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1212.3530
A Multi-Orientation Analysis Approach to Retinal Vessel Tracking
cs.CV
This paper presents a method for retinal vasculature extraction based on biologically inspired multi-orientation analysis. We apply multi-orientation analysis via so-called invertible orientation scores, modeling the cortical columns in the visual system of higher mammals. This allows us to generically deal with many hitherto complex problems inherent to vessel tracking, such as crossings, bifurcations, parallel vessels, vessels of varying widths and vessels with high curvature. Our approach applies tracking in invertible orientation scores via a novel geometrical principle for curve optimization in the Euclidean motion group SE(2). The method runs fully automatically and provides a detailed model of the retinal vasculature, which is crucial as a sound basis for further quantitative analysis of the retina, especially in screening applications.
1212.3536
The network structure of mathematical knowledge according to the Wikipedia, MathWorld, and DLMF online libraries
cs.SI cs.IR math.HO physics.soc-ph
We study the network structure of Wikipedia (restricted to its mathematical portion), MathWorld, and DLMF. We approach these three online mathematical libraries from the perspective of several global and local network-theoretic features, providing for each one the appropriate value or distribution, along with comparisons that, if possible, also include the whole of the Wikipedia or the Web. We identify some distinguishing characteristics of all three libraries, most of them supposedly traceable to the libraries' shared nature of relating to a very specialized domain. Among these characteristics are the presence of a very large strongly connected component in each of the corresponding directed graphs, the complete absence of any clear power laws describing the distribution of local features, and the rise to prominence of some local features (e.g., stress centrality) that can be used to effectively search for keywords in the libraries.
1212.3540
Social Network Based Search for Experts
cs.SI cs.HC cs.IR physics.soc-ph
Our system illustrates how information retrieved from social networks can be used for suggesting experts for specific tasks. The system is designed to facilitate the task of finding the appropriate person(s) for a job, as a conference committee member, an advisor, etc. This short description will demonstrate how the system works in the context of the HCIR2012 published tasks.
1212.3544
Tracking of a Mobile Target Using Generalized Polarization Tensors
cs.NA cs.CE math.NA
In this paper we apply an extended Kalman filter to track both the location and the orientation of a mobile target from multistatic response measurements. We also analyze the effect of the limited-view aspect on the stability and the efficiency of our tracking approach. Our algorithm is based on the use of the generalized polarization tensors, which can be reconstructed from the multistatic response measurements by solving a linear system. The system has the remarkable property that low order generalized polarization tensors are not affected by the error caused by the instability of higher orders in the presence of measurement noise.
1212.3550
State-Dependent Multiple Access Channels with Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we examine discrete memoryless Multiple Access Channels (MACs) with two-sided feedback in the presence of two correlated channel states that are correlated in the sense of Slepian-Wolf (SW). We find achievable rate region for this channel when the states are provided non-causally to the transmitters and show that our achievable rate region subsumes Cover-Leung achievable rate for the discrete memoryless MAC with two-sided feedback as its special case. We also find the capacity region of discrete memoryless MAC with two-sided feedback and with SW-type correlated states available causally or strictly causally to the transmitters. We also study discrete memoryless MAC with partial feedback in the presence of two SW-type correlated channel states that are provided non-causally, causally, or strictly causally to the transmitters. An achievable rate region is found when channel states are non-causally provided to the transmitters whereas capacity regions are characterized when channel states are causally, or strictly causally available at the transmitters.
1212.3557
Compound Multiple Access Channel with Common Message and Intersymbol Interference
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we characterize the capacity region for the two-user linear Gaussian compound Multiple Access Channel with common message (MACC) and with intersymbol interference (ISI) under an input power constraint. The region is obtained by converting the channel to its equivalent memoryless one by defining an n-block memoryless circular Gaussian compound MACC model and applying the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to decompose the n-block channel into a set of independent parallel channels whose capacities can be found easily. Indeed, the capacity region of the original Gaussian compound MACC equals that of the n-block circular Gaussian compound MACC in the limit of infinite block length. Then by using the obtained capacity region, we derive the capacity region of the strong interference channel with common message and ISI.
1212.3559
A Dynamic Network Approach to Breakthrough Innovation
cs.SI cs.DL physics.soc-ph
This paper outlines a framework for the study of innovation that treats discoveries as additions to evolving networks. As inventions enter they expand or limit the reach of the ideas they build on by influencing how successive discoveries use those ideas. The approach is grounded in novel measures of the extent to which an innovation amplifies or disrupts the status quo. Those measures index the effects inventions have on subsequent uses of prior discoveries. In so doing, they characterize a theoretically important but elusive feature of innovation. We validate our approach by showing it: (1) discriminates among innovations of similar impact in analyses of U.S. patents; (2) identifies discoveries that amplify and disrupt technology streams in select case studies; (3) implies disruptive patents decrease the use of their predecessors by 60% in difference-in-differences estimation; and, (4) yields novel findings in analyses of patenting at 110 U.S. universities.
1212.3618
Machine Learning in Proof General: Interfacing Interfaces
cs.AI cs.LG cs.LO
We present ML4PG - a machine learning extension for Proof General. It allows users to gather proof statistics related to shapes of goals, sequences of applied tactics, and proof tree structures from the libraries of interactive higher-order proofs written in Coq and SSReflect. The gathered data is clustered using the state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms available in MATLAB and Weka. ML4PG provides automated interfacing between Proof General and MATLAB/Weka. The results of clustering are used by ML4PG to provide proof hints in the process of interactive proof development.
1212.3621
Local Irreducibility of Tail-Biting Trellises
cs.IT math.IT math.OC
This paper investigates tail-biting trellis realizations for linear block codes. Intrinsic trellis properties are used to characterize irreducibility on given intervals of the time axis. It proves beneficial to always consider the trellis and its dual simultaneously. A major role is played by trellis properties that amount to observability and controllability for fragments of the trellis of various lengths. For fragments of length less than the minimum span length of the code it is shown that fragment observability and fragment controllability are equivalent to irreducibility. For reducible trellises, a constructive reduction procedure is presented. The considerations also lead to a characterization for when the dual of a trellis allows a product factorization into elementary ("atomic") trellises.
1212.3624
Robust Adaptive Beamforming for General-Rank Signal Model with Positive Semi-Definite Constraint via POTDC
cs.IT math.IT math.OC
The robust adaptive beamforming (RAB) problem for general-rank signal model with an additional positive semi-definite constraint is considered. Using the principle of the worst-case performance optimization, such RAB problem leads to a difference-of-convex functions (DC) optimization problem. The existing approaches for solving the resulted non-convex DC problem are based on approximations and find only suboptimal solutions. Here we solve the non-convex DC problem rigorously and give arguments suggesting that the solution is globally optimal. Particularly, we rewrite the problem as the minimization of a one-dimensional optimal value function whose corresponding optimization problem is non-convex. Then, the optimal value function is replaced with another equivalent one, for which the corresponding optimization problem is convex. The new one-dimensional optimal value function is minimized iteratively via polynomial time DC (POTDC) algorithm.We show that our solution satisfies the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions and there is a strong evidence that such solution is also globally optimal. Towards this conclusion, we conjecture that the new optimal value function is a convex function. The new RAB method shows superior performance compared to the other state-of-the-art general-rank RAB methods.
1212.3631
Learning efficient sparse and low rank models
cs.LG
Parsimony, including sparsity and low rank, has been shown to successfully model data in numerous machine learning and signal processing tasks. Traditionally, such modeling approaches rely on an iterative algorithm that minimizes an objective function with parsimony-promoting terms. The inherently sequential structure and data-dependent complexity and latency of iterative optimization constitute a major limitation in many applications requiring real-time performance or involving large-scale data. Another limitation encountered by these modeling techniques is the difficulty of their inclusion in discriminative learning scenarios. In this work, we propose to move the emphasis from the model to the pursuit algorithm, and develop a process-centric view of parsimonious modeling, in which a learned deterministic fixed-complexity pursuit process is used in lieu of iterative optimization. We show a principled way to construct learnable pursuit process architectures for structured sparse and robust low rank models, derived from the iteration of proximal descent algorithms. These architectures learn to approximate the exact parsimonious representation at a fraction of the complexity of the standard optimization methods. We also show that appropriate training regimes allow to naturally extend parsimonious models to discriminative settings. State-of-the-art results are demonstrated on several challenging problems in image and audio processing with several orders of magnitude speedup compared to the exact optimization algorithms.
1212.3634
A comparative study of root-based and stem-based approaches for measuring the similarity between arabic words for arabic text mining applications
cs.CL cs.IR
Representation of semantic information contained in the words is needed for any Arabic Text Mining applications. More precisely, the purpose is to better take into account the semantic dependencies between words expressed by the co-occurrence frequencies of these words. There have been many proposals to compute similarities between words based on their distributions in contexts. In this paper, we compare and contrast the effect of two preprocessing techniques applied to Arabic corpus: Rootbased (Stemming), and Stem-based (Light Stemming) approaches for measuring the similarity between Arabic words with the well known abstractive model -Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA)- with a wide variety of distance functions and similarity measures, such as the Euclidean Distance, Cosine Similarity, Jaccard Coefficient, and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The obtained results show that, on the one hand, the variety of the corpus produces more accurate results; on the other hand, the Stem-based approach outperformed the Root-based one because this latter affects the words meanings.
1212.3638
Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation in Multiuser OFDM Systems with Wireless Information and Power Transfer
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we study the resource allocation algorithm design for multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) downlink systems with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. The algorithm design is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem for maximizing the energy efficiency of data transmission (bit/Joule delivered to the users). In particular, the problem formulation takes into account the minimum required system data rate, heterogeneous minimum required power transfers to the users, and the circuit power consumption. Subsequently, by exploiting the method of time-sharing and the properties of nonlinear fractional programming, the considered non-convex optimization problem is solved using an efficient iterative resource allocation algorithm. For each iteration, the optimal power allocation and user selection solution are derived based on Lagrange dual decomposition. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed iterative resource allocation algorithm achieves the maximum energy efficiency of the system and reveal how energy efficiency, system capacity, and wireless power transfer benefit from the presence of multiple users in the system.
