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0705.1280
A Novel method for the design of 2-DOF Parallel mechanisms for machining applications
cs.RO
Parallel Kinematic Mechanisms (PKM) are interesting alternative designs for machine tools. A design method based on velocity amplification factors analysis is presented in this paper. The comparative study of two simple two-degree-of-freedom PKM dedicated to machining applications is led through this method: the common desired properties are the largest square Cartesian workspace for given kinetostatic performances. The orientation and position of the Cartesian workspace are chosen to avoid singularities and to produce the best ratio between Cartesian workspace size and mechanism size. The machine size of each resulting design is used as a comparative criterion.
0705.1282
Design of a Three-Axis Isotropic Parallel Manipulator for Machining Applications: The Orthoglide
cs.RO
The orthoglide is a 3-DOF parallel mechanism designed at IRCCyN for machining applications. It features three fixed parallel linear joints which are mounted orthogonally and a mobile platform which moves in the Cartesian x-y-z space with fixed orientation. The orthoglide has been designed as function of a prescribed Cartesian workspace with prescribed kinetostatic performances. The interesting features of the orthoglide are a regular Cartesian workspace shape, uniform performances in all directions and good compactness. A small-scale prototype of the orthoglide under development is presented at the end of this paper.
0705.1284
Workspace Analysis of the Orthoglide using Interval Analysis
cs.RO
This paper addresses the workspace analysis of the orthoglide, a 3-DOF parallel mechanism designed for machining applications. This machine features three fixed parallel linear joints which are mounted orthogonally and a mobile platform which moves in the Cartesian x-y-z space with fixed orientation. The workspace analysis is conducted on the bases of prescribed kinetostatic performances. The interesting features of the orthoglide are a regular Cartesian workspace shape, uniform performances in all directions and good compactness. Interval analysis based methods for computing the dextrous workspace and the largest cube enclosed in this workspace are presented.
0705.1285
P\'eriph\'eriques haptiques et simulation d'objets, de robots et de mannequins dans un environnement de CAO-Robotique : eM-Virtual Desktop
cs.RO
This paper presents the development of a new software in order to manage objects, robots and mannequins in using the possibilities given by the haptic feedback of the Phantom desktop devices. The haptic device provides 6 positional degree of freedom sensing but three degrees force feedback. This software called eM-Virtual Desktop is integrated in the Tecnomatix's solution called eM-Workplace. The eM-Workplace provides powerful solutions for planning and designing of complex assembly facilities, lines and workplaces. In the digital mockup context, the haptic interfaces can be used to reduce the development cycle of products. Three different loops are used to manage the graphic, the collision detection and the haptic feedback according to theirs own frequencies. The developed software is currently tested in industrial context by a European automotive constructor.
0705.1309
Robust Multi-Cellular Developmental Design
cs.AI
This paper introduces a continuous model for Multi-cellular Developmental Design. The cells are fixed on a 2D grid and exchange "chemicals" with their neighbors during the growth process. The quantity of chemicals that a cell produces, as well as the differentiation value of the cell in the phenotype, are controlled by a Neural Network (the genotype) that takes as inputs the chemicals produced by the neighboring cells at the previous time step. In the proposed model, the number of iterations of the growth process is not pre-determined, but emerges during evolution: only organisms for which the growth process stabilizes give a phenotype (the stable state), others are declared nonviable. The optimization of the controller is done using the NEAT algorithm, that optimizes both the topology and the weights of the Neural Networks. Though each cell only receives local information from its neighbors, the experimental results of the proposed approach on the 'flags' problems (the phenotype must match a given 2D pattern) are almost as good as those of a direct regression approach using the same model with global information. Moreover, the resulting multi-cellular organisms exhibit almost perfect self-healing characteristics.
0705.1336
Diversity-Multiplexing Tradeoff via Asymptotic Analysis of Large MIMO Systems
cs.IT math.IT
Diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) presents a compact framework to compare various MIMO systems and channels in terms of the two main advantages they provide (i.e. high data rate and/or low error rate). This tradeoff was characterized asymptotically (SNR-> infinity) for i.i.d. Rayleigh fading channel by Zheng and Tse [1]. The asymptotic DMT overestimates the finite-SNR one [2]. In this paper, using the recent results on the asymptotic (in the number of antennas) outage capacity distribution, we derive and analyze the finite-SNR DMT for a broad class of channels (not necessarily Rayleigh fading). Based on this, we give the convergence conditions for the asymptotic DMT to be approached by the finite-SNR one. The multiplexing gain definition is shown to affect critically the convergence point: when the multiplexing gain is defined via the mean (ergodic) capacity, the convergence takes place at realistic SNR values. Furthermore, in this case the diversity gain can also be used to estimate the outage probability with reasonable accuracy. The multiplexing gain definition via the high-SNR asymptote of the mean capacity (as in [1]) results in very slow convergence for moderate to large systems (as 1/ln(SNR)^2) and, hence, the asymptotic DMT cannot be used at realistic SNR values. For this definition, the high-SNR threshold increases exponentially in the number of antennas and in the multiplexing gain. For correlated keyhole channel, the diversity gain is shown to decrease with correlation and power imbalance of the channel. While the SNR-asymptotic DMT of Zheng and Tse does not capture this effect, the size-asymptotic DMT does.
0705.1340
On Optimum Power Allocation for the V-BLAST
cs.IT math.IT
A unified analytical framework for optimum power allocation in the unordered V-BLAST algorithm and its comparative performance analysis are presented. Compact closed-form approximations for the optimum power allocation are derived, based on average total and block error rates. The choice of the criterion has little impact on the power allocation and, overall, the optimum strategy is to allocate more power to lower step transmitters and less to higher ones. High-SNR approximations for optimized average block and total error rates are given. The SNR gain of optimization is rigorously defined and studied using analytical tools, including lower and upper bounds, high and low SNR approximations. The gain is upper bounded by the number of transmitters, for any modulation format and type of fading channel. While the average optimization is less complex than the instantaneous one, its performance is almost as good at high SNR. A measure of robustness of the optimized algorithm is introduced and evaluated. The optimized algorithm is shown to be robust to perturbations in individual and total transmit powers. Based on the algorithm robustness, a pre-set power allocation is suggested as a low-complexity alternative to the other optimization strategies, which exhibits only a minor loss in performance over the practical SNR range.
0705.1343
The Optimal Design of Three Degree-of-Freedom Parallel Mechanisms for Machining Applications
cs.RO
The subject of this paper is the optimal design of a parallel mechanism intended for three-axis machining applications. Parallel mechanisms are interesting alternative designs in this context but most of them are designed for three- or six-axis machining applications. In the last case, the position and the orientation of the tool are coupled and the shape of the workspace is complex. The aim of this paper is to use a simple parallel mechanism with two-degree-of-freedom (dof) for translational motions and to add one leg to have one-dof rotational motion. The kinematics and singular configurations are studied as well as an optimization method. The three-degree-of-freedom mechanisms analyzed in this paper can be extended to four-axis machines by adding a fourth axis in series with the first two.
0705.1344
Classification of one family of 3R positioning Manipulators
cs.RO
The aim of this paper is to classify one family of 3R serial positioning manipulators. This categorization is based on the number of cusp points of quaternary, binary, generic and non-generic manipulators. It was found three subsets of manipulators with 0, 2 or 4 cusp points and one homotopy class for generic quaternary manipulators. This classification allows us to define the design parameters for which the manipulator is cuspidal or not, i.e., for which the manipulator can or cannot change posture without meeting a singularity, respectively.
0705.1345
Degree Optimization and Stability Condition for the Min-Sum Decoder
cs.IT math.IT
The min-sum (MS) algorithm is arguably the second most fundamental algorithm in the realm of message passing due to its optimality (for a tree code) with respect to the {\em block error} probability \cite{Wiberg}. There also seems to be a fundamental relationship of MS decoding with the linear programming decoder \cite{Koetter}. Despite its importance, its fundamental properties have not nearly been studied as well as those of the sum-product (also known as BP) algorithm. We address two questions related to the MS rule. First, we characterize the stability condition under MS decoding. It turns out to be essentially the same condition as under BP decoding. Second, we perform a degree distribution optimization. Contrary to the case of BP decoding, under MS decoding the thresholds of the best degree distributions for standard irregular LDPC ensembles are significantly bounded away from the Shannon threshold. More precisely, on the AWGN channel, for the best codes that we find, the gap to capacity is 1dB for a rate 0.3 code and it is 0.4dB when the rate is 0.9 (the gap decreases monotonically as we increase the rate). We also used the optimization procedure to design codes for modified MS algorithm where the output of the check node is scaled by a constant $1/\alpha$. For $\alpha = 1.25$, we observed that the gap to capacity was lesser for the modified MS algorithm when compared with the MS algorithm. However, it was still quite large, varying from 0.75 dB to 0.2 dB for rates between 0.3 and 0.9. We conclude by posing what we consider to be the most important open questions related to the MS algorithm.
0705.1384
Matroid Pathwidth and Code Trellis Complexity
cs.DM cs.IT math.IT
We relate the notion of matroid pathwidth to the minimum trellis state-complexity (which we term trellis-width) of a linear code, and to the pathwidth of a graph. By reducing from the problem of computing the pathwidth of a graph, we show that the problem of determining the pathwidth of a representable matroid is NP-hard. Consequently, the problem of computing the trellis-width of a linear code is also NP-hard. For a finite field $\F$, we also consider the class of $\F$-representable matroids of pathwidth at most $w$, and correspondingly, the family of linear codes over $\F$ with trellis-width at most $w$. These are easily seen to be minor-closed. Since these matroids (and codes) have branchwidth at most $w$, a result of Geelen and Whittle shows that such matroids (and the corresponding codes) are characterized by finitely many excluded minors. We provide the complete list of excluded minors for $w=1$, and give a partial list for $w=2$.
