id
stringlengths
9
16
title
stringlengths
4
278
categories
stringlengths
5
104
abstract
stringlengths
6
4.09k
1309.0691
Information Filtering via Collaborative User Clustering Modeling
cs.IR cs.SI physics.soc-ph
The past few years have witnessed the great success of recommender systems, which can significantly help users find out personalized items for them from the information era. One of the most widely applied recommendation methods is the Matrix Factorization (MF). However, most of researches on this topic have focused on mining the direct relationships between users and items. In this paper, we optimize the standard MF by integrating the user clustering regularization term. Our model considers not only the user-item rating information, but also takes into account the user interest. We compared the proposed model with three typical other methods: User-Mean (UM), Item-Mean (IM) and standard MF. Experimental results on a real-world dataset, \emph{MovieLens}, show that our method performs much better than other three methods in the accuracy of recommendation.
1309.0707
Feedback Communication Systems with Limitations on Incremental Redundancy
cs.IT math.IT
This paper explores feedback systems using incremental redundancy (IR) with noiseless transmitter confirmation (NTC). For IR-NTC systems based on {\em finite-length} codes (with blocklength $N$) and decoding attempts only at {\em certain specified decoding times}, this paper presents the asymptotic expansion achieved by random coding, provides rate-compatible sphere-packing (RCSP) performance approximations, and presents simulation results of tail-biting convolutional codes. The information-theoretic analysis shows that values of $N$ relatively close to the expected latency yield the same random-coding achievability expansion as with $N = \infty$. However, the penalty introduced in the expansion by limiting decoding times is linear in the interval between decoding times. For binary symmetric channels, the RCSP approximation provides an efficiently-computed approximation of performance that shows excellent agreement with a family of rate-compatible, tail-biting convolutional codes in the short-latency regime. For the additive white Gaussian noise channel, bounded-distance decoding simplifies the computation of the marginal RCSP approximation and produces similar results as analysis based on maximum-likelihood decoding for latencies greater than 200. The efficiency of the marginal RCSP approximation facilitates optimization of the lengths of incremental transmissions when the number of incremental transmissions is constrained to be small or the length of the incremental transmissions is constrained to be uniform after the first transmission. Finally, an RCSP-based decoding error trajectory is introduced that provides target error rates for the design of rate-compatible code families for use in feedback communication systems.
1309.0719
Understanding Evolutionary Potential in Virtual CPU Instruction Set Architectures
cs.NE
We investigate fundamental decisions in the design of instruction set architectures for linear genetic programs that are used as both model systems in evolutionary biology and underlying solution representations in evolutionary computation. We subjected digital organisms with each tested architecture to seven different computational environments designed to present a range of evolutionary challenges. Our goal was to engineer a general purpose architecture that would be effective under a broad range of evolutionary conditions. We evaluated six different types of architectural features for the virtual CPUs: (1) genetic flexibility: we allowed digital organisms to more precisely modify the function of genetic instructions, (2) memory: we provided an increased number of registers in the virtual CPUs, (3) decoupled sensors and actuators: we separated input and output operations to enable greater control over data flow. We also tested a variety of methods to regulate expression: (4) explicit labels that allow programs to dynamically refer to specific genome positions, (5) position-relative search instructions, and (6) multiple new flow control instructions, including conditionals and jumps. Each of these features also adds complication to the instruction set and risks slowing evolution due to epistatic interactions. Two features (multiple argument specification and separated I/O) demonstrated substantial improvements int the majority of test environments. Some of the remaining tested modifications were detrimental, thought most exhibit no systematic effects on evolutionary potential, highlighting the robustness of digital evolution. Combined, these observations enhance our understanding of how instruction architecture impacts evolutionary potential, enabling the creation of architectures that support more rapid evolution of complex solutions to a broad range of challenges.
1309.0750
Application of Expurgated PPM to Indoor Visible Light Communications - Part I: Single-User Systems
cs.IT math.IT
Visible light communications (VLC) in indoor environments suffer from the limited bandwidth of LEDs as well as from the inter-symbol interference (ISI) imposed by multipath. In this work, transmission schemes to improve the performance of indoor optical wireless communication (OWC) systems are introduced. Expurgated pulse-position modulation (EPPM) is proposed for this application since it can provide a wide range of peak to average power ratios (PAPR) needed for dimming of the indoor illumination. A correlation decoder used at the receiver is shown to be optimal for indoor VLC systems, which are shot noise and background-light limited. Interleaving applied on EPPM in order to decrease the ISI effect in dispersive VLC channels can significantly decrease the error probability. The proposed interleaving technique makes EPPM a better modulation option compared to PPM for VLC systems or any other dispersive OWC system. An overlapped EPPM pulse technique is proposed to increase the transmission rate when bandwidth-limited white LEDs are used as sources.
1309.0766
Discrete and Continuous, Probabilistic Anticipation for Autonomous Robots in Urban Environments
cs.RO
This paper develops a probabilistic anticipation algorithm for dynamic objects observed by an autonomous robot in an urban environment. Predictive Gaussian mixture models are used due to their ability to probabilistically capture continuous and discrete obstacle decisions and behaviors; the predictive system uses the probabilistic output (state estimate and covariance) of a tracking system, and map of the environment to compute the probability distribution over future obstacle states for a specified anticipation horizon. A Gaussian splitting method is proposed based on the sigma-point transform and the nonlinear dynamics function, which enables increased accuracy as the number of mixands grows. An approach to caching elements of this optimal splitting method is proposed, in order to enable real-time implementation. Simulation results and evaluations on data from the research community demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can accurately anticipate the probability distributions over future states of nonlinear systems.
1309.0775
Application of Expurgated PPM to Indoor Visible Light Communications - Part II: Access Networks
cs.IT math.IT
Providing network access for multiple users in a visible light communication (VLC) system that utilizes white light emitting diodes (LED) as sources requires new networking techniques adapted to the lighting features. In this paper we introduce two multiple access techniques using expurgated PPM (EPPM) that can be implemented using LEDs and support lighting features such as dimming. Multilevel symbols are used to provide M-ary signaling for multiple users using multilevel EPPM (MEPPM). Using these multiple-access schemes we are able to control the optical peak to average power ratio (PAPR) in the system, and hereby control the dimming level. In the first technique, the M-ary data of each user is first encoded using an optical orthogonal code (OOC) assigned to the user, and the result is fed into a EPPM encoder to generate a multilevel signal. The second multiple access method uses sub-sets of the EPPM constellation to apply MEPPM to the data of each user. While the first approach has a larger Hamming distance between the symbols of each user, the latter can provide higher bit-rates for users in VLC systems using bandwidth-limited LEDs.
1309.0781
An Exploratory Data Survey of Drug Name Incidence and Prevalence From the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System, 2004 to 2012Q2
cs.CE stat.AP
Drug Names, Population Level Surveillance and the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System: An Exploratory Data Survey of Drug Name Incidence and Prevalence, 2004-2012Q2 Purpose: To count and monitor the drug names reported in the publicly available version of the Federal Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) from 2004 to 2012Q2 in a maximized sensitivity relational model. Methods: Data mining and data modeling was conducted and event based summary statistics with plots were created from over nine continuous years of continuous FAERS data. Results: This FAERS model contains 344,452 individual drug names and 432,541,994 count references which occurred across 4,148,761 human subjects in the 34 quarter study period. Plots for the top 100 scoring drug name references are reported by year and quarter; the top 100 drug names contain 143,384,240 references or 33% of all drug name references over 34 quarters of continuous FAERS data. Conclusions: While FAERS contains many drugs and adverse event reports, its data pertains to very few of them. Drug name incidence lends timely and effective surveillance of large populations of Averse Event Reports and does not require the cause of the AE, nor its validity to be known to detect a mass poisoning.
1309.0787
Online Tensor Methods for Learning Latent Variable Models
cs.LG cs.DC cs.SI stat.ML
We introduce an online tensor decomposition based approach for two latent variable modeling problems namely, (1) community detection, in which we learn the latent communities that the social actors in social networks belong to, and (2) topic modeling, in which we infer hidden topics of text articles. We consider decomposition of moment tensors using stochastic gradient descent. We conduct optimization of multilinear operations in SGD and avoid directly forming the tensors, to save computational and storage costs. We present optimized algorithm in two platforms. Our GPU-based implementation exploits the parallelism of SIMD architectures to allow for maximum speed-up by a careful optimization of storage and data transfer, whereas our CPU-based implementation uses efficient sparse matrix computations and is suitable for large sparse datasets. For the community detection problem, we demonstrate accuracy and computational efficiency on Facebook, Yelp and DBLP datasets, and for the topic modeling problem, we also demonstrate good performance on the New York Times dataset. We compare our results to the state-of-the-art algorithms such as the variational method, and report a gain of accuracy and a gain of several orders of magnitude in the execution time.
1309.0790
SKYNET: an efficient and robust neural network training tool for machine learning in astronomy
astro-ph.IM cs.LG cs.NE physics.data-an stat.ML
We present the first public release of our generic neural network training algorithm, called SkyNet. This efficient and robust machine learning tool is able to train large and deep feed-forward neural networks, including autoencoders, for use in a wide range of supervised and unsupervised learning applications, such as regression, classification, density estimation, clustering and dimensionality reduction. SkyNet uses a `pre-training' method to obtain a set of network parameters that has empirically been shown to be close to a good solution, followed by further optimisation using a regularised variant of Newton's method, where the level of regularisation is determined and adjusted automatically; the latter uses second-order derivative information to improve convergence, but without the need to evaluate or store the full Hessian matrix, by using a fast approximate method to calculate Hessian-vector products. This combination of methods allows for the training of complicated networks that are difficult to optimise using standard backpropagation techniques. SkyNet employs convergence criteria that naturally prevent overfitting, and also includes a fast algorithm for estimating the accuracy of network outputs. The utility and flexibility of SkyNet are demonstrated by application to a number of toy problems, and to astronomical problems focusing on the recovery of structure from blurred and noisy images, the identification of gamma-ray bursters, and the compression and denoising of galaxy images. The SkyNet software, which is implemented in standard ANSI C and fully parallelised using MPI, is available at http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/software/skynet/.
1309.0799
Linear Degrees of Freedom of the X-Channel with Delayed CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
We establish the degrees of freedom of the two-user X-channel with delayed channel knowledge at transmitters (i.e., delayed CSIT), assuming linear coding strategies at the transmitters. We derive a new upper bound and characterize the linear degrees of freedom of this network to be 6/5. The converse builds upon our development of a general lemma that shows that, if two distributed transmitters employ linear strategies, the ratio of the dimensions of received linear subspaces at the two receivers cannot exceed 3/2, due to delayed CSIT. As a byproduct, we also apply this general lemma to the three-user interference channel with delayed CSIT, thereby deriving a new upper bound of 9/7 on its linear degrees of freedom. This is the first bound that captures the impact of delayed CSIT on the degrees of freedom of this network, under the assumption of linear encoding strategies.
