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0803.1025
Asymptotic Concentration Behaviors of Linear Combinations of Weight Distributions on Random Linear Code Ensemble
cs.IT math.IT
Asymptotic concentration behaviors of linear combinations of weight distributions on the random linear code ensemble are presented. Many important properties of a binary linear code can be expressed as the form of a linear combination of weight distributions such as number of codewords, undetected error probability and upper bound on the maximum likelihood error probability. The key in this analysis is the covariance formula of weight distributions of the random linear code ensemble, which reveals the second-order statistics of a linear function of the weight distributions. Based on the covariance formula, several expressions of the asymptotic concentration rate, which indicate the speed of convergence to the average, are derived.
0803.1087
The Future of Scientific Simulations: from Artificial Life to Artificial Cosmogenesis
cs.AI
This philosophical paper explores the relation between modern scientific simulations and the future of the universe. We argue that a simulation of an entire universe will result from future scientific activity. This requires us to tackle the challenge of simulating open-ended evolution at all levels in a single simulation. The simulation should encompass not only biological evolution, but also physical evolution (a level below) and cultural evolution (a level above). The simulation would allow us to probe what would happen if we would "replay the tape of the universe" with the same or different laws and initial conditions. We also distinguish between real-world and artificial-world modelling. Assuming that intelligent life could indeed simulate an entire universe, this leads to two tentative hypotheses. Some authors have argued that we may already be in a simulation run by an intelligent entity. Or, if such a simulation could be made real, this would lead to the production of a new universe. This last direction is argued with a careful speculative philosophical approach, emphasizing the imperative to find a solution to the heat death problem in cosmology. The reader is invited to consult Annex 1 for an overview of the logical structure of this paper. -- Keywords: far future, future of science, ALife, simulation, realization, cosmology, heat death, fine-tuning, physical eschatology, cosmological natural selection, cosmological artificial selection, artificial cosmogenesis, selfish biocosm hypothesis, meduso-anthropic principle, developmental singularity hypothesis, role of intelligent life.
0803.1090
Self-Corrected Min-Sum decoding of LDPC codes
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we propose a very simple but powerful self-correction method for the Min-Sum decoding of LPDC codes. Unlike other correction methods known in the literature, our method does not try to correct the check node processing approximation, but it modifies the variable node processing by erasing unreliable messages. However, this positively affects check node messages, which become symmetric Gaussian distributed, and we show that this is sufficient to ensure a quasi-optimal decoding performance. Monte-Carlo simulations show that the proposed Self-Corrected Min-Sum decoding performs very close to the Sum-Product decoding, while preserving the main features of the Min-Sum decoding, that is low complexity and independence with respect to noise variance estimation errors.
0803.1094
Min-Max decoding for non binary LDPC codes
cs.IT math.IT
Iterative decoding of non-binary LDPC codes is currently performed using either the Sum-Product or the Min-Sum algorithms or slightly different versions of them. In this paper, several low-complexity quasi-optimal iterative algorithms are proposed for decoding non-binary codes. The Min-Max algorithm is one of them and it has the benefit of two possible LLR domain implementations: a standard implementation, whose complexity scales as the square of the Galois field's cardinality and a reduced complexity implementation called selective implementation, which makes the Min-Max decoding very attractive for practical purposes.
0803.1096
Algebraic-geometric codes from vector bundles and their decoding
cs.IT math.IT
Algebraic-geometric codes can be constructed by evaluating a certain set of functions on a set of distinct rational points of an algebraic curve. The set of functions that are evaluated is the linear space of a given divisor or, equivalently, the set of section of a given line bundle. Using arbitrary rank vector bundles on algebraic curves, we propose a natural generalization of the above construction. Our codes can also be seen as interleaved versions of classical algebraic-geometric codes. We show that the algorithm of Brown, Minder and Shokrollahi can be extended to this new class of codes and it corrects any number of errors up to $t^{*} - g/2$, where $t^{*}$ is the designed correction capacity of the code and $g$ is the curve genus.
0803.1120
The Rate Loss of Single-Letter Characterization: The "Dirty" Multiple Access Channel
cs.IT math.IT
For general memoryless systems, the typical information theoretic solution - when exists - has a "single-letter" form. This reflects the fact that optimum performance can be approached by a random code (or a random binning scheme), generated using independent and identically distributed copies of some single-letter distribution. Is that the form of the solution of any (information theoretic) problem? In fact, some counter examples are known. The most famous is the "two help one" problem: Korner and Marton showed that if we want to decode the modulo-two sum of two binary sources from their independent encodings, then linear coding is better than random coding. In this paper we provide another counter example, the "doubly-dirty" multiple access channel (MAC). Like the Korner-Marton problem, this is a multi-terminal scenario where side information is distributed among several terminals; each transmitter knows part of the channel interference but the receiver is not aware of any part of it. We give an explicit solution for the capacity region of a binary version of the doubly-dirty MAC, demonstrate how the capacity region can be approached using a linear coding scheme, and prove that the "best known single-letter region" is strictly contained in it. We also state a conjecture regarding a similar rate loss of single letter characterization in the Gaussian case.
0803.1144
Asymptotic Capacity and Optimal Precoding Strategy of Multi-Level Precode & Forward in Correlated Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We analyze a multi-level MIMO relaying system where a multiple-antenna transmitter sends data to a multipleantenna receiver through several relay levels, also equipped with multiple antennas. Assuming correlated fading in each hop, each relay receives a faded version of the signal transmitted by the previous level, performs precoding on the received signal and retransmits it to the next level. Using free probability theory and assuming that the noise power at the relay levels - but not at the receiver - is negligible, a closed-form expression of the end-to-end asymptotic instantaneous mutual information is derived as the number of antennas in all levels grow large with the same rate. This asymptotic expression is shown to be independent from the channel realizations, to only depend on the channel statistics and to also serve as the asymptotic value of the end-to-end average mutual information. We also provide the optimal singular vectors of the precoding matrices that maximize the asymptotic mutual information : the optimal transmit directions represented by the singular vectors of the precoding matrices are aligned on the eigenvectors of the channel correlation matrices, therefore they can be determined only using the known statistics of the channel matrices and do not depend on a particular channel realization.
0803.1195
Secure Lossless Compression with Side Information
cs.IT math.IT
Secure data compression in the presence of side information at both a legitimate receiver and an eavesdropper is explored. A noise-free, limited rate link between the source and the receiver, whose output can be perfectly observed by the eavesdropper, is assumed. As opposed to the wiretap channel model, in which secure communication can be established by exploiting the noise in the channel, here the existence of side information at the receiver is used. Both coded and uncoded side information are considered. In the coded side information scenario, inner and outer bounds on the compression-equivocation rate region are given. In the uncoded side information scenario, the availability of the legitimate receiver's and the eavesdropper's side information at the encoder is considered, and the compression-equivocation rate region is characterized for these cases. It is shown that the side information at the encoder can increase the equivocation rate at the eavesdropper. Hence, the side information at the encoder is shown to be useful in terms of security; this is in contrast with the pure lossless data compression case where side information at the encoder would not help.
0803.1207
Serious Flaws in Korf et al.'s Analysis on Time Complexity of A*
cs.AI
This paper has been withdrawn.
0803.1221
Non-Singular Assembly-mode Changing Motions for 3-RPR Parallel Manipulators
cs.RO physics.class-ph
When moving from one arbitrary location at another, a parallel manipulator may change its assembly-mode without crossing a singularity. Because the non-singular change of assembly-mode cannot be simply detected, the actual assembly-mode during motion is difficult to track. This paper proposes a global explanatory approach to help better understand non-singular assembly-mode changing motions for 3-RPR planar parallel manipulators. The approach consists in fixing one of the actuated joints and analyzing the configuration-space as a surface in a 3-dimensional space. Such a global description makes it possible to display all possible non-singular assembly-mode changing trajectories.
0803.1227
Linear programming bounds for unitary space time codes
cs.IT math.IT
The linear programming method is applied to the space $\U_n(\C)$ of unitary matrices in order to obtain bounds for codes relative to the diversity sum and the diversity product. Theoretical and numerical results improving previously known bounds are derived.
0803.1323
A Game Theoretic Framework for Decentralized Power Allocation in IDMA Systems
cs.IT cs.GT math.IT
In this contribution we present a decentralized power allocation algorithm for the uplink interleave division multiple access (IDMA) channel. Within the proposed optimal strategy for power allocation, each user aims at selfishly maximizing its own utility function. An iterative chip by chip (CBC) decoder at the receiver and a rational selfish behavior of all the users according to a classical game-theoretical framework are the underlying assumptions of this work. This approach leads to a power allocation based on a channel inversion policy where the optimal power level is set locally at each terminal based on the knowledge of its own channel realization, the noise level at the receiver and the number of active users in the network.