1212.3640
On the Design of Artificial-Noise-Aided Secure Multi-Antenna Transmission in Slow Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we investigate the design of artificial-noise-aided secure multi-antenna transmission in slow fading channels. The primary design concerns include the transmit power allocation and the rate parameters of the wiretap code. We consider two scenarios with different complexity levels: i) the design parameters are chosen to be fixed for all transmissions, ii) they are adaptively adjusted based on the instantaneous channel feedback from the intended receiver. In both scenarios, we provide explicit design solutions for achieving the maximal throughput subject to a secrecy constraint, given by a maximum allowable secrecy outage probability. We then derive accurate approximations for the maximal throughput in both scenarios in the high signal-to-noise ratio region, and give new insights into the additional power cost for achieving a higher security level, whilst maintaining a specified target throughput. In the end, the throughput gain of adaptive transmission over non-adaptive transmission is also quantified and analyzed.
1212.3654
Sum-Rate Maximization with Minimum Power Consumption for MIMO DF Two-Way Relaying: Part II - Network Optimization
cs.IT math.IT
In Part II of this two-part paper, a sum-rate-maximizing power allocation with minimum power consumption is found for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) decode-and-forward (DF) two-way relaying (TWR) in a network optimization scenario. In this scenario, the relay and the source nodes jointly optimize their power allocation strategies to achieve network optimality. Unlike the relay optimization scenario considered in part I which features low complexity but does not achieve network optimality, the network-level optimal power allocation can be achieved in the network optimization scenario at the cost of higher complexity. The network optimization problem is considered in two cases each with several subcases. It is shown that the considered problem, which is originally nonconvex, can be transferred into different convex problems for all but two subcases. For the remaining two subcases, one for each case, it is proved that the optimal strategies for the source nodes and the relay must satisfy certain properties. Based on these properties, an algorithm is proposed for finding the optimal solution. The effect of asymmetry in the number of antennas, power limits, and channel statistics is also considered. Such asymmetry is shown to have a negative effect on both the achievable sum-rate and the power allocation efficiency in MIMO DF TWR. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm and the effect of asymmetry in the system.
1212.3669
A metric for software vulnerabilities classification
cs.SE cs.LG
Vulnerability discovery and exploits detection are two wide areas of study in software engineering. This preliminary work tries to combine existing methods with machine learning techniques to define a metric classification of vulnerable computer programs. First a feature set has been defined and later two models have been tested against real world vulnerabilities. A relation between the classifier choice and the features has also been outlined.
1212.3689
A Tight Upper Bound for the Third-Order Asymptotics for Most Discrete Memoryless Channels
cs.IT math.IT
This paper shows that the logarithm of the epsilon-error capacity (average error probability) for n uses of a discrete memoryless channel is upper bounded by the normal approximation plus a third-order term that does not exceed 1/2 log n + O(1) if the epsilon-dispersion of the channel is positive. This matches a lower bound by Y. Polyanskiy (2010) for discrete memoryless channels with positive reverse dispersion. If the epsilon-dispersion vanishes, the logarithm of the epsilon-error capacity is upper bounded by the n times the capacity plus a constant term except for a small class of DMCs and epsilon >= 1/2.
1212.3690
Capacity Bounds for Dirty Paper with Exponential Dirt
cs.IT math.IT
The additive exponential noise channel with additive exponential interference (AENC-AEI) known non-causally at the transmitter is studied. This channel can be considered as an exponential version of the discrete memoryless channel with state known non-causally at the encoder considered by Gelfand and Pinsker. We make use of Gelfand-Pinsker classic capacity Theorem to derive inner and outer bounds on the capacity of this channel under a non-negative input constraint as well as a constraint on the mean value of the input. First we obtain an outer bound for AENC-AEI. Then by using the input distribution achieving the outer bound, we derive an inner bound which this inner bound coincides with the obtained outer bound at high signal to noise ratios (SNRs) and therefore, gives the capacity of the AENC-AEI at high SNRs.
1212.3704
Some Constacyclic Codes over Finite Chain Rings
cs.IT math.IT
For $\lambda$ an $n$-th power of a unit in a finite chain ring we prove that $\lambda$-constacyclic repeated-root codes over some finite chain rings are equivalent to cyclic codes. This allows us to simplify the structure of some constacylic codes. We also study the $\alpha +p \beta$-constacyclic codes of length $p^s$ over the Galois ring $GR(p^e,r)$.
1212.3747
Cluster-based Transform Domain Communication Systems for High Spectrum Efficiency
cs.NI cs.IT math.IT
This paper presents a cluster-based transform domain communication system (TDCS) to improve spectrum efficiency. Unlike the utilities of clusters in orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) systems, the cluster-based TDCS framework divides entire unoccupied spectrum bins into $L$ clusters, where each one represents a data steam independently, to achieve $L$ times of spectrum efficiency compared to that of the traditional one. Among various schemes of spectrum bin spacing and allocation, the TDCS with random allocation scheme appears to be an ideal candidate to significantly improve spectrum efficiency without seriously degrading power efficiency. In multipath fading channel, the coded TDCS with random allocation scheme achieves robust BER performance due to a large degree of frequency diversity. Furthermore, our study shows that the smaller spectrum bin spacing should be configured for the cluster-based TDCS to achieve higher spectrum efficiency and more robust BER performance.
1212.3753
Simultaneously Structured Models with Application to Sparse and Low-rank Matrices
cs.IT math.IT math.OC
The topic of recovery of a structured model given a small number of linear observations has been well-studied in recent years. Examples include recovering sparse or group-sparse vectors, low-rank matrices, and the sum of sparse and low-rank matrices, among others. In various applications in signal processing and machine learning, the model of interest is known to be structured in several ways at the same time, for example, a matrix that is simultaneously sparse and low-rank. Often norms that promote each individual structure are known, and allow for recovery using an order-wise optimal number of measurements (e.g., $\ell_1$ norm for sparsity, nuclear norm for matrix rank). Hence, it is reasonable to minimize a combination of such norms. We show that, surprisingly, if we use multi-objective optimization with these norms, then we can do no better, order-wise, than an algorithm that exploits only one of the present structures. This result suggests that to fully exploit the multiple structures, we need an entirely new convex relaxation, i.e. not one that is a function of the convex relaxations used for each structure. We then specialize our results to the case of sparse and low-rank matrices. We show that a nonconvex formulation of the problem can recover the model from very few measurements, which is on the order of the degrees of freedom of the matrix, whereas the convex problem obtained from a combination of the $\ell_1$ and nuclear norms requires many more measurements. This proves an order-wise gap between the performance of the convex and nonconvex recovery problems in this case. Our framework applies to arbitrary structure-inducing norms as well as to a wide range of measurement ensembles. This allows us to give performance bounds for problems such as sparse phase retrieval and low-rank tensor completion.
1212.3765
Biologically Inspired Spiking Neurons : Piecewise Linear Models and Digital Implementation
cs.LG cs.NE q-bio.NC
There has been a strong push recently to examine biological scale simulations of neuromorphic algorithms to achieve stronger inference capabilities. This paper presents a set of piecewise linear spiking neuron models, which can reproduce different behaviors, similar to the biological neuron, both for a single neuron as well as a network of neurons. The proposed models are investigated, in terms of digital implementation feasibility and costs, targeting large scale hardware implementation. Hardware synthesis and physical implementations on FPGA show that the proposed models can produce precise neural behaviors with higher performance and considerably lower implementation costs compared with the original model. Accordingly, a compact structure of the models which can be trained with supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms has been developed. Using this structure and based on a spike rate coding, a character recognition case study has been implemented and tested.
1212.3767
Visual Objects Classification with Sliding Spatial Pyramid Matching
cs.CV
We present a method for visual object classification using only a single feature, transformed color SIFT with a variant of Spatial Pyramid Matching (SPM) that we called Sliding Spatial Pyramid Matching (SSPM), trained with an ensemble of linear regression (provided by LINEAR) to obtained state of the art result on Caltech-101 of 83.46%. SSPM is a special version of SPM where instead of dividing an image into K number of regions, a subwindow of fixed size is slide around the image with a fixed step size. For each subwindow, a histogram of visual words is generated. To obtained the visual vocabulary, instead of performing K-means clustering, we randomly pick N exemplars from the training set and encode them with a soft non-linear mapping method. We then trained 15 models, each with a different visual word size with linear regression. All 15 models are then averaged together to form a single strong model.
1212.3777
The Arduino as a Hardware Random-Number Generator
cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
Cheap micro-controllers, such as the Arduino or other controllers based on the Atmel AVR CPUs are being deployed in a wide variety of projects, ranging from sensors networks to robotic submarines. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using the Arduino as a true random number generator (TRNG). The Arduino Reference Manual recommends using it to seed a pseudo random number generator (PRNG) due to its ability to read random atmospheric noise from its analog pins. This is an enticing application since true bits of entropy are hard to come by. Unfortunately, we show by statistical methods that the atmospheric noise of an Arduino is largely predictable in a variety of settings, and is thus a weak source of entropy. We explore various methods to extract true randomness from the micro-controller and conclude that it should not be used to produce randomness from its analog pins.
1212.3782
Can Selfish Groups be Self-Enforcing?
cs.DM cs.GT cs.SI
Algorithmic graph theory has thoroughly analyzed how, given a network describing constraints between various nodes, groups can be formed among these so that the resulting configuration optimizes a \emph{global} metric. In contrast, for various social and economic networks, groups are formed \emph{de facto} by the choices of selfish players. A fundamental problem in this setting is the existence and convergence to a \emph{self-enforcing} configuration: assignment of players into groups such that no player has an incentive to move into another group than hers. Motivated by information sharing on social networks -- and the difficult tradeoff between its benefits and the associated privacy risk -- we study the possible emergence of such stable configurations in a general selfish group formation game. Our paper considers this general game for the first time, and it completes its analysis. We show that convergence critically depends on the level of \emph{collusions} among the players -- which allow multiple players to move simultaneously as long as \emph{all of them} benefit. Solving a previously open problem we exactly show when, depending on collusions, convergence occurs within polynomial time, non-polynomial time, and when it never occurs. We also prove that previously known bounds on convergence time are all loose: by a novel combinatorial analysis of the evolution of this game we are able to provide the first \emph{asymptotically exact} formula on its convergence. Moreover, we extend these results by providing a complete analysis when groups may \emph{overlap}, and for general utility functions representing \emph{multi-modal} interactions. Finally, we prove that collusions have a significant and \emph{positive} effect on the \emph{efficiency} of the equilibrium that is attained.
