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1109.5302
Simultaneous Codeword Optimization (SimCO) for Dictionary Update and Learning
cs.LG cs.IT math.IT
We consider the data-driven dictionary learning problem. The goal is to seek an over-complete dictionary from which every training signal can be best approximated by a linear combination of only a few codewords. This task is often achieved by iteratively executing two operations: sparse coding and dictionary update. In the literature, there are two benchmark mechanisms to update a dictionary. The first approach, such as the MOD algorithm, is characterized by searching for the optimal codewords while fixing the sparse coefficients. In the second approach, represented by the K-SVD method, one codeword and the related sparse coefficients are simultaneously updated while all other codewords and coefficients remain unchanged. We propose a novel framework that generalizes the aforementioned two methods. The unique feature of our approach is that one can update an arbitrary set of codewords and the corresponding sparse coefficients simultaneously: when sparse coefficients are fixed, the underlying optimization problem is similar to that in the MOD algorithm; when only one codeword is selected for update, it can be proved that the proposed algorithm is equivalent to the K-SVD method; and more importantly, our method allows us to update all codewords and all sparse coefficients simultaneously, hence the term simultaneous codeword optimization (SimCO). Under the proposed framework, we design two algorithms, namely, primitive and regularized SimCO. We implement these two algorithms based on a simple gradient descent mechanism. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithms, as compared with two baseline algorithms MOD and K-SVD. Results show that regularized SimCO is particularly appealing in terms of both learning performance and running speed.
1109.5311
Bias Plus Variance Decomposition for Survival Analysis Problems
cs.LG stat.ML
Bias - variance decomposition of the expected error defined for regression and classification problems is an important tool to study and compare different algorithms, to find the best areas for their application. Here the decomposition is introduced for the survival analysis problem. In our experiments, we study bias -variance parts of the expected error for two algorithms: original Cox proportional hazard regression and CoxPath, path algorithm for L1-regularized Cox regression, on the series of increased training sets. The experiments demonstrate that, contrary expectations, CoxPath does not necessarily have an advantage over Cox regression.
1109.5319
Optimal Foraging of Renewable Resources
cs.RO
Consider a team of agents in the plane searching for and visiting target points that appear in a bounded environment according to a stochastic renewal process with a known absolutely continuous spatial distribution. Agents must detect targets with limited-range onboard sensors. It is desired to minimize the expected waiting time between the appearance of a target point, and the instant it is visited. When the sensing radius is small, the system time is dominated by time spent searching, and it is shown that the optimal policy requires the agents to search a region at a relative frequency proportional to the square root of its renewal rate. On the other hand, when targets appear frequently, the system time is dominated by time spent servicing known targets, and it is shown that the optimal policy requires the agents to service a region at a relative frequency proportional to the cube root of its renewal rate. Furthermore, the presented algorithms in this case recover the optimal performance achieved by agents with full information of the environment. Simulation results verify the theoretical performance of the algorithms.
1109.5322
Synthesis of Optimal Ensemble Controls for Linear Systems using the Singular Value Decomposition
math.OC cs.SY
An emerging and challenging area in mathematical control theory called Ensemble Control encompasses a class of problems that involves the guidance of an uncountably infinite collection of structurally identical dynamical systems, which are indexed by a parameter set, by applying the same open-loop control. The subject originates from the study of complex spin dynamics in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and imaging (MRI). A fundamental question concerns ensemble controllability, which determines the existence of controls that transfer the system between desired initial and target states. For ensembles of finite-dimensional time-varying linear systems, the necessary and sufficient controllability conditions and analytical optimal control laws have been shown to depend on the singular system of the operator characterizing the system dynamics. Because analytical solutions are available only in the simplest cases, there is a need to develop numerical methods for synthesizing these controls. We introduce a direct, accurate, and computationally efficient algorithm based on the singular value decomposition (SVD) that approximates ensemble controls of minimum norm for such systems. This method enables the application of ensemble control to engineering problems involving complex, time-varying, and high-dimensional linear dynamic systems.
1109.5323
Squiggle - A Glyph Recognizer for Gesture Input
cs.HC cs.CV
Squiggle is a template-based glyph recognizer in the lineage of `$1 Recognizer' and `Protractor'. It seeks a good fit linear affine mapping between the input and template glyphs which are represented as a list of milestone points along the glyph path. The algorithm can recognize input glyphs invariant of rotation, scaling, skew, and reflection symmetries. In practice the algorithm is fast and robust enough to recognize user-generated glyphs as they are being drawn in real time, and to project `shadows' of the matching templates as feedback.
1109.5329
Space Weather Prediction with Exascale Computing
astro-ph.SR cs.CE physics.plasm-ph physics.space-ph
Space weather refers to conditions on the Sun, in the interplanetary space and in the Earth space environment that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems and can endanger human life or health. Adverse conditions in the space environment can cause disruption of satellite operations, communications, navigation, and electric power distribution grids, leading to a variety of socioeconomic losses. The conditions in space are also linked to the Earth climate. The activity of the Sun affects the total amount of heat and light reaching the Earth and the amount of cosmic rays arriving in the atmosphere, a phenomenon linked with the amount of cloud cover and precipitation. Given these great impacts on society, space weather is attracting a growing attention and is the subject of international efforts worldwide. We focus here on the steps necessary for achieving a true physics-based ability to predict the arrival and consequences of major space weather storms. Great disturbances in the space environment are common but their precise arrival and impact on human activities varies greatly. Simulating such a system is a grand- challenge, requiring computing resources at the limit of what is possible not only with current technology but also with the foreseeable future generations of super computers
1109.5336
Achievable Rates for K-user Gaussian Interference Channels
cs.IT math.IT
The aim of this paper is to study the achievable rates for a $K$ user Gaussian interference channels for any SNR using a combination of lattice and algebraic codes. Lattice codes are first used to transform the Gaussian interference channel (G-IFC) into a discrete input-output noiseless channel, and subsequently algebraic codes are developed to achieve good rates over this new alphabet. In this context, a quantity called efficiency is introduced which reflects the effectiveness of the algebraic coding strategy. The paper first addresses the problem of finding high efficiency algebraic codes. A combination of these codes with Construction-A lattices is then used to achieve non trivial rates for the original Gaussian interference channel.
1109.5346
Polar codes for degradable quantum channels
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Channel polarization is a phenomenon in which a particular recursive encoding induces a set of synthesized channels from many instances of a memoryless channel, such that a fraction of the synthesized channels becomes near perfect for data transmission and the other fraction becomes near useless for this task. Mahdavifar and Vardy have recently exploited this phenomenon to construct codes that achieve the symmetric private capacity for private data transmission over a degraded wiretap channel. In the current paper, we build on their work and demonstrate how to construct quantum wiretap polar codes that achieve the symmetric private capacity of a degraded quantum wiretap channel with a classical eavesdropper. Due to the Schumacher-Westmoreland correspondence between quantum privacy and quantum coherence, we can construct quantum polar codes by operating these quantum wiretap polar codes in superposition, much like Devetak's technique for demonstrating the achievability of the coherent information rate for quantum data transmission. Our scheme achieves the symmetric coherent information rate for quantum channels that are degradable with a classical environment. This condition on the environment may seem restrictive, but we show that many quantum channels satisfy this criterion, including amplitude damping channels, photon-detected jump channels, dephasing channels, erasure channels, and cloning channels. Our quantum polar coding scheme has the desirable properties of being channel-adapted and symmetric capacity-achieving along with having an efficient encoder, but we have not demonstrated that the decoding is efficient. Also, the scheme may require entanglement assistance, but we show that the rate of entanglement consumption vanishes in the limit of large blocklength if the channel is degradable with classical environment.
1109.5348
Dynkin Game of Stochastic Differential Equations with Random Coefficients, and Associated Backward Stochastic Partial Differential Variational Inequality
math.OC cs.SY math.AP
A Dynkin game is considered for stochastic differential equations with random coefficients. We first apply Qiu and Tang's maximum principle for backward stochastic partial differential equations to generalize Krylov estimate for the distribution of a Markov process to that of a non-Markov process, and establish a generalized It\^o-Kunita-Wentzell's formula allowing the test function to be a random field of It\^o's type which takes values in a suitable Sobolev space. We then prove the verification theorem that the Nash equilibrium point and the value of the Dynkin game are characterized by the strong solution of the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman-Isaacs equation, which is currently a backward stochastic partial differential variational inequality (BSPDVI, for short) with two obstacles. We obtain the existence and uniqueness result and a comparison theorem for strong solution of the BSPDVI. Moreover, we study the monotonicity on the strong solution of the BSPDVI by the comparison theorem for BSPDVI and define the free boundaries. Finally, we identify the counterparts for an optimal stopping time problem as a special Dynkin game.
1109.5351
Data processing inequalities based on a certain structured class of information measures with application to estimation theory
cs.IT math.IT
We study data processing inequalities that are derived from a certain class of generalized information measures, where a series of convex functions and multiplicative likelihood ratios are nested alternately. While these information measures can be viewed as a special case of the most general Zakai-Ziv generalized information measure, this special nested structure calls for attention and motivates our study. Specifically, a certain choice of the convex functions leads to an information measure that extends the notion of the Bhattacharyya distance (or the Chernoff divergence): While the ordinary Bhattacharyya distance is based on the (weighted) geometric mean of two replicas of the channel's conditional distribution, the more general information measure allows an arbitrary number of such replicas. We apply the data processing inequality induced by this information measure to a detailed study of lower bounds of parameter estimation under additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and show that in certain cases, tighter bounds can be obtained by using more than two replicas. While the resulting lower bound may not compete favorably with the best bounds available for the ordinary AWGN channel, the advantage of the new lower bound, relative to the other bounds, becomes significant in the presence of channel uncertainty, like unknown fading. This different behavior in the presence of channel uncertainty is explained by the convexity property of the information measure.
1109.5370
Higher-Order Markov Tag-Topic Models for Tagged Documents and Images
cs.CV cs.AI cs.IR cs.LG
This paper studies the topic modeling problem of tagged documents and images. Higher-order relations among tagged documents and images are major and ubiquitous characteristics, and play positive roles in extracting reliable and interpretable topics. In this paper, we propose the tag-topic models (TTM) to depict such higher-order topic structural dependencies within the Markov random field (MRF) framework. First, we use the novel factor graph representation of latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA)-based topic models from the MRF perspective, and present an efficient loopy belief propagation (BP) algorithm for approximate inference and parameter estimation. Second, we propose the factor hypergraph representation of TTM, and focus on both pairwise and higher-order relation modeling among tagged documents and images. Efficient loopy BP algorithm is developed to learn TTM, which encourages the topic labeling smoothness among tagged documents and images. Extensive experimental results confirm the incorporation of higher-order relations to be effective in enhancing the overall topic modeling performance, when compared with current state-of-the-art topic models, in many text and image mining tasks of broad interests such as word and link prediction, document classification, and tag recommendation.
1109.5373
Degrees of Freedom Region of the MIMO Interference Channel with Output Feedback and Delayed CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
The two-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) interference channel (IC) with arbitrary number of antennas at each terminal is considered and the degrees of freedom (DoF) region is characterized in the presence of noiseless channel output feedback from each receiver to its respective transmitter and availability of delayed channel state information at the transmitters (CSIT). It is shown that having output feedback and delayed CSIT can strictly enlarge the DoF region of the MIMO IC when compared to the case in which only delayed CSIT is present. The proposed coding schemes that achieve the corresponding DoF region with feedback and delayed CSIT utilize both resources, i.e., feedback and delayed CSIT in a non-trivial manner. It is also shown that the DoF region with local feedback and delayed CSIT is equal to the DoF region with global feedback and delayed CSIT, i.e., local feedback and delayed CSIT is equivalent to global feedback and delayed CSIT from the perspective of the degrees of freedom region. The converse is proved for a stronger setting in which the channels to the two receivers need not be statistically equivalent.
