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1301.6256
Tight is better: Performance Improvement of the Compressive Classifier Using Equi-Norm Tight Frames
cs.IT math.IT math.ST stat.TH
Detecting or classifying already known sparse signals contaminated by Gaussian noise from compressive measurements is different from reconstructing sparse signals, as its objective is to minimize the error probability which describes performance of the detectors or classifiers. This paper is concerned about the performance improvement of a commonly used Compressive Classifier. We prove that when the arbitrary sensing matrices used to get the Compressive Measurements are transformed into Equi-Norm Tight Frames, i.e. the matrices that are row-orthogonal, The Compressive Classifier achieves better performance. Although there are other proofs that among all Equi-Norm Tight Frames the Equiangular tight Frames (ETFs) bring best worst-case performance, the existence and construction of ETFs on some dimensions is still an open problem. As the construction of Equi-Norm Tight Frames from any arbitrary matrices is very easy and practical compared with ETF matrices, the result of this paper can also provide a practical method to design an improved sensing matrix for Compressive Classification. We can conclude that: Tight is Better!
1301.6262
Developing Parallel Dependency Graph In Improving Game Balancing
cs.AI
The dependency graph is a data architecture that models all the dependencies between the different types of assets in the game. It depicts the dependency-based relationships between the assets of a game. For example, a player must construct an arsenal before he can build weapons. It is vital that the dependency graph of a game is designed logically to ensure a logical sequence of game play. However, a mere logical dependency graph is not sufficient in sustaining the players' enduring interests in a game, which brings the problem of game balancing into picture. The issue of game balancing arises when the players do not feel the chances of winning the game over their AI opponents who are more skillful in the game play. At the current state of research, the architecture of dependency graph is monolithic for the players. The sequence of asset possession is always foreseeable because there is only a single dependency graph. Game balancing is impossible when the assets of AI players are overwhelmingly outnumbering that of human players. This paper proposes a parallel architecture of dependency graph for the AI players and human players. Instead of having a single dependency graph, a parallel architecture is proposed where the dependency graph of AI player is adjustable with that of human player using a support dependency as a game balancing mechanism. This paper exhibits that the parallel dependency graph helps to improve game balancing.
1301.6265
Neural Networks Built from Unreliable Components
cs.NE cs.IT math.IT
Recent advances in associative memory design through strutured pattern sets and graph-based inference algorithms have allowed the reliable learning and retrieval of an exponential number of patterns. Both these and classical associative memories, however, have assumed internally noiseless computational nodes. This paper considers the setting when internal computations are also noisy. Even if all components are noisy, the final error probability in recall can often be made exceedingly small, as we characterize. There is a threshold phenomenon. We also show how to optimize inference algorithm parameters when knowing statistical properties of internal noise.
1301.6272
State-Dependent Z Channel
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we study the Z channel with side information non-causally available at the encoders. We use Marton encoding along with Gelfand-Pinsker random binning scheme and Chong-Motani-Garg-El Gamal (CMGE) jointly decoding to find an achievable rate region. We will see that our achievable rate region gives the achievable rate of the multiple access channel with side information and also degraded broadcast channel with side information. We will also derive an inner bound and an outer bound on the capacity region of the state-dependent degraded discrete memoryless Z channel and also will observe that our outer bound meets the inner bound for the rates corresponding to the second transmitter. Also, by assuming the high signal to noise ratio and strong interference regime, and using the lattice strategies, we derive an achievable rate region for the Gaussian degraded Z channel with additive interference non-causally available at both of the encoders. Our method is based on lattice transmission scheme, jointly decoding at the first decoder and successive decoding at the second decoder. Using such coding scheme we remove the effect of the interference completely.
1301.6277
LA-LDA: A Limited Attention Topic Model for Social Recommendation
cs.SI cs.IR cs.LG
Social media users have finite attention which limits the number of incoming messages from friends they can process. Moreover, they pay more attention to opinions and recommendations of some friends more than others. In this paper, we propose LA-LDA, a latent topic model which incorporates limited, non-uniformly divided attention in the diffusion process by which opinions and information spread on the social network. We show that our proposed model is able to learn more accurate user models from users' social network and item adoption behavior than models which do not take limited attention into account. We analyze voting on news items on the social news aggregator Digg and show that our proposed model is better able to predict held out votes than alternative models. Our study demonstrates that psycho-socially motivated models have better ability to describe and predict observed behavior than models which only consider topics.
1301.6291
Nested Lattice Codes for Gaussian Two-Way Relay Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider a Gaussian two-way relay channel (GTRC), where two sources exchange messages with each other through a relay. We assume that there is no direct link between sources, and all nodes operate in full-duplex mode. By utilizing nested lattice codes for the uplink (i.e., MAC phase), and structured binning for the downlink (i.e., broadcast phase), we propose two achievable schemes. Scheme 1 is based on compute and forward scheme of [1] while scheme 2 utilizes two different lattices for source nodes based on a three-stage lattice partition chain. We show that scheme 2 can achieve capacity region at the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Regardless all channel parameters, the achievable rate of scheme 2 is within 0.2654 bit from the cut-set outer bound for user 1. For user 2, the proposed scheme achieves within 0.167 bit from the outer bound if channel coefficient is larger than one, and achieves within 0.2658 bit from the outer bound if channel coefficient is smaller than one. Moreover, sum rate of the proposed scheme is within 0.334 bits from the sum capacity. These gaps for GTRC are the best gap-to-capacity results to date.
1301.6295
Fixed Points of Generalized Approximate Message Passing with Arbitrary Matrices
cs.IT math.IT
The estimation of a random vector with independent components passed through a linear transform followed by a componentwise (possibly nonlinear) output map arises in a range of applications. Approximate message passing (AMP) methods, based on Gaussian approximations of loopy belief propagation, have recently attracted considerable attention for such problems. For large random transforms, these methods exhibit fast convergence and admit precise analytic characterizations with testable conditions for optimality, even for certain non-convex problem instances. However, the behavior of AMP under general transforms is not fully understood. In this paper, we consider the generalized AMP (GAMP) algorithm and relate the method to more common optimization techniques. This analysis enables a precise characterization of the GAMP algorithm fixed-points that applies to arbitrary transforms. In particular, we show that the fixed points of the so-called max-sum GAMP algorithm for MAP estimation are critical points of a constrained maximization of the posterior density. The fixed-points of the sum-product GAMP algorithm for estimation of the posterior marginals can be interpreted as critical points of a certain free energy.
1301.6301
Deterministic Constructions for Large Girth Protograph LDPC Codes
cs.IT math.IT
The bit-error threshold of the standard ensemble of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes is known to be close to capacity, if there is a non-zero fraction of degree-two bit nodes. However, the degree-two bit nodes preclude the possibility of a block-error threshold. Interestingly, LDPC codes constructed using protographs allow the possibility of having both degree-two bit nodes and a block-error threshold. In this paper, we analyze density evolution for protograph LDPC codes over the binary erasure channel and show that their bit-error probability decreases double exponentially with the number of iterations when the erasure probability is below the bit-error threshold and long chain of degree-two variable nodes are avoided in the protograph. We present deterministic constructions of such protograph LDPC codes with girth logarithmic in blocklength, resulting in an exponential fall in bit-error probability below the threshold. We provide optimized protographs, whose block-error thresholds are better than that of the standard ensemble with minimum bit-node degree three. These protograph LDPC codes are theoretically of great interest, and have applications, for instance, in coding with strong secrecy over wiretap channels.
1301.6302
Simultaneous Information and Energy Transfer: A Two-User MISO Interference Channel Case
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers the sum rate maximization problem of a two-user multiple-input single-output interference channel with receivers that can scavenge energy from the radio signals transmitted by the transmitters. We first study the optimal transmission strategy for an ideal scenario where the two receivers can simultaneously decode the information signal and harvest energy. Then, considering the limitations of the current circuit technology, we propose two practical schemes based on TDMA, where, at each time slot, the receiver either operates in the energy harvesting mode or in the information detection mode. Optimal transmission strategies for the two practical schemes are respectively investigated. Simulation results show that the three schemes exhibit interesting tradeoff between achievable sum rate and energy harvesting requirement, and do not dominate each other in terms of maximum achievable sum rate.
1301.6312
Rooting out the Rumor Culprit from Suspects
cs.SI cs.IT math.IT
Suppose that a rumor originating from a single source among a set of suspects spreads in a network, how to root out this rumor source? With the a priori knowledge of suspect nodes and an observation of infected nodes, we construct a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator to identify the rumor source using the susceptible-infected (SI) model. The a priori suspect set and its associated connectivity bring about new ingredients to the problem, and thus we propose to use local rumor center, a generalized concept based on rumor centrality, to identify the source from suspects. For regular tree-type networks of node degree {\delta}, we characterize Pc(n), the correct detection probability of the estimator upon observing n infected nodes, in both the finite and asymptotic regimes. First, when every infected node is a suspect, Pc(n) asymptotically grows from 0.25 to 0.307 with {\delta} from 3 to infinity, a result first established in Shah and Zaman (2011, 2012) via a different approach; and it monotonically decreases with n and increases with {\delta}. Second, when the suspects form a connected subgraph of the network, Pc(n) asymptotically significantly exceeds the a priori probability if {\delta}>2, and reliable detection is achieved as {\delta} becomes large; furthermore, it monotonically decreases with n and increases with {\delta}. Third, when there are only two suspects, Pc(n) is asymptotically at least 0.75 if {\delta}>2; and it increases with the distance between the two suspects. Fourth, when there are multiple suspects, among all possible connection patterns, that they form a connected subgraph of the network achieves the smallest detection probability. Our analysis leverages ideas from the Polya's urn model in probability theory and sheds insight into the behavior of the rumor spreading process not only in the asymptotic regime but also for the general finite-n regime.