0705.1390
Machine and Component Residual Life Estimation through the Application of Neural Networks
cs.CE
This paper concerns the use of neural networks for predicting the residual life of machines and components. In addition, the advantage of using condition-monitoring data to enhance the predictive capability of these neural networks was also investigated. A number of neural network variations were trained and tested with the data of two different reliability-related datasets. The first dataset represents the renewal case where the failed unit is repaired and restored to a good-as-new condition. Data was collected in the laboratory by subjecting a series of similar test pieces to fatigue loading with a hydraulic actuator. The average prediction error of the various neural networks being compared varied from 431 to 841 seconds on this dataset, where test pieces had a characteristic life of 8,971 seconds. The second dataset was collected from a group of pumps used to circulate a water and magnetite solution within a plant. The data therefore originated from a repaired system affected by reliability degradation. When optimized, the multi-layer perceptron neural networks trained with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and the general regression neural network produced a sum-of-squares error within 11.1% of each other. The potential for using neural networks for residual life prediction and the advantage of incorporating condition-based data into the model were proven for both examples.
0705.1394
The Orthoglide: Kinematics and Workspace Analysis
cs.RO
The paper addresses kinematic and geometrical aspects of the Orthoglide, a three-DOF parallel mechanism. This machine consists of three fixed linear joints, which are mounted orthogonally, three identical legs and a mobile platform, which moves in the Cartesian x-y-z space with fixed orientation. New solutions to solve inverse/direct kinematics are proposed and a detailed workspace analysis is performed taking into account specific joint limit constraints.
0705.1395
Subjective Evaluation of Forms in an Immersive Environment
cs.HC cs.RO
User's perception of product, by essence subjective, is a major topic in marketing and industrial design. Many methods, based on users' tests, are used so as to characterise this perception. We are interested in three main methods: multidimensional scaling, semantic differential method, and preference mapping. These methods are used to built a perceptual space, in order to position the new product, to specify requirements by the study of user's preferences, to evaluate some product attributes, related in particular to style (aesthetic). These early stages of the design are primordial for a good orientation of the project. In parallel, virtual reality tools and interfaces are more and more efficient for suggesting to the user complex feelings, and creating in this way various levels of perceptions. In this article, we present on an example the use of multidimensional scaling, semantic differential method and preference mapping for the subjective assessment of virtual products. These products, which geometrical form is variable, are defined with a CAD model and are proposed to the user with a spacemouse and stereoscopic glasses. Advantages and limitations of such evaluation is next discussed..
0705.1397
Realistic Rendering of Kinetostatic Indices of Mechanisms
cs.RO
The work presented in this paper is related to the use of a haptic device in an environment of robotic simulation. Such device introduces a new approach to feel and to understand the boundaries of the workspace of mechanisms as well as its kinetostatic properties. Indeed, these concepts are abstract and thus often difficult to understand for the end-users. To catch his attention, we propose to amplify the problems of the mechanisms in order to help him to take the good decisions.
0705.1399
A New Concept of Modular Parallel Mechanism for Machining Applications
cs.RO
The subject of this paper is the design of a new concept of modular parallel mechanisms for three, four or five-axis machining applications. Most parallel mechanisms are designed for three- or six-axis machining applications. In the last case, the position and the orientation of the tool are coupled and the shape of the workspace is complex. The aim of this paper is to use a simple parallel mechanism with two-degree-of-freedom (dof) for translation motions and to add one or two legs to add one or two-dofs for rotation motions. The kinematics and singular configurations are studied for each mechanism.
0705.1400
A Workspace based Classification of 3R Orthogonal Manipulators
cs.RO
A classification of a family of 3-revolute (3R) positioning manipulators is established. This classification is based on the topology of their workspace. The workspace is characterized in a half-cross section by the singular curves of the manipulator. The workspace topology is defined by the number of cusps and nodes that appear on these singular curves. The design parameters space is shown to be partitioned into nine subspaces of distinct workspace topologies. Each separating surface is given as an explicit expression in the DH-parameters.
0705.1409
Singularity Surfaces and Maximal Singularity-Free Boxes in the Joint Space of Planar 3-RPR Parallel Manipulators
cs.RO
In this paper, a method to compute joint space singularity surfaces of 3-RPR planar parallel manipulators is first presented. Then, a procedure to determine maximal joint space singularity-free boxes is introduced. Numerical examples are given in order to illustrate graphically the results. This study is of high interest for planning trajectories in the joint space of 3-RPR parallel manipulators and for manipulators design as it may constitute a tool for choosing appropriate joint limits and thus for sizing the link lengths of the manipulator.
0705.1410
Kinematics analysis of the parallel module of the VERNE machine
cs.RO
The paper derives the inverse and forward kinematic equations of a spatial three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism, which is the parallel module of a hybrid serial-parallel 5-axis machine tool. This parallel mechanism consists of a moving platform that is connected to a fixed base by three non-identical legs. Each leg is made up of one prismatic and two pair spherical joint, which are connected in a way that the combined effects of the three legs lead to an over-constrained mechanism with complex motion. This motion is defined as a simultaneous combination of rotation and translation.
0705.1450
An Algorithm for Computing Cusp Points in the Joint Space of 3-RPR Parallel Manipulators
cs.RO
This paper presents an algorithm for detecting and computing the cusp points in the joint space of 3-RPR planar parallel manipulators. In manipulator kinematics, cusp points are special points, which appear on the singular curves of the manipulators. The nonsingular change of assembly mode of 3-RPR parallel manipulators was shown to be associated with the existence of cusp points. At each of these points, three direct kinematic solutions coincide. In the literature, a condition for the existence of three coincident direct kinematic solutions was established, but has never been exploited, because the algebra involved was too complicated to be solved. The algorithm presented in this paper solves this equation and detects all the cusp points in the joint space of these manipulators.
0705.1453
DWEB: A Data Warehouse Engineering Benchmark
cs.DB
Data warehouse architectural choices and optimization techniques are critical to decision support query performance. To facilitate these choices, the performance of the designed data warehouse must be assessed. This is usually done with the help of benchmarks, which can either help system users comparing the performances of different systems, or help system engineers testing the effect of various design choices. While the TPC standard decision support benchmarks address the first point, they are not tuneable enough to address the second one and fail to model different data warehouse schemas. By contrast, our Data Warehouse Engineering Benchmark (DWEB) allows to generate various ad-hoc synthetic data warehouses and workloads. DWEB is fully parameterized to fulfill data warehouse design needs. However, two levels of parameterization keep it relatively easy to tune. Finally, DWEB is implemented as a Java free software that can be interfaced with most existing relational database management systems. A sample usage of DWEB is also provided in this paper.
0705.1454
DOEF: A Dynamic Object Evaluation Framework
cs.DB
In object-oriented or object-relational databases such as multimedia databases or most XML databases, access patterns are not static, i.e., applications do not always access the same objects in the same order repeatedly. However, this has been the way these databases and associated optimisation techniques like clustering have been evaluated up to now. This paper opens up research regarding this issue by proposing a dynamic object evaluation framework (DOEF) that accomplishes access pattern change by defining configurable styles of change. This preliminary prototype has been designed to be open and fully extensible. To illustrate the capabilities of DOEF, we used it to compare the performances of four state of the art dynamic clustering algorithms. The results show that DOEF is indeed effective at determining the adaptability of each dynamic clustering algorithm to changes in access pattern.
0705.1455
Decision tree modeling with relational views
cs.DB
Data mining is a useful decision support technique that can be used to discover production rules in warehouses or corporate data. Data mining research has made much effort to apply various mining algorithms efficiently on large databases. However, a serious problem in their practical application is the long processing time of such algorithms. Nowadays, one of the key challenges is to integrate data mining methods within the framework of traditional database systems. Indeed, such implementations can take advantage of the efficiency provided by SQL engines. In this paper, we propose an integrating approach for decision trees within a classical database system. In other words, we try to discover knowledge from relational databases, in the form of production rules, via a procedure embedding SQL queries. The obtained decision tree is defined by successive, related relational views. Each view corresponds to a given population in the underlying decision tree. We selected the classical Induction Decision Tree (ID3) algorithm to build the decision tree. To prove that our implementation of ID3 works properly, we successfully compared the output of our procedure with the output of an existing and validated data mining software, SIPINA. Furthermore, since our approach is tuneable, it can be generalized to any other similar decision tree-based method.
0705.1456
Warehousing Web Data
cs.DB
In a data warehousing process, mastering the data preparation phase allows substantial gains in terms of time and performance when performing multidimensional analysis or using data mining algorithms. Furthermore, a data warehouse can require external data. The web is a prevalent data source in this context. In this paper, we propose a modeling process for integrating diverse and heterogeneous (so-called multiform) data into a unified format. Furthermore, the very schema definition provides first-rate metadata in our data warehousing context. At the conceptual level, a complex object is represented in UML. Our logical model is an XML schema that can be described with a DTD or the XML-Schema language. Eventually, we have designed a Java prototype that transforms our multiform input data into XML documents representing our physical model. Then, the XML documents we obtain are mapped into a relational database we view as an ODS (Operational Data Storage), whose content will have to be re-modeled in a multidimensional way to allow its storage in a star schema-based warehouse and, later, its analysis.
0705.1457
Web data modeling for integration in data warehouses
cs.DB
In a data warehousing process, the data preparation phase is crucial. Mastering this phase allows substantial gains in terms of time and performance when performing a multidimensional analysis or using data mining algorithms. Furthermore, a data warehouse can require external data. The web is a prevalent data source in this context, but the data broadcasted on this medium are very heterogeneous. We propose in this paper a UML conceptual model for a complex object representing a superclass of any useful data source (databases, plain texts, HTML and XML documents, images, sounds, video clips...). The translation into a logical model is achieved with XML, which helps integrating all these diverse, heterogeneous data into a unified format, and whose schema definition provides first-rate metadata in our data warehousing context. Moreover, we benefit from XML's flexibility, extensibility and from the richness of the semi-structured data model, but we are still able to later map XML documents into a database if more structuring is needed.