1309.0834
Performance Analysis and Optimal Power Allocation for Linear Receivers Based on Superimposed Training
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we derive a performance comparison between two training-based schemes for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems. The two schemes are thetime-division multiplexing scheme and the recently proposed data-dependent superimposed pilot scheme. For both schemes, a closed-form expressions for the Bit Error Rate (BER) is provided. We also determine, for both schemes, the optimal allocation of power between pilot and data that minimizes the BER.
1309.0858
Joint Sparse Recovery Method for Compressed Sensing with Structured Dictionary Mismatches
cs.IT math.IT
In traditional compressed sensing theory, the dictionary matrix is given a priori, whereas in real applications this matrix suffers from random noise and fluctuations. In this paper we consider a signal model where each column in the dictionary matrix is affected by a structured noise. This formulation is common in direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation of off-grid targets, encountered in both radar systems and array processing. We propose to use joint sparse signal recovery to solve the compressed sensing problem with structured dictionary mismatches and also give an analytical performance bound on this joint sparse recovery. We show that, under mild conditions, the reconstruction error of the original sparse signal is bounded by both the sparsity and the noise level in the measurement model. Moreover, we implement fast first-order algorithms to speed up the computing process. Numerical examples demonstrate the good performance of the proposed algorithm, and also show that the joint-sparse recovery method yields a better reconstruction result than existing methods. By implementing the joint sparse recovery method, the accuracy and efficiency of DOA estimation are improved in both passive and active sensing cases.
1309.0861
System Power Minimization to Access Non-Contiguous Spectrum in Cognitive Radio Networks
cs.NI cs.IT math.IT
Wireless transmission using non-contiguous chunks of spectrum is becoming increasingly important due to a variety of scenarios such as: secondary users avoiding incumbent users in TV white space; anticipated spectrum sharing between commercial and military systems; and spectrum sharing among uncoordinated interferers in unlicensed bands. Multi-Channel Multi-Radio (MCMR) platforms and Non-Contiguous Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (NC-OFDMA) technology are the two commercially viable transmission choices to access these non-contiguous spectrum chunks. Fixed MC-MRs do not scale with increasing number of non-contiguous spectrum chunks due to their fixed set of supporting radio front ends. NC-OFDMA allows nodes to access these non-contiguous spectrum chunks and put null sub-carriers in the remaining chunks. However, nulling sub-carriers increases the sampling rate (spectrum span) which, in turn, increases the power consumption of radio front ends. Our work characterizes this trade-off from a cross-layer perspective, specifically by showing how the slope of ADC/DAC power consumption versus sampling rate curve influences scheduling decisions in a multi-hop network. Specifically, we provide a branch and bound algorithm based mixed integer linear programming solution that performs joint power control, spectrum span selection, scheduling and routing in order to minimize the system power of multi-hop NC-OFDMA networks. We also provide a low complexity (O(E^2 M^2)) greedy algorithm where M and E denote the number of channels and links respectively. Numerical simulations suggest that our approach reduces system power by 30% over classical transmit power minimization based cross-layer algorithms.
1309.0866
On the Robustness of Temporal Properties for Stochastic Models
cs.LO cs.AI cs.LG cs.SY
Stochastic models such as Continuous-Time Markov Chains (CTMC) and Stochastic Hybrid Automata (SHA) are powerful formalisms to model and to reason about the dynamics of biological systems, due to their ability to capture the stochasticity inherent in biological processes. A classical question in formal modelling with clear relevance to biological modelling is the model checking problem. i.e. calculate the probability that a behaviour, expressed for instance in terms of a certain temporal logic formula, may occur in a given stochastic process. However, one may not only be interested in the notion of satisfiability, but also in the capacity of a system to mantain a particular emergent behaviour unaffected by the perturbations, caused e.g. from extrinsic noise, or by possible small changes in the model parameters. To address this issue, researchers from the verification community have recently proposed several notions of robustness for temporal logic providing suitable definitions of distance between a trajectory of a (deterministic) dynamical system and the boundaries of the set of trajectories satisfying the property of interest. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we extend the notion of robustness to stochastic systems, showing that this naturally leads to a distribution of robustness scores. By discussing two examples, we show how to approximate the distribution of the robustness score and its key indicators: the average robustness and the conditional average robustness. Secondly, we show how to combine these indicators with the satisfaction probability to address the system design problem, where the goal is to optimize some control parameters of a stochastic model in order to best maximize robustness of the desired specifications.
1309.0867
Robustness Analysis for Value-Freezing Signal Temporal Logic
cs.LO cs.CE cs.SY
In our previous work we have introduced the logic STL*, an extension of Signal Temporal Logic (STL) that allows value freezing. In this paper, we define robustness measures for STL* by adapting the robustness measures previously introduced for Metric Temporal Logic (MTL). Furthermore, we present an algorithm for STL* robustness computation, which is implemented in the tool Parasim. Application of STL* robustness analysis is demonstrated on case studies.
1309.0868
The impact of high density receptor clusters on VEGF signaling
cs.SY q-bio.MN
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling is involved in the process of blood vessel development and maintenance. Signaling is initiated by binding of the bivalent VEGF ligand to the membrane-bound receptors (VEGFR), which in turn stimulates receptor dimerization. Herein, we discuss experimental evidence that VEGF receptors localize in caveloae and other regions of the plasma membrane, and for other receptors, it has been shown that receptor clustering has an impact on dimerization and thus also on signaling. Overall, receptor clustering is part of a complex ecosystem of interactions and how receptor clustering impacts dimerization is not well understood. To address these questions, we have formulated the simplest possible model. We have postulated the existence of a single high affinity region in the cell membrane, which acts as a transient trap for receptors. We have defined an ODE model by introducing high- and low-density receptor variables and introduce the corresponding reactions from a realistic model of VEGF signal initiation. Finally, we use the model to investigate the relation between the degree of VEGFR concentration, ligand availability, and signaling. In conclusion, our simulation results provide a deeper understanding of the role of receptor clustering in cell signaling.
1309.0869
Falsifying Oscillation Properties of Parametric Biological Models
cs.LO cs.CE cs.SY
We propose an approach to falsification of oscillation properties of parametric biological models, based on the recently developed techniques for testing continuous and hybrid systems. In this approach, an oscillation property can be specified using a hybrid automaton, which is then used to guide the exploration in the state and input spaces to search for the behaviors that do not satisfy the property. We illustrate the approach with the Laub-Loomis model for spontaneous oscillations during the aggregation stage of Dictyostelium.
1309.0870
A hybrid mammalian cell cycle model
cs.CE q-bio.MN
Hybrid modeling provides an effective solution to cope with multiple time scales dynamics in systems biology. Among the applications of this method, one of the most important is the cell cycle regulation. The machinery of the cell cycle, leading to cell division and proliferation, combines slow growth, spatio-temporal re-organisation of the cell, and rapid changes of regulatory proteins concentrations induced by post-translational modifications. The advancement through the cell cycle comprises a well defined sequence of stages, separated by checkpoint transitions. The combination of continuous and discrete changes justifies hybrid modelling approaches to cell cycle dynamics. We present a piecewise-smooth version of a mammalian cell cycle model, obtained by hybridization from a smooth biochemical model. The approximate hybridization scheme, leading to simplified reaction rates and binary event location functions, is based on learning from a training set of trajectories of the smooth model. We discuss several learning strategies for the parameters of the hybrid model.
1309.0871
Exploring the Dynamics of Mass Action Systems
cs.CE cs.CY
We present the Populus toolkit for exploring the dynamics of mass action systems under different assumptions.
1309.0872
Producing a Set of Models for the Iron Homeostasis Network
cs.CE cs.LO q-bio.MN
This paper presents a method for modeling biological systems which combines formal techniques on intervals, numerical simulations and satisfaction of Signal Temporal Logic (STL) formulas. The main modeling challenge addressed by this approach is the large uncertainty in the values of the parameters due to the experimental difficulties of getting accurate biological data. This method considers intervals for each parameter and a formal description of the expected behavior of the model. In a first step, it produces reduced intervals of possible parameter values. Then by performing a systematic search in these intervals, it defines sets of parameter values used in the next step. This procedure aims at finding a sub-space where the model robustly behaves as expected. We apply this method to the modeling of the cellular iron homeostasis network in erythroid progenitors. The produced model describes explicitly the regulation mechanism which acts at the translational level.
1309.0873
A Hybrid Model of a Genetic Regulatory Network in Mammalian Sclera
cs.SY q-bio.MN
Myopia in human and animals is caused by the axial elongation of the eye and is closely linked to the thinning of the sclera which supports the eye tissue. This thinning has been correlated with the overproduction of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2), an enzyme that degrades the collagen structure of the sclera. In this short paper, we propose a descriptive model of a regulatory network with hysteresis, which seems necessary for creating oscillatory behavior in the hybrid model between MMP-2, MT1-MMP and TIMP-2. Numerical results provide insight on the type of equilibria present in the system.
1309.0874
Shortest Paths in Microseconds
cs.DC cs.DS cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Computing shortest paths is a fundamental primitive for several social network applications including socially-sensitive ranking, location-aware search, social auctions and social network privacy. Since these applications compute paths in response to a user query, the goal is to minimize latency while maintaining feasible memory requirements. We present ASAP, a system that achieves this goal by exploiting the structure of social networks. ASAP preprocesses a given network to compute and store a partial shortest path tree (PSPT) for each node. The PSPTs have the property that for any two nodes, each edge along the shortest path is with high probability contained in the PSPT of at least one of the nodes. We show that the structure of social networks enable the PSPT of each node to be an extremely small fraction of the entire network; hence, PSPTs can be stored efficiently and each shortest path can be computed extremely quickly. For a real network with 5 million nodes and 69 million edges, ASAP computes a shortest path for most node pairs in less than 49 microseconds per pair. ASAP, unlike any previous technique, also computes hundreds of paths (along with corresponding distances) between any node pair in less than 100 microseconds. Finally, ASAP admits efficient implementation on distributed programming frameworks like MapReduce.