1301.6314
Equitability Analysis of the Maximal Information Coefficient, with Comparisons
cs.LG q-bio.QM stat.ML
A measure of dependence is said to be equitable if it gives similar scores to equally noisy relationships of different types. Equitability is important in data exploration when the goal is to identify a relatively small set of strongest associations within a dataset as opposed to finding as many non-zero associations as possible, which often are too many to sift through. Thus an equitable statistic, such as the maximal information coefficient (MIC), can be useful for analyzing high-dimensional data sets. Here, we explore both equitability and the properties of MIC, and discuss several aspects of the theory and practice of MIC. We begin by presenting an intuition behind the equitability of MIC through the exploration of the maximization and normalization steps in its definition. We then examine the speed and optimality of the approximation algorithm used to compute MIC, and suggest some directions for improving both. Finally, we demonstrate in a range of noise models and sample sizes that MIC is more equitable than natural alternatives, such as mutual information estimation and distance correlation.
1301.6315
Multiple-Antenna Interference Channel with Receive Antenna Joint Processing and Real Interference Alignment
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a constant $K$-user Gaussian interference channel with $M$ antennas at each transmitter and $N$ antennas at each receiver, denoted as a $(K,M,N)$ channel. Relying on a result on simultaneous Diophantine approximation, a real interference alignment scheme with joint receive antenna processing is developed. The scheme is used to provide new proofs for two previously known results, namely 1) the total degrees of freedom (DoF) of a $(K, N, N)$ channel is $NK/2$; and 2) the total DoF of a $(K, M, N)$ channel is at least $KMN/(M+N)$. We also derive the DoF region of the $(K,N,N)$ channel, and an inner bound on the DoF region of the $(K,M,N)$ channel.
1301.6316
Hierarchical Data Representation Model - Multi-layer NMF
cs.LG
In this paper, we propose a data representation model that demonstrates hierarchical feature learning using nsNMF. We extend unit algorithm into several layers. Experiments with document and image data successfully discovered feature hierarchies. We also prove that proposed method results in much better classification and reconstruction performance, especially for small number of features. feature hierarchies.
1301.6318
Quasi-Equiangular Frame (QEF) : A New Flexible Configuration of Frame
cs.IT math.AG math.IT
Frame theory is a powerful tool in the domain of signal processing and communication. Among its numerous configurations, the ones which have drawn much attention recently are Equiangular Tight Frame (ETF) and Grassmannian Frame. These frames both have some kind of optimality in coherence, thus bring robustness or optimal performance in applications such as digital fingerprint, erasure channels, and Compressive Sensing. However, too strict constraint on existence and construction of ETF and Grassmannian Frame became the main obstacle for widespread use. In this paper, we propose a new configuration of frame: Quasi-Equiangular Frame, as a compromise but more convenient and flexible approximation of ETF and Grassmannian Frame. We will give formal definition of Quasi-Equiangular Frame and analyze its relationship with ETF and Grassmannian frame. Furthermore, for popularity of ETF and Grassmannian frame in Compressive Sensing, we utilize the technique of random matrices to obtain asymptotical concentration estimation of the Restricted Isometry Constant (RIC) of Quasi-Equiangular Frame with respect to its key parameter.
1301.6324
An improvement to k-nearest neighbor classifier
cs.CV cs.LG stat.ML
K-Nearest neighbor classifier (k-NNC) is simple to use and has little design time like finding k values in k-nearest neighbor classifier, hence these are suitable to work with dynamically varying data-sets. There exists some fundamental improvements over the basic k-NNC, like weighted k-nearest neighbors classifier (where weights to nearest neighbors are given based on linear interpolation), using artificially generated training set called bootstrapped training set, etc. These improvements are orthogonal to space reduction and classification time reduction techniques, hence can be coupled with any of them. The paper proposes another improvement to the basic k-NNC where the weights to nearest neighbors are given based on Gaussian distribution (instead of linear interpolation as done in weighted k-NNC) which is also independent of any space reduction and classification time reduction technique. We formally show that our proposed method is closely related to non-parametric density estimation using a Gaussian kernel. We experimentally demonstrate using various standard data-sets that the proposed method is better than the existing ones in most cases.
1301.6328
Explicit Constructions of Quasi-Uniform Codes from Groups
math.GR cs.IT math.IT
We address the question of constructing explicitly quasi-uniform codes from groups. We determine the size of the codebook, the alphabet and the minimum distance as a function of the corresponding group, both for abelian and some nonabelian groups. Potentials applications comprise the design of almost affine codes and non-linear network codes.
1301.6331
Optimal Locally Repairable Codes via Rank-Metric Codes
cs.IT math.IT
This paper presents a new explicit construction for locally repairable codes (LRCs) for distributed storage systems which possess all-symbols locality and maximal possible minimum distance, or equivalently, can tolerate the maximal number of node failures. This construction, based on maximum rank distance (MRD) Gabidulin codes, provides new optimal vector and scalar LRCs. In addition, the paper also discusses mechanisms by which codes obtained using this construction can be used to construct LRCs with efficient repair of failed nodes by combination of LRC with regenerating codes.
1301.6339
Lov\'asz's Theta Function, R\'enyi's Divergence and the Sphere-Packing Bound
cs.IT math.IT quant-ph
Lov\'asz's bound to the capacity of a graph and the the sphere-packing bound to the probability of error in channel coding are given a unified presentation as information radii of the Csisz\'ar type using the R{\'e}nyi divergence in the classical-quantum setting. This brings together two results in coding theory that are usually considered as being of a very different nature, one being a "combinatorial" result and the other being "probabilistic". In the context of quantum information theory, this difference disappears.
1301.6340
An "Umbrella" Bound of the Lov\'asz-Gallager Type
cs.IT math.IT
We propose a novel approach for bounding the probability of error of discrete memoryless channels with a zero-error capacity based on a combination of Lov\'asz' and Gallager's ideas. The obtained bounds are expressed in terms of a function $\vartheta(\rho)$, introduced here, that varies from the cut-off rate of the channel to the Lov\'azs theta function as $\rho$ varies from 1 to $\infty$ and which is intimately related to Gallager's expurgated coefficient. The obtained bound to the reliability function, though loose in its present form, is finite for all rates larger than the Lov\'asz theta function.
1301.6345
On AVCs with Quadratic Constraints
cs.IT math.IT
In this work we study an Arbitrarily Varying Channel (AVC) with quadratic power constraints on the transmitter and a so-called "oblivious" jammer (along with additional AWGN) under a maximum probability of error criterion, and no private randomness between the transmitter and the receiver. This is in contrast to similar AVC models under the average probability of error criterion considered in [1], and models wherein common randomness is allowed [2] -- these distinctions are important in some communication scenarios outlined below. We consider the regime where the jammer's power constraint is smaller than the transmitter's power constraint (in the other regime it is known no positive rate is possible). For this regime we show the existence of stochastic codes (with no common randomness between the transmitter and receiver) that enables reliable communication at the same rate as when the jammer is replaced with AWGN with the same power constraint. This matches known information-theoretic outer bounds. In addition to being a stronger result than that in [1] (enabling recovery of the results therein), our proof techniques are also somewhat more direct, and hence may be of independent interest.
1301.6348
Capacity Optimization through Sensing Threshold Adaptation for Cognitive Radio Networks
cs.IT math.IT math.OC
In this paper we propose the capacity optimization over sensing threshold for sensing-based cognitive radio networks. The objective function of the proposed optimization is to maximize the capacity at the secondary user subject to the constraints on the transmit power and the sensing threshold in order to protect the primary user. The defined optimization problem is a convex optimization over the transmit power and the sensing threshold where the concavity on sensing threshold is proved. The problem is solved by using Lagrange duality decomposition method in conjunction with a subgradient iterative algorithm and the numerical results show that the proposed optimization can lead to significant capacity maximization for the secondary user as long as the primary user can afford.
1301.6356
Brute force searching, the typical set and Guesswork
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
Consider the situation where a word is chosen probabilistically from a finite list. If an attacker knows the list and can inquire about each word in turn, then selecting the word via the uniform distribution maximizes the attacker's difficulty, its Guesswork, in identifying the chosen word. It is tempting to use this property in cryptanalysis of computationally secure ciphers by assuming coded words are drawn from a source's typical set and so, for all intents and purposes, uniformly distributed within it. By applying recent results on Guesswork, for i.i.d. sources it is this equipartition ansatz that we investigate here. In particular, we demonstrate that the expected Guesswork for a source conditioned to create words in the typical set grows, with word length, at a lower exponential rate than that of the uniform approximation, suggesting use of the approximation is ill-advised.
1301.6359
Subjective Reality and Strong Artificial Intelligence
cs.AI
The main prospective aim of modern research related to Artificial Intelligence is the creation of technical systems that implement the idea of Strong Intelligence. According our point of view the path to the development of such systems comes through the research in the field related to perceptions. Here we formulate the model of the perception of external world which may be used for the description of perceptual activity of intelligent beings. We consider a number of issues related to the development of the set of patterns which will be used by the intelligent system when interacting with environment. The key idea of the presented perception model is the idea of subjective reality. The principle of the relativity of perceived world is formulated. It is shown that this principle is the immediate consequence of the idea of subjective reality. In this paper we show how the methodology of subjective reality may be used for the creation of different types of Strong AI systems.
1301.6362
Subspace Codes for Random Networks Based on Pl\"{u}cker Coordinates and Schubert Cells
cs.IT math.IT
The Pl\"{u}cker coordinate description of subspaces has been recently discussed in the context of constant dimension subspace codes for random networks, as well as the Schubert cell description of certain code parameters. In this paper this classical tool is used to reformulate some standard constructions of constant dimension codes so as to give a unified framework. A general method of constructing non-constant dimension subspace codes with respect to a given minimum subspace distance or minimum injection distance among subspaces is presented. These codes may be described as the union of constant dimension subspace codes restricted to selected Schubert cells. The selection of these Schubert cells is based on the subset distance of tuples corresponding to the Pl\"{u}cker coordinate matrices associated with the subspaces contained in the respective Schubert cells. In this context, it is shown that a recent construction of non-constant dimension Ferrers-diagram rank-metric subspace codes (Khaleghi and Kschischang) is subsumed in the present framework.