0803.1443
Lexical growth, entropy and the benefits of networking
cs.IT math.IT q-bio.QM
If each node of an idealized network has an equal capacity to efficiently exchange benefits, then the network's capacity to use energy is scaled by the average amount of energy required to connect any two of its nodes. The scaling factor equals \textit{e}, and the network's entropy is $\ln(n)$. Networking emerges in consequence of nodes minimizing the ratio of their energy use to the benefits obtained for such use, and their connectability. Networking leads to nested hierarchical clustering, which multiplies a network's capacity to use its energy to benefit its nodes. Network entropy multiplies a node's capacity. For a real network in which the nodes have the capacity to exchange benefits, network entropy may be estimated as $C \log_L(n)$, where the base of the log is the path length $L$, and $C$ is the clustering coefficient. Since $n$, $L$ and $C$ can be calculated for real networks, network entropy for real networks can be calculated and can reveal aspects of emergence and also of economic, biological, conceptual and other networks, such as the relationship between rates of lexical growth and divergence, and the economic benefit of adding customers to a commercial communications network. \textit{Entropy dating} can help estimate the age of network processes, such as the growth of hierarchical society and of language.
0803.1445
Distributed Joint Source-Channel Coding on a Multiple Access Channel with Side Information
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of transmission of several distributed sources over a multiple access channel (MAC) with side information at the sources and the decoder. Source-channel separation does not hold for this channel. Sufficient conditions are provided for transmission of sources with a given distortion. The source and/or the channel could have continuous alphabets (thus Gaussian sources and Gaussian MACs are special cases). Various previous results are obtained as special cases. We also provide several good joint source-channel coding schemes for a discrete/continuous source and discrete/continuous alphabet channel. Channels with feedback and fading are also considered. Keywords: Multiple access channel, side information, lossy joint source-channel coding, channels with feedback, fading channels.
0803.1454
Tight Bounds on the Capacity of Binary Input random CDMA Systems
cs.IT math.IT
We consider multiple access communication on a binary input additive white Gaussian noise channel using randomly spread code division. For a general class of symmetric distributions for spreading coefficients, in the limit of a large number of users, we prove an upper bound on the capacity, which matches a formula that Tanaka obtained by using the replica method. We also show concentration of various relevant quantities including mutual information, capacity and free energy. The mathematical methods are quite general and allow us to discuss extensions to other multiuser scenarios.
0803.1457
Hybrid Reasoning and the Future of Iconic Representations
cs.AI cs.LO
We give a brief overview of the main characteristics of diagrammatic reasoning, analyze a case of human reasoning in a mastermind game, and explain why hybrid representation systems (HRS) are particularly attractive and promising for Artificial General Intelligence and Computer Science in general.
0803.1511
The Capacity Region of the Degraded Finite-State Broadcast Channel
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the discrete, time-varying broadcast channel with memory under the assumption that the channel states belong to a set of finite cardinality. We first define the physically degraded finite-state broadcast channel for which we derive the capacity region. We then define the stochastically degraded finite-state broadcast channel and derive the capacity region for this scenario as well. In both scenarios we consider the non-indecomposable finite-state channel as well as the indecomposable one.
0803.1555
Privacy Preserving ID3 over Horizontally, Vertically and Grid Partitioned Data
cs.DB cs.LG
We consider privacy preserving decision tree induction via ID3 in the case where the training data is horizontally or vertically distributed. Furthermore, we consider the same problem in the case where the data is both horizontally and vertically distributed, a situation we refer to as grid partitioned data. We give an algorithm for privacy preserving ID3 over horizontally partitioned data involving more than two parties. For grid partitioned data, we discuss two different evaluation methods for preserving privacy ID3, namely, first merging horizontally and developing vertically or first merging vertically and next developing horizontally. Next to introducing privacy preserving data mining over grid-partitioned data, the main contribution of this paper is that we show, by means of a complexity analysis that the former evaluation method is the more efficient.
0803.1568
Dempster-Shafer for Anomaly Detection
cs.NE cs.AI cs.CR
In this paper, we implement an anomaly detection system using the Dempster-Shafer method. Using two standard benchmark problems we show that by combining multiple signals it is possible to achieve better results than by using a single signal. We further show that by applying this approach to a real-world email dataset the algorithm works for email worm detection. Dempster-Shafer can be a promising method for anomaly detection problems with multiple features (data sources), and two or more classes.
0803.1576
Simulation Optimization of the Crossdock Door Assignment Problem
cs.NE cs.CE
The purpose of this report is to present the Crossdock Door Assignment Problem, which involves assigning destinations to outbound dock doors of Crossdock centres such that travel distance by material handling equipment is minimized. We propose a two fold solution; simulation and optimization of the simulation model simulation optimization. The novel aspect of our solution approach is that we intend to use simulation to derive a more realistic objective function and use Memetic algorithms to find an optimal solution. The main advantage of using Memetic algorithms is that it combines a local search with Genetic Algorithms. The Crossdock Door Assignment Problem is a new domain application to Memetic Algorithms and it is yet unknown how it will perform.
0803.1586
Spatio-activity based object detection
cs.CV
We present the SAMMI lightweight object detection method which has a high level of accuracy and robustness, and which is able to operate in an environment with a large number of cameras. Background modeling is based on DCT coefficients provided by cameras. Foreground detection uses similarity in temporal characteristics of adjacent blocks of pixels, which is a computationally inexpensive way to make use of object coherence. Scene model updating uses the approximated median method for improved performance. Evaluation at pixel level and application level shows that SAMMI object detection performs better and faster than the conventional Mixture of Gaussians method.
0803.1596
Using Intelligent Agents to understand organisational behaviour
cs.NE cs.MA
This paper introduces two ongoing research projects which seek to apply computer modelling techniques in order to simulate human behaviour within organisations. Previous research in other disciplines has suggested that complex social behaviours are governed by relatively simple rules which, when identified, can be used to accurately model such processes using computer technology. The broad objective of our research is to develop a similar capability within organisational psychology.
0803.1598
A Multi-Agent Simulation of Retail Management Practices
cs.NE
We apply Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS) to investigate a set of problems in a retail context. Specifically, we are working to understand the relationship between human resource management practices and retail productivity. Despite the fact we are working within a relatively novel and complex domain, it is clear that intelligent agents do offer potential for developing organizational capabilities in the future. Our multi-disciplinary research team has worked with a UK department store to collect data and capture perceptions about operations from actors within departments. Based on this case study work, we have built a simulator that we present in this paper. We then use the simulator to gather empirical evidence regarding two specific management practices: empowerment and employee development.
0803.1600
Understanding Retail Productivity by Simulating Management Practise
cs.NE
Intelligent agents offer a new and exciting way of understanding the world of work. In this paper we apply agent-based modeling and simulation to investigate a set of problems in a retail context. Specifically, we are working to understand the relationship between human resource management practices and retail productivity. Despite the fact we are working within a relatively novel and complex domain, it is clear that intelligent agents could offer potential for fostering sustainable organizational capabilities in the future. Our research so far has led us to conduct case study work with a top ten UK retailer, collecting data in four departments in two stores. Based on our case study data we have built and tested a first version of a department store simulator. In this paper we will report on the current development of our simulator which includes new features concerning more realistic data on the pattern of footfall during the day and the week, a more differentiated view of customers, and the evolution of customers over time. This allows us to investigate more complex scenarios and to analyze the impact of various management practices.
0803.1604
Using Intelligent Agents to Understand Management Practices and Retail Productivity
cs.NE cs.CE cs.MA
Intelligent agents offer a new and exciting way of understanding the world of work. In this paper we apply agent-based modeling and simulation to investigate a set of problems in a retail context. Specifically, we are working to understand the relationship between human resource management practices and retail productivity. Despite the fact we are working within a relatively novel and complex domain, it is clear that intelligent agents could offer potential for fostering sustainable organizational capabilities in the future. The project is still at an early stage. So far we have conducted a case study in a UK department store to collect data and capture impressions about operations and actors within departments. Furthermore, based on our case study we have built and tested our first version of a retail branch simulator which we will present in this paper.
0803.1621
An Agent-Based Simulation of In-Store Customer Experiences
cs.NE cs.CE cs.MA
Agent-based modelling and simulation offers a new and exciting way of understanding the world of work. In this paper we describe the development of an agent-based simulation model, designed to help to understand the relationship between human resource management practices and retail productivity. We report on the current development of our simulation model which includes new features concerning the evolution of customers over time. To test some of these features we have conducted a series of experiments dealing with customer pool sizes, standard and noise reduction modes, and the spread of the word of mouth. Our multi-disciplinary research team draws upon expertise from work psychologists and computer scientists. Despite the fact we are working within a relatively novel and complex domain, it is clear that intelligent agents offer potential for fostering sustainable organisational capabilities in the future.
0803.1626
Genetic-Algorithm Seeding Of Idiotypic Networks For Mobile-Robot Navigation
cs.NE cs.RO
Robot-control designers have begun to exploit the properties of the human immune system in order to produce dynamic systems that can adapt to complex, varying, real-world tasks. Jernes idiotypic-network theory has proved the most popular artificial-immune-system (AIS) method for incorporation into behaviour-based robotics, since idiotypic selection produces highly adaptive responses. However, previous efforts have mostly focused on evolving the network connections and have often worked with a single, pre-engineered set of behaviours, limiting variability. This paper describes a method for encoding behaviours as a variable set of attributes, and shows that when the encoding is used with a genetic algorithm (GA), multiple sets of diverse behaviours can develop naturally and rapidly, providing much greater scope for flexible behaviour-selection. The algorithm is tested extensively with a simulated e-puck robot that navigates around a maze by tracking colour. Results show that highly successful behaviour sets can be generated within about 25 minutes, and that much greater diversity can be obtained when multiple autonomous populations are used, rather than a single one.