1309.0898
Two-Hop Interference Channels: Impact of Linear Schemes
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the two-hop interference channel (IC), which consists of two source-destination pairs communicating with each other via two relays. We analyze the degrees of freedom (DoF) of this network when the relays are restricted to perform linear schemes, and the channel gains are constant (i.e., slow fading). We show that, somewhat surprisingly, by using vector-linear strategies at the relays, it is possible to achieve 4/3 sum-DoF when the channel gains are real. The key achievability idea is to alternate relaying coefficients across time, to create different end-to-end interference structures (or topologies) at different times. Although each of these topologies has only 1 sum-DoF, we manage to achieve 4/3 by coding across them. Furthermore, we develop a novel outer bound that matches our achievability, hence characterizing the sum-DoF of two-hop interference channels with linear schemes. As for the case of complex channel gains, we characterize the sum-DoF with linear schemes to be 5/3. We also generalize the results to the multi-antenna setting, characterizing the sum-DoF with linear schemes to be 2M-1/3 (for complex channel gains), where M is the number of antennas at each node.
1309.0961
Exactly scale-free scale-free networks
physics.soc-ph cs.SI nlin.AO
Many complex natural and physical systems exhibit patterns of interconnection that conform, approximately, to a network structure referred to as scale-free. Preferential attachment is one of many algorithms that have been introduced to model the growth and structure of scale-free networks. With so many different models of scale-free networks it is unclear what properties of scale-free networks are typical, and what properties are peculiarities of a particular growth or construction process. We propose a simple maximum entropy process which provides the best representation of what are typical properties of scale-free networks, and provides a standard against which real and algorithmically generated networks can be compared. As an example we consider preferential attachment and find that this particular growth model does not yield typical realizations of scale-free networks. In particular, the widely discussed "fragility" of scale-free networks is actually found to be due to the peculiar "hub-centric" structure of preferential attachment networks. We provide a method to generate or remove this latent hub-centric bias --- thereby demonstrating exactly which features of preferential attachment networks are atypical of the broader class of scale-free networks. We are also able to statistically demonstrate whether real networks are typical realizations of scale-free networks, or networks with that particular degree distribution; using a new surrogate generation method for complex networks, exactly analogous the the widely used surrogate tests of nonlinear time series analysis.
1309.0962
Random Variables Recorded under Mutually Exclusive Conditions: Contextuality-by-Default
quant-ph cs.AI math.PR q-bio.QM
We present general principles underlying analysis of the dependence of random variables (outputs) on deterministic conditions (inputs). Random outputs recorded under mutually exclusive input values are labeled by these values and considered stochastically unrelated, possessing no joint distribution. An input that does not directly influence an output creates a context for the latter. Any constraint imposed on the dependence of random outputs on inputs can be characterized by considering all possible couplings (joint distributions) imposed on stochastically unrelated outputs. The target application of these principles is a quantum mechanical system of entangled particles, with directions of spin measurements chosen for each particle being inputs and the spins recorded outputs. The sphere of applicability, however, spans systems across physical, biological, and behavioral sciences.
1309.0985
Efficient binary tomographic reconstruction
physics.class-ph cs.CV
Tomographic reconstruction of a binary image from few projections is considered. A novel {\em heuristic} algorithm is proposed, the central element of which is a nonlinear transformation $\psi(p)=\log(p/(1-p))$ of the probability $p$ that a pixel of the sought image be 1-valued. It consists of backprojections based on $\psi(p)$ and iterative corrections. Application of this algorithm to a series of artificial test cases leads to exact binary reconstructions, (i.e recovery of the binary image for each single pixel) from the knowledge of projection data over a few directions. Images up to $10^6$ pixels are reconstructed in a few seconds. A series of test cases is performed for comparison with previous methods, showing a better efficiency and reduced computation times.
1309.0999
Minutiae Based Thermal Face Recognition using Blood Perfusion Data
cs.CV
This paper describes an efficient approach for human face recognition based on blood perfusion data from infra-red face images. Blood perfusion data are characterized by the regional blood flow in human tissue and therefore do not depend entirely on surrounding temperature. These data bear a great potential for deriving discriminating facial thermogram for better classification and recognition of face images in comparison to optical image data. Blood perfusion data are related to distribution of blood vessels under the face skin. A distribution of blood vessels are unique for each person and as a set of extracted minutiae points from a blood perfusion data of a human face should be unique for that face. There may be several such minutiae point sets for a single face but all of these correspond to that particular face only. Entire face image is partitioned into equal blocks and the total number of minutiae points from each block is computed to construct final vector. Therefore, the size of the feature vectors is found to be same as total number of blocks considered. For classification, a five layer feed-forward backpropagation neural network has been used. A number of experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed face recognition system with varying block sizes. Experiments have been performed on the database created at our own laboratory. The maximum success of 91.47% recognition has been achieved with block size 8X8.
1309.1000
Automated Thermal Face recognition based on Minutiae Extraction
cs.CV
In this paper an efficient approach for human face recognition based on the use of minutiae points in thermal face image is proposed. The thermogram of human face is captured by thermal infra-red camera. Image processing methods are used to pre-process the captured thermogram, from which different physiological features based on blood perfusion data are extracted. Blood perfusion data are related to distribution of blood vessels under the face skin. In the present work, three different methods have been used to get the blood perfusion image, namely bit-plane slicing and medial axis transform, morphological erosion and medial axis transform, sobel edge operators. Distribution of blood vessels is unique for each person and a set of extracted minutiae points from a blood perfusion data of a human face should be unique for that face. Two different methods are discussed for extracting minutiae points from blood perfusion data. For extraction of features entire face image is partitioned into equal size blocks and the total number of minutiae points from each block is computed to construct final feature vector. Therefore, the size of the feature vectors is found to be same as total number of blocks considered. A five layer feed-forward back propagation neural network is used as the classification tool. A number of experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed face recognition methodologies with varying block size on the database created at our own laboratory. It has been found that the first method supercedes the other two producing an accuracy of 97.62% with block size 16X16 for bit-plane 4.
1309.1007
Concentration in unbounded metric spaces and algorithmic stability
math.PR cs.LG math.FA
We prove an extension of McDiarmid's inequality for metric spaces with unbounded diameter. To this end, we introduce the notion of the {\em subgaussian diameter}, which is a distribution-dependent refinement of the metric diameter. Our technique provides an alternative approach to that of Kutin and Niyogi's method of weakly difference-bounded functions, and yields nontrivial, dimension-free results in some interesting cases where the former does not. As an application, we give apparently the first generalization bound in the algorithmic stability setting that holds for unbounded loss functions. We furthermore extend our concentration inequality to strongly mixing processes.
1309.1009
A Comparative Study of Human thermal face recognition based on Haar wavelet transform (HWT) and Local Binary Pattern (LBP)
cs.CV
Thermal infra-red (IR) images focus on changes of temperature distribution on facial muscles and blood vessels. These temperature changes can be regarded as texture features of images. A comparative study of face recognition methods working in thermal spectrum is carried out in this paper. In these study two local-matching methods based on Haar wavelet transform and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) are analyzed. Wavelet transform is a good tool to analyze multi-scale, multi-direction changes of texture. Local binary patterns (LBP) are a type of feature used for classification in computer vision. Firstly, human thermal IR face image is preprocessed and cropped the face region only from the entire image. Secondly, two different approaches are used to extract the features from the cropped face region. In the first approach, the training images and the test images are processed with Haar wavelet transform and the LL band and the average of LH/HL/HH bands sub-images are created for each face image. Then a total confidence matrix is formed for each face image by taking a weighted sum of the corresponding pixel values of the LL band and average band. For LBP feature extraction, each of the face images in training and test datasets is divided into 161 numbers of sub images, each of size 8X8 pixels. For each such sub images, LBP features are extracted which are concatenated in row wise manner. PCA is performed separately on the individual feature set for dimensionality reeducation. Finally two different classifiers are used to classify face images. One such classifier multi-layer feed forward neural network and another classifier is minimum distance classifier. The Experiments have been performed on the database created at our own laboratory and Terravic Facial IR Database.
1309.1014
Advances in the Logical Representation of Lexical Semantics
cs.CL
The integration of lexical semantics and pragmatics in the analysis of the meaning of natural lan- guage has prompted changes to the global framework derived from Montague. In those works, the original lexicon, in which words were assigned an atomic type of a single-sorted logic, has been re- placed by a set of many-facetted lexical items that can compose their meaning with salient contextual properties using a rich typing system as a guide. Having related our proposal for such an expanded framework \LambdaTYn, we present some recent advances in the logical formalisms associated, including constraints on lexical transformations and polymorphic quantifiers, and ongoing discussions and research on the granularity of the type system and the limits of transitivity.
1309.1026
Parallel Decoders of Polar Codes
cs.IT math.IT
In this letter, we propose parallel SC (Successive Cancellation) decoder and parallel SC-List decoder for polar codes. The parallel decoder is composed of M=2^m(m>=1) component decoders working in parallel and each component decoder decodes a Polar code of a block size of 1/M of the original Polar code. Therefore the parallel decoder has M times faster decoding speed. Our simulation results show that the parallel decoder has almost the same error-rate performance as the conventional non-parallel decoder.
1309.1029
Sensor Setups for State and Wind Estimation for Airborne Wind Energy Converters
cs.SY cs.RO
An unscented Kalman filter with joint state and parameter estimation is proposed for aerodynamics, states and wind conditions for airborne wind energy converters. The proposed estimator relies on different measurement setups. Due to the strict economic constraints of wind energy converters, the sensor setups are chosen with minimal cost and reliability issues in mind. Simulation data with a high fidelity system model and experimental tests using flight data, together with wind measurements obtained using a lidar system for altitude wind measurements, are used for validation. The data was obtained during test flights of the EnerK\'ite EK30, an airborne wind energy converter currently in research operation in Brandenburg, Germany. Feasible accuracies were achieved even with the simplest of setups and illustrate the gain achievable by airborne sensors. Additionally, the results encourage further research into use of the obtained wind estimates for site assessment.
1309.1080
Boosting in Location Space
cs.CV
The goal of object detection is to find objects in an image. An object detector accepts an image and produces a list of locations as $(x,y)$ pairs. Here we introduce a new concept: {\bf location-based boosting}. Location-based boosting differs from previous boosting algorithms because it optimizes a new spatial loss function to combine object detectors, each of which may have marginal performance, into a single, more accurate object detector. A structured representation of object locations as a list of $(x,y)$ pairs is a more natural domain for object detection than the spatially unstructured representation produced by classifiers. Furthermore, this formulation allows us to take advantage of the intuition that large areas of the background are uninteresting and it is not worth expending computational effort on them. This results in a more scalable algorithm because it does not need to take measures to prevent the background data from swamping the foreground data such as subsampling or applying an ad-hoc weighting to the pixels. We first present the theory of location-based boosting, and then motivate it with empirical results on a challenging data set.