1301.6363
Towards An Exact Combinatorial Algorithm for LP Decoding of Turbo Codes
cs.IT math.IT
We present a novel algorithm that solves the turbo code LP decoding problem in a fininte number of steps by Euclidean distance minimizations, which in turn rely on repeated shortest path computations in the trellis graph representing the turbo code. Previous attempts to exploit the combinatorial graph structure only led to algorithms which are either of heuristic nature or do not guarantee finite convergence. A numerical study shows that our algorithm clearly beats the running time, up to a factor of 100, of generic commercial LP solvers for medium-sized codes, especially for high SNR values.
1301.6386
A Two Level Feedback System Design to Regulation Service Provision
cs.SY
Demand side management has gained increasing importance as the penetration of renewable energy grows. Based on a Markov jump process modelling of a group of thermostatic loads, this paper proposes a two level feedback system design between the independent system operator (ISO) and the regulation service provider such that two objectives are achieved: (1) the ISO can optimally dispatch regulation signals to multiple providers in real time in order to reduce the requirement for expensive spinning reserves, and (2) each regulation provider can control its thermostatic loads to respond the ISO signal. It is also shown that the amount of regulation service that can be provided is implicitly restricted by a few fundamental parameters of the provider itself, such as the allowable set point choice and its thermal constant. An interesting finding is that the regulation provider's ability to provide a large amount of long term accumulated regulation and short term signal tracking restrict each other. Simulation results are presented to verify and illustrate the performance of the proposed framework.
1301.6388
Polarization of the Renyi Information Dimension with Applications to Compressed Sensing
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we show that the Hadamard matrix acts as an extractor over the reals of the Renyi information dimension (RID), in an analogous way to how it acts as an extractor of the discrete entropy over finite fields. More precisely, we prove that the RID of an i.i.d. sequence of mixture random variables polarizes to the extremal values of 0 and 1 (corresponding to discrete and continuous distributions) when transformed by a Hadamard matrix. Further, we prove that the polarization pattern of the RID admits a closed form expression and follows exactly the Binary Erasure Channel (BEC) polarization pattern in the discrete setting. We also extend the results from the single- to the multi-terminal setting, obtaining a Slepian-Wolf counterpart of the RID polarization. We discuss applications of the RID polarization to Compressed Sensing of i.i.d. sources. In particular, we use the RID polarization to construct a family of deterministic $\pm 1$-valued sensing matrices for Compressed Sensing. We run numerical simulations to compare the performance of the resulting matrices with that of random Gaussian and random Hadamard matrices. The results indicate that the proposed matrices afford competitive performances while being explicitly constructed.
1301.6393
Precoded Integer-Forcing Universally Achieves the MIMO Capacity to Within a Constant Gap
cs.IT math.IT
An open-loop single-user multiple-input multiple-output communication scheme is considered where a transmitter, equipped with multiple antennas, encodes the data into independent streams all taken from the same linear code. The coded streams are then linearly precoded using the encoding matrix of a perfect linear dispersion space-time code. At the receiver side, integer-forcing equalization is applied, followed by standard single-stream decoding. It is shown that this communication architecture achieves the capacity of any Gaussian multiple-input multiple-output channel up to a gap that depends only on the number of transmit antennas.
1301.6397
Scalar Quantize-and-Forward for Symmetric Half-duplex Two-Way Relay Channels
cs.IT math.IT
Scalar Quantize & Forward (QF) schemes are studied for the Two-Way Relay Channel. Different QF approaches are compared in terms of rates as well as relay and decoder complexity. A coding scheme not requiring Slepian-Wolf coding at the relay is proposed and properties of the corresponding sum-rate optimization problem are presented. A numerical scheme similar to the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm is derived that guides optimized quantizer design. The results are supported by simulations.
1301.6398
Variable-Length Channel Quantizers for Maximum Diversity and Array Gains
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a $t \times 1$ multiple-antenna fading channel with quantized channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). Our goal is to maximize the diversity and array gains that are associated with the symbol error rate (SER) performance of the system. It is well-known that for both beamforming and precoding strategies, finite-rate fixed-length quantizers (FLQs) cannot achieve the full-CSIT diversity and array gains. In this work, for any function $f(P)\in\omega(1)$, we construct variable-length quantizers (VLQs) that can achieve these full-CSIT gains with rates $1+(f(P) \log P)/P$ and $1+f(P)/P^t$ for the beamforming and precoding strategies, respectively, where $P$ is the power constraint of the transmitter. We also show that these rates are the best possible up to $o(1)$ multipliers in their $P$-dependent terms. In particular, although the full-CSIT SER is not achievable at any (even infinite) feedback rate, the full-CSIT diversity and array gains can be achieved with a feedback rate of 1 bit per channel state asymptotically.
1301.6400
Achieving Fully Proportional Representation is Easy in Practice
cs.MA cs.GT
We provide experimental evaluation of a number of known and new algorithms for approximate computation of Monroe's and Chamberlin-Courant's rules. Our experiments, conducted both on real-life preference-aggregation data and on synthetic data, show that even very simple and fast algorithms can in many cases find near-perfect solutions. Our results confirm and complement very recent theoretical analysis of Skowron et al., who have shown good lower bounds on the quality of (some of) the algorithms that we study.
1301.6406
Joint Power Adjustment and Interference Mitigation Techniques for Cooperative Spread Spectrum Systems
cs.IT math.IT
This paper presents joint power allocation and interference mitigation techniques for the downlink of spread spectrum systems which employ multiple relays and the amplify and forward cooperation strategy. We propose a joint constrained optimization framework that considers the allocation of power levels across the relays subject to an individual power constraint and the design of linear receivers for interference suppression. We derive constrained minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) expressions for the parameter vectors that determine the optimal power levels across the relays and the linear receivers. In order to solve the proposed optimization problem efficiently, we develop joint adaptive power allocation and interference suppression algorithms that can be implemented in a distributed fashion. The proposed stochastic gradient (SG) and recursive least squares (RLS) algorithms mitigate the interference by adjusting the power levels across the relays and estimating the parameters of the linear receiver. SG and RLS channel estimation algorithms are also derived to determine the coefficients of the channels across the base station, the relays and the destination terminal. The results of simulations show that the proposed techniques obtain significant gains in performance and capacity over non-cooperative systems and cooperative schemes with equal power allocation.
1301.6408
A Universal Probability Assignment for Prediction of Individual Sequences
cs.IT math.IT
Is it a good idea to use the frequency of events in the past, as a guide to their frequency in the future (as we all do anyway)? In this paper the question is attacked from the perspective of universal prediction of individual sequences. It is shown that there is a universal sequential probability assignment, such that for a large class loss functions (optimization goals), the predictor minimizing the expected loss under this probability, is a good universal predictor. The proposed probability assignment is based on randomly dithering the empirical frequencies of states in the past, and it is easy to show that randomization is essential. This yields a very simple universal prediction scheme which is similar to Follow-the-Perturbed-Leader (FPL) and works for a large class of loss functions, as well as a partial justification for using probabilistic assumptions.
1301.6410
Linear Programming Decoding of Spatially Coupled Codes
cs.IT math.IT
For a given family of spatially coupled codes, we prove that the LP threshold on the BSC of the graph cover ensemble is the same as the LP threshold on the BSC of the derived spatially coupled ensemble. This result is in contrast with the fact that the BP threshold of the derived spatially coupled ensemble is believed to be larger than the BP threshold of the graph cover ensemble as noted by the work of Kudekar et al. (2011, 2012). To prove this, we establish some properties related to the dual witness for LP decoding which was introduced by Feldman et al. (2007) and simplified by Daskalakis et al. (2008). More precisely, we prove that the existence of a dual witness which was previously known to be sufficient for LP decoding success is also necessary and is equivalent to the existence of certain acyclic hyperflows. We also derive a sublinear (in the block length) upper bound on the weight of any edge in such hyperflows, both for regular LPDC codes and for spatially coupled codes and we prove that the bound is asymptotically tight for regular LDPC codes. Moreover, we show how to trade crossover probability for "LP excess" on all the variable nodes, for any binary linear code.
1301.6412
Random Access and Source-Channel Coding Error Exponents for Multiple Access Channels
cs.IT math.IT
A new universal coding/decoding scheme for random access with collision detection is given in the case of two senders. The result is used to give an achievable joint source-channel coding error exponent for multiple access channels in the case of independent sources. This exponent is improved in a modified model that admits error free 0 rate communication between the senders.
1301.6422
On Connectivity Thresholds in the Intersection of Random Key Graphs on Random Geometric Graphs
cs.IT math.CO math.IT math.PR
In a random key graph (RKG) of $n$ nodes each node is randomly assigned a key ring of $K_n$ cryptographic keys from a pool of $P_n$ keys. Two nodes can communicate directly if they have at least one common key in their key rings. We assume that the $n$ nodes are distributed uniformly in $[0,1]^2.$ In addition to the common key requirement, we require two nodes to also be within $r_n$ of each other to be able to have a direct edge. Thus we have a random graph in which the RKG is superposed on the familiar random geometric graph (RGG). For such a random graph, we obtain tight bounds on the relation between $K_n,$ $P_n$ and $r_n$ for the graph to be asymptotically almost surely connected.