1212.3789
Adjoint-Based Optimal Control of Time-Dependent Free Boundary Problems
math.OC cs.CE cs.NA
In this paper we show a simplified optimisation approach for free boundary problems in arbitrary space dimensions. This approach is mainly based on an extended operator splitting which allows a decoupling of the domain deformation and solving the remaining partial differential equation. First we give a short introduction to free boundary problems and the problems occurring in optimisation. Then we introduce the extended operator splitting and apply it to a general minimisation subject to a time-dependent scalar-valued partial differential equation. This yields a time-discretised optimisation problem which allows us a quite simple application of adjoint-based optimisation methods. Finally, we verify this approach numerically by the optimisation of a flow problem (Navier-Stokes equation) and the final shape of a Stefan-type problem.
1212.3799
Compressed Sensing Based on Random Symmetric Bernoulli Matrix
cs.IT math.IT
The task of compressed sensing is to recover a sparse vector from a small number of linear and non-adaptive measurements, and the problem of finding a suitable measurement matrix is very important in this field. While most recent works focused on random matrices with entries drawn independently from certain probability distributions, in this paper we show that a partial random symmetric Bernoulli matrix whose entries are not independent, can be used to recover signal from observations successfully with high probability. The experimental results also show that the proposed matrix is a suitable measurement matrix.
1212.3817
Probability Bracket Notation: Markov Sequence Projector of Visible and Hidden Markov Models in Dynamic Bayesian Networks
cs.AI math.PR
With the symbolic framework of Probability Bracket Notation (PBN), the Markov Sequence Projector (MSP) is introduced to expand the evolution formula of Homogeneous Markov Chains (HMCs). The well-known weather example, a Visible Markov Model (VMM), illustrates that the full joint probability of a VMM corresponds to a specifically projected Markov state sequence in the expanded evolution formula. In a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), the probability basis (P-basis) of the hidden Markov state sequence and the P-basis of the observation sequence exist in the sequential event space. The full joint probability of an HMM is the product of the (unknown) projected hidden sequence of Markov states and their transformations into the observation P-bases. The Viterbi algorithm is applied to the famous Weather-Stone HMM example to determine the most likely weather-state sequence given the observed stone-state sequence. Our results are verified using the Elvira software package. Using the PBN, we unify the evolution formulas for Markov models like VMMs, HMMs, and factorial HMMs (with discrete time). We briefly investigated the extended HMM, addressing the feedback issue, and the continuous-time VMM and HMM (with discrete or continuous states). All these models are subclasses of Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) essential for Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
1212.3844
Three-Receiver Broadcast Channel with Side Information
cs.IT math.IT
Three-Receiver broadcast channels (BC) are of interest due to their information-theoretic differences with two-receiver one. In this paper, we derive achievable rate regions for two classes of 3-receiver BC with side information (SI), i.e. Multilevel BC (MBC) and 3-receiver less noisy BC, using a combination of superposition coding, Gelfand-Pinsker binning scheme and Nair-El Gamal indirect decoding. Our rate region for MBC subsumes Steinberg rate region for 2-receiver degraded BC with SI as its special case. We will also show that the obtained achievable rate regions in the first two cases are tight for several classes of non-deterministic, semi-deterministic, and deterministic 3-receiver BC when SI is available both at the transmitter and at the receivers. We also prove that as far as a receiver is deterministic in the three-receiver less noisy BC, the presence of side information at that receiver does not affect the capacity region. We have also provided the writing on dirty paper (WDP) property for 3-receiver BC is provided as an example. In the last section, we provide simple bounds on the capacity region of the Additive Exponential noise three-receiver broadcast channels with Additive Exponential interference (AEN-3BC-EI).
1212.3850
Belief Propagation for Continuous State Spaces: Stochastic Message-Passing with Quantitative Guarantees
cs.IT cs.LG math.IT stat.ML
The sum-product or belief propagation (BP) algorithm is a widely used message-passing technique for computing approximate marginals in graphical models. We introduce a new technique, called stochastic orthogonal series message-passing (SOSMP), for computing the BP fixed point in models with continuous random variables. It is based on a deterministic approximation of the messages via orthogonal series expansion, and a stochastic approximation via Monte Carlo estimates of the integral updates of the basis coefficients. We prove that the SOSMP iterates converge to a \delta-neighborhood of the unique BP fixed point for any tree-structured graph, and for any graphs with cycles in which the BP updates satisfy a contractivity condition. In addition, we demonstrate how to choose the number of basis coefficients as a function of the desired approximation accuracy \delta and smoothness of the compatibility functions. We illustrate our theory with both simulated examples and in application to optical flow estimation.
1212.3852
The International-Migration Network
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
This paper studies international migration from a complex-network perspective. We define the international-migration network (IMN) as the weighted-directed graph where nodes are world countries and links account for the stock of migrants originated in a given country and living in another country at a given point in time. We characterize the binary and weighted architecture of the network and its evolution over time in the period 1960-2000. We find that the IMN is organized around a modular structure characterized by a small-world pattern displaying disassortativity and high clustering, with power-law distributed weighted-network statistics. We also show that a parsimonious gravity model of migration can account for most of observed IMN topological structure. Overall, our results suggest that socio-economic, geographical and political factors are more important than local-network properties in shaping the structure of the IMN.
1212.3853
Incentives for P2P-Assisted Content Distribution: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em
cs.SI
The rapid growth of content distribution on the Internet has brought with it proportional increases in the costs of distributing content. Adding to distribution costs is the fact that digital content is easily duplicable, and hence can be shared in an illicit peer-to-peer (P2P) manner that generates no revenue for the content provider. In this paper, we study whether the content provider can recover lost revenue through a more innovative approach to distribution. In particular, we evaluate the benefits of a hybrid revenue-sharing system that combines a legitimate P2P swarm and a centralized client-server approach. We show how the revenue recovered by the content provider using a server-supported legitimate P2P swarm can exceed that of the monopolistic scheme by an order of magnitude. Our analytical results are obtained in a fluid model, and supported by stochastic simulations.
1212.3859
On Capacity Region of Wiretap Networks
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we consider the problem of secure network coding where an adversary has access to an unknown subset of links chosen from a known collection of links subsets. We study the capacity region of such networks, commonly called "wiretap networks", subject to weak and strong secrecy constraints, and consider both zero-error and asymptotically zero-error communication. We prove that in general discrete memoryless networks modeled by discrete memoryless channels, the capacity region subject to strong secrecy requirement and the capacity region subject to weak secrecy requirement are equal. In particular, this result shows that requiring strong secrecy in a wiretap network with asymptotically zero probability of error does not shrink the capacity region compared to the case of weak secrecy requirement. We also derive inner and outer bounds on the network coding capacity region of wiretap networks subject to weak secrecy constraint, for both zero probability of error and asymptotically zero probability of error, in terms of the entropic region.
1212.3866
Agnostic insurability of model classes
math.ST cs.IT math.IT stat.TH
Motivated by problems in insurance, our task is to predict finite upper bounds on a future draw from an unknown distribution $p$ over the set of natural numbers. We can only use past observations generated independently and identically distributed according to $p$. While $p$ is unknown, it is known to belong to a given collection ${\cal P}$ of probability distributions on the natural numbers. The support of the distributions $p \in {\cal P}$ may be unbounded, and the prediction game goes on for \emph{infinitely} many draws. We are allowed to make observations without predicting upper bounds for some time. But we must, with probability 1, start and then continue to predict upper bounds after a finite time irrespective of which $p \in {\cal P}$ governs the data. If it is possible, without knowledge of $p$ and for any prescribed confidence however close to 1, to come up with a sequence of upper bounds that is never violated over an infinite time window with confidence at least as big as prescribed, we say the model class ${\cal P}$ is \emph{insurable}. We completely characterize the insurability of any class ${\cal P}$ of distributions over natural numbers by means of a condition on how the neighborhoods of distributions in ${\cal P}$ should be, one that is both necessary and sufficient.
1212.3873
Learning Markov Decision Processes for Model Checking
cs.LG cs.LO cs.SE
Constructing an accurate system model for formal model verification can be both resource demanding and time-consuming. To alleviate this shortcoming, algorithms have been proposed for automatically learning system models based on observed system behaviors. In this paper we extend the algorithm on learning probabilistic automata to reactive systems, where the observed system behavior is in the form of alternating sequences of inputs and outputs. We propose an algorithm for automatically learning a deterministic labeled Markov decision process model from the observed behavior of a reactive system. The proposed learning algorithm is adapted from algorithms for learning deterministic probabilistic finite automata, and extended to include both probabilistic and nondeterministic transitions. The algorithm is empirically analyzed and evaluated by learning system models of slot machines. The evaluation is performed by analyzing the probabilistic linear temporal logic properties of the system as well as by analyzing the schedulers, in particular the optimal schedulers, induced by the learned models.
1212.3881
Optimal forwarding ratio on dynamical networks with heterogeneous mobility
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
As the discovery of non-Poissonian statistics of human mobility trajectories, more attention has been paid to understanding the role of these patterns in different dynamics. In this study, we first introduce the heterogeneous mobility of mobile agents into dynamical networks, and then investigate the forwarding strategy on the heterogeneous dynamical networks. We find that the faster speed and the higher proportion of high-speed agents can enhance the network throughput and reduce the mean traveling time in the case of random forwarding. A hierarchical structure in the dependence of high-speed is observed: the network throughput remains unchanged in small and large high-speed value. It is interesting to find that the slightly preferential forwarding to high-speed agents can maximize the network capacity. Through theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we show that the optimal forwarding ratio stems from local structural heterogeneity of low-speed agents.