1109.5375
Singular gradient flow of the distance function and homotopy equivalence
math.AP cs.SY math.DG math.OC
It is a generally shared opinion that significant information about the topology of a bounded domain $\Omega $ of a riemannian manifold $M$ is encoded into the properties of the distance, $d_{\partial\Omega}$, %, $d:\Omega\rightarrow [0,\infty [$, from the boundary of $\Omega$. To confirm such an idea we propose an approach based on the invariance of the singular set of the distance function with respect to the generalized gradient flow of of $d_{\partial\Omega}$. As an application, we deduce that such a singular set has the same homotopy type as $\Omega$.
1109.5382
Discrete-Time Block Models for Transmission Line Channels: Static and Doubly Selective Cases
cs.IT math.IT
Most methodologies for modeling Transmission Line (TL) based channels define the input-output relationship in the frequency domain (FD) and handle the TL resorting to a two-port network (2PN) formalism. These techniques have not yet been formally mapped into a discrete-time (DT) block model, which is useful to simulate and estimate the channel response as well as to design optimal precoding strategies. TL methods also fall short when they are applied to Time Varying (TV) systems, such as the power line channel. The objective of this paper is to establish if and how one can introduce a DT block model for the Power Line Channel. We prove that it is possible to use Lifting and Trailing Zeros (L&TZ) techniques to derive a DT block model that maps the TL-based input-output description directly in the time domain (TD) block channel model. More specifically, we find an interesting relationship between the elements of an ABCD matrix, defined in the FD, and filtering kernels that allow an elegant representation of the channel in the TD. The same formalism is valid for both the Linear Time Invariant (LTI) and the Linear TV (LTV) cases, and bridges communications and signal processing methodologies with circuits and systems analysis tools.
1109.5396
Degrees of Freedom of Interference Channels with CoMP Transmission and Reception
cs.IT math.IT
We study the Degrees of Freedom (DoF) of the K-user interference channel with coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission and reception. Each message is jointly transmitted by M_t successive transmitters, and is jointly received by M_r successive receivers. We refer to this channel as the CoMP channel with a transmit cooperation order of M_t and receive cooperation order of M_r. Since the channel has a total of K transmit antennas and K receive antennas, the maximum possible DoF is equal to K. We show that the CoMP channel has K DoF if and only if M_t + M_r is greater than or equal to K+1. For the general case, we derive an outer bound that states that the DoF is bounded above by the ceiling of (K+M_t+M_r-2)/2. For the special case with only CoMP transmission, i.e, M_r = 1, we propose a scheme that can achieve (K+M_t-1)/2 DoF for all K < 10, and conjecture that the result holds true for all K . The achievability proofs are based on the notion of algebraic independence from algebraic geometry.
1109.5404
Towards Optimal Learning of Chain Graphs
stat.ML cs.AI math.ST stat.TH
In this paper, we extend Meek's conjecture (Meek 1997) from directed and acyclic graphs to chain graphs, and prove that the extended conjecture is true. Specifically, we prove that if a chain graph H is an independence map of the independence model induced by another chain graph G, then (i) G can be transformed into H by a sequence of directed and undirected edge additions and feasible splits and mergings, and (ii) after each operation in the sequence H remains an independence map of the independence model induced by G. Our result has the same important consequence for learning chain graphs from data as the proof of Meek's conjecture in (Chickering 2002) had for learning Bayesian networks from data: It makes it possible to develop efficient and asymptotically correct learning algorithms under mild assumptions.
1109.5415
Shannon Meets Nyquist: Capacity of Sampled Gaussian Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We explore two fundamental questions at the intersection of sampling theory and information theory: how channel capacity is affected by sampling below the channel's Nyquist rate, and what sub-Nyquist sampling strategy should be employed to maximize capacity. In particular, we derive the capacity of sampled analog channels for three prevalent sampling strategies: sampling with filtering, sampling with filter banks, and sampling with modulation and filter banks. These sampling mechanisms subsume most nonuniform sampling techniques applied in practice. Our analyses illuminate interesting connections between under-sampled channels and multiple-input multiple-output channels. The optimal sampling structures are shown to extract out the frequencies with the highest SNR from each aliased frequency set, while suppressing aliasing and out-of-band noise. We also highlight connections between undersampled channel capacity and minimum mean-squared error (MSE) estimation from sampled data. In particular, we show that the filters maximizing capacity and the ones minimizing MSE are equivalent under both filtering and filter-bank sampling strategies. These results demonstrate the effect upon channel capacity of sub-Nyquist sampling techniques, and characterize the tradeoff between information rate and sampling rate.
1109.5420
Incremental Relaying for the Gaussian Interference Channel with a Degraded Broadcasting Relay
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies incremental relay strategies for a two-user Gaussian relay-interference channel with an in-band-reception and out-of-band-transmission relay, where the link between the relay and the two receivers is modelled as a degraded broadcast channel. It is shown that generalized hash-and-forward (GHF) can achieve the capacity region of this channel to within a constant number of bits in a certain weak relay regime, where the transmitter-to-relay link gains are not unboundedly stronger than the interference links between the transmitters and the receivers. The GHF relaying strategy is ideally suited for the broadcasting relay because it can be implemented in an incremental fashion, i.e., the relay message to one receiver is a degraded version of the message to the other receiver. A generalized-degree-of-freedom (GDoF) analysis in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime reveals that in the symmetric channel setting, each common relay bit can improve the sum rate roughly by either one bit or two bits asymptotically depending on the operating regime, and the rate gain can be interpreted as coming solely from the improvement of the common message rates, or alternatively in the very weak interference regime as solely coming from the rate improvement of the private messages. Further, this paper studies an asymmetric case in which the relay has only a single single link to one of the destinations. It is shown that with only one relay-destination link, the approximate capacity region can be established for a larger regime of channel parameters. Further, from a GDoF point of view, the sum-capacity gain due to the relay can now be thought as coming from either signal relaying only, or interference forwarding only.
1109.5426
The capacity for the linear time-invariant Gaussian relay channel
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, the Gaussian relay channel with linear time-invariant relay filtering is considered. Based on spectral theory for stationary processes, the maximum achievable rate for this subclass of linear Gaussian relay operation is obtained in finite-letter characterization. The maximum rate can be achieved by dividing the overall frequency band into at most eight subbands and by making the relay behave as an instantaneous amplify-and-forward relay at each subband. Numerical results are provided to evaluate the performance of LTI relaying.
1109.5430
Recovery of Block-Sparse Representations from Noisy Observations via Orthogonal Matching Pursuit
cs.IT math.IT
We study the problem of recovering the sparsity pattern of block-sparse signals from noise-corrupted measurements. A simple, efficient recovery method, namely, a block-version of the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) method, is considered in this paper and its behavior for recovering the block-sparsity pattern is analyzed. We provide sufficient conditions under which the block-version of the OMP can successfully recover the block-sparse representations in the presence of noise. Our analysis reveals that exploiting block-sparsity can improve the recovery ability and lead to a guaranteed recovery for a higher sparsity level. Numerical results are presented to corroborate our theoretical claim.
1109.5433
Optimal Precoding Design and Power Allocation for Decentralized Detection of Deterministic Signals
cs.IR
We consider a decentralized detection problem in a power-constrained wireless sensor networks (WSNs), in which a number of sensor nodes collaborate to detect the presence of a deterministic vector signal. The signal to be detected is assumed known \emph{a priori}. Given a constraint on the total amount of transmit power, we investigate the optimal linear precoding design for each sensor node. More specifically, in order to achieve the best detection performance, shall sensor nodes transmit their raw data to the fusion center (FC), or transmit compressed versions of their original data? The optimal power allocation among sensors is studied as well. Also, assuming a fixed total transmit power, we examine how the detection performance behaves with the number of sensors in the network. A new concept "detection outage" is proposed to quantify the reliability of the overall detection system. Finally, decentralized detection with unknown signals is studied. Numerical results are conducted to corroborate our theoretical analysis and to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
1109.5453
Posterior Mean Super-resolution with a Causal Gaussian Markov Random Field Prior
cs.CV
We propose a Bayesian image super-resolution (SR) method with a causal Gaussian Markov random field (MRF) prior. SR is a technique to estimate a spatially high-resolution image from given multiple low-resolution images. An MRF model with the line process supplies a preferable prior for natural images with edges. We improve the existing image transformation model, the compound MRF model, and its hyperparameter prior model. We also derive the optimal estimator -- not the joint maximum a posteriori (MAP) or marginalized maximum likelihood (ML), but the posterior mean (PM) -- from the objective function of the L2-norm (mean square error) -based peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). Point estimates such as MAP and ML are generally not stable in ill-posed high-dimensional problems because of overfitting, while PM is a stable estimator because all the parameters in the model are evaluated as distributions. The estimator is numerically determined by using variational Bayes. Variational Bayes is a widely used method that approximately determines a complicated posterior distribution, but it is generally hard to use because it needs the conjugate prior. We solve this problem with simple Taylor approximations. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method is more accurate or comparable to existing methods.
1109.5454
The ubiquity of small-world networks
nlin.AO cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Small-world networks by Watts and Strogatz are a class of networks that are highly clustered, like regular lattices, yet have small characteristic path lengths, like random graphs. These characteristics result in networks with unique properties of regional specialization with efficient information transfer. Social networks are intuitive examples of this organization with cliques or clusters of friends being interconnected, but each person is really only 5-6 people away from anyone else. While this qualitative definition has prevailed in network science theory, in application, the standard quantitative application is to compare path length (a surrogate measure of distributed processing) and clustering (a surrogate measure of regional specialization) to an equivalent random network. It is demonstrated here that comparing network clustering to that of a random network can result in aberrant findings and networks once thought to exhibit small-world properties may not. We propose a new small-world metric, {\omega} (omega), which compares network clustering to an equivalent lattice network and path length to a random network, as Watts and Strogatz originally described. Example networks are presented that would be interpreted as small-world when clustering is compared to a random network but are not small-world according to {\omega}. These findings have significant implications in network science as small-world networks have unique topological properties, and it is critical to accurately distinguish them from networks without simultaneous high clustering and low path length.
1109.5460
The scaling of human mobility by taxis is exponential
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
As a significant factor in urban planning, traffic forecasting and prediction of epidemics, modeling patterns of human mobility draws intensive attention from researchers for decades. Power-law distribution and its variations are observed from quite a few real-world human mobility datasets such as the movements of banking notes, trackings of cell phone users' locations and trajectories of vehicles. In this paper, we build models for 20 million trajectories with fine granularity collected from more than 10 thousand taxis in Beijing. In contrast to most models observed in human mobility data, the taxis' traveling displacements in urban areas tend to follow an exponential distribution instead of a power-law. Similarly, the elapsed time can also be well approximated by an exponential distribution. Worth mentioning, analysis of the interevent time indicates the bursty nature of human mobility, similar to many other human activities.