0803.1695
Use of self-correlation metrics for evaluation of information properties of binary strings
cs.IT math.IT
It is demonstrated that appropriately chosen computable metrics based on self-correlation properties provide a degree of determinism sufficient to segregate binary strings by level of information content.
0803.1716
Citation Counting, Citation Ranking, and h-Index of Human-Computer Interaction Researchers: A Comparison between Scopus and Web of Science
cs.HC cs.IR
This study examines the differences between Scopus and Web of Science in the citation counting, citation ranking, and h-index of 22 top human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers from EQUATOR--a large British Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration project. Results indicate that Scopus provides significantly more coverage of HCI literature than Web of Science, primarily due to coverage of relevant ACM and IEEE peer-reviewed conference proceedings. No significant differences exist between the two databases if citations in journals only are compared. Although broader coverage of the literature does not significantly alter the relative citation ranking of individual researchers, Scopus helps distinguish between the researchers in a more nuanced fashion than Web of Science in both citation counting and h-index. Scopus also generates significantly different maps of citation networks of individual scholars than those generated by Web of Science. The study also presents a comparison of h-index scores based on Google Scholar with those based on the union of Scopus and Web of Science. The study concludes that Scopus can be used as a sole data source for citation-based research and evaluation in HCI, especially if citations in conference proceedings are sought and that h scores should be manually calculated instead of relying on system calculations.
0803.1728
Investigating a Hybrid Metaheuristic For Job Shop Rescheduling
cs.NE cs.CE
Previous research has shown that artificial immune systems can be used to produce robust schedules in a manufacturing environment. The main goal is to develop building blocks (antibodies) of partial schedules that can be used to construct backup solutions (antigens) when disturbances occur during production. The building blocks are created based upon underpinning ideas from artificial immune systems and evolved using a genetic algorithm (Phase I). Each partial schedule (antibody) is assigned a fitness value and the best partial schedules are selected to be converted into complete schedules (antigens). We further investigate whether simulated annealing and the great deluge algorithm can improve the results when hybridised with our artificial immune system (Phase II). We use ten fixed solutions as our target and measure how well we cover these specific scenarios.
0803.1733
Degrees of Freedom of the MIMO Interference Channel with Cooperation and Cognition
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we explore the benefits, in the sense of total (sum rate) degrees of freedom (DOF), of cooperation and cognitive message sharing for a two-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel with $M_1$, $M_2$ antennas at transmitters and $N_1$, $N_2$ antennas at receivers. For the case of cooperation (including cooperation at transmitters only, at receivers only, and at transmitters as well as receivers), the DOF is $\min \{M_1+M_2, N_1+N_2, \max(M_1, N_2)), \max(M_2, N_1)\}$, which is the same as the DOF of the channel without cooperation. For the case of cognitive message sharing, the DOF is $\min \{M_1+M_2, N_1+N_2, (1-1_{T2})((1-1_{R2}) \max(M_1, N_2) + 1_{R2} (M_1+N_2)), (1-1_{T1})((1-1_{R1}) \max(M_2, N_1) + 1_{R1} (M_2+N_1)) \}$ where $1_{Ti} = 1$ $(0)$ when transmitter $i$ is (is not) a cognitive transmitter and $1_{Ri}$ is defined in the same fashion. Our results show that while both techniques may increase the sum rate capacity of the MIMO interference channel, only cognitive message sharing can increase the DOF. We also find that it may be more beneficial for a user to have a cognitive transmitter than to have a cognitive receiver.
0803.1807
Minimum-Delay Decoding of Turbo-Codes for Upper-Layer FEC
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we investigate the decoding of parallel turbo codes over the binary erasure channel suited for upper-layer error correction. The proposed algorithm performs on-the-fly decoding, i.e. it starts decoding as soon as the first symbols are received. This algorithm compares with the iterative decoding of codes defined on graphs, in that it propagates in the trellises of the turbo code by removing transitions in the same way edges are removed in a bipartite graph under message-passing decoding. Performance comparison with LDPC codes for different coding rates is shown.
0803.1926
Improved evolutionary generation of XSLT stylesheets
cs.NE cs.AI
This paper introduces a procedure based on genetic programming to evolve XSLT programs (usually called stylesheets or logicsheets). XSLT is a general purpose, document-oriented functional language, generally used to transform XML documents (or, in general, solve any problem that can be coded as an XML document). The proposed solution uses a tree representation for the stylesheets as well as diverse specific operators in order to obtain, in the studied cases and a reasonable time, a XSLT stylesheet that performs the transformation. Several types of representation have been compared, resulting in different performance and degree of success.
0803.1945
Resampling and requantization of band-limited Gaussian stochastic signals with flat power spectrum
cs.IT math.IT
A theoretical analysis, aimed at characterizing the degradation induced by the resampling and requantization processes applied to band-limited Gaussian signals with flat power spectrum, available through their digitized samples, is presented. The analysis provides an efficient algorithm for computing the complete {joint} bivariate discrete probability distribution associated to the true quantized version of the Gaussian signal and to the quantity estimated after resampling and requantization of the input digitized sequence. The use of Fourier transform techniques allows deriving {approximate} analytical expressions for the quantities of interest, as well as implementing their efficient computation. Numerical experiments are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical results, and confirm the validity of the whole approach.
0803.1985
An Investigation of the Sequential Sampling Method for Crossdocking Simulation Output Variance Reduction
cs.NE cs.CE
This paper investigates the reduction of variance associated with a simulation output performance measure, using the Sequential Sampling method while applying minimum simulation replications, for a class of JIT (Just in Time) warehousing system called crossdocking. We initially used the Sequential Sampling method to attain a desired 95% confidence interval half width of plus/minus 0.5 for our chosen performance measure (Total usage cost, given the mean maximum level of 157,000 pounds and a mean minimum level of 149,000 pounds). From our results, we achieved a 95% confidence interval half width of plus/minus 2.8 for our chosen performance measure (Total usage cost, with an average mean value of 115,000 pounds). However, the Sequential Sampling method requires a huge number of simulation replications to reduce variance for our simulation output value to the target level. Arena (version 11) simulation software was used to conduct this study.
0803.1992
Achievable Rates and Optimal Resource Allocation for Imperfectly-Known Fading Relay Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, achievable rates and optimal resource allocation strategies for imperfectly-known fading relay channels are studied. It is assumed that communication starts with the network training phase in which the receivers estimate the fading coefficients of their respective channels. In the data transmission phase, amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relaying schemes with different degrees of cooperation are considered, and the corresponding achievable rate expressions are obtained. Three resource allocation problems are addressed: 1) power allocation between data and training symbols; 2) time/bandwidth allocation to the relay; 3) power allocation between the source and relay in the presence of total power constraints. The achievable rate expressions are employed to identify the optimal resource allocation strategies. Finally, energy efficiency is investigated by studying the bit energy requirements in the low-SNR regime.
0803.1993
Improved Squeaky Wheel Optimisation for Driver Scheduling
cs.NE cs.CE
This paper presents a technique called Improved Squeaky Wheel Optimisation for driver scheduling problems. It improves the original Squeaky Wheel Optimisations effectiveness and execution speed by incorporating two additional steps of Selection and Mutation which implement evolution within a single solution. In the ISWO, a cycle of Analysis-Selection-Mutation-Prioritization-Construction continues until stopping conditions are reached. The Analysis step first computes the fitness of a current solution to identify troublesome components. The Selection step then discards these troublesome components probabilistically by using the fitness measure, and the Mutation step follows to further discard a small number of components at random. After the above steps, an input solution becomes partial and thus the resulting partial solution needs to be repaired. The repair is carried out by using the Prioritization step to first produce priorities that determine an order by which the following Construction step then schedules the remaining components. Therefore, the optimisation in the ISWO is achieved by solution disruption, iterative improvement and an iterative constructive repair process performed. Encouraging experimental results are reported.
0803.1994
The Application of Bayesian Optimization and Classifier Systems in Nurse Scheduling
cs.NE cs.CE
Two ideas taken from Bayesian optimization and classifier systems are presented for personnel scheduling based on choosing a suitable scheduling rule from a set for each persons assignment. Unlike our previous work of using genetic algorithms whose learning is implicit, the learning in both approaches is explicit, i.e. we are able to identify building blocks directly. To achieve this target, the Bayesian optimization algorithm builds a Bayesian network of the joint probability distribution of the rules used to construct solutions, while the adapted classifier system assigns each rule a strength value that is constantly updated according to its usefulness in the current situation. Computational results from 52 real data instances of nurse scheduling demonstrate the success of both approaches. It is also suggested that the learning mechanism in the proposed approaches might be suitable for other scheduling problems.
0803.1997
Danger Theory: The Link between AIS and IDS?
cs.NE cs.AI cs.CR
We present ideas about creating a next generation Intrusion Detection System based on the latest immunological theories. The central challenge with computer security is determining the difference between normal and potentially harmful activity. For half a century, developers have protected their systems by coding rules that identify and block specific events. However, the nature of current and future threats in conjunction with ever larger IT systems urgently requires the development of automated and adaptive defensive tools. A promising solution is emerging in the form of Artificial Immune Systems. The Human Immune System can detect and defend against harmful and previously unseen invaders, so can we not build a similar Intrusion Detection System for our computers.