1212.3883
Bayes Information-theoretic Radar Waveform Design and Delay-Doppler Resolution for Extended Targets
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider the problem of information-theoretic waveform design for active sensing systems such as radar for extended targets. Contrary to the popular formulation of the problem in the estimation-theoretic context, we are rather interested in a Bayes decision theoretic approach where a target present in the environment belongs to two or more classes whose priors are known. Optimal information theory based transmit waveforms are designed by maximizing mutual information (MI) between the received signal and the target impulse response, resulting in a novel iterative design equation. We also derive signal to noise ratio (SNR) maximization based waveforms. In an effort to quantize the benefits of such a design approach, the delay-Doppler ambiguity function of information-theoretic waveforms are presented and is compared with Barker codes of similar time-bandwidth product. It is found that the ambiguity function of information-theoretic waveforms has very sharp main lobe in general and excellent time autocorrelation properties in particular.
1212.3886
Amplitudes of mono-components and representation by generalized sampling functions
cs.IT math.IT
A mono-component is a real-valued signal of finite energy that has non-negative instantaneous frequencies, which may be defined as the derivative of the phase function of the given real-valued signal through the approach of canonical amplitude-phase modulation. We study in this article how the amplitude is determined by its phase in a canonical amplitude-phase modulation. Our finding is that such an amplitude can be perfectly reconstructed by a sampling formula using the so-called generalized sampling functions and their Hilbert transforms. The regularity of such an amplitude is identified to be at least continuous. Meanwhile, we also make a very interesting and new characterization of the band-limited functions.
1212.3900
A Tutorial on Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis
stat.ML cs.LG
In this tutorial, I will discuss the details about how Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) is formalized and how different learning algorithms are proposed to learn the model.
1212.3903
Full-Rate, Full-Diversity, Finite Feedback Space-Time Schemes with Minimum Feedback and Transmission Duration
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper a MIMO quasi static block fading channel with finite N-ary delay-free, noise-free feedback is considered. The transmitter uses a set of N Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs), one corresponding to each of the N possible feedback values, to encode and transmit information. The feedback function used at the receiver and the N component STBCs used at the transmitter together constitute a Finite Feedback Scheme (FFS). Although a number of FFSs are available in the literature that provably achieve full-diversity, there is no known universal criterion to determine whether a given arbitrary FFS achieves full-diversity or not. Further, all known full-diversity FFSs for T<N_t where N_t is the number of transmit antennas, have rate at the most 1. In this paper a universal necessary condition for any FFS to achieve full-diversity is given, using which the notion of Feedback-Transmission duration optimal (FT-Optimal) FFSs - schemes that use minimum amount of feedback N given the transmission duration T, and minimum transmission duration given the amount of feedback to achieve full-diversity - is introduced. When there is no feedback (N=1) an FT-optimal scheme consists of a single STBC with T=N_t, and the universal necessary condition reduces to the well known necessary and sufficient condition for an STBC to achieve full-diversity: every non-zero codeword difference matrix of the STBC must be of rank N_t. Also, a sufficient condition for full-diversity is given for the FFSs in which the component STBC with the largest minimum Euclidean distance is chosen. Using this sufficient condition full-rate (rate N_t) full-diversity FT-Optimal schemes are constructed for all (N_t,T,N) with NT=N_t. These are the first full-rate full-diversity FFSs reported in the literature for T<N_t. Simulation results show that the new schemes have the best error performance among all known FFSs.
1212.3906
Simple Search Engine Model: Adaptive Properties
cs.IR
In this paper we study the relationship between query and search engine by exploring the adaptive properties based on a simple search engine. We used set theory and utilized the words and terms for defining singleton space of event in a search engine model, and then provided the inclusion between one singleton to another.
1212.3913
Group Component Analysis for Multiblock Data: Common and Individual Feature Extraction
cs.CV cs.LG
Very often data we encounter in practice is a collection of matrices rather than a single matrix. These multi-block data are naturally linked and hence often share some common features and at the same time they have their own individual features, due to the background in which they are measured and collected. In this study we proposed a new scheme of common and individual feature analysis (CIFA) that processes multi-block data in a linked way aiming at discovering and separating their common and individual features. According to whether the number of common features is given or not, two efficient algorithms were proposed to extract the common basis which is shared by all data. Then feature extraction is performed on the common and the individual spaces separately by incorporating the techniques such as dimensionality reduction and blind source separation. We also discussed how the proposed CIFA can significantly improve the performance of classification and clustering tasks by exploiting common and individual features of samples respectively. Our experimental results show some encouraging features of the proposed methods in comparison to the state-of-the-art methods on synthetic and real data.
1212.3922
Interroom radiative couplings through windows and large openings in buildings: Proposal of a simplified model
cs.CE
A simplified model of indoor short wave radiation couplings adapted to multi-zone simulations is proposed, thanks to a simplifying hypothesis and to the introduction of an indoor short wave exchange matrix. The specific properties of this matrix appear useful to quantify the thermal radiation exchanges between the zones separated by windows or large openings. Integrated in CODYRUN software, this module is detailed and compared to experimental measurements carried out on a real scale tropical building.
1212.3924
Building ventilation: A pressure airflow model computer generation and elements of validation
cs.CE
The calculation of airflows is of great importance for detailed building thermal simulation computer codes, these airflows most frequently constituting an important thermal coupling between the building and the outside on one hand, and the different thermal zones on the other. The driving effects of air movement, which are the wind and the thermal buoyancy, are briefly outlined and we look closely at their coupling in the case of buildings, by exploring the difficulties associated with large openings. Some numerical problems tied to the resolving of the non-linear system established are also covered. Part of a detailled simulation software (CODYRUN), the numerical implementation of this airflow model is explained, insisting on data organization and processing allowing the calculation of the airflows. Comparisons are then made between the model results and in one hand analytical expressions and in another and experimental measurements in case of a collective dwelling.
1212.3925
Elaboration of global quality standards for natural and low energy cooling in French tropical island buildings
cs.CE
Electric load profiles of tropical islands in developed countries are characterised by morning, midday and evening peaks arising from all year round high power demand in the commercial and residential sectors, due mostly to air conditioning appliances and bad thermal conception of the building. The work presented in this paper has led to the conception of a global quality standards obtained through optimized bioclimatic urban planning and architectural design, the use of passive cooling architectural components, natural ventilation and energy efficient systems such as solar water heaters. We evaluated, with the aid of an airflow and thermal building simulation software (CODYRUN), the impact of each technical solution on thermal comfort within the building. These technical solutions have been implemented in 280 new pilot dwelling projects through the year 1996.
1212.3928
A validation methodology aid for improving a thermal building model: Case of diffuse radiation accounting in a tropical climate
cs.CE
As part of our efforts to complete the software CODYRUN validation, we chose as test building a block of flats constructed in Reunion Island, which has a humid tropical climate. The sensitivity analysis allowed us to study the effects of both diffuse and direct solar radiation on our model of this building. With regard to the choice and location of sensors, this stage of the study also led us to measure the solar radiation falling on the windows. The comparison of measured and predicted radiation clearly showed that our predictions over-estimated the incoming solar radiation, and we were able to trace the problem to the algorithm which calculates diffuse solar radiation. By calculating view factors between the windows and the associated shading devices, changes to the original program allowed us to improve the predictions, and so this article shows the importance of sensitivity analysis in this area of research.
1212.3930
Detailed weather data generator for building simulations
cs.CE
Thermal buildings simulation softwares need meteorological files in thermal comfort, energetic evaluation studies. Few tools can make significant meteorological data available such as generated typical year, representative days, or artificial meteorological database. This paper deals about the presentation of a new software, RUNEOLE, used to provide weather data in buildings applications with a method adapted to all kind of climates. RUNEOLE associates three modules of description, modelling and generation of weather data. The statistical description of an existing meteorological database makes typical representative days available and leads to the creation of model libraries. The generation module leads to the generation of non existing sequences. This software tends to be usable for the searchers and designers, by means of interactivity, facilitated use and easy communication. The conceptual basis of this tool will be exposed and we'll propose two examples of applications in building physics for tropical humid climates.
1212.3964
Advanced Bloom Filter Based Algorithms for Efficient Approximate Data De-Duplication in Streams
cs.IR
Applications involving telecommunication call data records, web pages, online transactions, medical records, stock markets, climate warning systems, etc., necessitate efficient management and processing of such massively exponential amount of data from diverse sources. De-duplication or Intelligent Compression in streaming scenarios for approximate identification and elimination of duplicates from such unbounded data stream is a greater challenge given the real-time nature of data arrival. Stable Bloom Filters (SBF) addresses this problem to a certain extent. . In this work, we present several novel algorithms for the problem of approximate detection of duplicates in data streams. We propose the Reservoir Sampling based Bloom Filter (RSBF) combining the working principle of reservoir sampling and Bloom Filters. We also present variants of the novel Biased Sampling based Bloom Filter (BSBF) based on biased sampling concepts. We also propose a randomized load balanced variant of the sampling Bloom Filter approach to efficiently tackle the duplicate detection. In this work, we thus provide a generic framework for de-duplication using Bloom Filters. Using detailed theoretical analysis we prove analytical bounds on the false positive rate, false negative rate and convergence rate of the proposed structures. We exhibit that our models clearly outperform the existing methods. We also demonstrate empirical analysis of the structures using real-world datasets (3 million records) and also with synthetic datasets (1 billion records) capturing various input distributions.