1301.6426
Joint Design of Channel and Network Coding for Star Networks
cs.IT math.IT
Channel coding alone is not sufficient to reliably transmit a message of finite length $K$ from a source to one or more destinations as in, e.g., file transfer. To ensure that no data is lost, it must be combined with rateless erasure correcting schemes on a higher layer, such as a time-division multiple access (TDMA) system paired with automatic repeat request (ARQ) or random linear network coding (RLNC). We consider binary channel coding on a binary symmetric channel (BSC) and q-ary RLNC for erasure correction in a star network, where Y sources send messages to each other with the help of a central relay. In this scenario RLNC has been shown to have a throughput advantage over TDMA schemes as K and q tend to infinity. In this paper we focus on finite block lengths and compare the expected throughputs of RLNC and TDMA. For a total message length of K bits, which can be subdivided into blocks of smaller size prior to channel coding, we obtain the channel coding rate and the number of blocks that maximize the expected throughput of both RLNC and TDMA, and we find that TDMA is more throughput-efficient for small message lengths K and small q.
1301.6427
Fundamental Inequalities and Identities Involving Mutual and Directed Informations in Closed-Loop Systems
cs.IT math.IT
We present several novel identities and inequalities relating the mutual information and the directed information in systems with feedback. The internal blocks within such systems are restricted only to be causal mappings, but are allowed to be non-linear, stochastic and time varying. Moreover, the involved signals can be arbitrarily distributed. We bound the directed information between signals inside the feedback loop by the mutual information between signals inside and outside the feedback loop. This fundamental result has an interesting interpretation as a law of conservation of information flow. Building upon it, we derive several novel identities and inequalities, which allow us to prove some existing information inequalities under less restrictive assumptions. Finally, we establish new relationships between nested directed informations inside a feedback loop. This yields a new and general data-processing inequality for systems with feedback.
1301.6431
Automatic Verification of Parameterised Interleaved Multi-Agent Systems
cs.MA cs.LO
A key problem in verification of multi-agent systems by model checking concerns the fact that the state-space of the system grows exponentially with the number of agents present. This makes practical model checking unfeasible whenever the system contains more than a few agents. In this paper we put forward a technique to establish a cutoff result, thereby showing that all systems of arbitrary number of agents can be verified by model checking a single system containing a number of agents equal to the cutoff of the system. While this problem is undecidable in general, we here define a class of parameterised interpreted systems and a parameterised temporal-epistemic logic for which the result can be shown. We exemplify the theoretical results on a robotic example and present an implementation of the technique on top of mcmas, an open-source model checker for multi-agent systems.
1301.6433
Delay Minimization in Varying-Bandwidth Direct Multicast with Side Information
cs.IT math.CO math.IT
We study the delay minimization in a direct multicast communication scheme where a base station wishes to transmit a set of original packets to a group of clients. Each of the clients already has in its cache a subset of the original packets, and requests for all the remaining packets. The base station communicates directly with the clients by broadcasting information to them. Assume that bandwidths vary between the station and different clients. We propose a method to minimize the total delay required for the base station to satisfy requests from all clients.
1301.6449
To Obtain or not to Obtain CSI in the Presence of Hybrid Adversary
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
We consider the wiretap channel model under the presence of a hybrid, half duplex adversary that is capable of either jamming or eavesdropping at a given time. We analyzed the achievable rates under a variety of scenarios involving different methods for obtaining transmitter CSI. Each method provides a different grade of information, not only to the transmitter on the main channel, but also to the adversary on all channels. Our analysis shows that main CSI is more valuable for the adversary than the jamming CSI in both delay-limited and ergodic scenarios. Similarly, in certain cases under the ergodic scenario, interestingly, no CSI may lead to higher achievable secrecy rates than with CSI.
1301.6453
Structured Lattice Codes for 2 \times 2 \times 2 MIMO Interference Channel
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the 2\times 2\times 2 multiple-input multipleoutput interference channel where two source-destination pairs wish to communicate with the aid of two intermediate relays. In this paper, we propose a novel lattice strategy called Aligned Precoded Compute-and-Forward (PCoF). This scheme consists of two phases: 1) Using the CoF framework based on signal alignment we transform the Gaussian network into a deterministic finite field network. 2) Using linear precoding (over finite field) we eliminate the end-to-end interference in the finite field domain. Further, we exploit the algebraic structure of lattices to enhance the performance at finite SNR, such that beyond a degree of freedom result (also achievable by other means). We can also show that Aligned PCoF outperforms time sharing in a range of reasonably moderate SNR, with increasing gain as SNR increases.
1301.6456
A Singleton Bound for Lattice Schemes
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we derive a Singleton bound for lattice schemes and obtain Singleton bounds known for binary codes and subspace codes as special cases. It is shown that the modular structure affects the strength of the Singleton bound. We also obtain a new upper bound on the code size for non-constant dimension codes. The plots of this bound along with plots of the code sizes of known non-constant dimension codes in the literature reveal that our bound is tight for certain parameters of the code.
1301.6465
Extendable MDL
cs.IT math.IT math.ST stat.TH
In this paper we show that combination of the minimum description length principle and a exchange-ability condition leads directly to the use of Jeffreys prior. This approach works in most cases even when Jeffreys prior cannot be normalized. Kraft's inequality links codes and distributions but a closer look at this inequality demonstrates that this link only makes sense when sequences are considered as prefixes of potential longer sequences. For technical reasons only results for exponential families are stated. Results on when Jeffreys prior can be normalized after conditioning on a initializing string are given. An exotic case where no initial string allow Jeffreys prior to be normalized is given and some way of handling such exotic cases are discussed.
1301.6467
Non-Asymptotic and Second-Order Achievability Bounds for Coding With Side-Information
cs.IT math.IT
We present novel non-asymptotic or finite blocklength achievability bounds for three side-information problems in network information theory. These include (i) the Wyner-Ahlswede-Korner (WAK) problem of almost-lossless source coding with rate-limited side-information, (ii) the Wyner-Ziv (WZ) problem of lossy source coding with side-information at the decoder and (iii) the Gel'fand-Pinsker (GP) problem of channel coding with noncausal state information available at the encoder. The bounds are proved using ideas from channel simulation and channel resolvability. Our bounds for all three problems improve on all previous non-asymptotic bounds on the error probability of the WAK, WZ and GP problems--in particular those derived by Verdu. Using our novel non-asymptotic bounds, we recover the general formulas for the optimal rates of these side-information problems. Finally, we also present achievable second-order coding rates by applying the multidimensional Berry-Esseen theorem to our new non-asymptotic bounds. Numerical results show that the second-order coding rates obtained using our non-asymptotic achievability bounds are superior to those obtained using existing finite blocklength bounds.
1301.6471
Generalizing the Sampling Property of the Q-function for Error Rate Analysis of Cooperative Communication in Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
This paper extends some approximation methods that are used to identify closed form Bit Error Rate (BER) expressions which are frequently utilized in investigation and comparison of performance for wireless communication systems in the literature. By using this group of approximation methods, some expectation integrals, which are complicated to analyze and have high computational complexity to evaluate through Monte Carlo simulations, are computed. For these integrals, by using the sampling property of the integrand functions of one or more arguments, reliable BER expressions revealing the diversity and coding gains are derived. Although the methods we present are valid for a larger class of integration problems, in this work we show the step by step derivation of the BER expressions for a canonical cooperative communication scenario in addition to a network coded system starting from basic building blocks. The derived expressions agree with the simulation results for a very wide range of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values.
1301.6473
On the precoder design of a wireless energy harvesting node in linear vector Gaussian channels with arbitrary input distribution
cs.IT math.IT
A Wireless Energy Harvesting Node (WEHN) operating in linear vector Gaussian channels with arbitrarily distributed input symbols is considered in this paper. The precoding strategy that maximizes the mutual information along N independent channel accesses is studied under non-causal knowledge of the channel state and harvested energy (commonly known as offline approach). It is shown that, at each channel use, the left singular vectors of the precoder are equal to the eigenvectors of the Gram channel matrix. Additionally, an expression that relates the optimal singular values of the precoder with the energy harvesting profile through the Minimum Mean-Square Error (MMSE) matrix is obtained. Then, the specific situation in which the right singular vectors of the precoder are set to the identity matrix is considered. In this scenario, the optimal offline power allocation, named Mercury Water-Flowing, is derived and an intuitive graphical representation is presented. Two optimal offline algorithms to compute the Mercury Water- Flowing solution are proposed and an exhaustive study of their computational complexity is performed. Moreover, an online algorithm is designed, which only uses causal knowledge of the harvested energy and channel state. Finally, the achieved mutual information is evaluated through simulation.
1301.6479
Ontology-based Data Access: A Study through Disjunctive Datalog, CSP, and MMSNP
cs.DB cs.AI
Ontology-based data access is concerned with querying incomplete data sources in the presence of domain-specific knowledge provided by an ontology. A central notion in this setting is that of an ontology-mediated query, which is a database query coupled with an ontology. In this paper, we study several classes of ontology-mediated queries, where the database queries are given as some form of conjunctive query and the ontologies are formulated in description logics or other relevant fragments of first-order logic, such as the guarded fragment and the unary-negation fragment. The contributions of the paper are three-fold. First, we characterize the expressive power of ontology-mediated queries in terms of fragments of disjunctive datalog. Second, we establish intimate connections between ontology-mediated queries and constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) and their logical generalization, MMSNP formulas. Third, we exploit these connections to obtain new results regarding (i) first-order rewritability and datalog-rewritability of ontology-mediated queries, (ii) P/NP dichotomies for ontology-mediated queries, and (iii) the query containment problem for ontology-mediated queries.
1301.6484
Perspectives on Balanced Sequences
cs.IT math.IT
We examine and compare several different classes of "balanced" block codes over q-ary alphabets, namely symbol-balanced (SB) codes, charge-balanced (CB) codes, and polarity-balanced (PB) codes. Known results on the maximum size and asymptotic minimal redundancy of SB and CB codes are reviewed. We then determine the maximum size and asymptotic minimal redundancy of PB codes and of codes which are both CB and PB. We also propose efficient Knuth-like encoders and decoders for all these types of balanced codes.