1309.1125
Learning to answer questions
cs.CL
We present an open-domain Question-Answering system that learns to answer questions based on successful past interactions. We follow a pattern-based approach to Answer-Extraction, where (lexico-syntactic) patterns that relate a question to its answer are automatically learned and used to answer future questions. Results show that our approach contributes to the system's best performance when it is conjugated with typical Answer-Extraction strategies. Moreover, it allows the system to learn with the answered questions and to rectify wrong or unsolved past questions.
1309.1129
Analysing Quality of English-Hindi Machine Translation Engine Outputs Using Bayesian Classification
cs.CL
This paper considers the problem for estimating the quality of machine translation outputs which are independent of human intervention and are generally addressed using machine learning techniques.There are various measures through which a machine learns translations quality. Automatic Evaluation metrics produce good co-relation at corpus level but cannot produce the same results at the same segment or sentence level. In this paper 16 features are extracted from the input sentences and their translations and a quality score is obtained based on Bayesian inference produced from training data.
1309.1131
Is the Voter Model a model for voters?
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
The voter model has been studied extensively as a paradigmatic opinion dynamics' model. However, its ability for modeling real opinion dynamics has not been addressed. We introduce a noisy voter model (accounting for social influence) with agents' recurrent mobility (as a proxy for social context), where the spatial and population diversity are taken as inputs to the model. We show that the dynamics can be described as a noisy diffusive process that contains the proper anysotropic coupling topology given by population and mobility heterogeneity. The model captures statistical features of the US presidential elections as the stationary vote-share fluctuations across counties, and the long-range spatial correlations that decay logarithmically with the distance. Furthermore, it recovers the behavior of these properties when a real-space renormalization is performed by coarse-graining the geographical scale from county level through congressional districts and up to states. Finally, we analyze the role of the mobility range and the randomness in decision making which are consistent with the empirical observations.
1309.1151
Non-Malleable Coding Against Bit-wise and Split-State Tampering
cs.IT cs.CC cs.CR math.IT
Non-malleable coding, introduced by Dziembowski, Pietrzak and Wichs (ICS 2010), aims for protecting the integrity of information against tampering attacks in situations where error-detection is impossible. Intuitively, information encoded by a non-malleable code either decodes to the original message or, in presence of any tampering, to an unrelated message. Dziembowski et al. show existence of non-malleable codes for any class of tampering functions of bounded size. We consider constructions of coding schemes against two well-studied classes of tampering functions: bit-wise tampering functions (where the adversary tampers each bit of the encoding independently) and split-state adversaries (where two independent adversaries arbitrarily tamper each half of the encoded sequence). 1. For bit-tampering, we obtain explicit and efficiently encodable and decodable codes of length $n$ achieving rate $1-o(1)$ and error (security) $\exp(-\tilde{\Omega}(n^{1/7}))$. We improve the error to $\exp(-\tilde{\Omega}(n))$ at the cost of making the construction Monte Carlo with success probability $1-\exp(-\Omega(n))$. Previously, the best known construction of bit-tampering codes was the Monte Carlo construction of Dziembowski et al. (ICS 2010) achieving rate ~.1887. 2. We initiate the study of seedless non-malleable extractors as a variation of non-malleable extractors introduced by Dodis and Wichs (STOC 2009). We show that construction of non-malleable codes for the split-state model reduces to construction of non-malleable two-source extractors. We prove existence of such extractors, which implies that codes obtained from our reduction can achieve rates arbitrarily close to 1/5 and exponentially small error. Currently, the best known explicit construction of split-state coding schemes is due to Aggarwal, Dodis and Lovett (ECCC TR13-081) which only achieves vanishing (polynomially small) rate.
1309.1155
Minutiae Based Thermal Human Face Recognition using Label Connected Component Algorithm
cs.CV
In this paper, a thermal infra red face recognition system for human identification and verification using blood perfusion data and back propagation feed forward neural network is proposed. The system consists of three steps. At the very first step face region is cropped from the colour 24-bit input images. Secondly face features are extracted from the croped region, which will be taken as the input of the back propagation feed forward neural network in the third step and classification and recognition is carried out. The proposed approaches are tested on a number of human thermal infra red face images created at our own laboratory. Experimental results reveal the higher degree performance
1309.1156
Thermal Human face recognition based on Haar wavelet transform and series matching technique
cs.CV
Thermal infrared (IR) images represent the heat patterns emitted from hot object and they do not consider the energies reflected from an object. Objects living or non-living emit different amounts of IR energy according to their body temperature and characteristics. Humans are homoeothermic and hence capable of maintaining constant temperature under different surrounding temperature. Face recognition from thermal (IR) images should focus on changes of temperature on facial blood vessels. These temperature changes can be regarded as texture features of images and wavelet transform is a very good tool to analyze multi-scale and multi-directional texture. Wavelet transform is also used for image dimensionality reduction, by removing redundancies and preserving original features of the image. The sizes of the facial images are normally large. So, the wavelet transform is used before image similarity is measured. Therefore this paper describes an efficient approach of human face recognition based on wavelet transform from thermal IR images. The system consists of three steps. At the very first step, human thermal IR face image is preprocessed and the face region is only cropped from the entire image. Secondly, Haar wavelet is used to extract low frequency band from the cropped face region. Lastly, the image classification between the training images and the test images is done, which is based on low-frequency components. The proposed approach is tested on a number of human thermal infrared face images created at our own laboratory and Terravic Facial IR Database. Experimental results indicated that the thermal infra red face images can be recognized by the proposed system effectively. The maximum success of 95% recognition has been achieved.
1309.1193
Confidence-constrained joint sparsity recovery under the Poisson noise model
stat.ML cs.LG
Our work is focused on the joint sparsity recovery problem where the common sparsity pattern is corrupted by Poisson noise. We formulate the confidence-constrained optimization problem in both least squares (LS) and maximum likelihood (ML) frameworks and study the conditions for perfect reconstruction of the original row sparsity and row sparsity pattern. However, the confidence-constrained optimization problem is non-convex. Using convex relaxation, an alternative convex reformulation of the problem is proposed. We evaluate the performance of the proposed approach using simulation results on synthetic data and show the effectiveness of proposed row sparsity and row sparsity pattern recovery framework.
1309.1199
Experiences with Automated Build and Test for Geodynamics Simulation Codes
cs.CE cs.MS
The Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG) is an NSF funded project that develops, supports, and disseminates community-accessible software for the geodynamics research community. CIG software supports a variety of computational geodynamic research from mantle and core dynamics, to crustal and earthquake dynamics, to magma migration and seismology. To support this type of project a backend computational infrastructure is necessary. Part of this backend infrastructure is an automated build and testing system to ensure codes and changes to them are compatible with multiple platforms and that the changes do not significantly affect the scientific results. In this paper we describe the build and test infrastructure for CIG based on the BaTLab system, how it is organized, and how it assists in operations. We demonstrate the use of this type of testing for a suite of geophysics codes, show why codes may compile on one platform but not on another, and demonstrate how minor changes may alter the computed results in unexpected ways that can influence the scientific interpretation. Finally, we examine result comparison between platforms and show how the compiler or operating system may affect results.
1309.1204
Achieving High Performance with Unified Residual Evaluation
cs.MS cs.CE
We examine residual evaluation, perhaps the most basic operation in numerical simulation. By raising the level of abstraction in this operation, we can eliminate specialized code, enable optimization, and greatly increase the extensibility of existing code.
1309.1218
Optimal Ternary Cyclic Codes with Minimum Distance Four and Five
cs.IT math.IT
Cyclic codes are an important subclass of linear codes and have wide applications in data storage systems, communication systems and consumer electronics. In this paper, two families of optimal ternary cyclic codes are presented. The first family of cyclic codes has parameters $[3^m-1, 3^m-1-2m, 4]$ and contains a class of conjectured cyclic codes and several new classes of optimal cyclic codes. The second family of cyclic codes has parameters $[3^m-1, 3^m-2-2m, 5]$ and contains a number of classes of cyclic codes that are obtained from perfect nonlinear functions over $\fthreem$, where $m>1$ and is a positive integer.
1309.1226
Graded Causation and Defaults
cs.AI
Recent work in psychology and experimental philosophy has shown that judgments of actual causation are often influenced by consideration of defaults, typicality, and normality. A number of philosophers and computer scientists have also suggested that an appeal to such factors can help deal with problems facing existing accounts of actual causation. This paper develops a flexible formal framework for incorporating defaults, typicality, and normality into an account of actual causation. The resulting account takes actual causation to be both graded and comparative. We then show how our account would handle a number of standard cases.
1309.1227
Compact Representations of Extended Causal Models
cs.AI
Judea Pearl was the first to propose a definition of actual causation using causal models. A number of authors have suggested that an adequate account of actual causation must appeal not only to causal structure, but also to considerations of normality. In earlier work, we provided a definition of actual causation using extended causal models, which include information about both causal structure and normality. Extended causal models are potentially very complex. In this paper, we show how it is possible to achieve a compact representation of extended causal models.
1309.1228
Weighted regret-based likelihood: a new approach to describing uncertainty
cs.AI
Recently, Halpern and Leung suggested representing uncertainty by a weighted set of probability measures, and suggested a way of making decisions based on this representation of uncertainty: maximizing weighted regret. Their paper does not answer an apparently simpler question: what it means, according to this representation of uncertainty, for an event E to be more likely than an event E'. In this paper, a notion of comparative likelihood when uncertainty is represented by a weighted set of probability measures is defined. It generalizes the ordering defined by probability (and by lower probability) in a natural way; a generalization of upper probability can also be defined. A complete axiomatic characterization of this notion of regret-based likelihood is given.
1309.1274
A Small Universal Petri Net
cs.FL cs.CC cs.DC cs.NE
A universal deterministic inhibitor Petri net with 14 places, 29 transitions and 138 arcs was constructed via simulation of Neary and Woods' weakly universal Turing machine with 2 states and 4 symbols; the total time complexity is exponential in the running time of their weak machine. To simulate the blank words of the weakly universal Turing machine, a couple of dedicated transitions insert their codes when reaching edges of the working zone. To complete a chain of a given Petri net encoding to be executed by the universal Petri net, a translation of a bi-tag system into a Turing machine was constructed. The constructed Petri net is universal in the standard sense; a weaker form of universality for Petri nets was not introduced in this work.
1309.1286
On a Family of Circulant Matrices for Quasi-Cyclic Low-Density Generator Matrix Codes
cs.IT math.IT
We present a new class of sparse and easily invertible circulant matrices that can have a sparse inverse though not being permutation matrices. Their study is useful in the design of quasi-cyclic low-density generator matrix codes, that are able to join the inner structure of quasi-cyclic codes with sparse generator matrices, so limiting the number of elementary operations needed for encoding. Circulant matrices of the proposed class permit to hit both targets without resorting to identity or permutation matrices that may penalize the code minimum distance and often cause significant error floors.