1212.3996
Increasing Air Traffic: What is the Problem?
cs.AI cs.SY
Nowadays, huge efforts are made to modernize the air traffic management systems to cope with uncertainty, complexity and sub-optimality. An answer is to enhance the information sharing between the stakeholders. This paper introduces a framework that bridges the gap between air traffic management and air traffic control on the one hand, and bridges the gap between the ground, the approach and the en-route centers on the other hand. An original system is presented, that has three essential components: the trajectory models, the optimization process, and the monitoring process. The uncertainty of the trajectory is modeled with a Bayesian Network, where the nodes are associated to two types of random variables: the time of overflight on metering points of the airspace, and the traveling time of the routes linking these points. The resulting Bayesian Network covers the complete airspace, and Monte- Carlo simulations are done to estimate the probabilities of sector congestion and delays. On top of this trajectory model, an optimization process minimizes these probabilities by tuning the parameters of the Bayesian trajectory model related to overflight times on metering points. The last component is the monitoring process, that continuously updates the situation of the airspace, modifying the trajectories uncertainties according to actual positions of aircraft. After each update, a new optimal set of overflight times is computed, and can be communicated to the controllers as clearances for the aircraft pilots. The paper presents a formal specification of this global optimization problem, whose underlying rationale was derived with the help of air traffic controllers at Thales Air Systems.
1212.3998
Online Learning for Ground Trajectory Prediction
cs.AI cs.SY
This paper presents a model based on an hybrid system to numerically simulate the climbing phase of an aircraft. This model is then used within a trajectory prediction tool. Finally, the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) optimization algorithm is used to tune five selected parameters, and thus improve the accuracy of the model. Incorporated within a trajectory prediction tool, this model can be used to derive the order of magnitude of the prediction error over time, and thus the domain of validity of the trajectory prediction. A first validation experiment of the proposed model is based on the errors along time for a one-time trajectory prediction at the take off of the flight with respect to the default values of the theoretical BADA model. This experiment, assuming complete information, also shows the limit of the model. A second experiment part presents an on-line trajectory prediction, in which the prediction is continuously updated based on the current aircraft position. This approach raises several issues, for which improvements of the basic model are proposed, and the resulting trajectory prediction tool shows statistically significantly more accurate results than those of the default model.
1212.4029
Compelled to do the right thing
physics.soc-ph cs.SI nlin.AO physics.comp-ph
We use a model of opinion formation to study the consequences of some mechanisms attempting to enforce the right behaviour in a society. We start from a model where the possible choices are not equivalent (such is the case when the agents decide to comply or not with a law) and where an imitation mechanism allow the agents to change their behaviour based on the influence of a group of partners. In addition, we consider the existence of two social constraints: a) an external authority, called monitor, that imposes the correct behaviour with infinite persuasion and b) an educated group of agents that act upon their fellows but never change their own opinion, i.e., they exhibit infinite adamancy. We determine the minimum number of monitors to induce an effective change in the behaviour of the social group, and the size of the educated group that produces the same effect. Also, we compare the results for the cases of random social interactions and agents placed on a network. We have verified that a small number of monitors are enough to change the behaviour of the society. This also happens with a relatively small educated group in the case of random interactions.
1212.4034
5GNOW: Challenging the LTE Design Paradigms of Orthogonality and Synchronicity
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
LTE and LTE-Advanced have been optimized to deliver high bandwidth pipes to wireless users. The transport mechanisms have been tailored to maximize single cell performance by enforcing strict synchronism and orthogonality within a single cell and within a single contiguous frequency band. Various emerging trends reveal major shortcomings of those design criteria: 1) The fraction of machine-type-communications (MTC) is growing fast. Transmissions of this kind are suffering from the bulky procedures necessary to ensure strict synchronism. 2) Collaborative schemes have been introduced to boost capacity and coverage (CoMP), and wireless networks are becoming more and more heterogeneous following the non-uniform distribution of users. Tremendous efforts must be spent to collect the gains and to manage such systems under the premise of strict synchronism and orthogonality. 3) The advent of the Digital Agenda and the introduction of carrier aggregation are forcing the transmission systems to deal with fragmented spectrum. 5GNOW is an European research project supported by the European Commission within FP7 ICT Call 8. It will question the design targets of LTE and LTE-Advanced having these shortcomings in mind and the obedience to strict synchronism and orthogonality will be challenged. It will develop new PHY and MAC layer concepts being better suited to meet the upcoming needs with respect to service variety and heterogeneous transmission setups. Wireless transmission networks following the outcomes of 5GNOW will be better suited to meet the manifoldness of services, device classes and transmission setups present in envisioned future scenarios like smart cities. The integration of systems relying heavily on MTC into the communication network will be eased. The per-user experience will be more uniform and satisfying. To ensure this 5GNOW will contribute to upcoming 5G standardization.
1212.4080
A Hierarchical Exact Accelerated Stochastic Simulation Algorithm
q-bio.MN cs.CE cs.DS
A new algorithm, "HiER-leap", is derived which improves on the computational properties of the ER-leap algorithm for exact accelerated simulation of stochastic chemical kinetics. Unlike ER-leap, HiER-leap utilizes a hierarchical or divide-and-conquer organization of reaction channels into tightly coupled "blocks" and is thereby able to speed up systems with many reaction channels. Like ER-leap, HiER-leap is based on the use of upper and lower bounds on the reaction propensities to define a rejection sampling algorithm with inexpensive early rejection and acceptance steps. But in HiER-leap, large portions of intra-block sampling may be done in parallel. An accept/reject step is used to synchronize across blocks. This method scales well when many reaction channels are present and has desirable asymptotic properties. The algorithm is exact, parallelizable and achieves a significant speedup over SSA and ER-leap on certain problems. This algorithm offers a potentially important step towards efficient in silico modeling of entire organisms.
1212.4093
Co-clustering separately exchangeable network data
math.ST cs.SI math.CO stat.ML stat.TH
This article establishes the performance of stochastic blockmodels in addressing the co-clustering problem of partitioning a binary array into subsets, assuming only that the data are generated by a nonparametric process satisfying the condition of separate exchangeability. We provide oracle inequalities with rate of convergence $\mathcal{O}_P(n^{-1/4})$ corresponding to profile likelihood maximization and mean-square error minimization, and show that the blockmodel can be interpreted in this setting as an optimal piecewise-constant approximation to the generative nonparametric model. We also show for large sample sizes that the detection of co-clusters in such data indicates with high probability the existence of co-clusters of equal size and asymptotically equivalent connectivity in the underlying generative process.
1212.4137
Alternating Maximization: Unifying Framework for 8 Sparse PCA Formulations and Efficient Parallel Codes
stat.ML cs.LG math.OC
Given a multivariate data set, sparse principal component analysis (SPCA) aims to extract several linear combinations of the variables that together explain the variance in the data as much as possible, while controlling the number of nonzero loadings in these combinations. In this paper we consider 8 different optimization formulations for computing a single sparse loading vector; these are obtained by combining the following factors: we employ two norms for measuring variance (L2, L1) and two sparsity-inducing norms (L0, L1), which are used in two different ways (constraint, penalty). Three of our formulations, notably the one with L0 constraint and L1 variance, have not been considered in the literature. We give a unifying reformulation which we propose to solve via a natural alternating maximization (AM) method. We show the the AM method is nontrivially equivalent to GPower (Journ\'{e}e et al; JMLR 11:517--553, 2010) for all our formulations. Besides this, we provide 24 efficient parallel SPCA implementations: 3 codes (multi-core, GPU and cluster) for each of the 8 problems. Parallelism in the methods is aimed at i) speeding up computations (our GPU code can be 100 times faster than an efficient serial code written in C++), ii) obtaining solutions explaining more variance and iii) dealing with big data problems (our cluster code is able to solve a 357 GB problem in about a minute).
1212.4174
Feature Clustering for Accelerating Parallel Coordinate Descent
stat.ML cs.DC cs.LG math.OC
Large-scale L1-regularized loss minimization problems arise in high-dimensional applications such as compressed sensing and high-dimensional supervised learning, including classification and regression problems. High-performance algorithms and implementations are critical to efficiently solving these problems. Building upon previous work on coordinate descent algorithms for L1-regularized problems, we introduce a novel family of algorithms called block-greedy coordinate descent that includes, as special cases, several existing algorithms such as SCD, Greedy CD, Shotgun, and Thread-Greedy. We give a unified convergence analysis for the family of block-greedy algorithms. The analysis suggests that block-greedy coordinate descent can better exploit parallelism if features are clustered so that the maximum inner product between features in different blocks is small. Our theoretical convergence analysis is supported with experimental re- sults using data from diverse real-world applications. We hope that algorithmic approaches and convergence analysis we provide will not only advance the field, but will also encourage researchers to systematically explore the design space of algorithms for solving large-scale L1-regularization problems.
1212.4194
Effect of Coupling on the Epidemic Threshold in Interconnected Complex Networks: A Spectral Analysis
physics.soc-ph cs.SI math.DS physics.bio-ph
In epidemic modeling, the term infection strength indicates the ratio of infection rate and cure rate. If the infection strength is higher than a certain threshold -- which we define as the epidemic threshold - then the epidemic spreads through the population and persists in the long run. For a single generic graph representing the contact network of the population under consideration, the epidemic threshold turns out to be equal to the inverse of the spectral radius of the contact graph. However, in a real world scenario it is not possible to isolate a population completely: there is always some interconnection with another network, which partially overlaps with the contact network. Results for epidemic threshold in interconnected networks are limited to homogeneous mixing populations and degree distribution arguments. In this paper, we adopt a spectral approach. We show how the epidemic threshold in a given network changes as a result of being coupled with another network with fixed infection strength. In our model, the contact network and the interconnections are generic. Using bifurcation theory and algebraic graph theory, we rigorously derive the epidemic threshold in interconnected networks. These results have implications for the broad field of epidemic modeling and control. Our analytical results are supported by numerical simulations.
1212.4198
Underlay Cognitive Radios with Capacity Guarantees for Primary Users
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
To use the spectrum efficiently, cognitive radios leverage knowledge of the channel state information (CSI) to optimize the performance of the secondary users (SUs) while limiting the interference to the primary users (PUs). The algorithms in this paper are designed to maximize the weighted ergodic sum-capacity of SUs, which transmit orthogonally and adhere simultaneously to constraints limiting: i) the long-term (ergodic) capacity loss caused to each PU receiver; ii) the long-term interference power at each PU receiver; and iii) the long-term power at each SU transmitter. Formulations accounting for short-term counterparts of i) and ii) are also discussed. Although the long-term capacity constraints are non-convex, the resultant optimization problem exhibits zero-duality gap and can be efficiently solved in the dual domain. The optimal allocation schemes (power and rate loadings, frequency bands to be accessed, and SU links to be activated) are a function of the CSI of the primary and secondary networks as well as the Lagrange multipliers associated with the long-term constraints. The optimal resource allocation algorithms are first designed under the assumption that the CSI is perfect, then the modifications needed to accommodate different forms of imperfect CSI (quantized, noisy, and outdated) are analyzed.