1301.6491
SINR-based k-coverage probability in cellular networks with arbitrary shadowing
cs.NI cs.IT math.IT math.PR
We give numerically tractable, explicit integral expressions for the distribution of the signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) experienced by a typical user in the down-link channel from the k-th strongest base stations of a cellular network modelled by Poisson point process on the plane. Our signal propagation-loss model comprises of a power-law path-loss function with arbitrarily distributed shadowing, independent across all base stations, with and without Rayleigh fading. Our results are valid in the whole domain of SINR, in particular for SINR<1, where one observes multiple coverage. In this latter aspect our paper complements previous studies reported in [Dhillon et al. JSAC 2012].
1301.6512
Secrecy in the 2-User Symmetric Deterministic Interference Channel with Transmitter Cooperation
cs.IT math.IT
This work presents novel achievable schemes for the 2-user symmetric linear deterministic interference channel with limited-rate transmitter cooperation and perfect secrecy constraints at the receivers. The proposed achievable scheme consists of a combination of interference cancelation, relaying of the other user's data bits, time sharing, and transmission of random bits, depending on the rate of the cooperative link and the relative strengths of the signal and the interference. The results show, for example, that the proposed scheme achieves the same rate as the capacity without the secrecy constraints, in the initial part of the weak interference regime. Also, sharing random bits through the cooperative link can achieve a higher secrecy rate compared to sharing data bits, in the very high interference regime. The results highlight the importance of limited transmitter cooperation in facilitating secure communications over 2-user interference channels.
1301.6520
Variational Equalities of Directed Information and Applications
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we introduce two variational equalities of directed information, which are analogous to those of mutual information employed in the Blahut-Arimoto Algorithm (BAA). Subsequently, we introduce nonanticipative Rate Distortion Function (RDF) ${R}^{na}_{0,n}(D)$ defined via directed information introduced in [1], and we establish its equivalence to Gorbunov-Pinsker's nonanticipatory $\epsilon$-entropy $R^{\varepsilon}_{0,n}(D)$. By invoking certain results we first establish existence of the infimizing reproduction distribution for ${R}^{na}_{0,n}(D)$, and then we give its implicit form for the stationary case. Finally, we utilize one of the variational equalities and the closed form expression of the optimal reproduction distribution to provide an algorithm for the computation of ${R}^{na}_{0,n}(D)$.
1301.6522
Optimal Nonstationary Reproduction Distribution for Nonanticipative RDF on Abstract Alphabets
cs.IT cs.SY math.IT
In this paper we introduce a definition for nonanticipative Rate Distortion Function (RDF) on abstract alphabets, and we invoke weak convergence of probability measures to show various of its properties, such as, existence of the optimal reproduction conditional distribution, compactness of the fidelity set, lower semicontinuity of the RDF functional, etc. Further, we derive the closed form expression of the optimal nonstationary reproduction distribution. This expression is computed recursively backward in time. Throughout the paper we point out an operational meaning of the nonanticipative RDF by recalling the coding theorem derive in \cite{tatikonda2000}, and we state relations to Gorbunov-Pinsker's nonanticipatory $\epsilon-$entropy \cite{gorbunov-pinsker}.
1301.6529
Generalised Multi-sequence Shift-Register Synthesis using Module Minimisation
cs.IT math.IT
We show how to solve a generalised version of the Multi-sequence Linear Feedback Shift-Register (MLFSR) problem using minimisation of free modules over $\mathbb F[x]$. We show how two existing algorithms for minimising such modules run particularly fast on these instances. Furthermore, we show how one of them can be made even faster for our use. With our modeling of the problem, classical algebraic results tremendously simplify arguing about the algorithms. For the non-generalised MLFSR, these algorithms are as fast as what is currently known. We then use our generalised MLFSR to give a new fast decoding algorithm for Reed Solomon codes.
1301.6574
Self-Organizing Map and social networks: Unfolding online social popularity
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
The present study uses the Kohonen self organizing map (SOM) to represent the popularity patterns of Myspace music artists from their attributes on the platform and their position in the social network. The method is applied to cluster the profiles (the nodes of the social network) and the best friendship links (the edges). It shows that the SOM is an efficient tool to interpret the complex links between the audience and the influence of the musicians. It finally provides a robust classifier of the online social network behaviors.
1301.6587
Information Theoretic Cut-set Bounds on the Capacity of Poisson Wireless Networks
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
This paper presents a stochastic geometry model for the investigation of fundamental information theoretic limitations in wireless networks. We derive a new unified multi-parameter cut-set bound on the capacity of networks of arbitrary Poisson node density, size, power and bandwidth, under fast fading in a rich scattering environment. In other words, we upper-bound the optimal performance in terms of total communication rate, under any scheme, that can be achieved between a subset of network nodes (defined by the cut) with all the remaining nodes. Additionally, we identify four different operating regimes, depending on the magnitude of the long-range and short-range signal to noise ratios. Thus, we confirm previously known scaling laws (e.g., in bandwidth and/or power limited wireless networks), and we extend them with specific bounds. Finally, we use our results to provide specific numerical examples.
1301.6588
Tradeoffs for reliable quantum information storage in surface codes and color codes
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
The family of hyperbolic surface codes is one of the rare families of quantum LDPC codes with non-zero rate and unbounded minimum distance. First, we introduce a family of hyperbolic color codes. This produces a new family of quantum LDPC codes with non-zero rate and with minimum distance logarithmic in the blocklength. Second, we study the tradeoff between the length n, the number of encoded qubits k and the distance d of surface codes and color codes. We prove that kd^2 is upper bounded by C(log k)^2n, where C is a constant that depends only on the row weight of the parity-check matrix. Our results prove that the best asymptotic minimum distance of LDPC surface codes and color codes with non-zero rate is logarithmic in the length.
1301.6589
Energy-Efficient Communication in the Presence of Synchronization Errors
cs.IT math.IT
Communication systems are traditionally designed to have tight transmitter-receiver synchronization. This requirement has negligible overhead in the high-SNR regime. However, in many applications, such as wireless sensor networks, communication needs to happen primarily in the energy-efficient regime of low SNR, where requiring tight synchronization can be highly suboptimal. In this paper, we model the noisy channel with synchronization errors as an insertion/deletion/substitution channel. For this channel, we propose a new communication scheme that requires only loose transmitter-receiver synchronization. We show that the proposed scheme is asymptotically optimal for the Gaussian channel with synchronization errors in terms of energy efficiency as measured by the rate per unit energy. In the process, we also establish that the lack of synchronization causes negligible loss in energy efficiency. We further show that, for a general discrete memoryless channel with synchronization errors and a general input cost function admitting a zero-cost symbol, the rate per unit cost achieved by the proposed scheme is within a factor two of the information-theoretic optimum.
1301.6591
PDF articles metadata harvester
cs.DL cs.IR
Scientific journals are very important in recording the finding from researchers around the world. The recent media to disseminate scientific journals is PDF. On scheme to find the scientific journals over the internet is via metadata. Metadata stores information about article summary. Embedding metadata into PDF of scientific article will grant the consistency of metadata readness. Harvesting the metadata from scientific journal is very interesting field at the moment. This paper will discuss about scientific journal metadata harvesters involving XMP.
1301.6599
An Upper Bound on the Capacity of non-Binary Deletion Channels
cs.IT math.IT
We derive an upper bound on the capacity of non-binary deletion channels. Although binary deletion channels have received significant attention over the years, and many upper and lower bounds on their capacity have been derived, such studies for the non-binary case are largely missing. The state of the art is the following: as a trivial upper bound, capacity of an erasure channel with the same input alphabet as the deletion channel can be used, and as a lower bound the results by Diggavi and Grossglauser are available. In this paper, we derive the first non-trivial non-binary deletion channel capacity upper bound and reduce the gap with the existing achievable rates. To derive the results we first prove an inequality between the capacity of a 2K-ary deletion channel with deletion probability $d$, denoted by $C_{2K}(d)$, and the capacity of the binary deletion channel with the same deletion probability, $C_2(d)$, that is, $C_{2K}(d)\leq C_2(d)+(1-d)\log(K)$. Then by employing some existing upper bounds on the capacity of the binary deletion channel, we obtain upper bounds on the capacity of the 2K-ary deletion channel. We illustrate via examples the use of the new bounds and discuss their asymptotic behavior as $d \rightarrow 0$.
1301.6600
Weighted Sum Rate Maximization for Downlink OFDMA with Subcarrier-pair based Opportunistic DF Relaying
cs.SY
This paper addresses a weighted sum rate (WSR) maximization problem for downlink OFDMA aided by a decode-and-forward (DF) relay under a total power constraint. A novel subcarrier-pair based opportunistic DF relaying protocol is proposed. Specifically, user message bits are transmitted in two time slots. A subcarrier in the first slot can be paired with a subcarrier in the second slot for the DF relay-aided transmission to a user. In particular, the source and the relay can transmit simultaneously to implement beamforming at the subcarrier in the second slot. Each unpaired subcarrier in either the first or second slot is used for the source's direct transmission to a user. A benchmark protocol, same as the proposed one except that the transmit beamforming is not used for the relay-aided transmission, is also considered. For each protocol, a polynomial-complexity algorithm is developed to find at least an approximately optimum resource allocation (RA), by using continuous relaxation, the dual method, and Hungarian algorithm. Instrumental to the algorithm design is an elegant definition of optimization variables, motivated by the idea of regarding the unpaired subcarriers as virtual subcarrier pairs in the direct transmission mode. The effectiveness of the RA algorithm and the impact of relay position and total power on the protocols' performance are illustrated by numerical experiments. The proposed protocol always leads to a maximum WSR equal to or greater than that for the benchmark one, and the performance gain of using the proposed one is significant especially when the relay is in close proximity to the source and the total power is low. Theoretical analysis is presented to interpret these observations.