1309.1300
Electrical Structure-Based PMU Placement in Electric Power Systems
cs.SY
Recent work on complex networks compared the topological and electrical structures of the power grid, taking into account the underlying physical laws that govern the electrical connectivity between various components in the network. A distance metric, namely, resistance distance was introduced to provide a more comprehensive description of interconnections in power systems compared with the topological structure, which is based only on geographic connections between network components. Motivated by these studies, in this paper we revisit the phasor measurement unit (PMU) placement problem by deriving the connectivity matrix of the network using resistance distances between buses in the grid, and use it in the integer program formulations for several standard IEEE bus systems. The main result of this paper is rather discouraging: more number of PMUs are required, compared with those obtained using the topological structure, to meet the desired objective of complete network observability without zero injection measurements. However, in light of recent advances in the electrical structure of the grid, our study provides a more realistic perspective of PMU placement in power systems. By further exploring the connectivity matrix derived using the electrical structure, we devise a procedure to solve the placement problem without resorting to linear programming.
1309.1319
Characterization of the Least Periods of the Generalized Self-Shrinking Sequences
cs.IT math.IT
In 2004, Y. Hu and G. Xiao introduced the generalized self-shrinking generator, a simple bit-stream generator considered as a specialization of the shrinking generator as well as a generalization of the self-shrinking generator. The authors conjectured that the family of generalized self-shrinking sequences took their least periods in the set {1, 2, 2**(L-1)}, where L is the length of the Linear Feedback Shift Register included in the generator. In this correspondence, it is proved that the least periods of such generated sequences take values exclusively in such a set. As a straight consequence of this result, other characteristics of such sequences (linear complexity or pseudorandomness) and their potential use in cryptography are also analyzed.
1309.1323
From Instantly Decodable to Random Linear Network Coding
cs.IT math.IT
Our primary goal in this paper is to traverse the performance gap between two linear network coding schemes: random linear network coding (RLNC) and instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) in terms of throughput and decoding delay. We first redefine the concept of packet generation and use it to partition a block of partially-received data packets in a novel way, based on the coding sets in an IDNC solution. By varying the generation size, we obtain a general coding framework which consists of a series of coding schemes, with RLNC and IDNC identified as two extreme cases. We then prove that the throughput and decoding delay performance of all coding schemes in this coding framework are bounded between the performance of RLNC and IDNC and hence throughput-delay tradeoff becomes possible. We also propose implementations of this coding framework to further improve its throughput and decoding delay performance, to manage feedback frequency and coding complexity, or to achieve in-block performance adaption. Extensive simulations are then provided to verify the performance of the proposed coding schemes and their implementations.
1309.1333
The Stability Region of the Two-User Interference Channel
cs.IT math.IT
The stable throughput region of the two-user interference channel is investigated here. First, the stability region for the general case is characterized. Second, we study the cases where the receivers treat interference as noise or perform successive interference cancelation. Finally, we provide conditions for the convexity/concavity of the stability region and for which a certain interference management strategy leads to broader stability region.
1309.1334
Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Database Programming Languages (DBPL 2013), August 30, 2013, Riva del Garda, Trento, Italy
cs.DB cs.PL
This volume contains the papers presented at the 14th Symposium on Database Programming Languages (DBPL 2013) held on August 30th, 2013, in Riva del Garda, co-located with the 39th International Conference on Very Large Databases (VLDB 2013). They cover a wide range of topics including the application of programming language techniques to further the expressiveness of database languages, schema management, and the practical use of XPath. To complement this technical program, DBPL 2013 featured three invited talks by Serge Abiteboul (Inria), J\'er\^ome Sim\'eon (IBM), and Soren Lassen (Facebook).
1309.1338
On the Stability Region of a Relay-Assisted Multiple Access Scheme
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we study the impact of a relay node in a two-user network. We assume a random access collision channel model with erasures. In particular we obtain an inner and an outer bound for the stability region.
1309.1349
Ergodic Randomized Algorithms and Dynamics over Networks
cs.SY
Algorithms and dynamics over networks often involve randomization, and randomization may result in oscillating dynamics which fail to converge in a deterministic sense. In this paper, we observe this undesired feature in three applications, in which the dynamics is the randomized asynchronous counterpart of a well-behaved synchronous one. These three applications are network localization, PageRank computation, and opinion dynamics. Motivated by their formal similarity, we show the following general fact, under the assumptions of independence across time and linearities of the updates: if the expected dynamics is stable and converges to the same limit of the original synchronous dynamics, then the oscillations are ergodic and the desired limit can be locally recovered via time-averaging.
1309.1369
Semistochastic Quadratic Bound Methods
stat.ML cs.LG math.NA stat.CO
Partition functions arise in a variety of settings, including conditional random fields, logistic regression, and latent gaussian models. In this paper, we consider semistochastic quadratic bound (SQB) methods for maximum likelihood inference based on partition function optimization. Batch methods based on the quadratic bound were recently proposed for this class of problems, and performed favorably in comparison to state-of-the-art techniques. Semistochastic methods fall in between batch algorithms, which use all the data, and stochastic gradient type methods, which use small random selections at each iteration. We build semistochastic quadratic bound-based methods, and prove both global convergence (to a stationary point) under very weak assumptions, and linear convergence rate under stronger assumptions on the objective. To make the proposed methods faster and more stable, we consider inexact subproblem minimization and batch-size selection schemes. The efficacy of SQB methods is demonstrated via comparison with several state-of-the-art techniques on commonly used datasets.
1309.1380
Belief propagation, robust reconstruction and optimal recovery of block models
math.PR cs.SI
We consider the problem of reconstructing sparse symmetric block models with two blocks and connection probabilities $a/n$ and $b/n$ for inter- and intra-block edge probabilities, respectively. It was recently shown that one can do better than a random guess if and only if $(a-b)^2>2(a+b)$. Using a variant of belief propagation, we give a reconstruction algorithm that is optimal in the sense that if $(a-b)^2>C(a+b)$ for some constant $C$ then our algorithm maximizes the fraction of the nodes labeled correctly. Ours is the only algorithm proven to achieve the optimal fraction of nodes labeled correctly. Along the way, we prove some results of independent interest regarding robust reconstruction for the Ising model on regular and Poisson trees.
1309.1392
Bayesian Structural Inference for Hidden Processes
stat.ML cs.LG math.ST nlin.CD physics.data-an stat.TH
We introduce a Bayesian approach to discovering patterns in structurally complex processes. The proposed method of Bayesian Structural Inference (BSI) relies on a set of candidate unifilar HMM (uHMM) topologies for inference of process structure from a data series. We employ a recently developed exact enumeration of topological epsilon-machines. (A sequel then removes the topological restriction.) This subset of the uHMM topologies has the added benefit that inferred models are guaranteed to be epsilon-machines, irrespective of estimated transition probabilities. Properties of epsilon-machines and uHMMs allow for the derivation of analytic expressions for estimating transition probabilities, inferring start states, and comparing the posterior probability of candidate model topologies, despite process internal structure being only indirectly present in data. We demonstrate BSI's effectiveness in estimating a process's randomness, as reflected by the Shannon entropy rate, and its structure, as quantified by the statistical complexity. We also compare using the posterior distribution over candidate models and the single, maximum a posteriori model for point estimation and show that the former more accurately reflects uncertainty in estimated values. We apply BSI to in-class examples of finite- and infinite-order Markov processes, as well to an out-of-class, infinite-state hidden process.
1309.1410
A binary deletion channel with a fixed number of deletions
math.PR cs.IT math.CO math.IT
Suppose a binary string x = x_1...x_n is being broadcast repeatedly over a faulty communication channel. Each time, the channel delivers a fixed number m of the digits (m<n) with the lost digits chosen uniformly at random, and the order of the surviving digits preserved. How large does m have to be to reconstruct the message?
1309.1418
Algorithmic Data Analytics, Small Data Matters and Correlation versus Causation
cs.CE cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
This is a review of aspects of the theory of algorithmic information that may contribute to a framework for formulating questions related to complex highly unpredictable systems. We start by contrasting Shannon Entropy and Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity epitomizing the difference between correlation and causation to then move onto surveying classical results from algorithmic complexity and algorithmic probability, highlighting their deep connection to the study of automata frequency distributions. We end showing how long-range algorithmic predicting models for economic and biological systems may require infinite computation but locally approximated short-range estimations are possible thereby showing how small data can deliver important insights into important features of complex "Big Data".
1309.1453
Parallel machine scheduling with step deteriorating jobs and setup times by a hybrid discrete cuckoo search algorithm
math.OC cs.DS cs.NE
This article considers the parallel machine scheduling problem with step-deteriorating jobs and sequence-dependent setup times. The objective is to minimize the total tardiness by determining the allocation and sequence of jobs on identical parallel machines. In this problem, the processing time of each job is a step function dependent upon its starting time. An individual extended time is penalized when the starting time of a job is later than a specific deterioration date. The possibility of deterioration of a job makes the parallel machine scheduling problem more challenging than ordinary ones. A mixed integer programming model for the optimal solution is derived. Due to its NP-hard nature, a hybrid discrete cuckoo search algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. In order to generate a good initial swarm, a modified heuristic named the MBHG is incorporated into the initialization of population. Several discrete operators are proposed in the random walk of L\'{e}vy Flights and the crossover search. Moreover, a local search procedure based on variable neighborhood descent is integrated into the algorithm as a hybrid strategy in order to improve the quality of elite solutions. Computational experiments are executed on two sets of randomly generated test instances. The results show that the proposed hybrid algorithm can yield better solutions in comparison with the commercial solver CPLEX with one hour time limit, discrete cuckoo search algorithm and the existing variable neighborhood search algorithm.
1309.1496
Methods for Large Scale Hydraulic Fracture Monitoring
physics.geo-ph cs.CE
In this paper we propose computationally efficient and robust methods for estimating the moment tensor and location of micro-seismic event(s) for large search volumes. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we propose a novel joint-complexity measure, namely the sum of nuclear norms which while imposing sparsity on the number of fractures (locations) over a large spatial volume, also captures the rank-1 nature of the induced wavefield pattern. This wavefield pattern is modeled as the outer-product of the source signature with the amplitude pattern across the receivers from a seismic source. A rank-1 factorization of the estimated wavefield pattern at each location can therefore be used to estimate the seismic moment tensor using the knowledge of the array geometry. In contrast to existing work this approach allows us to drop any other assumption on the source signature. Second, we exploit the recently proposed first-order incremental projection algorithms for a fast and efficient implementation of the resulting optimization problem and develop a hybrid stochastic & deterministic algorithm which results in significant computational savings.