1212.4210
From compression to compressed sensing
cs.IT math.IT
Can compression algorithms be employed for recovering signals from their underdetermined set of linear measurements? Addressing this question is the first step towards applying compression algorithms for compressed sensing (CS). In this paper, we consider a family of compression algorithms $\mathcal{C}_r$, parametrized by rate $r$, for a compact class of signals $\mathcal{Q} \subset \mathds{R}^n$. The set of natural images and JPEG at different rates are examples of $\mathcal{Q}$ and $\mathcal{C}_r$, respectively. We establish a connection between the rate-distortion performance of $\mathcal{C}_r$, and the number of linear measurements required for successful recovery in CS. We then propose compressible signal pursuit (CSP) algorithm and prove that, with high probability, it accurately and robustly recovers signals from an underdetermined set of linear measurements. We also explore the performance of CSP in the recovery of infinite dimensional signals.
1212.4269
Accelerated Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry
math.OC cs.CE stat.ML
We study a simple modification to the conventional time of flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) where a \emph{variable} and (pseudo)-\emph{random} pulsing rate is used which allows for traces from different pulses to overlap. This modification requires little alteration to the currently employed hardware. However, it requires a reconstruction method to recover the spectrum from highly aliased traces. We propose and demonstrate an efficient algorithm that can process massive TOFMS data using computational resources that can be considered modest with today's standards. This approach can be used to improve duty cycle, speed, and mass resolving power of TOFMS at the same time. We expect this to extend the applicability of TOFMS to new domains.
1212.4287
Prediction of Parallel Speed-ups for Las Vegas Algorithms
cs.DC cs.AI
We propose a probabilistic model for the parallel execution of Las Vegas algorithms, i.e., randomized algorithms whose runtime might vary from one execution to another, even with the same input. This model aims at predicting the parallel performances (i.e., speedups) by analysis the runtime distribution of the sequential runs of the algorithm. Then, we study in practice the case of a particular Las Vegas algorithm for combinatorial optimization, on three classical problems, and compare with an actual parallel implementation up to 256 cores. We show that the prediction can be quite accurate, matching the actual speedups very well up to 100 parallel cores and then with a deviation of about 20% up to 256 cores.
1212.4303
On the notion of balance in social network analysis
cs.SI math.CO math.PR physics.soc-ph
The notion of "balance" is fundamental for sociologists who study social networks. In formal mathematical terms, it concerns the distribution of triad configurations in actual networks compared to random networks of the same edge density. On reading Charles Kadushin's recent book "Understanding Social Networks", we were struck by the amount of confusion in the presentation of this concept in the early sections of the book. This confusion seems to lie behind his flawed analysis of a classical empirical data set, namely the karate club graph of Zachary. Our goal here is twofold. Firstly, we present the notion of balance in terms which are logically consistent, but also consistent with the way sociologists use the term. The main message is that the notion can only be meaningfully applied to undirected graphs. Secondly, we correct the analysis of triads in the karate club graph. This results in the interesting observation that the graph is, in a precise sense, quite "unbalanced". We show that this lack of balance is characteristic of a wide class of starlike-graphs, and discuss possible sociological interpretations of this fact, which may be useful in many other situations.
1212.4315
Assessing Sentiment Strength in Words Prior Polarities
cs.CL
Many approaches to sentiment analysis rely on lexica where words are tagged with their prior polarity - i.e. if a word out of context evokes something positive or something negative. In particular, broad-coverage resources like SentiWordNet provide polarities for (almost) every word. Since words can have multiple senses, we address the problem of how to compute the prior polarity of a word starting from the polarity of each sense and returning its polarity strength as an index between -1 and 1. We compare 14 such formulae that appear in the literature, and assess which one best approximates the human judgement of prior polarities, with both regression and classification models.
1212.4347
Bayesian Group Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for EEG Analysis
cs.LG stat.ML
We propose a generative model of a group EEG analysis, based on appropriate kernel assumptions on EEG data. We derive the variational inference update rule using various approximation techniques. The proposed model outperforms the current state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of common pattern extraction. The validity of the proposed model is tested on the BCI competition dataset.
1212.4373
A trust-based security mechanism for nomadic users in pervasive systems
cs.CR cs.AI
The emergence of network technologies and the appearance of new varied applications in terms of services and resources, has created new security problems for which existing solutions and mechanisms are inadequate, especially problems of identification and authentication. In a highly distributed and pervasive system, a uniform and centralized security management is not an option. It then becomes necessary to give more autonomy to security systems by providing them with mechanisms that allows a dynamic and flexible cooperation and collaboration between the actors in the system.
1212.4375
Lumpings of Markov chains, entropy rate preservation, and higher-order lumpability
cs.IT math.IT math.PR
A lumping of a Markov chain is a coordinate-wise projection of the chain. We characterise the entropy rate preservation of a lumping of an aperiodic and irreducible Markov chain on a finite state space by the random growth rate of the cardinality of the realisable preimage of a finite-length trajectory of the lumped chain and by the information needed to reconstruct original trajectories from their lumped images. Both are purely combinatorial criteria, depending only on the transition graph of the Markov chain and the lumping function. A lumping is strongly k-lumpable, iff the lumped process is a k-th order Markov chain for each starting distribution of the original Markov chain. We characterise strong k-lumpability via tightness of stationary entropic bounds. In the sparse setting, we give sufficient conditions on the lumping to both preserve the entropy rate and be strongly k-lumpable.
1212.4490
Sketch-to-Design: Context-based Part Assembly
cs.GR cs.CV
Designing 3D objects from scratch is difficult, especially when the user intent is fuzzy without a clear target form. In the spirit of modeling-by-example, we facilitate design by providing reference and inspiration from existing model contexts. We rethink model design as navigating through different possible combinations of part assemblies based on a large collection of pre-segmented 3D models. We propose an interactive sketch-to-design system, where the user sketches prominent features of parts to combine. The sketched strokes are analyzed individually and in context with the other parts to generate relevant shape suggestions via a design gallery interface. As the session progresses and more parts get selected, contextual cues becomes increasingly dominant and the system quickly converges to a final design. As a key enabler, we use pre-learned part-based contextual information to allow the user to quickly explore different combinations of parts. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for efficiently designing new variations from existing shapes.
1212.4507
Variational Optimization
stat.ML cs.LG cs.NA
We discuss a general technique that can be used to form a differentiable bound on the optima of non-differentiable or discrete objective functions. We form a unified description of these methods and consider under which circumstances the bound is concave. In particular we consider two concrete applications of the method, namely sparse learning and support vector classification.
1212.4522
A Multi-View Embedding Space for Modeling Internet Images, Tags, and their Semantics
cs.CV cs.IR cs.LG cs.MM
This paper investigates the problem of modeling Internet images and associated text or tags for tasks such as image-to-image search, tag-to-image search, and image-to-tag search (image annotation). We start with canonical correlation analysis (CCA), a popular and successful approach for mapping visual and textual features to the same latent space, and incorporate a third view capturing high-level image semantics, represented either by a single category or multiple non-mutually-exclusive concepts. We present two ways to train the three-view embedding: supervised, with the third view coming from ground-truth labels or search keywords; and unsupervised, with semantic themes automatically obtained by clustering the tags. To ensure high accuracy for retrieval tasks while keeping the learning process scalable, we combine multiple strong visual features and use explicit nonlinear kernel mappings to efficiently approximate kernel CCA. To perform retrieval, we use a specially designed similarity function in the embedded space, which substantially outperforms the Euclidean distance. The resulting system produces compelling qualitative results and outperforms a number of two-view baselines on retrieval tasks on three large-scale Internet image datasets.
1212.4527
GMM-Based Hidden Markov Random Field for Color Image and 3D Volume Segmentation
cs.CV
In this project, we first study the Gaussian-based hidden Markov random field (HMRF) model and its expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. Then we generalize it to Gaussian mixture model-based hidden Markov random field. The algorithm is implemented in MATLAB. We also apply this algorithm to color image segmentation problems and 3D volume segmentation problems.
1212.4565
Truthy: Enabling the Study of Online Social Networks
cs.SI cs.DL physics.soc-ph
The broad adoption of online social networking platforms has made it possible to study communication networks at an unprecedented scale. Digital trace data can be compiled into large data sets of online discourse. However, it is a challenge to collect, store, filter, and analyze large amounts of data, even by experts in the computational sciences. Here we describe our recent extensions to Truthy, a system that collects Twitter data to analyze discourse in near real-time. We introduce several interactive visualizations and analytical tools with the goal of enabling citizens, journalists, and researchers to understand and study online social networks at multiple scales.
1212.4608
Perceptually Motivated Shape Context Which Uses Shape Interiors
cs.CV
In this paper, we identify some of the limitations of current-day shape matching techniques. We provide examples of how contour-based shape matching techniques cannot provide a good match for certain visually similar shapes. To overcome this limitation, we propose a perceptually motivated variant of the well-known shape context descriptor. We identify that the interior properties of the shape play an important role in object recognition and develop a descriptor that captures these interior properties. We show that our method can easily be augmented with any other shape matching algorithm. We also show from our experiments that the use of our descriptor can significantly improve the retrieval rates.
1212.4617
Improved Multiuser Detection in Asynchronous Flat-Fading Non-Gaussian Channels
cs.SY cs.NI
In this paper, a new M-estimator based multiuser detection in asynchronous flat-fading non-Gaussian CDMA channels is considered. A new closed-form expression is derived for the characteristic function of the multiple-access interference signals. Simulation results are provided to prove the effectiveness of the derived bit-error probabilities obtained with this expression in asynchronous flat-fading non-Gaussian CDMA channels.