1109.5466
Optimal Sensor Placement for Intruder Detection
cs.SY math.OC
We consider the centralized detection of an intruder, whose location is modeled as uniform across a specified set of points, using an optimally placed team of sensors. These sensors make conditionally independent observations. The local detectors at the sensors are also assumed to be identical, with detection probability $(P_{_{D}})$ and false alarm probability $(P_{_{F}})$. We formulate the problem as an N-ary hypothesis testing problem, jointly optimizing the sensor placement and detection policies at the fusion center. We prove that uniform sensor placement is never strictly optimal when the number of sensors $(M)$ equals the number of placement points $(N)$. We prove that for $N_{2} > N_{1} > M$, where $N_{1},N_{2}$ are number of placement points, the framework utilizing $M$ sensors and $N_{1}$ placement points has the same optimal placement structure as the one utilizing $M$ sensors and $N_{2}$ placement points. For $M\leq 5$ and for fixed $P_{_{D}}$, increasing $P_{_{F}}$ leads to optimal placements that are higher in the majorization-based placement scale. Similarly for $M\leq 5$ and for fixed $P_{_{F}}$, increasing $P_{_{D}}$ leads to optimal placements that are higher in the majorization-based placement scale. For $M>5$, this result does not necessarily hold and we provide a simple counterexample. It is conjectured that the set of optimal placements for a given $(M,N)$ can always be placed on a majorization-based placement scale.
1109.5482
Social Learning in a Changing World
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We study a model of learning on social networks in dynamic environments, describing a group of agents who are each trying to estimate an underlying state that varies over time, given access to weak signals and the estimates of their social network neighbors. We study three models of agent behavior. In the "fixed response" model, agents use a fixed linear combination to incorporate information from their peers into their own estimate. This can be thought of as an extension of the DeGroot model to a dynamic setting. In the "best response" model, players calculate minimum variance linear estimators of the underlying state. We show that regardless of the initial configuration, fixed response dynamics converge to a steady state, and that the same holds for best response on the complete graph. We show that best response dynamics can, in the long term, lead to estimators with higher variance than is achievable using well chosen fixed responses. The "penultimate prediction" model is an elaboration of the best response model. While this model only slightly complicates the computations required of the agents, we show that in some cases it greatly increases the efficiency of learning, and on complete graphs is in fact optimal, in a strong sense.
1109.5484
Two-hop Communication with Energy Harvesting
cs.IT math.IT
Communication nodes with the ability to harvest energy from the environment have the potential to operate beyond the timeframe limited by the finite capacity of their batteries; and accordingly, to extend the overall network lifetime. However, the optimization of the communication system in the presence of energy harvesting devices requires a new paradigm in terms of power allocation since the energy becomes available over time. In this paper, we consider the problem of two-hop relaying in the presence of energy harvesting nodes. We identify the optimal offline transmission scheme for energy harvesting source and relay when the relay operates in the full-duplex mode. In the case of a half-duplex relay, we provide the optimal transmission scheme when the source has a single energy packet.
1109.5488
MassChroQ: A versatile tool for mass spectrometry quantification
q-bio.QM cs.CE
Recently, many software tools have been developed to perform quantification in LC-MS analyses. However, most of them are specific to either a quantification strategy (e.g. label-free or isotopic labelling) or a mass-spectrometry system (e.g. high or low resolution). In this context, we have developed MassChroQ, a versatile software that performs LC-MS data alignment and peptide quantification by peak area integration on extracted ion chromatograms. MassChroQ is suitable for quantification with or without labelling and is not limited to high resolution systems. Peptides of interest (for example all the identified peptides) can be determined automatically or manually by providing targeted m/z and retention time values. It can handle large experiments that include protein or peptide fractionation (as SDS-PAGE, 2D-LC). It is fully configurable. Every processing step is traceable, the produced data are in open standard format and its modularity allows easy integration into proteomic pipelines. The output results are ready for use in statistical analyses. Evaluation of MassChroQ on complex label-free data obtained from low and high resolution mass spectrometers showed low CVs for technical reproducibility (1.4%) and high coefficients of correlation to protein quantity (0.98). MassChroQ is freely available under the GNU General Public Licence v3.0 at http://pappso.inra.fr/bioinfo/masschroq/.
1109.5490
A General Framework for the Optimization of Energy Harvesting Communication Systems with Battery Imperfections
cs.IT math.IT
Energy harvesting has emerged as a powerful technology for complementing current battery-powered communication systems in order to extend their lifetime. In this paper a general framework is introduced for the optimization of communication systems in which the transmitter is able to harvest energy from its environment. Assuming that the energy arrival process is known non-causally at the transmitter, the structure of the optimal transmission scheme, which maximizes the amount of transmitted data by a given deadline, is identified. Our framework includes models with continuous energy arrival as well as battery constraints. A battery that suffers from energy leakage is studied further, and the optimal transmission scheme is characterized for a constant leakage rate.
1109.5526
Are random axioms useful?
math.LO cs.IT cs.LO math.IT
The famous G\"odel incompleteness theorem says that for every sufficiently rich formal theory (containing formal arithmetic in some natural sense) there exist true unprovable statements. Such statements would be natural candidates for being added as axioms, but where can we obtain them? One classical (and well studied) approach is to add (to some theory T) an axiom that claims the consistency of T. In this note we discuss the other one (motivated by Chaitin's version of the G\"odel theorem) and show that it is not really useful (in the sense that it does not help us to prove new interesting theorems), at least if we are not limiting the proof complexity. We discuss also some related questions.
1109.5560
Temporal effects in the growth of networks
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.DL cs.SI
We show that to explain the growth of the citation network by preferential attachment (PA), one has to accept that individual nodes exhibit heterogeneous fitness values that decay with time. While previous PA-based models assumed either heterogeneity or decay in isolation, we propose a simple analytically treatable model that combines these two factors. Depending on the input assumptions, the resulting degree distribution shows an exponential, log-normal or power-law decay, which makes the model an apt candidate for modeling a wide range of real systems.
1109.5589
A General Framework for Performance Analysis of Spatial Modulation over Correlated Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We present a general method for the error analysis of spatial modulation (SM) systems over correlated and uncorrelated Rayleigh and Rician fading channels. The proposed method, making use of the properties of proper complex random variables and vectors, provides an exact upper bound for the class of fading channels considered for any number of transmit and receive antennas and for a wide family of linear modulation alphabets. Theoretical derivations are validated via simulation results.
1109.5593
Markov dynamics as a zooming lens for multiscale community detection: non clique-like communities and the field-of-view limit
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in community detection algorithms for complex networks. A variety of computational heuristics, some with a long history, have been proposed for the identification of communities or, alternatively, of good graph partitions. In most cases, the algorithms maximize a particular objective function, thereby finding the `right' split into communities. Although a thorough comparison of algorithms is still lacking, there has been an effort to design benchmarks, i.e., random graph models with known community structure against which algorithms can be evaluated. However, popular community detection methods and benchmarks normally assume an implicit notion of community based on clique-like subgraphs, a form of community structure that is not always characteristic of real networks. Specifically, networks that emerge from geometric constraints can have natural non clique-like substructures with large effective diameters, which can be interpreted as long-range communities. In this work, we show that long-range communities escape detection by popular methods, which are blinded by a restricted `field-of-view' limit, an intrinsic upper scale on the communities they can detect. The field-of-view limit means that long-range communities tend to be overpartitioned. We show how by adopting a dynamical perspective towards community detection (Delvenne et al. (2010) PNAS:107: 12755-12760; Lambiotte et al. (2008) arXiv:0812.1770), in which the evolution of a Markov process on the graph is used as a zooming lens over the structure of the network at all scales, one can detect both clique- or non clique-like communities without imposing an upper scale to the detection. Consequently, the performance of algorithms on inherently low-diameter, clique-like benchmarks may not always be indicative of equally good results in real networks with local, sparser connectivity.
1109.5647
Making Gradient Descent Optimal for Strongly Convex Stochastic Optimization
cs.LG math.OC
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) is a simple and popular method to solve stochastic optimization problems which arise in machine learning. For strongly convex problems, its convergence rate was known to be O(\log(T)/T), by running SGD for T iterations and returning the average point. However, recent results showed that using a different algorithm, one can get an optimal O(1/T) rate. This might lead one to believe that standard SGD is suboptimal, and maybe should even be replaced as a method of choice. In this paper, we investigate the optimality of SGD in a stochastic setting. We show that for smooth problems, the algorithm attains the optimal O(1/T) rate. However, for non-smooth problems, the convergence rate with averaging might really be \Omega(\log(T)/T), and this is not just an artifact of the analysis. On the flip side, we show that a simple modification of the averaging step suffices to recover the O(1/T) rate, and no other change of the algorithm is necessary. We also present experimental results which support our findings, and point out open problems.
1109.5663
The Deterministic Part of IPC-4: An Overview
cs.AI
We provide an overview of the organization and results of the deterministic part of the 4th International Planning Competition, i.e., of the part concerned with evaluating systems doing deterministic planning. IPC-4 attracted even more competing systems than its already large predecessors, and the competition event was revised in several important respects. After giving an introduction to the IPC, we briefly explain the main differences between the deterministic part of IPC-4 and its predecessors. We then introduce formally the language used, called PDDL2.2 that extends PDDL2.1 by derived predicates and timed initial literals. We list the competing systems and overview the results of the competition. The entire set of data is far too large to be presented in full. We provide a detailed summary; the complete data is available in an online appendix. We explain how we awarded the competition prizes.
1109.5664
Deterministic Feature Selection for $k$-means Clustering
cs.LG cs.DS
We study feature selection for $k$-means clustering. Although the literature contains many methods with good empirical performance, algorithms with provable theoretical behavior have only recently been developed. Unfortunately, these algorithms are randomized and fail with, say, a constant probability. We address this issue by presenting a deterministic feature selection algorithm for k-means with theoretical guarantees. At the heart of our algorithm lies a deterministic method for decompositions of the identity.
1109.5665
PDDL2.1 - The Art of the Possible? Commentary on Fox and Long
cs.AI
PDDL2.1 was designed to push the envelope of what planning algorithms can do, and it has succeeded. It adds two important features: durative actions,which take time (and may have continuous effects); and objective functions for measuring the quality of plans. The concept of durative actions is flawed; and the treatment of their semantics reveals too strong an attachment to the way many contemporary planners work. Future PDDL innovators should focus on producing a clean semantics for additions to the language, and let planner implementers worry about coupling their algorithms to problems expressed in the latest version of the language.
1109.5666
The Case for Durative Actions: A Commentary on PDDL2.1
cs.AI
The addition of durative actions to PDDL2.1 sparked some controversy. Fox and Long argued that actions should be considered as instantaneous, but can start and stop processes. Ultimately, a limited notion of durative actions was incorporated into the language. I argue that this notion is still impoverished, and that the underlying philosophical position of regarding durative actions as being a shorthand for a start action, process, and stop action ignores the realities of modelling and execution for complex systems.
1109.5711
Engineering a Conformant Probabilistic Planner
cs.AI
We present a partial-order, conformant, probabilistic planner, Probapop which competed in the blind track of the Probabilistic Planning Competition in IPC-4. We explain how we adapt distance based heuristics for use with probabilistic domains. Probapop also incorporates heuristics based on probability of success. We explain the successes and difficulties encountered during the design and implementation of Probapop.
1109.5712
Cooperative Information Sharing to Improve Distributed Learning in Multi-Agent Systems
cs.MA
Effective coordination of agents actions in partially-observable domains is a major challenge of multi-agent systems research. To address this, many researchers have developed techniques that allow the agents to make decisions based on estimates of the states and actions of other agents that are typically learnt using some form of machine learning algorithm. Nevertheless, many of these approaches fail to provide an actual means by which the necessary information is made available so that the estimates can be learnt. To this end, we argue that cooperative communication of state information between agents is one such mechanism. However, in a dynamically changing environment, the accuracy and timeliness of this communicated information determine the fidelity of the learned estimates and the usefulness of the actions taken based on these. Given this, we propose a novel information-sharing protocol, post-task-completion sharing, for the distribution of state information. We then show, through a formal analysis, the improvement in the quality of estimates produced using our strategy over the widely used protocol of sharing information between nearest neighbours. Moreover, communication heuristics designed around our information-sharing principle are subjected to empirical evaluation along with other benchmark strategies (including Littmans Q-routing and Stones TPOT-RL) in a simulated call-routing application. These studies, conducted across a range of environmental settings, show that, compared to the different benchmarks used, our strategy generates an improvement of up to 60% in the call connection rate; of more than 1000% in the ability to connect long-distance calls; and incurs as low as 0.25 of the message overhead.