1309.1501
Improvements to deep convolutional neural networks for LVCSR
cs.LG cs.CL cs.NE math.OC stat.ML
Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are more powerful than Deep Neural Networks (DNN), as they are able to better reduce spectral variation in the input signal. This has also been confirmed experimentally, with CNNs showing improvements in word error rate (WER) between 4-12% relative compared to DNNs across a variety of LVCSR tasks. In this paper, we describe different methods to further improve CNN performance. First, we conduct a deep analysis comparing limited weight sharing and full weight sharing with state-of-the-art features. Second, we apply various pooling strategies that have shown improvements in computer vision to an LVCSR speech task. Third, we introduce a method to effectively incorporate speaker adaptation, namely fMLLR, into log-mel features. Fourth, we introduce an effective strategy to use dropout during Hessian-free sequence training. We find that with these improvements, particularly with fMLLR and dropout, we are able to achieve an additional 2-3% relative improvement in WER on a 50-hour Broadcast News task over our previous best CNN baseline. On a larger 400-hour BN task, we find an additional 4-5% relative improvement over our previous best CNN baseline.
1309.1507
A Quantized Johnson Lindenstrauss Lemma: The Finding of Buffon's Needle
cs.IT cs.DS math.IT math.PR
In 1733, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in France, set the ground of geometric probability theory by defining an enlightening problem: What is the probability that a needle thrown randomly on a ground made of equispaced parallel strips lies on two of them? In this work, we show that the solution to this problem, and its generalization to $N$ dimensions, allows us to discover a quantized form of the Johnson-Lindenstrauss (JL) Lemma, i.e., one that combines a linear dimensionality reduction procedure with a uniform quantization of precision $\delta>0$. In particular, given a finite set $\mathcal S \subset \mathbb R^N$ of $S$ points and a distortion level $\epsilon>0$, as soon as $M > M_0 = O(\epsilon^{-2} \log S)$, we can (randomly) construct a mapping from $(\mathcal S, \ell_2)$ to $(\delta\mathbb Z^M, \ell_1)$ that approximately preserves the pairwise distances between the points of $\mathcal S$. Interestingly, compared to the common JL Lemma, the mapping is quasi-isometric and we observe both an additive and a multiplicative distortions on the embedded distances. These two distortions, however, decay as $O(\sqrt{(\log S)/M})$ when $M$ increases. Moreover, for coarse quantization, i.e., for high $\delta$ compared to the set radius, the distortion is mainly additive, while for small $\delta$ we tend to a Lipschitz isometric embedding. Finally, we prove the existence of a "nearly" quasi-isometric embedding of $(\mathcal S, \ell_2)$ into $(\delta\mathbb Z^M, \ell_2)$. This one involves a non-linear distortion of the $\ell_2$-distance in $\mathcal S$ that vanishes for distant points in this set. Noticeably, the additive distortion in this case is slower, and decays as $O(\sqrt[4]{(\log S)/M})$.
1309.1508
Accelerating Hessian-free optimization for deep neural networks by implicit preconditioning and sampling
cs.LG cs.CL cs.NE math.OC stat.ML
Hessian-free training has become a popular parallel second or- der optimization technique for Deep Neural Network training. This study aims at speeding up Hessian-free training, both by means of decreasing the amount of data used for training, as well as through reduction of the number of Krylov subspace solver iterations used for implicit estimation of the Hessian. In this paper, we develop an L-BFGS based preconditioning scheme that avoids the need to access the Hessian explicitly. Since L-BFGS cannot be regarded as a fixed-point iteration, we further propose the employment of flexible Krylov subspace solvers that retain the desired theoretical convergence guarantees of their conventional counterparts. Second, we propose a new sampling algorithm, which geometrically increases the amount of data utilized for gradient and Krylov subspace iteration calculations. On a 50-hr English Broadcast News task, we find that these methodologies provide roughly a 1.5x speed-up, whereas, on a 300-hr Switchboard task, these techniques provide over a 2.3x speedup, with no loss in WER. These results suggest that even further speed-up is expected, as problems scale and complexity grows.
1309.1516
On Secrecy Capacity of Fast Fading MIMOME Wiretap Channels With Statistical CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider secure transmissions in ergodic Rayleigh fast-faded multiple-input multiple-output multiple-antenna-eavesdropper (MIMOME) wiretap channels with only statistical channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). When the legitimate receiver has more (or equal) antennas than the eavesdropper, we prove the first MIMOME secrecy capacity with partial CSIT by establishing a new secrecy capacity upper-bound. The key step is to form an MIMOME degraded channel by dividing the legitimate receiver's channel matrix into two submatrices, and setting one of the submatrices to be the same as the eavesdropper's channel matrix. Next, under the total power constraint over all transmit antennas, we analytically solve the channel-input covariance matrix optimization problem to fully characterize the MIMOME secrecy capacity. Typically, the MIMOME optimization problems are non-concave. However, thank to the proposed degraded channel, we can transform the stochastic MIMOME optimization problem to be a Schur-concave one and then find its solution. Besides total power constraint, we also investigate the secrecy capacity when the transmitter is subject to the practical per-antenna power constraint. The corresponding optimization problem is even more difficult since it is not Schuar-concave. Under the two power constraints considered, the corresponding MIMOME secrecy capacities can both scale with the signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) when the difference between numbers of antennas at legitimate receiver and eavesdropper are large enough. However, when the legitimate receiver and eavesdropper have a single antenna each, such SNR scalings do not exist for both cases.
1309.1517
On the Capacity of Networks with Correlated Sources
cs.IT math.IT
Characterizing the capacity region for a network can be extremely difficult. Even with independent sources, determining the capacity region can be as hard as the open problem of characterizing all information inequalities. The majority of computable outer bounds in the literature are relaxations of the Linear Programming bound which involves entropy functions of random variables related to the sources and link messages. When sources are not independent, the problem is even more complicated. Extension of linear programming bounds to networks with correlated sources is largely open. Source dependence is usually specified via a joint probability distribution, and one of the main challenges in extending linear programming bounds is the difficulty (or impossibility) of characterizing arbitrary dependencies via entropy functions. This paper tackles the problem by answering the question of how well entropy functions can characterize correlation among sources. We show that by using carefully chosen auxiliary random variables, the characterization can be fairly "accurate".
1309.1518
Modeling, Analysis and Optimization of Multicast Device-to-Device Transmission
cs.IT math.IT
Multicast device-to-device (D2D) transmission is important for applications like local file transfer in commercial networks and is also a required feature in public safety networks. In this paper we propose a tractable baseline multicast D2D model, and use it to analyze important multicast metrics like the coverage probability, mean number of covered receivers and throughput. In addition, we examine how the multicast performance would be affected by certain factors like mobility and network assistance. Take the mean number of covered receivers as an example. We find that simple repetitive transmissions help but the gain quickly diminishes as the repetition time increases. Meanwhile, mobility and network assistance (i.e. allowing the network to relay the multicast signals) can help cover more receivers. We also explore how to optimize multicasting, e.g. by choosing the optimal multicast rate and the optimal number of retransmission times.
1309.1521
Nano-scale reservoir computing
cs.ET cs.NE nlin.AO
This work describes preliminary steps towards nano-scale reservoir computing using quantum dots. Our research has focused on the development of an accumulator-based sensing system that reacts to changes in the environment, as well as the development of a software simulation. The investigated systems generate nonlinear responses to inputs that make them suitable for a physical implementation of a neural network. This development will enable miniaturisation of the neurons to the molecular level, leading to a range of applications including monitoring of changes in materials or structures. The system is based around the optical properties of quantum dots. The paper will report on experimental work on systems using Cadmium Selenide (CdSe) quantum dots and on the various methods to render the systems sensitive to pH, redox potential or specific ion concentration. Once the quantum dot-based systems are rendered sensitive to these triggers they can provide a distributed array that can monitor and transmit information on changes within the material.
1309.1524
Guided Self-Organization of Input-Driven Recurrent Neural Networks
cs.NE cs.AI nlin.AO
We review attempts that have been made towards understanding the computational properties and mechanisms of input-driven dynamical systems like RNNs, and reservoir computing networks in particular. We provide details on methods that have been developed to give quantitative answers to the questions above. Following this, we show how self-organization may be used to improve reservoirs for better performance, in some cases guided by the measures presented before. We also present a possible way to quantify task performance using an information-theoretic approach, and finally discuss promising future directions aimed at a better understanding of how these systems perform their computations and how to best guide self-organized processes for their optimization.
1309.1536
Rank-frequency relation for Chinese characters
cs.CL physics.data-an
We show that the Zipf's law for Chinese characters perfectly holds for sufficiently short texts (few thousand different characters). The scenario of its validity is similar to the Zipf's law for words in short English texts. For long Chinese texts (or for mixtures of short Chinese texts), rank-frequency relations for Chinese characters display a two-layer, hierarchic structure that combines a Zipfian power-law regime for frequent characters (first layer) with an exponential-like regime for less frequent characters (second layer). For these two layers we provide different (though related) theoretical descriptions that include the range of low-frequency characters (hapax legomena). The comparative analysis of rank-frequency relations for Chinese characters versus English words illustrates the extent to which the characters play for Chinese writers the same role as the words for those writing within alphabetical systems.
1309.1539
Practical Matrix Completion and Corruption Recovery using Proximal Alternating Robust Subspace Minimization
cs.CV
Low-rank matrix completion is a problem of immense practical importance. Recent works on the subject often use nuclear norm as a convex surrogate of the rank function. Despite its solid theoretical foundation, the convex version of the problem often fails to work satisfactorily in real-life applications. Real data often suffer from very few observations, with support not meeting the random requirements, ubiquitous presence of noise and potentially gross corruptions, sometimes with these simultaneously occurring. This paper proposes a Proximal Alternating Robust Subspace Minimization (PARSuMi) method to tackle the three problems. The proximal alternating scheme explicitly exploits the rank constraint on the completed matrix and uses the $\ell_0$ pseudo-norm directly in the corruption recovery step. We show that the proposed method for the non-convex and non-smooth model converges to a stationary point. Although it is not guaranteed to find the global optimal solution, in practice we find that our algorithm can typically arrive at a good local minimizer when it is supplied with a reasonably good starting point based on convex optimization. Extensive experiments with challenging synthetic and real data demonstrate that our algorithm succeeds in a much larger range of practical problems where convex optimization fails, and it also outperforms various state-of-the-art algorithms.
1309.1541
Projection onto the probability simplex: An efficient algorithm with a simple proof, and an application
cs.LG math.OC stat.ML
We provide an elementary proof of a simple, efficient algorithm for computing the Euclidean projection of a point onto the probability simplex. We also show an application in Laplacian K-modes clustering.