1212.4626
MAC with Action-Dependent State Information at One Encoder
cs.IT math.IT
Problems dealing with the ability to take an action that affects the states of state-dependent communication channels are of timely interest and importance. Therefore, we extend the study of action-dependent channels, which until now focused on point-to-point models, to multiple-access channels (MAC). In this paper, we consider a two-user, state-dependent MAC, in which one of the encoders, called the informed encoder, is allowed to take an action that affects the formation of the channel states. Two independent messages are to be sent through the channel: a common message known to both encoders and a private message known only to the informed encoder. In addition, the informed encoder has access to the sequence of channel states in a non-causal manner. Our framework generalizes previously evaluated settings of state dependent point-to-point channels with actions and MACs with common messages. We derive a single letter characterization of the capacity region for this setting. Using this general result, we obtain and compute the capacity region for the Gaussian action-dependent MAC. The unique methods used in solving the Gaussian case are then applied to obtain the capacity of the Gaussian action-dependent point-to-point channel; a problem was left open until this work. Finally, we establish some dualities between action-dependent channel coding and source coding problems. Specifically, we obtain a duality between the considered MAC setting and the rate distortion model known as "Successive Refinement with Actions". This is done by developing a set of simple duality principles that enable us to successfully evaluate the outcome of one problem given the other.
1212.4638
Polynomial functions of degree 20 which are APN infinitely often
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
We give all the polynomials functions of degree 20 which are APN over an infinity of field extensions and show they are all CCZ-equivalent to the function $x^5$, which is a new step in proving the conjecture of Aubry, McGuire and Rodier.
1212.4648
Algebraic modelling and performance evaluation of acyclic fork-join queueing networks
math.OC cs.SY
Simple lower and upper bounds on mean cycle time in stochastic acyclic fork-join queueing networks are derived using a (max,+)-algebra based representation of network dynamics. The behaviour of the bounds under various assumptions concerning the service times in the networks is discussed, and related numerical examples are presented.
1212.4649
Exponential error bounds on parameter modulation-estimation for discrete memoryless channels
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of modulation and estimation of a random parameter $U$ to be conveyed across a discrete memoryless channel. Upper and lower bounds are derived for the best achievable exponential decay rate of a general moment of the estimation error, $\bE|\hat{U}-U|^\rho$, $\rho\ge 0$, when both the modulator and the estimator are subjected to optimization. These exponential error bounds turn out to be intimately related to error exponents of channel coding and to channel capacity. While in general, there is some gap between the upper and the lower bound, they asymptotically coincide both for very small and for very large values of the moment power $\rho$. This means that our achievability scheme, which is based on simple quantization of $U$ followed by channel coding, is nearly optimum in both limits. Some additional properties of the bounds are discussed and demonstrated, and finally, an extension to the case of a multidimensional parameter vector is outlined, with the principal conclusion that our upper and lower bound asymptotically coincide also for a high dimensionality.
1212.4653
Convolutional Codes Derived From Group Character Codes
cs.IT math.IT quant-ph
New families of unit memory as well as multi-memory convolutional codes are constructed algebraically in this paper. These convolutional codes are derived from the class of group character codes. The proposed codes have basic generator matrices, consequently, they are non catastrophic. Additionally, the new code parameters are better than the ones available in the literature.
1212.4654
On Classical and Quantum MDS-Convolutional BCH Codes
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Several new families of multi-memory classical convolutional Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes as well as families of unit-memory quantum convolutional codes are constructed in this paper. Our unit-memory classical and quantum convolutional codes are optimal in the sense that they attain the classical (quantum) generalized Singleton bound. The constructions presented in this paper are performed algebraically and not by computational search.
1212.4663
Concentration of Measure Inequalities in Information Theory, Communications and Coding (Second Edition)
cs.IT math.IT math.PR
During the last two decades, concentration inequalities have been the subject of exciting developments in various areas, including convex geometry, functional analysis, statistical physics, high-dimensional statistics, pure and applied probability theory, information theory, theoretical computer science, and learning theory. This monograph focuses on some of the key modern mathematical tools that are used for the derivation of concentration inequalities, on their links to information theory, and on their various applications to communications and coding. In addition to being a survey, this monograph also includes various new recent results derived by the authors. The first part of the monograph introduces classical concentration inequalities for martingales, as well as some recent refinements and extensions. The power and versatility of the martingale approach is exemplified in the context of codes defined on graphs and iterative decoding algorithms, as well as codes for wireless communication. The second part of the monograph introduces the entropy method, an information-theoretic technique for deriving concentration inequalities. The basic ingredients of the entropy method are discussed first in the context of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities, which underlie the so-called functional approach to concentration of measure, and then from a complementary information-theoretic viewpoint based on transportation-cost inequalities and probability in metric spaces. Some representative results on concentration for dependent random variables are briefly summarized, with emphasis on their connections to the entropy method. Finally, we discuss several applications of the entropy method to problems in communications and coding, including strong converses, empirical distributions of good channel codes, and an information-theoretic converse for concentration of measure.
1212.4674
Natural Language Understanding Based on Semantic Relations between Sentences
cs.CL
In this paper, we define event expression over sentences of natural language and semantic relations between events. Based on this definition, we formally consider text understanding process having events as basic unit.
1212.4675
Analysis of Large-scale Traffic Dynamics using Non-negative Tensor Factorization
cs.LG
In this paper, we present our work on clustering and prediction of temporal dynamics of global congestion configurations in large-scale road networks. Instead of looking into temporal traffic state variation of individual links, or of small areas, we focus on spatial congestion configurations of the whole network. In our work, we aim at describing the typical temporal dynamic patterns of this network-level traffic state and achieving long-term prediction of the large-scale traffic dynamics, in a unified data-mining framework. To this end, we formulate this joint task using Non-negative Tensor Factorization (NTF), which has been shown to be a useful decomposition tools for multivariate data sequences. Clustering and prediction are performed based on the compact tensor factorization results. Experiments on large-scale simulated data illustrate the interest of our method with promising results for long-term forecast of traffic evolution.
1212.4702
Simple Search Engine Model: Adaptive Properties for Doubleton
cs.IR cs.DM
In this paper we study the relationship between query and search engine by exploring the adaptive properties for doubleton as a space of event based on a simple search engine. We employ set theory for defining doubleton and generate some properties.
1212.4703
Semi-explicit Parareal method based on convergence acceleration technique
cs.SY math.CA math.NA
The Parareal algorithm is used to solve time-dependent problems considering multiple solvers that may work in parallel. The key feature is a initial rough approximation of the solution that is iteratively refined by the parallel solvers. We report a derivation of the Parareal method that uses a convergence acceleration technique to improve the accuracy of the solution. Our approach uses firstly an explicit ODE solver to perform the parallel computations with different time-steps and then, a decomposition of the solution into specific convergent series, based on an extrapolation method, allows to refine the precision of the solution. Our proposed method exploits basic explicit integration methods, such as for example the explicit Euler scheme, in order to preserve the simplicity of the global parallel algorithm. The first part of the paper outlines the proposed method applied to the simple explicit Euler scheme and then the derivation of the classical Parareal algorithm is discussed and illustrated with numerical examples.
1212.4717
Quickest Detection with Discretely Controlled Observations
math.PR cs.IT cs.SY math.IT math.OC
We study a continuous time Bayesian quickest detection problem in which observation times are a scarce resource. The agent, limited to making a finite number of discrete observations, must adaptively decide his observation strategy to minimize detection delay and the probability of false alarm. Under two different models of observation rights, we establish the existence of optimal strategies, and formulate an algorithmic approach to the problem via jump operators. We describe algorithms for these problems, and illustrate them with some numerical results. As the number of observation rights tends to infinity, we also show convergence to the classical continuous observation problem of Shiryaev.
1212.4751
Opinion formation model for markets with a social temperature and fear
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI q-fin.GN
In the spirit of behavioral finance, we study the process of opinion formation among investors using a variant of the 2D Voter Model with a tunable social temperature. Further, a feedback acting on the temperature is introduced, such that social temperature reacts to market imbalances and thus becomes time dependent. In this toy market model, social temperature represents nervousness of agents towards market imbalances representing speculative risk. We use the knowledge about the discontinuous Generalized Voter Model phase transition to determine critical fixed points. The system exhibits metastable phases around these fixed points characterized by structured lattice states, with intermittent excursions away from the fixed points. The statistical mechanics of the model is characterized and its relation to dynamics of opinion formation among investors in real markets is discussed.
1212.4775
Role Mining with Probabilistic Models
cs.CR cs.LG stat.ML
Role mining tackles the problem of finding a role-based access control (RBAC) configuration, given an access-control matrix assigning users to access permissions as input. Most role mining approaches work by constructing a large set of candidate roles and use a greedy selection strategy to iteratively pick a small subset such that the differences between the resulting RBAC configuration and the access control matrix are minimized. In this paper, we advocate an alternative approach that recasts role mining as an inference problem rather than a lossy compression problem. Instead of using combinatorial algorithms to minimize the number of roles needed to represent the access-control matrix, we derive probabilistic models to learn the RBAC configuration that most likely underlies the given matrix. Our models are generative in that they reflect the way that permissions are assigned to users in a given RBAC configuration. We additionally model how user-permission assignments that conflict with an RBAC configuration emerge and we investigate the influence of constraints on role hierarchies and on the number of assignments. In experiments with access-control matrices from real-world enterprises, we compare our proposed models with other role mining methods. Our results show that our probabilistic models infer roles that generalize well to new system users for a wide variety of data, while other models' generalization abilities depend on the dataset given.
1212.4777
A Practical Algorithm for Topic Modeling with Provable Guarantees
cs.LG cs.DS stat.ML
Topic models provide a useful method for dimensionality reduction and exploratory data analysis in large text corpora. Most approaches to topic model inference have been based on a maximum likelihood objective. Efficient algorithms exist that approximate this objective, but they have no provable guarantees. Recently, algorithms have been introduced that provide provable bounds, but these algorithms are not practical because they are inefficient and not robust to violations of model assumptions. In this paper we present an algorithm for topic model inference that is both provable and practical. The algorithm produces results comparable to the best MCMC implementations while running orders of magnitude faster.
