is proposing the use of folksonomies and network theory to devise a new concept: a "Folksodriven Structure Network" to represent folksonomies. This paper proposed and analyzed the network structure of Folksodriven tags thought as folsksonomy tags suggestions for the user on a dataset built on chosen websites. It is observed that the Folksodriven Network has relative low path lengths checking it with classic networking measures (clustering coefficient). Experiment result shows it can facilitate serendipitous discovery of content among users. Neat examples and clear formulas can show how a "Folksodriven Structure Network" can be used to tackle ontology mapping challenges.
1109.3145
Sample-Based Planning with Volumes in Configuration Space
cs.RO
A simple sample-based planning method is presented which approximates connected regions of free space with volumes in Configuration space instead of points. The algorithm produces very sparse trees compared to point-based planning approaches, yet it maintains probabilistic completeness guarantees. The planner is shown to improve performance on a variety of planning problems, by focusing sampling on more challenging regions of a planning problem, including collision boundary areas such as narrow passages.
1109.3151
Regulation, Volatility and Efficiency in Continuous-Time Markets
cs.SY math.OC
We analyze the efficiency of markets with friction, particularly power markets. We model the market as a dynamic system with $(d_t;\,t\geq 0)$ the demand process and $(s_t;\,t\geq 0)$ the supply process. Using stochastic differential equations to model the dynamics with friction, we investigate the efficiency of the market under an integrated expected undiscounted cost function solving the optimal control problem. Then, we extend the setup to a game theoretic model where multiple suppliers and consumers interact continuously by setting prices in a dynamic market with friction. We investigate the equilibrium, and analyze the efficiency of the market under an integrated expected social cost function. We provide an intriguing efficiency-volatility no-free-lunch trade-off theorem.
1109.3160
Inference and Characterization of Multi-Attribute Networks with Application to Computational Biology
stat.AP cs.SI physics.soc-ph q-bio.MN
Our work is motivated by and illustrated with application of association networks in computational biology, specifically in the context of gene/protein regulatory networks. Association networks represent systems of interacting elements, where a link between two different elements indicates a sufficient level of similarity between element attributes. While in reality relational ties between elements can be expected to be based on similarity across multiple attributes, the vast majority of work to date on association networks involves ties defined with respect to only a single attribute. We propose an approach for the inference of multi-attribute association networks from measurements on continuous attribute variables, using canonical correlation and a hypothesis-testing strategy. Within this context, we then study the impact of partial information on multi-attribute network inference and characterization, when only a subset of attributes is available. We consider in detail the case of two attributes, wherein we examine through a combination of analytical and numerical techniques the implications of the choice and number of node attributes on the ability to detect network links and, more generally, to estimate higher-level network summary statistics, such as node degree, clustering coefficients, and measures of centrality. Illustration and applications throughout the paper are developed using gene and protein expression measurements on human cancer cell lines from the NCI-60 database.
1109.3195
Efficient Quantum Polar Coding
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Polar coding, introduced 2008 by Arikan, is the first (very) efficiently encodable and decodable coding scheme whose information transmission rate provably achieves the Shannon bound for classical discrete memoryless channels in the asymptotic limit of large block sizes. Here we study the use of polar codes for the transmission of quantum information. Focusing on the case of qubit Pauli channels and qubit erasure channels, we use classical polar codes to construct a coding scheme which, using some pre-shared entanglement, asymptotically achieves a net transmission rate equal to the coherent information using efficient encoding and decoding operations and code construction. Furthermore, for channels with sufficiently low noise level, we demonstrate that the rate of preshared entanglement required is zero.
1109.3227
Multiple Beamforming with Perfect Coding
cs.IT math.IT
Perfect Space-Time Block Codes (PSTBCs) achieve full diversity, full rate, nonvanishing constant minimum determinant, uniform average transmitted energy per antenna, and good shaping. However, the high decoding complexity is a critical issue for practice. When the Channel State Information (CSI) is available at both the transmitter and the receiver, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is commonly applied for a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system to enhance the throughput or the performance. In this paper, two novel techniques, Perfect Coded Multiple Beamforming (PCMB) and Bit-Interleaved Coded Multiple Beamforming with Perfect Coding (BICMB-PC), are proposed, employing both PSTBCs and SVD with and without channel coding, respectively. With CSI at the transmitter (CSIT), the decoding complexity of PCMB is substantially reduced compared to a MIMO system employing PSTBC, providing a new prospect of CSIT. Especially, because of the special property of the generation matrices, PCMB provides much lower decoding complexity than the state-of-the-art SVD-based uncoded technique in dimensions 2 and 4. Similarly, the decoding complexity of BICMB-PC is much lower than the state-of-the-art SVD-based coded technique in these two dimensions, and the complexity gain is greater than the uncoded case. Moreover, these aforementioned complexity reductions are achieved with only negligible or modest loss in performance.