1309.1543
A Comparism of the Performance of Supervised and Unsupervised Machine Learning Techniques in evolving Awale/Mancala/Ayo Game Player
cs.LG cs.GT
Awale games have become widely recognized across the world, for their innovative strategies and techniques which were used in evolving the agents (player) and have produced interesting results under various conditions. This paper will compare the results of the two major machine learning techniques by reviewing their performance when using minimax, endgame database, a combination of both techniques or other techniques, and will determine which are the best techniques.
1309.1555
A New Chase-type Soft-decision Decoding Algorithm for Reed-Solomon Codes
cs.IT math.IT
A new Chase-type soft-decision decoding algorithm for Reed-Solomon codes is proposed, referred to as tree-based Chase-type algorithm}. The proposed tree-based Chase-type algorithm takes the set of all vectors as the set of testing patterns, and hence definitely delivers the most-likely codeword provided that the computational resources are allowed. All the testing patterns are arranged in an ordered rooted tree according to the likelihood bounds of the possibly generated codewords, which is an extension of Wu and Pados' method from binary into $q$-ary linear block codes. While performing the algorithm, the ordered rooted tree is constructed progressively by adding at most two leafs at each trial. The ordered tree naturally induces a sufficient condition for the most-likely codeword. That is, whenever the tree-based Chase-type algorithm exits before a preset maximum number of trials is reached, the output codeword must be the most-likely one. But, in fact, the algorithm can be terminated by setting a discrepancy threshold instead of a maximum number of trials. When the tree-based Chase-type algorithm is combined with Guruswami-Sudan (GS) algorithm, each trial can be implement in an extremely simple way by removing from the gradually updated Grobner basis one old point and interpolating one new point. Simulation results show that the tree-based Chase-type algorithm performs better than the recently proposed Chase-type algorithm by Bellorado et al with less trials (on average) given that the maximum number of trials is the same.
1309.1556
Hyper-Graph Based Database Partitioning for Transactional Workloads
cs.DB
A common approach to scaling transactional databases in practice is horizontal partitioning, which increases system scalability, high availability and self-manageability. Usu- ally it is very challenging to choose or design an optimal partitioning scheme for a given workload and database. In this technical report, we propose a fine-grained hyper-graph based database partitioning system for transactional work- loads. The partitioning system takes a database, a workload, a node cluster and partitioning constraints as input and out- puts a lookup-table encoding the final database partitioning decision. The database partitioning problem is modeled as a multi-constraints hyper-graph partitioning problem. By deriving a min-cut of the hyper-graph, our system can min- imize the total number of distributed transactions in the workload, balance the sizes and workload accesses of the partitions and satisfy all the partition constraints imposed. Our system is highly interactive as it allows users to im- pose partition constraints, watch visualized partitioning ef- fects, and provide feedback based on human expertise and indirect domain knowledge for generating better partition- ing schemes.
1309.1567
On Variant Strategies To Solve The Magnitude Least Squares Optimization Problem In Parallel Transmission Pulse Design And Under Strict SAR And Power Constraints
physics.ins-det cs.CE
Parallel transmission has been a very promising candidate technology to mitigate the inevitable radio-frequency field inhomogeneity in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at ultra-high field (UHF). For the first few years, pulse design utilizing this technique was expressed as a least squares problem with crude power regularizations aimed at controlling the specific absorption rate (SAR), hence the patient safety. This approach being suboptimal for many applications sensitive mostly to the magnitude of the spin excitation, and not its phase, the magnitude least squares (MLS) problem then was first formulated in 2007. Despite its importance and the availability of other powerful numerical optimization methods, this problem yet has been faced exclusively by the pulse designer with the so-called variable exchange method. In this paper, we investigate other strategies and incorporate directly the strict SAR and hardware constraints. Different schemes such as sequential quadratic programming (SQP), interior point (I-P) methods, semi-definite programming (SDP) and magnitude squared least squares (MSLS) relaxations are studied both in the small and large tip angle regimes with real data sets obtained in-vivo on a human brain at 7 Tesla. Convergence and robustness of the different approaches are analyzed, and recommendations to tackle this specific problem are finally given. Small tip angle and inversion pulses are returned in a few seconds and in under a minute respectively while respecting the constraints, allowing the use of the proposed approach in routine.
1309.1574
Identification of nonlinear controllers from data: theory and computation
cs.SY math.DS math.OC
This manuscript contains technical details and proofs of recent results developed by the authors, pertaining to the design of nonlinear controllers from the experimental data measured on an existing feedback control system.
1309.1585
Network-Level Cooperation in Energy Harvesting Wireless Networks
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
We consider a two-hop communication network consisted of a source node, a relay and a destination node in which the source and the relay node have external traffic arrivals. The relay forwards a fraction of the source node's traffic to the destination and the cooperation is performed at the network level. In addition, both source and relay nodes have energy harvesting capabilities and an unlimited battery to store the harvested energy. We study the impact of the energy constraints on the stability region. Specifically, we provide inner and outer bounds on the stability region of the two-hop network with energy harvesting source and relay.
1309.1596
Security analysis of epsilon-almost dual universal2 hash functions: smoothing of min entropy vs. smoothing of R\'enyi entropy of order 2
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
Recently, $\varepsilon$-almost dual universal$_2$ hash functions has been proposed as a new and wider class of hash functions. Using this class of hash functions, several efficient hash functions were proposed. This paper evaluates the security performance when we apply this kind of hash functions. We evaluate the security in several kinds of setting based on the $L_1$ distinguishability criterion and the modified mutual information criterion. The obtained evaluation is based on smoothing of R\'{e}nyi entropy of order 2 and/or min entropy. We clarify the difference between these two methods.
1309.1621
Skew Generalized Quasi-Cyclic Codes over Finite Fields
cs.IT math.IT
In this work, we study a class of generalized quasi-cyclic (GQC) codes called skew GQC codes. By the factorization theory of ideals, we give the Chinese Remainder Theorem over the skew polynomial ring, which leads to a canonical decomposition of skew GQC codes. We also focus on some characteristics of skew GQC codes in details. For a 1-generator skew GQC code, we define the parity-check polynomial, determine the dimension and give a lower bound on the minimum Hamming distance. The skew quasi-cyclic (QC) codes are also discussed briefly.
1309.1623
Quasi-Cyclic Codes Over Finite Chain Rings
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we mainly consider quasi-cyclic (QC) codes over finite chain rings. We study module structures and trace representations of QC codes, which lead to some lower bounds on the minimum Hamming distance of QC codes. Moreover, we investigate the structural properties of 1-generator QC codes. Under some conditions, we discuss the enumeration of 1-generator QC codes and describe how to obtain the one and only one generator for each 1-generator QC code.
1309.1628
Topology preserving thinning for cell complexes
cs.CV
A topology preserving skeleton is a synthetic representation of an object that retains its topology and many of its significant morphological properties. The process of obtaining the skeleton, referred to as skeletonization or thinning, is a very active research area. It plays a central role in reducing the amount of information to be processed during image analysis and visualization, computer-aided diagnosis or by pattern recognition algorithms. This paper introduces a novel topology preserving thinning algorithm which removes \textit{simple cells}---a generalization of simple points---of a given cell complex. The test for simple cells is based on \textit{acyclicity tables} automatically produced in advance with homology computations. Using acyclicity tables render the implementation of thinning algorithms straightforward. Moreover, the fact that tables are automatically filled for all possible configurations allows to rigorously prove the generality of the algorithm and to obtain fool-proof implementations. The novel approach enables, for the first time, according to our knowledge, to thin a general unstructured simplicial complex. Acyclicity tables for cubical and simplicial complexes and an open source implementation of the thinning algorithm are provided as additional material to allow their immediate use in the vast number of practical applications arising in medical imaging and beyond.
1309.1644
Power Efficient MISO Beamforming for Secure Layered Transmission
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies secure layered video transmission in a multiuser multiple-input single-output (MISO) beamforming downlink communication system. The power allocation algorithm design is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem for minimizing the total transmit power while guaranteeing a minimum received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the desired receiver. In particular, the proposed problem formulation takes into account the self-protecting architecture of layered transmission and artificial noise generation to prevent potential information eavesdropping. A semi-definite programming (SDP) relaxation based power allocation algorithm is proposed to obtain an upper bound solution. A sufficient condition for the global optimal solution is examined to reveal the tightness of the upper bound solution. Subsequently, two suboptimal power allocation schemes with low computational complexity are proposed for enabling secure layered video transmission. Simulation results demonstrate significant transmit power savings achieved by the proposed algorithms and layered transmission compared to the baseline schemes.
1309.1649
Preparing Korean Data for the Shared Task on Parsing Morphologically Rich Languages
cs.CL
This document gives a brief description of Korean data prepared for the SPMRL 2013 shared task. A total of 27,363 sentences with 350,090 tokens are used for the shared task. All constituent trees are collected from the KAIST Treebank and transformed to the Penn Treebank style. All dependency trees are converted from the transformed constituent trees using heuristics and labeling rules de- signed specifically for the KAIST Treebank. In addition to the gold-standard morphological analysis provided by the KAIST Treebank, two sets of automatic morphological analysis are provided for the shared task, one is generated by the HanNanum morphological analyzer, and the other is generated by the Sejong morphological analyzer.
1309.1747
Stochastic Agent-Based Simulations of Social Networks
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
The rapidly growing field of network analytics requires data sets for use in evaluation. Real world data often lack truth and simulated data lack narrative fidelity or statistical generality. This paper presents a novel, mixed-membership, agentbased simulation model to generate activity data with narrative power while providing statistical diversity through random draws. The model generalizes to a variety of network activity types such as Internet and cellular communications, human mobility, and social network interactions. The simulated actions over all agents can then drive an application specific observational model to render measurements as one would collect in real-world experiments. We apply this framework to human mobility and demonstrate its utility in generating high fidelity traffic data for network analytics.
1309.1761
Convergence of Nearest Neighbor Pattern Classification with Selective Sampling
cs.LG stat.ML
In the panoply of pattern classification techniques, few enjoy the intuitive appeal and simplicity of the nearest neighbor rule: given a set of samples in some metric domain space whose value under some function is known, we estimate the function anywhere in the domain by giving the value of the nearest sample per the metric. More generally, one may use the modal value of the m nearest samples, where m is a fixed positive integer (although m=1 is known to be admissible in the sense that no larger value is asymptotically superior in terms of prediction error). The nearest neighbor rule is nonparametric and extremely general, requiring in principle only that the domain be a metric space. The classic paper on the technique, proving convergence under independent, identically-distributed (iid) sampling, is due to Cover and Hart (1967). Because taking samples is costly, there has been much research in recent years on selective sampling, in which each sample is selected from a pool of candidates ranked by a heuristic; the heuristic tries to guess which candidate would be the most "informative" sample. Lindenbaum et al. (2004) apply selective sampling to the nearest neighbor rule, but their approach sacrifices the austere generality of Cover and Hart; furthermore, their heuristic algorithm is complex and computationally expensive. Here we report recent results that enable selective sampling in the original Cover-Hart setting. Our results pose three selection heuristics and prove that their nearest neighbor rule predictions converge to the true pattern. Two of the algorithms are computationally cheap, with complexity growing linearly in the number of samples. We believe that these results constitute an important advance in the art.