0803.2092
An Ant-Based Model for Multiple Sequence Alignment
q-bio.QM cs.AI
Multiple sequence alignment is a key process in today's biology, and finding a relevant alignment of several sequences is much more challenging than just optimizing some improbable evaluation functions. Our approach for addressing multiple sequence alignment focuses on the building of structures in a new graph model: the factor graph model. This model relies on block-based formulation of the original problem, formulation that seems to be one of the most suitable ways for capturing evolutionary aspects of alignment. The structures are implicitly built by a colony of ants laying down pheromones in the factor graphs, according to relations between blocks belonging to the different sequences.
0803.2212
Conditioning Probabilistic Databases
cs.DB cs.AI
Past research on probabilistic databases has studied the problem of answering queries on a static database. Application scenarios of probabilistic databases however often involve the conditioning of a database using additional information in the form of new evidence. The conditioning problem is thus to transform a probabilistic database of priors into a posterior probabilistic database which is materialized for subsequent query processing or further refinement. It turns out that the conditioning problem is closely related to the problem of computing exact tuple confidence values. It is known that exact confidence computation is an NP-hard problem. This has led researchers to consider approximation techniques for confidence computation. However, neither conditioning nor exact confidence computation can be solved using such techniques. In this paper we present efficient techniques for both problems. We study several problem decomposition methods and heuristics that are based on the most successful search techniques from constraint satisfaction, such as the Davis-Putnam algorithm. We complement this with a thorough experimental evaluation of the algorithms proposed. Our experiments show that our exact algorithms scale well to realistic database sizes and can in some scenarios compete with the most efficient previous approximation algorithms.
0803.2220
The Anatomy of Mitos Web Search Engine
cs.IR
Engineering a Web search engine offering effective and efficient information retrieval is a challenging task. This document presents our experiences from designing and developing a Web search engine offering a wide spectrum of functionalities and we report some interesting experimental results. A rather peculiar design choice of the engine is that its index is based on a DBMS, while some of the distinctive functionalities that are offered include advanced Greek language stemming, real time result clustering, and advanced link analysis techniques (also for spam page detection).
0803.2257
High-Resolution Radar via Compressed Sensing
math.NA cs.IT math.IT
A stylized compressed sensing radar is proposed in which the time-frequency plane is discretized into an N by N grid. Assuming the number of targets K is small (i.e., K much less than N^2), then we can transmit a sufficiently "incoherent" pulse and employ the techniques of compressed sensing to reconstruct the target scene. A theoretical upper bound on the sparsity K is presented. Numerical simulations verify that even better performance can be achieved in practice. This novel compressed sensing approach offers great potential for better resolution over classical radar.
0803.2262
Constant-Rank Codes and Their Connection to Constant-Dimension Codes
cs.IT math.IT
Constant-dimension codes have recently received attention due to their significance to error control in noncoherent random linear network coding. What the maximal cardinality of any constant-dimension code with finite dimension and minimum distance is and how to construct the optimal constant-dimension code (or codes) that achieves the maximal cardinality both remain open research problems. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to solving these two problems. We first establish a connection between constant-rank codes and constant-dimension codes. Via this connection, we show that optimal constant-dimension codes correspond to optimal constant-rank codes over matrices with sufficiently many rows. As such, the two aforementioned problems are equivalent to determining the maximum cardinality of constant-rank codes and to constructing optimal constant-rank codes, respectively. To this end, we then derive bounds on the maximum cardinality of a constant-rank code with a given minimum rank distance, propose explicit constructions of optimal or asymptotically optimal constant-rank codes, and establish asymptotic bounds on the maximum rate of a constant-rank code.
0803.2306
Tableau-based decision procedures for logics of strategic ability in multi-agent systems
cs.LO cs.AI cs.MA
We develop an incremental tableau-based decision procedures for the Alternating-time temporal logic ATL and some of its variants. While running within the theoretically established complexity upper bound, we claim that our tableau is practically more efficient in the average case than other decision procedures for ATL known so far. Besides, the ease of its adaptation to variants of ATL demonstrates the flexibility of the proposed procedure.
0803.2314
Problem Solving and Complex Systems
cs.NE
The observation and modeling of natural Complex Systems (CSs) like the human nervous system, the evolution or the weather, allows the definition of special abilities and models reusable to solve other problems. For instance, Genetic Algorithms or Ant Colony Optimizations are inspired from natural CSs to solve optimization problems. This paper proposes the use of ant-based systems to solve various problems with a non assessing approach. This means that solutions to some problem are not evaluated. They appear as resultant structures from the activity of the system. Problems are modeled with graphs and such structures are observed directly on these graphs. Problems of Multiple Sequences Alignment and Natural Language Processing are addressed with this approach.
0803.2337
Data Fusion Trees for Detection: Does Architecture Matter?
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of decentralized detection in a network consisting of a large number of nodes arranged as a tree of bounded height, under the assumption of conditionally independent, identically distributed observations. We characterize the optimal error exponent under a Neyman-Pearson formulation. We show that the Type II error probability decays exponentially fast with the number of nodes, and the optimal error exponent is often the same as that corresponding to a parallel configuration. We provide sufficient, as well as necessary, conditions for this to happen. For those networks satisfying the sufficient conditions, we propose a simple strategy that nearly achieves the optimal error exponent, and in which all non-leaf nodes need only send 1-bit messages.
0803.2363
lambda-Connectedness Determination for Image Segmentation
cs.CV cs.DM
Image segmentation is to separate an image into distinct homogeneous regions belonging to different objects. It is an essential step in image analysis and computer vision. This paper compares some segmentation technologies and attempts to find an automated way to better determine the parameters for image segmentation, especially the connectivity value of $\lambda$ in $\lambda$-connected segmentation. Based on the theories on the maximum entropy method and Otsu's minimum variance method, we propose:(1)maximum entropy connectedness determination: a method that uses maximum entropy to determine the best $\lambda$ value in $\lambda$-connected segmentation, and (2) minimum variance connectedness determination: a method that uses the principle of minimum variance to determine $\lambda$ value. Applying these optimization techniques in real images, the experimental results have shown great promise in the development of the new methods. In the end, we extend the above method to more general case in order to compare it with the famous Mumford-Shah method that uses variational principle and geometric measure.
0803.2392
CoSaMP: Iterative signal recovery from incomplete and inaccurate samples
math.NA cs.IT math.IT
Compressive sampling offers a new paradigm for acquiring signals that are compressible with respect to an orthonormal basis. The major algorithmic challenge in compressive sampling is to approximate a compressible signal from noisy samples. This paper describes a new iterative recovery algorithm called CoSaMP that delivers the same guarantees as the best optimization-based approaches. Moreover, this algorithm offers rigorous bounds on computational cost and storage. It is likely to be extremely efficient for practical problems because it requires only matrix-vector multiplies with the sampling matrix. For many cases of interest, the running time is just O(N*log^2(N)), where N is the length of the signal.
0803.2427
A General Rate Duality of the MIMO Multiple Access Channel and the MIMO Broadcast Channel
cs.IT math.IT
We present a general rate duality between the multiple access channel (MAC) and the broadcast channel (BC) which is applicable to systems with and without nonlinear interference cancellation. Different to the state-of-the-art rate duality with interference subtraction from Vishwanath et al., the proposed duality is filter-based instead of covariance-based and exploits the arising unitary degree of freedom to decorrelate every point-to-point link. Therefore, it allows for noncooperative stream-wise decoding which reduces complexity and latency. Moreover, the conversion from one domain to the other does not exhibit any dependencies during its computation making it accessible to a parallel implementation instead of a serial one. We additionally derive a rate duality for systems with multi-antenna terminals when linear filtering without interference (pre-)subtraction is applied and the different streams of a single user are not treated as self-interference. Both dualities are based on a framework already applied to a mean-square-error duality between the MAC and the BC. Thanks to this novel rate duality, any rate-based optimization with linear filtering in the BC can now be handled in the dual MAC where the arising expressions lead to more efficient algorithmic solutions than in the BC due to the alignment of the channel and precoder indices.
0803.2443
Discrete stochastic processes, replicator and Fokker-Planck equations of coevolutionary dynamics in finite and infinite populations
q-bio.PE cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI math.PR math.ST physics.bio-ph physics.soc-ph stat.TH
Finite-size fluctuations in coevolutionary dynamics arise in models of biological as well as of social and economic systems. This brief tutorial review surveys a systematic approach starting from a stochastic process discrete both in time and state. The limit $N\to \infty$ of an infinite population can be considered explicitly, generally leading to a replicator-type equation in zero order, and to a Fokker-Planck-type equation in first order in $1/\sqrt{N}$. Consequences and relations to some previous approaches are outlined.
0803.2460
Upper Bound on Error Exponent of Regular LDPC Codes Transmitted over the BEC
cs.IT math.IT
The error performance of the ensemble of typical LDPC codes transmitted over the binary erasure channel (BEC) is analyzed. In the past, lower bounds on the error exponents were derived. In this paper a probabilistic upper bound on this error exponent is derived. This bound holds with some confidence level.