1109.5713
Where 'Ignoring Delete Lists' Works: Local Search Topology in Planning Benchmarks
cs.AI
Between 1998 and 2004, the planning community has seen vast progress in terms of the sizes of benchmark examples that domain-independent planners can tackle successfully. The key technique behind this progress is the use of heuristic functions based on relaxing the planning task at hand, where the relaxation is to assume that all delete lists are empty. The unprecedented success of such methods, in many commonly used benchmark examples, calls for an understanding of what classes of domains these methods are well suited for. In the investigation at hand, we derive a formal background to such an understanding. We perform a case study covering a range of 30 commonly used STRIPS and ADL benchmark domains, including all examples used in the first four international planning competitions. We *prove* connections between domain structure and local search topology -- heuristic cost surface properties -- under an idealized version of the heuristic functions used in modern planners. The idealized heuristic function is called h^+, and differs from the practically used functions in that it returns the length of an *optimal* relaxed plan, which is NP-hard to compute. We identify several key characteristics of the topology under h^+, concerning the existence/non-existence of unrecognized dead ends, as well as the existence/non-existence of constant upper bounds on the difficulty of escaping local minima and benches. These distinctions divide the (set of all) planning domains into a taxonomy of classes of varying h^+ topology. As it turns out, many of the 30 investigated domains lie in classes with a relatively easy topology. Most particularly, 12 of the domains lie in classes where FFs search algorithm, provided with h^+, is a polynomial solving mechanism. We also present results relating h^+ to its approximation as implemented in FF. The behavior regarding dead ends is provably the same. We summarize the results of an empirical investigation showing that, in many domains, the topological qualities of h^+ are largely inherited by the approximation. The overall investigation gives a rare example of a successful analysis of the connections between typical-case problem structure, and search performance. The theoretical investigation also gives hints on how the topological phenomena might be automatically recognizable by domain analysis techniques. We outline some preliminary steps we made into that direction.
1109.5714
Binary Encodings of Non-binary Constraint Satisfaction Problems: Algorithms and Experimental Results
cs.AI
A non-binary Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) can be solved directly using extended versions of binary techniques. Alternatively, the non-binary problem can be translated into an equivalent binary one. In this case, it is generally accepted that the translated problem can be solved by applying well-established techniques for binary CSPs. In this paper we evaluate the applicability of the latter approach. We demonstrate that the use of standard techniques for binary CSPs in the encodings of non-binary problems is problematic and results in models that are very rarely competitive with the non-binary representation. To overcome this, we propose specialized arc consistency and search algorithms for binary encodings, and we evaluate them theoretically and empirically. We consider three binary representations; the hidden variable encoding, the dual encoding, and the double encoding. Theoretical and empirical results show that, for certain classes of non-binary constraints, binary encodings are a competitive option, and in many cases, a better one than the non-binary representation.
1109.5716
Distributed Reasoning in a Peer-to-Peer Setting: Application to the Semantic Web
cs.AI
In a peer-to-peer inference system, each peer can reason locally but can also solicit some of its acquaintances, which are peers sharing part of its vocabulary. In this paper, we consider peer-to-peer inference systems in which the local theory of each peer is a set of propositional clauses defined upon a local vocabulary. An important characteristic of peer-to-peer inference systems is that the global theory (the union of all peer theories) is not known (as opposed to partition-based reasoning systems). The main contribution of this paper is to provide the first consequence finding algorithm in a peer-to-peer setting: DeCA. It is anytime and computes consequences gradually from the solicited peer to peers that are more and more distant. We exhibit a sufficient condition on the acquaintance graph of the peer-to-peer inference system for guaranteeing the completeness of this algorithm. Another important contribution is to apply this general distributed reasoning setting to the setting of the Semantic Web through the Somewhere semantic peer-to-peer data management system. The last contribution of this paper is to provide an experimental analysis of the scalability of the peer-to-peer infrastructure that we propose, on large networks of 1000 peers.
1109.5717
Dynamic Local Search for the Maximum Clique Problem
cs.AI
In this paper, we introduce DLS-MC, a new stochastic local search algorithm for the maximum clique problem. DLS-MC alternates between phases of iterative improvement, during which suitable vertices are added to the current clique, and plateau search, during which vertices of the current clique are swapped with vertices not contained in the current clique. The selection of vertices is solely based on vertex penalties that are dynamically adjusted during the search, and a perturbation mechanism is used to overcome search stagnation. The behaviour of DLS-MC is controlled by a single parameter, penalty delay, which controls the frequency at which vertex penalties are reduced. We show empirically that DLS-MC achieves substantial performance improvements over state-of-the-art algorithms for the maximum clique problem over a large range of the commonly used DIMACS benchmark instances.
1109.5720
SLPA: Uncovering Overlapping Communities in Social Networks via A Speaker-listener Interaction Dynamic Process
cs.SI cs.DS physics.soc-ph
Overlap is one of the characteristics of social networks, in which a person may belong to more than one social group. For this reason, discovering overlapping structures is necessary for realistic social analysis. In this paper, we present a novel, general framework to detect and analyze both individual overlapping nodes and entire communities. In this framework, nodes exchange labels according to dynamic interaction rules. A specific implementation called Speaker-listener Label Propagation Algorithm (SLPA1) demonstrates an excellent performance in identifying both overlapping nodes and overlapping communities with different degrees of diversity.
1109.5730
Hypothesize and Bound: A Computational Focus of Attention Mechanism for Simultaneous 3D Shape Reconstruction, Pose Estimation and Classification from a Single 2D Image
cs.CV cs.CG
This article presents a mathematical framework to simultaneously tackle the problems of 3D reconstruction, pose estimation and object classification, from a single 2D image. In sharp contrast with state of the art methods that rely primarily on 2D information and solve each of these three problems separately or iteratively, we propose a mathematical framework that incorporates prior "knowledge" about the 3D shapes of different object classes and solves these problems jointly and simultaneously, using a hypothesize-and-bound (H&B) algorithm. In the proposed H&B algorithm one hypothesis is defined for each possible pair [object class, object pose], and the algorithm selects the hypothesis H that maximizes a function L(H) encoding how well each hypothesis "explains" the input image. To find this maximum efficiently, the function L(H) is not evaluated exactly for each hypothesis H, but rather upper and lower bounds for it are computed at a much lower cost. In order to obtain bounds for L(H) that are tight yet inexpensive to compute, we extend the theory of shapes described in [14] to handle projections of shapes. This extension allows us to define a probabilistic relationship between the prior knowledge given in 3D and the 2D input image. This relationship is derived from first principles and is proven to be the only relationship having the properties that we intuitively expect from a "projection." In addition to the efficiency and optimality characteristics of H&B algorithms, the proposed framework has the desirable property of integrating information in the 2D image with information in the 3D prior to estimate the optimal reconstruction. While this article focuses primarily on the problem mentioned above, we believe that the theory presented herein has multiple other potential applications.
1109.5732
Representing Conversations for Scalable Overhearing
cs.AI
Open distributed multi-agent systems are gaining interest in the academic community and in industry. In such open settings, agents are often coordinated using standardized agent conversation protocols. The representation of such protocols (for analysis, validation, monitoring, etc) is an important aspect of multi-agent applications. Recently, Petri nets have been shown to be an interesting approach to such representation, and radically different approaches using Petri nets have been proposed. However, their relative strengths and weaknesses have not been examined. Moreover, their scalability and suitability for different tasks have not been addressed. This paper addresses both these challenges. First, we analyze existing Petri net representations in terms of their scalability and appropriateness for overhearing, an important task in monitoring open multi-agent systems. Then, building on the insights gained, we introduce a novel representation using Colored Petri nets that explicitly represent legal joint conversation states and messages. This representation approach offers significant improvements in scalability and is particularly suitable for overhearing. Furthermore, we show that this new representation offers a comprehensive coverage of all conversation features of FIPA conversation standards. We also present a procedure for transforming AUML conversation protocol diagrams (a standard human-readable representation), to our Colored Petri net representation.
1109.5750
Improving Heuristics Through Relaxed Search - An Analysis of TP4 and HSP*a in the 2004 Planning Competition
cs.AI
The hm admissible heuristics for (sequential and temporal) regression planning are defined by a parameterized relaxation of the optimal cost function in the regression search space, where the parameter m offers a trade-off between the accuracy and computational cost of theheuristic. Existing methods for computing the hm heuristic require time exponential in m, limiting them to small values (m andlt= 2). The hm heuristic can also be viewed as the optimal cost function in a relaxation of the search space: this paper presents relaxed search, a method for computing this function partially by searching in the relaxed space. The relaxed search method, because it computes hm only partially, is computationally cheaper and therefore usable for higher values of m. The (complete) hm heuristic is combined with partial hm heuristics, for m = 3,..., computed by relaxed search, resulting in a more accurate heuristic. This use of the relaxed search method to improve on the hm heuristic is evaluated by comparing two optimal temporal planners: TP4, which does not use it, and HSP*a, which uses it but is otherwise identical to TP4. The comparison is made on the domains used in the 2004 International Planning Competition, in which both planners participated. Relaxed search is found to be cost effective in some of these domains, but not all. Analysis reveals a characterization of the domains in which relaxed search can be expected to be cost effective, in terms of two measures on the original and relaxed search spaces. In the domains where relaxed search is cost effective, expanding small states is computationally cheaper than expanding large states and small states tend to have small successor states.
1109.5779
The Degrees of Freedom Region of the MIMO Interference Channel with Shannon Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
The two-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fast-fading interference channel (IC) with an arbitrary number of antennas at each of the four terminals is studied under the settings of Shannon feedback, limited Shannon feedback, and output feedback, wherein all or certain channel matrices and outputs, or just the channel outputs, respectively, are available to the transmitters with a finite delay. While for most numbers of antennas at the four terminals, it is shown that the DoF regions with Shannon feedback and for the limited Shannon feedback settings considered here are identical, and equal to the DoF region with just delayed channel state information (CSIT), it is shown that this is not always the case. For a specific class of MIMO ICs characterized by a certain relationship between the numbers of antennas at the four nodes, the DoF regions with Shannon and the limited Shannon feedback settings, while again being identical, are strictly bigger than the DoF region with just delayed CSIT. To realize these DoF gains with Shannon or limited Shannon feedback, a new retrospective interference alignment scheme is developed wherein transmitter cooperation made possible by output feedback in addition to delayed CSIT is employed to effect a more efficient form of interference alignment than is feasible with previously known schemes that use just delayed CSIT. The DoF region for just output feedback, in which each transmitter has delayed knowledge of only the receivers' outputs, is also obtained for all but a class of MIMO ICs that satisfy one of two inequalities involving the numbers of antennas.