0705.1481
Actin - Technical Report
cs.NE
The Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT) can be solved efficiently with variants of the DPLL algorithm. For industrial SAT problems, DPLL with conflict analysis dependent dynamic decision heuristics has proved to be particularly efficient, e.g. in Chaff. In this work, algorithms that initialize the variable activity values in the solver MiniSAT v1.14 by analyzing the CNF are evolved using genetic programming (GP), with the goal to reduce the total number of conflicts of the search and the solving time. The effect of using initial activities other than zero is examined by initializing with random numbers. The possibility of countering the detrimental effects of reordering the CNF with improved initialization is investigated. The best result found (with validation testing on further problems) was used in the solver Actin, which was submitted to SAT-Race 2006.
0705.1585
HMM Speaker Identification Using Linear and Non-linear Merging Techniques
cs.LG
Speaker identification is a powerful, non-invasive and in-expensive biometric technique. The recognition accuracy, however, deteriorates when noise levels affect a specific band of frequency. In this paper, we present a sub-band based speaker identification that intends to improve the live testing performance. Each frequency sub-band is processed and classified independently. We also compare the linear and non-linear merging techniques for the sub-bands recognizer. Support vector machines and Gaussian Mixture models are the non-linear merging techniques that are investigated. Results showed that the sub-band based method used with linear merging techniques enormously improved the performance of the speaker identification over the performance of wide-band recognizers when tested live. A live testing improvement of 9.78% was achieved
0705.1612
A Class of LDPC Erasure Distributions with Closed-Form Threshold Expression
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, a family of low-density parity-check (LDPC) degree distributions, whose decoding threshold on the binary erasure channel (BEC) admits a simple closed form, is presented. These degree distributions are a subset of the check regular distributions (i.e. all the check nodes have the same degree), and are referred to as $p$-positive distributions. It is given proof that the threshold for a $p$-positive distribution is simply expressed by $[\lambda'(0)\rho'(1)]^{-1}$. Besides this closed form threshold expression, the $p$-positive distributions exhibit three additional properties. First, for given code rate, check degree and maximum variable degree, they are in some cases characterized by a threshold which is extremely close to that of the best known check regular distributions, under the same set of constraints. Second, the threshold optimization problem within the $p$-positive class can be solved in some cases with analytic methods, without using any numerical optimization tool. Third, these distributions can achieve the BEC capacity. The last property is shown by proving that the well-known binomial degree distributions belong to the $p$-positive family.
0705.1617
Non-Computability of Consciousness
quant-ph astro-ph cs.AI
With the great success in simulating many intelligent behaviors using computing devices, there has been an ongoing debate whether all conscious activities are computational processes. In this paper, the answer to this question is shown to be no. A certain phenomenon of consciousness is demonstrated to be fully represented as a computational process using a quantum computer. Based on the computability criterion discussed with Turing machines, the model constructed is shown to necessarily involve a non-computable element. The concept that this is solely a quantum effect and does not work for a classical case is also discussed.
0705.1672
Principal Component Analysis and Automatic Relevance Determination in Damage Identification
cs.CE
This paper compares two neural network input selection schemes, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Automatic Relevance Determination (ARD) based on Mac-Kay's evidence framework. The PCA takes all the input data and projects it onto a lower dimension space, thereby reduc-ing the dimension of the input space. This input reduction method often results with parameters that have significant influence on the dynamics of the data being diluted by those that do not influence the dynamics of the data. The ARD selects the most relevant input parameters and discards those that do not contribute significantly to the dynamics of the data being modelled. The ARD sometimes results with important input parameters being discarded thereby compromising the dynamics of the data. The PCA and ARD methods are implemented together with a Multi-Layer-Perceptron (MLP) network for fault identification in structures and the performance of the two methods is as-sessed. It is observed that ARD and PCA give similar accu-racy levels when used as input-selection schemes. There-fore, the choice of input-selection scheme is dependent on the nature of the data being processed.
0705.1673
Using artificial intelligence for data reduction in mechanical engineering
cs.CE cs.AI cs.NE
In this paper artificial neural networks and support vector machines are used to reduce the amount of vibration data that is required to estimate the Time Domain Average of a gear vibration signal. Two models for estimating the time domain average of a gear vibration signal are proposed. The models are tested on data from an accelerated gear life test rig. Experimental results indicate that the required data for calculating the Time Domain Average of a gear vibration signal can be reduced by up to 75% when the proposed models are implemented.
0705.1674
Evolutionary Optimisation Methods for Template Based Image Registration
cs.CE cs.CV
This paper investigates the use of evolutionary optimisation techniques to register a template with a scene image. An error function is created to measure the correspondence of the template to the image. The problem presented here is to optimise the horizontal, vertical and scaling parameters that register the template with the scene. The Genetic Algorithm, Simulated Annealing and Particle Swarm Optimisations are compared to a Nelder-Mead Simplex optimisation with starting points chosen in a pre-processing stage. The paper investigates the precision and accuracy of each method and shows that all four methods perform favourably for image registration. SA is the most precise, GA is the most accurate. PSO is a good mix of both and the Simplex method returns local minima the most. A pre-processing stage should be investigated for the evolutionary methods in order to improve performance. Discrete versions of the optimisation methods should be investigated to further improve computational performance.
0705.1680
Option Pricing Using Bayesian Neural Networks
cs.CE cs.NE
Options have provided a field of much study because of the complexity involved in pricing them. The Black-Scholes equations were developed to price options but they are only valid for European styled options. There is added complexity when trying to price American styled options and this is why the use of neural networks has been proposed. Neural Networks are able to predict outcomes based on past data. The inputs to the networks here are stock volatility, strike price and time to maturity with the output of the network being the call option price. There are two techniques for Bayesian neural networks used. One is Automatic Relevance Determination (for Gaussian Approximation) and one is a Hybrid Monte Carlo method, both used with Multi-Layer Perceptrons.
0705.1682
Capacity of Underspread Noncoherent WSSUS Fading Channels under Peak Signal Constraints
cs.IT math.IT
We characterize the capacity of the general class of noncoherent underspread wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) time-frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels, under peak constraints in time and frequency and in time only. Capacity upper and lower bounds are found which are explicit in the channel's scattering function and allow to identify the capacity-maximizing bandwidth for a given scattering function and a given peak-to-average power ratio.
0705.1757
Scalability and Optimisation of a Committee of Agents Using Genetic Algorithm
cs.MA
A population of committees of agents that learn by using neural networks is implemented to simulate the stock market. Each committee of agents, which is regarded as a player in a game, is optimised by continually adapting the architecture of the agents using genetic algorithms. The committees of agents buy and sell stocks by following this procedure: (1) obtain the current price of stocks; (2) predict the future price of stocks; (3) and for a given price trade until all the players are mutually satisfied. The trading of stocks is conducted by following these rules: (1) if a player expects an increase in price then it tries to buy the stock; (2) else if it expects a drop in the price, it sells the stock; (3)and the order in which a player participates in the game is random. The proposed procedure is implemented to simulate trading of three stocks, namely, the Dow Jones, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. A linear relationship between the number of players and agents versus the computational time to run the complete simulation is observed. It is also found that no player has a monopolistic advantage.
0705.1759
Finite Element Model Updating Using Response Surface Method
cs.CE
This paper proposes the response surface method for finite element model updating. The response surface method is implemented by approximating the finite element model surface response equation by a multi-layer perceptron. The updated parameters of the finite element model were calculated using genetic algorithm by optimizing the surface response equation. The proposed method was compared to the existing methods that use simulated annealing or genetic algorithm together with a full finite element model for finite element model updating. The proposed method was tested on an unsymmetri-cal H-shaped structure. It was observed that the proposed method gave the updated natural frequen-cies and mode shapes that were of the same order of accuracy as those given by simulated annealing and genetic algorithm. Furthermore, it was observed that the response surface method achieved these results at a computational speed that was more than 2.5 times as fast as the genetic algorithm and a full finite element model and 24 times faster than the simulated annealing.
0705.1760
Dynamic Model Updating Using Particle Swarm Optimization Method
cs.CE cs.NE
This paper proposes the use of particle swarm optimization method (PSO) for finite element (FE) model updating. The PSO method is compared to the existing methods that use simulated annealing (SA) or genetic algorithms (GA) for FE model for model updating. The proposed method is tested on an unsymmetrical H-shaped structure. It is observed that the proposed method gives updated natural frequencies the most accurate and followed by those given by an updated model that was obtained using the GA and a full FE model. It is also observed that the proposed method gives updated mode shapes that are best correlated to the measured ones, followed by those given by an updated model that was obtained using the SA and a full FE model. Furthermore, it is observed that the PSO achieves this accuracy at a computational speed that is faster than that by the GA and a full FE model which is faster than the SA and a full FE model.
0705.1787
Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks: An Overview of Game-Theoretic Approaches
cs.IT cs.GT math.IT
An overview of game-theoretic approaches to energy-efficient resource allocation in wireless networks is presented. Focusing on multiple-access networks, it is demonstrated that game theory can be used as an effective tool to study resource allocation in wireless networks with quality-of-service (QoS) constraints. A family of non-cooperative (distributed) games is presented in which each user seeks to choose a strategy that maximizes its own utility while satisfying its QoS requirements. The utility function considered here measures the number of reliable bits that are transmitted per joule of energy consumed and, hence, is particulary suitable for energy-constrained networks. The actions available to each user in trying to maximize its own utility are at least the choice of the transmit power and, depending on the situation, the user may also be able to choose its transmission rate, modulation, packet size, multiuser receiver, multi-antenna processing algorithm, or carrier allocation strategy. The best-response strategy and Nash equilibrium for each game is presented. Using this game-theoretic framework, the effects of power control, rate control, modulation, temporal and spatial signal processing, carrier allocation strategy and delay QoS constraints on energy efficiency and network capacity are quantified.