0803.2559
Logical Queries over Views: Decidability and Expressiveness
cs.LO cs.DB
We study the problem of deciding satisfiability of first order logic queries over views, our aim being to delimit the boundary between the decidable and the undecidable fragments of this language. Views currently occupy a central place in database research, due to their role in applications such as information integration and data warehousing. Our main result is the identification of a decidable class of first order queries over unary conjunctive views that generalises the decidability of the classical class of first order sentences over unary relations, known as the Lowenheim class. We then demonstrate how various extensions of this class lead to undecidability and also provide some expressivity results. Besides its theoretical interest, our new decidable class is potentially interesting for use in applications such as deciding implication of complex dependencies, analysis of a restricted class of active database rules, and ontology reasoning.
0803.2570
Unequal Error Protection: An Information Theoretic Perspective
cs.IT cs.DM math.CO math.IT
An information theoretic framework for unequal error protection is developed in terms of the exponential error bounds. The fundamental difference between the bit-wise and message-wise unequal error protection (UEP) is demonstrated, for fixed length block codes on DMCs without feedback. Effect of feedback is investigated via variable length block codes. It is shown that, feedback results in a significant improvement in both bit-wise and message-wise UEP (except the single message case for missed detection). The distinction between false-alarm and missed-detection formalizations for message-wise UEP is also considered. All results presented are at rates close to capacity.
0803.2639
Maximal Orders in the Design of Dense Space-Time Lattice Codes
cs.IT cs.DM math.IT math.RA
We construct explicit rate-one, full-diversity, geometrically dense matrix lattices with large, non-vanishing determinants (NVD) for four transmit antenna multiple-input single-output (MISO) space-time (ST) applications. The constructions are based on the theory of rings of algebraic integers and related subrings of the Hamiltonian quaternions and can be extended to a larger number of Tx antennas. The usage of ideals guarantees a non-vanishing determinant larger than one and an easy way to present the exact proofs for the minimum determinants. The idea of finding denser sublattices within a given division algebra is then generalized to a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) case with an arbitrary number of Tx antennas by using the theory of cyclic division algebras (CDA) and maximal orders. It is also shown that the explicit constructions in this paper all have a simple decoding method based on sphere decoding. Related to the decoding complexity, the notion of sensitivity is introduced, and experimental evidence indicating a connection between sensitivity, decoding complexity and performance is provided. Simulations in a quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel show that our dense quaternionic constructions outperform both the earlier rectangular lattices and the rotated ABBA lattice as well as the DAST lattice. We also show that our quaternionic lattice is better than the DAST lattice in terms of the diversity-multiplexing gain tradeoff.
0803.2675
Digital Ecosystems: Self-Organisation of Evolving Agent Populations
cs.NE cs.CC
A primary motivation for our research in Digital Ecosystems is the desire to exploit the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems. Ecosystems are thought to be robust, scalable architectures that can automatically solve complex, dynamic problems. Self-organisation is perhaps one of the most desirable features in the systems that we engineer, and it is important for us to be able to measure self-organising behaviour. We investigate the self-organising aspects of Digital Ecosystems, created through the application of evolutionary computing to Multi-Agent Systems (MASs), aiming to determine a macroscopic variable to characterise the self-organisation of the evolving agent populations within. We study a measure for the self-organisation called Physical Complexity; based on statistical physics, automata theory, and information theory, providing a measure of information relative to the randomness in an organism's genome, by calculating the entropy in a population. We investigate an extension to include populations of variable length, and then built upon this to construct an efficiency measure to investigate clustering within evolving agent populations. Overall an insight has been achieved into where and how self-organisation occurs in our Digital Ecosystem, and how it can be quantified.
0803.2695
KohonAnts: A Self-Organizing Ant Algorithm for Clustering and Pattern Classification
cs.NE cs.CV
In this paper we introduce a new ant-based method that takes advantage of the cooperative self-organization of Ant Colony Systems to create a naturally inspired clustering and pattern recognition method. The approach considers each data item as an ant, which moves inside a grid changing the cells it goes through, in a fashion similar to Kohonen's Self-Organizing Maps. The resulting algorithm is conceptually more simple, takes less free parameters than other ant-based clustering algorithms, and, after some parameter tuning, yields very good results on some benchmark problems.
0803.2812
Using Spatially Varying Pixels Exposures and Bayer-covered Photosensors for High Dynamic Range Imaging
cs.CV
The method of a linear high dynamic range imaging using solid-state photosensors with Bayer colour filters array is provided in this paper. Using information from neighbour pixels, it is possible to reconstruct linear images with wide dynamic range from the oversaturated images. Bayer colour filters array is considered as an array of neutral filters in a quasimonochromatic light. If the camera's response function to the desirable light source is known then one can calculate correction coefficients to reconstruct oversaturated images. Reconstructed images are linearized in order to provide a linear high dynamic range images for optical-digital imaging systems. The calibration procedure for obtaining the camera's response function to the desired light source is described. Experimental results of the reconstruction of the images from the oversaturated images are presented for red, green, and blue quasimonochromatic light sources. Quantitative analysis of the accuracy of the reconstructed images is provided.
0803.2827
Impact of CSI on Distributed Space-Time Coding in Wireless Relay Networks
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a two-hop wireless network where a transmitter communicates with a receiver via $M$ relays with an amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol. Recent works have shown that sophisticated linear processing such as beamforming and distributed space-time coding (DSTC) at relays enables to improve the AF performance. However, the relative utility of these strategies depend on the available channel state information at transmitter (CSIT), which in turn depends on system parameters such as the speed of the underlying fading channel and that of training and feedback procedures. Moreover, it is of practical interest to have a single transmit scheme that handles different CSIT scenarios. This motivates us to consider a unified approach based on DSTC that potentially provides diversity gain with statistical CSIT and exploits some additional side information if available. Under individual power constraints at the relays, we optimize the amplifier power allocation such that pairwise error probability conditioned on the available CSIT is minimized. Under perfect CSIT we propose an on-off gradient algorithm that efficiently finds a set of relays to switch on. Under partial and statistical CSIT, we propose a simple waterfilling algorithm that yields a non-trivial solution between maximum power allocation and a generalized STC that equalizes the averaged amplified noise for all relays. Moreover, we derive closed-form solutions for M=2 and in certain asymptotic regimes that enable an easy interpretation of the proposed algorithms. It is found that an appropriate amplifier power allocation is mandatory for DSTC to offer sufficient diversity and power gain in a general network topology.
0803.2856
Figuring out Actors in Text Streams: Using Collocations to establish Incremental Mind-maps
cs.CL cs.LG
The recognition, involvement, and description of main actors influences the story line of the whole text. This is of higher importance as the text per se represents a flow of words and expressions that once it is read it is lost. In this respect, the understanding of a text and moreover on how the actor exactly behaves is not only a major concern: as human beings try to store a given input on short-term memory while associating diverse aspects and actors with incidents, the following approach represents a virtual architecture, where collocations are concerned and taken as the associative completion of the actors' acting. Once that collocations are discovered, they become managed in separated memory blocks broken down by the actors. As for human beings, the memory blocks refer to associative mind-maps. We then present several priority functions to represent the actual temporal situation inside a mind-map to enable the user to reconstruct the recent events from the discovered temporal results.
0803.2904
A Distance Metric for Tree-Sibling Time Consistent Phylogenetic Networks
q-bio.PE cs.CE cs.DM
The presence of reticulate evolutionary events in phylogenies turn phylogenetic trees into phylogenetic networks. These events imply in particular that there may exist multiple evolutionary paths from a non-extant species to an extant one, and this multiplicity makes the comparison of phylogenetic networks much more difficult than the comparison of phylogenetic trees. In fact, all attempts to define a sound distance measure on the class of all phylogenetic networks have failed so far. Thus, the only practical solutions have been either the use of rough estimates of similarity (based on comparison of the trees embedded in the networks), or narrowing the class of phylogenetic networks to a certain class where such a distance is known and can be efficiently computed. The first approach has the problem that one may identify two networks as equivalent, when they are not; the second one has the drawback that there may not exist algorithms to reconstruct such networks from biological sequences. We present in this paper a distance measure on the class of tree-sibling time consistent phylogenetic networks, which generalize tree-child time consistent phylogenetic networks, and thus also galled-trees. The practical interest of this distance measure is twofold: it can be computed in polynomial time by means of simple algorithms, and there also exist polynomial-time algorithms for reconstructing networks of this class from DNA sequence data. The Perl package Bio::PhyloNetwork, included in the BioPerl bundle, implements many algorithms on phylogenetic networks, including the computation of the distance presented in this paper.
0803.2925
Equivalence of Probabilistic Tournament and Polynomial Ranking Selection
cs.NE
Crucial to an Evolutionary Algorithm's performance is its selection scheme. We mathematically investigate the relation between polynomial rank and probabilistic tournament methods which are (respectively) generalisations of the popular linear ranking and tournament selection schemes. We show that every probabilistic tournament is equivalent to a unique polynomial rank scheme. In fact, we derived explicit operators for translating between these two types of selection. Of particular importance is that most linear and most practical quadratic rank schemes are probabilistic tournaments.
0803.2957
Enhanced Direct and Indirect Genetic Algorithm Approaches for a Mall Layout and Tenant Selection Problem
cs.NE cs.CE
During our earlier research, it was recognised that in order to be successful with an indirect genetic algorithm approach using a decoder, the decoder has to strike a balance between being an optimiser in its own right and finding feasible solutions. Previously this balance was achieved manually. Here we extend this by presenting an automated approach where the genetic algorithm itself, simultaneously to solving the problem, sets weights to balance the components out. Subsequently we were able to solve a complex and non-linear scheduling problem better than with a standard direct genetic algorithm implementation.