1109.5790
The Degrees of Freedom of the 2-Hop, 2-User Interference Channel with Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
The layered two-hop, two-flow interference network is considered that consists of two sources, two relays and two destinations with the first hop network between he sources and the relays and the second hop network between relays and destinations both being i.i.d. Rayleigh fading Gaussian interference channels. Two feedback models are studied. In the first one, called the delayed channel state information at the sources (delayed CSI-S) model, the sources know all channel coefficients with a finite delay but the relays have no side information whatsoever. In the second feedback model, referred to as the limited Shannon feedback model, the relays know first hop channel coefficients instantaneously and the second hop channel with a finite delay and one relay knows the received signal of one of the destinations with a finite delay and the other relay knows the received signal of the other destination with a finite delay but there is no side information at the sources whatsoever. It is shown in this paper that under both these settings, the layered two-hop, two-flow interference channel has 4/3 degrees of freedom. The result is obtained by developing a broadcast-channel-type upper-bound and new achievability schemes based on the ideas of retrospective interference alignment and retro-cooperative interference alignment, respectively.
1109.5796
Genetic Testing for Complex Diseases: a Simulation Study Perspective
stat.AP cs.CE q-bio.GN q-bio.QM
It is widely recognized nowadays that complex diseases are caused by, amongst the others, multiple genetic factors. The recent advent of genome-wide association study (GWA) has triggered a wave of research aimed at discovering genetic factors underlying common complex diseases. While the number of reported susceptible genetic variants is increasing steadily, the application of such findings into diseases prognosis for the general population is still unclear, and there are doubts about whether the size of the contribution by such factors is significant. In this respect, some recent simulation-based studies have shed more light to the prospect of genetic tests. In this report, we discuss several aspects of simulation-based studies: their parameters, their assumptions, and the information they provide.
1109.5798
Object-oriented semantics of English in natural language understanding system
cs.CL
A new approach to the problem of natural language understanding is proposed. The knowledge domain under consideration is the social behavior of people. English sentences are translated into set of predicates of a semantic database, which describe persons, occupations, organizations, projects, actions, events, messages, machines, things, animals, location and time of actions, relations between objects, thoughts, cause-and-effect relations, abstract objects. There is a knowledge base containing the description of semantics of objects (functions and structure), actions (motives and causes), and operations.
1109.5827
Security and complexity of the McEliece cryptosystem based on QC-LDPC codes
cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
In the context of public key cryptography, the McEliece cryptosystem represents a very smart solution based on the hardness of the decoding problem, which is believed to be able to resist the advent of quantum computers. Despite this, the original McEliece cryptosystem, based on Goppa codes, has encountered limited interest in practical applications, partly because of some constraints imposed by this very special class of codes. We have recently introduced a variant of the McEliece cryptosystem including low-density parity-check codes, that are state-of-the-art codes, now used in many telecommunication standards and applications. In this paper, we discuss the possible use of a bit-flipping decoder in this context, which gives a significant advantage in terms of complexity. We also provide theoretical arguments and practical tools for estimating the trade-off between security and complexity, in such a way to give a simple procedure for the system design.
1109.5894
Learning Item Trees for Probabilistic Modelling of Implicit Feedback
cs.LG stat.ML
User preferences for items can be inferred from either explicit feedback, such as item ratings, or implicit feedback, such as rental histories. Research in collaborative filtering has concentrated on explicit feedback, resulting in the development of accurate and scalable models. However, since explicit feedback is often difficult to collect it is important to develop effective models that take advantage of the more widely available implicit feedback. We introduce a probabilistic approach to collaborative filtering with implicit feedback based on modelling the user's item selection process. In the interests of scalability, we restrict our attention to tree-structured distributions over items and develop a principled and efficient algorithm for learning item trees from data. We also identify a problem with a widely used protocol for evaluating implicit feedback models and propose a way of addressing it using a small quantity of explicit feedback data.
1109.5920
Models and Strategies for Variants of the Job Shop Scheduling Problem
cs.AI
Recently, a variety of constraint programming and Boolean satisfiability approaches to scheduling problems have been introduced. They have in common the use of relatively simple propagation mechanisms and an adaptive way to focus on the most constrained part of the problem. In some cases, these methods compare favorably to more classical constraint programming methods relying on propagation algorithms for global unary or cumulative resource constraints and dedicated search heuristics. In particular, we described an approach that combines restarting, with a generic adaptive heuristic and solution guided branching on a simple model based on a decomposition of disjunctive constraints. In this paper, we introduce an adaptation of this technique for an important subclass of job shop scheduling problems (JSPs), where the objective function involves minimization of earliness/tardiness costs. We further show that our technique can be improved by adding domain specific information for one variant of the JSP (involving time lag constraints). In particular we introduce a dedicated greedy heuristic, and an improved model for the case where the maximal time lag is 0 (also referred to as no-wait JSPs).
1109.5938
Thresholding-based reconstruction of compressed correlated signals
cs.NI cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of recovering a set of correlated signals (e.g., images from different viewpoints) from a few linear measurements per signal. We assume that each sensor in a network acquires a compressed signal in the form of linear measurements and sends it to a joint decoder for reconstruction. We propose a novel joint reconstruction algorithm that exploits correlation among underlying signals. Our correlation model considers geometrical transformations between the supports of the different signals. The proposed joint decoder estimates the correlation and reconstructs the signals using a simple thresholding algorithm. We give both theoretical and experimental evidence to show that our method largely outperforms independent decoding in terms of support recovery and reconstruction quality.
1109.5951
An Approximation of the Universal Intelligence Measure
cs.AI
The Universal Intelligence Measure is a recently proposed formal definition of intelligence. It is mathematically specified, extremely general, and captures the essence of many informal definitions of intelligence. It is based on Hutter's Universal Artificial Intelligence theory, an extension of Ray Solomonoff's pioneering work on universal induction. Since the Universal Intelligence Measure is only asymptotically computable, building a practical intelligence test from it is not straightforward. This paper studies the practical issues involved in developing a real-world UIM-based performance metric. Based on our investigation, we develop a prototype implementation which we use to evaluate a number of different artificial agents.
1109.5966
Minimum settling time control design through direct search optimization
math.OC cs.SY
The aim of this work is to design controllers through explicit minimization of the settling time of a closed-loop response, by using a class of methods adequate for this objective. To the best of our knowledge, all the methods available in the literature do not minimize directly the settling time but only related objective functions. Indeed, the settling time objective function is not only non-smooth but also discontinuous. Therefore we propose to use direct search methods, which do not use any gradient information. An important reason is a recent result that some direct search methods are guaranteed to convergence on such discontinuous objective functions. The proposed approach is self-standing but can also improve the solutions obtained with the alternatives of the literature, which lead to good solutions but suboptimal in terms of the settling time. Note also that this approach is very flexible and can be adapted to a broad range of objectives as well as nonlinear systems or controllers, as long as the time response can be simulated.
1109.5993
Optimally sparse approximations of 3D functions by compactly supported shearlet frames
math.FA cs.IT cs.NA math.IT
We study efficient and reliable methods of capturing and sparsely representing anisotropic structures in 3D data. As a model class for multidimensional data with anisotropic features, we introduce generalized three-dimensional cartoon-like images. This function class will have two smoothness parameters: one parameter \beta controlling classical smoothness and one parameter \alpha controlling anisotropic smoothness. The class then consists of piecewise C^\beta-smooth functions with discontinuities on a piecewise C^\alpha-smooth surface. We introduce a pyramid-adapted, hybrid shearlet system for the three-dimensional setting and construct frames for L^2(R^3) with this particular shearlet structure. For the smoothness range 1<\alpha =< \beta =< 2 we show that pyramid-adapted shearlet systems provide a nearly optimally sparse approximation rate within the generalized cartoon-like image model class measured by means of non-linear N-term approximations.
1109.6018
User-level sentiment analysis incorporating social networks
cs.CL cs.IR physics.data-an physics.soc-ph
We show that information about social relationships can be used to improve user-level sentiment analysis. The main motivation behind our approach is that users that are somehow "connected" may be more likely to hold similar opinions; therefore, relationship information can complement what we can extract about a user's viewpoints from their utterances. Employing Twitter as a source for our experimental data, and working within a semi-supervised framework, we propose models that are induced either from the Twitter follower/followee network or from the network in Twitter formed by users referring to each other using "@" mentions. Our transductive learning results reveal that incorporating social-network information can indeed lead to statistically significant sentiment-classification improvements over the performance of an approach based on Support Vector Machines having access only to textual features.
1109.6029
An Improved Search Algorithm for Optimal Multiple-Sequence Alignment
cs.AI
Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) is a ubiquitous problem in computational biology. Although it is NP-hard to find an optimal solution for an arbitrary number of sequences, due to the importance of this problem researchers are trying to push the limits of exact algorithms further. Since MSA can be cast as a classical path finding problem, it is attracting a growing number of AI researchers interested in heuristic search algorithms as a challenge with actual practical relevance. In this paper, we first review two previous, complementary lines of research. Based on Hirschbergs algorithm, Dynamic Programming needs O(kN^(k-1)) space to store both the search frontier and the nodes needed to reconstruct the solution path, for k sequences of length N. Best first search, on the other hand, has the advantage of bounding the search space that has to be explored using a heuristic. However, it is necessary to maintain all explored nodes up to the final solution in order to prevent the search from re-expanding them at higher cost. Earlier approaches to reduce the Closed list are either incompatible with pruning methods for the Open list, or must retain at least the boundary of the Closed list. In this article, we present an algorithm that attempts at combining the respective advantages; like A* it uses a heuristic for pruning the search space, but reduces both the maximum Open and Closed size to O(kN^(k-1)), as in Dynamic Programming. The underlying idea is to conduct a series of searches with successively increasing upper bounds, but using the DP ordering as the key for the Open priority queue. With a suitable choice of thresholds, in practice, a running time below four times that of A* can be expected. In our experiments we show that our algorithm outperforms one of the currently most successful algorithms for optimal multiple sequence alignments, Partial Expansion A*, both in time and memory. Moreover, we apply a refined heuristic based on optimal alignments not only of pairs of sequences, but of larger subsets. This idea is not new; however, to make it practically relevant we show that it is equally important to bound the heuristic computation appropriately, or the overhead can obliterate any possible gain. Furthermore, we discuss a number of improvements in time and space efficiency with regard to practical implementations. Our algorithm, used in conjunction with higher-dimensional heuristics, is able to calculate for the first time the optimal alignment for almost all of the problems in Reference 1 of the benchmark database BAliBASE.
1109.6030
Probabilistic Hybrid Action Models for Predicting Concurrent Percept-driven Robot Behavior
cs.AI
This article develops Probabilistic Hybrid Action Models (PHAMs), a realistic causal model for predicting the behavior generated by modern percept-driven robot plans. PHAMs represent aspects of robot behavior that cannot be represented by most action models used in AI planning: the temporal structure of continuous control processes, their non-deterministic effects, several modes of their interferences, and the achievement of triggering conditions in closed-loop robot plans. The main contributions of this article are: (1) PHAMs, a model of concurrent percept-driven behavior, its formalization, and proofs that the model generates probably, qualitatively accurate predictions; and (2) a resource-efficient inference method for PHAMs based on sampling projections from probabilistic action models and state descriptions. We show how PHAMs can be applied to planning the course of action of an autonomous robot office courier based on analytical and experimental results.
1109.6033
Generative Prior Knowledge for Discriminative Classification
cs.AI
We present a novel framework for integrating prior knowledge into discriminative classifiers. Our framework allows discriminative classifiers such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs) to utilize prior knowledge specified in the generative setting. The dual objective of fitting the data and respecting prior knowledge is formulated as a bilevel program, which is solved (approximately) via iterative application of second-order cone programming. To test our approach, we consider the problem of using WordNet (a semantic database of English language) to improve low-sample classification accuracy of newsgroup categorization. WordNet is viewed as an approximate, but readily available source of background knowledge, and our framework is capable of utilizing it in a flexible way.