1109.3240
Active Learning for Node Classification in Assortative and Disassortative Networks
cs.IT cs.LG cs.SI math.IT physics.soc-ph stat.ML
In many real-world networks, nodes have class labels, attributes, or variables that affect the network's topology. If the topology of the network is known but the labels of the nodes are hidden, we would like to select a small subset of nodes such that, if we knew their labels, we could accurately predict the labels of all the other nodes. We develop an active learning algorithm for this problem which uses information-theoretic techniques to choose which nodes to explore. We test our algorithm on networks from three different domains: a social network, a network of English words that appear adjacently in a novel, and a marine food web. Our algorithm makes no initial assumptions about how the groups connect, and performs well even when faced with quite general types of network structure. In particular, we do not assume that nodes of the same class are more likely to be connected to each other---only that they connect to the rest of the network in similar ways.
1109.3248
Reconstruction of sequential data with density models
cs.LG stat.ML
We introduce the problem of reconstructing a sequence of multidimensional real vectors where some of the data are missing. This problem contains regression and mapping inversion as particular cases where the pattern of missing data is independent of the sequence index. The problem is hard because it involves possibly multivalued mappings at each vector in the sequence, where the missing variables can take more than one value given the present variables; and the set of missing variables can vary from one vector to the next. To solve this problem, we propose an algorithm based on two redundancy assumptions: vector redundancy (the data live in a low-dimensional manifold), so that the present variables constrain the missing ones; and sequence redundancy (e.g. continuity), so that consecutive vectors constrain each other. We capture the low-dimensional nature of the data in a probabilistic way with a joint density model, here the generative topographic mapping, which results in a Gaussian mixture. Candidate reconstructions at each vector are obtained as all the modes of the conditional distribution of missing variables given present variables. The reconstructed sequence is obtained by minimising a global constraint, here the sequence length, by dynamic programming. We present experimental results for a toy problem and for inverse kinematics of a robot arm.
1109.3272
On the Performance of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing under Quantization
cs.IT math.IT
In cognitive radio, the cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) plays a key role in determining the performance of secondary networks. However, there have not been feasible approaches that can analytically calculate the performance of CSS with regard to the multi-level quantization. In this paper, we not only show the cooperative false alarm probability and cooperative detection probability impacted by quantization, but also formulate them by two closed form expressions. These two expressions enable the calculation of cooperative false alarm probability and cooperative detection probability tractable efficiently, and provide a feasible approach for optimization of sensing performance. Additionally, to facilitate this calculation, we derive Normal approximation for evaluating the sensing performance conveniently. Furthermore, two optimization methods are proposed to achieve the high sensing performance under quantization.
1109.3311
Escort entropies and divergences and related canonical distribution
math-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.IT math.IT math.MP
We discuss two families of two-parameter entropies and divergences, derived from the standard R\'enyi and Tsallis entropies and divergences. These divergences and entropies are found as divergences or entropies of escort distributions. Exploiting the nonnegativity of the divergences, we derive the expression of the canonical distribution associated to the new entropies and a observable given as an escort-mean value. We show that this canonical distribution extends, and smoothly connects, the results obtained in nonextensive thermodynamics for the standard and generalized mean value constraints.
1109.3313
Neigborhood Selection in Variable Neighborhood Search
cs.AI
Variable neighborhood search (VNS) is a metaheuristic for solving optimization problems based on a simple principle: systematic changes of neighborhoods within the search, both in the descent to local minima and in the escape from the valleys which contain them. Designing these neighborhoods and applying them in a meaningful fashion is not an easy task. Moreover, an appropriate order in which they are applied must be determined. In this paper we attempt to investigate this issue. Assume that we are given an optimization problem that is intended to be solved by applying the VNS scheme, how many and which types of neighborhoods should be investigated and what could be appropriate selection criteria to apply these neighborhoods. More specifically, does it pay to "look ahead" (see, e.g., in the context of VNS and GRASP) when attempting to switch from one neighborhood to another?