0705.1788
A Game-Theoretic Approach to Energy-Efficient Modulation in CDMA Networks with Delay QoS Constraints
cs.IT cs.GT math.IT
A game-theoretic framework is used to study the effect of constellation size on the energy efficiency of wireless networks for M-QAM modulation. A non-cooperative game is proposed in which each user seeks to choose its transmit power (and possibly transmit symbol rate) as well as the constellation size in order to maximize its own utility while satisfying its delay quality-of-service (QoS) constraint. The utility function used here measures the number of reliable bits transmitted per joule of energy consumed, and is particularly suitable for energy-constrained networks. The best-response strategies and Nash equilibrium solution for the proposed game are derived. It is shown that in order to maximize its utility (in bits per joule), a user must choose the lowest constellation size that can accommodate the user's delay constraint. This strategy is different from one that would maximize spectral efficiency. Using this framework, the tradeoffs among energy efficiency, delay, throughput and constellation size are also studied and quantified. In addition, the effect of trellis-coded modulation on energy efficiency is discussed.
0705.1789
Random Linear Network Coding: A free cipher?
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
We consider the level of information security provided by random linear network coding in network scenarios in which all nodes comply with the communication protocols yet are assumed to be potential eavesdroppers (i.e. "nice but curious"). For this setup, which differs from wiretapping scenarios considered previously, we develop a natural algebraic security criterion, and prove several of its key properties. A preliminary analysis of the impact of network topology on the overall network coding security, in particular for complete directed acyclic graphs, is also included.
0705.1886
Ontology-Supported and Ontology-Driven Conceptual Navigation on the World Wide Web
cs.IR
This paper presents the principles of ontology-supported and ontology-driven conceptual navigation. Conceptual navigation realizes the independence between resources and links to facilitate interoperability and reusability. An engine builds dynamic links, assembles resources under an argumentative scheme and allows optimization with a possible constraint, such as the user's available time. Among several strategies, two are discussed in detail with examples of applications. On the one hand, conceptual specifications for linking and assembling are embedded in the resource meta-description with the support of the ontology of the domain to facilitate meta-communication. Resources are like agents looking for conceptual acquaintances with intention. On the other hand, the domain ontology and an argumentative ontology drive the linking and assembling strategies.
0705.1919
Optimal Watermark Embedding and Detection Strategies Under Limited Detection Resources
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
An information-theoretic approach is proposed to watermark embedding and detection under limited detector resources. First, we consider the attack-free scenario under which asymptotically optimal decision regions in the Neyman-Pearson sense are proposed, along with the optimal embedding rule. Later, we explore the case of zero-mean i.i.d. Gaussian covertext distribution with unknown variance under the attack-free scenario. For this case, we propose a lower bound on the exponential decay rate of the false-negative probability and prove that the optimal embedding and detecting strategy is superior to the customary linear, additive embedding strategy in the exponential sense. Finally, these results are extended to the case of memoryless attacks and general worst case attacks. Optimal decision regions and embedding rules are offered, and the worst attack channel is identified.
0705.1922
Crystallization in large wireless networks
cs.IT math.IT
We analyze fading interference relay networks where M single-antenna source-destination terminal pairs communicate concurrently and in the same frequency band through a set of K single-antenna relays using half-duplex two-hop relaying. Assuming that the relays have channel state information (CSI), it is shown that in the large-M limit, provided K grows fast enough as a function of M, the network "decouples" in the sense that the individual source-destination terminal pair capacities are strictly positive. The corresponding required rate of growth of K as a function of M is found to be sufficient to also make the individual source-destination fading links converge to nonfading links. We say that the network "crystallizes" as it breaks up into a set of effectively isolated "wires in the air". A large-deviations analysis is performed to characterize the "crystallization" rate, i.e., the rate (as a function of M,K) at which the decoupled links converge to nonfading links. In the course of this analysis, we develop a new technique for characterizing the large-deviations behavior of certain sums of dependent random variables. For the case of no CSI at the relay level, assuming amplify-and-forward relaying, we compute the per source-destination terminal pair capacity for M,K converging to infinity, with K/M staying fixed, using tools from large random matrix theory.
0705.1999
A first-order Temporal Logic for Actions
cs.AI cs.LO
We present a multi-modal action logic with first-order modalities, which contain terms which can be unified with the terms inside the subsequent formulas and which can be quantified. This makes it possible to handle simultaneously time and states. We discuss applications of this language to action theory where it is possible to express many temporal aspects of actions, as for example, beginning, end, time points, delayed preconditions and results, duration and many others. We present tableaux rules for a decidable fragment of this logic.
0705.2009
Bit-Interleaved Coded Multiple Beamforming with Imperfect CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
This paper addresses the performance of bit-interleaved coded multiple beamforming (BICMB) [1], [2] with imperfect knowledge of beamforming vectors. Most studies for limited-rate channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) assume that the precoding matrix has an invariance property under an arbitrary unitary transform. In BICMB, this property does not hold. On the other hand, the optimum precoder and detector for BICMB are invariant under a diagonal unitary transform. In order to design a limited-rate CSIT system for BICMB, we propose a new distortion measure optimum under this invariance. Based on this new distortion measure, we introduce a new set of centroids and employ the generalized Lloyd algorithm for codebook design. We provide simulation results demonstrating the performance improvement achieved with the proposed distortion measure and the codebook design for various receivers with linear detectors. We show that although these receivers have the same performance for perfect CSIT, their performance varies under imperfect CSIT.
0705.2011
Multi-Dimensional Recurrent Neural Networks
cs.AI cs.CV
Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have proved effective at one dimensional sequence learning tasks, such as speech and online handwriting recognition. Some of the properties that make RNNs suitable for such tasks, for example robustness to input warping, and the ability to access contextual information, are also desirable in multidimensional domains. However, there has so far been no direct way of applying RNNs to data with more than one spatio-temporal dimension. This paper introduces multi-dimensional recurrent neural networks (MDRNNs), thereby extending the potential applicability of RNNs to vision, video processing, medical imaging and many other areas, while avoiding the scaling problems that have plagued other multi-dimensional models. Experimental results are provided for two image segmentation tasks.
0705.2106
Scientific citations in Wikipedia
cs.DL cs.IR
The Internet-based encyclopaedia Wikipedia has grown to become one of the most visited web-sites on the Internet. However, critics have questioned the quality of entries, and an empirical study has shown Wikipedia to contain errors in a 2005 sample of science entries. Biased coverage and lack of sources are among the "Wikipedia risks". The present work describes a simple assessment of these aspects by examining the outbound links from Wikipedia articles to articles in scientific journals with a comparison against journal statistics from Journal Citation Reports such as impact factors. The results show an increasing use of structured citation markup and good agreement with the citation pattern seen in the scientific literature though with a slight tendency to cite articles in high-impact journals such as Nature and Science. These results increase confidence in Wikipedia as an good information organizer for science in general.
0705.2235
Response Prediction of Structural System Subject to Earthquake Motions using Artificial Neural Network
cs.AI
This paper uses Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models to compute response of structural system subject to Indian earthquakes at Chamoli and Uttarkashi ground motion data. The system is first trained for a single real earthquake data. The trained ANN architecture is then used to simulate earthquakes with various intensities and it was found that the predicted responses given by ANN model are accurate for practical purposes. When the ANN is trained by a part of the ground motion data, it can also identify the responses of the structural system well. In this way the safeness of the structural systems may be predicted in case of future earthquakes without waiting for the earthquake to occur for the lessons. Time period and the corresponding maximum response of the building for an earthquake has been evaluated, which is again trained to predict the maximum response of the building at different time periods. The trained time period versus maximum response ANN model is also tested for real earthquake data of other place, which was not used in the training and was found to be in good agreement.
0705.2236
Fault Classification using Pseudomodal Energies and Neuro-fuzzy modelling
cs.AI
This paper presents a fault classification method which makes use of a Takagi-Sugeno neuro-fuzzy model and Pseudomodal energies calculated from the vibration signals of cylindrical shells. The calculation of Pseudomodal Energies, for the purposes of condition monitoring, has previously been found to be an accurate method of extracting features from vibration signals. This calculation is therefore used to extract features from vibration signals obtained from a diverse population of cylindrical shells. Some of the cylinders in the population have faults in different substructures. The pseudomodal energies calculated from the vibration signals are then used as inputs to a neuro-fuzzy model. A leave-one-out cross-validation process is used to test the performance of the model. It is found that the neuro-fuzzy model is able to classify faults with an accuracy of 91.62%, which is higher than the previously used multilayer perceptron.
0705.2270
Multi-Access MIMO Systems with Finite Rate Channel State Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
This paper characterizes the effect of finite rate channel state feedback on the sum rate of a multi-access multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. We propose to control the users jointly, specifically, we first choose the users jointly and then select the corresponding beamforming vectors jointly. To quantify the sum rate, this paper introduces the composite Grassmann manifold and the composite Grassmann matrix. By characterizing the distortion rate function on the composite Grassmann manifold and calculating the logdet function of a random composite Grassmann matrix, a good sum rate approximation is derived. According to the distortion rate function on the composite Grassmann manifold, the loss due to finite beamforming decreases exponentially as the feedback bits on beamforming increases.
0705.2272
Quantization Bounds on Grassmann Manifolds of Arbitrary Dimensions and MIMO Communications with Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers the quantization problem on the Grassmann manifold with dimension n and p. The unique contribution is the derivation of a closed-form formula for the volume of a metric ball in the Grassmann manifold when the radius is sufficiently small. This volume formula holds for Grassmann manifolds with arbitrary dimension n and p, while previous results are only valid for either p=1 or a fixed p with asymptotically large n. Based on the volume formula, the Gilbert-Varshamov and Hamming bounds for sphere packings are obtained. Assuming a uniformly distributed source and a distortion metric based on the squared chordal distance, tight lower and upper bounds are established for the distortion rate tradeoff. Simulation results match the derived results. As an application of the derived quantization bounds, the information rate of a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system with finite-rate channel-state feedback is accurately quantified for arbitrary finite number of antennas, while previous results are only valid for either Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) systems or those with asymptotically large number of transmit antennas but fixed number of receive antennas.