1109.6037
The Control Theory of Motion-Based Communication: Problems in Teaching Robots to Dance
cs.SY
The paper describes results on two components of a research program focused on motion-based communication mediated by the dynamics of a control system. Specifically we are interested in how mobile agents engaged in a shared activity such as dance can use motion as a medium for transmitting certain types of messages. The first part of the paper adopts the terminology of motion description languages and deconstructs an elementary form of the well-known popular dance, Salsa, in terms of four motion primitives (dance steps). Several notions of dance complexity are introduced. We describe an experiment in which ten performances by an actual pair of dancers are evaluated by judges and then compared in terms of proposed complexity metrics. An energy metric is also defined. Values of this metric are obtained by summing the lengths of motion segments executed by wheeled robots replicating the movements of the human dancers in each of the ten dance performances. Of all the metrics that are considered in this experiment, energy is the most closely correlated with the human judges' assessments of performance quality. The second part of the paper poses a general class of dual objective motion control problems in which a primary objective (artistic execution of a dance step or efficient movement toward a specified terminal state) is combined with a communication objective. Solutions of varying degrees of explicitness can be given in several classes of problems of communicating through the dynamics of finite dimensional linear control systems. In this setting it is shown that the cost of adding a communication component to motions that steer a system between prescribed pairs of states is independent of those states. At the same time, the optimal encoding problem itself is shown to be a problem of packing geometric objects, and it remains open.
1109.6046
Improving the Usability of Privacy Settings in Facebook
cs.CR cs.CY cs.SI
The ever increasing popularity of Facebook and other Online Social Networks has left a wealth of personal and private data on the web, aggregated and readily accessible for broad and automatic retrieval. Protection from both undesired recipients as well as harvesting through crawlers is implemented by simple access control at the provider, configured by manual authorization through the publishing user. Several studies demonstrate that standard settings directly cause an unnoticed over-sharing and that the users have trouble understanding and configuring adequate settings. Using the three simple principles of color coding, ease of access, and application of common practices, we developed a new privacy interface that increases the usability significantly. The results of our user study underlines the extent of the initial problem and documents that our interface enables faster, more precise authorisation and leads to increased intelligibility.
1109.6051
The Fast Downward Planning System
cs.AI
Fast Downward is a classical planning system based on heuristic search. It can deal with general deterministic planning problems encoded in the propositional fragment of PDDL2.2, including advanced features like ADL conditions and effects and derived predicates (axioms). Like other well-known planners such as HSP and FF, Fast Downward is a progression planner, searching the space of world states of a planning task in the forward direction. However, unlike other PDDL planning systems, Fast Downward does not use the propositional PDDL representation of a planning task directly. Instead, the input is first translated into an alternative representation called multi-valued planning tasks, which makes many of the implicit constraints of a propositional planning task explicit. Exploiting this alternative representation, Fast Downward uses hierarchical decompositions of planning tasks for computing its heuristic function, called the causal graph heuristic, which is very different from traditional HSP-like heuristics based on ignoring negative interactions of operators. In this article, we give a full account of Fast Downwards approach to solving multi-valued planning tasks. We extend our earlier discussion of the causal graph heuristic to tasks involving axioms and conditional effects and present some novel techniques for search control that are used within Fast Downwards best-first search algorithm: preferred operators transfer the idea of helpful actions from local search to global best-first search, deferred evaluation of heuristic functions mitigates the negative effect of large branching factors on search performance, and multi-heuristic best-first search combines several heuristic evaluation functions within a single search algorithm in an orthogonal way. We also describe efficient data structures for fast state expansion (successor generators and axiom evaluators) and present a new non-heuristic search algorithm called focused iterative-broadening search, which utilizes the information encoded in causal graphs in a novel way. Fast Downward has proven remarkably successful: It won the "classical (i.e., propositional, non-optimising) track of the 4th International Planning Competition at ICAPS 2004, following in the footsteps of planners such as FF and LPG. Our experiments show that it also performs very well on the benchmarks of the earlier planning competitions and provide some insights about the usefulness of the new search enhancements.
1109.6052
Asynchronous Partial Overlay: A New Algorithm for Solving Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems
cs.AI
Distributed Constraint Satisfaction (DCSP) has long been considered an important problem in multi-agent systems research. This is because many real-world problems can be represented as constraint satisfaction and these problems often present themselves in a distributed form. In this article, we present a new complete, distributed algorithm called Asynchronous Partial Overlay (APO) for solving DCSPs that is based on a cooperative mediation process. The primary ideas behind this algorithm are that agents, when acting as a mediator, centralize small, relevant portions of the DCSP, that these centralized subproblems overlap, and that agents increase the size of their subproblems along critical paths within the DCSP as the problem solving unfolds. We present empirical evidence that shows that APO outperforms other known, complete DCSP techniques.
1109.6101
Channel Quantization for Physical Layer Network-Coded Two-Way Relaying
cs.IT math.IT
The design of modulation schemes for the physical layer network-coded two way relaying scenario is considered with the protocol which employs two phases: Multiple access (MA) Phase and Broadcast (BC) phase. It was observed by Koike-Akino et al. that adaptively changing the network coding map used at the relay according to the channel conditions greatly reduces the impact of multiple access interference which occurs at the relay during the MA phase. In other words, the set of all possible channel realizations (the complex plane) is quantized into a finite number of regions, with a specific network coding map giving the best performance in a particular region. We highlight the issues associated with the scheme proposed by Koike-Akino et al. and propose a scheme which solves these issues. We obtain a quantization of the set of all possible channel realizations analytically for the case when $M$-PSK (for $M$ any power of 2) is the signal set used during the MA phase. It is shown that the complex plane can be classified into two regions: a region in which any network coding map which satisfies the so called exclusive law gives the same best performance and a region in which the choice of the network coding map affects the performance, which is further quantized based on the choice of the network coding map which optimizes the performance. The quantization thus obtained analytically, leads to the same as the one obtained using computer search for 4-PSK signal set by Koike-Akino et al., when specialized for $M=4.$
1109.6112
A Visual Entity-Relationship Model for Constraint-Based University Timetabling
cs.AI cs.PL
University timetabling (UTT) is a complex problem due to its combinatorial nature but also the type of constraints involved. The holy grail of (constraint) programming: "the user states the problem the program solves it" remains a challenge since solution quality is tightly coupled with deriving "effective models", best handled by technology experts. In this paper, focusing on the field of university timetabling, we introduce a visual graphic communication tool that lets the user specify her problem in an abstract manner, using a visual entity-relationship model. The entities are nodes of mainly two types: resource nodes (lecturers, assistants, student groups) and events nodes (lectures, lab sessions, tutorials). The links between the nodes signify a desired relationship between them. The visual modeling abstraction focuses on the nature of the entities and their relationships and abstracts from an actual constraint model.
1109.6126
The Statistical Coherence-based Theory of Robust Recovery of Sparsest Overcomplete Representation
cs.IT math.IT
The recovery of sparsest overcomplete representation has recently attracted intensive research activities owe to its important potential in the many applied fields such as signal processing, medical imaging, communication, and so on. This problem can be stated in the following, i.e., to seek for the sparse coefficient vector of the given noisy observation over a redundant dictionary such that, where is the corrupted error. Elad et al. made the worst-case result, which shows the condition of stable recovery of sparest overcomplete representation over is where . Although it's of easy operation for any given matrix, this result can't provide us realistic guide in many cases. On the other hand, most of popular analysis on the sparse reconstruction relies heavily on the so-called RIP (Restricted Isometric Property) for matrices developed by Candes et al., which is usually very difficult or impossible to be justified for a given measurement matrix. In this article, we introduced a simple and efficient way of determining the ability of given D used to recover the sparse signal based on the statistical analysis of coherence coefficients, where is the coherence coefficients between any two different columns of given measurement matrix . The key mechanism behind proposed paradigm is the analysis of statistical distribution (the mean and covariance) of . We proved that if the resulting mean of are zero, and their covariance are as small as possible, one can faithfully recover approximately sparse signals from a minimal number of noisy measurements with overwhelming probability. The resulting theory is not only suitable for almost all models - e.g. Gaussian, frequency measurements-discussed in the literature of compressed sampling, but also provides a framework for new measurement strategies as well.
1109.6202
On Variable Density Compressive Sampling
cs.IT math.IT
We advocate an optimization procedure for variable density sampling in the context of compressed sensing. In this perspective, we introduce a minimization problem for the coherence between the sparsity and sensing bases, whose solution provides an optimized sampling profile. This minimization problem is solved with the use of convex optimization algorithms. We also propose a refinement of our technique when prior information is available on the signal support in the sparsity basis. The effectiveness of the method is confirmed by numerical experiments. Our results also provide a theoretical underpinning to state-of-the-art variable density Fourier sampling procedures used in magnetic resonance imaging.
1109.6206
A Framework for Prefetching Relevant Web Pages using Predictive Prefetching Engine (PPE)
cs.IR
This paper presents a framework for increasing the relevancy of the web pages retrieved by the search engine. The approach introduces a Predictive Prefetching Engine (PPE) which makes use of various data mining algorithms on the log maintained by the search engine. The underlying premise of the approach is that in the case of cluster accesses, the next pages requested by users of the Web server are typically based on the current and previous pages requested. Based on same, rules are drawn which then lead the path for prefetching the desired pages. To carry out the desired task of prefetching the more relevant pages, agents have been introduced.
1109.6222
Robust Sparse Analysis Regularization
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates the theoretical guarantees of L1-analysis regularization when solving linear inverse problems. Most of previous works in the literature have mainly focused on the sparse synthesis prior where the sparsity is measured as the L1 norm of the coefficients that synthesize the signal from a given dictionary. In contrast, the more general analysis regularization minimizes the L1 norm of the correlations between the signal and the atoms in the dictionary, where these correlations define the analysis support. The corresponding variational problem encompasses several well-known regularizations such as the discrete total variation and the Fused Lasso. Our main contributions consist in deriving sufficient conditions that guarantee exact or partial analysis support recovery of the true signal in presence of noise. More precisely, we give a sufficient condition to ensure that a signal is the unique solution of the L1-analysis regularization in the noiseless case. The same condition also guarantees exact analysis support recovery and L2-robustness of the L1-analysis minimizer vis-a-vis an enough small noise in the measurements. This condition turns to be sharp for the robustness of the analysis support. To show partial support recovery and L2-robustness to an arbitrary bounded noise, we introduce a stronger sufficient condition. When specialized to the L1-synthesis regularization, our results recover some corresponding recovery and robustness guarantees previously known in the literature. From this perspective, our work is a generalization of these results. We finally illustrate these theoretical findings on several examples to study the robustness of the 1-D total variation and Fused Lasso regularizations.
1109.6263
The Pollution Effect: Optimizing Keyword Auctions by Favoring Relevant Advertising
cs.GT cs.CY cs.IR
Most search engines sell slots to place advertisements on the search results page through keyword auctions. Advertisers offer bids for how much they are willing to pay when someone enters a search query, sees the search results, and then clicks on one of their ads. Search engines typically order the advertisements for a query by a combination of the bids and expected clickthrough rates for each advertisement. In this paper, we extend a model of Yahoo's and Google's advertising auctions to include an effect where repeatedly showing less relevant ads has a persistent impact on all advertising on the search engine, an impact we designate as the pollution effect. In Monte-Carlo simulations using distributions fitted to Yahoo data, we show that a modest pollution effect is sufficient to dramatically change the advertising rank order that yields the optimal advertising revenue for a search engine. In addition, if a pollution effect exists, it is possible to maximize revenue while also increasing advertiser, and publisher utility. Our results suggest that search engines could benefit from making relevant advertisements less expensive and irrelevant advertisements more costly for advertisers than is the current practice.