1109.3317
Design of an Optical Character Recognition System for Camera-based Handheld Devices
cs.CV
This paper presents a complete Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system for camera captured image/graphics embedded textual documents for handheld devices. At first, text regions are extracted and skew corrected. Then, these regions are binarized and segmented into lines and characters. Characters are passed into the recognition module. Experimenting with a set of 100 business card images, captured by cell phone camera, we have achieved a maximum recognition accuracy of 92.74%. Compared to Tesseract, an open source desktop-based powerful OCR engine, present recognition accuracy is worth contributing. Moreover, the developed technique is computationally efficient and consumes low memory so as to be applicable on handheld devices.
1109.3318
Distributed User Profiling via Spectral Methods
cs.LG
User profiling is a useful primitive for constructing personalised services, such as content recommendation. In the present paper we investigate the feasibility of user profiling in a distributed setting, with no central authority and only local information exchanges between users. We compute a profile vector for each user (i.e., a low-dimensional vector that characterises her taste) via spectral transformation of observed user-produced ratings for items. Our two main contributions follow: i) We consider a low-rank probabilistic model of user taste. More specifically, we consider that users and items are partitioned in a constant number of classes, such that users and items within the same class are statistically identical. We prove that without prior knowledge of the compositions of the classes, based solely on few random observed ratings (namely $O(N\log N)$ such ratings for $N$ users), we can predict user preference with high probability for unrated items by running a local vote among users with similar profile vectors. In addition, we provide empirical evaluations characterising the way in which spectral profiling performance depends on the dimension of the profile space. Such evaluations are performed on a data set of real user ratings provided by Netflix. ii) We develop distributed algorithms which provably achieve an embedding of users into a low-dimensional space, based on spectral transformation. These involve simple message passing among users, and provably converge to the desired embedding. Our method essentially relies on a novel combination of gossiping and the algorithm proposed by Oja and Karhunen.
1109.3320
Combining Convex-Concave Decompositions and Linearization Approaches for solving BMIs, with application to Static Output Feedback
math.OC cs.SY
A novel optimization method is proposed to minimize a convex function subject to bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) constraints. The key idea is to decompose the bilinear mapping as a difference between two positive semidefinite convex mappings. At each iteration of the algorithm the concave part is linearized, leading to a convex subproblem.Applications to various output feedback controller synthesis problems are presented. In these applications the subproblem in each iteration step can be turned into a convex optimization problem with linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. The performance of the algorithm has been benchmarked on the data from COMPleib library.
1109.3385
Source coding with escort distributions and Renyi entropy bounds
math-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.IT math.IT math.MP
We discuss the interest of escort distributions and R\'enyi entropy in the context of source coding. We first recall a source coding theorem by Campbell relating a generalized measure of length to the R\'enyi-Tsallis entropy. We show that the associated optimal codes can be obtained using considerations on escort-distributions. We propose a new family of measure of length involving escort-distributions and we show that these generalized lengths are also bounded below by the R\'enyi entropy. Furthermore, we obtain that the standard Shannon codes lengths are optimum for the new generalized lengths measures, whatever the entropic index. Finally, we show that there exists in this setting an interplay between standard and escort distributions.
1109.3428
One, None and One Hundred Thousand Profiles: Re-imagining the Pirandellian Identity Dilemma in the Era of Online Social Networks
cs.SI cs.CY
Uno, Nessuno, Centomila ("One, No One and One Hundred Thousand") is a classic novel by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. Published in 1925, it recounts the tragedy of Vitangelo Moscarda, a man who struggles to reclaim a coherent and unitary identity for himself in the face of an inherently social and multi-faceted world. What would Moscarda identity tragedy look like today? In this article we transplant Moscarda's identity play from its offline setting to the contemporary arena of social media and online social networks. With reference to established theories on identity construction, performance, and self-presentation, we re-imagine how Moscarda would go about defending the integrity of his selfhood in the face of the discountenancing influences of the online world.