0705.2273
On the Information Rate of MIMO Systems with Finite Rate Channel State Feedback and Power On/Off Strategy
cs.IT math.IT
This paper quantifies the information rate of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with finite rate channel state feedback and power on/off strategy. In power on/off strategy, a beamforming vector (beam) is either turned on (denoted by on-beam) with a constant power or turned off. We prove that the ratio of the optimal number of on-beams and the number of antennas converges to a constant for a given signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) when the number of transmit and receive antennas approaches infinity simultaneously and when beamforming is perfect. Based on this result, a near optimal strategy, i.e., power on/off strategy with a constant number of on-beams, is discussed. For such a strategy, we propose the power efficiency factor to quantify the effect of imperfect beamforming. A formula is proposed to compute the maximum power efficiency factor achievable given a feedback rate. The information rate of the overall MIMO system can be approximated by combining the asymptotic results and the formula for power efficiency factor. Simulations show that this approximation is accurate for all SNR regimes.
0705.2274
How Many Users should be Turned On in a Multi-Antenna Broadcast Channel?
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers broadcast channels with L antennas at the base station and m single-antenna users, where each user has perfect channel knowledge and the base station obtains channel information through a finite rate feedback. The key observation of this paper is that the optimal number of on-users (users turned on), say s, is a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and other system parameters. Towards this observation, we use asymptotic analysis to guide the design of feedback and transmission strategies. As L, m and the feedback rates approach infinity linearly, we derive the asymptotic optimal feedback strategy and a realistic criterion to decide which users should be turned on. Define the corresponding asymptotic throughput per antenna as the spatial efficiency. It is a function of the number of on-users s, and therefore, s should be appropriately chosen. Based on the above asymptotic results, we also develop a scheme for a system with finite many antennas and users. Compared with other works where s is presumed constant, our scheme achieves a significant gain by choosing the appropriate s. Furthermore, our analysis and scheme is valid for heterogeneous systems where different users may have different path loss coefficients and feedback rates.
0705.2278
Unequal dimensional small balls and quantization on Grassmann Manifolds
cs.IT math.IT
The Grassmann manifold G_{n,p}(L) is the set of all p-dimensional planes (through the origin) in the n-dimensional Euclidean space L^{n}, where L is either R or C. This paper considers an unequal dimensional quantization in which a source in G_{n,p}(L) is quantized through a code in G_{n,q}(L), where p and q are not necessarily the same. It is different from most works in literature where p\equiv q. The analysis for unequal dimensional quantization is based on the volume of a metric ball in G_{n,p}(L) whose center is in G_{n,q}(L). Our chief result is a closed-form formula for the volume of a metric ball when the radius is sufficiently small. This volume formula holds for Grassmann manifolds with arbitrary n, p, q and L, while previous results pertained only to some special cases. Based on this volume formula, several bounds are derived for the rate distortion tradeoff assuming the quantization rate is sufficiently high. The lower and upper bounds on the distortion rate function are asymptotically identical, and so precisely quantify the asymptotic rate distortion tradeoff. We also show that random codes are asymptotically optimal in the sense that they achieve the minimum achievable distortion with probability one as n and the code rate approach infinity linearly. Finally, we discuss some applications of the derived results to communication theory. A geometric interpretation in the Grassmann manifold is developed for capacity calculation of additive white Gaussian noise channel. Further, the derived distortion rate function is beneficial to characterizing the effect of beamforming matrix selection in multi-antenna communications.
0705.2305
Fuzzy and Multilayer Perceptron for Evaluation of HV Bushings
cs.AI cs.NE
The work proposes the application of fuzzy set theory (FST) to diagnose the condition of high voltage bushings. The diagnosis uses dissolved gas analysis (DGA) data from bushings based on IEC60599 and IEEE C57-104 criteria for oil impregnated paper (OIP) bushings. FST and neural networks are compared in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. Both FST and NN simulations were able to diagnose the bushings condition with 10% error. By using fuzzy theory, the maintenance department can classify bushings and know the extent of degradation in the component.
0705.2307
A Study in a Hybrid Centralised-Swarm Agent Community
cs.NE cs.AI
This paper describes a systems architecture for a hybrid Centralised/Swarm based multi-agent system. The issue of local goal assignment for agents is investigated through the use of a global agent which teaches the agents responses to given situations. We implement a test problem in the form of a Pursuit game, where the Multi-Agent system is a set of captor agents. The agents learn solutions to certain board positions from the global agent if they are unable to find a solution. The captor agents learn through the use of multi-layer perceptron neural networks. The global agent is able to solve board positions through the use of a Genetic Algorithm. The cooperation between agents and the results of the simulation are discussed here. .
0705.2310
On-Line Condition Monitoring using Computational Intelligence
cs.AI
This paper presents bushing condition monitoring frameworks that use multi-layer perceptrons (MLP), radial basis functions (RBF) and support vector machines (SVM) classifiers. The first level of the framework determines if the bushing is faulty or not while the second level determines the type of fault. The diagnostic gases in the bushings are analyzed using the dissolve gas analysis. MLP gives superior performance in terms of accuracy and training time than SVM and RBF. In addition, an on-line bushing condition monitoring approach, which is able to adapt to newly acquired data are introduced. This approach is able to accommodate new classes that are introduced by incoming data and is implemented using an incremental learning algorithm that uses MLP. The testing results improved from 67.5% to 95.8% as new data were introduced and the testing results improved from 60% to 95.3% as new conditions were introduced. On average the confidence value of the framework on its decision was 0.92.
0705.2318
Statistical Mechanics of Nonlinear On-line Learning for Ensemble Teachers
cs.LG cond-mat.dis-nn
We analyze the generalization performance of a student in a model composed of nonlinear perceptrons: a true teacher, ensemble teachers, and the student. We calculate the generalization error of the student analytically or numerically using statistical mechanics in the framework of on-line learning. We treat two well-known learning rules: Hebbian learning and perceptron learning. As a result, it is proven that the nonlinear model shows qualitatively different behaviors from the linear model. Moreover, it is clarified that Hebbian learning and perceptron learning show qualitatively different behaviors from each other. In Hebbian learning, we can analytically obtain the solutions. In this case, the generalization error monotonically decreases. The steady value of the generalization error is independent of the learning rate. The larger the number of teachers is and the more variety the ensemble teachers have, the smaller the generalization error is. In perceptron learning, we have to numerically obtain the solutions. In this case, the dynamical behaviors of the generalization error are non-monotonic. The smaller the learning rate is, the larger the number of teachers is; and the more variety the ensemble teachers have, the smaller the minimum value of the generalization error is.
0705.2435
Reduced Complexity Sphere Decoding for Square QAM via a New Lattice Representation
cs.IT math.IT
Sphere decoding (SD) is a low complexity maximum likelihood (ML) detection algorithm, which has been adapted for different linear channels in digital communications. The complexity of the SD has been shown to be exponential in some cases, and polynomial in others and under certain assumptions. The sphere radius and the number of nodes visited throughout the tree traversal search are the decisive factors for the complexity of the algorithm. The radius problem has been addressed and treated widely in the literature. In this paper, we propose a new structure for SD, which drastically reduces the overall complexity. The complexity is measured in terms of the floating point operations per second (FLOPS) and the number of nodes visited throughout the algorithm tree search. This reduction in the complexity is due to the ability of decoding the real and imaginary parts of each jointly detected symbol independently of each other, making use of the new lattice representation. We further show by simulations that the new approach achieves 80% reduction in the overall complexity compared to the conventional SD for a 2x2 system, and almost 50% reduction for the 4x4 and 6x6 cases, thus relaxing the requirements for hardware implementation.
0705.2485
Using Genetic Algorithms to Optimise Rough Set Partition Sizes for HIV Data Analysis
cs.NE cs.AI q-bio.QM
In this paper, we present a method to optimise rough set partition sizes, to which rule extraction is performed on HIV data. The genetic algorithm optimisation technique is used to determine the partition sizes of a rough set in order to maximise the rough sets prediction accuracy. The proposed method is tested on a set of demographic properties of individuals obtained from the South African antenatal survey. Six demographic variables were used in the analysis, these variables are; race, age of mother, education, gravidity, parity, and age of father, with the outcome or decision being either HIV positive or negative. Rough set theory is chosen based on the fact that it is easy to interpret the extracted rules. The prediction accuracy of equal width bin partitioning is 57.7% while the accuracy achieved after optimising the partitions is 72.8%. Several other methods have been used to analyse the HIV data and their results are stated and compared to that of rough set theory (RST).
0705.2516
Condition Monitoring of HV Bushings in the Presence of Missing Data Using Evolutionary Computing
cs.NE cs.AI
The work proposes the application of neural networks with particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and genetic algorithms (GA) to compensate for missing data in classifying high voltage bushings. The classification is done using DGA data from 60966 bushings based on IEEEc57.104, IEC599 and IEEE production rates methods for oil impregnated paper (OIP) bushings. PSO and GA were compared in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. Both GA and PSO simulations were able to estimate missing data values to an average 95% accuracy when only one variable was missing. However PSO rapidly deteriorated to 66% accuracy with two variables missing simultaneously, compared to 84% for GA. The data estimated using GA was found to classify the conditions of bushings than the PSO.
0705.2535
Informatics Carnot Machine
cs.IT math.IT
Based on Planck's blackbody equation it is argued that a single mode light pulse, with a large number of photons, carries one entropy unit. Similarly, an empty radiation mode carries no entropy. In this case, the calculated entropy that a coded sequence of light pulses is carrying is simply the Gibbs mixing entropy, which is identical to the logical Shannon information. This approach is supported by a demonstration that information transmission and amplification, by a sequence of light pulses in an optical fiber, is a classic Carnot machine comprising of two isothermals and two adiabatic. Therefore it is concluded that entropy under certain conditions is information.
0705.2604
Computational Intelligence for Condition Monitoring
cs.CE
Condition monitoring techniques are described in this chapter. Two aspects of condition monitoring process are considered: (1) feature extraction; and (2) condition classification. Feature extraction methods described and implemented are fractals, Kurtosis and Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficients. Classification methods described and implemented are support vector machines (SVM), hidden Markov models (HMM), Gaussian mixture models (GMM) and extension neural networks (ENN). The effectiveness of these features were tested using SVM, HMM, GMM and ENN on condition monitoring of bearings and are found to give good results.