1109.6269
Precoder Design for Physical Layer Multicasting
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies the instantaneous rate maximization and the weighted sum delay minimization problems over a K-user multicast channel, where multiple antennas are available at the transmitter as well as at all the receivers. Motivated by the degree of freedom optimality and the simplicity offered by linear precoding schemes, we consider the design of linear precoders using the aforementioned two criteria. We first consider the scenario wherein the linear precoder can be any complex-valued matrix subject to rank and power constraints. We propose cyclic alternating ascent based precoder design algorithms and establish their convergence to respective stationary points. Simulation results reveal that our proposed algorithms considerably outperform known competing solutions. We then consider a scenario in which the linear precoder can be formed by selecting and concatenating precoders from a given finite codebook of precoding matrices, subject to rank and power constraints. We show that under this scenario, the instantaneous rate maximization problem is equivalent to a robust submodular maximization problem which is strongly NP hard. We propose a deterministic approximation algorithm and show that it yields a bicriteria approximation. For the weighted sum delay minimization problem we propose a simple deterministic greedy algorithm, which at each step entails approximately maximizing a submodular set function subject to multiple knapsack constraints, and establish its performance guarantee.
1109.6276
Lattices for Physical-layer Secrecy: A Computational Perspective
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
In this paper, we use the hardness of quantization over general lattices as the basis of developing a physical layer secrecy system. Assuming that the channel state observed by the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper are distinct, this asymmetry is used to develop a cryptosystem that resembles the McEliece cryptosystem, designed to be implemented at the physical layer. We ensure that the legitimate receiver observes a specific lattice over which decoding is known to be possible in polynomial-time. while the eavesdropper observes a lattice over which decoding will prove to have the complexity of lattice quantization over a general lattice
1109.6297
Low-rank data modeling via the Minimum Description Length principle
cs.IT cs.MM math.IT stat.ML
Robust low-rank matrix estimation is a topic of increasing interest, with promising applications in a variety of fields, from computer vision to data mining and recommender systems. Recent theoretical results establish the ability of such data models to recover the true underlying low-rank matrix when a large portion of the measured matrix is either missing or arbitrarily corrupted. However, if low rank is not a hypothesis about the true nature of the data, but a device for extracting regularity from it, no current guidelines exist for choosing the rank of the estimated matrix. In this work we address this problem by means of the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle -- a well established information-theoretic approach to statistical inference -- as a guideline for selecting a model for the data at hand. We demonstrate the practical usefulness of our formal approach with results for complex background extraction in video sequences.
1109.6299
Sensitivity Analysis for Declarative Relational Query Languages with Ordinal Ranks
cs.DB
We present sensitivity analysis for results of query executions in a relational model of data extended by ordinal ranks. The underlying model of data results from the ordinary Codd's model of data in which we consider ordinal ranks of tuples in data tables expressing degrees to which tuples match queries. In this setting, we show that ranks assigned to tuples are insensitive to small changes, i.e., small changes in the input data do not yield large changes in the results of queries.
1109.6303
Reduced-Dimension Multiuser Detection
cs.IT math.IT
We present a reduced-dimension multiuser detector (RD-MUD) structure for synchronous systems that significantly decreases the number of required correlation branches at the receiver front-end, while still achieving performance similar to that of the conventional matched-filter (MF) bank. RD-MUD exploits the fact that, in some wireless systems, the number of active users may be small relative to the total number of users in the system. Hence, the ideas of analog compressed sensing may be used to reduce the number of correlators. The correlating signals used by each correlator are chosen as an appropriate linear combination of the users' spreading waveforms. We derive the probability-of-symbol-error when using two methods for recovery of active users and their transmitted symbols: the reduced-dimension decorrelating (RDD) detector, which combines subspace projection and thresholding to determine active users and sign detection for data recovery, and the reduced-dimension decision-feedback (RDDF) detector, which combines decision-feedback matching pursuit for active user detection and sign detection for data recovery. We derive probability of error bounds for both detectors, and show that the number of correlators needed to achieve a small probability-of-symbol-error is on the order of the logarithm of the number of users in the system. The theoretical performance results are validated via numerical simulations.
1109.6310
The Dispersion of Joint Source-Channel Coding
cs.IT math.IT
In this work we investigate the behavior of the distortion threshold that can be guaranteed in joint source-channel coding, to within a prescribed excess-distortion probability. We show that the gap between this threshold and the optimal average distortion is governed by a constant that we call the joint source-channel dispersion. This constant can be easily computed, since it is the sum of the source and channel dispersions, previously derived. The resulting performance is shown to be better than that of any separation-based scheme. For the proof, we use unequal error protection channel coding, thus we also evaluate the dispersion of that setting.
1109.6340
Negotiating Socially Optimal Allocations of Resources
cs.MA
A multiagent system may be thought of as an artificial society of autonomous software agents and we can apply concepts borrowed from welfare economics and social choice theory to assess the social welfare of such an agent society. In this paper, we study an abstract negotiation framework where agents can agree on multilateral deals to exchange bundles of indivisible resources. We then analyse how these deals affect social welfare for different instances of the basic framework and different interpretations of the concept of social welfare itself. In particular, we show how certain classes of deals are both sufficient and necessary to guarantee that a socially optimal allocation of resources will be reached eventually.
1109.6341
Domain Adaptation for Statistical Classifiers
cs.LG cs.CL
The most basic assumption used in statistical learning theory is that training data and test data are drawn from the same underlying distribution. Unfortunately, in many applications, the "in-domain" test data is drawn from a distribution that is related, but not identical, to the "out-of-domain" distribution of the training data. We consider the common case in which labeled out-of-domain data is plentiful, but labeled in-domain data is scarce. We introduce a statistical formulation of this problem in terms of a simple mixture model and present an instantiation of this framework to maximum entropy classifiers and their linear chain counterparts. We present efficient inference algorithms for this special case based on the technique of conditional expectation maximization. Our experimental results show that our approach leads to improved performance on three real world tasks on four different data sets from the natural language processing domain.
1109.6344
Admissible and Restrained Revision
cs.AI
As partial justification of their framework for iterated belief revision Darwiche and Pearl convincingly argued against Boutiliers natural revision and provided a prototypical revision operator that fits into their scheme. We show that the Darwiche-Pearl arguments lead naturally to the acceptance of a smaller class of operators which we refer to as admissible. Admissible revision ensures that the penultimate input is not ignored completely, thereby eliminating natural revision, but includes the Darwiche-Pearl operator, Nayaks lexicographic revision operator, and a newly introduced operator called restrained revision. We demonstrate that restrained revision is the most conservative of admissible revision operators, effecting as few changes as possible, while lexicographic revision is the least conservative, and point out that restrained revision can also be viewed as a composite operator, consisting of natural revision preceded by an application of a "backwards revision" operator previously studied by Papini. Finally, we propose the establishment of a principled approach for choosing an appropriate revision operator in different contexts and discuss future work.
1109.6345
On Graphical Modeling of Preference and Importance
cs.AI
In recent years, CP-nets have emerged as a useful tool for supporting preference elicitation, reasoning, and representation. CP-nets capture and support reasoning with qualitative conditional preference statements, statements that are relatively natural for users to express. In this paper, we extend the CP-nets formalism to handle another class of very natural qualitative statements one often uses in expressing preferences in daily life - statements of relative importance of attributes. The resulting formalism, TCP-nets, maintains the spirit of CP-nets, in that it remains focused on using only simple and natural preference statements, uses the ceteris paribus semantics, and utilizes a graphical representation of this information to reason about its consistency and to perform, possibly constrained, optimization using it. The extra expressiveness it provides allows us to better model tradeoffs users would like to make, more faithfully representing their preferences.
1109.6346
The Planning Spectrum - One, Two, Three, Infinity
cs.AI
Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) is widely used for defining conditions on the execution paths of dynamic systems. In the case of dynamic systems that allow for nondeterministic evolutions, one has to specify, along with an LTL formula f, which are the paths that are required to satisfy the formula. Two extreme cases are the universal interpretation A.f, which requires that the formula be satisfied for all execution paths, and the existential interpretation E.f, which requires that the formula be satisfied for some execution path. When LTL is applied to the definition of goals in planning problems on nondeterministic domains, these two extreme cases are too restrictive. It is often impossible to develop plans that achieve the goal in all the nondeterministic evolutions of a system, and it is too weak to require that the goal is satisfied by some execution. In this paper we explore alternative interpretations of an LTL formula that are between these extreme cases. We define a new language that permits an arbitrary combination of the A and E quantifiers, thus allowing, for instance, to require that each finite execution can be extended to an execution satisfying an LTL formula (AE.f), or that there is some finite execution whose extensions all satisfy an LTL formula (EA.f). We show that only eight of these combinations of path quantifiers are relevant, corresponding to an alternation of the quantifiers of length one (A and E), two (AE and EA), three (AEA and EAE), and infinity ((AE)* and (EA)*). We also present a planning algorithm for the new language that is based on an automata-theoretic approach, and study its complexity.
1109.6348
Fault Tolerant Boolean Satisfiability
cs.AI
A delta-model is a satisfying assignment of a Boolean formula for which any small alteration, such as a single bit flip, can be repaired by flips to some small number of other bits, yielding a new satisfying assignment. These satisfying assignments represent robust solutions to optimization problems (e.g., scheduling) where it is possible to recover from unforeseen events (e.g., a resource becoming unavailable). The concept of delta-models was introduced by Ginsberg, Parkes and Roy (AAAI 1998), where it was proved that finding delta-models for general Boolean formulas is NP-complete. In this paper, we extend that result by studying the complexity of finding delta-models for classes of Boolean formulas which are known to have polynomial time satisfiability solvers. In particular, we examine 2-SAT, Horn-SAT, Affine-SAT, dual-Horn-SAT, 0-valid and 1-valid SAT. We see a wide variation in the complexity of finding delta-models, e.g., while 2-SAT and Affine-SAT have polynomial time tests for delta-models, testing whether a Horn-SAT formula has one is NP-complete.
1109.6361
Cognitive Principles in Robust Multimodal Interpretation
cs.AI
Multimodal conversational interfaces provide a natural means for users to communicate with computer systems through multiple modalities such as speech and gesture. To build effective multimodal interfaces, automated interpretation of user multimodal inputs is important. Inspired by the previous investigation on cognitive status in multimodal human machine interaction, we have developed a greedy algorithm for interpreting user referring expressions (i.e., multimodal reference resolution). This algorithm incorporates the cognitive principles of Conversational Implicature and Givenness Hierarchy and applies constraints from various sources (e.g., temporal, semantic, and contextual) to resolve references. Our empirical results have shown the advantage of this algorithm in efficiently resolving a variety of user references. Because of its simplicity and generality, this approach has the potential to improve the robustness of multimodal input interpretation.
1109.6371
Multi-User MIMO with outdated CSI: Training, Feedback and Scheduling
cs.IT math.IT
Conventional MU-MIMO techniques, e.g. Linear Zero-Forced Beamforming (LZFB), require sufficiently accurate channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) in order to realize spectral efficient transmission (degree of freedom gains). In practical settings, however, CSIT accuracy can be limited by a number of issues including CSI estimation, CSI feedback delay between user terminals to base stations, and the time/frequency coherence of the channel. The latter aspects of CSIT-feedback delay and channel-dynamics can lead to significant challenges in the deployment of efficient MU-MIMO systems. Recently it has been shown by Maddah-Ali and Tse (MAT) that degree of freedom gains can be realized by MU-MIMO even when the knowledge of CSIT is completely outdated. Specifically, outdated CSIT, albeit perfect CSIT, is known for transmissions only after they have taken place. This aspect of insensitivity to CSIT-feedback delay is of particular interest since it allows one to reconsider MU-MIMO design in dynamic channel conditions. Indeed, as we show, with appropriate scheduling, and even in the context of CSI estimation and feedback errors, the proposed MAT scheme can have performance advantages over conventional MU-MIMO in such scenarios.