1109.3437
Learning Topic Models by Belief Propagation
cs.LG
Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is an important hierarchical Bayesian model for probabilistic topic modeling, which attracts worldwide interests and touches on many important applications in text mining, computer vision and computational biology. This paper represents LDA as a factor graph within the Markov random field (MRF) framework, which enables the classic loopy belief propagation (BP) algorithm for approximate inference and parameter estimation. Although two commonly-used approximate inference methods, such as variational Bayes (VB) and collapsed Gibbs sampling (GS), have gained great successes in learning LDA, the proposed BP is competitive in both speed and accuracy as validated by encouraging experimental results on four large-scale document data sets. Furthermore, the BP algorithm has the potential to become a generic learning scheme for variants of LDA-based topic models. To this end, we show how to learn two typical variants of LDA-based topic models, such as author-topic models (ATM) and relational topic models (RTM), using BP based on the factor graph representation.
1109.3475
Diameter Perfect Lee Codes
cs.IT math.CO math.IT
Lee codes have been intensively studied for more than 40 years. Interest in these codes has been triggered by the Golomb-Welch conjecture on the existence of the perfect error-correcting Lee codes. In this paper we deal with the existence and enumeration of diameter perfect Lee codes. As main results we determine all $q$ for which there exists a linear diameter-4 perfect Lee code of word length $n$ over $Z_{q},$ and prove that for each $n\geq 3$ there are uncountable many diameter-4 perfect Lee codes of word length $n$ over $Z.$ This is in a strict contrast with perfect error-correcting Lee codes of word length $n$ over $Z\,$\ as there is a unique such code for $n=3,$ and its is conjectured that this is always the case when $2n+1$ is a prime. We produce diameter perfect Lee codes by an algebraic construction that is based on a group homomorphism. This will allow us to design an efficient algorithm for their decoding. We hope that this construction will turn out to be useful far beyond the scope of this paper.
1109.3488
Using MOEAs To Outperform Stock Benchmarks In The Presence of Typical Investment Constraints
q-fin.PM cs.CE cs.NE stat.AP stat.CO
Portfolio managers are typically constrained by turnover limits, minimum and maximum stock positions, cardinality, a target market capitalization and sometimes the need to hew to a style (such as growth or value). In addition, portfolio managers often use multifactor stock models to choose stocks based upon their respective fundamental data. We use multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) to satisfy the above real-world constraints. The portfolios generated consistently outperform typical performance benchmarks and have statistically significant asset selection.
1109.3510
Diversity Analysis of Bit-Interleaved Coded Multiple Beamforming with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
cs.IT math.IT
For broadband wireless communication systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has been combined with Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) techniques. Bit-Interleaved Coded Multiple Beamforming (BICMB) can achieve both spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing for flat fading MIMO channels. For frequency selective fading MIMO channels, BICMB with OFDM (BICMB-OFDM) can be applied to achieve both spatial diversity and multipath diversity, making it an important technique. However, analyzing the diversity of BICMB-OFDM is a challenging problem. In this paper, the diversity analysis of BICMB-OFDM is carried out. First, the maximum achievable diversity is derived and a full diversity condition RcSL <= 1 is proved, where Rc, S, and L are the code rate, the number of parallel steams transmitted at each subcarrier, and the number of channel taps, respectively. Then, the performance degradation due to the correlation among subcarriers is investigated. Finally, the subcarrier grouping technique is employed to combat the performance degradation and provide multi-user compatibility.
1109.3524
cuIBM -- A GPU-accelerated Immersed Boundary Method
cs.CE
A projection-based immersed boundary method is dominated by sparse linear algebra routines. Using the open-source Cusp library, we observe a speedup (with respect to a single CPU core) which reflects the constraints of a bandwidth-dominated problem on the GPU. Nevertheless, GPUs offer the capacity to solve large problems on commodity hardware. This work includes validation and a convergence study of the GPU-accelerated IBM, and various optimizations.
1109.3532
A Characterization of the Combined Effects of Overlap and Imbalance on the SVM Classifier
cs.AI
In this paper we demonstrate that two common problems in Machine Learning---imbalanced and overlapping data distributions---do not have independent effects on the performance of SVM classifiers. This result is notable since it shows that a model of either of these factors must account for the presence of the other. Our study of the relationship between these problems has lead to the discovery of a previously unreported form of "covert" overfitting which is resilient to commonly used empirical regularization techniques. We demonstrate the existance of this covert phenomenon through several methods based around the parametric regularization of trained SVMs. Our findings in this area suggest a possible approach to quantifying overlap in real world data sets.