0705.2765
On the monotonization of the training set
cs.LG cs.AI
We consider the problem of minimal correction of the training set to make it consistent with monotonic constraints. This problem arises during analysis of data sets via techniques that require monotone data. We show that this problem is NP-hard in general and is equivalent to finding a maximal independent set in special orgraphs. Practically important cases of that problem considered in detail. These are the cases when a partial order given on the replies set is a total order or has a dimension 2. We show that the second case can be reduced to maximization of a quadratic convex function on a convex set. For this case we construct an approximate polynomial algorithm based on convex optimization.
0705.2787
Worst-Case Background Knowledge for Privacy-Preserving Data Publishing
cs.DB
Recent work has shown the necessity of considering an attacker's background knowledge when reasoning about privacy in data publishing. However, in practice, the data publisher does not know what background knowledge the attacker possesses. Thus, it is important to consider the worst-case. In this paper, we initiate a formal study of worst-case background knowledge. We propose a language that can express any background knowledge about the data. We provide a polynomial time algorithm to measure the amount of disclosure of sensitive information in the worst case, given that the attacker has at most a specified number of pieces of information in this language. We also provide a method to efficiently sanitize the data so that the amount of disclosure in the worst case is less than a specified threshold.
0705.2847
Capacity of Sparse Multipath Channels in the Ultra-Wideband Regime
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies the ergodic capacity of time- and frequency-selective multipath fading channels in the ultrawideband (UWB) regime when training signals are used for channel estimation at the receiver. Motivated by recent measurement results on UWB channels, we propose a model for sparse multipath channels. A key implication of sparsity is that the independent degrees of freedom (DoF) in the channel scale sub-linearly with the signal space dimension (product of signaling duration and bandwidth). Sparsity is captured by the number of resolvable paths in delay and Doppler. Our analysis is based on a training and communication scheme that employs signaling over orthogonal short-time Fourier (STF) basis functions. STF signaling naturally relates sparsity in delay-Doppler to coherence in time-frequency. We study the impact of multipath sparsity on two fundamental metrics of spectral efficiency in the wideband/low-SNR limit introduced by Verdu: first- and second-order optimality conditions. Recent results by Zheng et. al. have underscored the large gap in spectral efficiency between coherent and non-coherent extremes and the importance of channel learning in bridging the gap. Building on these results, our results lead to the following implications of multipath sparsity: 1) The coherence requirements are shared in both time and frequency, thereby significantly relaxing the required scaling in coherence time with SNR; 2) Sparse multipath channels are asymptotically coherent -- for a given but large bandwidth, the channel can be learned perfectly and the coherence requirements for first- and second-order optimality met through sufficiently large signaling duration; and 3) The requirement of peaky signals in attaining capacity is eliminated or relaxed in sparse environments.
0705.2848
Non-Coherent Capacity and Reliability of Sparse Multipath Channels in the Wideband Regime
cs.IT math.IT
In contrast to the prevalent assumption of rich multipath in information theoretic analysis of wireless channels, physical channels exhibit sparse multipath, especially at large bandwidths. We propose a model for sparse multipath fading channels and present results on the impact of sparsity on non-coherent capacity and reliability in the wideband regime. A key implication of sparsity is that the statistically independent degrees of freedom in the channel, that represent the delay-Doppler diversity afforded by multipath, scale at a sub-linear rate with the signal space dimension (time-bandwidth product). Our analysis is based on a training-based communication scheme that uses short-time Fourier (STF) signaling waveforms. Sparsity in delay-Doppler manifests itself as time-frequency coherence in the STF domain. From a capacity perspective, sparse channels are asymptotically coherent: the gap between coherent and non-coherent extremes vanishes in the limit of large signal space dimension without the need for peaky signaling. From a reliability viewpoint, there is a fundamental tradeoff between channel diversity and learnability that can be optimized to maximize the error exponent at any rate by appropriately choosing the signaling duration as a function of bandwidth.
0705.2854
Scanning and Sequential Decision Making for Multi-Dimensional Data - Part II: the Noisy Case
cs.IT cs.CV math.IT
We consider the problem of sequential decision making on random fields corrupted by noise. In this scenario, the decision maker observes a noisy version of the data, yet judged with respect to the clean data. In particular, we first consider the problem of sequentially scanning and filtering noisy random fields. In this case, the sequential filter is given the freedom to choose the path over which it traverses the random field (e.g., noisy image or video sequence), thus it is natural to ask what is the best achievable performance and how sensitive this performance is to the choice of the scan. We formally define the problem of scanning and filtering, derive a bound on the best achievable performance and quantify the excess loss occurring when non-optimal scanners are used, compared to optimal scanning and filtering. We then discuss the problem of sequential scanning and prediction of noisy random fields. This setting is a natural model for applications such as restoration and coding of noisy images. We formally define the problem of scanning and prediction of a noisy multidimensional array and relate the optimal performance to the clean scandictability defined by Merhav and Weissman. Moreover, bounds on the excess loss due to sub-optimal scans are derived, and a universal prediction algorithm is suggested. This paper is the second part of a two-part paper. The first paper dealt with sequential decision making on noiseless data arrays, namely, when the decision maker is judged with respect to the same data array it observes.
0705.3013
A stochastic non-cooperative game for energy efficiency in wireless data networks
cs.IT cs.GT math.IT
In this paper the issue of energy efficiency in CDMA wireless data networks is addressed through a game theoretic approach. Building on a recent paper by the first two authors, wherein a non-cooperative game for spreading-code optimization, power control, and receiver design has been proposed to maximize the ratio of data throughput to transmit power for each active user, a stochastic algorithm is here described to perform adaptive implementation of the said non-cooperative game. The proposed solution is based on a combination of RLS-type and LMS-type adaptations, and makes use of readily available measurements. Simulation results show that its performance approaches with satisfactory accuracy that of the non-adaptive game, which requires a much larger amount of prior information.
0705.3025
Spectral Efficiency of Spectrum Pooling Systems
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
In this contribution, we investigate the idea of using cognitive radio to reuse locally unused spectrum to increase the total system capacity. We consider a multiband/wideband system in which the primary and cognitive users wish to communicate to different receivers, subject to mutual interference and assume that each user knows only his channel and the unused spectrum through adequate sensing. The basic idea under the proposed scheme is based on the notion of spectrum pooling. The idea is quite simple: a cognitive radio will listen to the channel and, if sensed idle, will transmit during the voids. It turns out that, although its simplicity, the proposed scheme showed very interesting features with respect to the spectral efficiency and the maximum number of possible pairwise cognitive communications. We impose the constraint that users successively transmit over available bands through selfish water filling. For the first time, our study has quantified the asymptotic (with respect to the band) achievable gain of using spectrum pooling in terms of spectral efficiency compared to classical radio systems. We then derive the total spectral efficiency as well as the maximum number of possible pairwise communications of such a spectrum pooling system.
0705.3050
A competitive multi-agent model of interbank payment systems
cs.MA
We develop a dynamic multi-agent model of an interbank payment system where banks choose their level of available funds on the basis of private payoff maximisation. The model consists of the repetition of a simultaneous move stage game with incomplete information, incomplete monitoring, and stochastic payoffs. Adaptation takes place with bayesian updating, with banks maximizing immediate payoffs. We carry out numerical simulations to solve the model and investigate two special scenarios: an operational incident and exogenous throughput guidelines for payment submission. We find that the demand for intraday credit is an S-shaped function of the cost ratio between intraday credit costs and the costs associated with delaying payments. We also find that the demand for liquidity is increased both under operational incidents and in the presence of effective throughput guidelines.
0705.3058
On the Shannon capacity and queueing stability of random access multicast
cs.IT math.IT
We study and compare the Shannon capacity region and the stable throughput region for a random access system in which source nodes multicast their messages to multiple destination nodes. Under an erasure channel model which accounts for interference and allows for multipacket reception, we first characterize the Shannon capacity region. We then consider a queueing-theoretic formulation and characterize the stable throughput region for two different transmission policies: a retransmission policy and random linear coding. Our results indicate that for large blocklengths, the random linear coding policy provides a higher stable throughput than the retransmission policy. Furthermore, our results provide an example of a transmission policy for which the Shannon capacity region strictly outer bounds the stable throughput region, which contradicts an unproven conjecture that the Shannon capacity and stable throughput coincide for random access systems.
0705.3099
Distortion Minimization in Gaussian Layered Broadcast Coding with Successive Refinement
cs.IT math.IT
A transmitter without channel state information (CSI) wishes to send a delay-limited Gaussian source over a slowly fading channel. The source is coded in superimposed layers, with each layer successively refining the description in the previous one. The receiver decodes the layers that are supported by the channel realization and reconstructs the source up to a distortion. The expected distortion is minimized by optimally allocating the transmit power among the source layers. For two source layers, the allocation is optimal when power is first assigned to the higher layer up to a power ceiling that depends only on the channel fading distribution; all remaining power, if any, is allocated to the lower layer. For convex distortion cost functions with convex constraints, the minimization is formulated as a convex optimization problem. In the limit of a continuum of infinite layers, the minimum expected distortion is given by the solution to a set of linear differential equations in terms of the density of the fading distribution. As the bandwidth ratio b (channel uses per source symbol) tends to zero, the power distribution that minimizes expected distortion converges to the one that maximizes expected capacity. While expected distortion can be improved by acquiring CSI at the transmitter (CSIT) or by increasing diversity from the realization of independent fading paths, at high SNR the performance benefit from diversity exceeds that from CSIT, especially when b is large.