1301.6626
Discriminative Feature Selection for Uncertain Graph Classification
cs.LG cs.DB stat.ML
Mining discriminative features for graph data has attracted much attention in recent years due to its important role in constructing graph classifiers, generating graph indices, etc. Most measurement of interestingness of discriminative subgraph features are defined on certain graphs, where the structure of graph objects are certain, and the binary edges within each graph represent the "presence" of linkages among the nodes. In many real-world applications, however, the linkage structure of the graphs is inherently uncertain. Therefore, existing measurements of interestingness based upon certain graphs are unable to capture the structural uncertainty in these applications effectively. In this paper, we study the problem of discriminative subgraph feature selection from uncertain graphs. This problem is challenging and different from conventional subgraph mining problems because both the structure of the graph objects and the discrimination score of each subgraph feature are uncertain. To address these challenges, we propose a novel discriminative subgraph feature selection method, DUG, which can find discriminative subgraph features in uncertain graphs based upon different statistical measures including expectation, median, mode and phi-probability. We first compute the probability distribution of the discrimination scores for each subgraph feature based on dynamic programming. Then a branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed to search for discriminative subgraphs efficiently. Extensive experiments on various neuroimaging applications (i.e., Alzheimer's Disease, ADHD and HIV) have been performed to analyze the gain in performance by taking into account structural uncertainties in identifying discriminative subgraph features for graph classification.
1301.6630
Political Disaffection: a case study on the Italian Twitter community
cs.SI cs.LG physics.soc-ph
In our work we analyse the political disaffection or "the subjective feeling of powerlessness, cynicism, and lack of confidence in the political process, politicians, and democratic institutions, but with no questioning of the political regime" by exploiting Twitter data through machine learning techniques. In order to validate the quality of the time-series generated by the Twitter data, we highlight the relations of these data with political disaffection as measured by means of public opinion surveys. Moreover, we show that important political news of Italian newspapers are often correlated with the highest peaks of the produced time-series.
1301.6643
On the Performance of Low Density Parity Check Codes for Gaussian Interference Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, two-user Gaussian interference channel(GIC) is revisited with the objective of developing implementable (explicit) channel codes. Specifically, low density parity check (LDPC) codes are adopted for use over these channels, and their benefits are studied. Different scenarios on the level of interference are considered. In particular, for strong interference channel examples with binary phase shift keying (BPSK), it is demonstrated that rates better than those offered by single user codes with time sharing are achievable. Promising results are also observed with quadrature-shift-keying (QPSK). Under general interference a Han-Kobayashi coding based scheme is employed splitting the information into public and private parts, and utilizing appropriate iterative decoders at the receivers. Using QPSK modulation at the two transmitters, it is shown that rate points higher than those achievable by time sharing are obtained.
1301.6646
Image registration with sparse approximations in parametric dictionaries
cs.CV
We examine in this paper the problem of image registration from the new perspective where images are given by sparse approximations in parametric dictionaries of geometric functions. We propose a registration algorithm that looks for an estimate of the global transformation between sparse images by examining the set of relative geometrical transformations between the respective features. We propose a theoretical analysis of our registration algorithm and we derive performance guarantees based on two novel important properties of redundant dictionaries, namely the robust linear independence and the transformation inconsistency. We propose several illustrations and insights about the importance of these dictionary properties and show that common properties such as coherence or restricted isometry property fail to provide sufficient information in registration problems. We finally show with illustrative experiments on simple visual objects and handwritten digits images that our algorithm outperforms baseline competitor methods in terms of transformation-invariant distance computation and classification.
1301.6648
Generalized Bregman Divergence and Gradient of Mutual Information for Vector Poisson Channels
cs.IT math.IT stat.ML
We investigate connections between information-theoretic and estimation-theoretic quantities in vector Poisson channel models. In particular, we generalize the gradient of mutual information with respect to key system parameters from the scalar to the vector Poisson channel model. We also propose, as another contribution, a generalization of the classical Bregman divergence that offers a means to encapsulate under a unifying framework the gradient of mutual information results for scalar and vector Poisson and Gaussian channel models. The so-called generalized Bregman divergence is also shown to exhibit various properties akin to the properties of the classical version. The vector Poisson channel model is drawing considerable attention in view of its application in various domains: as an example, the availability of the gradient of mutual information can be used in conjunction with gradient descent methods to effect compressive-sensing projection designs in emerging X-ray and document classification applications.
1301.6658
Minimum Relative Entropy for Quantum Estimation: Feasibility and General Solution
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
We propose a general framework for solving quantum state estimation problems using the minimum relative entropy criterion. A convex optimization approach allows us to decide the feasibility of the problem given the data and, whenever necessary, to relax the constraints in order to allow for a physically admissible solution. Building on these results, the variational analysis can be completed ensuring existence and uniqueness of the optimum. The latter can then be computed by standard, efficient standard algorithms for convex optimization, without resorting to approximate methods or restrictive assumptions on its rank.
1301.6659
Clustering-Based Matrix Factorization
cs.LG
Recommender systems are emerging technologies that nowadays can be found in many applications such as Amazon, Netflix, and so on. These systems help users to find relevant information, recommendations, and their preferred items. Slightly improvement of the accuracy of these recommenders can highly affect the quality of recommendations. Matrix Factorization is a popular method in Recommendation Systems showing promising results in accuracy and complexity. In this paper we propose an extension of matrix factorization which adds general neighborhood information on the recommendation model. Users and items are clustered into different categories to see how these categories share preferences. We then employ these shared interests of categories in a fusion by Biased Matrix Factorization to achieve more accurate recommendations. This is a complement for the current neighborhood aware matrix factorization models which rely on using direct neighborhood information of users and items. The proposed model is tested on two well-known recommendation system datasets: Movielens100k and Netflix. Our experiment shows applying the general latent features of categories into factorized recommender models improves the accuracy of recommendations. The current neighborhood-aware models need a great number of neighbors to acheive good accuracies. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed model is better than or comparable with the current neighborhood-aware models when they consider fewer number of neighbors.
1301.6662
On Time-optimal Trajectories for a Car-like Robot with One Trailer
math.OC cs.RO
In addition to the theoretical value of challenging optimal control problmes, recent progress in autonomous vehicles mandates further research in optimal motion planning for wheeled vehicles. Since current numerical optimal control techniques suffer from either the curse of dimens ionality, e.g. the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, or the curse of complexity, e.g. pseudospectral optimal control and max-plus methods, analytical characterization of geodesics for wheeled vehicles becomes important not only from a theoretical point of view but also from a prac tical one. Such an analytical characterization provides a fast motion planning algorithm that can be used in robust feedback loops. In this work, we use the Pontryagin Maximum Principle to characterize extremal trajectories, i.e. candidate geodesics, for a car-like robot with one trailer. We use time as the distance function. In spite of partial progress, this problem has remained open in the past two decades. Besides straight motion and turn with maximum allowed curvature, we identify planar elastica as the third piece of motion that occurs along our extr emals. We give a detailed characterization of such curves, a special case of which, called \emph{merging curve}, connects maximum curvature turns to straight line segments. The structure of extremals in our case is revealed through analytical integration of the system and adjoint equations.
1301.6675
A Temporal Bayesian Network for Diagnosis and Prediction
cs.AI
Diagnosis and prediction in some domains, like medical and industrial diagnosis, require a representation that combines uncertainty management and temporal reasoning. Based on the fact that in many cases there are few state changes in the temporal range of interest, we propose a novel representation called Temporal Nodes Bayesian Networks (TNBN). In a TNBN each node represents an event or state change of a variable, and an arc corresponds to a causal-temporal relationship. The temporal intervals can differ in number and size for each temporal node, so this allows multiple granularity. Our approach is contrasted with a dynamic Bayesian network for a simple medical example. An empirical evaluation is presented for a more complex problem, a subsystem of a fossil power plant, in which this approach is used for fault diagnosis and prediction with good results.
1301.6676
Inferring Parameters and Structure of Latent Variable Models by Variational Bayes
cs.LG stat.ML
Current methods for learning graphical models with latent variables and a fixed structure estimate optimal values for the model parameters. Whereas this approach usually produces overfitting and suboptimal generalization performance, carrying out the Bayesian program of computing the full posterior distributions over the parameters remains a difficult problem. Moreover, learning the structure of models with latent variables, for which the Bayesian approach is crucial, is yet a harder problem. In this paper I present the Variational Bayes framework, which provides a solution to these problems. This approach approximates full posterior distributions over model parameters and structures, as well as latent variables, in an analytical manner without resorting to sampling methods. Unlike in the Laplace approximation, these posteriors are generally non-Gaussian and no Hessian needs to be computed. The resulting algorithm generalizes the standard Expectation Maximization algorithm, and its convergence is guaranteed. I demonstrate that this algorithm can be applied to a large class of models in several domains, including unsupervised clustering and blind source separation.
1301.6677
Relative Loss Bounds for On-line Density Estimation with the Exponential Family of Distributions
cs.LG stat.ML
We consider on-line density estimation with a parameterized density from the exponential family. The on-line algorithm receives one example at a time and maintains a parameter that is essentially an average of the past examples. After receiving an example the algorithm incurs a loss which is the negative log-likelihood of the example w.r.t. the past parameter of the algorithm. An off-line algorithm can choose the best parameter based on all the examples. We prove bounds on the additional total loss of the on-line algorithm over the total loss of the off-line algorithm. These relative loss bounds hold for an arbitrary sequence of examples. The goal is to design algorithms with the best possible relative loss bounds. We use a certain divergence to derive and analyze the algorithms. This divergence is a relative entropy between two exponential distributions.
1301.6678
An Application of Uncertain Reasoning to Requirements Engineering
cs.SE cs.AI
This paper examines the use of Bayesian Networks to tackle one of the tougher problems in requirements engineering, translating user requirements into system requirements. The approach taken is to model domain knowledge as Bayesian Network fragments that are glued together to form a complete view of the domain specific system requirements. User requirements are introduced as evidence and the propagation of belief is used to determine what are the appropriate system requirements as indicated by user requirements. This concept has been demonstrated in the development of a system specification and the results are presented here.