1109.3547
Awareness and Movement vs. the Spread of Epidemics - Analyzing a Dynamic Model for Urban Social/Technological Networks
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We consider the spread of epidemics in technological and social networks. How do people react? Does awareness and cautious behavior help? We analyze these questions and present a dynamic model to describe the movement of individuals and/or their mobile devices in a certain (idealistic) urban environment. Furthermore, our model incorporates the fact that different locations can accommodate a different number of people (possibly with their mobile devices), who may pass the infection to each other. We obtain two main results. First, we prove that w.r.t. our model at least a small part of the system will remain uninfected even if no countermeasures are taken. The second result shows that with certain counteractions in use, which only influence the individuals' behavior, a prevalent epidemic can be avoided. The results explain possible courses of a disease, and point out why cost-efficient countermeasures may reduce the number of total infections from a high percentage of the population to a negligible fraction.
1109.3555
Using In-Memory Encrypted Databases on the Cloud
cs.CR cs.DB cs.DC
Storing data in the cloud poses a number of privacy issues. A way to handle them is supporting data replication and distribution on the cloud via a local, centrally synchronized storage. In this paper we propose to use an in-memory RDBMS with row-level data encryption for granting and revoking access rights to distributed data. This type of solution is rarely adopted in conventional RDBMSs because it requires several complex steps. In this paper we focus on implementation and benchmarking of a test system, which shows that our simple yet effective solution overcomes most of the problems.
1109.3556
On the reachability and observability of path and cycle graphs
math.OC cs.SY
In this paper we investigate the reachability and observability properties of a network system, running a Laplacian based average consensus algorithm, when the communication graph is a path or a cycle. More in detail, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions, based on simple algebraic rules from number theory, to characterize all and only the nodes from which the network system is reachable (respectively observable). Interesting immediate corollaries of our results are: (i) a path graph is reachable (observable) from any single node if and only if the number of nodes of the graph is a power of two, $n=2^i, i\in \natural$, and (ii) a cycle is reachable (observable) from any pair of nodes if and only if $n$ is a prime number. For any set of control (observation) nodes, we provide a closed form expression for the (unreachable) unobservable eigenvalues and for the eigenvectors of the (unreachable) unobservable subsystem.
1109.3563
Verification, Validation and Testing of Kinetic Mechanisms of Hydrogen Combustion in Fluid Dynamic Computations
cs.CE physics.flu-dyn
A one-step, a two-step, an abridged, a skeletal and four detailed kinetic schemes of hydrogen oxidation have been tested. A new skeletal kinetic scheme of hydrogen oxidation has been developed. The CFD calculations were carried out using ANSYS CFX software. Ignition delay times and speeds of flames were derived from the computational results. The computational data obtained using ANSYS CFX and CHEMKIN, and experimental data were compared. The precision, reliability, and range of validity of the kinetic schemes in CFD simulations were estimated. The impact of kinetic scheme on the results of computations was discussed. The relationship between grid spacing, timestep, accuracy, and computational cost were analyzed.
1109.3569
Numerical approximation of Nash equilibria for a class of non-cooperative differential games
math.NA cs.SY math.AP math.OC
In this paper we propose a numerical method to obtain an approximation of Nash equilibria for multi-player non-cooperative games with a special structure. We consider the infinite horizon problem in a case which leads to a system of Hamilton-Jacobi equations. The numerical method is based on the Dynamic Programming Principle for every equation and on a global fixed point iteration. We present the numerical solutions of some two-player games in one and two dimensions. The paper has an experimental nature, but some features and properties of the approximation scheme are discussed.
1109.3577
A patchy Dynamic Programming scheme for a class of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations
math.NA cs.SY math.OC
In this paper we present a new algorithm for the solution of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations related to optimal control problems. The key idea is to divide the domain of computation into subdomains which are shaped by the optimal dynamics of the underlying control problem. This can result in a rather complex geometrical subdivision, but it has the advantage that every subdomain is invariant with respect to the optimal dynamics, and then the solution can be computed independently in each subdomain. The features of this dynamics-dependent domain decomposition can be exploited to speed up the computation and for an efficient parallelization, since the classical transmission conditions at the boundaries of the subdomains can be avoided. For their properties, the subdomains are patches in the sense introduced by Ancona and Bressan [ESAIM Control Optim. Calc. Var., 4 (1999), pp. 445-471]. Several examples in two and three dimensions illustrate the properties of the new method.