0803.2965
An Indirect Genetic Algorithm for Set Covering Problems
cs.NE cs.AI
This paper presents a new type of genetic algorithm for the set covering problem. It differs from previous evolutionary approaches first because it is an indirect algorithm, i.e. the actual solutions are found by an external decoder function. The genetic algorithm itself provides this decoder with permutations of the solution variables and other parameters. Second, it will be shown that results can be further improved by adding another indirect optimisation layer. The decoder will not directly seek out low cost solutions but instead aims for good exploitable solutions. These are then post optimised by another hill-climbing algorithm. Although seemingly more complicated, we will show that this three-stage approach has advantages in terms of solution quality, speed and adaptability to new types of problems over more direct approaches. Extensive computational results are presented and compared to the latest evolutionary and other heuristic approaches to the same data instances.
0803.2966
On the Application of Hierarchical Coevolutionary Genetic Algorithms: Recombination and Evaluation Partners
cs.NE cs.AI
This paper examines the use of a hierarchical coevolutionary genetic algorithm under different partnering strategies. Cascading clusters of sub-populations are built from the bottom up, with higher-level sub-populations optimising larger parts of the problem. Hence higher-level sub-populations potentially search a larger search space with a lower resolution whilst lower-level sub-populations search a smaller search space with a higher resolution. The effects of different partner selection schemes amongst the sub-populations on solution quality are examined for two constrained optimisation problems. We examine a number of recombination partnering strategies in the construction of higher-level individuals and a number of related schemes for evaluating sub-solutions. It is shown that partnering strategies that exploit problem-specific knowledge are superior and can counter inappropriate (sub)fitness measurements.
0803.2967
Building Better Nurse Scheduling Algorithms
cs.NE cs.CE
The aim of this research is twofold: Firstly, to model and solve a complex nurse scheduling problem with an integer programming formulation and evolutionary algorithms. Secondly, to detail a novel statistical method of comparing and hence building better scheduling algorithms by identifying successful algorithm modifications. The comparison method captures the results of algorithms in a single figure that can then be compared using traditional statistical techniques. Thus, the proposed method of comparing algorithms is an objective procedure designed to assist in the process of improving an algorithm. This is achieved even when some results are non-numeric or missing due to infeasibility. The final algorithm outperforms all previous evolutionary algorithms, which relied on human expertise for modification.
0803.2969
An Indirect Genetic Algorithm for a Nurse Scheduling Problem
cs.NE cs.CE
This paper describes a Genetic Algorithms approach to a manpower-scheduling problem arising at a major UK hospital. Although Genetic Algorithms have been successfully used for similar problems in the past, they always had to overcome the limitations of the classical Genetic Algorithms paradigm in handling the conflict between objectives and constraints. The approach taken here is to use an indirect coding based on permutations of the nurses, and a heuristic decoder that builds schedules from these permutations. Computational experiments based on 52 weeks of live data are used to evaluate three different decoders with varying levels of intelligence, and four well-known crossover operators. Results are further enhanced by introducing a hybrid crossover operator and by making use of simple bounds to reduce the size of the solution space. The results reveal that the proposed algorithm is able to find high quality solutions and is both faster and more flexible than a recently published Tabu Search approach.
0803.2970
A Recommender System based on Idiotypic Artificial Immune Networks
cs.NE cs.AI
The immune system is a complex biological system with a highly distributed, adaptive and self-organising nature. This paper presents an Artificial Immune System (AIS) that exploits some of these characteristics and is applied to the task of film recommendation by Collaborative Filtering (CF). Natural evolution and in particular the immune system have not been designed for classical optimisation. However, for this problem, we are not interested in finding a single optimum. Rather we intend to identify a sub-set of good matches on which recommendations can be based. It is our hypothesis that an AIS built on two central aspects of the biological immune system will be an ideal candidate to achieve this: Antigen-antibody interaction for matching and idiotypic antibody-antibody interaction for diversity. Computational results are presented in support of this conjecture and compared to those found by other CF techniques.
0803.2973
Rule Generalisation in Intrusion Detection Systems using Snort
cs.NE cs.CR
Intrusion Detection Systems (ids)provide an important layer of security for computer systems and networks, and are becoming more and more necessary as reliance on Internet services increases and systems with sensitive data are more commonly open to Internet access. An ids responsibility is to detect suspicious or unacceptable system and network activity and to alert a systems administrator to this activity. The majority of ids use a set of signatures that define what suspicious traffic is, and Snort is one popular and actively developing open-source ids that uses such a set of signatures known as Snort rules. Our aim is to identify a way in which Snort could be developed further by generalising rules to identify novel attacks. In particular, we attempted to relax and vary the conditions and parameters of current Snort rules, using a similar approach to classic rule learning operators such as generalisation and specialisation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through experiments with standard datasets and show that we are able to detect previously undeleted variants of various attacks. We conclude by discussing the general effectiveness and appropriateness of generalisation in Snort based ids rule processing.
0803.2975
An Estimation of Distribution Algorithm for Nurse Scheduling
cs.NE cs.CE
Schedules can be built in a similar way to a human scheduler by using a set of rules that involve domain knowledge. This paper presents an Estimation of Distribution Algorithm (eda) for the nurse scheduling problem, which involves choosing a suitable scheduling rule from a set for the assignment of each nurse. Unlike previous work that used Genetic Algorithms (ga) to implement implicit learning, the learning in the proposed algorithm is explicit, i.e. we identify and mix building blocks directly. The eda is applied to implement such explicit learning by building a Bayesian network of the joint distribution of solutions. The conditional probability of each variable in the network is computed according to an initial set of promising solutions. Subsequently, each new instance for each variable is generated by using the corresponding conditional probabilities, until all variables have been generated, i.e. in our case, a new rule string has been obtained. Another set of rule strings will be generated in this way, some of which will replace previous strings based on fitness selection. If stopping conditions are not met, the conditional probabilities for all nodes in the Bayesian network are updated again using the current set of promising rule strings. Computational results from 52 real data instances demonstrate the success of this approach. It is also suggested that the learning mechanism in the proposed approach might be suitable for other scheduling problems.
0803.2981
Idiotypic Immune Networks in Mobile Robot Control
cs.NE cs.AI cs.RO
Jerne's idiotypic network theory postulates that the immune response involves inter-antibody stimulation and suppression as well as matching to antigens. The theory has proved the most popular Artificial Immune System (ais) model for incorporation into behavior-based robotics but guidelines for implementing idiotypic selection are scarce. Furthermore, the direct effects of employing the technique have not been demonstrated in the form of a comparison with non-idiotypic systems. This paper aims to address these issues. A method for integrating an idiotypic ais network with a Reinforcement Learning based control system (rl) is described and the mechanisms underlying antibody stimulation and suppression are explained in detail. Some hypotheses that account for the network advantage are put forward and tested using three systems with increasing idiotypic complexity. The basic rl, a simplified hybrid ais-rl that implements idiotypic selection independently of derived concentration levels and a full hybrid ais-rl scheme are examined. The test bed takes the form of a simulated Pioneer robot that is required to navigate through maze worlds detecting and tracking door markers.
0803.3117
On the Diversity-Multiplexing Tradeoff in Multiple-Relay Network
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies the setup of a multiple-relay network in which $K$ half-duplex multiple-antenna relays assist in the transmission between a/several multiple-antenna transmitter(s) and a multiple-antenna receiver. Each two nodes are assumed to be either connected through a quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel, or disconnected. We propose a new scheme, which we call \textit{random sequential} (RS), based on the amplify-and-forward relaying. We prove that for general multiple-antenna multiple-relay networks, the proposed scheme achieves the maximum diversity gain. Furthermore, we derive diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) of the proposed RS scheme for general single-antenna multiple-relay networks. It is shown that for single-antenna two-hop multiple-access multiple-relay ($K>1$) networks (without direct link between the transmitter(s) and the receiver), the proposed RS scheme achieves the optimum DMT. However, for the case of multiple access single relay setup, we show that the RS scheme reduces to the naive amplify-and-forward relaying and is not optimum in terms of DMT, while the dynamic decode-and-forward scheme is shown to be optimum for this scenario.
0803.3186
Towards a human eye behavior model by applying Data Mining Techniques on Gaze Information from IEC
cs.HC cs.NE
In this paper, we firstly present what is Interactive Evolutionary Computation (IEC) and rapidly how we have combined this artificial intelligence technique with an eye-tracker for visual optimization. Next, in order to correctly parameterize our application, we present results from applying data mining techniques on gaze information coming from experiments conducted on about 80 human individuals.
0803.3192
Eye-Tracking Evolutionary Algorithm to minimize user's fatigue in IEC applied to Interactive One-Max problem
cs.AI
In this paper, we describe a new algorithm that consists in combining an eye-tracker for minimizing the fatigue of a user during the evaluation process of Interactive Evolutionary Computation. The approach is then applied to the Interactive One-Max optimization problem.