1301.6679
Possibilistic logic bases and possibilistic graphs
cs.AI
Possibilistic logic bases and possibilistic graphs are two different frameworks of interest for representing knowledge. The former stratifies the pieces of knowledge (expressed by logical formulas) according to their level of certainty, while the latter exhibits relationships between variables. The two types of representations are semantically equivalent when they lead to the same possibility distribution (which rank-orders the possible interpretations). A possibility distribution can be decomposed using a chain rule which may be based on two different kinds of conditioning which exist in possibility theory (one based on product in a numerical setting, one based on minimum operation in a qualitative setting). These two types of conditioning induce two kinds of possibilistic graphs. In both cases, a translation of these graphs into possibilistic bases is provided. The converse translation from a possibilistic knowledge base into a min-based graph is also described.
1301.6680
Artificial Decision Making Under Uncertainty in Intelligent Buildings
cs.AI
Our hypothesis is that by equipping certain agents in a multi-agent system controlling an intelligent building with automated decision support, two important factors will be increased. The first is energy saving in the building. The second is customer value---how the people in the building experience the effects of the actions of the agents. We give evidence for the truth of this hypothesis through experimental findings related to tools for artificial decision making. A number of assumptions related to agent control, through monitoring and delegation of tasks to other kinds of agents, of rooms at a test site are relaxed. Each assumption controls at least one uncertainty that complicates considerably the procedures for selecting actions part of each such agent. We show that in realistic decision situations, room-controlling agents can make bounded rational decisions even under dynamic real-time constraints. This result can be, and has been, generalized to other domains with even harsher time constraints.
1301.6681
Reasoning With Conditional Ceteris Paribus Preference Statem
cs.AI
In many domains it is desirable to assess the preferences of users in a qualitative rather than quantitative way. Such representations of qualitative preference orderings form an importnat component of automated decision tools. We propose a graphical representation of preferences that reflects conditional dependence and independence of preference statements under a ceteris paribus (all else being equal) interpretation. Such a representation is ofetn compact and arguably natural. We describe several search algorithms for dominance testing based on this representation; these algorithms are quite effective, especially in specific network topologies, such as chain-and tree- structured networks, as well as polytrees.
1301.6682
Continuous Value Function Approximation for Sequential Bidding Policies
cs.AI cs.GT
Market-based mechanisms such as auctions are being studied as an appropriate means for resource allocation in distributed and mulitagent decision problems. When agents value resources in combination rather than in isolation, they must often deliberate about appropriate bidding strategies for a sequence of auctions offering resources of interest. We briefly describe a discrete dynamic programming model for constructing appropriate bidding policies for resources exhibiting both complementarities and substitutability. We then introduce a continuous approximation of this model, assuming that money (or the numeraire good) is infinitely divisible. Though this has the potential to reduce the computational cost of computing policies, value functions in the transformed problem do not have a convenient closed form representation. We develop {em grid-based} approximation for such value functions, representing value functions using piecewise linear approximations. We show that these methods can offer significant computational savings with relatively small cost in solution quality.
1301.6683
Discovering the Hidden Structure of Complex Dynamic Systems
cs.AI cs.LG
Dynamic Bayesian networks provide a compact and natural representation for complex dynamic systems. However, in many cases, there is no expert available from whom a model can be elicited. Learning provides an alternative approach for constructing models of dynamic systems. In this paper, we address some of the crucial computational aspects of learning the structure of dynamic systems, particularly those where some relevant variables are partially observed or even entirely unknown. Our approach is based on the Structural Expectation Maximization (SEM) algorithm. The main computational cost of the SEM algorithm is the gathering of expected sufficient statistics. We propose a novel approximation scheme that allows these sufficient statistics to be computed efficiently. We also investigate the fundamental problem of discovering the existence of hidden variables without exhaustive and expensive search. Our approach is based on the observation that, in dynamic systems, ignoring a hidden variable typically results in a violation of the Markov property. Thus, our algorithm searches for such violations in the data, and introduces hidden variables to explain them. We provide empirical results showing that the algorithm is able to learn the dynamics of complex systems in a computationally tractable way.
1301.6684
Comparing Bayesian Network Classifiers
cs.LG cs.AI stat.ML
In this paper, we empirically evaluate algorithms for learning four types of Bayesian network (BN) classifiers - Naive-Bayes, tree augmented Naive-Bayes, BN augmented Naive-Bayes and general BNs, where the latter two are learned using two variants of a conditional-independence (CI) based BN-learning algorithm. Experimental results show the obtained classifiers, learned using the CI based algorithms, are competitive with (or superior to) the best known classifiers, based on both Bayesian networks and other formalisms; and that the computational time for learning and using these classifiers is relatively small. Moreover, these results also suggest a way to learn yet more effective classifiers; we demonstrate empirically that this new algorithm does work as expected. Collectively, these results argue that BN classifiers deserve more attention in machine learning and data mining communities.
1301.6685
Fast Learning from Sparse Data
cs.LG stat.ML
We describe two techniques that significantly improve the running time of several standard machine-learning algorithms when data is sparse. The first technique is an algorithm that effeciently extracts one-way and two-way counts--either real or expected-- from discrete data. Extracting such counts is a fundamental step in learning algorithms for constructing a variety of models including decision trees, decision graphs, Bayesian networks, and naive-Bayes clustering models. The second technique is an algorithm that efficiently performs the E-step of the EM algorithm (i.e. inference) when applied to a naive-Bayes clustering model. Using real-world data sets, we demonstrate a dramatic decrease in running time for algorithms that incorporate these techniques.
1301.6686
Causal Discovery from a Mixture of Experimental and Observational Data
cs.AI
This paper describes a Bayesian method for combining an arbitrary mixture of observational and experimental data in order to learn causal Bayesian networks. Observational data are passively observed. Experimental data, such as that produced by randomized controlled trials, result from the experimenter manipulating one or more variables (typically randomly) and observing the states of other variables. The paper presents a Bayesian method for learning the causal structure and parameters of the underlying causal process that is generating the data, given that (1) the data contains a mixture of observational and experimental case records, and (2) the causal process is modeled as a causal Bayesian network. This learning method was applied using as input various mixtures of experimental and observational data that were generated from the ALARM causal Bayesian network. In these experiments, the absolute and relative quantities of experimental and observational data were varied systematically. For each of these training datasets, the learning method was applied to predict the causal structure and to estimate the causal parameters that exist among randomly selected pairs of nodes in ALARM that are not confounded. The paper reports how these structure predictions and parameter estimates compare with the true causal structures and parameters as given by the ALARM network.
1301.6687
Loglinear models for first-order probabilistic reasoning
cs.AI
Recent work on loglinear models in probabilistic constraint logic programming is applied to first-order probabilistic reasoning. Probabilities are defined directly on the proofs of atomic formulae, and by marginalisation on the atomic formulae themselves. We use Stochastic Logic Programs (SLPs) composed of labelled and unlabelled definite clauses to define the proof probabilities. We have a conservative extension of first-order reasoning, so that, for example, there is a one-one mapping between logical and random variables. We show how, in this framework, Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) can be used to induce the features of a loglinear model from data. We also compare the presented framework with other approaches to first-order probabilistic reasoning.
1301.6688
Learning Polytrees
cs.AI cs.LG
We consider the task of learning the maximum-likelihood polytree from data. Our first result is a performance guarantee establishing that the optimal branching (or Chow-Liu tree), which can be computed very easily, constitutes a good approximation to the best polytree. We then show that it is not possible to do very much better, since the learning problem is NP-hard even to approximately solve within some constant factor.
1301.6689
A Hybrid Anytime Algorithm for the Constructiion of Causal Models From Sparse Data
cs.AI
We present a hybrid constraint-based/Bayesian algorithm for learning causal networks in the presence of sparse data. The algorithm searches the space of equivalence classes of models (essential graphs) using a heuristic based on conventional constraint-based techniques. Each essential graph is then converted into a directed acyclic graph and scored using a Bayesian scoring metric. Two variants of the algorithm are developed and tested using data from randomly generated networks of sizes from 15 to 45 nodes with data sizes ranging from 250 to 2000 records. Both variations are compared to, and found to consistently outperform two variations of greedy search with restarts.
1301.6690
Model-Based Bayesian Exploration
cs.AI cs.LG
Reinforcement learning systems are often concerned with balancing exploration of untested actions against exploitation of actions that are known to be good. The benefit of exploration can be estimated using the classical notion of Value of Information - the expected improvement in future decision quality arising from the information acquired by exploration. Estimating this quantity requires an assessment of the agent's uncertainty about its current value estimates for states. In this paper we investigate ways of representing and reasoning about this uncertainty in algorithms where the system attempts to learn a model of its environment. We explicitly represent uncertainty about the parameters of the model and build probability distributions over Q-values based on these. These distributions are used to compute a myopic approximation to the value of information for each action and hence to select the action that best balances exploration and exploitation.
1301.6691
Hybrid Probabilistic Programs: Algorithms and Complexity
cs.AI
Hybrid Probabilistic Programs (HPPs) are logic programs that allow the programmer to explicitly encode his knowledge of the dependencies between events being described in the program. In this paper, we classify HPPs into three classes called HPP_1,HPP_2 and HPP_r,r>= 3. For these classes, we provide three types of results for HPPs. First, we develop algorithms to compute the set of all ground consequences of an HPP. Then we provide algorithms and complexity results for the problems of entailment ("Given an HPP P and a query Q as input, is Q a logical consequence of P?") and consistency ("Given an HPP P as input, is P consistent?"). Our results provide a fine characterization of when polynomial algorithms exist for the above problems, and when these problems become intractable.