1212.4779
StaticGreedy: solving the scalability-accuracy dilemma in influence maximization
cs.SI cs.DS physics.soc-ph
Influence maximization, defined as a problem of finding a set of seed nodes to trigger a maximized spread of influence, is crucial to viral marketing on social networks. For practical viral marketing on large scale social networks, it is required that influence maximization algorithms should have both guaranteed accuracy and high scalability. However, existing algorithms suffer a scalability-accuracy dilemma: conventional greedy algorithms guarantee the accuracy with expensive computation, while the scalable heuristic algorithms suffer from unstable accuracy. In this paper, we focus on solving this scalability-accuracy dilemma. We point out that the essential reason of the dilemma is the surprising fact that the submodularity, a key requirement of the objective function for a greedy algorithm to approximate the optimum, is not guaranteed in all conventional greedy algorithms in the literature of influence maximization. Therefore a greedy algorithm has to afford a huge number of Monte Carlo simulations to reduce the pain caused by unguaranteed submodularity. Motivated by this critical finding, we propose a static greedy algorithm, named StaticGreedy, to strictly guarantee the submodularity of influence spread function during the seed selection process. The proposed algorithm makes the computational expense dramatically reduced by two orders of magnitude without loss of accuracy. Moreover, we propose a dynamical update strategy which can speed up the StaticGreedy algorithm by 2-7 times on large scale social networks.
1212.4788
easyGWAS: An integrated interspecies platform for performing genome-wide association studies
q-bio.GN cs.CE cs.DL stat.AP
Motivation: The rapid growth in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in plants and animals has brought about the need for a central resource that facilitates i) performing GWAS, ii) accessing data and results of other GWAS, and iii) enabling all users regardless of their background to exploit the latest statistical techniques without having to manage complex software and computing resources. Results: We present easyGWAS, a web platform that provides methods, tools and dynamic visualizations to perform and analyze GWAS. In addition, easyGWAS makes it simple to reproduce results of others, validate findings, and access larger sample sizes through merging of public datasets. Availability: Detailed method and data descriptions as well as tutorials are available in the supplementary materials. easyGWAS is available at http://easygwas.tuebingen.mpg.de/. Contact: dominik.grimm@tuebingen.mpg.de
1212.4799
Towards common-sense reasoning via conditional simulation: legacies of Turing in Artificial Intelligence
cs.AI math.LO stat.ML
The problem of replicating the flexibility of human common-sense reasoning has captured the imagination of computer scientists since the early days of Alan Turing's foundational work on computation and the philosophy of artificial intelligence. In the intervening years, the idea of cognition as computation has emerged as a fundamental tenet of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cognitive science. But what kind of computation is cognition? We describe a computational formalism centered around a probabilistic Turing machine called QUERY, which captures the operation of probabilistic conditioning via conditional simulation. Through several examples and analyses, we demonstrate how the QUERY abstraction can be used to cast common-sense reasoning as probabilistic inference in a statistical model of our observations and the uncertain structure of the world that generated that experience. This formulation is a recent synthesis of several research programs in AI and cognitive science, but it also represents a surprising convergence of several of Turing's pioneering insights in AI, the foundations of computation, and statistics.
1212.4804
Low Speed Automation, a French Initiative
cs.RO
Nowadays, vehicle safety is constantly increasing thanks to the improvement of vehicle passive and active safety. However, on a daily usage of the car, traffic jams remains a problem. With limited space for road infrastructure, automation of the driving task on specific situation seems to be a possible solution. The French project ABV, which stands for low speed automation, tries to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept and to prove the benefits. In this article, we describe the scientific background of the project and expected outputs.
1212.4846
Operational semantics for product-form solution
cs.PF cs.SY
In this paper we present product-form solutions from the point of view of stochastic process algebra. In previous work we have shown how to derive product-form solutions for a formalism called Labelled Markov Automata (LMA). LMA are very useful as their relation with the Continuous Time Markov Chains is very direct. The disadvantage of using LMA is that the proofs of properties are cumbersome. In fact, in LMA it is not possible to use the inductive structure of the language in a proof. In this paper we consider a simple stochastic process algebra that has the great advantage of simplifying the proofs. This simple language has been inspired by PEPA, however, detailed analysis of the semantics of cooperation will show the differences between the two formalisms. It will also be shown that the semantics of the cooperation in process algebra influences the correctness of the derivation of the product-form solutions.
1212.4871
Automatic post-picking using MAPPOS improves particle image detection from Cryo-EM micrographs
stat.ML cs.CV
Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) studies using single particle reconstruction are extensively used to reveal structural information on macromolecular complexes. Aiming at the highest achievable resolution, state of the art electron microscopes automatically acquire thousands of high-quality micrographs. Particles are detected on and boxed out from each micrograph using fully- or semi-automated approaches. However, the obtained particles still require laborious manual post-picking classification, which is one major bottleneck for single particle analysis of large datasets. We introduce MAPPOS, a supervised post-picking strategy for the classification of boxed particle images, as additional strategy adding to the already efficient automated particle picking routines. MAPPOS employs machine learning techniques to train a robust classifier from a small number of characteristic image features. In order to accurately quantify the performance of MAPPOS we used simulated particle and non-particle images. In addition, we verified our method by applying it to an experimental cryo-EM dataset and comparing the results to the manual classification of the same dataset. Comparisons between MAPPOS and manual post-picking classification by several human experts demonstrated that merely a few hundred sample images are sufficient for MAPPOS to classify an entire dataset with a human-like performance. MAPPOS was shown to greatly accelerate the throughput of large datasets by reducing the manual workload by orders of magnitude while maintaining a reliable identification of non-particle images.
1212.4898
Network Risk Limiting Dispatch: Optimal Control and Price of Uncertainty
math.OC cs.IT cs.SY math.IT
Increased uncertainty due to high penetration of renewables imposes significant costs to the system operators. The added costs depend on several factors including market design, performance of renewable generation forecasting and the specific dispatch procedure. Quantifying these costs has been limited to small sample Monte Carlo approaches applied specific dispatch algorithms. The computational complexity and accuracy of these approaches has limited the understanding of tradeoffs between different factors. {In this work we consider a two-stage stochastic economic dispatch problem. Our goal is to provide an analytical quantification and an intuitive understanding of the effects of uncertainties and network congestion on the dispatch procedure and the optimal cost.} We first consider an uncongested network and calculate the risk limiting dispatch. In addition, we derive the price of uncertainty, a number that characterizes the intrinsic impact of uncertainty on the integration cost of renewables. Then we extend the results to a network where one link can become congested. Under mild conditions, we calculate price of uncertainty even in this case. We show that risk limiting dispatch is given by a set of deterministic equilibrium equations. The dispatch solution yields an important insight: congested links do not create isolated nodes, even in a two-node network. In fact, the network can support backflows in congested links, that are useful to reduce the uncertainty by averaging supply across the network. We demonstrate the performance of our approach in standard IEEE benchmark networks.
1212.4899
New inequalities of Mill's ratio and Its Application to The Inverse Q-function Approximation
cs.IT math.IT math.ST stat.TH
In this paper, we investigate the Mill's ratio estimation problem and get two new inequalities. Compared to the well known results obtained by Gordon, they becomes tighter. Furthermore, we also discuss the inverse Q-function approximation problem and present some useful results on the inverse solution. Numerical results confirm the validness of our theoretical analysis. In addition, we also present a conjecture on the bounds of inverse solution on Q-function.
1212.4902
On the Capacity Region and the Generalized Degrees of Freedom Region for the MIMO Interference Channel with Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we study the effect of feedback on two-user MIMO interference channels. The capacity region of MIMO interference channels with feedback is characterized within a constant number of bits, where this constant is independent of the channel matrices. Further, it is shown that the capacity region of a MIMO interference channel with feedback and its reciprocal interference channel are within a constant number of bits. Finally, the generalized degrees of freedom region for the MIMO interference channel with feedback is characterized.
1212.4906
SMML estimators for 1-dimensional continuous data
cs.IT math.IT math.ST stat.ML stat.TH
A method is given for calculating the strict minimum message length (SMML) estimator for 1-dimensional exponential families with continuous sufficient statistics. A set of $n$ equations are found that the $n$ cut-points of the SMML estimator must satisfy. These equations can be solved using Newton's method and this approach is used to produce new results and to replicate results that C. S. Wallace obtained using his boundary rules for the SMML estimator. A rigorous proof is also given that, despite being composed of step functions, the posterior probability corresponding to the SMML estimator is a continuous function of the data.
1212.4912
A Torelli-like Theorem for Smooth Plane Curves
math.AG cs.IT math.IT
The Information-Theoretic Schottky Problem treats the period matrix of a compact Riemann Surface as a compressible signal. In this case, the period matrix of a smooth plane curve is characterized by only 4 of its columns, a significant compression.
1212.4914
Growing Random Geometric Graph Models of Super-linear Scaling Law
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
Recent researches on complex systems highlighted the so-called super-linear growth phenomenon. As the system size $P$ measured as population in cities or active users in online communities increases, the total activities $X$ measured as GDP or number of new patents, crimes in cities generated by these people also increases but in a faster rate. This accelerating growth phenomenon can be well described by a super-linear power law $X \propto P^{\gamma}$($\gamma>1$). However, the explanation on this phenomenon is still lack. In this paper, we propose a modeling framework called growing random geometric models to explain the super-linear relationship. A growing network is constructed on an abstract geometric space. The new coming node can only survive if it just locates on an appropriate place in the space where other nodes exist, then new edges are connected with the adjacent nodes whose number is determined by the density of existing nodes. Thus the total number of edges can grow with the number of nodes in a faster speed exactly following the super-linear power law. The models cannot only reproduce a lot of observed phenomena in complex networks, e.g., scale-free degree distribution and asymptotically size-invariant clustering coefficient, but also resemble the known patterns of cities, such as fractal growing, area-population and diversity-population scaling relations, etc. Strikingly, only one important parameter, the dimension of the geometric space, can really influence the super-linear growth exponent $\gamma$.