1309.1780
Software Abstractions and Methodologies for HPC Simulation Codes on Future Architectures
cs.CE cs.MS cs.SE
Large, complex, multi-scale, multi-physics simulation codes, running on high performance com-puting (HPC) platforms, have become essential to advancing science and engineering. These codes simulate multi-scale, multi-physics phenomena with unprecedented fidelity on petascale platforms, and are used by large communities. Continued ability of these codes to run on future platforms is as crucial to their communities as continued improvements in instruments and facilities are to experimental scientists. However, the ability of code developers to do these things faces a serious challenge with the paradigm shift underway in platform architecture. The complexity and uncertainty of the future platforms makes it essential to approach this challenge cooperatively as a community. We need to develop common abstractions, frameworks, programming models and software development methodologies that can be applied across a broad range of complex simulation codes, and common software infrastructure to support them. In this position paper we express and discuss our belief that such an infrastructure is critical to the deployment of existing and new large, multi-scale, multi-physics codes on future HPC platforms.
1309.1781
Experiences from Software Engineering of Large Scale AMR Multiphysics Code Frameworks
cs.CE cs.MS cs.SE
Among the present generation of multiphysics HPC simulation codes there are many that are built upon general infrastructural frameworks. This is especially true of the codes that make use of structured adaptive mesh refinement (SAMR) because of unique demands placed on the housekeeping aspects of the code. They have varying degrees of abstractions between the infrastructure such as mesh management and IO and the numerics of the physics solvers. In this experience report we summarize the experiences and lessons learned from two of such major software efforts, FLASH and Chombo.
1309.1784
Enabling Reproducible Science with VisTrails
cs.SE cs.DB
With the increasing amount of data and use of computation in science, software has become an important component in many different domains. Computing is now being used more often and in more aspects of scientific work including data acquisition, simulation, analysis, and visualization. To ensure reproducibility, it is important to capture the different computational processes used as well as their executions. VisTrails is an open-source scientific workflow system for data analysis and visualization that seeks to address the problem of integrating varied tools as well as automatically documenting the methods and parameters employed. Growing from a specific project need to supporting a wide array of users required close collaborations in addition to new research ideas to design a usable and efficient system. The VisTrails project now includes standard software processes like unit testing and developer documentation while serving as a base for further research. In this paper, we describe how VisTrails has developed and how our efforts in structuring and advertising the system have contributed to its adoption in many domains.
1309.1785
#Santiago is not #Chile, or is it? A Model to Normalize Social Media Impact
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Online social networks are known to be demographically biased. Currently there are questions about what degree of representativity of the physical population they have, and how population biases impact user-generated content. In this paper we focus on centralism, a problem affecting Chile. Assuming that local differences exist in a country, in terms of vocabulary, we built a methodology based on the vector space model to find distinctive content from different locations, and use it to create classifiers to predict whether the content of a micro-post is related to a particular location, having in mind a geographically diverse selection of micro-posts. We evaluate them in a case study where we analyze the virtual population of Chile that participated in the Twitter social network during an event of national relevance: the municipal (local governments) elections held in 2012. We observe that the participating virtual population is spatially representative of the physical population, implying that there is centralism in Twitter. Our classifiers out-perform a non geographically-diverse baseline at the regional level, and have the same accuracy at a provincial level. However, our approach makes assumptions that need to be tested in multi-thematic and more general datasets. We leave this for future work.
1309.1788
Web Standards as Standard Pieces in Robotics
cs.SY cs.RO
Modern robotics often involves the use of web technologies as a means to cope with the complexity of design and operation. Many of these technologies have been formalized into standards, which are often avoided by those in robotics and controls because of a sometimes warranted fear that "the web" is too slow, or too uncertain for meaningful control applications. In this work we argue that while web technologies may not be applicable for all control, they should not be dismissed outright because they can provide critical help with system integration. Web technologies have also advanced significantly over the past decade. We present the details of an application of a web server to perform open and close-loop control (between 3Hz and 1kHz) over a variety of different network topologies. In our study we also consider the impact of a web browser to implement the control of the plant. Our results confirm that meaningful control can be performed using web technologies, and also highlight design choices that can limit their applicability.
1309.1794
An Adaptive Algorithm for Synchronization in Diffusively Coupled Systems
math.DS cs.SY math.OC
We present an adaptive algorithm that guarantees synchronization in diffusively coupled systems. We first consider compartmental systems of ODEs, where each compartment represents a spatial domain of components interconnected through diffusion terms with like components in different compartments. Each set of like components may have its own weighted undirected graph describing the topology of the interconnection between compartments. The link weights are updated adaptively according to the magnitude of the difference between neighboring agents connected by the link. We next consider reaction-diffusion PDEs with Neumann boundary conditions, and derive an analogous algorithm guaranteeing spatial homogenization of solutions. We provide a numerical example demonstrating the results.
1309.1795
Finding role communities in directed networks using Role-Based Similarity, Markov Stability and the Relaxed Minimum Spanning Tree
cs.SI physics.soc-ph q-bio.NC
We present a framework to cluster nodes in directed networks according to their roles by combining Role-Based Similarity (RBS) and Markov Stability, two techniques based on flows. First we compute the RBS matrix, which contains the pairwise similarities between nodes according to the scaled number of in- and out-directed paths of different lengths. The weighted RBS similarity matrix is then transformed into an undirected similarity network using the Relaxed Minimum-Spanning Tree (RMST) algorithm, which uses the geometric structure of the RBS matrix to unblur the network, such that edges between nodes with high, direct RBS are preserved. Finally, we partition the RMST similarity network into role-communities of nodes at all scales using Markov Stability to find a robust set of roles in the network. We showcase our framework through a biological and a man-made network.
1309.1805
nanoHUB.org: Experiences and Challenges in Software Sustainability for a Large Scientific Community
cs.SE cs.CE cs.DL
Managing and growing a successful cyberinfrastructure such as nanoHUB.org presents a variety of opportunities and challenges, particularly in regard to software. This position paper details a number of those issues and how we have approached them.
1309.1807
Aggregate-Max Nearest Neighbor Searching in the Plane
cs.CG cs.DB cs.DS
We study the aggregate/group nearest neighbor searching for the MAX operator in the plane. For a set $P$ of $n$ points and a query set $Q$ of $m$ points, the query asks for a point of $P$ whose maximum distance to the points in $Q$ is minimized. We present data structures for answering such queries for both $L_1$ and $L_2$ distance measures. Previously, only heuristic and approximation algorithms were given for both versions. For the $L_1$ version, we build a data structure of O(n) size in $O(n\log n)$ time, such that each query can be answered in $O(m+\log n)$ time. For the $L_2$ version, we build a data structure in $O(n\log n)$ time and $O(n\log \log n)$ space, such that each query can be answered in $O(m\sqrt{n}\log^{O(1)} n)$ time, and alternatively, we build a data structure in $O(n^{2+\epsilon})$ time and space for any $\epsilon>0$, such that each query can be answered in $O(m\log n)$ time. Further, we extend our result for the $L_1$ version to the top-$k$ queries where each query asks for the $k$ points of $P$ whose maximum distances to $Q$ are the smallest for any $k$ with $1\leq k\leq n$: We build a data structure of O(n) size in $O(n\log n)$ time, such that each top-$k$ query can be answered in $O(m+k\log n)$ time.
1309.1812
Cactus: Issues for Sustainable Simulation Software
cs.CE cs.MS cs.SE
The Cactus Framework is an open-source, modular, portable programming environment for the collaborative development and deployment of scientific applications using high-performance computing. Its roots reach back to 1996 at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications and the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany, where its development jumpstarted. Since then, the Cactus framework has witnessed major changes in hardware infrastructure as well as its own community. This paper describes its endurance through these past changes and, drawing upon lessons from its past, also discusses future
1309.1825
Social Interactive Media Tools and Knowledge Sharing: A Case Study
cs.DL cs.SI
Purpose: Social Media Tools (SMT) have provided new opportunities for libraries and librarians in the world. In academic libraries, we can use of them as a powerful tool for communication. This study is to determine the use of the social interactive media tools [Social Networking Tools (SNT), Social Bookmarking Tools (SBT), Image or Video Sharing Tools (IVShT), and Mashup Tools (MT)] in disseminating knowledge and information among librarians in the Limerick University, Ireland. Methodology: The study was a descriptive survey. The research population included all librarians in Glucksman library. A questionnaire survey was done to collect data. Statistical software, SPSS16 was used at two levels (descriptive and inferential statistics) for data analyzing. Findings: The findings show that the mean (out of 5.00) of using each of SMT in sharing knowledge by the librarians of Glucksman library is as the following: SNT (2.49), SBT (2.92), IVShT (2.99) and MT (2.5). It shows that most of their interaction related to share of image or video. Originality: SMT provides an excellent platform for the exchange information between students, faculty members, and the librarians themselves. The Glucksman library at the University of Limerick is using this technology. This paper gives an example of how using these tools in the field of Library and Information Science in Ireland. The issues expressed could be beneficial for the development of library services in general and knowledge sharing among librarians in particular.
1309.1828
Sustainable Software Development for Next-Gen Sequencing (NGS) Bioinformatics on Emerging Platforms
cs.CE cs.DC
DNA sequence analysis is fundamental to life science research. The rapid development of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, and the richness and diversity of applications it makes feasible, have created an enormous gulf between the potential of this technology and the development of computational methods to realize this potential. Bridging this gap holds possibilities for broad impacts toward multiple grand challenges and offers unprecedented opportunities for software innovation and research. We argue that NGS-enabled applications need a critical mass of sustainable software to benefit from emerging computing platforms' transformative potential. Accumulating the necessary critical mass will require leaders in computational biology, bioinformatics, computer science, and computer engineering work together to identify core opportunity areas, critical software infrastructure, and software sustainability challenges. Furthermore, due to the quickly changing nature of both bioinformatics software and accelerator technology, we conclude that creating sustainable accelerated bioinformatics software means constructing a sustainable bridge between the two fields. In particular, sustained collaboration between domain developers and technology experts is needed to develop the accelerated kernels, libraries, frameworks and middleware that could provide the needed flexible link from NGS bioinformatics applications to emerging platforms.