1109.6390
Performance of Orthogonal Matching Pursuit for Multiple Measurement Vectors
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm for multiple measurement vectors (MMV) problem. The robustness of OMPMMV is studied under general perturbations---when the measurement vectors as well as the sensing matrix are incorporated with additive noise. The main result shows that although exact recovery of the sparse solutions is unrealistic in noisy scenario, recovery of the support set of the solutions is guaranteed under suitable conditions. Specifically, a sufficient condition is derived that guarantees exact recovery of the sparse solutions in noiseless scenario.
1109.6391
Distributed Algorithms for Consensus and Coordination in the Presence of Packet-Dropping Communication Links - Part I: Statistical Moments Analysis Approach
cs.SY math.OC
This two-part paper discusses robustification methodologies for linear-iterative distributed algorithms for consensus and coordination problems in multicomponent systems, in which unreliable communication links may drop packets. We consider a setup where communication links between components can be asymmetric (i.e., component j might be able to send information to component i, but not necessarily vice-versa), so that the information exchange between components in the system is in general described by a directed graph that is assumed to be strongly connected. In the absence of communication link failures, each component i maintains two auxiliary variables and updates each of their values to be a linear combination of their corresponding previous values and the corresponding previous values of neighboring components (i.e., components that send information to node i). By appropriately initializing these two (decoupled) iterations, the system components can asymptotically calculate variables of interest in a distributed fashion; in particular, the average of the initial conditions can be calculated as a function that involves the ratio of these two auxiliary variables. The focus of this paper to robustify this double-iteration algorithm against communication link failures. We achieve this by modifying the double-iteration algorithm (by introducing some additional auxiliary variables) and prove that the modified double-iteration converges almost surely to average consensus. In the first part of the paper, we study the first and second moments of the two iterations, and use them to establish convergence, and illustrate the performance of the algorithm with several numerical examples. In the second part, in order to establish the convergence of the algorithm, we use coefficients of ergodicity commonly used in analyzing inhomogeneous Markov chains.
1109.6392
Distributed Algorithms for Consensus and Coordination in the Presence of Packet-Dropping Communication Links - Part II: Coefficients of Ergodicity Analysis Approach
cs.SY math.OC
In this two-part paper, we consider multicomponent systems in which each component can iteratively exchange information with other components in its neighborhood in order to compute, in a distributed fashion, the average of the components' initial values or some other quantity of interest (i.e., some function of these initial values). In particular, we study an iterative algorithm for computing the average of the initial values of the nodes. In this algorithm, each component maintains two sets of variables that are updated via two identical linear iterations. The average of the initial values of the nodes can be asymptotically computed by each node as the ratio of two of the variables it maintains. In the first part of this paper, we show how the update rules for the two sets of variables can be enhanced so that the algorithm becomes tolerant to communication links that may drop packets, independently among them and independently between different transmission times. In this second part, by rewriting the collective dynamics of both iterations, we show that the resulting system is mathematically equivalent to a finite inhomogenous Markov chain whose transition matrix takes one of finitely many values at each step. Then, by using e a coefficients of ergodicity approach, a method commonly used for convergence analysis of Markov chains, we prove convergence of the robustified consensus scheme. The analysis suggests that similar convergence should hold under more general conditions as well.
1109.6401
An Interpretation of Belief Functions by means of a Probabilistic Multi-modal Logic
cs.LO cs.AI math.LO
While belief functions may be seen formally as a generalization of probabilistic distributions, the question of the interactions between belief functions and probability is still an issue in practice. This question is difficult, since the contexts of use of these theory are notably different and the semantics behind these theories are not exactly the same. A prominent issue is increasingly regarded by the community, that is the management of the conflicting information. Recent works have introduced new rules for handling the conflict redistribution while combining belief functions. The notion of conflict, or its cancellation by an hypothesis of open world, seems by itself to prevent a direct interpretation of belief function in a probabilistic framework. This paper addresses the question of a probabilistic interpretation of belief functions. It first introduces and implements a theoretically grounded rule, which is in essence an adaptive conjunctive rule. It is shown, how this rule is derived from a logical interpretation of the belief functions by means of a probabilistic multimodal logic; in addition, a concept of source independence is introduced, based on a principle of entropy maximization.
1109.6402
Extension of Boolean algebra by a Bayesian operator; application to the definition of a Deterministic Bayesian Logic
math.LO cs.AI cs.LO
This work contributes to the domains of Boolean algebra and of Bayesian probability, by proposing an algebraic extension of Boolean algebras, which implements an operator for the Bayesian conditional inference and is closed under this operator. It is known since the work of Lewis (Lewis' triviality) that it is not possible to construct such conditional operator within the space of events. Nevertheless, this work proposes an answer which complements Lewis' triviality, by the construction of a conditional operator outside the space of events, thus resulting in an algebraic extension. In particular, it is proved that any probability defined on a Boolean algebra may be extended to its algebraic extension in compliance with the multiplicative definition of the conditional probability. In the last part of this paper, a new bivalent logic is introduced on the basis of this algebraic extension, and basic properties are derived.
1109.6437
An Error Probability Approach to MIMO Wiretap Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We consider MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) wiretap channels, where a legitimate transmitter Alice is communicating with a legitimate receiver Bob in the presence of an eavesdropper Eve, and communication is done via MIMO channels. We suppose that Alice's strategy is to use a codebook which has a lattice structure, which then allows her to perform coset encoding. We analyze Eve's probability of correctly decoding the message Alice meant to Bob, and from minimizing this probability, we derive a code design criterion for MIMO lattice wiretap codes. The case of block fading channels is treated similarly, and fast fading channels are derived as a particular case. The Alamouti code is carefully studied as an illustration of the analysis provided.
1109.6440
Extropy: Complementary Dual of Entropy
cs.IT math.IT math.PR math.ST physics.data-an stat.TH
This article provides a completion to theories of information based on entropy, resolving a longstanding question in its axiomatization as proposed by Shannon and pursued by Jaynes. We show that Shannon's entropy function has a complementary dual function which we call "extropy." The entropy and the extropy of a binary distribution are identical. However, the measure bifurcates into a pair of distinct measures for any quantity that is not merely an event indicator. As with entropy, the maximum extropy distribution is also the uniform distribution, and both measures are invariant with respect to permutations of their mass functions. However, they behave quite differently in their assessments of the refinement of a distribution, the axiom which concerned Shannon and Jaynes. Their duality is specified via the relationship among the entropies and extropies of course and fine partitions. We also analyze the extropy function for densities, showing that relative extropy constitutes a dual to the Kullback-Leibler divergence, widely recognized as the continuous entropy measure. These results are unified within the general structure of Bregman divergences. In this context they identify half the $L_2$ metric as the extropic dual to the entropic directed distance. We describe a statistical application to the scoring of sequential forecast distributions which provoked the discovery.
1109.6441
Memetic Algorithms: Parametrization and Balancing Local and Global Search
cs.NE
This is a preprint of a book chapter from the Handbook of Memetic Algorithms, Studies in Computational Intelligence, Vol. 379, ISBN 978-3-642-23246-6, Springer, edited by F. Neri, C. Cotta, and P. Moscato. It is devoted to the parametrization of memetic algorithms and how to find a good balance between global and local search.
1109.6442
ABHIVYAKTI: A Vision Based Intelligent System for Elder and Sick Persons
cs.CV
This paper describes an intelligent system ABHIVYAKTI, which would be pervasive in nature and based on the Computer Vision. It would be very easy in use and deployment. Elder and sick people who are not able to talk or walk, they are dependent on other human beings and need continuous monitoring, while our system provides flexibility to the sick or elder person to announce his or her need to their caretaker by just showing a particular gesture with the developed system, if the caretaker is not nearby. This system will use fingertip detection techniques for acquiring gesture and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) will be used for gesture recognition.
1109.6505
The Reliability Value of Storage in a Volatile Environment
math.OC cs.SY
This paper examines the value of storage in securing reliability of a system with uncertain supply and demand, and supply friction. The storage is frictionless as a supply source, but once used, it cannot be filled up instantaneously. The focus application is a power supply network in which the base supply and demand are assumed to match perfectly, while deviations from the base are modeled as random shocks with stochastic arrivals. Due to friction, the random surge shocks cannot be tracked by the main supply sources. Storage, when available, can be used to compensate, fully or partially, for the surge in demand or loss of supply. The problem of optimal utilization of storage with the objective of maximizing system reliability is formulated as minimization of the expected discounted cost of blackouts over an infinite horizon. It is shown that when the stage cost is linear in the size of the blackout, the optimal policy is myopic in the sense that all shocks are compensated by storage up to the available level of storage. However, when the stage cost is strictly convex, it may be optimal to curtail some of the demand and allow a small current blackout in the interest of maintaining a higher level of reserve to avoid a large blackout in the future. The value of storage capacity in improving system's reliability, as well as the effects of the associated optimal policies under different stage costs on the probability distribution of blackouts are examined.
1109.6510
Exact Performance Analysis of Partial Relay Selection Based on Shadowing Side Information over Generalized Composite Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT math.PR math.ST stat.TH
Relay technology has recently gained great interest in millimeter wave (60 GHz or above) radio frequencies as a promising transmission technique improving the quality of service, providing high data rate, and extending the coverage area without additional transmit power in deeply shadowed fading environments. The performance of relay-based systems considerably depends on which relay selection protocols (RSPs) are used. These RSPs are typically using the channel side information (CSI). Specifically, the relay terminal (RT) is chosen among all available RTs by a central entity (CE) which receives all RTs' CSI via feedback channels. However, in the millimeter wave radio frequencies, the rate of the CSI variation is much higher than that of the CSI variation in 6 GHz frequencies under the same mobility conditions, which evidently results in a serious problem causing that the CSI at the CE is inaccurate for the RSP since the feedback channels have a backhaul / transmission delay. However and fortunately, the shadowing side information (SSI) varies very slowly in comparison to the rate of the CSI variation. In this context, we propose in this paper a partial-RSP in dual-hop amplify-and-forward relaying system, which utilize only the SSI of the RTs instead of their CSI. Then for the performance analysis, we obtain an exact average unified performance (AUP) of the proposed SSI-based partial-RSP for a variety shadowed fading environments. In particular, we offer a generic AUP expression whose special cases include the average bit error probability (ABEP) analysis for binary modulation schemes, the ergodic capacity analysis and the moments-generating function (MGF)-based characterization. The correctness of our newly theoretical results is validated with some selected numerical examples in an extended generalized-K fading environment.
1109.6541
On the Achievable DoF and User Scaling Law of Opportunistic Interference Alignment in 3-Transmitter MIMO Interference Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we propose opportunistic interference alignment (OIA) schemes for three-transmitter multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) interference channels (ICs). In the proposed OIA, each transmitter has its own user group and selects a single user who has the most aligned interference signals. The user dimensions provided by multiple users are exploited to align interfering signals. Contrary to conventional IA, perfect channel state information of all channel links is not required at the transmitter, and each user just feeds back one scalar value to indicate how well the interfering channels are aligned. We prove that each transmitter can achieve the same degrees of freedom (DoF) as the interference free case via user selection in our system model that the number of receive antennas is twice of the number of transmit antennas. Using the geometric interpretation, we find the required user scaling to obtain an arbitrary non-zero DoF. Two OIA schemes are proposed and compared with various user selection schemes in terms of achievable rate/DoF and complexity.