0705.3261
Recovering Multiplexing Loss Through Successive Relaying Using Repetition Coding
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, a transmission protocol is studied for a two relay wireless network in which simple repetition coding is applied at the relays. Information-theoretic achievable rates for this transmission scheme are given, and a space-time V-BLAST signalling and detection method that can approach them is developed. It is shown through the diversity multiplexing tradeoff analysis that this transmission scheme can recover the multiplexing loss of the half-duplex relay network, while retaining some diversity gain. This scheme is also compared with conventional transmission protocols that exploit only the diversity of the network at the cost of a multiplexing loss. It is shown that the new transmission protocol offers significant performance advantages over conventional protocols, especially when the interference between the two relays is sufficiently strong.
0705.3344
Multiuser detection in a dynamic environment Part I: User identification and data detection
cs.IT math.IT
In random-access communication systems, the number of active users varies with time, and has considerable bearing on receiver's performance. Thus, techniques aimed at identifying not only the information transmitted, but also that number, play a central role in those systems. An example of application of these techniques can be found in multiuser detection (MUD). In typical MUD analyses, receivers are based on the assumption that the number of active users is constant and known at the receiver, and coincides with the maximum number of users entitled to access the system. This assumption is often overly pessimistic, since many users might be inactive at any given time, and detection under the assumption of a number of users larger than the real one may impair performance. The main goal of this paper is to introduce a general approach to the problem of identifying active users and estimating their parameters and data in a random-access system where users are continuously entering and leaving the system. The tool whose use we advocate is Random-Set Theory: applying this, we derive optimum receivers in an environment where the set of transmitters comprises an unknown number of elements. In addition, we can derive Bayesian-filter equations which describe the evolution with time of the a posteriori probability density of the unknown user parameters, and use this density to derive optimum detectors. In this paper we restrict ourselves to interferer identification and data detection, while in a companion paper we shall examine the more complex problem of estimating users' parameters.
0705.3360
The Road to Quantum Artificial Intelligence
cs.AI
This paper overviews the basic principles and recent advances in the emerging field of Quantum Computation (QC), highlighting its potential application to Artificial Intelligence (AI). The paper provides a very brief introduction to basic QC issues like quantum registers, quantum gates and quantum algorithms and then it presents references, ideas and research guidelines on how QC can be used to deal with some basic AI problems, such as search and pattern matching, as soon as quantum computers become widely available.
0705.3555
Multidimensional Coded Modulation in Block-Fading Channnels
cs.IT math.IT
We study the problem of constructing coded modulation schemes over multidimensional signal sets in Nakagami-$m$ block-fading channels. In particular, we consider the optimal diversity reliability exponent of the error probability when the multidimensional constellation is obtained as the rotation of classical complex-plane signal constellations. We show that multidimensional rotations of full dimension achieve the optimal diversity reliability exponent, also achieved by Gaussian constellations. Multidimensional rotations of full dimension induce a large decoding complexity, and in some cases it might be beneficial to use multiple rotations of smaller dimension. We also study the diversity reliability exponent in this case, which yields the optimal rate-diversity-complexity tradeoff in block-fading channels with discrete inputs.
0705.3561
Generalizing Consistency and other Constraint Properties to Quantified Constraints
cs.LO cs.AI
Quantified constraints and Quantified Boolean Formulae are typically much more difficult to reason with than classical constraints, because quantifier alternation makes the usual notion of solution inappropriate. As a consequence, basic properties of Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP), such as consistency or substitutability, are not completely understood in the quantified case. These properties are important because they are the basis of most of the reasoning methods used to solve classical (existentially quantified) constraints, and one would like to benefit from similar reasoning methods in the resolution of quantified constraints. In this paper, we show that most of the properties that are used by solvers for CSP can be generalized to quantified CSP. This requires a re-thinking of a number of basic concepts; in particular, we propose a notion of outcome that generalizes the classical notion of solution and on which all definitions are based. We propose a systematic study of the relations which hold between these properties, as well as complexity results regarding the decision of these properties. Finally, and since these problems are typically intractable, we generalize the approach used in CSP and propose weaker, easier to check notions based on locality, which allow to detect these properties incompletely but in polynomial time.
0705.3593
MI image registration using prior knowledge
cs.CV
Subtraction of aligned images is a means to assess changes in a wide variety of clinical applications. In this paper we explore the information theoretical origin of Mutual Information (MI), which is based on Shannon's entropy.However, the interpretation of standard MI registration as a communication channel suggests that MI is too restrictive a criterion. In this paper the concept of Mutual Information (MI) is extended to (Normalized) Focussed Mutual Information (FMI) to incorporate prior knowledge to overcome some shortcomings of MI. We use this to develop new methodologies to successfully address specific registration problems, the follow-up of dental restorations, cephalometry, and the monitoring of implants.
0705.3644
Subjective Information Measure and Rate Fidelity Theory
cs.IT cs.HC math.IT
Using fish-covering model, this paper intuitively explains how to extend Hartley's information formula to the generalized information formula step by step for measuring subjective information: metrical information (such as conveyed by thermometers), sensory information (such as conveyed by color vision), and semantic information (such as conveyed by weather forecasts). The pivotal step is to differentiate condition probability and logical condition probability of a message. The paper illustrates the rationality of the formula, discusses the coherence of the generalized information formula and Popper's knowledge evolution theory. For optimizing data compression, the paper discusses rate-of-limiting-errors and its similarity to complexity-distortion based on Kolmogorov's complexity theory, and improves the rate-distortion theory into the rate-fidelity theory by replacing Shannon's distortion with subjective mutual information. It is proved that both the rate-distortion function and the rate-fidelity function are equivalent to a rate-of-limiting-errors function with a group of fuzzy sets as limiting condition, and can be expressed by a formula of generalized mutual information for lossy coding, or by a formula of generalized entropy for lossless coding. By analyzing the rate-fidelity function related to visual discrimination and digitized bits of pixels of images, the paper concludes that subjective information is less than or equal to objective (Shannon's) information; there is an optimal matching point at which two kinds of information are equal; the matching information increases with visual discrimination (defined by confusing probability) rising; for given visual discrimination, too high resolution of images or too much objective information is wasteful.
0705.3669
Structural Health Monitoring Using Neural Network Based Vibrational System Identification
cs.NE cs.CV cs.SD
Composite fabrication technologies now provide the means for producing high-strength, low-weight panels, plates, spars and other structural components which use embedded fiber optic sensors and piezoelectric transducers. These materials, often referred to as smart structures, make it possible to sense internal characteristics, such as delaminations or structural degradation. In this effort we use neural network based techniques for modeling and analyzing dynamic structural information for recognizing structural defects. This yields an adaptable system which gives a measure of structural integrity for composite structures.
0705.3677
Distributed Transmit Diversity in Relay Networks
cs.IT math.IT
We analyze fading relay networks, where a single-antenna source-destination terminal pair communicates through a set of half-duplex single-antenna relays using a two-hop protocol with linear processing at the relay level. A family of relaying schemes is presented which achieves the entire optimal diversity-multiplexing (DM) tradeoff curve. As a byproduct of our analysis, it follows that delay diversity and phase-rolling at the relay level are optimal with respect to the entire DM-tradeoff curve, provided the delays and the modulation frequencies, respectively, are chosen appropriately.
0705.3693
Morphing Ensemble Kalman Filters
math.DS cs.CV math.ST physics.ao-ph stat.ME stat.TH
A new type of ensemble filter is proposed, which combines an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with the ideas of morphing and registration from image processing. This results in filters suitable for nonlinear problems whose solutions exhibit moving coherent features, such as thin interfaces in wildfire modeling. The ensemble members are represented as the composition of one common state with a spatial transformation, called registration mapping, plus a residual. A fully automatic registration method is used that requires only gridded data, so the features in the model state do not need to be identified by the user. The morphing EnKF operates on a transformed state consisting of the registration mapping and the residual. Essentially, the morphing EnKF uses intermediate states obtained by morphing instead of linear combinations of the states.
0705.3766
On complexity of optimized crossover for binary representations
cs.NE cs.AI
We consider the computational complexity of producing the best possible offspring in a crossover, given two solutions of the parents. The crossover operators are studied on the class of Boolean linear programming problems, where the Boolean vector of variables is used as the solution representation. By means of efficient reductions of the optimized gene transmitting crossover problems (OGTC) we show the polynomial solvability of the OGTC for the maximum weight set packing problem, the minimum weight set partition problem and for one of the versions of the simple plant location problem. We study a connection between the OGTC for linear Boolean programming problem and the maximum weight independent set problem on 2-colorable hypergraph and prove the NP-hardness of several special cases of the OGTC problem in Boolean linear programming.
0705.3895
Towards Understanding the Origin of Genetic Languages
q-bio.GN cs.IT math.IT physics.bio-ph quant-ph
Molecular biology is a nanotechnology that works--it has worked for billions of years and in an amazing variety of circumstances. At its core is a system for acquiring, processing and communicating information that is universal, from viruses and bacteria to human beings. Advances in genetics and experience in designing computers have taken us to a stage where we can understand the optimisation principles at the root of this system, from the availability of basic building blocks to the execution of tasks. The languages of DNA and proteins are argued to be the optimal solutions to the information processing tasks they carry out. The analysis also suggests simpler predecessors to these languages, and provides fascinating clues about their origin. Obviously, a comprehensive unraveling of the puzzle of life would have a lot to say about what we may design or convert ourselves into.
0705.3949
Translating a first-order modal language to relational algebra
cs.LO cs.DB
This paper is about Kripke structures that are inside a relational database and queried with a modal language. At first the modal language that is used is introduced, followed by a definition of the database and relational algebra. Based on these definitions two things are presented: a mapping from components of the modal structure to a relational database schema and instance, and a translation from queries in the modal language to relational algebra queries.