1301.6692
Assessing the value of a candidate. Comparing belief function and possibility theories
cs.AI
The problem of assessing the value of a candidate is viewed here as a multiple combination problem. On the one hand a candidate can be evaluated according to different criteria, and on the other hand several experts are supposed to assess the value of candidates according to each criterion. Criteria are not equally important, experts are not equally competent or reliable. Moreover levels of satisfaction of criteria, or levels of confidence are only assumed to take their values in qualitative scales which are just linearly ordered. The problem is discussed within two frameworks, the transferable belief model and the qualitative possibility theory. They respectively offer a quantitative and a qualitative setting for handling the problem, providing thus a way to compare the nature of the underlying assumptions.
1301.6694
Qualitative Models for Decision Under Uncertainty without the Commensurability Assumption
cs.AI
This paper investigates a purely qualitative version of Savage's theory for decision making under uncertainty. Until now, most representation theorems for preference over acts rely on a numerical representation of utility and uncertainty where utility and uncertainty are commensurate. Disrupting the tradition, we relax this assumption and introduce a purely ordinal axiom requiring that the Decision Maker (DM) preference between two acts only depends on the relative position of their consequences for each state. Within this qualitative framework, we determine the only possible form of the decision rule and investigate some instances compatible with the transitivity of the strict preference. Finally we propose a mild relaxation of our ordinality axiom, leaving room for a new family of qualitative decision rules compatible with transitivity.
1301.6695
Data Analysis with Bayesian Networks: A Bootstrap Approach
cs.LG cs.AI stat.ML
In recent years there has been significant progress in algorithms and methods for inducing Bayesian networks from data. However, in complex data analysis problems, we need to go beyond being satisfied with inducing networks with high scores. We need to provide confidence measures on features of these networks: Is the existence of an edge between two nodes warranted? Is the Markov blanket of a given node robust? Can we say something about the ordering of the variables? We should be able to address these questions, even when the amount of data is not enough to induce a high scoring network. In this paper we propose Efron's Bootstrap as a computationally efficient approach for answering these questions. In addition, we propose to use these confidence measures to induce better structures from the data, and to detect the presence of latent variables.
1301.6696
Learning Bayesian Network Structure from Massive Datasets: The "Sparse Candidate" Algorithm
cs.LG cs.AI stat.ML
Learning Bayesian networks is often cast as an optimization problem, where the computational task is to find a structure that maximizes a statistically motivated score. By and large, existing learning tools address this optimization problem using standard heuristic search techniques. Since the search space is extremely large, such search procedures can spend most of the time examining candidates that are extremely unreasonable. This problem becomes critical when we deal with data sets that are large either in the number of instances, or the number of attributes. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm that achieves faster learning by restricting the search space. This iterative algorithm restricts the parents of each variable to belong to a small subset of candidates. We then search for a network that satisfies these constraints. The learned network is then used for selecting better candidates for the next iteration. We evaluate this algorithm both on synthetic and real-life data. Our results show that it is significantly faster than alternative search procedures without loss of quality in the learned structures.
1301.6697
Parameter Priors for Directed Acyclic Graphical Models and the Characterization of Several Probability Distributions
cs.LG stat.ML
We show that the only parameter prior for complete Gaussian DAG models that satisfies global parameter independence, complete model equivalence, and some weak regularity assumptions, is the normal-Wishart distribution. Our analysis is based on the following new characterization of the Wishart distribution: let W be an n x n, n >= 3, positive-definite symmetric matrix of random variables and f(W) be a pdf of W. Then, f(W) is a Wishart distribution if and only if W_{11}-W_{12}W_{22}^{-1}W_{12}' is independent of {W_{12}, W_{22}} for every block partitioning W_{11}, W_{12}, W_{12}', W_{22} of W. Similar characterizations of the normal and normal-Wishart distributions are provided as well. We also show how to construct a prior for every DAG model over X from the prior of a single regression model.
1301.6698
Quantifier Elimination for Statistical Problems
cs.AI cs.LO
Recent improvement on Tarski's procedure for quantifier elimination in the first order theory of real numbers makes it feasible to solve small instances of the following problems completely automatically: 1. listing all equality and inequality constraints implied by a graphical model with hidden variables. 2. Comparing graphyical models with hidden variables (i.e., model equivalence, inclusion, and overlap). 3. Answering questions about the identification of a model or portion of a model, and about bounds on quantities derived from a model. 4. Determing whether a given set of independence assertions. We discuss the foundation of quantifier elimination and demonstrate its application to these problems.
1301.6699
On Transformations between Probability and Spohnian Disbelief Functions
cs.AI
In this paper, we analyze the relationship between probability and Spohn's theory for representation of uncertain beliefs. Using the intuitive idea that the more probable a proposition is, the more believable it is, we study transformations from probability to Sphonian disbelief and vice-versa. The transformations described in this paper are different from those described in the literature. In particular, the former satisfies the principles of ordinal congruence while the latter does not. Such transformations between probability and Spohn's calculi can contribute to (1) a clarification of the semantics of nonprobabilistic degree of uncertain belief, and (2) to a construction of a decision theory for such calculi. In practice, the transformations will allow a meaningful combination of more than one calculus in different stages of using an expert system such as knowledge acquisition, inference, and interpretation of results.
1301.6700
A New Model of Plan Recognition
cs.AI
We present a new abductive, probabilistic theory of plan recognition. This model differs from previous plan recognition theories in being centered around a model of plan execution: most previous methods have been based on plans as formal objects or on rules describing the recognition process. We show that our new model accounts for phenomena omitted from most previous plan recognition theories: notably the cumulative effect of a sequence of observations of partially-ordered, interleaved plans and the effect of context on plan adoption. The model also supports inferences about the evolution of plan execution in situations where another agent intervenes in plan execution. This facility provides support for using plan recognition to build systems that will intelligently assist a user.
1301.6701
Multi-objects association in perception of dynamical situation
cs.AI cs.CV
In current perception systems applied to the rebuilding of the environment for intelligent vehicles, the part reserved to object association for the tracking is increasingly significant. This allows firstly to follow the objects temporal evolution and secondly to increase the reliability of environment perception. We propose in this communication the development of a multi-objects association algorithm with ambiguity removal entering into the design of such a dynamic perception system for intelligent vehicles. This algorithm uses the belief theory and data modelling with fuzzy mathematics in order to be able to handle inaccurate as well as uncertain information due to imperfect sensors. These theories also allow the fusion of numerical as well as symbolic data. We develop in this article the problem of matching between known and perceived objects. This makes it possible to update a dynamic environment map for a vehicle. The belief theory will enable us to quantify the belief in the association of each perceived object with each known object. Conflicts can appear in the case of object appearance or disappearance, or in the case of a confused situation or bad perception. These conflicts are removed or solved using an assignment algorithm, giving a solution called the " best " and so ensuring the tracking of some objects present in our environment.
1301.6702
A Hybrid Approach to Reasoning with Partially Elicited Preference Models
cs.AI
Classical Decision Theory provides a normative framework for representing and reasoning about complex preferences. Straightforward application of this theory to automate decision making is difficult due to high elicitation cost. In response to this problem, researchers have recently developed a number of qualitative, logic-oriented approaches for representing and reasoning about references. While effectively addressing some expressiveness issues, these logics have not proven powerful enough for building practical automated decision making systems. In this paper we present a hybrid approach to preference elicitation and decision making that is grounded in classical multi-attribute utility theory, but can make effective use of the expressive power of qualitative approaches. Specifically, assuming a partially specified multilinear utility function, we show how comparative statements about classes of decision alternatives can be used to further constrain the utility function and thus identify sup-optimal alternatives. This work demonstrates that quantitative and qualitative approaches can be synergistically integrated to provide effective and flexible decision support.
1301.6703
Faithful Approximations of Belief Functions
cs.AI
A conceptual foundation for approximation of belief functions is proposed and investigated. It is based on the requirements of consistency and closeness. An optimal approximation is studied. Unfortunately, the computation of the optimal approximation turns out to be intractable. Hence, various heuristic methods are proposed and experimantally evaluated both in terms of their accuracy and in terms of the speed of computation. These methods are compared to the earlier proposed approximations of belief functions.
1301.6704
SPUDD: Stochastic Planning using Decision Diagrams
cs.AI
Markov decisions processes (MDPs) are becoming increasing popular as models of decision theoretic planning. While traditional dynamic programming methods perform well for problems with small state spaces, structured methods are needed for large problems. We propose and examine a value iteration algorithm for MDPs that uses algebraic decision diagrams(ADDs) to represent value functions and policies. An MDP is represented using Bayesian networks and ADDs and dynamic programming is applied directly to these ADDs. We demonstrate our method on large MDPs (up to 63 million states) and show that significant gains can be had when compared to tree-structured representations (with up to a thirty-fold reduction in the number of nodes required to represent optimal value functions).
1301.6705
Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis
cs.LG cs.IR stat.ML
Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis is a novel statistical technique for the analysis of two-mode and co-occurrence data, which has applications in information retrieval and filtering, natural language processing, machine learning from text, and in related areas. Compared to standard Latent Semantic Analysis which stems from linear algebra and performs a Singular Value Decomposition of co-occurrence tables, the proposed method is based on a mixture decomposition derived from a latent class model. This results in a more principled approach which has a solid foundation in statistics. In order to avoid overfitting, we propose a widely applicable generalization of maximum likelihood model fitting by tempered EM. Our approach yields substantial and consistent improvements over Latent Semantic Analysis in a number of experiments.
1301.6706
Estimating the Value of Computation in Flexible Information Refinement
cs.AI
We outline a method to estimate the value of computation for a flexible algorithm using empirical data. To determine a reasonable trade-off between cost and value, we build an empirical model of the value obtained through computation, and apply this model to estimate the value of computation for quite different problems. In particular, we investigate this trade-off for the problem of constructing policies for decision problems represented as influence diagrams. We show how two features of our anytime algorithm provide reasonable estimates of the value of computation in this domain.