0803.3224
A Model-Based Frequency Constraint for Mining Associations from Transaction Data
cs.DB
Mining frequent itemsets is a popular method for finding associated items in databases. For this method, support, the co-occurrence frequency of the items which form an association, is used as the primary indicator of the associations's significance. A single user-specified support threshold is used to decided if associations should be further investigated. Support has some known problems with rare items, favors shorter itemsets and sometimes produces misleading associations. In this paper we develop a novel model-based frequency constraint as an alternative to a single, user-specified minimum support. The constraint utilizes knowledge of the process generating transaction data by applying a simple stochastic mixture model (the NB model) which allows for transaction data's typically highly skewed item frequency distribution. A user-specified precision threshold is used together with the model to find local frequency thresholds for groups of itemsets. Based on the constraint we develop the notion of NB-frequent itemsets and adapt a mining algorithm to find all NB-frequent itemsets in a database. In experiments with publicly available transaction databases we show that the new constraint provides improvements over a single minimum support threshold and that the precision threshold is more robust and easier to set and interpret by the user.
0803.3360
Asymptotics of input-constrained binary symmetric channel capacity
math.PR cs.IT math.IT
We study the classical problem of noisy constrained capacity in the case of the binary symmetric channel (BSC), namely, the capacity of a BSC whose inputs are sequences chosen from a constrained set. Motivated by a result of Ordentlich and Weissman [In Proceedings of IEEE Information Theory Workshop (2004) 117--122], we derive an asymptotic formula (when the noise parameter is small) for the entropy rate of a hidden Markov chain, observed when a Markov chain passes through a BSC. Using this result, we establish an asymptotic formula for the capacity of a BSC with input process supported on an irreducible finite type constraint, as the noise parameter tends to zero.
0803.3363
Node discovery in a networked organization
cs.AI
In this paper, I present a method to solve a node discovery problem in a networked organization. Covert nodes refer to the nodes which are not observable directly. They affect social interactions, but do not appear in the surveillance logs which record the participants of the social interactions. Discovering the covert nodes is defined as identifying the suspicious logs where the covert nodes would appear if the covert nodes became overt. A mathematical model is developed for the maximal likelihood estimation of the network behind the social interactions and for the identification of the suspicious logs. Precision, recall, and F measure characteristics are demonstrated with the dataset generated from a real organization and the computationally synthesized datasets. The performance is close to the theoretical limit for any covert nodes in the networks of any topologies and sizes if the ratio of the number of observation to the number of possible communication patterns is large.
0803.3404
Some results on $\mathbb{R}$-computable structures
cs.DB cs.LO math.LO
This survey paper examines the effective model theory obtained with the BSS model of real number computation. It treats the following topics: computable ordinals, satisfaction of computable infinitary formulas, forcing as a construction technique, effective categoricity, effective topology, and relations with other models for the effective theory of uncountable structures.
0803.3448
Secure Hop-by-Hop Aggregation of End-to-End Concealed Data in Wireless Sensor Networks
cs.CR cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
In-network data aggregation is an essential technique in mission critical wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for achieving effective transmission and hence better power conservation. Common security protocols for aggregated WSNs are either hop-by-hop or end-to-end, each of which has its own encryption schemes considering different security primitives. End-to-end encrypted data aggregation protocols introduce maximum data secrecy with in-efficient data aggregation and more vulnerability to active attacks, while hop-by-hop data aggregation protocols introduce maximum data integrity with efficient data aggregation and more vulnerability to passive attacks. In this paper, we propose a secure aggregation protocol for aggregated WSNs deployed in hostile environments in which dual attack modes are present. Our proposed protocol is a blend of flexible data aggregation as in hop-by-hop protocols and optimal data confidentiality as in end-to-end protocols. Our protocol introduces an efficient O(1) heuristic for checking data integrity along with cost-effective heuristic-based divide and conquer attestation process which is $O(\ln{n})$ in average -O(n) in the worst scenario- for further verification of aggregated results.
0803.3490
Robustness and Regularization of Support Vector Machines
cs.LG cs.AI
We consider regularized support vector machines (SVMs) and show that they are precisely equivalent to a new robust optimization formulation. We show that this equivalence of robust optimization and regularization has implications for both algorithms, and analysis. In terms of algorithms, the equivalence suggests more general SVM-like algorithms for classification that explicitly build in protection to noise, and at the same time control overfitting. On the analysis front, the equivalence of robustness and regularization, provides a robust optimization interpretation for the success of regularized SVMs. We use the this new robustness interpretation of SVMs to give a new proof of consistency of (kernelized) SVMs, thus establishing robustness as the reason regularized SVMs generalize well.
0803.3501
Multiagent Approach for the Representation of Information in a Decision Support System
cs.AI
In an emergency situation, the actors need an assistance allowing them to react swiftly and efficiently. In this prospect, we present in this paper a decision support system that aims to prepare actors in a crisis situation thanks to a decision-making support. The global architecture of this system is presented in the first part. Then we focus on a part of this system which is designed to represent the information of the current situation. This part is composed of a multiagent system that is made of factual agents. Each agent carries a semantic feature and aims to represent a partial part of a situation. The agents develop thanks to their interactions by comparing their semantic features using proximity measures and according to specific ontologies.
0803.3539
Reinforcement Learning by Value Gradients
cs.NE cs.AI
The concept of the value-gradient is introduced and developed in the context of reinforcement learning. It is shown that by learning the value-gradients exploration or stochastic behaviour is no longer needed to find locally optimal trajectories. This is the main motivation for using value-gradients, and it is argued that learning value-gradients is the actual objective of any value-function learning algorithm for control problems. It is also argued that learning value-gradients is significantly more efficient than learning just the values, and this argument is supported in experiments by efficiency gains of several orders of magnitude, in several problem domains. Once value-gradients are introduced into learning, several analyses become possible. For example, a surprising equivalence between a value-gradient learning algorithm and a policy-gradient learning algorithm is proven, and this provides a robust convergence proof for control problems using a value function with a general function approximator.
0803.3553
New Families of Triple Error Correcting Codes with BCH Parameters
cs.IT cs.DM math.IT
Discovered by Bose, Chaudhuri and Hocquenghem, the BCH family of error correcting codes are one of the most studied families in coding theory. They are also among the best performing codes, particularly when the number of errors being corrected is small relative to the code length. In this article we consider binary codes with minimum distance of 7. We construct new families of codes with these BCH parameters via a generalisation of the Kasami-Welch Theorem.
0803.3608
The Category-Theoretic Arithmetic of Information
math.CT cs.IT math.IT
We highlight the underlying category-theoretic structure of measures of information flow. We present an axiomatic framework in which communication systems are represented as morphisms, and information flow is characterized by its behavior when communication systems are combined. Our framework includes a variety of discrete, continuous, and, conjecturally, quantum information measures. It also includes some familiar mathematical constructs not normally associated with information, such as vector space dimension. We discuss these examples and prove basic results from the axioms.
0803.3645
A New Sphere-Packing Bound for Maximal Error Exponent for Multiple-Access Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this work, a new lower bound for the maximal error probability of a two-user discrete memoryless (DM) multiple-access channel (MAC) is derived. This is the first bound of this type that explicitly imposes independence of the users' input distributions (conditioned on the time-sharing auxiliary variable) and thus results in a tighter sphere-packing exponent when compared to the tightest known exponent derived by Haroutunian.
0803.3657
Improved Lower Bounds for Constant GC-Content DNA Codes
cs.IT cs.DS math.CO math.IT q-bio.GN q-bio.QM
The design of large libraries of oligonucleotides having constant GC-content and satisfying Hamming distance constraints between oligonucleotides and their Watson-Crick complements is important in reducing hybridization errors in DNA computing, DNA microarray technologies, and molecular bar coding. Various techniques have been studied for the construction of such oligonucleotide libraries, ranging from algorithmic constructions via stochastic local search to theoretical constructions via coding theory. We introduce a new stochastic local search method which yields improvements up to more than one third of the benchmark lower bounds of Gaborit and King (2005) for n-mer oligonucleotide libraries when n <= 14. We also found several optimal libraries by computing maximum cliques on certain graphs.
0803.3658
The Sizes of Optimal q-Ary Codes of Weight Three and Distance Four: A Complete Solution
cs.IT cs.DM math.CO math.IT
This correspondence introduces two new constructive techniques to complete the determination of the sizes of optimal q-ary codes of constant weight three and distance four.
0803.3693
Succinct Data Structures for Retrieval and Approximate Membership
cs.DS cs.DB cs.IR
The retrieval problem is the problem of associating data with keys in a set. Formally, the data structure must store a function f: U ->{0,1}^r that has specified values on the elements of a given set S, a subset of U, |S|=n, but may have any value on elements outside S. Minimal perfect hashing makes it possible to avoid storing the set S, but this induces a space overhead of Theta(n) bits in addition to the nr bits needed for function values. In this paper we show how to eliminate this overhead. Moreover, we show that for any k query time O(k) can be achieved using space that is within a factor 1+e^{-k} of optimal, asymptotically for large n. If we allow logarithmic evaluation time, the additive overhead can be reduced to O(log log n) bits whp. The time to construct the data structure is O(n), expected. A main technical ingredient is to utilize existing tight bounds on the probability of almost square random matrices with rows of low weight to have full row rank. In addition to direct constructions, we point out a close connection between retrieval structures and hash tables where keys are stored in an array and some kind of probing scheme is used. Further, we propose a general reduction that transfers the results on retrieval into analogous results on approximate membership, a problem traditionally addressed using Bloom filters. Again, we show how to eliminate the space overhead present in previously known methods, and get arbitrarily close to the lower bound. The evaluation procedures of our data structures are extremely simple (similar to a Bloom filter). For the results stated above we assume free access to fully random hash functions. However, we show how to justify this assumption using extra space o(n) to simulate full randomness on a RAM.