0705.3990
Interior Point Decoding for Linear Vector Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, a novel decoding algorithm for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes based on convex optimization is presented. The decoding algorithm, called interior point decoding, is designed for linear vector channels. The linear vector channels include many practically important channels such as inter symbol interference channels and partial response channels. It is shown that the maximum likelihood decoding (MLD) rule for a linear vector channel can be relaxed to a convex optimization problem, which is called a relaxed MLD problem. The proposed decoding algorithm is based on a numerical optimization technique so called interior point method with barrier function. Approximate variations of the gradient descent and the Newton methods are used to solve the convex optimization problem. In a decoding process of the proposed algorithm, a search point always lies in the fundamental polytope defined based on a low-density parity-check matrix. Compared with a convectional joint message passing decoder, the proposed decoding algorithm achieves better BER performance with less complexity in the case of partial response channels in many cases.
0705.3992
Average Stopping Set Weight Distribution of Redundant Random Matrix Ensembles
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, redundant random matrix ensembles (abbreviated as redundant random ensembles) are defined and their stopping set (SS) weight distributions are analyzed. A redundant random ensemble consists of a set of binary matrices with linearly dependent rows. These linearly dependent rows (redundant rows) significantly reduce the number of stopping sets of small size. An upper and lower bound on the average SS weight distribution of the redundant random ensembles are shown. From these bounds, the trade-off between the number of redundant rows (corresponding to decoding complexity of BP on BEC) and the critical exponent of the asymptotic growth rate of SS weight distribution (corresponding to decoding performance) can be derived. It is shown that, in some cases, a dense matrix with linearly dependent rows yields asymptotically (i.e., in the regime of small erasure probability) better performance than regular LDPC matrices with comparable parameters.
0705.3995
On Undetected Error Probability of Binary Matrix Ensembles
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, an analysis of the undetected error probability of ensembles of binary matrices is presented. The ensemble called the Bernoulli ensemble whose members are considered as matrices generated from i.i.d. Bernoulli source is mainly considered here. The main contributions of this work are (i) derivation of the error exponent of the average undetected error probability and (ii) closed form expressions for the variance of the undetected error probability. It is shown that the behavior of the exponent for a sparse ensemble is somewhat different from that for a dense ensemble. Furthermore, as a byproduct of the proof of the variance formula, simple covariance formula of the weight distribution is derived.
0705.4045
The use of the logarithm of the variate in the calculation of differential entropy among certain related statistical distributions
cs.IT math.IT
This paper demonstrates that basic statistics (mean, variance) of the logarithm of the variate itself can be used in the calculation of differential entropy among random variables known to be multiples and powers of a common underlying variate. For the same set of distributions, the variance of the differential self-information is shown also to be a function of statistics of the logarithmic variate. Then entropy and its "variance" can be estimated using only statistics of the logarithmic variate plus constants, without reference to the traditional parameters of the variate.
0705.4134
The Battery-Discharge-Model: A Class of Stochastic Finite Automata to Simulate Multidimensional Continued Fraction Expansion
cs.IT cs.CC cs.CR math.IT
We define an infinite stochastic state machine, the Battery-Discharge-Model (BDM), which simulates the behaviour of linear and jump complexity of the continued fraction expansion of multidimensional formal power series, a relevant security measure in the cryptanalysis of stream ciphers. We also obtain finite approximations to the infinite BDM, where polynomially many states suffice to approximate with an exponentially small error the probabilities and averages for linear and jump complexity of M-multisequences of length n over the finite field F_q, for any M, n, q.
0705.4138
The Asymptotic Normalized Linear Complexity of Multisequences
cs.IT cs.CC cs.CR math.IT
We show that the asymptotic linear complexity of a multisequence a in F_q^\infty that is I := liminf L_a(n)/n and S := limsup L_a(n)/n satisfy the inequalities M/(M+1) <= S <= 1 and M(1-S) <= I <= 1-S/M, if all M sequences have nonzero discrepancy infinitely often, and all pairs (I,S) satisfying these conditions are met by 2^{\aleph_0} multisequences a. This answers an Open Problem by Dai, Imamura, and Yang. Keywords: Linear complexity, multisequence, Battery Discharge Model, isometry.
0705.4302
Truecluster matching
cs.AI
Cluster matching by permuting cluster labels is important in many clustering contexts such as cluster validation and cluster ensemble techniques. The classic approach is to minimize the euclidean distance between two cluster solutions which induces inappropriate stability in certain settings. Therefore, we present the truematch algorithm that introduces two improvements best explained in the crisp case. First, instead of maximizing the trace of the cluster crosstable, we propose to maximize a chi-square transformation of this crosstable. Thus, the trace will not be dominated by the cells with the largest counts but by the cells with the most non-random observations, taking into account the marginals. Second, we suggest a probabilistic component in order to break ties and to make the matching algorithm truly random on random data. The truematch algorithm is designed as a building block of the truecluster framework and scales in polynomial time. First simulation results confirm that the truematch algorithm gives more consistent truecluster results for unequal cluster sizes. Free R software is available.
0705.4442
World-set Decompositions: Expressiveness and Efficient Algorithms
cs.DB
Uncertain information is commonplace in real-world data management scenarios. The ability to represent large sets of possible instances (worlds) while supporting efficient storage and processing is an important challenge in this context. The recent formalism of world-set decompositions (WSDs) provides a space-efficient representation for uncertain data that also supports scalable processing. WSDs are complete for finite world-sets in that they can represent any finite set of possible worlds. For possibly infinite world-sets, we show that a natural generalization of WSDs precisely captures the expressive power of c-tables. We then show that several important decision problems are efficiently solvable on WSDs while they are NP-hard on c-tables. Finally, we give a polynomial-time algorithm for factorizing WSDs, i.e. an efficient algorithm for minimizing such representations.
0705.4485
Mixed membership stochastic blockmodels
stat.ME cs.LG math.ST physics.soc-ph stat.ML stat.TH
Observations consisting of measurements on relationships for pairs of objects arise in many settings, such as protein interaction and gene regulatory networks, collections of author-recipient email, and social networks. Analyzing such data with probabilisic models can be delicate because the simple exchangeability assumptions underlying many boilerplate models no longer hold. In this paper, we describe a latent variable model of such data called the mixed membership stochastic blockmodel. This model extends blockmodels for relational data to ones which capture mixed membership latent relational structure, thus providing an object-specific low-dimensional representation. We develop a general variational inference algorithm for fast approximate posterior inference. We explore applications to social and protein interaction networks.
0705.4566
Loop corrections for message passing algorithms in continuous variable models
cs.AI cs.LG
In this paper we derive the equations for Loop Corrected Belief Propagation on a continuous variable Gaussian model. Using the exactness of the averages for belief propagation for Gaussian models, a different way of obtaining the covariances is found, based on Belief Propagation on cavity graphs. We discuss the relation of this loop correction algorithm to Expectation Propagation algorithms for the case in which the model is no longer Gaussian, but slightly perturbed by nonlinear terms.
0705.4584
Modeling Epidemic Spread in Synthetic Populations - Virtual Plagues in Massively Multiplayer Online Games
cs.CY cs.AI cs.MA
A virtual plague is a process in which a behavior-affecting property spreads among characters in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). The MMOG individuals constitute a synthetic population, and the game can be seen as a form of interactive executable model for studying disease spread, albeit of a very special kind. To a game developer maintaining an MMOG, recognizing, monitoring, and ultimately controlling a virtual plague is important, regardless of how it was initiated. The prospect of using tools, methods and theory from the field of epidemiology to do this seems natural and appealing. We will address the feasibility of such a prospect, first by considering some basic measures used in epidemiology, then by pointing out the differences between real world epidemics and virtual plagues. We also suggest directions for MMOG developer control through epidemiological modeling. Our aim is understanding the properties of virtual plagues, rather than trying to eliminate them or mitigate their effects, as would be in the case of real infectious disease.
0705.4606
Dynamic User-Defined Similarity Searching in Semi-Structured Text Retrieval
cs.IR cs.DS
Modern text retrieval systems often provide a similarity search utility, that allows the user to find efficiently a fixed number k of documents in the data set that are most similar to a given query (here a query is either a simple sequence of keywords or the identifier of a full document found in previous searches that is considered of interest). We consider the case of a textual database made of semi-structured documents. Each field, in turns, is modelled with a specific vector space. The problem is more complex when we also allow each such vector space to have an associated user-defined dynamic weight that influences its contribution to the overall dynamic aggregated and weighted similarity. This dynamic problem has been tackled in a recent paper by Singitham et al. in in VLDB 2004. Their proposed solution, which we take as baseline, is a variant of the cluster-pruning technique that has the potential for scaling to very large corpora of documents, and is far more efficient than the naive exhaustive search. We devise an alternative way of embedding weights in the data structure, coupled with a non-trivial application of a clustering algorithm based on the furthest point first heuristic for the metric k-center problem. The validity of our approach is demonstrated experimentally by showing significant performance improvements over the scheme proposed in Singitham et al. in VLDB 2004. We improve significantly tradeoffs between query time and output quality with respect to the baseline method in Singitham et al. in in VLDB 2004, and also with respect to a novel method by Chierichetti et al. to appear in ACM PODS 2007. We also speed up the pre-processing time by a factor at least thirty.
0705.4654
Local Area Damage Detection in Composite Structures Using Piezoelectric Transducers
cs.SD cs.CV
An integrated and automated smart structures approach for structural health monitoring is presented, utilizing an array of piezoelectric transducers attached to or embedded within the structure for both actuation and sensing. The system actively interrogates the structure via broadband excitation of multiple actuators across a desired frequency range. The structure's vibration signature is then characterized by computing the transfer functions between each actuator/sensor pair, and compared to the baseline signature. Experimental results applying the system to local area damage detection in a MD Explorer rotorcraft composite flexbeam are presented.
0705.4658
Two sources are better than one for increasing the Kolmogorov complexity of infinite sequences
cs.IT cs.CC math.IT
The randomness rate of an infinite binary sequence is characterized by the sequence of ratios between the Kolmogorov complexity and the length of the initial segments of the sequence. It is known that there is no uniform effective procedure that transforms one input sequence into another sequence with higher randomness rate. By contrast, we display such a uniform effective procedure having as input two independent sequences with positive but arbitrarily small constant randomness rate. Moreover the transformation is a truth-table reduction and the output has randomness rate arbitrarily close to 1.