1109.3617
IR-based Communication and Perception in Microrobotic Swarms
cs.RO
In this work we consider development of IR-based communication and perception mechanisms for real microrobotic systems. It is demonstrated that a specific combination of hardware and software elements provides capabilities for navigation, objects recognition, directional and unidirectional communication. We discuss open issues and their resolution based on the experiments in the swarm of microrobots "Jasmine".
1109.3627
Roulette-wheel selection via stochastic acceptance
cs.NE cond-mat.stat-mech cs.CC physics.comp-ph
Roulette-wheel selection is a frequently used method in genetic and evolutionary algorithms or in modeling of complex networks. Existing routines select one of N individuals using search algorithms of O(N) or O(log(N)) complexity. We present a simple roulette-wheel selection algorithm, which typically has O(1) complexity and is based on stochastic acceptance instead of searching. We also discuss a hybrid version, which might be suitable for highly heterogeneous weight distributions, found, for example, in some models of complex networks. With minor modifications, the algorithm might also be used for sampling with fitness cut-off at a certain value or for sampling without replacement.
1109.3637
Connectivity-Enforcing Hough Transform for the Robust Extraction of Line Segments
cs.CV
Global voting schemes based on the Hough transform (HT) have been widely used to robustly detect lines in images. However, since the votes do not take line connectivity into account, these methods do not deal well with cluttered images. In opposition, the so-called local methods enforce connectivity but lack robustness to deal with challenging situations that occur in many realistic scenarios, e.g., when line segments cross or when long segments are corrupted. In this paper, we address the critical limitations of the HT as a line segment extractor by incorporating connectivity in the voting process. This is done by only accounting for the contributions of edge points lying in increasingly larger neighborhoods and whose position and directional content agree with potential line segments. As a result, our method, which we call STRAIGHT (Segment exTRAction by connectivity-enforcInG HT), extracts the longest connected segments in each location of the image, thus also integrating into the HT voting process the usually separate step of individual segment extraction. The usage of the Hough space mapping and a corresponding hierarchical implementation make our approach computationally feasible. We present experiments that illustrate, with synthetic and real images, how STRAIGHT succeeds in extracting complete segments in several situations where current methods fail.
1109.3639
Local Correction of Juntas
cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
A Boolean function f over n variables is said to be q-locally correctable if, given a black-box access to a function g which is "close" to an isomorphism f_sigma of f, we can compute f_sigma(x) for any x in Z_2^n with good probability using q queries to g. We observe that any k-junta, that is, any function which depends only on k of its input variables, is O(2^k)-locally correctable. Moreover, we show that there are examples where this is essentially best possible, and locally correcting some k-juntas requires a number of queries which is exponential in k. These examples, however, are far from being typical, and indeed we prove that for almost every k-junta, O(k log k) queries suffice.
1109.3649
Compressive Sensing of Analog Signals Using Discrete Prolate Spheroidal Sequences
cs.IT math.IT
Compressive sensing (CS) has recently emerged as a framework for efficiently capturing signals that are sparse or compressible in an appropriate basis. While often motivated as an alternative to Nyquist-rate sampling, there remains a gap between the discrete, finite-dimensional CS framework and the problem of acquiring a continuous-time signal. In this paper, we attempt to bridge this gap by exploiting the Discrete Prolate Spheroidal Sequences (DPSS's), a collection of functions that trace back to the seminal work by Slepian, Landau, and Pollack on the effects of time-limiting and bandlimiting operations. DPSS's form a highly efficient basis for sampled bandlimited functions; by modulating and merging DPSS bases, we obtain a dictionary that offers high-quality sparse approximations for most sampled multiband signals. This multiband modulated DPSS dictionary can be readily incorporated into the CS framework. We provide theoretical guarantees and practical insight into the use of this dictionary for recovery of sampled multiband signals from compressive measurements.
1109.3650
Bi-Objective Community Detection (BOCD) in Networks using Genetic Algorithm
cs.SI cs.AI cs.NE physics.soc-ph
A lot of research effort has been put into community detection from all corners of academic interest such as physics, mathematics and computer science. In this paper I have proposed a Bi-Objective Genetic Algorithm for community detection which maximizes modularity and community score. Then the results obtained for both benchmark and real life data sets are compared with other algorithms using the modularity and MNI performance metrics. The results show that the BOCD algorithm is capable of successfully detecting community structure in both real life and synthetic datasets, as well as improving upon the performance of previous techniques.