0803.3746
Cluster Approach to the Domains Formation
cs.NE cs.DS
As a rule, a quadratic functional depending on a great number of binary variables has a lot of local minima. One of approaches allowing one to find in averaged deeper local minima is aggregation of binary variables into larger blocks/domains. To minimize the functional one has to change the states of aggregated variables (domains). In the present publication we discuss methods of domains formation. It is shown that the best results are obtained when domains are formed by variables that are strongly connected with each other.
0803.3773
Capacity of Gaussian MIMO Bidirectional Broadcast Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the broadcast phase of a three-node network, where a relay node establishes a bidirectional communication between two nodes using a spectrally efficient two-phase decode-and-forward protocol. In the first phase the two nodes transmit their messages to the relay node. Then the relay node decodes the messages and broadcasts a re-encoded composition of them in the second phase. We consider Gaussian MIMO channels and determine the capacity region for the second phase which we call the Gaussian MIMO bidirectional broadcast channel.
0803.3777
Lower Bounds on the Minimum Pseudodistance for Linear Codes with $q$-ary PSK Modulation over AWGN
cs.IT math.IT
We present lower bounds on the minimum pseudocodeword effective Euclidean distance (or minimum "pseudodistance") for coded modulation systems using linear codes with $q$-ary phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. These bounds apply to both binary and nonbinary coded modulation systems which use direct modulation mapping of coded symbols. The minimum pseudodistance may serve as a first-order measure of error-correcting performance for both linear-programming and message-passing based receivers. In the case of a linear-programming based receiver, the minimum pseudodistance may be used to form an exact bound on the codeword error rate of the system.
0803.3781
Fourier Spectra of Binomial APN Functions
cs.DM cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we compute the Fourier spectra of some recently discovered binomial APN functions. One consequence of this is the determination of the nonlinearity of the functions, which measures their resistance to linear cryptanalysis. Another consequence is that certain error-correcting codes related to these functions have the same weight distribution as the 2-error-correcting BCH code. Furthermore, for fields of odd degree, our results provide an alternative proof of the APN property of the functions.
0803.3812
Preferred extensions as stable models
cs.AI cs.SC
Given an argumentation framework AF, we introduce a mapping function that constructs a disjunctive logic program P, such that the preferred extensions of AF correspond to the stable models of P, after intersecting each stable model with the relevant atoms. The given mapping function is of polynomial size w.r.t. AF. In particular, we identify that there is a direct relationship between the minimal models of a propositional formula and the preferred extensions of an argumentation framework by working on representing the defeated arguments. Then we show how to infer the preferred extensions of an argumentation framework by using UNSAT algorithms and disjunctive stable model solvers. The relevance of this result is that we define a direct relationship between one of the most satisfactory argumentation semantics and one of the most successful approach of non-monotonic reasoning i.e., logic programming with the stable model semantics.
0803.3816
Approaching the Capacity of Wireless Networks through Distributed Interference Alignment
cs.IT math.IT
Recent results establish the optimality of interference alignment to approach the Shannon capacity of interference networks at high SNR. However, the extent to which interference can be aligned over a finite number of signalling dimensions remains unknown. Another important concern for interference alignment schemes is the requirement of global channel knowledge. In this work we provide examples of iterative algorithms that utilize the reciprocity of wireless networks to achieve interference alignment with only local channel knowledge at each node. These algorithms also provide numerical insights into the feasibility of interference alignment that are not yet available in theory.
0803.3838
Recorded Step Directional Mutation for Faster Convergence
cs.NE cs.LG
Two meta-evolutionary optimization strategies described in this paper accelerate the convergence of evolutionary programming algorithms while still retaining much of their ability to deal with multi-modal problems. The strategies, called directional mutation and recorded step in this paper, can operate independently but together they greatly enhance the ability of evolutionary programming algorithms to deal with fitness landscapes characterized by long narrow valleys. The directional mutation aspect of this combined method uses correlated meta-mutation but does not introduce a full covariance matrix. These new methods are thus much more economical in terms of storage for problems with high dimensionality. Additionally, directional mutation is rotationally invariant which is a substantial advantage over self-adaptive methods which use a single variance per coordinate for problems where the natural orientation of the problem is not oriented along the axes.
0803.3850
State Estimation Over Wireless Channels Using Multiple Sensors: Asymptotic Behaviour and Optimal Power Allocation
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers state estimation of linear systems using analog amplify and forwarding with multiple sensors, for both multiple access and orthogonal access schemes. Optimal state estimation can be achieved at the fusion center using a time varying Kalman filter. We show that in many situations, the estimation error covariance decays at a rate of $1/M$ when the number of sensors $M$ is large. We consider optimal allocation of transmission powers that 1) minimizes the sum power usage subject to an error covariance constraint and 2) minimizes the error covariance subject to a sum power constraint. In the case of fading channels with channel state information the optimization problems are solved using a greedy approach, while for fading channels without channel state information but with channel statistics available a sub-optimal linear estimator is derived.
0803.3880
Asymptotically Optimum Universal One-Bit Watermarking for Gaussian Covertexts and Gaussian Attacks
cs.IT math.IT
The problem of optimum watermark embedding and detection was addressed in a recent paper by Merhav and Sabbag, where the optimality criterion was the maximum false-negative error exponent subject to a guaranteed false-positive error exponent. In particular, Merhav and Sabbag derived universal asymptotically optimum embedding and detection rules under the assumption that the detector relies solely on second order joint empirical statistics of the received signal and the watermark. In the case of a Gaussian host signal and a Gaussian attack, however, closed-form expressions for the optimum embedding strategy and the false-negative error exponent were not obtained in that work. In this paper, we derive such expressions, again, under the universality assumption that neither the host variance nor the attack power are known to either the embedder or the detector. The optimum embedding rule turns out to be very simple and with an intuitively-appealing geometrical interpretation. The improvement with respect to existing sub-optimum schemes is demonstrated by displaying the optimum false-negative error exponent as a function of the guaranteed false-positive error exponent.
0803.3900
A Component Based Heuristic Search method with Adaptive Perturbations for Hospital Personnel Scheduling
cs.NE cs.CE
Nurse rostering is a complex scheduling problem that affects hospital personnel on a daily basis all over the world. This paper presents a new component-based approach with adaptive perturbations, for a nurse scheduling problem arising at a major UK hospital. The main idea behind this technique is to decompose a schedule into its components (i.e. the allocated shift pattern of each nurse), and then mimic a natural evolutionary process on these components to iteratively deliver better schedules. The worthiness of all components in the schedule has to be continuously demonstrated in order for them to remain there. This demonstration employs a dynamic evaluation function which evaluates how well each component contributes towards the final objective. Two perturbation steps are then applied: the first perturbation eliminates a number of components that are deemed not worthy to stay in the current schedule; the second perturbation may also throw out, with a low level of probability, some worthy components. The eliminated components are replenished with new ones using a set of constructive heuristics using local optimality criteria. Computational results using 52 data instances demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach in solving real-world problems.
0803.3905
Introduction to Multi-Agent Simulation
cs.NE cs.MA
When designing systems that are complex, dynamic and stochastic in nature, simulation is generally recognised as one of the best design support technologies, and a valuable aid in the strategic and tactical decision making process. A simulation model consists of a set of rules that define how a system changes over time, given its current state. Unlike analytical models, a simulation model is not solved but is run and the changes of system states can be observed at any point in time. This provides an insight into system dynamics rather than just predicting the output of a system based on specific inputs. Simulation is not a decision making tool but a decision support tool, allowing better informed decisions to be made. Due to the complexity of the real world, a simulation model can only be an approximation of the target system. The essence of the art of simulation modelling is abstraction and simplification. Only those characteristics that are important for the study and analysis of the target system should be included in the simulation model.
0803.3912
Artificial Immune Systems Tutorial
cs.NE cs.AI cs.MA
The biological immune system is a robust, complex, adaptive system that defends the body from foreign pathogens. It is able to categorize all cells (or molecules) within the body as self-cells or non-self cells. It does this with the help of a distributed task force that has the intelligence to take action from a local and also a global perspective using its network of chemical messengers for communication. There are two major branches of the immune system. The innate immune system is an unchanging mechanism that detects and destroys certain invading organisms, whilst the adaptive immune system responds to previously unknown foreign cells and builds a response to them that can remain in the body over a long period of time. This remarkable information processing biological system has caught the attention of computer science in recent years. A novel computational intelligence technique, inspired by immunology, has emerged, called Artificial Immune Systems. Several concepts from the immune have been extracted and applied for solution to real world science and engineering problems. In this tutorial, we briefly describe the immune system metaphors that are relevant to existing Artificial Immune Systems methods. We will then show illustrative real-world problems suitable for Artificial Immune Systems and give a step-by-step algorithm walkthrough for one such problem. A comparison of the Artificial Immune Systems to other well-known algorithms, areas for future work, tips & tricks and a list of resources will round this tutorial off. It should be noted that as Artificial Immune Systems is still a young and evolving field, there is not yet a fixed algorithm template and hence actual implementations might differ somewhat from time to time and from those examples given here.